The Early Years

Photography

The photograph was the ultimate

response to a social and cultural
appetite for a more accurate and reallooking representation of reality, a
need that had its origins in the
Rennaisance
- Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography

Camera Obscura
In order to achieve such
realism, artists
developed various
instruments to assist
them in their quest for
the perfect perspective.
One such instrument
used was the camera
obscura, a dark
room/space in which an
inverted image was
projected onto a
surface.

Camera Lucida
As the technology
developed, smaller
more controllable
apparatuses were
developed such as the
camera lucida, which
were used as portable
optical devices.

The 19th Century

As the industrial
revolution transformed
society in the 1800s with
mass-production leading
the way forward,
scientists endeavored to
reproduce reality in a
fixed format.
In 1827, the scientist
Joseph Nipce was
successful in fixing the
first projected image of
his view from his window
in Le Gras, South France.

Joseph Nicphore Nipce

View from His Window at Le Gras
1827

The Daguerreotype
In January 1839, Louis Daguerre officially announced the
invention of the Daguerreotype, a type of photograph which
was laterally reversed and printed onto a metal plate. It had
no negative, and so was not re-printable.

Louis Daguerre
Boulevard du Temple
1838

Calotype
Around the same time as the
invention of the
Daguerreotype, an English
scientist called William Henry
Fox Talbot developed
another type of photograph
called the Calotype. It had
one distinct advantage over
the Daguerreotype: it could be
reproduced as at first it is a
negative. Therefore, you could
reprint it many times using
darkroom equipment.
Antoine Claudet
Portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot
1844

Talbots Photogenic Drawings

Talbots initial photographic
experiments involved producing
photograms or, what he referred to
as Photogenic Drawings.

William Henry Fox Talbot

Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey
1835

William Henry Fox Talbot

Botanical Specimen
1839

Themes
In the early years, many
photographers were
concerned with
documentation and continued
to focus on traditional fine art
themes such as portraiture
and landscape.
Over time this changed as
photographers started to
assert their own identity,
separate to that of
contemporary artists.
Antoine Franois Claudet
The Geography Lesson
1850

Jean Baptiste Louis Gros

Bridge and Boats on the Thames
1851

Valentin Gottfried
Hunt Picture (Oil on canvas)
Late 17th Century

Adolphe Braun
Still Life with Deer and Wildfowl
1865

EXERCISE
Answer the following questions:
1)

What is the difference between a Camera

Obscura and Camera Lucida?

2)

Both a daguerreotype and calotype are

a type of photograph, but what
differentiates them?

3)

Write a couple of paragraphs giving a

brief early history of photography
mentioning the main points discussed in
the presentation. Cut out and use the
handout pictures to illustrate your points.

Mention the following points:

-

The Renaissance

Early inventions such as the Camera

Obscura and Lucida

Industrial Revolution

Louis Jacques Daguerre and William Henry

Fox Talbot

Themes in photography

Annotate these images

to tell the story of the
early history of
photography by adding
them to your weebly in
the correct timeline.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
1. Find the oldest family photograph and the
most recent you can from home and do some
research into the time each were taken.
2. Either re-photograph or scan them and upload
both to your Weebly. Make sure they are the
highest quality you can achieve.
3.Analysebothphotos,consideringhowthey
reflectedsocietyatthetimeandcomparing
differencesandsimilarities.Writearound250
words.Commentonthefollowing:
thepositioningofmodels
costumesandprops
expressions
setting/location
qualityofprintand
anythingelseyouthinkisvisuallyrevealing:
genderroles/culturaltraditions/atmosphere