THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

I INTRODUCTION Photography is so much a part of life today that the average person in the United States may encounter more than 1000 camera images a day. Photographs preserve personal memories (family snapshots) and inform us of public events (news photos). They provide a means of identification (driver s license photos) and of glamori!ation (movie"star portraits)# views of far" off places on $arth (travel photographs) and in space (astral photographs)# as well as microscopic scenes from inside the human body (medical and scientific photos). %any speciali!ed commercial categories& including fashion& product& and architectural photography& also fit under the broad umbrella that defines photography s function in the world today. To mid"1'th"century observers& photography seemed capable of capturing the world whole rather than describing and interpreting it as drawing did. They called it the ( mirror with a memory(. )ut *0th"century critics have argued whether photography is indeed a direct trace of e+perience& li,e the mar, of a footprint in the sand& or instead a reflection of the photographer-s particular point of view. To be sure& some of the truths that photography seemed to tell at one time were later shown to be biased. These arguments have brought attention to the ways photography has been used as a tool in support of industrial progress& colonialism& government propaganda& social reform& and various disciplines in the social sciences& especially ethnology (the study of human cultures) and criminology (the study of criminal behavior). Photography s role in the visual arts is e.ually a matter of debate. /rom the start& the photographer s camera was seen as a challenger to the painter s brush. 0ts ability to effortlessly render tones& detail& and perspective effectively put an end to the practice of certain forms of painting& such as portrait miniatures. %oreover& it is widely believed today that photography created an impetus for painters to forsa,e straightforward description in favor of more interpretive or abstract styles& such as impressionism& cubism& and abstract e+pressionism. Photography itself has been defined as an essentially modern art because of its relative newness and its reliance on the machineli,e camera. 1 fascinating subplot within the story of photography is its comple+ and still"evolving role as a medium of art li,e painting& its supposed antagonist. II ORIGINS Photography is a method for producing lasting images by means of a chemical reaction that occurs when light hits a specially prepared surface. 0t was invented during the first three decades of the 1'th century as a direct conse.uence of advances in chemistry and optics (the science of the behavior of light). The word photography comes from two 2ree, words that mean 3writing with light4. 1lthough the technology is fairly recent& the origins of photography lie in an artistic techni.ue ,nown as single"point or linear perspective& which was developed in the early 1500s. Pioneered in 0taly by architect /ilippo )runelleschi and others& the system of single"point perspective provided painters with a method for depicting three"dimensional space on a flat surface. 0t is based on the notion of a single observation point and results in lines that appear to recede into the distance by converging on a fi+ed point on the hori!on& called the vanishing point. 0n the 16th century many artists employed a bo+li,e device ,nown as a camera obscura (7atin meaning 3dar room4) as an aid to depicting space with single"point perspective. This consisted of a bo+ with a pinhole on one side and a glass screen on the other. 7ight coming through this pinhole pro8ected an image onto the glass screen& where the artist could easily trace it by hand. 1rtists soon discovered that they could obtain an even sharper image by using a small lens in place of the pinhole. The camera obscura was used by 9enaissance artists such as %ichelangelo and 7eonardo da :inci.

1lso essential to the invention of photography was ,nowledge of the light sensitivity of certain materials. %ore than *000 years before the invention of the camera obscura& the ancient Phoenicians ,new that a certain snail& the purpura, left a yellow slime in its wa,e that turned purple in sunlight. 0n the 1;th century a 2erman anatomy professor& <ohann =einrich Schul!e& observed that silver salts dar,ened when e+posed to light. )ut the idea of ma,ing pictures using this phenomenon did not occur to him. That innovation re.uired the talents of a later generation of scientists. )y 1;00 a young $nglish chemist& Thomas >edgwood& had succeeded in producing images of leaves on leather that he had treated with silver salts. =owever& he could find no way to halt the dar,ening action of light and his leaf images eventually faded into blac,ness. =is attempts to capture the image displayed by a camera obscura also proved unsuccessful. /or the birth of photography two ,ey discoveries were still needed? a way to combine a light"sensitive material with the camera obscura& and a way to fi+& or ma,e permanent& the resulting image. III IN!ENTION

French inventor Joseph Nipce made the first fixed photographic images. In 1827 he used a primitive camera and a bitumen coated pe!ter p"ate to capture this image of a #et $ab"e% !hich is one of his ear"iest photographs. 0n the 1;*0s /rench scientist <oseph @icAphore @iApce was e+perimenting with improvements to the new printma,ing techni.ue of lithography. 0n the process he discovered a way to copy engravings onto glass and pewter plates using bitumen& a form of asphalt that changes when e+posed to light. =e first coated a drawing or etching with oil so that light would shine through it more easily& then placed it on a bitumen"coated plate and e+posed the plate to light. 7ight shining through the paper burned an image into the dar, bitumen& creating a nearly perfect copy of the original. @iApce could then etch and print this image using traditional printma,ing techni.ues. 0n 1;*6 or 1;*B he put a bitumen"coated plate in a camera obscura& which he then placed with its lens facing the window of his estate in central /rance for eight hours. The resulting image& View from the Window at Le Gras (2ernsheim Collection& University of Te+as at 1ustin)& is the earliest camera photograph still in e+istence. 0n 1;*6 @iApce began sharing his findings with 7ouis <ac.ues %andA Daguerre& an artist and theatrical designer who owned a theater in Paris. This theater& the Diorama& provided a popular spectacle consisting of large& painted scenes that were shown in succession& changing

before the viewers- eyes. 7i,e @iApce& Daguerre hoped to find a way to create images from the camera obscura& but he had little luc, until the two decided to become partners in 1;*'. $ven then& Daguerre-s most important discovery came only in 1;EF& two years after @iApce s death. Daguerre found that the chemical compound silver iodide was much more sensitive to light than @iApce-s bitumen& and he placed a copper plate coated with silver iodide in a camera obscura. 1fter e+posing this plate to light for a relatively short time and then to fumes of mercury& an image appeared. Gne problem remained? The image dar,ened over time. )ut in 1;EB Daguerre solved this final obstacle by washing away remaining silver iodide with a solution of warm water and table salt. Gn <anuary B& 1;E'& Daguerre s process& later christened the daguerreotype& was announced to the /rench 1cademy of Sciences& and hence to the world. The announcement by respected /rench scientist /ranHois 1rago was brief but nonetheless created a sensation. @ewspaper accounts spo,e of pictures (given with a truth which nature alone can give to her wor,s.( =alf a year later the /rench government gave Daguerre and @iApce s son& 0sidore& lifetime pensions in e+change for their release of all rights to the invention and public disclosure of the process. The daguerreotype was to become /rance s gift to the world. <ust three wee,s after 1rago s announcement in Paris& >illiam =enry /o+ Talbot& an $nglish amateur scientist& read a translated account of the discovery. Perturbed& if not distraught& Talbot recogni!ed Daguerre s invention as similar to his own unpublici!ed process& which he called photogenic drawing. Talbot moved .uic,ly to claim priority over Daguerre& writing to members of the /rench 1cademy and presenting his process in a paper to the 9oyal Society in 7ondon& $ngland. To create a photogenic drawing& Talbot first coated a sheet of drawing paper with the chemical compound silver chloride and& placing it inside a camera obscura& produced an image of the scene with the tones reversed (a negative). =e then placed the negative against another coated sheet of paper to produce a positive image. Talbot did not find a way to ma,e the image permanent until a month after Daguerre s announcement. )ut his photogenic drawing processI later refined and renamed the ca"otypeIforms the basis for most modern film technology& which relies on negatives to produce multiple positive prints. /or a number of reasons& including the imperfections of Talbot s process& the daguerreotype was the method of photography that first too, the world by storm. The low"cost daguerreotype became so popular that& by the end of 1;E'& Paris newspapers were referring to a new disease called &aguerreotypomania. >ith improvements in its sensitivity to light& the daguerreotype .uic,ly proved ideal for portraiture. )y 1;50 daguerreotype studios throughout $urope and in the United States were producing uni.ue& detailed li,enesses that were set inside hinged leather cases. 1n emerging middle class ga!ed in ama!ement at its own image in these (mirrors with a memory.( Photography arrived in the United States due to the enthusiasm of Samuel /. ). %orse& an 1merican artist and inventor. %orse visited Daguerre in Paris in %arch 1;E' and observed a demonstration of the daguerreotype process. %orse returned to the United States to spread the news& and by year s end new practitioners such as <ohn Plumbe of @ew Jor, City and the 7angenheim brothers (>illiam and /rederic,) of Philadelphia had mastered the daguerreotype process and set up successful portrait studios. The yen for daguerreotypes persisted in 1merica well into the 1;F0s& long after $uropean photographers had switched to a much improved positiveKnegative process derived from Talbot s method. %ost pictures of the California 2old 9ush of 1;5'& for e+ample& are daguerreotypes.

I! EAR"Y USES A Portrait#re

In the ear"y stages of photography% the daguerreotype image became popu"ar. 'ictures "i(e these !ere created !ith si"ver coated p"ates and treated !ith iodine vapor to ma(e them sensitive to "ight. )fter the p"ates !ere exposed% mercury vapor deve"oped the images and a sa"t so"ution fixed them.

People were by far the most common photographic sub8ect of the 1'th century. Photographic portraits were much less e+pensive than painted ones& too, less of the sitter s time& and described individual faces with uncanny accuracy. So great was the sense of presence in these pictures that photographers were often called on to ta,e portraits of the recently deceased& a genre now ,nown as postmortem portraits. %iniature painters& who had previously supplied the least e+pensive form of portraiture& .uic,ly went out of business or became daguerreotypists themselves. 1lthough thousands of daguerreotype portrait studios operated in the 1;50s& only a few portraitists chose to use Talbot s process. 1mong the most distinguished were Scottish photographers David Gctavius =ill and 9obert 1damson& who wor,ed together in $dinburgh producing atmospheric portraits that were admired for their similarity to paintings. 0nterest in daguerreotypes dwindled in $urope after 1;F1& when $nglish photographer /rederic, Scott 1rcher invented the collodion, or wet"plate process. 7i,e Talbot-s calotype& this was a negative"to"positive process& but because the negatives were made of smooth glass rather than paper& the collodion process produced much sharper images. 2lass was also more durable than paper& so it was easier to produce many paper prints from one glass negative. Using the collodion method& /rench painter and photographer 1dolphe DisdAri in 1;F5 invented the carte de visite, a form of photographic calling card& which soon became the new rage. Ta,en with a special camera that produced eight poses on one negative& the carte"de" visiteIand its larger sibling& the cabinet cardIcreated a mar,et for celebrity photographs in /rance and $ngland. Cartes& as they are ,nown& were both traded and collected# they served to connect royalty with commoners& actors with their audiences& and old society with the newly prosperous. 0n the United States& the carte"de"visite played second fiddle to ever"cheaper variations on the daguerreotype theme. The first of these& the ambrotype, was nothing more than a glass negative bac,ed with blac, material& which enabled it to appear as a positive image. Patented in 1;F5& the ambrotype was made& pac,aged& and sold in portrait studios as the daguerreotype had been& but at a lower cost. $ven less e+pensive was the tintype, patented two years later& which substituted an iron plate for glass. During the 1merican Civil >ar (1;61"

1;6F) tintypes were the most readily available form of location portraiture. Tintype photographers often wor,ed from the bac, of horse"drawn wagons& photographing pioneer families and Union soldiers.

*et p"ate cameras derived their name from the "ight sensitive chemica" coating app"ied to the photographic p"ate. $he p"ate !as used !hi"e !et% !hich !as a messy but effective process that a""o!ed photographers to ma(e high +ua"ity negatives !ith exposures of "ess than ,- seconds. Frederic( #cott )rcher invented the p"ate in 18.1. $ !iew% o& Di%tant "and% 1rchitecture& travel views& and scenic landscapes also vied for the attention of early photographers. 1 boo, called Excursions Daguerriennes (Daguerrian $+cursions)& published in Paris between 1;50 and 1;55& contained engraved reproductions of daguerreotypes made by /rench photographers in $gypt. Gther $uropeans recorded views of the 0talian and Swiss countryside. 0n the United States Southworth and =awes& partners in a respected )oston portrait studio& produced some remar,able daguerreotypes of @iagara /alls. Several early calotypists 8ourneyed to the %iddle $ast& 0taly& 2reece& and other sites on the so"called 2rand Tour of >estern civili!ation that had become popular among 1'th" century travelers. /rench photographer %a+ime DuCamp& one of the earliest ma,ers of calotype images& traveled to $gypt where he photographed the temples at 1bL Simbel and the pyramids at 2i!a in 1;5' and 1;F0# these pictures were printed in multiple copies for an album published in /rance in 1;F*. Gthers who photographed monuments of the %iddle $ast include /rancis /rith of $ngland& 1uguste Sal!mann and /eli+ )onfils of /rance& and 1ntonio )eato of 0taly. Photographers using the collodion& or wet"plate& process hauled their large cameras& tripods& and portable dar,rooms to the farthest reaches of $urope-s imperial .uest in the years between 1;F0 and 1;B0. /Alice )eato& 1ntonio s brother& photographed in 0ndia& China& and <apan. Samuel )ourne from $ngland too, pictures all over the subcontinent of 0ndia. >hile photographing in the =imalayas& he re.uired the services of 50 porters to carry his e.uipment up and down mountains. )etween 1;6; and 1;B* <ohn Thomson& a Scottish photographer& too, some of the most beautiful images ever made of China. Publishers of albums made many of these photographs available to $uropean and )ritish audiences eager to see what their country s far"off colonies loo,ed li,e. /rench photographers 2ustave 7e 2ray and =enri 7e Sec. contributed some of the few early landscapes that were admired primarily as artistic scenes. Gther photographs served as an early form of

photo8ournalism& such as the images of the Crimean >ar (1;FE"1;F6) by )ritish photographer 9oger /enton. The )ritish government commissioned him in 1;FF to document the )ritish army in Crimea (now part of southern U,raine)& primarily to counter charges that its troops were undersupplied and malnourished. /enton s photographs showed little evidence of combat but much of camp life. They were among the first photographs to be used for government propaganda. ! 'AR AND THE 'EST The Civil >ar in the United States was the first war to be thoroughly recorded by photography. 1merican photographer %athew )rady& who in 1;55 had opened a daguerreotype portrait studio in @ew Jor, City& sensed the importance of documenting the conflict at its onset and organi!ed a team of photographers to cover its various battlefronts. 1mong the photographers were 1le+ander 2ardner& who soon launched his own competing pro8ect& and Timothy G Sullivan& an 0rish immigrant whose pictures of the battlefield at 2ettysburg are among the most riveting and horrific of all war photographs. 1n energetic entrepreneur& )rady had planned to become rich by selling large albums of civil"war pictures and individual stereographs. (Stereographs are side"by"side images& ta,en simultaneously& that create a three"dimensional picture when loo,ed at with a special viewer# they were immensely popular in the late 1'th century.) =e also tried to sell his collection of negatives to the government after the war ended in 1;6F. @one of these efforts was successful& and )rady was forced to declare ban,ruptcy. G Sullivan and another of )rady s employees& 1ndrew <. 9ussell& went on to become two of the best",nown photographers of the 1merican >est& traveling on government"sponsored survey e+peditions throughout the largely une+plored frontier between %issouri and California. Together with >illiam )ell& <ohn =illers and >illiam =enry <ac,son& they produced large prints of spectacular& often startling land forms in 1ri!ona& Colorado& @ew %e+ico& @evada& Utah& and >yoming during the late 1;60s and 1;B0s. Simultaneously but independent of these surveys& several photographers in California& including Carleton $. >at,ins and $adweard %uybridge& produced breathta,ing views of Josemite& as well as scenes of the rapidly growing city of San /rancisco. >hereas the photographs of G Sullivan and the other survey photographers were sent bac, to >ashington& D.C.& to impress government officials& >at,ins and %uybridge produced scenic images to sell directly to the public from their studios in San /rancisco. !I A TOO" OF SCIENCE AND SOCIA" PROGRESS 1s industriali!ation came to define >estern life in the 1'th century& industry employed photography to portray its successes and strengths. /or e+ample& in 1;FB )ritish photographer 9obert =owlett too, pictures of the )ritish steamship Great Eastern, the largest vessel of its day& and of its designer and engineer& 0sambard Mingdom )runel. =e depicted both ship and man as heroic e+emplars of the age. 0n 1merica& 1. <. 9ussell celebrated the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1;6' with a picture of the two facing steam locomotives that met there. 0n addition to recording the construction of railroads& ships& buildings& and bridges& photography proved useful to medicine and the fledgling social sciences& such as ethnology& psychology& and sociology. Doctors wanted before"and"after pictures of wounded Civil >ar soldiers to study the effects of amputation and invasive surgery. Psychologists studied photographs of mental patients in an attempt to visually discern their disorders. Photographers recorded the features of criminals& not only as a means of identification& but also in an effort to identify physical characteristics& which criminologists then believed might correspond with criminal behavior. /ields as dissimilar as biology and astronomy demanded whole catalogues of new photographs to record and classify a rapidly e+panding body of ,nowledge. 1merican photographer $dward S. Curtis produced a *0"volume ethnographic survey of the native peoples of @orth 1merica. 7i,e much early scientific photography& Curtis-s wor, suffered from his own

cultural biasesIin this case& an overly romantic view of how @ative 1mericans should loo,. =e supplied his sub8ects with props and costumes that were not always authentic& and his photographs are no longer considered accurate as documentation. The development of faster cameras in the 1;B0s spurred scientists and others to use photography in the systematic study of human and animal movement. 0n 1;B; %uybridge used a series of photographs of a galloping horse to demonstrate to an ama!ed world that the animal lifts all four feet off the ground at once. =e went on to record a wide variety of animal and human movements in sets of se.uential photographs he too, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. =is wor, inspired Philadelphia painter Thomas $a,ins to ta,e up the camera so he could more accurately depict motion in his paintings. /rench physiologist $tienne"<ules %arey also followed %uybridge s e+ample and devised a special camera to record se.uential photographs on a single plate. The resulting photographs showed an echoing trail of images that recorded the sub8ect-s movement in both time and space. %arey used this method to develop insights into the flight of birds& human movement& and the wor,ings of the human eye. =is e+periments helped prepare the way for airplane flight& motion pictures& and modern athletic training. =is overlapping images also were models for the 0talian futurist painters in their early" *0th"century .uest to depict speed and movement. 9apid industriali!ation and the growth of cities were not without their ills& and in the last .uarter of the 1'th century the camera helped record the plight of the dispossessed& displaced& and overloo,ed. Gne of the earliest attempts to document urban poverty was made by Scottish photographer Thomas 1nnan& who aimed his camera at the empty& unsanitary alleyways of 2lasgow in 1;6;. City officials commissioned 1nnan-s documentation to 8ustify replacement of 2lasgow-s unsavory slums with new development. =is photographs were later published in Old Closes and treets of Glascow (1;B;). <ohn Thomson& recently returned from China& went a step further with candid photographs of poor people themselves& published in a series called treet Life in London (1;BB). 0n the United States& Danish"born 8ournalist <acob 9iis saw the virtue of photographs as well as words in his campaign to improve the lot of poor city dwellers in @ew Jor, City. =e first hired photographers to accompany him into the slums& and later began ta,ing pictures himself. 9iis illuminated dar,& airless interiors with bright bursts of light that he produced by igniting magnesium flash powder. =e showed the pictures at public lectures and later published them in a boo, entitled !ow the Other !alf Li"es (1;'0). 9iis s tireless advocacy helped bring about better conditions for some slum dwellers& and initiated the use of photography as a powerful tool in the fight against poverty. !II IN THE SER!ICE OF ART Photography s popularity among the 1'th century s growing urban middle class produced a sharp but vigorous bac,lash. /rench poet and critic Charles )audelaire declared in 1;F' that 3if photography is allowed to supplement art in some of its functions& it will soon have supplanted or corrupted it altogether& than,s to the stupidity of the multitude which is its natural ally.4 )audelaire s complaint centered on his belief that the rendition of the camera lens was so precise and believable that it left no room for the imagination. This was a claim that would haunt photography for the ne+t hundred years. To demonstrate that imagination& artistic sensitivity& and individual style were possible with the camera& many photographers began to manipulate the photographic process more directly& either through chemical and mechanical means or through stagecraft. 1nother strategy was to imitate the prevailing styles of painting and drawing. 1t the same time& painters sought ways in which photography could assist their attempts to render the world by hand. /rench artists Camille Corot and <ean /ranHois %illet collected photographs as aids in depicting nature. %illet was a member of the )arbi!on School& which sought to introduce greater realism to landscape painting by painting outdoors rather than in a studio. During the 1;F0s /rench photographers 2ustave 7e 2ray and =enri 7e Sec. produced evocative landscapes that