History of Photography

History of Photography began in the 19th century. 1839 is the year of the birth of photography. A scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel first used the word “photography”. Photography (derived from the Greek word “photos”: light and “graphein”: write) is the process of painting / writing using light media.

History of photography began long before the Common Era. In the 5th century Before the Common Era (BCE), a philosopher named Mo Ti observes a symptom. If the wall of a dark room there is a small hole (pinhole), then on the inside of that space will be reflected in the view of the outside space in reverse through the hole. Mo Ti was the first to realize the phenomenon of the “camera obscura”.

In 1558, an Italian scientist, Giambattista della Porta called “camera obscura” in a box that helps artists capture the shadow image. 

However, Johannes Kepler created the name of camera obscura in 1611. Johannes Kepler makes the camera portable design that is made like a tent, and gave the name of the device camera obscura. Inside the tent is very dark except for a light captured by the lens, the image formed in the state outside of the tent on a piece of paper.

History of this new discovery began in 1826. Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, a French veteran, experimented using a camera obscura and a metal plate coated with asphalt material to perpetuate the image of an object. After 8 hours of exposing the view from her window through the process of “Heliogravure”, she delivered a somewhat blurred image and maintain image permanently. His success was considered as the beginning of the history of photography. Drawings made by Niepce, entitled “View from the Window at Le Gras” and became the first photograph ever existed in the world.

Photography then develops very quickly. Through company Eastman Kodak, George Eastman developed the photography by creating and selling a roll of film and camera boxes are practical, in line with developments in the world of photography through the lens repair, shutter, film and photographic paper. 1950, to facilitate shooting on a Single Lens Reflex camera then start to use the prism (SLR), and Japan also began to enter the world of photography with a Nikon camera production was followed by Canon. 1972 Edwin Land Polaroid camera findings began to be marketed. Polaroid cameras can produce images without going through the process of developing and printing film.

Advances in technology helped photography spread very quickly. If the first camera looks like a tent can only produce an image that is not too sharp, now there digital cameras which is like wallet able to make very sharp images even in the size of a newspaper.

References : 

Bellis, Mary “History of Photography and the Camera, Pinhole Cameras to the Daguerreotype”, accessed November 16^th, 2013, http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/stilphotography.htm

Grepstad, Jon “Pinhole Photography, History, Images, Cameras, Formulas”, 1996, accessed November 16^th, 2013, http://photo.net/pinhole/pinhole

“The History of Photography”, accessed November 16^th, 2013, http://fi.edu/pieces/watson/hist.htm