Let's go to a great journey to the early days of photography. Be careful! Photography is addictive.
Photography is an art and a science. It first came out in 1830 and has been very famous for hundreds of years. Now it’s a profession or a hobby because this form of art is something that we can’t really live without.
There are cameras even on the phones, so you’re likely to have at least this one. But do you know the meaning of such words as Camera Obscura or Exposure? Have you ever heard of Annie Leibovitz or Henri Cartier-Bresson?
Today we’ll rent a time machine to travel to the past with you, to the early days of photography and we’ll take a look at the photos from the 19th century. Sounds fantastic? Let’s start the journey!
A pinhole camera
We’re now in the XIV century. It’s the time when there are no cameras at all, but there was an invention that let people create an image on a piece of paper or even on the wall without printing. What does it look like?
It’s a closed dark box with a little hole in one of the walls. How does it work? Here’s a short instruction: the light is passing through a hole, then it’s transforming and creating an image on the selected surface. The photo appears inverted and mirrored.
Those days using this camera looked like an occultism, so many artists refused to work with it. Giovanni Battista was even arrested for using it. Camera obscura was the prototype of modern cameras, we actually don’t need to use it in the XXIst century.
However, there are many hobbyists that make these cameras for fun. Would you like to make it with your hands and take at least one shot?
First photographs
Now we’re in the XIX century, the time when the first photograph appeared. It took about eight hours to take one shot, as the exposure was too long. I’t not the time of art, it’s time of a scientific invention.
Niepce invented bitumen that hardens when exposure to light and the photographer could rinse the uncured material. Such photos were first printed on metal plates.
John Herschel invented a glass negative in 1839 and you can see real photos made with it. It was a real breakthrough in photography. We won’t finish the journey here and will take you to one magic place where you can see the first photos as if they were not influenced by time. This place if the Metropolitan museum of art in New York. Just take a look the photos you can see there.
Get free tickets to the Met
We’ve prepared a surprise for photography lovers! Want to touch the history of photography and visit the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Share this post with your friends and get two tickets to the Met. We’ll pick up the winners randomly this Friday.
