Photography has always raised curiosity for onlookers since 19th century when it was first discovered and to date, it remains inseparable from our lives. Thanks to the technology that allows us to capture rare moments and share it with the world. It is difficult to imagine a world without photography because everything around us has been encapsulated in the photograph be it science, advertisements, current media, events and more.
Let’s check out the evolution, significance, and importance of the world photography day.
The word ‘photography literally means "drawing with light". The words was first coined in 1839 by the British scientist Sir John Herschel from the Greek words phos (genetive: photos) means "light" and graphe means "drawing or writing".
Did you know about the first photograph?
Did you know that Napolean, who arrived on St Helena in 1816, was captured by a Frenchman, Nicephore Niepce? Nicephore Niepce tried capturing a small camera images on paper treated with silver chloride which is another chemical sensitive to light.
However, he was unable to fix and preserve these images, hence, began experimenting with other light-sensitive substances. In 1822, Niepce invented a process and named it as "heliography" which is a Greek word meaning "sun drawing" from helios and graphe. He managed to produce the earliest surviving camera photograph in 1826/7. The photograph represented a view from a window at Le Gras (his hometown in Burgundy, France) captured on a pewter plate coated in bitumen diluted in lavender oil. The first colour photograph was taken by the mathematical physicist, James Clerk Maxwell.
Who invented the photographic process?
Daguerreotype, is basically a photographic process that was first developed by Frenchmen Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1837. Officially, the French Academy of Sciences recognised the Daguerreotype process in 1839.
This was the initial success of offering a relatively inexpensive and accurate way of representing scenes and faces which previously had to be drawn or painted manually. Soon after, several photographic studios emerged across Paris and across the world.
However, the first durable color photograph was taken in 1861 and the first digital photograph is being speculated to being invented in 1957, almost 20 years before Kodak's engineer invented the first digital camera.
In 1880, George Eastman opened the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. His first camera, the Kodak, was sold in 1888.