The History of Photography

Documentary

By
Lucy James

Title Sequence
Narrator Jack Stillman
INT. Office Desk/Room
Narrator sat in chair facing the camera.
Narrator
The first photo was taken by a French inventor called Joseph
Niepe. The exposure lasted for 8 hours this is so the sun had
time to move from east to west in order for both sides of the
photo to show up as light was an important aspect when taking
a photograph.
To ensure the colouring did not fade Niepce decided that using
a petroleum derivative called Bitumen of Judea it hardens with
exposure to light this way when washed away the metal plate
which was the media Niepce was using was then polished to
create a negative image following a ink of coat to produce a
print.
The first commercial camera was named the Kodak Brownie and
was invented in 1901 it came available to the middle class
market and took only black and white shots however was still
incredibly popular.
Colour photos were being explored during the 19th century but
did not become available to the market until the 20th century
as it took scientists a long time to discover how to preserve
colour for a long time as most of their theories were proven
to pass due to their chemical formulae. Colour photography was
researched into by French inventors Louis Ducos de Hauron and
Charlec Cros Patriclar however they worked independently.
In 1907 the first colour plate was available on the market in
the year 1907. The method they used was based upon a screen of
filters. The screen filtered red, green and/or blue light
which was then developed to a negative to be later reserved to
a positive this was done by applying the same screen later on
in this process in order for the print to result to a coloured
photo that did not fade.
This process then led to the first colour photo of a tartan
ribbon.
The term photography came from the Greek meaning of light
fos and grafo which means to write. Sir John Hershel
coined this term as Photography however it took a long time
for photography to become publicly recognized despite the fact

the process was becoming easier and results were getting

better.
When photography was first introduced it was believed to be
the killer of fine art however photo principles were
believed to be widely used especially by Renaissance artists
for example Leonardo and Michelangelo. Throughout the mid-16th
century an Italian scholar wrote a guide on how to use a
camera obscura in order to make the drawing process easier.
The method however is similar to the Restroscope drawing in
the animation industry used in the twentieth century. As the
process of using camera obscura looked very strange and infact
extremely frightening the idea had to be dropped after the
scholar was arrested and prosecuted on a charge of sorcery.

Interview with Edie Pullen

Questions
Do you believe photography has lost its art form?
Do you plan to pursue photography in the future?
Why do you think photography is such a vital part of social
media?
What aspect of photography do you find the most interesting?
Do you believe photography should be academically studied?