Happy 185th Birthday, Photography!

[Tronhard]

On August 19th, 1839, at the French Legislature, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787 - 1851) was accredited with the first commercially viable photographic process: the Daguerreotype.

The French Government was given rights for Daguerreotypes in exchange for lifetime pensions for Daguerre and the son of his late coinventor Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833).

On the same day, in an act of artistic imperialism to confirm their leadership of the artistic world, the French Government gave those rights, together with complete working instructions for the Daguerreotype, “free to the world” (except for their rival, England).

There were many who claimed to have created a photographic process but really there were only a couple of other serious contenders. One of them, Henry Fox Talbot, an English gentry polymath, created photographic imagery (the Calotype) that used a negative/positive process that at the time it was held up by technical and legal issues. However, it eventually became the basis for film processing we use today.

Today, it is hard to comprehend the power of this invention. Hitherto, people would not know what their distant family or predecessors looked like, unless they could afford a portrait. The photograph made that possibility available to an ever-increasing part of society.

The announcement of the invention of photography changed the world forever.  It provided not only images of loved ones, it recorded significant (and not so significant) events, gave us a much more graphical view of the world and gave millions the chance to explore their creativity.

My (in progress) presentation of the history of photography - technical 

[Tintype_18]

Trevor, thanks for the historical background of the craft. It brought to mind a book I got in the freebie bin at a used book store. Here is the title: Following The Frontier with F. Jay Haynes, Pioneer Photographer of the Old West; author is Freeman Tilden. The book has 244 photos but Haynes' son, Jack, kept an extensive file of some 25,000 prints and negatives, mostly unpublished. Haynes was also the official photographer for the Northern Pacific Railroad and the new Yellowstone Park. Keep in mind this was in the 1870s and 1880s.

[JFG]

Kudos to you, Trevor !

Nice article on the anniversary of photography!  It's always good to know the past in order to make sense of the present and have an idea of where we're going in the future. 🙂

[dpsaiz]

The early days of photography was inventiveness and division. Division you ask? There were those how felt that photography is an art form but when George Eastman introduced inexpensive camera equipment for a few dollars he sold millions thus was born the snap shot. Even more inventive when you send your camera back to Kodak they would develop the film and return the camera to you loaded with more film.

Their slogan was, 'You press the button and leave the rest to us.'

The Story of Kodak is available online and is a great read for those who have an interest in the roots of photography and how we got to where we are now.

Love him or hate him it was Eastman's Kodak that changed photography.

[jhoney12]

It's fascinating to see how photography has evolved from Daguerre's first commercial process to the modern digital age. Kodak's innovation in making photography accessible to the masses was a game-changer, democratizing image-making and shaping the visual culture we live in today. The shift from expensive, artisanal processes to affordable, consumer-friendly options really highlights the impact of technology on creativity and everyday life.