HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

29th June, 2017

What is photography?

The word photography is derived from the Greek word “photo” which means light, and “graph” which means writing. In general terms, photography means writing with light. As a type of writing, it has a visual language. The language of photography is distinguished from other visual arts because of the its essentials elements: light and camera.

Evolution of camera

In the 11th Centuary obscura was used. In this camera light from an object passes through a pinholeand is reproduced on the other side of the camera as an inverted image.
In 1830’s,a daguerreotype camera was used .in this type of camera a special copper plate was used to capture the light from an image. In 1850,s it was the Emulsion plates ao wet plates which required the photographic material to be coated. Sensitized, exposed and developed with the span of about fifteen minutes. . Then came the dry plates. Dry plate also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate, which can be stored for future use. In the year 1888, the 1st portable camera was launched. It was named as the “Kodak Brownie box camera” . it was easy to access and required no photographic knowledge . in 1816, the first permanent photograph was clicked by Nicephore Niepce who combined the camera obcura with photosensitive paper to create a permanent image.
Lieca Company manufactured the first film camera that used a 35mm roll film to record light in1914. In 1975, the world of photography got digitalized.

Historical Groups of photographers

Group f/64”, was a group of seven, a 20th –century san Francisco photographer who shared a common photographic style. Their style was characterized by sharp, focused and carefully framed images based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found object. The photographers of Group f/64 were:

• Ansel Adams
• Imogen Cuningham
• John Paul Edwards
• Sonya noskowiak
• Henry swift
• Willard Van dyke
• Edward Weston

Magnum Photos Agency

Magnum photos are an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members. Magnum is a thought, shared human quality, a curiosity for all that is happening in the world and a respect for what is going on desire to transcribe it visually. The Magnum photo library is a living archive update daily with new York from across the globe. the library houses all the work produced by magnum photographers and some special collection by transparency in the physical library, with over 500,000 images available online.
Robert Capa david “chim” Seymour, Henri-Bresson, George rodger and William Vandivert Who were all photographers, founded Magnum photos . out of the many active members of Magnum photos from all around the world , Mr. Raghu Rai is the only member.