The Changing Technology of Photography
Photography was invented nearly simultaneously by the French duo Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce and by the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot. At the time their work first became public, in 1839, the technological limitations of photography were great. The first methods of photography required many minutes of exposure and a relatively long and specialized list of supplies. These methods were not only complicated and lengthy, but also expensive, which made it unattainable for the average person. As a result, the majority of individuals who took photographs in the first decades following the announcement of the invention of photography were those who did it for a source of income.
The technology surrounding photography has been continually evolving since 1839 in response to the growing desires of the public. The idea of capturing an image so accurate to what the eye can see captivated many and inspired technological advances in photography that would bring this “magic” within reach of everyone. The first cameras were very large and photographers were required to have a darkroom on the premises in order to successfully produce an image. They had to prepare, take, and develop their photographs in quick succession. Photographic chemistry could not yet capture moving subjects due to the long exposure time required, which limited photographers to taking seated portraits and static landscape scenes. As the technology of cameras began to change, so did the medium with which photographs were taken. Dry plate negatives soon allowed photographers to develop their images however long after they were taken as they wanted, eliminating the restraints of needing a darkroom ready to hand. Another revolutionary development was albumen paper prints, which were much less expensive and allowed photography to spread and travel the world. With such developments, exposure times gradually shortened from nearly half an hour to the fractions of a second closer to what we have today, enabling the capture of war scenes, sports, and snapshots of people, animals, and basically any other moving subject, especially in a candid manner. Photography evolved from satisfying the public desire for portraiture and art to serve as scientific documentation in the study of motion of the human body. Cameras became smaller and cheaper over time, gradually allowing photography to become more accessible to everyone.
It could be argued that the true moment of the democratization of photography was in 1888 when Eastman Kodak released the handheld camera with the famous slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.” With the development of color photography, our perception of black and white photography also changed. Color became associated with commercial and personal photographs, while black and white photographs became associated with seriousness of purpose and fine art.
This section of the exhibition will cover nearly two centuries of changing photographic technology chronologically, tracing the evolution of its impact on the world. It will feature photographs that highlight the many different processes that produced them and it will show how understanding technological changes in the history of photography can enhance our understanding of the meaning and purpose of each photograph we see. The Changing Technology of Photography invites you to understand and appreciate the long and robust history of how the photograph has developed—as a process, an art form, and a part of our everyday lives, into the twenty-first century.