Representations of Classical Greek Monuments : An Exploration of the Visual Culture

Development of Visual Representations

Derived from the Greek words photos, meaning “light,” and graphein, meaning “to draw,” photography is the process of producing images onto a light-sensitive surface. The very first record of photography can be traced back to the Ancient Greeks and Chinese as they developed the “camera obscura,” or the pinhole camera. The device utilized a hole in a dark chamber to project an upside-down version of an image, and allowed further development in the basic principles of optics and the modern camera. The very first photograph didn’t come till 1827, when Joseph Nicephore Niepce used the camera obscura to capture a heliograph, which took up to eight hours of exposure to sunlight and faded soon thereafter. A few years later, Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre succeeded in creating the daguerrotype using a silver-plated copper sheet, iodine vapor, and mercury vapor, allowing for a more practical way of taking photos. A few different techniques superseded daguerrotypes, including calotypes, stereoscopic photography, the wet collodion process, and dry plates. This gave way to the modern camera, a device that captures and records images through the action of light or related radiation on sensitive material. 

With photographs came the ability to analyze the visual nature and relativity of objects and places, and with photographs came the potential to compare and contrast images. Thus, the practice of rephotography was born. Rephotography is the process of placing yourself in the same place to document change and decay, with only time as the variable factor. This visual form of exposure and comparison of classical antiquity hasn’t been explored as thoroughly as other mediums like writing and art, but this new vision of classical places is crucial especially in the digital age and has been a very useful method of documenting and analyzing social change. 


Photo Credits to Google Images

Sources:
https://www.thoughtco.com/photography-timeline-1992306
https://www.photography-basics.com/history-of-the-camera/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography
http://www.markklettphotography.com/rephotographic-survey-project/
 

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