History of Photography in a Glance
A form of art like no other, a photograph conveys messages and emotions without need for words. Today, the function of photograph is limitless. It seeks attention, provokes emotions and amazes the viewer with breathtaking images. Having such profound impact in our lives, it is justified that we should know how this form of art took its place in human history as an indispensable media. To understand the history of photography, we will start by looking back at the 19th century.
Photography took on a humble beginning when the term was coined by Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. A combination of the Greek words 'photos' and 'graphein', it relates to the use of light or radiation to record images. In the very same year, the first photo of a person was produced by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a chemist and French painter. However, the first experiences of photography can be traced back to 1827 when French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the first photographic image on a metal plate.
Since then, there have been a series of firsts in the history of photography. Man have successfully captured the first lightning and war photo in 1847 and produced the first color photo in 1861. The earliest history of cinematography (the act of filmmaking) was said to have begun in the year 1878 when the image sequences were successfully produced. Varying from nature to human and objects, photography was used to capture almost anything.
1991 marks a historic milestone in the history of photography when the first digital still camera was made available commercially by Kodak. Since then, there has been overwhelming response and the demand for such cameras soared. We are the witnesses to the increasing capability of this image-capturing device. The history of photography will never been the same again with the development of portable and increasingly advanced cameras.
