For our recent Studio Arts feature, we discussed the still-vibrant world of film photography with fine art photographer Lara Porzak, whose work bears testimony to the abiding and distinct qualities of film in our digital age. For Lara, film photography, especially in black and white, has an ethereal quality that can capture movement and emotion in a way that she hasn’t observed in digital pictures.
Lara’s work inspired us to take a closer look at the world of photography, where it came from and where it’s going. We’ll bring you some additional news on today’s developments in film photography in the coming weeks. For right now, we’ve created a list of key photography terms—part glossary, part timeline—to explore where this cross between technological invention and artistic creation came from.
A glossary of photography, in chronological order:
Camera Obscura (Ancient Greece) – Latin for “darkened chamber,” this ancient device in its most basic form is a darkened room or box with a small hole. On the wall opposite the hole, an image of whatever is outside is formed upside down, allowing it to be accurately traced. (We listed ancient Greece because it’s the first documented camera obscura. It’s possible, though, that they date all the way back to the Stone Age.)
Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) — Known as the inventor of photography, the Frenchman used the concept of the camera obscura to produce the first permanent photographic images in 1826.
Daguerreotype (1839) – Invented by Parisian painter Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, this process uses a camera to expose an iodized silver plate, producing a permanent image when developed through exposure to mercury fumes and fixed with a salt solution. The photos, produced on a piece of metal, were especially popular during the American Civil War, and remained the profitable tool of sidewalk photographers at fairs, parks, and beaches throughout the early-twentieth century. The daguerreotype was also the basis for the broader branch of photography known as tintypes.
Ambrotypes (1851) – Using a wet collodion process similar to the daguerreotype, the ambrotype produced an image on a piece of glass.
Celluloid (1860s) – The first synthetic plastic, celluloid was used for the creation of a transparent, flexible film, first used by Reverend Hannibal Goodwin in 1887. (Side note: George Eastman (the founder of Kodak) used a similar product, and in 1914 was forced to pay $5 million for patent violation. Goodwin, however, had already passed away, having died in a streetcar accident in 1900.)
Dry Plates (1878) – George Eastman demonstrated the convenience of using gelatin dry plates to develop images rather than the wet plate methods used in daguerreotypes. Five years later he established the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company (also known as the Eastman Company).
Eastman-Walker Roll Holder (1884) – Working with his technical expert William Walker, Eastman releases a roller holder for negative papers.
Eastman American Film (1885) – The first transparent photographic “film,” as it came to be known, was introduced.
Kodak (1888) – The Eastman Company produced the first snapshot camera, called the Kodak. Their slogan: “You press the button—we do the rest.” The camera was so popular that by 1892 the Eastman Company changed its name to Eastman Kodak Company of New York.
Cinematographe (1895) – Invented by Frenchman Louis Lumière, the multifunctional machine included a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit, and projector. Lumière has since been credited with the invention of the motion picture. Other inventors, however, were working on similar technology. The Eastman Company, for instance, released its Kinetoscope in 1891, which allowed one person at a time to view moving pictures. Thomas Edison unveiled his Vitascope, the first commercially successful projector, in 1896.
Brownie (1900) – Kodak introduced the Brownie Camera at a cost of only one dollar and sold rolls of film for 15 cents each. It made photography a hobby accessible to nearly anyone.
Photostat (1906) – An early projection photocopier, the Photostat machine eased the process of transcription and copying, and became the foundation for the Xerox Corporation.
Autochrome (1904) – Louis Lumière and his brother Auguste developed the first process for color photography. After receiving its U.S. patent in 1906, they made the process commercially available the following year.
Polaroid (1932) – Research on synthetic polarizers at Land-Wheelwright Laboratories allowed for the introduction of the Polaroid filter, which made a new form of 3-D film possible.
Fujifilm (1934) – The Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was established in Japan as a government plan to create a domestic photographic film industry. They produced motion picture film and plate-making film in their first year.
Kodachrome (1935) – Eastman Kodak released the first commercially successful amateur color film, invented by Leopold Damrosch Mannes and Leopold Godowsky. (It was, of course, further immortalized in the 1970’s by the musical talents of Paul Simon.)
Zoom lens (1946) – The invention by Frank Back was first introduced to consumers by Zoomar.
Land Model 95 (1947-48) – After conceiving of an instant camera in 1943, Edwin H. Land of Land-Wheelwright demonstrated the first instant camera and film, known as the Land Model 95. It became the prototype for the Polaroid camera.
Tri-X (1954) – Kodak introduced its first high-speed black-and-white film.
Polacolor (1963) – Polaroid created the first instant color film.
Instamatic (1963) – Kodak released the first point-and-shoot camera.
Charge Coupled Device or CCD (1969) – Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith created the first imaging technology using a digital sensor, laying the groundwork for digital photography.
Polaroid SX-70 (1972) – Polaroid released the first fully automatic, motorized, folding, single lens reflex camera. It even ejected self-developing instant color prints. Within the first year of production, Polaroid produced 5,000 SX-70s a day.
Digital Camera Prototype (1975) – Kodak engineer Steven Sasson developed the prototype for the first digital camera. The device weighed eight pounds and produced only black and white images.
Quicksnap (1986) – Fuji developed the world’s first one-time use disposable camera. (Wedding receptions would never be the same.)
Fuji Fujix DS-1P (1988) – Fuji released the first true digital camera. The camera showcased Toshiba’s first removable memory card (static RAM or SRAM), but Fuji never marketed the camera to consumers.
By the early 1990s, the digital age was well under way. Rather than looking to film to store photos, the photo CD was created in 1992 and the JPEG in 1993.
Now that you’ve got a background on where all this came from, the question remains—what are people doing with film today? With the resurgence of film as a niche market, we’ll take a look at modern lomography and some other innovations being undertaken by today’s film photographers. Stay tuned!
We couldn’t put together all of this information without the help of these useful online resources: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmotionpictures.htm, http://www.brownie-camera.com/index.shtml, http://www.polaroid.com/history, http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2013/10/30-most-important-digital-cameras, http://www.fujifilm.com/about/history/, and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/timeline/index_2.html.
Except the portrait of Lara Porzak, all images were available on public domain and accessed through Wikimedia Commons.