The History of Photography

The word ''Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw").  The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839.  It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.

5th-4th Centuries B.C.
Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.

1664-1666
Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of different colours.

1727
Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light.

1794
First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house invented by Robert Barker.

1814
Joseph Niepce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura - however, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.

1837
Louis Daguerre's first daguerreotype - the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under thirty minutes of light exposure.

1840
First American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.

1841
William Henry Talbot patents the Calotype process - the first negative-positive process making possible the first multiple copies.

1843
First advertisement with a photograph made in Philadelphia.

1851
Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process - images required only two or three seconds of light exposure.

1859
Panoramic camera patented - the Sutton.

1861
Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.

1865
Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.

1871
Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process - negatives no longer had to be developed immediately.

1880
Eastman Dry Plate Company founded.

1884
George Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.

1888
Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera.

1898
Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.

1900
First mass-marketed camera—the Brownie.

1913/1914
First 35mm still camera developed.

1927
General Electric invents the modern flash bulb.

1932
First light meter with photoelectric cell introduced.

1935
Eastman Kodak markets Kodachrome film.

1941
Eastman Kodak introduces Kodacolor negative film.

1942
Chester Carlson receives patent for electric photography (xerography).

1948
Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera.

1954
Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.

1960
EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.

1963
Polaroid introduces instant colour film.

1968
Photograph of the Earth from the moon.

1973
Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.

1977
George Eastman and Edwin Land inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

1978
Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.

1980
Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder.

1984
Canon demonstrates first digital electronic still camera.

1985
Pixar introduces digital imaging processor.

1990
Eastman Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium.

The First Photograph

This photograph was only discovered in 2002 and is now known to be the very first permanent photograph ever taken by Nicéphore Niépce – the father of photography. It is an image of an engraving of a man walking a horse and it was made using a technique known as heliogravure. The method involves a piece of copper covered with light sensitive bitumen. This metal plate is exposed to light and creates an image which is then transferred to paper. The image has been declared a national treasure by the French government and it sold for $392,000 at auction to the French National Library.