Week 2 - Learning activities

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to pick one from the list or just do both, so I'll do both.


Why did the world first love photographs?

In my opinion I would think people liked the idea of keeping a physical record of something they've seen or liked because we all know that memory eventually fades. Even though photography has evolved into an art form (some might even argue a science), people still take pictures for the same reasons they used to; a long lasting memory.


Who were the first photographers?
Apparently photography went as far back as 4th and 5th century BC. Someone discovered that certain chemicals are affected by light and they just kept working with those.

Daguerreotype is one of the oldest types of photography. It was an image produced on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper. In 1829, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre had formed a partnership with Nicéphore Niépce, and they both were trying to discover a way to capture photos. They were both influenced by what they saw in their camera obscuras, which I'll talk about later on.
Niepce died in 1833 but Daguerre continued their work and eventually got the courage to start showing his invention to other scientists. On August 19, 1839, Daguerre explained the process for the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

From Wikipedia: Boulevard du Temple, Paris, Spring 1838, by Daguerre (the first photograph of a person ever made). The image shows a busy street, but because exposure time was more than ten minutes, the moving traffic does not appear. Only a man getting his boots polished, the shoe-shine boy, and two people sitting at a table nearby stood still long enough for their image to be captured. The image is reversed (as were all Daguerreotypes) as is evidenced by the writing on a building in upper left.

Eventually his invention started appearing in other parts of Europe through other scientists and eventually to North America.
Although an amazing invention at the time, the complex and labour intensive process led to other devices to be made. Also the mercury that it needed to make pictures eventually poisoned people who may have used a Daguerre.


Before that was the Camera Obscura, which didn't actually make photographs, but projected an image of its surroundings on a screen. It could project and image on a piece of paper and then someone could come over and trace the image. Using mirrors, you could project a right-side-up image.

18th century artist using a camera obscura

Before that was the Physionotrace. This method of portraits didn't actually yield photographs. I've had a really hard time trying to figure out how people used to get portraits with this machine because in this video it just looks like a silhouette
Physionotrace


After Daguerre however, was the Calotype process. It was introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. A negative was exposed in the camera, developed in a dark room and then printed on sensitive paper much like how film is developed nowadays. Without getting into the chemical details, it was superior to Daguerre because it was a little bit easier to make copies of an image.

London, 1845 taken by Talbot

Under near-total darkness, the sensitive calotype paper was loaded in the camera. It was exposed, sometimes for as little as ten seconds, usually for a time closer to a minute or more.

Again, the processing was quite similar to how film is treated nowadays (from the University of Glasgow): An invisible latent image was formed by the action of light. A fresh solution of gallo-nitrate of silver was brought into play. Washed over the sheet of paper in a darkened room, it developed a visible image, usually within a few seconds. When the operator judged that the development had proceeded far enough, the paper was then washed over with a fixing liquid. This was sometimes a solution of potassium bromide and sometimes a solution of hypo. Washing and drying completed the process.


Anybody who inspired me and why?

When I first got into photography was during my first year of college in 2005. I was studying journalism at the time and we had to learn how to shoot our stories. But eventually I got into concert photography because of my passion for music.

My influences included some local photographers who I eventually became friends with and who could give me pointers from time to time. I love looking at pictures of my favourite bands in action and it's challenging because sometimes you never know what they're going to do next.
(Rock Paper Pixels and Sticky Magazine)

Also specifically Annie Leibovitz who worked for Rolling Stone magazine in the 70's and 80's and more recently for Vanity Fair. She's more a portrait photographer, it's something I haven't seriously tried my hand at yet. It's intimidating but that's why I like her so much.
(Vanity Fair work)


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotype
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/specialcollections/collectionsa-z/hilladamson/calotypeprocess/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fox_Talbot