Chapter 4
The Arrival of Photography
Photography emerged as an overnight sensation in 1839, primarily due to the work of Louis Daguerre, a French artist who publicly presented his revolutionary photographic process for free on August 19, 1839, at a joint meeting of the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Key points about Daguerre's presentation:
The process, known as the Daguerreotype, required no patent fees, specialized devices, or licensing for its use by the public, ensuring its rapid dissemination. This open disclosure was a pivotal moment in making photography accessible globally.
Following the announcement, the technique swiftly spread across continents, with numerous entrepreneurs and aspiring photographers establishing daguerreotype studios in major cities worldwide, catering to a burgeoning demand for portraits and novel imagery.
Foundations of Photography
Daguerre's successful innovation was not an isolated event but rather stemmed from a rich artistic tradition, particularly in capturing realistic scenes, and numerous advancements in chemistry that had been developing for decades, if not centuries, prior to photography's formal announcement.
Historical Figures and Contributions in Early Photography:
Thomas Wedgewood (1792):
An English potter's son, he experimented extensively with light-sensitive chemicals, notably silver nitrate, which he applied to paper and leather. He created the first unfixed photographic images by placing objects like leaves and paintings on these treated surfaces and exposing them to light. However, these images would eventually darken completely upon continued exposure to light.
Humphrey Davy (1802):
Wedgewood's close friend and a renowned chemist, Davy published their joint findings, detailing how light could imprint images on sensitized materials. While he successfully found light-sensitive chemicals that could temporarily imprint images, he, like Wedgewood, could not find a way to "fix" them permanently, meaning the images would fade unless kept in darkness.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1814):
A French inventor, Niepce was the first to make significant and practical advances toward permanent photography. He successfully made the earliest surviving photograph, "La cour du domaine du gras" (View from the Window at Le Gras), in 1826 or 1827. He achieved this by coating a pewter (tin) plate with bitumen of Judea (asphalt), a light-sensitive material, and exposing it in a camera obscura for several hours or even days. The unhardened bitumen was then washed away with lavender oil, leaving a permanent, though dim, image.
His heliographic process was highly impractical for widespread use due to extremely long exposure times (up to eight hours to several days), making it limited to fixed objects and unsuitable for portraits.
Daguerre's Breakthrough
Louis Daguerre's Background:
Initially known for his highly popular and intricate dioramas, large theatrical paintings that created illusionistic scenes through lighting effects, Daguerre possessed a keen interest in optics and visual spectacle. This artistic background heavily influenced his pursuit of a more direct way to capture images.
Intensely pursued photography, often neglecting his painting career in his dedication to perfecting the process. This passion led to his crucial collaborative efforts with Niepce, starting in 1829, where they shared knowledge and resources, though their partnership was sometimes strained.
Daguerre persevered after Niepce's death in 1833, inheriting Niepce's research and continuing his experiments with various chemicals and methodologies to finally achieve a method that could fix images permanently and with significantly reduced exposure times.
Innovation in Photography (1838):
Daguerre settled on a highly effective method that began by polishing a silver-plated copper sheet to a mirror-like finish. This plate was then exposed to iodine fumes, which created a light-sensitive layer of silver iodide on its surface.
Post-exposure in the camera, which could range from a few minutes to half an hour depending on light conditions, the latent image on the plate was developed by exposing it to heated mercury vapor. The mercury particles adhered to the light-struck areas, creating the image. Finally, the image was fixed using a solution of sodium thiosulfate (hypo), which Niepce's cousin, Abel Niepce de Saint-Victor, independently discovered, effectively stabilizing the image and preventing further darkening.
The resulting images, initially referred to as "heliographs" (sun writing) by Niepce and later by Daguerre, became widely known as Daguerreotypes – a direct homage to their inventor. These images were unique, extremely detailed, and had a shimmering, ethereal quality.
Reception and Impact:
Historical commentary from contemporaries often noted that Daguerre’s process radically transformed image presentation in two dimensions, offering an unprecedented level of verisimilitude previously unattainable by painting or drawing. The detail and clarity were astounding to the public.
Instead of seeking personal profit through patent fees, Daguerre, with the support of scientist and politician François Arago, disclosed his entire process to the world in exchange for a substantial lifelong pension from the French government for himself and Niepce’s son. This act of public disclosure, rather than commercial exploitation, made the Daguerreotype process available globally, spurring an immediate worldwide amateur and professional photography boom.
Competition and Improvements
Limitations of the Daguerreotype:
The Daguerreotype produced a unique, one-of-a-kind positive image directly on the metal plate. This meant there was no negative from which multiple copies could be printed, making reproduction impossible without re-photographing the original or engraving it. They were also fragile and required protection under glass.
William Henry Fox Talbot's Calotype (1841):
Independently working in England, Talbot developed the Calotype (later patented as the Talbotype) around the same time as Daguerre's breakthrough. His method involved using chemically treated paper to create a negative image, from which multiple positive prints could then be made on similar treated paper. This was the foundational concept for modern photographic processes based on negatives.
While revolutionary for introducing negatives for reproduction, his paper-based images lacked the sharpness and fine detail of Daguerreotypes. Additionally, Talbot's decision to aggressively patent his process in England severely limited its widespread adoption and innovation, particularly compared to the freely available Daguerreotype.
Wet Plate Collodion Process (1851):
Developed by Frederick Scott Archer, an English sculptor, this process quickly superseded both the Daguerreotype and the Calotype. It involved coating a glass plate with collodion (a viscous solution of nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol) containing light-sensitive silver salts, which had to be exposed and developed while still wet.
This innovation enabled the creation of incredibly sharp glass plate negatives that could generate multiple positive prints (albumen prints were common). It offered improved light sensitivity compared to earlier methods, significantly reducing exposure times from minutes to mere seconds, making portraiture much more practical.
However, its requirement for plates to remain wet during exposure and development necessitated photographers to carry portable darkrooms, often horse-drawn wagons, into the field. This unique logistical challenge also expanded photography's scope, allowing for on-location documentary work, including war photography and landscape imaging.
Diffusion of Technology
Globally, photography studios flourished in the mid-19th century, quickly becoming a democratizing force in portraiture that was once only accessible through painted commissions. This rapid spread led to many prominent photographers documenting diverse aspects of life and culture across the world.
Lala Deen Dayal: An Indian photographer, recognized for documenting royal Indian life, architecture, and landscapes, becoming the official photographer to the Viceroy of India and the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Felice Beato: An Italian-British photographer active primarily in Asia, known for his work in the Crimean War, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and especially his extensive documentation of Japan, pioneering early photojournalism and landscape photography in the region.
Guillermo Kahlo: A German-Mexican photographer, most famous for his architectural and industrial photography across Mexico and as the father of the iconic artist Frida Kahlo.
Samuel Morse:
Best known for inventing the Morse code and the telegraph, Samuel Morse was also a painter deeply interested in technology. He encountered Louis Daguerre in Paris in 1839, becoming one of the first Americans to witness the Daguerreotype process firsthand.
He quickly embraced the technology, becoming the first to introduce photographic equipment from France to America. He subsequently taught photography in New York, playing a crucial role in establishing it in the United States. His pupil, Mathew Brady, would become a pivotal figure in American photography.
Matthew Brady's Contributions
Mathew Brady, building on Morse's teachings, opened his own portrait studio in New York in 1844, making accessible daguerreotypes and later ambrotypes and cartes de visite. His commitment to quality and artistic composition made his studio highly successful.
His portraits earned widespread acclaim for their artistry and directness, documenting many prominent figures of the era, including U.S. presidents, writers, and generals. His portrait of Abraham Lincoln, particularly during the 1860 presidential campaign, is famously credited with helping to secure Lincoln's election through its dignified and compelling depiction.
Brady's aspirations to document the American Civil War led him to organize a team of photographers who captured the stark realities of combat and its aftermath firsthand. Unlike his British contemporaries who often staged images for artistic effect or to avoid showing gruesome details, Brady's team aimed for factual accounts, showcasing the devastating toll of war. This commitment to realism, though sometimes involving minor positional adjustments, was groundbreaking.
Brady courageously showcased the grave realities of war at his studio gallery in New York City, particularly his exhibition "The Dead of Antietam." The public reaction was startling and profound. For the first time, civilians saw unvarnished battlefield images of dead soldiers, bringing the brutal truth of war directly into their homes and profoundly altering public perception of conflict.
A Question of Art and Copyright
By the 1860s, as photography became more widespread and influential, legal systems grappled with the fundamental question of whether photography qualified as an art form or simply a mechanical process. This distinction was crucial for intellectual property and copyright protection.
Key Legal Cases:
The Mayer and Pierson v. Thiebault, Betbeder & Schubert case in France (1862) was a landmark decision that questioned photography's status under copyright law. The Mayer and Pierson studio sued an engraver for reproducing their photographs. The court ultimately ruled that photographs were a form of artistic expression, thus warranting protection.
Arguments included the artistic merit of photography, emphasizing the choices made by the photographer (composition, lighting, posing) versus its mechanistic nature, which some contended merely reproduced reality without creative input. This debate was central to defining the nascent art form.
In the U.S. Supreme Court, the Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony case in 1884 definitively established that photography, when it involved intellectual invention and originality from the photographer, could indeed receive copyright protection despite its mechanical origins. This landmark ruling affirmed photography's status as a legitimate art form worthy of legal protection, acknowledging the photographer as an author capable of original artistic creation.
Photography for the People
Early picture-taking was largely limited to professionals due to the complexity, cost, and specialized knowledge required. This began to change significantly with a series of innovations that emerged in the 1880s, primarily dry plate photography and flexible celluloid film, which simplified the process immensely.
George Eastman’s Innovations:
George Eastman, an American entrepreneur, was a visionary who revolutionized photography by making it accessible to the masses. He pioneered roll film, replacing fragile glass plates, and introduced the first simple, inexpensive box camera – the Kodak camera – in 1888. This camera came pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures.
His marketing slogan, “You push the button, we do the rest,” perfectly encapsulated his business model: users would send their camera back to the factory after finishing a roll of film, and Kodak would develop the film, make prints, and reload the camera with new film, then return it to the customer. This 'darkroom-less' approach transformed photography into a mass pastime for amateurs.
The Kodak company expanded rapidly, becoming a household name and dominating the consumer photography market throughout the 20th century. However, it ultimately struggled to adapt to the rapid transition into the digital era, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2012, highlighting the disruptive power of technological shifts.
Turning Photography into Art: Pictorialism
As photography's technical capabilities advanced and amateur use exploded, artists and critics began to seriously debate its artistic merit. The pictorialist movement emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a deliberate effort to emphasize photography’s artistic merit amid challenges from traditional painters and academicians who viewed it as merely a scientific or mechanical record.
Prominent Figures:
Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz were leading figures who advanced photography as a medium for individual artistic expression. Pictorialists often used soft focus, special filters, darkroom manipulations (like gum bichromate printing), and painterly effects to create evocative, subjective images that resembled etchings or charcoal drawings, rather than sharp, objective records of reality.
The Pictorialist aesthetic, which sought to emulate painting, eventually faced a backlash. The Straight Photography movement, championed by Stieglitz himself and later the f/64 group (including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston), arose as a counter-movement. They advocated for unmanipulated photographic truth, emphasizing sharp focus, rich tonal range, and direct presentation, believing photography's unique strength lay in its ability to capture reality with clarity and precision, independent of other art forms.
Photojournalism and Social Reform
In the 1890s, photography was increasingly harnessed as a powerful tool for social change and advocacy. The ability of images to convey harsh realities directly to the public proved instrumental in prompting reform movements.
Jacob Riis’s “How the Other Half Lives”: A Danish-American social reformer, journalist, and photographer, Riis documented the squalid living conditions of the impoverished residents in New York City's tenements. His groundbreaking 1890 book, featuring startling photographs and vivid descriptions, shocked the conscience of the nation and played a crucial role in stimulating tenement housing reforms and urban planning initiatives.
Lewis Hine: An American sociologist and photographer, Hine focused his camera on child labor issues in the early 20th century. His impactful photographs, often taken covertly in factories and mills, exposed the brutal realities of young children working in hazardous conditions. His work was instrumental in documenting child exploitation, building public support for child labor laws, and ultimately prompting significant legislative reforms in the United States.
FSA photographers: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, photographers working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) formed a crucial documentary project. They used their work to chart the nation's struggles, poverty, and resilience, producing thousands of evocative images of rural America. These photographs, commissioned by the government, influenced public opinion, garnered support for New Deal programs, and shaped the visual memory of this challenging period. This project included notable photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Gordon Parks.
Photographic Magazines
The rise of mass-market magazines in the early to mid-20th century provided a powerful new platform for photography. Henry Luce’s publications, including Time and especially Life magazine, were instrumental in showcasing impactful photography and fundamentally shaping a visual news culture.
Life magazine, launched in 1936, revolutionized photojournalism with its format that prioritized powerful, narrative-driven photo essays. It aimed to bring the world into people's homes through images, proclaiming its mission to "see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events." Its iconic covers and extensive picture spreads made photography central to mainstream news and entertainment, influencing later photographic portrayals in media worldwide.
The Corner of Her Eye: Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange’s iconic "Migrant Mother" photo, taken in 1936 during her work for the FSA, became the quintessential image of the Great Depression and epitomized the social impact of documentary photography. The photograph features Florence Owens Thompson, a poverty-stricken pea picker, with her children, conveying resilience and despair simultaneously.
Lange's broader body of work, focusing on the plight of America’s working-class families, particularly migrant laborers, during the Great Depression, had lasting humanitarian implications. Her images not only evoked empathy but also directly contributed to public awareness and support for government relief efforts, solidifying photography's role as a potent tool for social consciousness and historical documentation.
Twentieth-Century War Photography
World War I saw significant censorship in photography, with governments carefully controlling what images were released to avoid demoralizing the public. However, by World War II, photojournalism became absolutely crucial to public perception, propaganda, and morale.
Photographers like Robert Capa captured defining and often harrowing moments of war, including his iconic and chaotic D-Day landings series (often referred to as "The Magnificent Eleven"). Capa’s work, embodying a gritty, personal perspective often taken from the front lines, helped to define modern war photography. His philosophy, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," pushed boundaries in capturing the visceral reality of conflict.
Iconic war images, such as Joe Rosenthal’s "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima," defined public sentiment, rallied support, and indelibly shaped historical narratives, demonstrating photography's unparalleled power to bear witness and influence public memory.
Celebrity Photography
Celebrity photography emerged prominently in the 20th century, closely intertwined with the rise of Hollywood, popular culture magazines, and the burgeoning public fascination with film stars and famous personalities. It played a key role in constructing and disseminating the glamour and allure of celebrity culture.
Photographers like Annie Leibovitz continued this trend into subsequent decades, creating iconic and often highly theatrical images of celebrities, musicians, and public figures. Her famous portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, taken just hours before Lennon's assassination, is a potent example of celebrity photography's ability to capture intimate moments and become part of cultural history.
Conservation and Environmental Photography
Photography has proven to be an extraordinarily powerful medium to profoundly influence public perception of environmental issues, effectively showcasing both the sublime beauty of natural landscapes and the alarming devastation of industrial degradation.
Famous figures like Ansel Adams, renowned for his breathtaking black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West (especially Yosemite National Park), used his art to evoke a profound appreciation for wilderness and advocate for its preservation. Jacques Cousteau, a pioneering oceanographer, film-maker, and photographer, documented marine ecosystems, raising global awareness about ocean life and advocating for marine conservation efforts, significantly shaping the environmental movement.
Photography and Ethics
The ethics surrounding photography have continuously evolved, particularly concerning issues of manipulation, misrepresentation, and privacy. These concerns are notably visible in how conflicts and social injustices are depicted.
Early photographers like Mathew Brady were known to occasionally reposition bodies or stage scenes in his Civil War images for compositional effect, sparking early debates about photographic truth. The emergence of digitized and manipulated images in the late 20th and 21st centuries, from subtle retouching to outright fabrication, raised profound concerns about authenticity, verifiability, and trust, particularly in journalism and documentary work.
Digital Photography
The transition from analog film-based photography to digital imaging arose from government-funded research, primarily initiated by projects in the late 20th century for military and space applications. These efforts ultimately accelerated innovations in charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and other imaging techniques, laying the groundwork for consumer digital cameras.
Digital technologies profoundly democratized photography access even further than Eastman's Kodak. Digital cameras and, more significantly, camera-equipped smartphones, enabled instantaneous image capture, viewing, editing, and sharing, radically altering media landscapes, personal communication, and the very nature of visual documentation. This shift led to the decline of traditional film photography and the rise of social media platforms built around shared visual content.