Photography Makeovers: Users Embrace Technology As Matter Of Fact

Photography in its most basic form is a method of capturing light onto a surface and recording a permanent image. The invention took decades to enter mainstream production, beginning with scientific curiosity and chemical trial and error. Once established, however, photography usage increased over time, growing in popularity. The photographic image became the cornerstone of visual communications and the content served as catalyst for conversations in multiple industries such as publishing and the arts industries.

Photography from its beginning to present, has steadily adapted to evolving technologies. As film production made traditional wet plate photographic processes seem clunky, instant photography known as Polaroid one-step process now seems a predecessor to Instagram photography, which is as ubiquitous a visual medium as the devices that create steady streams of imagery. 

The photography medium got off to a slow start. Early 18th century French physicist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) and Louis Jacaues Mandé Daguerre (1887-1851), French Painter, are most commonly attributed with the invention of photography. Lesser-known experimentation by Johann Heinrich Schulze (1687-1744), German physicist and medical professor, is noted for discovering the darkened effects of silver nitrate upon exposure to light in 1727. 

Another notable photography pioneer include the works by Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805) who is credited with making the first photogram, or 'sun picture' by placing opaque objects on a sheet of sensitized paper without fixing them, meaning the light impression would fade if exposed to bright light. 

Daguerre and Niépce would resolve the transient nature of fading images through experimenting with chemicals that would allow the image more permanence from fading using bitumen, a mixture of hydrocarbons. In 1816 Niépce combined photosensitive paper with the camera obscura in (circa,1826-1827), and created a permanent image. 

View from the Window at Le Gras, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce     

Photography during this time revolutionized portraiture for the masses. Working people couldn't afford to commission fine artists for a family portrait as was customarily being done by the wealthy class who did so with ease. 

Photography could provide a portrait likeness that was more affordable. The process was a bit tedious in the early years. Bulky equipment was needed and while that worked well for landscape work, portraiture required subjects to sit still for long exposures. Apparatus was used to hold the head in place and worked ok for adults. Children were more difficult to capture and explains why some daguerreotypes show movement in subjects. 

Photographer Unknown:

 Hooded figure holds child steady.

Often seen in Victorian portraiture are hooded or draped figures appearing 'hidden' behind the pictured child. Underneath the fabric an adult, most likely the mother, would hold the child to keep them from moving.

As photography use grew from popular daguerreotypes to landscape[1], to war coverage: Mexican-American War (1846-1848); (Crimean War 1853-1856); and Civil War, the medium became associated with recording facts of human activity: judicial, scientific and industrial. 

Photographer Unknown: Mexican-American War (1846-1848) General John E. Wool and his staff after the capture of the city of Saltillo in early 1847. The troops marched 900 miles across the desert from San Antonio, then linked up with General Zachary Taylor's forces to fight the Battle of Buena Vista. 

This documentary approach helped to give photography an ‘objective medium’ stigma which was used liberally. The realism did not deter creative and entrepreneurial types who used photography as a tool to interpret beauty. 

A photographic ‘style’ concept was born and was referred to as the ‘Pictorial’[2] approach, a term coined by Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901). Robinson, taking full creative license delved into photomontage, which drew antithetical views against photography as a representation of truth. 

Henry Peach Robinson pioneered the use of combination printing to form a single image; thereby creating early photo-montage. "When Day's Work is Done" is a combination print constructed from six negatives. Robinson attached two negatives together with a sheet of glass and from three printings of each pair he created the final image. The complications of trying to produce a large range of various tones of illumination for the cottage means that a seam between negatives can be discerned where the light wall meets the dark shadows of the room. Discussing this image, Henry Peach Robinson said: "One of the best models I ever employed was an old man of seventy-four. He was a crossing-sweeper. I should never have accomplished one of my best works if I had not seen him sitting at a table in my studio, waiting, till I could talk to him. I not only saw the old man there, but mentally, the old lady, and the interior of the cottage...The old man, by his attitude and expression, gave the germ of the idea; the old lady had to be found, and the cottage built, but they appeared to me then quite visibly and solidly." Caption information via http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/robinson_henry_peach/artist/24640/

Despite countless comparisons to traditional art, the medium survived critical comparisons to 'art' and became known for being its own unique genre. 

Similarly, as daguerreotypes filled a social need, the Polaroid camera filled a need. When inventor Edwin Land first introduced the one-step camera in 1948, it provided 'instant' photography to the masses via immediate access to the picture without the fuss and skills needed to develop film and prints in a darkroom. 

The parallel between the initial photographic popularity of (daguerreotypes) and Polaroid instant photography exists in that both technologies were embraced quickly for their respective time periods. In 'Instant: The Story of Polaroid'[3] writer Christopher Bonanos explores the implication of eliminating the lab technician from the equation of creative photography. Photographers could shoot nude imagery without fear of infringing on privacy issues. Of course this option was available to any photographer who developed their own film and prints, however as commercial applications grew through exploding advertising and photojournalism markets, the photo lab industries also grew. 

At the rapid pace modernity progresses Instagram further supports not only society's comfort level in accepting innovation, but rather its level of expectation that seems to have risen over time.  

Fast forward to 2013, Instagram, the social networking online photo-sharing app, and now video sharing too, enables users to take pictures with smart phone and tablet devices, apply creative filters to the photo (files) and instantly upload them to Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and other linked social platforms. 

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and first launched in October 2010 and has shown incredible success. With 130 million active users with over 45 million photos uploaded daily, Instagram is available on both Android and IPhone mobile platforms. 

Age or money is no longer an obstacle to creativity. Film costs have all but disappeared as more people have accepted digital photography as the norm. Digital cameras and mobile phones are affordable and most people have both.

The time for getting creative with photography has come into its own, particularly with social platforms for photo sharing. Will your images be seen with many others and become part of the mosaic that makes up the web?

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[1] http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?topic=all&collection_list=EarlyLandscapePhotog&col_id=200

[2] http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10161

[3] Instant: The Story of Polaroid © Christopher Bonanos 2012 Princeton Architectural Press