History of photography and its importance in media

Written by Jack Crago

Oldest surviving photo, view from the window at Le Gras

Photography has been around for nearly 200 years, it was and still is such an innovative thing. It's used to convey emotion, set a scene, what paintings were for but in the moment. The oldest surviving photo View from the Window at Le Gras, taken in 1826-1827 seems to be nothing special, but it kick -started photography as a whole by proving a permanent capture of nature was possible. It used a special form of photography called heliography which casts the photo onto metal using light sensitive chemicals, just showing how diverse this subject is.

Most old photos you see with a yellow tint and high contrast use the technique called albumen printing, it was the dominant method for several decades in the mid 19th century. It's done by coating your paper in egg white mixed with salt, then using a silver nitrate solution to make it light sensitive; then expose it to a negative under light, then washed and rinsed to make the effects permanent. That long and unique process for such a mediocre result just shows how far the technology has come.

Photography was first invented to be used as a tool for art and documentation, particularly to aid painting by providing an accurate and detailed reference. Which was a very innovative invention for the artistic world, as people would often have to sit for at least 3 hours at a time.

First surviving portrait photo, of Robert Cornelius

This was believed to be the first portrait photograph taken in history, which was a self portrait taken by Robert Cornelius in October 1839. This photo was taken using the daguerreotype process, which is very similar to heliography; which the first surviving photograph used.

This technique was also the breakthrough for early photography because it was the first commercially used and sold type of photograph.

For the majority of the 19th century they used slightly altered versions of the daguerreotype process, up until around the industrial revolution.

First photo taken in color, by Thomas Sutton

This is the first colored photograph, it was taken in 1861 by Thomas Sutton. It was an image of a tartan ribbon created by photographing it three times through red, green, and blue filters and then combining the three resulting black and white images to make it appear colored.

Though we had the ability to take colored photos back then we commercially used black and white all the way up until the 1970s, as the technology was too expensive, complex, and the image quality was inferior to black and white.

William Eggleston photography showing at the MoMA

William Eggleston was believed to be the primary person to popularize colored photos, especially in the artistic world. In 1976 he had a show at the museum of modern art, in which he dedicated it to colorized photography; this was a HUGE turning point in colorized photography as we know it today.

He believed firmly that photography was a unique art and deserved its own category in the artistic world. He’s stated “Whatever it is about pictures, photographs, it's just about impossible to follow up with words. They don't have anything to do with each other.”

Photography has gotten monumentally more prominent since social media has come around. For example Instagram, its main thing was journaling your experiences through photos; approximately 95 million photos are taken and posted on Instagram a day. It's a form of expression that almost everyone uses, it’s beautiful in a way.

Photography is used in many different ways, it can be identity, Through photos, we can also contradict stereotypes, celebrate diversity and raise awareness of social justice and equality.

People of Ukraine during Russia's invasion

Photojournalism does a really great job at this, as it can show the horrors or beauties of the world. Either hidden away or shown in a distorted image, for example one of photojournalisms most important roles is showing the results of warfare; it's such an important thing globally and this shows how it really is.

Photography is used by billions of people around the world to convey emotion, expression, almost anything; approximately 5 billion photos are taken a day worldwide. This just shows how important it is to people worldwide, and throughout history, there’s a high chance that in just 1 day you’ve witnessed at least 400 forms of photography if not more. To sum it all up photography has been one of the most used and important forms of expression in history.