Photography

Essay

PHOTOGRAPHY ESSAY

Like all other pieces of technology man has created, it started out as something small and expanded into something exponential. An idea like a grain of sand held in an oyster till it developed into a beautiful pearl. The first grain of sand was captivated in the early 1830’s thanks to a man named Joseph Niepce who took the first picture with something that essentially resembled a wooden box.
It is almost ironic that the first picture taken quickly faded because the proper chemicals were not applied, when really the science behind those chemicals had been developed before the camera itself. Over a hundred years later this problem was fixed when Louis Daguerre put two and two together and quite literally “fixed” the first photograph. From then on Photography was revolutionized.
A pewter plate changed to printing paper and paper film transitioned into a little thing called celluloid. Pretty soon the camera was available to the public. The first popular model was called “The Brownie” made by Kodak in 1900. As the years progressed so did the camera. It went from a wooden box to something a little more hand held. It even began having features such as the F-stop and shutter speed that controlled the amount of light and how long the light is exposed to the film, which expanded the horizions of photography as an art.
It probably took so long for photography to be accepted as a fine art form, because to many it was just the snap of the button and the shine of a light. It was when people started noticing compositions that were similar to paintings along with various techniques used to get a desired look in a photo that people started to pay it some respect.
Today as we reflect we can see that photography has defined our history and brought universal problems to our attention. Each decade has its signature shots "Migrant Mother" by Dorthea Lange still lets us feel the effects of the great depression, "The Kiss" By Alfred Eisenstaedt marked the end of WWII. This trend continued throughout the decades and is still continuing today for generations to come