Photography Timeline

  • Light is the Source of Color

    Isaac Newton - Demonstrated that light is the source of color. He used a prism to split sunlight into its constituent colours and another to recombine them to make white light.
  • Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered light sensitive silver compounds

  • Color Receptors are Realized

    Thomas Young - Suggested that the retina at the back of the eye contains three types of colour sensitive receptor, one sensitive to blue light, one to green and one to red. The brain interprets various combinations of these colours to form any other colour in the visible spectrum.
  • First Permanant Image

  • First Negatives

    Fox Talbot - Experiments using Silver chloride coated paper to yield "negatives" of silhouettes.
  • First Fixing Solution

    Sir John Herschel Suggests fixing Talbot's images in sodium thiosulphate and coined the terms "photography", "negative" and "positive".
  • Daguerreotype Camera

    Daguerreotype Camera
  • First Photo's of Lightning

    First Photo's of Lightning
  • Period: to

    Mathew Brady documents the Civil War

  • 21st Michigan Infantry: Sherman's Volunteers,

    Mathew B. Brady (American, 1823–1896)
    Albumen silver print from glass negative
  • Period: to

    Civil War

  • Panoramic Camera

    Panoramic Camera
  • Van Gogh created his first major piece of art, The Potato Eaters

  • At the Seaside

    At the Seaside
    William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916) Oil on canvas
  • First Color Film

    Augusta and Louis Lumiere Patented "Autochrome" the first additive color screen film material.
  • First Underwater Color Photo

    First Underwater Color Photo
  • Period: to

    World War II

  • Photo realism in painting

    Photo realism in painting
  • Neil Armstrong Landed on the Moon

  • The first video camera was invented

    The first video camera was invented