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500 BCE
Camera Obscura
[500 CE - 1600 CE] Camera obscura is a box-shaped device used as an aid for drawing or entertainment. It lets light in through a small opening on one side and projects a reversed and inverted image on the other. The concept of the camera obscura can be considered as a possible beginning for the photography timeline. The earliest historical mention of the idea dates back to China in around 500 BCE. -
1400
Early Optics
[1400s - 1700s] Near 16th Century, Leonardo da Vinci sketched out diagrams and wrote instructions about the camera obscura. In these papers, he included not just pinholes but also simple glass lenses. Lenses and optics were a relatively new but established science by this time period, being used by astronomers to broaden our knowledge of the universe. -
Developing Films
[1604 - 1827] Johannes Kepler, an astronomer, coined the term photograph for a drawing with light in 1604. In 1717, Johann Heinrich Schulze showed that a solution of silver nitrate that darkens when exposed to light. Astronomers and inventors sought a way to make the paper or canvas itself sensitive to light. Glass or metal plates were also used in experiments by various people. -
Panorama
[1794] The First Panorama opens in 1794. The forerunner of the movie house is invented by Robert Barker. -
First Photograph
[1827] The View from the Window at Le Gras was credited as the earliest surviving photograph. Nicéphore Niépce used a sheet of metal with a film of chemicals spread on it and took 8 hours to record the image. Different metal plate technologies began to be used by astronomers, other scientists, and a new breed of artist/scientists, the naturists. -
Celluloid Roll Film
[1835 - 1887] In 1835, Henry Fox Talbot invented a viable method of spreading a gelatine emulsion on paper. Four years later on 1839, astronomer John Herschel came up with a way to fix the image recorded by silver halides. In 1887, these two technologies were first manufactured together as a photographic film. This film could be produced in individual sheets or as a roll. -
Daguerreotype
[1839] The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process in the history of photography. It was named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Each photo is a unique image such as clothing and hairstyles of the people. Earlier photos featured people in conservative manner, while later ones often featured people in more flamboyant styles. On the same year, the very first self portrait photography was captured by the American photographer Robert Cornelius. -
Camera Development
[1841] Calotype, an early photographic technique invented by William Henry Fox Talbot was introduced. In this technique, a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light in a camera obscura; those areas hit by light became dark in tone, yielding a negative image. Optical companies such as Zeiss and Leitz also started to design lenses specifically for photography. Camera for metal plates is also introduced in this time. -
Advertisement
[1843] The first advertisement with a photograph is published in Philadelphia by Volney Palmer. -
Photojournalism
[1848 -1865] Photography soon became a part of news and journalism. This helped provide documentation images of war into the public. For example, the US Civil War of 1861 - 1865. -
Collodion Process
[1851] Frederick Scott Archer invented the photographic technique called collodion process in 1851. This process involved adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a glass plate with the mixture. Due to this, images required only two or three seconds of light exposure. -
Ambrotype
[1854 - 1865] Ambrotypes were a slight improvement on the daguerreotype, which had a tendency to tarnish, due to its silver coating and copper plating. Ambrotypes fixed this issue by printing the photograph on a sheet of glass. -
Tintype
[1856 - 1878] Tintype is a photographic image printed on an iron plate. Early versions were packaged in glass-topped cases like daguerreotypes and ambrotypes. However, the cost of photography became much less expensive in the 1860s, and the case often cost more than the photo. So, later tintypes appear either in paper sleeves or simply as loose photos. These were the first album-suitable types of photographs. -
Carte de Viste
[1859 - 1889] The carte de visite was the first type of photography to use a negative. This type of photography allowed people to buy copies of the photos to share with family and friends. -
Motion Pictures
[1878 - 1900] Eadward Muybridge, the father of motion pictures, introduced a pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878. He used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-motion photographs, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography. -
Kodak
[1888] In 1888, Kodak Cameras were introduced by George Eastman of New York. In the history of photography, Eastman was a master of marketing photography to the masses. “You push the button, we do the rest.” Eastman Kodak became a driving force in the worldwide boom of photography. They introduced many different formats of films, both in rolls and sheets, as well as cameras for beginner, enthusiast, and professional photographers. -
Macro Photography
[1900s] In early 1900s, macro photography started to become an art and even then, it was an art that served a largely educational purpose. One of the earliest forefathers of true macro photography was Frank Percy Smith who revealed macro photography to the public through a series of documentary films shot at high magnifications. -
Leica
[1925] In 1925, the Leica was introduced and became a commercial success. In time, the 24x36mm format became one of the most produced and used image formats in all of photography. This still holds true in digital cameras today. -
35mm SLR
[1957 and 1959] In 1957, the first eye-level viewing single-lens reflex camera with an instant return mirror was introduced by Asahi Optical of Japan, called the Pentax. Two years after, Nikon F was introduced to the market. A professional-caliber 35mm SLR with an entire system of lenses, motor drives, and other accessories surrounding it. -
Cabinet Card
[1866 - 1903] This was an improvement on the carte de visite. It was made the same way, but was larger than the carte de visite. It also used new photographic advancements, so the image quality was clearer and the colors brighter. It contains sepia, silver and black colors and often had beveled or scalloped edges. -
Digital Cameras
[1975 - 1999] The first known digitally recorded images were created in a Kodak lab in 1975 and it took 23 seconds to capture the 0.01 MP image. Point shoot cameras were prominent on 1980s and 1990s. Fuji and Kodak also collaborated with Canon and Nikon on 1989 through to the early 2000s to make digital cameras that fit into what professionals needed. Digital system cameras were then introduced in 1999 by Nikon through Nikon D1.
