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Louis Daguerre: Capturing the Invention that Changed Photography Today
Photography is a part of almost everyone's everyday life whether it is through a smartphone, laptop, or professional camera. Before the late 1800s, though, even a simple picture was not possible. Although many people worked hard and put their ideas and inventions of new cameras in the world, Louis Daguerre is among one of the most important. Michael Hart, in his book, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, ranks Daguerre as the 47th most influential person in the world. This ranking is appropriate because of the many ways his invention influenced today's world. His technique was practical and widely used in the 1800s. Although his methods are different
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With help from Niepce’s son, Daguerre invented the Daguerreotype. “First, he took a copper plate, coated it in silver, and treated it with iodine vapor...Daguerre put the plate in his camera and exposed it to light. Next, he ‘developed’ the plate by letting fumes from hot Mercury pass over it. Finally, he ‘fixed’ the developed image by treating it with salt" (Buckminster 394-395). Daguerre, with help, experimented with different ideas until he found a way to create a improved version of the camera obscura that worked quicker and more precisely. Although the reason is unknown, Daguerre was the one to come up with the idea of using Mercury to help quicken the process of taking pictures. Since Daguerre was the one to come up with the idea of using Mercury, Niepce decided to let him name the invention after himself, the Daguerreotype.
Daguerre’s invention affected his era greatly. Daguerreotypes were very common in the 1800s. The cost of a Daguerreotype portrait was soon within the reach of most middle-class Americans. Daguerreotypes provided a record of American history for over two decades (Driscoll). Not only were Daguerreotypes new and a good source of photography, they were also affordable and not as time consuming as many other camera processes. Family portraits could be taken in faster manner and they were more affordable than the other options, making the Daguerreotype one of the top choices for middle-class American
Born of Irish immigrants in 1823 in a little place called Warren County, New York; Mathew Brady is known as “The Father of Photojournalism.” While a student of Samuel Morse and a friend of Louis Daguerre (inventor of the “Daguerreotype,” a method of photography that the image is developed straight onto a metal coated surface), in which he had met while under the study of Morse, Brady took up his interest in photography in the year of 1839, while only seventeen years of age. Brady took what he had learned from these two talented and intellectual men to America where he furthered his interest in the then-growing art of photography.
"History of Art: History of Photography." History of Art: History of Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2014. .
To be named one of the top photographers of the 20th Century is a substantial credit on its own, but to do so with no formal training or background in the art is remarkable, yet accomplished by Philippe Halsman. It all started at the young age of fifteen, when Philippe would photograph friends and family with his father’s 9x12-cm view camera, developing the glass plate “miracles” in the family’s bathroom sink. Even in these early years, using rudimentary equipment, it was evident Halsman had a gift and would leave a definitive mark on the photographic industry. With his ability to capture the true spirit of the subject and his advanced technical abilities, his career was destined to be nothing short of successful (B. Johnson 180).
Gustavon, Todd. Camera: A History of Photography from daguerreotype to Digital. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2009
The first type of using light to make a picture was the daguerreotype. Both Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce, who passed away before the public was introduced to the daguerreotype, founded this type of picture taking. However, before this Louis Daguerre made a "theater without actors." Beaumont Newhall explains that this was an illusion made by extraordinary lighting effects that made the 45 ½ foot by 71 ½ foot pictures appear to change as one looked at them (2).
The images that will be compared in this essay are Two Models at a Table by Baron Adolf De Meyer and Atelier Couture by Paolo Roversi.
The media object selected for analysis is the Daguerreotype. Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre (1787-1851), a Romantic painter and printmaker, had introduced the Daguerreotype on 7th January 1839 and would forever change the perspectives of the visual experience through photography (Daniel, 2004). Ever since the advent of the Daguerreotype, people were able to view a detailed imprinting of a certain visual frame on a treated sheet of copper (which today is called the film) (Daniel, 2004).
Louis Daguerre influenced numerous photographers by inventing a photographic process called the daguerreotype. Daguerreotype is remarkable detailed, highly polished on a silver-plated copper that seemed magical to many people (Daniel). The daguerreotype well captured the society’s lifestyle in a striking yet realistic way (Nelson). This would’ve been the most attractive point about the daguerreotype; the clarity of the pictures were probably very eye-catching. He had a determined goal, and this goal was his one and only. Daguerre wan...
You wouldn’t be able to take pictures of anything for memories if the camera wasn’t invented. Louis Daguerre invented the first camera just to capture things for memory. The camera was invented to capture a picture of anything you wanted to save as a memory. In today’s world, people use the camera during many special occasions to remember that specific day. It helps a lot because so many people can enjoy or see what an occasion was like even if they weren’t there by looking at the pictures. “The daguerreotype, aptly called a ‘mirror with a memory’, was an amazing development, and one cannot but marvel at the intricacy of the detail.” Before it was made, people didn’t really struggle without since they didn’t even use anything that could capture scenes.
During the era of 1980 to 1918, Industrial Revolutions and WWI brought the photography field to a new trend - a symbol of modernity. Since the electricity invention was introduced, the production of photography expanded to a mass market and the concept of photography shifted resembling to modernity. “The perceived vulgarity of mass culture and the excitement of modern art combined to encourage photographers interested in art and personal expression to create a separate aesthetic (Mary).” Unlike other Pictorialists, British photographer Frederick H.Evans, preferred to photography in a “pure inclination,” that he refused to employ special lenses and negative settlement on his photographs. Evans discovered the structure of architecture in art photography that would deliver both “emotional and aesthetic responses to space,
This book is a note written by Roland Barthes to record the dialectical way he thought about the eidos(form, essence, type, species) of Photographs. Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist in his lifetime, but surprisingly he was not a photographer. As Barthes had a belief that art works consists with signs and structures, he had investigated semiotics and structuralism. However, through Camera Lucida, he realized the limitation of structuralism and the impression to analyze Photography with only semiotics and structuralism. Barthes concludes with talking about unclassifiable aspects of Photography. I could sense the direction Barthes wanted to go through the first chapter ‘Specialty of the Photograph’. He tried to define something by phenomenology
Kids today think of film as ancient technology and have no idea how it works, but film is a spectacular invention that is still used today! The creation of film is the most important invention in photo history because film has been used for over one hundred years. In 1841 Henry Tal...
When going for a walk, a person takes in the beauty around them. On this particular day, the refulgent sun is extra bright, making the sky a perfect blue. White, puffy clouds fill the sky, slowing moving at their own pace. The wind is peacefully calm, making the trees stand tall and proud. There is no humidity in the air. As this person walks down the road, they see a deer with her two fawns. The moment is absolutely beautiful. Moments like this happen only once in a great while, making us wanting to stay in the particular moment forever. Unfortunately, time moves on, but only if there were some way to capture the day’s magnificence. Thanks to Joseph Niépce, we can now capture these moments and others that take our breath away. The invention of the camera and its many makeovers has changed the art of photography.
“When photography was invented it was thought to be an equivalent to truth, it was truth with a capital ‘T’.” Vicki Goldberg
It was made on a polished sheet of pewter and coated with light-sensitive bitumen dissolved in lavender oil (Hirsch, “Seizing the Light: A History of Photography”). Being able to permanently fix a photographic image was a big leap for the field of photography, but it was still not practical for commercial or consumer use; the exposure for Niepce’s image is believed to have took anywhere from eight hours to several days—a staggering amount of time to create just one image (Hirsch). When Niepce died suddenly in 1833, he left his notes to his partner Louis Daguerre who continued to make technological advancements in photography after Niepce’s death. Daguerre further experimented with silver-based processes and was able to cut the exposure time of an image down from multiple hours to mere minutes in optimum conditions (Ward). Images crafted in this manner were officially dubbed “Daguerreotypes.” Figure 4 shows a Daguerreotype made by Daguerre himself; it is believed to be the first photographic image containing living people. The process discovered by Daguerre was the first photographic process to be commercially introduced to the public in 1839, and this year is now considered the birth of practical photography