Stieglitz equivalent1844

Chronology of Photography's Development

  • Period: to

    Interactive Timeline

  • Early experiments

    Wedgewood & Davy start experimenting with light-sensitive materials
  • Camera Lucida

    The invention of this camera was a precursor to smaller cameras who would be later be popularized, such as KODAK.
  • The Negative

    Niepce begins experimenting with silver chloride solution in order to make paper-light sensitive. His experiments gave way to what would be known as a NEGATIVE.
  • The world’s first permanent photograph

    The world’s first permanent photograph
    Niépce produces an image with a process he called “heliography”, called View from the Window at Le Gras.
  • The term “photographie”

    French artist and cartographer Antoine Florence, introduces the term “photographie” derived from the Greek words for “light and writing”.
  • William Henry Fox Talbot and the Photogenic Drawing

    William Henry Fox Talbot and the Photogenic Drawing
    Talbot’s image Lattice Window at Lacock Alley (taken with a Camera Obscura) is a photogenic drawing negative, mounted on blackened paper.
  • The inventor of photography

    Daguerre announces his image-making process, with support from his peers he gets known as the inventor of photography.
  • Controversy with photography

    Several critics of photography arise, due to the realism that photography can portray, and how its able to bring home many images that would otherwise be lost. Arguing its lack of imagination, in comparison to European painting.
  • Calotype

    Talbot’s patented his process called CALOTYPE, as a result of his experiments in finding a way to make multiple copies from a negative print. Using the LATENT IMAGE, which is an image that has been exposed to photographically sensitized paper or film, but needs to be further developed in order to be visible.
  • The popularity of portraiture

    Richard Beard opens the first license public source for Daguerrotypes in Britain. The photographic studio emerges as a space were people came to be captured in time for their friends and family.
  • John Herschel, Untitled

    John Herschel, Untitled
    John Herschel succeeds in making prints from a negative image. He experimented using vegetable dyes and iron salts, resulting in an image called CYANOTYPE.
  • The Open Door

    The Open Door
    This photograph is a salt print from a calotype negative. It was included in Talbot’s book “The Pencil of Nature”, one of the first books that were illustrated with actual photographs, rather than engravings. Calotype exposure times were between 1-3 minutes.
  • Newhaven Housewives

    Newhaven Housewives
    Hill and Adamson’s earliest anthropological photographs of a fishing village in New Haven. Integrating artistic principles of light and shade, also called “chiaroscuro”. Their style was often compared to Rembrandt’s work. Photographs were taken during times of the Industrial Revolution and the portraits were a “yearning for simpler, pre-industrial times”.
  • Mexican-American War

    Mexican-American War
    The first photographed war.
  • Wet-collodion process

    Frederick Scott Archer introduces a new negative-positive process that used glass, rather than paper. It became extremely popular due to being more economically viable.
  • British conflicts in Asia

    British conflicts in Asia
    Photographer John MCCOSH travels to Burma and takes photographs of British artillery showcasing the imperialist invasion.
  • Direct Positive Process

    Most commonly known as the Ambrotype, patented by James Ambrose Cutting, was a glass negative backed by a dark substance, such as black varnish, cloth or paper.
  • Crimean War

    Crimean War
    Roger Fenton is the first photographer to substantially capture the Crimean War, like this photograph "The Valley of the Shadow of the Death". Most images are heroic portraits of military leaders, and very little carnage as a result from the war.
  • Photography as HIGH ART

    Photography as HIGH ART
    Oscar Rejlander constructs the most famous HIGH ART photograph, Two Ways of Life.
  • Precursor to PICTORIALISM

    Henry Peach Robinson, used the combination print technique in his work “Fading Away”.
  • Stereographs go viral!

    They were being produced and marketed successfully. Similarly, people wanted to have them. Images with themes such as travel, religion, architecture were sought after.
  • The American Civil War

    Fighting between the North and South began with the shelling of Fort Sumner in South Carolina.
  • Harvest of Death

    Harvest of Death
    Alexander Gardner becomes a well-known photographer of Civil War’s bloodiest engagements. Most of his views were of death and destruction. He worked for Brady's corps of photographers, having first-access to the potential market offered by Civil War's gruesome images.
  • The invention of TINTYPES

    A very common means of sending photographs back home was by using tintypes, developed on thin sheets of iron.
  • Precursor to landscape photography

    Precursor to landscape photography
    British photographer Samuel Bourne, made three climbs into the Himalayas, making him a recognized hero of international photography.
  • Ophelia

    Ophelia
    The Victorian period’s most enduringly famous photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. She took portraits demonstrating a unique technique, using a short focal length in which only a small part of the sitter’s face would be sharp.
  • The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

    The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
    Charles Darwin completed a study, which featured images by several photographers such as Duchenne de Bologne, Oscar Rejlander and Adolph Kinderman. Darwin had to find an inexpensive way to include the photographs with the text. This introduces the HELIOTYPE, using printing-press plates to reproduce photographs.
  • Production of the COLLOTYPE PROCESS

    Production of the COLLOTYPE PROCESS
    Photography continues to expand in Asia, China and Japan. John Thomson, produces a volume of two hundred photographs using the new process, which allowed imaged to be printed along side with text. This photographs portrays a Chinese punishment called cangue, a very popular type of photography in this timeframe.
  • New age of discovery

    Scientist and other explorers develop special instruments to record astronomical events, participated in lengthy expeditions in order to create a visual journal of their experiences and findings.
  • PICTORIALISM

    Pictorialism movement strengthens with precursors Peter Henry Emerson and Henry Peach Robinson. Photographers favored methods that allowed to handwork the negatives and prints.
  • Introduction of PLATINUM PRINTS

    Introduction of PLATINUM PRINTS
    Peter Henry Emerson, Poling the Marsh-Hay from his book Life and Landscapes on the Norfolk Broads. Used differential or selective focus, giving the image a slightly out of focus, and with a sense of romanticism.
  • The invention of the KODAK

    The invention of the KODAK
    Eastman Dry Plate Company began manufacturing the camera that created snapshots. Introduced photography to the every day lives of Americans.
  • The invention of DRY PLATES

    This invention allowed for photography to become faster and easier to engage in. As we see the transition from long exposures at the beginning of the century, by the end the time required for exposure is greatly decreased. DRY PLATES worked great in conjunction with HAND CAMERAS.
  • Autochrome developed

    Developed by the Lumiere brothers, who also invented the motion picture projector.
  • New Woman Movement

    New Woman Movement
    In this moment in time, more women were working outside of their regular roles, such as housewives. This topic was very popular in essays, novels and poems. This photograph from Frances Benjamin Johnston, depicts an attitude different than the typical feminine behavior.
  • Art Photography

    Art Photography
    Alfred Stieglitz launches Photo-secession. He wants American Photography to be as well known as European painting.
    He said the best photograph that depicted his life’s work was “The Steerage”. He was one of the first proponents of turning every day life into art.
  • Photography is MAIN STREAM!

    Photography is MAIN STREAM!
    A kid called Jacques Henri Lartigue, takes a photograph of his cousin. This image just puts into context that even a six year old kid was able to take part in vernacular photography.