In life, everything has its beginning, just like any science and art originate somewhere in the depths of centuries, and then they develop, improve, new directions, new trends are formed. This also applies to photography, which I perceive as an art, the development of which is directly related to science, I mean the development of photographic equipment. This article, entitled “A Brief History of Photography,” contains the most important facts about the origin and development of the great art of photography.

It’s worth starting with the main definition of photography, it comes from the ancient Greek words “light” and “writing”, i.e. Light painting is a technique of painting with light. This is the ability to create and save an image using photosensitive material (matrix) in the camera. This is the technically correct formulation. If we talk about photography as a form of art, then the definition may sound like this: the creative process of searching and creating a theoretically correct and artistic composition, which in turn, although partially, is determined by vision. The term itself appeared in 1839.

Brief history of photography

In 1826, the Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niepce surprised many by taking the first photograph in human history using a “camera obscura” (trans. dark room) on a tin plate covered with a thin layer of Syrian asphalt. This photograph depicted the view from the window of J.N. Niepce's workshop and was created over 8 hours, continuously exposed to direct sunlight.

Almost at the same time as Zh.N. Another Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, worked with Niépce to obtain a stable image. In 1829, having teamed up with Niepce and received all the detailed information about his previous experiments, Louis Daguerre began to actively work on improving the process. And in 1837 he achieved success and obtained an image in 30 minutes, using table salt as a fixative. This method is called daguerreotype. However, unlike J. Niepce’s method, it was impossible to copy images.

Along with the French, the Englishman William Fox Henry Talbot worked on creating a stable image, and in 1839 he created his own method of producing a negative image called calotype (later it became known as talbotype). The main difference between this process is the special way of preparing sensitive paper. This process dominated the creation of both portrait and architectural images.

The history of the development of photography continues in 1850. Louis Brancard Hervard finds a new type of photographic paper - albumen, which was subsequently used as the main one until the end of the century.

In 1851, the Frenchman Gustave Le Grae invented wax negatives, which in turn replaced the tallotype. This innovation greatly simplified the process of creating images in nature.

The history of photography continues in 1847, when a kind of new stage in its development begins. This year marks the beginning of the era of glass negatives, with Claude Félix Abel Niépce achieving the first impressive results in this process. And already in 1851, the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer developed the wet callodion process. Due to the legal insecurity of this process, it quickly spread and helped increase. In 1854, the name ambrotype patented in America appeared, which was a kind of more simplified version of daguerreotype.

In 1861, the English physicist James Maxwell managed to obtain a color image for the first time in the world, which was the result of three photographs of the same subject, with different filters (red, blue and green). The wider use of color photography became possible thanks to Adolf Miethe. He invented sensitizers that make the photographic plate more sensitive to other areas of the spectrum. An even greater contribution to the development of this was made by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, who developed technologies that make it possible to reduce shutter speed.

Development did not stand still; from year to year, scientists sought to improve the process of creating images. Thus, a new stage in the history of photography began in 1872, when the Englishman Richard Leach Maddox announced the creation of a dry collodion plate.

In 1876, a comprehensive approach to the study of the photographic process by W. Driffield and F. Harter began in England; they focused their attention on studying the relationship between exposure time and the amount of silver formed in the film. In 1879, J. Swan opened the first production of special silver halide photographic paper based on gelatin, which became the main element in the production of photographic paper and is still used in industrial production today. By this time, workers involved in the production of photographic prints could already slightly adjust the tonality and contrast of the image during production.

American banker George Eastman in 1880, after a trip to England, opened his own company in America called the Eastman Dry Record Company, which was later renamed and registered as the KODAK Company in 1888. And in the same year in the summer this brand was released.

In 1869, Eadweard James Muybridge created one of the first camera shutters, which he used to photograph horses. In addition, he created his own photography system. In 1881, photographs of horses brought Muybridge worldwide fame.

The history of photography continues: in 1884, D. Eastman received a patent for roller photographic film on a paper backing and cassette, which was a great innovation in the photography process. And already in 1888, D. Eastman received a patent for a portable camera, which housed the roller photographic film he had previously patented. And already in 1889, mass production of films began.

In 1911, Oskar Barnack came to work for the German company Leitz, who made a huge contribution to the further development of photography. Thanks to his efforts and research, it went on sale in 1925. a new type of small format camera called Leica I(the name comes from the merger of two words Leitz and Camera), which worked on standard film. Also this year, P. Wierkotter secured the rights to the first flash lamp he invented, and in 1931, G. Edgerton invented the world's first electronic photo flash, which naturally replaced the flash lamp.

In 1932, the world's first small format rangefinder camera Leica II.

Since about the 1930s. Color photography is becoming widespread, all thanks to the Kodak company, which was the first to release Kodachrome color reversible film. And in 1942, the company began producing Kodacolor film, which became very popular among professionals and amateur photographers.

In 1948, Polaroid made a breakthrough in photography with the release of the Polaroid Land 95 camera, which ushered in the era of instant photography.

In 1975, Kodak engineer Stephen Sassoon developed and introduced the first digital camera to the public. had a resolution of 0.1 mega pixels.

The growing public interest in photography demanded a more convenient model and greater production volume, and in 1988, FUJI introduced a truly portable digital camera model, the FUJI DS - 1P.

Nowadays, when even mobile phones have built-in cameras that can take fairly good photographs, it can be difficult to imagine that people once spent a huge amount of time taking just one photo.

The logical result of the development of photography was its transformation into genuine art. And personally, I am infinitely happy about this, that now there is more opportunity to create truly artistic, artistic photographs.

Some more interesting facts from the history of photography:

— Louis Dugger in 1838 took a photograph that is considered the first to depict a person.

— In 1839, Robert Cornelius took his first self-portrait.

— In 1858, Gaspard Tournache took the first aerial photograph of Paris.

— In 1856, William Thompson took the first underwater photograph. His camera was attached to a pole.

— In 1840, Professor John William Draper took the first successful photograph of the Moon.

— In 1972, the first color photograph of our beautiful planet Earth was taken.

What? Where? When? Short review

This selection contains rare and unique historical photographs that depict significant events in history, outstanding personalities and moments from their lives, as well as other interesting shots. This fascinating collection of photographs will allow you to take a fresh look at some facts. The photo below shows Charles Godefroy flying through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He piloted his Nieuport 11 through the arch on 7 August 1919.

2. Construction of the city of Brasilia, which later became the capital of Brazil. 1960:

3. Construction of the Eiffel Tower in July 1888:

4. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress, named "Enola Gay", was the same bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II. It was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon:

5. The famous cover of the cover from The Beatles Abbey Road album, do you recognize it? Only, unlike the original cover, in this photo they go in the opposite direction:

6. Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro:

7. Albert Einstein's certificate, which he received at the age of 17, his grades are quite mediocre, on a scale of 1 to 6:

8. Filming of the legendary film "Star Wars" inside the Millenium Falcon spaceship:

9. The ENIAC complex, built in the USA, became the first computer in human history. It was capable of performing complex calculations and operations thousands of times faster than any other machine before it:

10. Unbroken seal on Tutankhamun’s tomb:

11. First Google team in 1999:

12. The first Wal-Mart supermarket opened in 1962:

13. In 1948, one of the first McDonald's restaurants opened:

15. Henry Ford (founder of Ford Motor Co.), Thomas Edison (inventor of the phonograph, camera and light bulb), Warren G. Harding (29th President of the United States) and Harvey Samuel Firestone (founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.) relax together:

16. A Cessna 172 piloted by Matthias Rust landed illegally on Red Square on May 28, 1987. The German amateur pilot flew from Finland to Moscow (after being tracked by Soviet air defense and Soviet jet fighters, who were never ordered to shoot him down):

17. One of the first photographs that was taken in Hitler's bunker (Führerbunker) in 1945 by Allied soldiers:

18. Madonna, Sting and Tupac Shakur:

19. Quagga is an extinct subspecies of zebra. The only Quagga to be photographed alive at the Zoological Society of London Zoo in Regent's Park in 1870:

21. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates talking, 1991:

22. Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll while serving in the US Army:

In continuation, also visit the selection with the most famous photographs of the past, where there are also a number of interesting photographs.

A selection of old interesting photographs from different times and countries.

A worker removes a book from a shelf in the Cincinnati Main Library, 1874.

Prayer service before the offensive in the regiments of the 37th Infantry Division. In the photo, Infantry General A.M. Zayonchkovsky, Cavalry General A.M. Kaledin, cavalry general A.A. Brusilov. Carpathians. July 1916.

Raising the flag during the morning formation at the women's camp of the Imperial Labor Service. Baden. Third Reich. 1940

Fashion show of beachwear. London, 1936

Rasputin, Major General Putyatin and Colonel Lotman, Russian Empire, 1904.
Photographer: Karl Bulla.

Race car driver at the time of the accident, Washington, 1936.

One of the underground Nazi gold vaults captured by the Allies, April 1945.

Fedor Ivanovich Shikunov. In 52 air battles he shot down 25 enemy aircraft. Killed in Germany on March 15, 1945.

Henry Osborne with dinosaur limbs, 1899.

Jean Bugatti next to the Bugatti Royale “Esders”, 1932, France

Fight a few meters from the Rechnoy Vokzal metro station, 1979, Moscow
The photograph captured several colorful characters. Who they are, why they dressed up like that is unknown.

A prostitute in a camp with Soviet soldiers during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, August 1968.

Cubans collect aluminum for the US Army. The inscription on the poster is “With the Americans and for the Americans to the end,” 1941.

New York, 1905.

Young intelligence officer Vanya Mikhailenko, awarded the medal "For Courage". Kalinin Front, 1942.

Ernesto Che Guevara sits proudly and revolutionary on a pot, Rosario, Argentine Republic, 1929.

Robert McGee. In 1864, when Robert was a child, he was scalped by a Sioux chief named Little Turtle.

Drawing on birch bark by a 7-year-old boy, Onfim, who lived in Veliky Novgorod 700 years ago.

Mongolian criminal, 1913.

Saddam Hussein arrives on a friendly visit to the USSR, 1972.

Pacific natives view the F4U Corsair aircraft. At first they mistook the military for gods. 1943

Soldiers of the SS Division Death's Head go on patrol, winter 1942.

Eva Braun does gymnastic exercises on the shore of Lake Königssee, which is still considered the cleanest lake in Germany, 1942.

Police protect a swimming group of blacks and desegregationists from an angry mob. St. Augustine, Florida, 1964.

Mikhail Bulgakov with his sisters Vera, Nadezhda and Varvara.

Soviet soldiers drink to celebrate the New Year on the banks of the Vistula, 1945.

Construction workers queuing for pay, Rockefeller Center, New York, 1931. It was from that year that the tradition of the annual Christmas tree in this center began, which is still alive.

Royal boat in the form of a fish, India, 1857.

A car that could drive on slopes at an angle of 65 degrees. England, 1936.

Broadway, New York, 1850.

Chinese prisoners standing on a pile of stones, one stone removed daily until strangulation occurred, 1900.

A Russian family “marked” the gates of their house to protect themselves during the Armenian pogrom. Baku, 1990

Greek gold bracelets that are over 2,200 years old.

Soviet citizens look at American televisions at an exhibition in Moscow, 1959.

Loggers sitting on the stump of a giant sequoia, 1904.

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay.

Soldiers of the UVV unit (fascist collaborators) play cards near Kharkov, World War II.

Public transport of shaved-headed French women punished for collaborating with the Germans. Cherbourg, France, 1944.

German soldiers who captured a young partisan, July-August 1943.

Playing cards under a canopy on Safronovskaya Square. Nizhny Novgorod, 1896.

Driving training for the King's African Rifles, 1943.
A stone on the head teaches students not to lower their heads and look at the road all the time. Hussein Obama, the father of US President Barack Obama, also served in KAR.

German soldiers prepare a chlorine gas attack, Poland, World War I, 1915.

Warsaw ghetto, April 1943.

Horses and men at war, women plowing on their own, France, 1917.

A boy holds a sign that says "All I Want for Christmas is a Clean White School" - protests after Ruby Bridges, a black girl, was the first to attend an all-white school, New Orleans, 1960.

Excavation of the Sphinx statue in Giza. Egypt, 1850s.

Tsar Alexander III, 1893.

American officers drink at Hitler's private residence in the Bavarian Alps, May 8, 1945.

Hitler talking to Mussolini through a train window, 1940.

Nikola Tesla in national Serbian costume, 1880.

View of the Kremlin with the Stone Bridge, Moscow, 1880s.

José Dusorc at the age of 21, 1905. Height 2.28 meters. Shoe size 62.

Real estate developer Fred Trump with his son Donald, 1970s.
In the background is the American version of “Cheryomushki”; high-rise buildings for the poor in New York.

The desire to capture the moments of life that happen to a person or the world around him has always existed. Both cave paintings and fine art speak about this. In the artists’ canvases, accuracy and detail were especially valued, the ability to capture an object from an advantageous angle, light, convey the color palette, and shadows. Such work sometimes took months of work. It was this desire, as well as the desire to reduce time costs, that became the impetus for the creation of such an art form as photography.

The emergence of photography

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle, a famous scientist from Ancient Greece, noticed a curious fact: the light that leaked through a small hole in the window shutter repeated the shadows on the wall of the landscape visible outside the window.

Further, in the treatises of scientists from Arab countries, a phrase literally meaning “dark room” begins to be mentioned. It turned out to be a device in the form of a box with a hole in the front, with the help of which it became possible to sketch still lifes and landscapes. Later, the box was improved by providing moving halves and a lens, which made it possible to focus on the picture.

Thanks to the new features, the pictures became much brighter, and the device was called a “bright room”, that is, camera lucina. Such simple technologies allowed us to find out what Arkhangelsk looked like in the middle of the 17th century. With their help, a perspective of the city was captured, which was distinguished by accuracy.

Stages of photography development

In the 19th century, Joseph Niepce invented a method of photography, which he called heliogravure. Shooting with this method took place in bright sunshine and lasted up to 8 hours. Its essence was as follows:

A metal plate was taken and coated with bitumen varnish.

The plate was directly exposed to bright light, which prevented the varnish from dissolving. But this process was heterogeneous and depended on the intensity of lighting in each area.

Then they poisoned him with acid.

As a result of all the manipulations, a relief, engraved picture appeared on the plate. The next significant stage in the development of photography was the daguerreotype. The method received its name from the name of its inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, who was able to obtain an image on a silver plate treated with iodine vapor.

The next method was calotype, invented by Henry Talbot. The advantage of the method was the ability to make copies of one image, which, in turn, was reproduced on paper soaked in silver salt.

First acquaintance with the art of photography in Russia

The history of Russian photography has been going on for more than a century and a half. And this story is full of different events and interesting facts. Thanks to the people who discovered the art of photography for our country, we can see Russia through the prism of time as it was many years ago.

The history of photography in Russia begins in 1839. It was then that a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, I. Gamel, went to the UK, where he became acquainted with the calotype method, studying it in detail. After which he sent a detailed description. This is how the first photographs were taken using the calotype method, which are still stored in the Academy of Sciences in the amount of 12 pieces. The photographs bear the signature of the method's inventor, Talbot.

After this, in France, Gamel meets Daguerre, under whose guidance he takes several photographs with his own hands. In September 1841, the Academy of Sciences received a letter from Gamel, which, according to his words, contained the first photograph taken from life. The photograph taken in Paris shows a female figure.

After this, photography in Russia began to gain momentum, developing rapidly. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, photographers from Russia began to take part in international photo exhibitions and salons on a general basis, where they received prestigious awards and prizes and had membership in the relevant communities.

Talbot method

The history of photography in Russia developed thanks to people who were keenly interested in the new art form. So was Julius Fedorovich Fritzsche, a famous Russian botanist and chemist. He was the first to master Talbot's method, which consisted of producing a negative on light-sensitive paper and then printing it on a sheet treated with silver salts and developed in sunlight.

Fritzsche took the first calotype photographs of plant leaves, after which he presented a report to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in May 1839. In it, he reported that he found the calotype method suitable for capturing flat objects. For example, the method is suitable for taking photographs of original plants with the accuracy required by a botanist.

Contribution by J. Fritzsche

Thanks to Fritzsche, the history of photography in Russia moved a little further: he proposed replacing the sodium hyposulfate that Talbot used to develop pictures with ammonia, which significantly modernized calotype, improving image quality. Yuliy Fedorovich was also the first in the country and one of the first in the world to conduct research work on photography and photographic art.

Alexey Grekov and the “art booth”

The history of photography in Russia continued, and Alexey Grekov made his next contribution to its development. A Moscow inventor and engraver, he was the first of the Russian masters of photography to master both calotype and daguerreotype. And if you ask a question about what the first cameras in Russia were, then Grekov’s invention, the “art room,” can be considered such.

The first camera he created in 1840 made it possible to take high-quality portrait photographs with good sharpness, which many photographers who tried to achieve this failed to achieve. Grekov came up with a chair with special comfortable cushions that supported the head of the person being photographed, allowing him not to get tired during a long sitting and maintain a motionless position. And a person in a chair had to be motionless for a long time: 23 minutes in the bright sun, and on a cloudy day - all 45.

A master of photography, Grekov is considered to be Russia's first portrait photographer. The photographic device he invented, consisting of a wooden camera into which light did not penetrate, also helped him achieve beautiful portrait photographs. But at the same time, the boxes could slide out from one another and return to their place. At the front of the outer box he attached a lens, which was a lens. The inner box contained a plate sensitive to light. By changing the distance between the boxes, that is, moving them one from the other or vice versa, it was possible to achieve the necessary sharpness of the picture.

Contribution of Sergei Levitsky

The next person, thanks to whom the history of photography in Russia rapidly continued to develop, was Sergei Levitsky. Daguerrroptypes of Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, made by him in the Caucasus, appeared in the history of Russian photography. And also a gold medal at an art exhibition held in Paris, where he sent his photographs to participate in the competition.

Sergei Levitsky was in the forefront of photographers who suggested changing the decorative background for filming. They also decided to retouch portrait photographs and their negatives in order to reduce or completely remove technical flaws, if any.

Levitsky left for Italy in 1845, deciding to increase the level of knowledge and skills in the field of daguerreotype. He takes photographs of Rome, as well as portrait photographs of Russian artists who lived there. And in 1847 he came up with a photographic apparatus with a folding bellows, using accordion bellows for this purpose. The innovation allowed the camera to become more mobile, which greatly affected the expansion of photography capabilities.

Sergei Levitsky returned to Russia as a professional photographer, having opened his own daguerreotype workshop “Svetopis” in St. Petersburg. With her, he also opens a photo studio with a rich collection of photographic portraits of Russian artists, writers and public figures. He does not give up studying the art of photography, continuing to experimentally study the use of electric light and its combination with solar light and their influence on photographs.

Russian trace in photography

Artists, masters of photography, inventors and scientists from Russia made a great contribution to the history and development of photography. Thus, among the creators of new types of cameras, such Russian names as Sreznevsky, Ezuchevsky, Karpov, Kurdyumov are known.

Even Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev took an active part, dealing with theoretical and practical problems of making photographs. And together with Sreznevsky, they stood at the origins of the creation of a photographic department at the Russian Technical Society.

The successes of the brilliant master of Russian photography, who can be placed on the same level as Levitsky, Andrei Denyer, are widely known. He was the creator of the first photo album with portraits of famous scientists, doctors, travelers, writers, and artists. And the photographer A. Karelin became known throughout Europe and entered the history of photography as the founder of the genre of everyday photography.

Development of photography in Russia

Interest in photography at the end of the 19th century increased not only among specialists, but also among the common population. And in 1887, the “Photographic Bulletin” was published, a magazine that collected information on recipes, chemical compositions, photo processing methods, and theoretical data.

But before the revolution in Russia, the opportunity to engage in artistic photography was available to only a small number of people, since practically none of the inventors of the camera had the opportunity to produce them on an industrial scale.

In 1919, V.I. Lenin issued a decree on the transfer of the photographic industry to the control of the People's Commissariat for Education, and in 1929 the creation of photosensitive photographic materials began, which subsequently became available to everyone. And already in 1931, the first domestic camera “Fotokor” appeared.

The role of Russian masters, photo artists, and inventors in the development of photography is great and occupies a worthy place in the world history of photography.

Interesting photographs of people and events gone down in history

We bring to your attention rare and interesting historical photographs that will be of interest to you.

Monica Bellucci, 1992.

Drug lord Pablo Escobar and his son Juan pose in front of the White House in the 1980s

Electronic digital integrator and computer, the fourth computer built in history, 1946

Young Osama bin Laden in judo training

A guy looks at a family album he found in the rubble of his old house after the Sichuan earthquake.

Walking hippos in the zoo, Moscow, 1950s.

Tibetan national football team. 1936

Visiting Donald Trump, 1987

Vladimir Ilyich speaks to units of the Red Army leaving for the Polish Front. Moscow, May 5, 1920.

Supporters of the African National Congress burn a man suspected of being a Zulu spy. South Africa, 1990.

“Aggressors detected!” Drawing from the Czechoslovak magazine “Roháč”, 1958.

Burying the corpses of Japanese soldiers on Saipan, 1944. A bulldozer prepares a mass grave.

The turret of the battleship Mutsu, recovered from the bottom of the sea. On June 8, 1943, the ship exploded in Hiroshima Bay and sank at a depth of 40 meters.