Derived from the Greek words for light and writing, photography is an invention
of the 1800's built upon discoveries of centuries before. Photography is a combination
of optics and chemistry. As early as 1519, Leonardo da Vinci drew sketches of
a Camera Obscura (dark room). Its purpose was to aid the optical process of
drawing. Experiments to find a chemical process that would produce permanent
images began in the 1600's with the reports of Robert Boyle on silver chloride,
and continued through the early 1800's with the silhouette experiments of Thomas
Wedgwood.
The first successful photograph is credited to Niépce in France in June/July 1827. His plates required an exposure of eight hours. Louis Daguerre, continuing with experiments after his colleague Niépce's death, discovered the way to develop photographic plates in half an hour. Rights to the process, called the Daguerreotype, were acquired by the French government in July 1839.
Although William Henry Fox Talbot had presented a paper to the Royal Society of London, describing Calotype, a process to fix images on paper, the earliest negative was not produced until August 1835. Inferior in quality to the Daguerreotye, Fox Talbot's method did have the advantage of allowing unlimited positive prints. Among the improvements made to photography before 1900, was George Eastman's introduction of flexible film in 1884.
The Media History Project provides links to historical overviews and online exhibits and archives for a more detailed look at the history of photography. Be sure to visit "A History of Photography."
Visit these lessons and activities for use with your photography staff.