Photography Development

Photography dates all the way back to the 1400s. Today photography is a huge part of life; not only in the United States, but all over the world. Photographs keep personal memories alive as well as informing people all over the world of world events. Photographs also provide identification such as a person’s work badge, school ID, driver’s license, and ever a pass port. They provide pictures of Earth and space and can also be used for numerous medical purposes. So what is photography and where did the word originate from? Where did photography come from? Well a photograph is made by a chemical reaction that occurs when light or some form of radiant energy, such as x rays, is used to record pictures of objects or scene on a light sensitive surface. Photography was invented in the first three decades of the 19th century. The word photography comes from two Greek words; photo for “light” and graph for “drawing.” “Drawing with light” is one way of describing photography. For the birth of photography to be successful two key discoveries were still in need; to combine a light sensitive material with the camera obscura, and a way to make an image permanent. In the 1820s Joseph Nicephore Niepce was experimenting with ways to improve new printmaking technique of lithography. He discovered a way to copy an engraving onto glass and pewter plates by using bitumen. Bitumen is a form of asphalt that changes when light hits it. In 1826 he put a coated plate of bitumen in a camera obscura with the lens facing a window for eight hours. View from the Window at Le Gras was the result; the earliest camera photo that still exists. In 1827 Joseph shared his findings with Louis Jacques Mande Doguerre. In 1835 Daguerre made an important discovery; he found that the chemical compound of silver iodide is more sensitive to light than bitumen. Daguerre placed a coated copper plate with silver iodide in a camera obscura and exposed the plate to light for a short period of time. Fumes of