History of Photography

History of Photography

• Earliest known surviving heliographic engraving was made in 1825 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using his "heliographic process".
• Niépce took the first permanent photograph from nature using a camera obscura in 1826 or 1827, titled "View from the Window at Le Gras".
• The concept of a pinhole camera was described by Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.
• Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a camera obscura in his experiments in the 6th century CE.
• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera (965-1040).
• Albertus Magnus discovered silver nitrate (1193-1280).
• Georg Fabricius discovered silver chloride (1516-1571).
• Daniele Barbaro described a diaphragm in 1566.
• Wilhelm Homberg described the photochemical effect in 1694.
• The book "Giphantie" (1760) by French author Tiphaigne de la Roche described what can be interpreted as photography.

Precursor Technologies

• The camera obscura was used by Renaissance painters to create optical renderings in color.
• Thomas Wedgwood obtained copies of paintings on leather using silver salts, but they would turn black in the light and had to be kept in a dark room for viewing.
• Leonardo da Vinci mentioned natural cameras obscura formed by dark caves on the edge of a sunlit valley.

First Camera Photography

• The first permanent photoetching was produced in 1822 by Nicéphore Niépce, but it was destroyed in a later attempt to make prints from it.
• Niépce's camera photographs required an extremely long exposure (at least eight hours and probably several days).
• Niépce and Louis Daguerre worked together to improve the bitumen process, leading to the discovery of a more practical and sensitive process.
• Daguerre continued to experiment with light-sensitive silver halides after Niépce's death in 1833, leading to the development of more practical and permanent photography.