2. The origins of the “camera”
These diagrams are two early depictions of the workings of the “camera
obscura” (dark room”), in which an external image enters a darkened
chamber through a pinhole opening and appears upside down on the
opposite wall.
4. Slowly the camera obscura
gets smaller and more
portable. Here it has
contracted to the size a small
cabinet with legs.
5. The origins of the “camera”
Gradually it shrinks to a tabletop apparatus, and finally, to the size of a small box.
6. The origins of the “camera”
With the room-size camera obscura now contracted into a small box, the pinhole
replaced with a lens that permits focusing, and a mirror installed to reverse the
image, all that remains is to find a way of making the reflected image permanent.
7. The physics and optics of
the camera are put together
first, but the chemistry
remains to be cracked.
8. As often happens in the history of technology, multiple
competing solutions appear at more or less the same
time.
It turns out that a number of alternative chemical solutions
to the problem are developed.
Use these links to see some of the possibilities that were
explored by early photographers:
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_early/1_early_photog
raphy_-_processes.htm
http://photographymuseum.org/primer.html
http://www.birrcastle.com/history/photographicTechn
iques.asp#
9. Today some photographers
still enjoy experimenting
with different techniques
from the 19th century.
http://www.alternativephotog
raphy.com/wp/processes
http://imsc.usc.edu/haptics/
LostandFound/early.html
10. This link shows how the different kinds of 19th
photographs have aged differently, detailing
how these photographs (which are stored in
many libraries and archived collections) may
appear today and can be properly classified. This
is the kind of information that people who work
closely with historical objects have in mind.
http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/collections/P
hotographTypesatTheW.S.HooleSpecialCollectio
nsLibrary.htm