photography pioneers Flashcards
functionally invented photography as we know it. Niépce created the process of heliography, which he used to create View from the Window at Le Gras, the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. Daguerre, another pioneer, partnered with Niépce and the two developed the physautotype method, which used lavender oil. After Niépce’s death, Daguerre developed an even faster process, in which an iodized silver plate was exposed to light, treated with mercury fumes, and “fixed” with a solution of sodium thiosulfate; that process, daguerreotypy, bears his name.
Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
initially gained fame in the 1860s for his photographs of Yosemite Valley, published under the alias “Helios,” but is now likely more famous for helping Leland Stanford—the governor of California—settle an argument regarding whether a racehorse ever has all four feet off the ground during a gallop. Muybridge eventually did this to the satisfaction of the public with a series of tripwire-triggered cameras; the series of photos thus created was later exhibited in the form of a zoopraxiscope, an early motion-picture device Muybridge also invented. Muybridge also shot and killed his wife’s lover, Major Harry Larkyns. He was acquitted on the basis of justifiable homicide, and the trial was later dramatized in Philip Glass’s opera The Photographer.
Eadweard Muybridge
were brothers who invented an improved cinematograph, which made them very early pioneers in the film industry. However, they were also important in the history of still photography, as their autochrome process was the first widely used technique that produced color photographs.
Auguste and Louis Lumière
invention of a dry-plate process improved the robustness of photographs, which he then built further on by developing a gelatin emulsion that was applied to paper, then removed and varnished with collodion after exposure. This film, which was carried in rolls, was easier to transport than plates and allowed for multiple exposures without fully reloading a camera. Eastman’s crowning achievement was the compact, handheld Kodak camera.
George Eastman’s
initially made his name developing filters for polarizing light. He then developed the instant, self-developing film, which worked by squeezing the negative film against a positive sheet, then using a reagent to transfer and quickly develop the image. The first commercially viable instant camera was produced and sold in 1948 by Land’s Polaroid Corporation.
Edwin Land
a longtime member of the MIT faculty, gained the nickname “Papa Flash” for developing techniques to capture fast-moving events using synchronized multiflash photography, with the help of a previously-obscure piece of lab equipment called the stroboscope.
Harold “Doc” Edgerton
