You have seen them all over Instagram, in your family albums, in magazines and newspapers. Photos are everywhere. They are useful in investigating crime scenes, documenting science, recording historical moments, marketing, etc. The list never ends. Knowing that we use photography for many things in our modern world makes us wonder how we got this far and where it all started?

The first photo was taken in 1826 by a French inventor known as Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. He created a method called Heliography that consists of a camera obscura and bitumen of Judea (a type of asphalt) that covered a piece of glass or metal. The Bitumen of Judea is sensitive to light and would engrave an image onto the medium of choice because of the different light exposures. It required at least eight hours of exposure to get the desired image, and the material was too expensive to continue with fabrication.

After this breakthrough, Niépce collaborated with Louis Daguerre in 1830 and experimented with different materials, but after Niépce's death in 1833, Daguerre continued the experiments and created the daguerreotype in 1839. The exposure could last from thirty seconds to fifteen minutes, making it a considerable advancement since Niépce's first image. Daguerre glossed a silver-coated copper plate with a light-sensitive chemical, similar to Niépce's initial idea.

Wet plates took off in 1851 when Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion process. During this time, photography was becoming very popular; many people were getting portraits taken of themselves and their families. He combined iodide with cellulose nitrate and varnished a glass plate with the solution. This method was less expensive than the daguerreotype and only needed a few seconds of exposure to capture the image. This technique required a dark room. Many photographers were required to travel with portable darkrooms made in trailers because they needed to complete the collodion process before the plate became dry. These disadvantages led Richard Maddox to create dry gelatine plates in 1871. Photographers were no longer required to develop their pictures immediately and therefore did not need to transport dark rooms. Nor did they have to create the emulsion themselves.

As we can see, early photographs were constantly evolving after the invention of Niépce's first photograph. Although today, it is rare that someone would use any of these methods, it is still interesting to know how photos have shaped today's day and age. Hopefully, this will give you a greater appreciation for the complexity of photography.

Kaydence Marie

Kaydence Marie is a writer attending the professional writing program at Algonquin College. Although she is ardent for reading and writing, she is also very interested in photography, music, and animals. Kaydence can most likely be spotted reading her tarot cards while checking out a restaurant's latest vegan options.