Notes:

• Fixing the shadows
• Turing the ordinary to the extraordinary
• Reveals reality but also hides parts of it
• Transforms what it describes
• Good at taking quick photos of moments in time

How is an image produced using a Camera Obscura (Pinhole Photography)?

An image is made by using a completely dark room or box with a small hole somewhere in it so that light passes through into the box, light should only pass through that one hole, an image of the view outside the box is then projected upside-down inside the box.

The Calotype and Daguerreotype

The Calotype, was a way of fixing an image onto a surface, that was created by Henry Fox Talbot. It was a paper negative.

The Daguerreotype, was another way of fixing an image onto a surface, that was created by Louis Daguerre. The image was printed onto a mirrored metal plate that had to be polished first and once the image was printed onto the plate a torch was used on it to actually fix the image onto the slab otherwise it could be easily wiped off.

Daguerre and Talbot were both in competition with each other to make and get out the best method of fixing photographs onto a surface. However unlike the Calotype, the Daguerreotype was much more expensive to produce, this resulted in the Calotype being favoured by people.

Both methods had very tedious processes unlike our modern technology. Both were very time consuming meaning the image wasn’t produced instantly like our modern cameras.