“Photography can turn something ordinary into the extraordinary”. Meudon, a famous photographer from the early 20th centry, has some very good examples to explain this quote. He would find a place witha nice composition (the ordinary), then wait for a story to be performed, so he can capture that moment (the decisive moment). By waiting for an interesting moment to be captured, he has turned the ordinary to the extraordinary. Below is an example:

The beginning – camera obscura

Photography in a certain sense has been around for almost 1000 years through a process called camera obscura (simply means dark room). It is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a small hole (also known as the aperture) into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) projection of the view outside.

It was often used as a drawing aid, used by the likes of leonardo davinci for example.

it allowed tracing the projected image to produce a highly accurate representation, and was especially appreciated as an easy way to achieve proper graphical perspective.

capturing the light

In the early 18th century, scientists found a certain silver salt that becomes darker from light exposure. However, they could not keep it from turning all black after they took it out the camera obscura.

The first ever photo was taken in the 1820s using a discovery made by Joseph Nicephore Niepce using asphalt and different solvents. Its a simple view from a window:

Nyep’s experiments further was an advanced version of Nicephore experiments and his camera design was used to create the first ever camera. This kick started the photography and allowed it to become what it is today.

Talbot further advanced the camera. He was not very good artist but needed to be for many of his hobbies. he switched photo drawing process from silver chloride to silver iodide. He then experimented with different solutions allowing him to create a photographic negative. With this photographic negative photo the same photo can now be produced many times after some exposure to light with the negative image underneath. This is called the positive negative process. This is what a negative image looks like:

Photography shaped the way we remember things, making it a very important cultural change. Early photography showed the truth in photos.