Final Layout

This is the final layout of my Zine:

This is the front cover of my zine. I really like this photo as it is compositionally and contextually interesting. This makes it perfect for a noticeable front cover. I also wanted to have a straightforward title that could directly link to what the images inside display; the fishing industry of St Helier Harbour.

This is the first page of my zine when you open it up. I have put this here as it is an overview shot of the harbour, featuring many fisherman boats at the Old French Harbour.

For this page, I wanted to display an archive image with one that I have taken. I have chosen these images as they are the closest match out of all my photos and I have made them the same size on the page.

This is the next page of my zine and I wanted it to display the fisherman at St Helier Harbour as part of the fishing industry. I have made the image on the right larger as it will be the first you see when you turn the page and I personally prefer the image as the one on the left has a blurred background. This is also why I have made it smaller.

Both images on this page display men working on their boats, one of them pressure washing and the other welding. I have made the image on the left a full page to draw the viewers’ attention to it as when they turn the page over they will initially gaze to the right.

On the right is a fisherman, Will, doing his job and on the left is where he works. I have made the image on the right larger so that it matches the layouts of the rest of the pages.

This page displays stationary boats. There is juxtaposition between these 2 images as one is the seabed and the other is on land.

This is my last pages of my zine. I have made these also a double page, similar to the front pages so that there is balance within the zine. I have aligned this image so that the page splits between the 2 boats.

This is the back cover of my zine. I have photoshopped my name onto the number plate as the original number plate had the same amount of letters. I also used this photo as it features a seagull with open wings in negative space which makes the image more interesting, whilst also engaging the viewer.

Evaluation

Overall, I think that my zine well presents the narrative I was going for and is cohesive and well thought out. I have started off the zine by displaying an overview of the harbour with an archive image to demonstrate how it has changed over time. This then links to the fisherman within their work environments, the harbour. Finally, the zine comes to an end displaying fishing boats tethered in different locations. My zine also holds a continued theme of black and white images throughout which helps keep the cohesiveness and remove any distractions caused by bright colours.

Virtual Gallery

Final image:

Evaluation:

Overall, I am really pleased with how my zine turned out. Initially, I used these same images but in a different order to experiment with the layout and find which one I liked the best. Eventually, I liked this order and layout the best because the images flowed well to create a story. I chose to use 2 images together that linked to each other really well, or one image by itself which I think worked well.

Camera obscura –

Camera obscura is an optical device that uses a darkened room or box with a small hole ( aperture ) on one side. When light passes through this hole, it projects an inverted image of the outside scene onto a surface inside the room, or box. This effect occurs because light travels in straight lines.

This term ( camera obscura ) comes from Latin, meaning ‘ dark chamber. ‘ Historically, it was used to by artists to help them draw and understand perspective, as well as scientists to study optics. The basic principle of the camera obscura is also foundational to the development of modern photography and cameras.

Pinhole photography –

Pinhole photography is a simple and direct form of photography that uses a pinhole camera, which is essentially a light tight box or container with a small hole ( the pinhole ) instead of a lens. When light passes through this small aperture, it projects an image of the scene outside onto a photosensitive surface inside the camera such as film or photographic paper.

Unlike traditional cameras that use lenses to focus light, pinhole cameras rely solely on the pinhole to create an image. This results in a unique softness and depth of field in the photos.

Because the aperture is so small, pinhole cameral typically require longer exposure times compared to regular cameras. This means that you might need to leave the camera open for several minutes to capture a proper image, depending on the lighting conditions.

Pinhole cameras have almost an infinite depth of field, which means that objects at various distances from the camera can appear in focus.

Photographers often use pinhole cameras artistic purposes, as the images can have a dreamlike quality and unique characteristics that differ from conventional photography.

Nicephore Niepce –

Nicephore Niepce was a French inventor and one of the pioneers of photography. He is best known for creating the first permanent photograph in the early 19th century. In 1826 or 1827, he captured an image called ‘ View from the window at le gras’ which is considered the oldest surviving photograph.

Niepce used a process called heliography, which involved a bitumen-coated plate that hardened in proportion to the light exposure. The image required a long exposure time of about 8 hours, resulting in a blurry but significant breakthrough in the history of photography.

The long exposure time and the need for a stable setup made the process cumbersome, but it was a ground-breaking step in the in the development of photography. Niepce’s work demonstrated that it was possible to capture and preserve images using chemical processed, paving the way for future advancements in photographic technology.

Heliography –

Nicephore’s heliography process, also known as ‘sun writing’, was quite innovative for its time. He used a pewter plate coated with a light sensitive substance called bitumen of Judea, which is a type of asphalt

He placed the plate inside a camera obscura and exposed it to light for several hours, the bitumen hardened in areas where it was exposed to light, while the parts that stood in the shadows stayed soft.

After the exposure, he washed the plate with a mixture of oil and lavender and white petroleum. This solvent dissolved the unexposed, soft bitumen, leaving behind only the hardened areas that had been exposed to light.

The result was a permanent image etched onto the plate, showing a direct positive representation of the scene outside the camera obscura.

Louis Daguerre and the Daguerreotype –

Louis Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, best known for inventing the daguerreotype, the first successful method of photography that was publicly announced in 1839. His work built upon the earlier experiments of Nicephore Niepce, with whom he collaborated.

The daguerreotype process involved exposing a silver-plated copper sheet to iodine vapor, which created a light-sensitive layer of silver iodide. After exposure in a camera, the plate was developed using mercury vapor, and then fixed with a salt solution. This process produced highly detailed images with a unique quality, making it the first practical form of photography.

Daguerre’s invention was a significant milestone in the history of photography, leading to the widespread adoption of photographic techniques and influencing many future developments in the field. His contributions helped establish photography as a legitimate art form and a valuable tool for documentation.

Henry Fox Talbot and the calotype process –

Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer, best known for developing the calotype process in the 1830s. This process was one of the first methods to produce photographic negatives, which could then be used to create multiple positive prints.

Talbot’s calotype involved coating paper with silver iodide, which made it light-sensitive. After exposing the paper in a camera, the image was developed using a solution of gallic acid, resulting in a negative image. This was revolutionary because it allowed for the creation of multiple copies from a single exposure, unlike the daguerreotype, which produced a unique positive image.

His work laid the foundation for modern photography, and he is often credited with being one of the key figures in its early development, alongside Nicephore Niepce and Louis Daguerre. Talbot also published several important texts on photography, contributing to the understanding and acceptance of the medium as an art form.

Robert Cornelius –

Robert Cornelius was an American pioneer in photography, known for taking one of the earliest self-portraits in history. In 1839, he created a daguerreotype of himself, making it one of the first photographs of a person. Cornelius was also an early advocate for the use of photography and worked to promote the medium in the United States.

He operated a photography studio in Philadelphia and contributed to the development of photographic techniques during the early days of the medium. His self-portrait is significant not only for its historical value but also for showcasing the potential of photography as a means of personal expression.

Self portraiture –

The history of self-portraiture in photography dates back to the early days of the medium itself. After the invention of photography in the 1830s, artists and photographers began to explore self-portraiture as a way to express their identity and artistic vision.

One of the earliest known self-portraits in photography was taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839. He created a daguerreotype of himself, which was significant not only for its historical value but also for establishing self-portraiture as a legitimate form of artistic expression in photography.

As photographic technology evolved, so did the techniques for creating self-portraits. The introduction of the box camera in the late 19th century made it easier for people to take their own photographs. This led to a surge in self-portraiture, as individuals could now capture their likeness without needing a professional photographer.

In the 20th century, self-portraiture became more widely embraced by artists, with photographers like Cindy Sherman and Francesca Woodman using self-portraiture to explore themes of identity, gender, and the self. The rise of digital photography and social media in the 21st century has further transformed self-portraiture, giving rise to the phenomenon of selfies, where individuals share their self-portraits instantly online.

Self-portraiture in photography has evolved significantly over the years, reflecting changes in technology, art movements, and societal attitudes toward identity and self-representation.

Julia Margret Cameron –

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who became one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. Born in 1815, she took up photography relatively late in life, at the age of 48, when she received a camera as a gift. Despite her late start, she quickly developed a distinctive style characterized by soft focus and dramatic, often allegorical compositions.

Cameron’s work was groundbreaking for its time. She often used long exposures and soft-focus techniques to create ethereal, almost dreamlike images. Her subjects included many notable figures of her time, such as Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Sir John Herschel, as well as numerous portraits of women and children.

Her approach to photography was highly artistic and unconventional, sometimes criticized for its lack of sharpness and technical precision. However, her work has since been recognized for its emotional depth and artistic innovation, influencing future generations of photographers.

Julia Margaret Cameron’s contributions to photography were significant in establishing the medium as a legitimate art form, and her work continues to be celebrated for its beauty and expressive power.

Pictorialism –

Pictorialism was an artistic movement in photography that emerged in the late 19th century, primarily between the 1880s and the early 1900s. It sought to elevate photography to the status of fine art, emphasizing aesthetic expression over mere documentation of reality.

The movement was characterized by its use of soft focus, creative composition, and manipulation of the photographic print to create images that resembled paintings or other artistic mediums. Pictorialists often employed techniques such as gum bichromate printing, photogravure, and various darkroom manipulations to achieve their desired effects.

Key figures in the Pictorialism movement included Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Gertrude Käsebier. They believed that photography should convey emotion and artistic intent, rather than just serve as a tool for capturing reality. This led to a focus on subjects such as landscapes, portraits, and allegorical scenes, often imbued with a sense of mood or atmosphere.

Pictorialism also played a crucial role in the establishment of photography as a recognized art form, with photographers forming organizations like the Photo-Secession in the United States. However, as the 20th century progressed, Pictorialism began to decline in favor of more modernist approaches to photography, which emphasized clarity, sharpness, and the inherent qualities of the photographic medium.

Pictorialism significantly influenced the development of photography and left a lasting legacy on how photographers approach artistic expression today.

Henry Mullins –

Henry Mullins was by far the most prolific of the first generation of Jersey photographers in the mid-nineteenth century. He produced thousands of portraits of islanders between 1848 and 1873 at his highly successful studio in the prime location of the Royal Square, St Helier.

As a commercial photographer he consistently embraced the rapid technical progress that ran in parallel with his career. While numerous photographic studios opened across the town of St Helier in the 1850s and 1860s, Henry Mullins continued to be the photographer of choice for leading members of Jersey society and successful local and immigrant families. Mullins’s productivity was matched by the technical standard of his work; qualities that are exemplified in the richness of the portraits of Victorian islanders preserved on the pages of his photograph albums. 

Design and Layout

Layout

This is the how I made the Layout of my Zine:

Design

Controls:

Shift W to view

Ctrl D to insert image

I am not very satisfied with this page as I don’t feel like it fits in with the rest of the zine or with the narrative I am trying to display (fishing industry), therefore, I am going to find an archive image that is similar to one that I have taken and display them together.

Use of Archive Images

These are my two options of archive photos. I am going to go for the first option as it is more clear that they were taken at the same place and they still relate to the fishing industry, therefore, will fit in with the rest of the zine.

I re-edited this photo and lowered the clarity so that it would fit in better with the archive one.

I then rearranged the pages to what I thought was a more suitable layout:

I then added the title ‘St Helier Harbour’ to my front cover.

I then decided to put the subtitle ‘Fishing Industry’ below.

I then changed the layout of some of my pages to get a more efficient layout overall:

Final Layout

This is the final layout of my Zine:

Photography was invented by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce in 1822. Niépce developed a technique called heliography, which he used to create the world’s oldest surviving photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras (1827). Heliography was conceived in response to camera obscura theories dating back to ancient history.

Camera Obscura & Pinhole photography

Camera obscura was an optical phenomenon which was created to project images from the outside into a dark room. By completely darkening a room apart from a small hole in the wall allows rays of light to enter, letting the outside world pour in. This process takes around an hour and projects an upside down image into the dark room. This process is admitted for being all natural, deep and primitive as it uses old historical technology instead of new and upcoming tech. After being used for many centuries, camera obscura was developed by using different camera filter and adjustments to make images stronger and clearer. Pinhole photography is a similar process which uses a tiny hole in a camera to allow light to come in. This creates an image onto photosensitive material. As light hits material such as photographic film or paper the inverted image is created, with a long exposure time of around several seconds to minutes, the small hole incision only lets a small amount of light through which makes it very unsuitable for fast- moving objects. However, due to the fact it it’s simple, accessible and inexpensive with a unique looking vignette, the style of photography became increasingly popular.

Nicéphore Niépce and Heliography

Niépce called his process heliography, which literally means “sun drawing”. 7 March 1765 – 5 July 1833) He was a French inventor and one of the earliest pioneers of photography. In 1822, he used it to create what is believed to have been the world’s first permanent photographic image, a contact-exposed copy of an engraving of Pope Pius VII, but it was later destroyed when Niépce attempted to make prints from it. Within the time period of 1826 and 1827, he created the first ever permanent photograph which was named ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’. This introduced the process of Heliography. This process he created consists of the sun reflecting its light to create images. To achieve this he used a pewter plate which was covered with Bitumen of Judea which is a light sensitive substance. This substance hardens when it is exposed to light. The process takes up to eight hours and this time period is essential as the sensitivity of materials was much lower than modern materials. The plate is then needed to be washed with a solvent, this removes the Bitumen of Judea and leaves a permanent image. This process was particularly essential to the development of photography. In the mid-1820s, he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph in a real world scene.

Louis Daguerre & Daguerreotype

Louis Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. This method preserving images and capturing them was a huge historical moment and made a large breakthrough. The daguerreotype is made by after capturing the image exposing it to mercury vapour which brings the visible image to life. The image also then needs to be rid of any unexposed silver iodide. This is achieved by completely covering the image in a salt or sodium thiosulfate solution. These images are very reflective and change when exposed to different angles of view. Daguerreotypes are also very detailed and clear which makes them stand out amongst other images from around the 1840s and 1850s. Louis decided to create the daguerreotype as he knew the world was seeking a photographic process which was easier to put into practice, since exposure times were only of a few minutes. So by creating his own process of photography, he became very successful and made Louis Daguerre world famous.

Henry Fox Talbot & Calotype

Henry Fox Talbert is very well known for being a successful pioneer of photography, scientist and inventor. Amongst his other successes he created a method of photography by using a ‘calotype’ which is a negative-positive process which is also known as the ‘paper negative’. He created images when exposed to light, these images were easy to produce and easy to distribute. However, they faced many drawbacks such as the people in the photos looking ‘on the edge of being present’ and seen as looking not quite alive due to a low sharpness and graininess, this caused a loss of fine detail. However, these images were popular as they captured a moment in time, fixed into place which was profitable and popular at this time. He used different light sensitive chemicals and salts such as silver nitrate and silver chloride. The original negative and positive process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, the calotype is sometimes called a “Talbotype.” This process uses a paper negative to make a print with a softer, less sharp image than the daguerreotype, but because a negative is produced, it is possible to make multiple copies. The image is contained in the fabric of the paper rather than on the surface, so the paper fibers tend to show through on the prints. The process was superceded in the 1850s by the collodion glass negative. Because of Talbot’s patent rights, relatively few calotypes were made in the United States.

Richard Maddox

Richard Leach Maddox (4 August 1816 – 11 May 1902) was an English photographer and physician who invented lightweight gelatin negative dry plates for photography in 1871.

In photography, the Collodion process was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer. This invention required only two to three seconds of light exposure to produce an image, but plates had to be sensitized at the time of exposure, exposed while the emulsion was still wet, and processed immediately after exposure in the camera.

When he noticed that his health was being affected by the ‘wet’ collodion’s ethervapor, Maddox began looking for a substitute. Richard Leach Maddox, M.D., photography was given an early impetus to become a disseminator of medical knowledge. His interest in the camera, combined with his poor health and his medical training, enabled him to invent the gelatin bromide negative that is the backbone of today’s photographic film.

Dr. Richard Maddox created a dry plate technique that allowed photographers to develop photographs without using the wet methods of the collodion process. This technique involved using gelatin instead of glass to make photographic negative. The dry plate process quickly replaced the wet plate collodion process that required the mixing of dangerous chemicals and immediate exposure of the wet plate.

George Eastman

George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream.

George Eastman changed the world through his entrepreneurial spirit, bold leadership, and extraordinary vision. He will be remembered throughout history for founding the Eastman Kodak Company and revolutionizing the photography, film, and motion picture industries. The first successful roll-film hand camera, the Kodak, was launched publicly in the summer of 1888. Inventor George Eastman received a patent (number 388,850) for the camera’s shutter and the trademark (number 15,825) for the Kodak name on September 4, 1888. In the 1880s, Eastman developed a convenient method of preparing ready-to-use plates. Improvements led to flexible, roll film as well as photo processing and printing done by mail order. Millions of people worldwide captured memories using cameras and film, leaving all the chemistry to Kodak.

Kodak (Brownie)

The Brownie helped to put photography into the hands of amateurs and allowed the middle class to take their own “snapshots” as well. Eastman Kodak introduced the new Brownie dollar box camera in 1900; the release was supported by a major advertising campaign.

The Brownie was a series of camera models made by Eastman Kodak and first released in 1900.

It introduced the snapshot to the masses by addressing the cost factor which had meant that amateur photography remained beyond the means of many people; the Pocket Kodak, for example, would cost most families in Britain nearly a whole month’s wages.

The Brownie was a basic cardboard box camera with a simple convex concave lens that took 2+¹⁄₄-inch square pictures on No. 117 roll film. It was conceived and marketed for sales of Kodak roll films. Because of its simple controls and initial price of US$1 (equivalent to $37 in 2023) along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, the Brownie camera surpassed its marketing goal.

Film/ Print Photography

The first flexible photographic roll film was sold by George Eastman in 1885, but this original “film” was actually a coating on a paper base. As part of the processing, the image-bearing layer was stripped from the paper and attached to a sheet of hardened clear gelatin. Once the film is processed, it is then referred to as a negative. The negative may now be printed; the negative is placed in an enlarger and projected onto a sheet of photographic paper. Many different techniques can be used during the enlargement process. Two examples of enlargement techniques are dodging and burning. The first film that was in a roll and flexible was made by George Eastman in but it wasn’t synthetic but on paper. Photographic film is a material used in photographic cameras to record images. It is made of transparent plastic in a shape of a strip or sheet, and it has one side covered with light-sensitive silver halide crystals made into a gelatinous emulsion. When a photographic film is exposed to light by a photographic camera, it chemically changes depending on the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. These changes create an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which is then fixed and developed into a visible photograph. Black and white photographic films have one layer of silver halide crystals, while the color film has three layers, each sensitive to a different color. Some color films have even more layers.

Digital Photography

The history of digital photography began in the 1950s. In 1951, the first digital signals were saved to magnetic tape via the first video tape recorder. Six years later, in 1957, the first digital image was produced through a computer by Russell Kirsch. It was an image of his son. The photography changed from film to digital in the 1990’s. The early 1990s brought a dramatic change with the advent of digital technology. Instead of using grains of silver embedded in gelatin, digital photography uses silicon to record images as numbers. Computers process the images, rather than optical enlargers and tanks of often toxic chemicals.

Manufactured by Kodak, the QuickTake was the first color digital camera for under $1,000.

Here is my first mock up of my zine design, using inspiration from my printed pictures:

I then tried adding some text to or next to images to add more context to them, making them more interesting for people looking at the zine. I also rearranged some photos here:

I also tried making the margins from 12.7mm to 7mm so the photos fill up more of the page. I think it looks more clean and better now:

Now I have a free page that needs filling. To do this I’m going to find some photos that will complement well with the current images in the zine:

I also changed the name to:

I tried a funky design in photoshop to use for my title but I think it looks better to just use ordinary text:

The print:

After printing, using booklet settings, I collected the pages and folded them neatly using a bone folder and put them together in order. The I stapled the spine of the zine and trimmed the edges. Here is are some images from the final product:

Evaluation

Overall I am very happy with the final zine. It has many photos in without looking too busy as I has some pages with less images. The photos I chose also brings the viewer through a little story as they explore the harbour with my zine, without missing much as most of the harbour is included. However I do think I could add more ‘story’ elements instead of headers on some of my pages. It turned out very similarly to my mock up designs which I am pleased about, with the improvements further enhancing the zine. The zine also helped my present my best images in the order and format (e.g. the size) that I want, which would naturally improve the images.

To select Images. I looked through the Images I have already rated on lightroom:

Then chose 16 unique Images that I can use to tell a story. I tried to include some busy Images which have wide and detailed shots. As well as including some simpler images to complement them and to add a negative space effect to the little magazine. I also wanted to include a lot of images with human subjects as they are usually the most interesting.

Here are the Images I decided to chose:

I might decide later to swap out the 4th image so I can put these to images next to each other as I think they contrast each other nicely:

I then printed out the 16 images I decided I want to use, cut them up and laded them out so I can decide which order they are placed and how they are placed in the zine:

I used other zines that you can see above my images to give me inspiration for the layout. I think for the steam clock I might add a few more photos to that page to create a topology of the steam clock.

I Then stuck the images inside a mock up zine with tape to see how it would look like. The size of the images will change later on as I will re-design them inside InDesign:

Photography originated back in 1822 as an instantaneous form of revealing secrets beyond the world in a nonchalant form, giving nothing away at the same time. Due to the etymology of photography being ‘drawing with light’ this art form is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, evoking a variety of emotions and thoughts, creating wonder about what lies beyond the frame of the image.

Camera Obscura

The camera obscura was created along with the pinhole camera in order to ‘fix the shadows,’ in 1010-1021. However, it was said that the camera obscura was a tool used since 400bc. A camera obscura consisted of a large box (eg a blackout room) with a hole in it (small hole at window) which projected an image of its surroundings onto the wall inside. This allowed the outside world to pour in and act as an optical phenomenon. The time taken for the image to be displayed ranged from several minutes to several hours depending on the desired image that was being projected. The environment projected would be presented upside-down and ‘twice as natural’, used for artists to sit inside the box and create paintings or drawings of this area, using darkness to see light. This was called pinhole photography. Now, in more modern times, the camera obscura has been made into an electronic chip.

The camera obscura is a natural optical phenomenon, which has been around long before 1939. This however, is totally natural and not been invented by anyone.

Below is an example of the camera obscura in use more recently. This was done by Abelado Morell of the Santa Maria Della sauté in Venice 2006

Nicephore Niepce

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, was a French inventor who is recognised widely as one of the earliest pioneers of photography through his development of heliography, creating arguably the oldest surviving image made with a camera.

The Niépce Heliograph was made in 1827, during this period of fervent experimentation. It is the earliest photograph produced with the aid of the camera obscura known to survive today.

The photograph was made by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who was born in 1765 and passed in 1833. He was born to a prominent family at Chalon-sur-Saône in the Burgundy region of France. He was motivated by the growing popular demand for affordable pictures. Niépce’s photographic experiments were conducted with the dual aims of copying prints and recording scenes from real life in the camera. At his family estate in the nearby village of Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, he produced legible but fleeting camera pictures. He called them points de vue, in 1816. Over the next decade he tried an array of chemicals, materials, and techniques to advance the process he ultimately called héliographie, or ‘sun writing.’

To make the heliograph, Niépce dissolved light-sensitive bitumen in oil of lavender and applied a thin coating over a polished pewter plate. He inserted the plate into a camera obscura and positioned it near a window in his second-story workroom. After several days of exposure to sunlight, the plate yielded an impression of the courtyard, outbuildings, and trees outside. Writing about his process in December 1827, Niépce acknowledged that it required further improvements, but was nevertheless “the first uncertain step in a completely new direction.”

In 1829 Niépce entered into formal partnership with Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (French, 1787–1851), proprietor of the famous Diorama in Paris. Daguerre continued to make vital improvements after Niepce’s death and introduced his “Daguerreotype” process in 1839.

Louis Dageurre

Louis Daguerre was born in 18 November 1787, in Cormeilles-en-Parisis and died 10 July 1851. He was a French artist and photographer. He became one of the fathers of photography, because of his daguerreotype. He is most famous for his contributions to photography, but he was also an accomplished painter, scenic designer, and a developer of the diorama theatre. He was the first panorama painter.

In 1829, Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor who had produced the world’s first heliograph in 1822 and the oldest surviving camera photograph in 1826 or 1827. Niépce died suddenly in 1833, but Daguerre continued experimenting, and evolved the process which would subsequently be known as the daguerreotype. After efforts to interest private investors didn’t work, Daguerre went public with his invention in 1839. At a joint meeting of the French Academy of Sciences and the Académie des Beaux Arts on 7 January of that year, the invention was announced and described in general terms, but all specific details were withheld. He presented the daguerreotype to a few individuals and presented his photographs and news of the daguerreotype quickly spread.

Daguerreotype

The daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, which was widely used in the 1840-1850’s. ‘Daguerreotype’ also refers to an image created through this process.

Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, the daguerreotype was almost completely superseded by 1856 with new, less expensive processes, such as ambrotype (collodion process), that yield more readily viewable images. There has been a revival of the daguerreotype since the late 20th century by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.

To make the image, a daguerreotypist polished a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, then he would use an air gun, so that there was no dust on this plate, that would ruin the photograph. Then it is exposed in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting. Next, he torches it, with mercury vapour, so that the image is visible. Then, he removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment, which was rinsing it with cool water to cool the hot metal plate down and dried it and then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure.

The image is on a mirror-like silver surface, as light was reflected back through the image. The image was on the edge of being present, as it was on the surface of the metal mirror, instead of light paper, where the image sinks into it. This meant that the metal one could be wiped away with a finger. These images were described as;

‘A mirror with a memory’

Henry Fox-Talbot

William Henry Fox-Talbot was born on 11th February 1800 and died 17th September 1877. He was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. Talbot first began by applying silver salts onto salted paper, creating silver nitrate reactions from the light-sensitivity. This was then exposed to light for many days and then darkened producing negative images. These appeared like shoebox sized cameras and were named mousetraps and were very difficult to use because if it was disturbed it may just get darker and darker so that its only experienced momentarily.

Negative Images- Images are totally inverted. Light areas are dark vice versa and left side is on the right vice versa.

Overall, calotypes were extremely better than Daguerreotypes due to it being easily distributed, reproduced and were much cheaper. Whilst they both used light sensitive silver salts, the Daguerreotypes required a lot more tools and metal plates which had high monetary value.

Richard Maddox

Richard Maddox was born on the 4th August 1816 and died on the 11th May 1902. He was an English photographer and physician who invented lightweight gelatin negative dry plates for photography in 1871.

Long before his discovery of the dry gelatin photographic emulsion, Maddox was prominent in what was called photomicrography. He would photograph minute organisms under the microscope. The eminent photomicrographer of the day, Lionel S. Beale, included as a frontispiece images made by Maddox in his manual ‘How to work with the Microscope.’

In photography, the Collodion process was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer. This invention required only two to three seconds of light exposure to produce an image, but plates had to be sensitized at the time of exposure, exposed while the emulsion was still wet, and processed immediately after exposure in the camera.

When he noticed that his health was being affected by the ‘wet’ collodion’s ether vapor, Maddox began looking for a substitute. He suggested in the 8 September 1871 British Journal of Photography article An Experiment with Gelatino-Bromide that sensitizing chemicals cadmium bromide and silver nitrate should be coated on a glass plate in gelatin, a transparent substance used for making candies. 

The gelatin or dry plate photographic process involved the coating of glass photographic plates with a light sensitive gelatin emulsion and allowing them to dry prior to use.

The advantages of the dry plate were obvious: photographers could use commercial dry plates off the shelf instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom. Negatives did not have to be developed immediately. Also, for the first time, cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held, or even concealed: further research created ‘fast’ exposure times, which led to ‘snapshot’ photography.

George Eastman

George Eastman was born on July 12th 1854 and died March 14th 1942. He was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time.

He provided  quality and affordable film to every camera manufacturer. In 1885, he received a patent for a film roll, and then focused on creating a camera to use the rolls. 1888, he patented and released the Kodak camera.

Kodak- a word Eastman created.

It was sold loaded with enough roll film for 100 exposures. When all the exposures had been made, the photographer mailed the camera back to the Eastman company in Rochester, along with $10. The company would process the film, make a print of each exposure, load another roll of film into the camera, and send the camera and the prints to the photographer. In 1889 he patented the processes for the first nitrocellulose film along with chemist Henry Reichenbach.

Kodak (Brownie)

The brownie is a series of camera models made by Eastman Kodak and first released in 1900. The brownie was a basic cardboard box camera with a simple convex-concave lens that took 2 1/4 inch square pictures on number 117 roll film.  It was conceived and marketed for sales of Kodak roll films, because of its simple controls and initial price of US$1 (equivalent to $37 in 2023) along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, the Brownie camera surpassed its marketing goal.

Film/Print Photography

Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast, and resolution of the film. Film is typically segmented in frames, that give rise to separate photographs.

The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal.

Digital Photography

Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing, or digital printing. It is a form of digital imaging based on gathering visible light.