Photography - Encyclopedia

ChemPlusChem, 2019

A physico-chemical elucidation of the first photographic technology that allowed manifold reproduction is presented. An etched daguerreotype manufactured around 1840 in Vienna, preserved by the Technisches Museum Wien, served as a case study. Surface analysis showed that the photographic process involved the formation of colloidal Ag nanoparticles with sizes of 30-120 nm with shell layers consisting of Ag 2 O, Ag 2 S, and some AgCl. This breakthrough photographic technique provided a hitherto unachieved high sensitivity because of various halogenide mixtures without the use of Hg. The image development consisted of the reduction of the Ag halides by H 2 SO 3 created by the hydrolysis of S 2 Cl 2 leading to the formation of Ag nanoparticles adjacent to the Ag nuclei of the latent image. The fixing of the image was performed either by KCN or by Na 2 S 2 O 3. The investigated plate exhibits etched areas with Ag 2 O conversion layers and no Cl or S. The gum arabic use for etching preferentially wetted the exposed Ag nanoparticle regions so that unexposed areas could be etched by HNO 3 .

MELUS;, 2014

Boston Daily Advertiser, a brief article reprinted from Paris's Journal des Débats appeared under what had become a common headline in an age of concentrated scientific experimentation and innovation: ''Remarkable Invention.'' 1 The article begins, At a session of the Academy of Sciences, held the 8th of January, M. Arago gave an account of a curious invention lately made by M. Daguerre; for making drawings. The manner in which the camera obscura produces images of objects, by means of a lens, is well known. The new invention is a method of fixing the image permanently on the paper, or making a permanent drawing, by the agency of light alone; ten or fifteen minutes being amply sufficient for taking any view, though the time varies with the intensity of the light. By this machine M. Daguerre has made accurate drawings of the gallery of the Louvre and of Notre Dame; any object indeed, or any natural appearance may be copied by it-it reproduces the freshness of morning-the brilliancy of noon-the dim twilight and the dullness of a rainy day. The colours are marked by a gradation of shades similar to aqualuita [aquatint-ed.]. By first establishing the invention's commonality with the old (the camera obscura), the article prepares readers for what is new and different-what is inventive and remarkable-about it: the ''method of fixing the image permanently on the paper, or making a permanent drawing, by the agency of light alone.'' The article assumes that readers are familiar with the camera obscura, which projects an optically precise image onto a medium that

History of Photography : From Camera Obscura to Kodak Camera, 2020

The invention of photography was only possible due to the camera obscura effect which produces an upside down image of a scene on the back wall of a box when light is reflected through a tiny hole in the box. The camera obscura effect has been known since classical times. The invention of photography required that the image be fixed and reproducible and this was not achieved until the 19th century, after the discovery of the light sensitive properties of certain silver compounds, which resulted from scientific discoveries in the preceding three centuries. After photography was invented it was improved by the invention of color photography and became cheaper and easier. The order of discovery was inevitable and is an example of how social and cultural history has to follow a particular course determined by the structure of the world around us. Photography is only possible due to the existence in nature, of the camera obscura effect and of the existence of light sensitive compounds and only when they were put together, was photography invented.

The International Journal of the Image, 2011

have all been concerned with an ontology of photography, but, as it was known in 'traditional' chemical or analog form, pre-electronic/digital with little or no anticipation of electronic imaging. Roland Barthes explains in his tract on the essence of photography, Camera Lucida 13 , he was: "… overcome by an ontological desire: I wanted to learn at all cost what photography was 'in itself', by what essential features it was to be distinguished from the community of images." (Barthes, 1980: 3). in Paris in July 1822. In 1822 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the world's first permanent photograph (known as a Heliograph). Daguerre partnered with Niépce three years later, beginning a four-year cooperation. Niépce died suddenly in 1833. The main reason for the "partnership", as far as Daguerre was concerned, might have been connected to his already famous dioramas. Niepce was a printer and his process was based on a faster way to produce printing plates. Daguerre perhaps thought that the process developed by Niepce could help speed up his diorama creation.