Chapter 10 History of Photography

I would not want to be a photographer who used the daguerreotype.  They had to work with a lot of poisonous chemicals to make each image.  And each image could only be printed once so if they wanted another copy they had to go through the entire process again.  And the subject was always still, people had to sit still for a long time and they couldn’t hold a smile for that long.  There was only so much that they could do with the imaging techniques that they had.  Everyone still wanted to be photographed, before then people did not have portraits of loved ones that they could take with them.  The portraits they had were large expensive paintings that only the wealthy could afford and that could not be taken with them when they travelled.

Fortunately the calotype came out not too long later.  They could now print images on paper and make multiple copies.  Back then it was still a technique used only by someone who was trained to it.  Everyone wanted to get their picture taken but they couldn’t take pictures themselves like we can today.  It was roll film that led to the public taking pictures themselves.  All the pictures from my childhood were taken on a film camera.  It let people record times in their lives when before they had to travel to a photographer.  That is where candid photos came from; they couldn’t have a candid photo when you had to go to the camera to make a photo.  Now that photos were much easier to create, and less likely to poison people, other forms of photography could be made.  Since the focus did not need to be on how to make a clear reproducible photo there was more room for creativity in the subject.  It was less expensive so people could also photograph objects instead of just focusing on portraits.