Photography History

Photography was invented simultaneously in France (Louis Daguerre, daguerreotype, 1839) and England (William Fox Talbot, calotype, 1839). The daguerreotype produced sharp images on silver plates with no negative; Talbot's negative-positive process (calotype) became the basis of modern photography. George Eastman's Kodak roll film (1888) and camera ('you press the button, we do the rest') democratized photography. Photography transformed human experience — enabling the documentation of history (Roger Fenton's Crimean War photos, 1855; WWII), scientific observation, personal memory, journalism, and art. The defining photographs of history — 'Migrant Mother' (Dorothea Lange), the Tiananmen Tank Man, the Vietnam napalm girl — shaped public perception and policy. The shift to digital (1990s) and then smartphones (2010s) made photography ubiquitous — 1.5 trillion photos are now taken annually.