The History of the Photograph

In first actual photograph originated in the yearphotograph it often dealt with using toxic
1825. Joseph Niepce, who was French, developedchemicals and could be quite expensive. As
the first photograph. The first photographs werephotographs were improved upon one after the
of a plate made of pewter, which in using someother, things begin to become better and less
other materials could be used to print picturesexpensive to produce them.
with ink. As time progressed he was alsoImagine what it was like for people to be able to
responsible for improving on the process.capture their likeness and the likeness of their
Many people who also toyed with photographsloved ones in a permanent way. It has to have
and the process of making them, added to thebeen a surreal experience to say the least.
improvement of how a photograph was made. InHowever, this new invention of taking
the beginning, it wasn't actually called photographphotographs did not exactly catch on directly with
but instead heliograph. The actual meaning ofthe wealthy. The more elite social status of
heliograph is sun drawing as it was a term coinedindividuals still had their likeness captured by artist
by Niepce for the way he used to develop aand portrait painters.
picture.As time went by though, the photographs were
The process of making a heliograph was a veryexceedingly getting better all the while and
long process and took all of eight hours tomonochrome images were starting to offer
complete the exposure time. Niepce worked verysomething that really no painter of portraits could.
hard to try and cut down the exposure time but,And since then photographs has only improved
he was never able to shorten it and took up witheach time someone would try tweaking them or
a paiter in Paris by the name of Jacques-Mandeusing altogether different methods. This is the
Daguerre. Together, they worked trying to findway of any thing in the world from the beginning
an answer to how to shorten the time it took toof time until present day. they were as we still do
make a photograph from start to finish, buttry to always improve upon something to make it
Niepce died before they were able to find a way.better than it way before.
Daguerre was able to finally shorten the time itMuch evidence points to a time of only about a
took to about half an hour. He was able to do thisdecade that Daguerre was able to keep his
by using the studies he and Niepce produceddominant process of making photographs, until
when they had earlier on worked together. So,others started to shadow him using new and
actually Daguerre could take the name of fatherdifferent processes. And this is the way it was
of photography, but, Niepce has to be givenand continues to be until the present day.
cudo's for the first actual photograph.Photographs and how to take them are still being
Now, the word photograph actually is Greekresearched and made better all the time, and it
derived and is taken from a few different wordswill probably continue on just as it always has.
with different meanings. In the beginning of the