Photography History

There are not too many places in the world you can go to without seeing a photograph of some sort. The art of Photography has been around our lives for hundreds of years now, and seems that every day there is someone looking to develop new ways to take a picture. But with all the artist's and photographers in the world how many can actually say they know where the idea of taking pictures with a camera came from. Since photography is a popular career field to study, the history of photography was an aspect that I found quite curious so decided to do some research. Although the history of photography is a broad subject I have decided to break it even further down on how the birth of the first picture and camera and when/were they were created.

According to the book "A World History of Photography" written by Naomi Rosenblum, the idea of photography ranges all the way back to the year 1839. She writes that "London and Paris separately announced the idea at about the same time". The first idea came from a man named Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. His idea was called the "daguerreotype" which contained a "laterally reversed monochrome picture on a metal plate". It was said that the daguerreotype was "unique", and "unduplicatable". ("A World History of Photography" para.1)
His idea was very different then Daguerre's, a "monochromatic, tonally and laterally reversed—a negative image" was placed on a piece of paper instead of a sheet of metal. When the negative picture was placed in sunlight the image was transferred in reverse, causing it to look like a normal image. Rosenblum goes on to write that "Daguerre's picture on metal was far more popular during that time then Jacques's negative-positive process". But on the other it was Jacques's "negative-positive process that set the platform for developments in photography". ("A World History of Photography"