history of photography

Table of Contents

Introduction
General considerations
Inventing the medium
- Antecedents
- Early experiments
  - Heliography
  - Daguerreotype
  - Photogenic drawing
- Early views of the medium’s potential
Photography’s early evolution, c. 1840–c. 1900
- The revolution of technique
  - Development of the daguerreotype
  - Development of the calotype
  - Development of stereoscopic photography
  - Development of the wet collodion process
  - Development of the dry plate
  - Photography of movement
  - Early attempts at colour
- Establishing genres
  - Portraiture
  - Photojournalism
  - Documentary photography
    - Landscape and architectural documentation
    - Social documentation
- Photography as art
  - Early developments
  - Naturalistic photography
  - Pictorialism and the Linked Ring
Perfecting the medium, c. 1900–c. 1945
- The Photo-Secession
- The New Objectivity
- Experimental approaches
- Documentary photography
- Photojournalism
- Colour photography
Photography c. 1945 to the 21st century
- Postwar developments
- Developments from the 1970s to the 1990s
- Into the 21st century: the digital age

References & Edit History Related Topics

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Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre: View of the Boulevard du Temple, Paris

principle of the camera obscura

Henri Frédéric Amiel

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre: Still Life

facsimiles of photogenic drawings

Southworth & Hawes: Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw

Kusakabe Kimbei: Samurai in Armour

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson: Portrait of Two Men (John Henning and Alexander Handyside Ritchie)

uncut print from a carte-de-visite negative

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How were photos made in the early days of photography?

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Topics

technology of photography holography street photography cinematography camera aerial photography densitometer electrophotography photomicrography daguerreotype printing architecture film dance printmaking sculpture painting drawing garden and landscape design literature

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Quiz

Original caption: Close-up of leaves, from directly above, "In Glacier National Park," Montana. Photograph shot in 1942 by Ansel Adams (1902-1984) Black and white photograph. Photography. Landscape photographer.

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