Say cheese! It’s June 29th, which means it is National Camera Day.
Photography is part of our everyday lives today. At one point, though, the concept of photography was so hard to understand. Photography, which comes from the Greek language meaning “drawing with light,” allows us to tell a wordless story.
Over 800 years ago, photography’s origin began with the invention of the camera obscura, which translates to “dark chamber.” Unlike the modern cameras of today, the original camera was basically a box with a hole. Through the hole, light would pass, projecting an image onto the dark interior of the box. However, once the light disappeared, so did the image. As the years went on, cameras became more advanced and fun to use.
Here is a brief timeline of the evolution of the camera to help you celebrate National Camera Day:
- 400 B.C.E.- The earliest written record is provided by the Chinese of their use with pinhole imagery.
- 1835- Joseph Nicephore Niepce creates the first printed image, the heliograph. It required a light exposure of eight hours and faded quickly after.
- 1839- Louis Jacques Daguerre invents the Daguerreotype. This is the first successful photographic process that created a permanent image on a metal plate.
- 1841- William Henry Fox Talbot patents The Calotype. This device is the first negative-positive process. It made reproducing multiple copies of the same image possible.
- 1880s- George Eastman invents the first flexible photographic film. In 1888, he patents the Kodak roll-film camera.
- 1900- The Brownie, the first mass-marketed camera, goes on sale.
- 1903- The invention of the airplane leads to the invention of aerial photography, which was an essential tool for the military.
- 1925- Leica I, a 35 mm camera, hits the market. It quickly becomes photojournalists’ favorite camera.
- 1935- The Kodachrome, another Eastman invention, releases and becomes the best color transparency film.
- 1936- “Life” the magazine appears on newsstands and is the first all-photographic magazine.
- 1948- George Land invents Land Camera, the first instant-picture camera.
- 1970s-1980s- Manufacturers create a series of cameras that can store images digitally. These become the first point-and-shoot cameras.
- 2000- The first mobile phone with picture-taking capability is introduced.
- 2004- Kodak ends the manufacturing of film cameras.
How will you be celebrating National Camera Day? Let us know in the comments below!
Featured Image by Monica Turlui from Pexels
