Inspired by the British Museum’s “Stuff That Defines Us: A History of the World in 100 Objects,” Padua360 shares with readers the origins of certain objects and how they play a role in life today.
In today’s culture, the camera can play a big part. The camera is used to capture memories so they can be remembered, so the photographs can be passed down generation to generation. But how has the camera come about?
The first pinhole camera was invented by Alhazen, who was also able to explain why images were upside down. However, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, along with three others, Louis J.M. Daguerre, Hippolyte Bayard and William Henry Talbot, were the first inventors of the first practical process of photography. There were also many other scientists who helped improve photography and the camera.
After the death of Jospeph Niepce, Louis Dafuerre, came up with his own method,the daguerreotype.This method was the process of “fixing” the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. The process Dafuerre used was by doing the following: polishing the silver and coating it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. Then, he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes. After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution of silver chloride. This process created a lasting image, one that would not change if exposed to light.
During World War II, cameras became more like we know them as today. The single lens allowed photographers more opportunity to focus and choose images that were in the distance. Then came the Polaroid camera which was invented around the 1960s. This Polaroid camera was easy for anyone to use because the photograph printed instantly after the person took the picture.
Cameras today have changed from pinhole cameras, to film cameras, and now, digital cameras. In 1994, Apple, who we know today as making the mac computer, came up with the Quick Take 100, a color digital camera with a 640 x 480 pixel CCD, and a fixed-focus 50mm lens. Though this camera could only hold 8 images, it was a move toward the future. Today going into a camera store, there are so many options and each camera can be different from the next.
Cameras can shape some people’s lives. Cameras define us because the capture memories worth keeping. People cant relive the event, but looking at a photograph can bring back memories.