Camera Victorian Eyewitness A History of Photography: 1826-1913

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The camera obscura was used throughout the Middles Ages and even the Renaissance. Inventors embellished the invention with the addition of biconvex lenses in the second half of the 16 th century. These lenses allowed the images projected by the camera obscura to be brightened. Once particular use of the camera obscura was its ability to allow the viewer to see the solar eclipses without hurting their eyes. This proved useful for astronomers. The camera obscura was also used by artists too, as an aid for drawing and painting. The projected image could be traced, which helped artists with their graphical perspective in artwork that showed landscapes. The first cameras had a fixed focus lens that could not be manipulated, which meant that the camera needed to be at an exact distance from the subjects, and all subjects had to be at that same distance. Within years of the first daguerreotype camera, inventors realized they could create a lens that could be moved to suit the distance between device and subject. They would use primitive rangefinders to determine how the lens needed to be changed for the clearest photo.

Daguerre was the first person to publicly announce a successful method of capturing images. His invention was an immediate hit, and France was soon gripped by ‘daguerreotypomania’. Daguerre released his formula and anyone was free to use it without paying a licence fee – except in Britain, where he had secured a patent.Also in 1851, the scientist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) presented lenticular stereoscopy to the world for the first time, at the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London. The profession offered women an independent vocation and means of generating income, in addition to providing a form of artistic expression. Reflecting on her role as a studio photographer, Olive Edis (1876–1955) stated that it was, 'a life worth living, with no monotony about it, and constantly bringing the worker in touch in a very pleasant way with humanity'. Edis would later witness the destruction caused by humanity in her role as an official war photographer.

It was such a “camera” that Niepce experimented with when using silver chloride, and the devices would become the basis for his partner’s next great invention. Daguerreotypes and Calotypes An article by Mirror refers to people as “distressed” in the face of finding out “what the speed camera symbol shows.”

When was the camera invented? — Other advancements in camera technology

Show me a sign” hits the mark with the suggestion that everyone knows what the speed camera sign represents. In 2008, BBC referred to the speed camera sign as “ instantly recognizable.” In fact, of 500 drivers surveyed in 2007 about a dozen road signs in the UK, only one was known to every respondent — the speed camera sign. However, Leitz had been trained in watchmaking and other small engineering projects. He was a leader who believed success came from designing the next technology and encouraged his employees to experiment more often. In 1879, the company changed names to reflect its new director. The company moved to binoculars and more complex microscopes soon after. The images produced by these early cameras could only be preserved by manually tracing them, as no photographic processes had been invented yet. The first cameras were large enough to accommodate one or more people, and over time they evolved into increasingly compact models. By the time of Niépce, portable box camera obscurae suitable for photography were widely available. Johann Zahn envisioned the first camera small and portable enough for practical photography in 1685, but it took nearly 150 years for such an application to become possible.

Above: Daguerreotype camera designed by Marc Antoine Gaudin (1804‑1880) of Paris in 1841 and made commercially by the instrument‑maker NMP Lerebours (1801‑1873). This example has been adapted to take small rectangular images, and is fitted into a wooden box which once also contained the necessary equipment and chemicals. However, the single-lens reflex camera was essential for those with money who were serious about developing their passion for technology. The first 35mm SLR was the “Filmanka,” which came out of the Soviet Union in 1931. However, this had only a short production run and used a waist-level viewfinder. The tintype, or ferrotype, process was a cheaper development of the wet collodion method, producing a single, positive image on a tinned or enamelled iron support. Often these were embellished with an unsubtle amount of colour, sometimes to the extent that the image no longer looked like a photograph. There were several attempts to do away with the focusing cloth and have a built-in focusing hood or chamber sometimes incorporating a magnifier. None of these proved a success and were not popular until 'Hand & Stand' models appeared. The first movie camera was invented in 1882 by Étienne-Jules Marey, a French inventor. Called the “chronophotographic gun,” it took 12 images a second and exposed them on a single curved plate.

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Ray-Jones’ work sits within a larger tradition of photographs of Britons at leisure, starting with Sir Benjamin Stone in the 19th century and later including Paul Martin and Homer Sykes among others. His unique compositions have in turn influenced a later generation of photographers that most notably includes Chris Killip and Martin Parr. Among the thousands of items of ephemera in our collection are a number of Victorian illustrated song sheets. Very attractive in their own right, these also provide a fascinating glimpse into contemporary attitudes to photography. One of my personal favourites is the song sheet for a comic song entitled ‘Detective Camera’. If a person sits in a dark room, camera obscura could allow a hole the size of a pin to project an image of the garden outside on their wall. If you made a box with a hole on one side and thin paper on the other, it could capture the image of the world on that paper. Before the Victorian era, most of Britain’s population couldn’t read or write and had limited access to education. Queen Victoria believed that education should be for all, and by the end of her reign, going to school became compulsory for all children, rich or poor. 19th Century photograph of Cheapside in London, England. A Calotype is an early form of photo camera developed by Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s and presented to the Royal Institute in 1839. Talbot’s design used writing paper soaked in table salt and then brushed lightly with silver nitrate (which was called a “film”). Capturing images due to chemical reactions, the paper could then be “waxed” to save the image.

The calotype negative was made by projecting an image through a lens on to a piece of chemically sensitized paper fixed inside the camera, where it formed a latent image on the paper, unseen by human eye. When developed, this produced a negative image. In turn, this negative was placed in the printing frame with a second piece of sensitized paper beneath it and exposed to sunlight. This produced a positive image, which had to be fixed with chemicals.Unfortunately, Nicephore Niepce passed away in 1833. However, his legacy remained as Daguerre continued the work that the french genius had started, eventually producing the first mass-produced device. What is Camera Obscura?