In Focus: The Evolution of the Personal Camera

America Meets the Personal Camera

Early cameras were cumbersome, costly, and often required specialist knowledge of the devices and developing chemicals to use them correctly. Early film development processes, like tintypes and daguerreotypes, relied on potentially dangerous chemical interactions that were best handled in a controlled environment. For daguerreotype images, popular between 1840 and 1860, the photographer put a sheet of copper, coated with silver and exposed to iodine vapor, into the camera. Once the sheet was exposed to light during the taking of the picture, the photographer used a mercury vapor to bring out the image, and then set it with salt. 
Because the film process used highly toxic and often dangerous chemicals, photographs were almost exclusively taken by professionals until the twentieth century. Most permanent photography studios were located in major cities, but photographers with out-of-town clients would haul their equipment outside city limits in horse-drawn wagons. This equipment was more than just a camera, which itself was often a large, accordioned box with a lens on one end, plus the glass or copper plates used to take the image. Photographers had to bring along the darkroom and developing chemicals as well.
Early cameras also had a very slow shutter speed, meaning that the shutter remained open exposing the plate to light for a longer period of time. Though early daguerreotype images required an exposure of around twenty minutes, by the early 1840s it had been reduced to about twenty seconds. Even so, photography subjects needed to remain completely still for long periods of time for the image to come out crisp and not blurred by their movement. Sometimes squirming children were put into restraints for the duration of the photo shoot. This need for stillness made posing for a picture a serious business, so the practice of smiling for the camera did not become standard until the 1920s, when technological advancements in camera production allowed for shortened exposure times.

Early Photography

The Polaroid Era

Digital Photography

The Photography Business

The modern camera developed over time through the invention and innovation of a number of experimenters. Joseph Niépce, though often called the grandfather of modern photography for his light-based camera obscura developments, was just one of many trailblazers in the field. 
Throughout the 19th Century, other innovators made significant contributions, like Louis Daguerre (of the daguerreotype) and Thomas Wedgwood, who developed the concept of capturing images with light-sensitive chemicals. William Henry Fox Talbot developed processes for making those photographs permanent, using light-sensitive silver chloride and silver iodide. The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière experimented with color photography process, and patented the color plate as part of their “Autochrome Lumiere” process. In conjunction with their work on photography, the Lumière brothers were also pioneers in cinematography. 
By the mid-1860s, the photography field was rapidly commercializing, with chemically coated papers and special lenses available for public purchase. Stereograph cards (viewable through a pair of goggles, similar to the modern View-Master toy) became wildly popular. It was estimated that nearly every middle- and upper-class Victorian home had a stereoscope and a collection of cards, offering views from around the globe. A portrait of Queen Victoria of England, herself a photography enthusiast, was a popular stereograph image. Soon, appreciation for specific photographers and their work rose, as did the demand for more affordable copies of their images.

In Focus: The Evolution of the Personal Camera

A New Industry

A New Industry