Early in the 1800s, the photography process was in its infancy. The imaging process was laboriously slow. Numerous folks were experimenting with processes for imaging.
One individual was a Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce. His process would render an image but it wasn’t permanent.
Louis Daguerre, another Frenchman was also experimenting with imaging. Eventually the two Frenchmen joined forces and the Daguerreotype was born. The Daguerreotype portrait was introduced to the country.
Formal family portraits were all the rage everyone wanted one hanging in their home.
Enter Henry Fox Talbot with his negative process in 1840. Now copies could be made with his Calotype process, which produced a paper print.
Ambrotypes was yet another 19th Century photographic process it fell to the way side when Tintypes and Carte-de-Visite became popular. These two genres were both mounted on cards and had great popularity from the 1850 to 1900. They were a type of postcard.
Another invention of the era was a Hyalotype and was used in “Magic Lanterns” what was in essence the forerunner to a slide projector.
Undoubtedly photography was a popular genre in the Victorian period. It was not an amateur gig. Photography professionals did it.
Then along came George Eastman who set the photography world on its ear when he invented roll photography film in 1883.
Then in 1888, he patented a camera for using his film. Amateurs could now do photography.
His marketing idea was to have folks buy a camera for $25 shoot the film, send the camera and $10 to him. He would process 100 prints and return the camera loaded with film for another 100 photos and the 100 prints to the photographer. Then in 1900, he introduced the $1 Brownie camera and photography for the masses was truly born.
As a kid you may have had a Brownie. I know that I did, I guess that my
photography skills were born way back then!
To check out the history of the Brownie , please visit www.brownie-camera.com/
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