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Photography

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Still Image
Camera with Lens

The fixing of an image by light, achieved by Nicephore Niepce in the 1820s and made practical by the daguerreotype in 1839. Photography gave the world its first mechanical record of appearance, became the evidentiary backbone of journalism, and is the parent technology of every moving image medium in this atlas.

Facts
Origin Year
1839 1
1839 marks Daguerre's public announcement, the year this entity's own origin-note anchors on as the first commercially practical process; Niepce's first fixed image predates it, in 1826 (see the First Photograph milestone).
Origin
Louis Daguerre's daguerreotype, the first commercially practical photographic process, was formally announced in Paris on 7 January 1839. 1
Place of Origin
Paris, France 1
Primary Format
A still image fixed by recording light 1
Typical Distribution
Physical prints historically; overwhelmingly digital files captured on digital cameras and smartphones and shared online today 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Edouard Belin, Figures
Source Edouard Belin (Wikipedia)
Source George E. Smith (Wikipedia)
Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Invented the calotype negative-positive process in the 1830s and 1840s, foundational to the photography medium.

Media Entries

The camera obscura precedes photography; it belongs here as the optical ancestor of the photographic camera.

Source National Science and Media Museum Official Site
Source Wikipedia
Source National Science and Media Museum Official Site
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • History of photography, 1832 to 1840 section
    On 7 January 1839, this first complete practical photographic process was announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, and the news quickly spread.
  • Public announcement section
    At a joint meeting of the French Academy of Sciences and the Academie des Beaux-Arts held at the Institut de France on Monday, 19 August 1839
  • History of photography, 1832 to 1840: Early monochrome processes section
    Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saone and Louis Daguerre in Paris refined the bitumen process
  • Photography, lead section
    Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light
  • Photography, Digital section
    Digital photography dominates the 21st century. More than 99% of photographs taken around the world are through digital cameras, increasingly through smartphones.
  • Media Entries: Celluloid Roll Film, History section
View the Source
National Science and Media Museum Official Site
National Science and Media Museum, Science Museum GroupView the Source
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • Associated With: George Eastman
  • Associated With: Eadweard Muybridge
View the Source
George E. Smith (Wikipedia)
Associated With: George E. Smith, Lead, first sentence
Quote, Associated With: George E. Smith, Lead, first sentence
a co-inventor of the charge-coupled device (CCD)
View the Source
Edouard Belin (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Edouard Belin, Lead, first sentence
Quote, Associated With: Edouard Belin, Lead, first sentence
was a French photographer and inventor
View the Source
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