Intro to Photography

What is ‘photography’• Photography is derived from the Greek words photos (light) and

graphos (drawing). It is the art, science, and practice of creating

lasting images by recording light.

• Today we use mobile phones and digital cameras to create

photographs but this wasn’t always the case...

HOW was the camera invented?• The camera was a technological development that started first with the discovery of

a technological device called the camera obscura. This technology first created an

image of a scene that dates back to ancient China!

• The camera obscura literally means “dark chamber” in Latin. It is a box with a hole

in it which allows light to go through and create an image onto the piece of paper.

A camera obscura receives images just like the

human eye—through a small opening and upside

down. Our brain turns the images the right way

up. In a camera, a mirror is used.

Leonardo da Vinci mentions natural

cameras obscura that are formed by dark

caves on the edge of a sunlit valley.

A hole in the cave wall will act as a pinhole

camera and project an upside down image on a

piece of paper.

So the birth of photography was

primarily concerned with developing a

means to fix (make permanent) and retain

(keep) the image produced by the camera obscura.

Photographer Abelardo Morell’s camera obscura turns darkened rooms into magical landscapes(Printed in National Geographic

Magazine)

Central Park, New York City

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/camera-obscura/camera-obscura-video

How to make a camera obscura

http://www.howcast.com/videos/387145-How-to-Transform-a-Room-into-a-Camera-Obscura

History of Photography

• Read Chapter 10 of your textbook• Summarise brief

notes on the history of photography in a one page worksheet, add this to your folio.

Joseph Niépce: 1826 - 27

Extra credit – try to make one!