Halina PET lens detail

A Brief History Of Photography By Objects

In September 2018 I started writing a short series of articles. They look a the history of photography by looking at items or inventors behind the technology.  Thought it was best we list the various posts somewhere. 

The posts are not sequential and I Jump from digital cameras back to the 1800’s or earlier and back from post to post. The idea is based on Neil MacGregor the director of the British Museum’s seminal History of the world in a 100 objects ( I can’t guarantee that number but..)

 

 

No  Item Date Location
1 First Selfie 1839 US Library of congress
2 Camera Obscura 1700’s Dumfries Museum, UK
3 Portrait of Thomas Wedgewood  – pioneeer of photograms c.1800 In book retrievable on archive.org
4 Fujica 35 Automagic – early coupled metered camera 1958 Available to purchase on all good online auction sites
5 First photo sent by Mobile phone 1997 Image in public domain on internet
6 Painting of John Dolland. Patent holder of the Achromatic lens Late
1700’s
Museum of Greenwich (not currently on display but available online)
7 Edison Kinetoscope 1893 Various Museums around world (see article for some)
8 Cyclops Camera – First consumer digital camera 1975 Various museum and auction sites
9 Photograph of Dr Maddox -whose work would lead to Dry gelatin plates ~1871 Book at the University Library of Heidelberg
10 Drawing of the First Stereoscope Mid 1800’s Book Illustration. Stereoscope in King’s College London and other examples in other Museums.
11 Carte De Visite of Sir John Herschel 1860’s Various Museum collections
12 Fishing reel made with Parkesine the precursor of celluloid 1860’s Science Museums Group (UK)
13 Keystone Dry Plate & Film Works. The birthplace of commercial film production 1880’s Image On Google Street View 2020. Building no longer standing as of 2021
14 Polaroid of the first computer generated image on a US defence computer 1959 Polaroid ? privately owned? Image widely found on internet. Computer  system can be visited at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

 

Shooting Film on the cheap on the Border in Credit Crunch Britain