Photography was invented just about 200 years ago. A lot has happened since then, but photography is still a relatively modern invention in the entire history of human life and culture.
History of Photography
The history of photography is intertwined with scientific discovery, colonial exploitation, and the arrival of mass production and consumer culture. Although we will not spend a lot of time on the complex technical history of photography, it’s important to understand how evolving technology affected what subjects were photographed.
Watch this TedEd video, which is intended for K-12 students, but provides a great overview of key innovations.
Photos Make an Impact
Photography was initially seen as a scientific tool and an artistic medium, with the two sides sometimes debating which use was most important. For ordinary people, photography was associated with portraits and personal memories. In the 1800s, the profession of "photojournalist" did not yet exist, but a few early photographers recognized the potential of photography to communicate the reality of a situation to a mass audience. This practice of documenting human conditions would eventually become known as documentary photography.
Key ideas:
- Photography has the power to influence public opinion and policy.
- Our perception of historic events is shaped by the technology available at the time and how it was used.
Related slides for reference
✓ What was camera technology like at the time of the U.S. Civil War, and how did this affect which subjects and scenes were photographed?
Ethical standards in photojournalism and photography have evolved over time. The National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics, summarizes the principles that guide professional photojournalists today.
🗨 Consider the National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics and its list of 10 standards. What is one way a specific photographer in history did not adhere to modern photojournalism ethics?
The Art of Real Life
Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most influential photojournalists of the 20th Century, approached photography as an artist. The world was his material. His home country, France, was heavily affected by World War II and he continued to cover war and conflict around the world. But his work shows a core interest in the meaningful moments of ordinary life.
He is known for popularizing the term “the decisive moment” to describe taking a photograph at the precise moment when all the elements aligned in just the right .
To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.
“We photographers deal in things that are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth that can make them come back again. We cannot develop a print from memory.”
This video pairs some of Cartier-Bresson's photos with remarks he gave at a talk in 1973, toward the end of his career.
✓ Review: What composition techniques do you see in Cartier-Bresson's photos?
