16 Interesting Facts About Photography That You Probably Didn’t Know

 

 

Photography, today, is nothing less than a form of art. People use it for different purposes including the likes of manufacturing, business, education, science, mass communication, recreation, and hobby.

The science of photography has a distinctive history of its own. Here’s a list of 16 facts that can throw a bit of light on the very same matter.

Fact 1

The word “photography” has Greek origins. It means drawing with light.

The earliest known use of the word is made by the astronomer Sir John Herschel in the year 1839.

Fact 2

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French scientist, was the first person ever to take a photograph.

He captured the image (the one depicted below) with the aid of a camera obscura in 1826. That image took nearly 8 hours to capture because of the long exposure requirements of the camera.

Fact 3

The most expensive camera ever was sold at an auction in Vienna. It was a Leica-0-Series camera, a 1923 prototype of the ground-breaking Leica A.

Fact 4

It might sound a little odd (as well as disturbing) that some of the most popular subjects of photography were corpses, especially in the 1800s.

Death photography’s the term we would like to call it. Here’s an example:

From Wiki- Portrait of parents with their deceased daughter

Fact 5

Robert Cornelius, a Chemist and an enthusiastic photographer, was the first person ever to click a selfie in the year 1839.

The selfie is provided below for your reference.

From Wiki: The back of the photograph reads “The first light picture ever taken"

Fact 6

The first popular camera made was a regular studio camera. It stood on a tripod and used glass-made photographic plates.

Soon afterward, came the “point and shoot” box camera. These cameras were widely produced to meet the growing demands of the masses.

Then, in 1922, Kodak came up with a compact folding camera to make cameras more practical to use.

After that, around 135 pentaprism cameras, film cameras, and Polaroid instant cameras came to the market. And then, with the introduction of digital imagery and personal computers, we stepped finally into the digital world.

Today, most of us possess a mobile phone, and almost all of them come with a built-in camera. If this doesn’t count as a revolution, what does?

Fact 7

George Eastman founded the company Kodak in 1888.

Fact 8

James Clark Maxwell, a popular physicist from Scotland, took the first ever colored photograph in the year 1861.

The subject was a simple ribbon. Here it is for your reference.

Source- Wiki

Fact 9

The chemicals used in photograph developments included the likes of:

• Mercury,

• Lye,

• Silver nitrate, and more.

These were extremely dangerous chemicals. Many photographers had to take time off between their work as a result of illness due to exposure. Prolonged exposure to these chemicals resulted in madness and even deaths in certain extreme circumstances.

Fact 10

The first digital camera was invented by Steve Sasson way back in 1975.

Fact 11

The most viewed photograph in history is Windows XP’s default wallpaper, Bliss. Remember this?

Fact 12

The world’s first digital camera was only 0.01 Megapixel and had an incredible weight of 3.6kg. It took the camera more than 20 seconds to transfer the image to the tape.

Fact 13

The world’s first 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera was introduced by Ihagee.

Fact 14

Apple released its first digital camera in the year 1994. It was called the Apple Quicktake and was designed by Kodak.

Fact 15

The largest camera collection is owned by a photo Journalist from Mumbai, Dilish Parekh. He owns around 4,425 antique cameras.

Fact 16

The famous “Afghan Girl” photograph was taken in 1984 by Steven McCurry.

However, the girl didn’t even realize that the photograph had become world famous until she was shown her own photograph in the year 2002.

So that concludes the article for now. Hope you had a good and enjoyable read.