5 Photographs That Changed The World
The invention of photography changed how we see the world. The camera’s ability to arrest a moment in time was revolutionary. Since then photography has become a part of our everyday lives and an important component in our shared history. Below are some of the images that have had the greatest impact.
Le Gras
It was 1824 when Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took what is essentially the first ever photograph. A grainy, black-and-white image of the view from a window onto a rooftop, the picture is remarkable for its historical importance as the start of the practice of photography. Niépce used a combination of a camera obscura, a pewter plate coated in bitumen that had been dissolved in lavender oil, and a makeshift lens to make the image, which was exposed for over eight hours. The image was relatively unknown until rediscovered in the 1950s, and it was Niépce’s innovative techniques that were developed by the better known William Fox Talbot into his daguerreotypes.
The Horse in Motion
Eadweard Muybridge utilisised the camera’s ability to capture a single moment in time to such great effect that it changed human understanding of nature and movement. Designed to settle a bet about whether all four of a horse’s feet left the ground when it was running, Muybridge set up a series of 24 cameras spaced at regular intervals with trip wires that set off the shutters when a horse galloped past them. He also designed his own high-speed shutter and electronic timer that were key developments in scientific photography. Muybridge went on to make studies of other animals and humans in motion, and designed the Zoopraxiscope, a projector to animate his series of photographs. Oh, and the horses feet do all leave the ground.
Rue de Seine
Eugene Atget was a humble man, but his photographic legacy is immense. His personal project to document the buildings of old Paris before they were destroyed by modernization can be said to have started the field of street photography, which important photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Brassai would develop. Atget’s large 8 x 10 inch bellows camera enabled him to get sharp images of large buildings and street scenes. His use of silver albumen paper gives his prints a sepia tinged hue that speaks of history.
Sharecropper’s Wife
One of the most important photographs for bringing the reality of life to the attention of a wider Audience, Dorothea Lange’s image of a woman, her face creased by weather and worry, staring into the distance as her children cling to her, encapsulated the hardships of the depression on rural America. Taken in 1953 with a large box camera, the photograph was one of a series she produced under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration, an initiative that also launched the career of Walker Evans.
D-Day Landings
Robert Capa was not the first war photographer (that was Roger Fenton), but he was one of the first to show war up-close. Famously declaring that ‘If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,’ Capa was with the second wave of US soldiers that landed at Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings in 1944. Armed with his Contax II camera, Capa’s photographs are from the thick of the action, taken under heavy fire. He took some 106 images, however all but 11 were destroyed by a lab assistant who was rushing to develop them for publication.
by Graeme Knights
More Information:
Graeme is writing on behalf of wedding photography Surrey artist, Steven Brooks
Le Gras
It was 1824 when Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took what is essentially the first ever photograph. A grainy, black-and-white image of the view from a window onto a rooftop, the picture is remarkable for its historical importance as the start of the practice of photography. Niépce used a combination of a camera obscura, a pewter plate coated in bitumen that had been dissolved in lavender oil, and a makeshift lens to make the image, which was exposed for over eight hours. The image was relatively unknown until rediscovered in the 1950s, and it was Niépce’s innovative techniques that were developed by the better known William Fox Talbot into his daguerreotypes.
The Horse in Motion
Eadweard Muybridge utilisised the camera’s ability to capture a single moment in time to such great effect that it changed human understanding of nature and movement. Designed to settle a bet about whether all four of a horse’s feet left the ground when it was running, Muybridge set up a series of 24 cameras spaced at regular intervals with trip wires that set off the shutters when a horse galloped past them. He also designed his own high-speed shutter and electronic timer that were key developments in scientific photography. Muybridge went on to make studies of other animals and humans in motion, and designed the Zoopraxiscope, a projector to animate his series of photographs. Oh, and the horses feet do all leave the ground.
Rue de Seine
Eugene Atget was a humble man, but his photographic legacy is immense. His personal project to document the buildings of old Paris before they were destroyed by modernization can be said to have started the field of street photography, which important photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Brassai would develop. Atget’s large 8 x 10 inch bellows camera enabled him to get sharp images of large buildings and street scenes. His use of silver albumen paper gives his prints a sepia tinged hue that speaks of history.
Sharecropper’s Wife
One of the most important photographs for bringing the reality of life to the attention of a wider Audience, Dorothea Lange’s image of a woman, her face creased by weather and worry, staring into the distance as her children cling to her, encapsulated the hardships of the depression on rural America. Taken in 1953 with a large box camera, the photograph was one of a series she produced under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration, an initiative that also launched the career of Walker Evans.
D-Day Landings
Robert Capa was not the first war photographer (that was Roger Fenton), but he was one of the first to show war up-close. Famously declaring that ‘If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,’ Capa was with the second wave of US soldiers that landed at Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings in 1944. Armed with his Contax II camera, Capa’s photographs are from the thick of the action, taken under heavy fire. He took some 106 images, however all but 11 were destroyed by a lab assistant who was rushing to develop them for publication.
by Graeme Knights
More Information:
Graeme is writing on behalf of wedding photography Surrey artist, Steven Brooks
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