It was an ordinary day. Reading about a photographic process that I at one time had my 1st level photography students try in order to understand the art of photography. We made pin-hole cameras. We would take a piece of card stock, preferably a dark-colored card stock, and cut a one-inch hole in the center of it. Over that we would tape a piece of aluminum foil. On the foil we would place a pin hole made with a needle. At this point we would test it by going outside and placing a second piece of white card stock on the ground with the piece of card stock that had the foil in it above it. With the sun at your back, hold the card stock with the hole in it about a foot above the other piece and you should see an image on the bottom piece of card stock. The closer you got to the bottom piece the smaller the projection of light would be on it. If you shade the bottom piece you will see a more clearly defined circle projected on it from the top piece. You can then make a series of holes on the top piece to see a more creative image on the bottom one. You have created a pin-hole camera. Early pinhole cameras were much the same with a dark box with a small hole in it that would allow the image to enter and create an inverted image on the opposite side. The early pinhole cameras were made much the same, but the image was made permanent through the use of chemicals such as oil of lavender and bitumen of Judea along with a pewter plate to receive the image. One day in the 1820s a French inventor by the name of Nicéphore Niépce applied a thin coating of Bitumen of Judea to a pewter plate, placed it in his box camera and took a photograph of parts of the buildings and surrounding countryside of his estate, producing what is usually described as the first photograph.
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| The first photograph! |
It is considered to be the oldest known surviving photograph made in a camera. The plate was exposed in the camera for about eight hours. The bitumen was hardened and made insoluble in the brightest areas of the image. The unhardened part was then rinsed away with a solvent. His objective was a photo-etching process since engraving required the intervention of a physical rather than chemical process and lithography involves a grease and water resistance process. As for my photography class, the lesson was to show how much effort was put into what they were about to do with a 35mm camera and a roll of black and white film. Their medium was to be light. Some time ago I read an article in the local newspaper written by Doug Harper who described what I just did, but with one third the words. He went on to tell of an assignment he had experienced were he went with a very old man, a female photographer and himself to a cemetery in the woods near Avondale, Pennsylvania. He noticed how the photographer kept looking at the old man's eyes as they caught the reflected light of the scenes as they passed. It was at that point that he realized the photographer was actually an artist. He described the photographer as a journalist coldly waiting to pounce on the light with it's magic. Photographers are bound by reality and rely on instinct to get that awe-inspiring photograph. On one occasion a photographer arrived at my home for a photograph for a story they were doing on one of my blog stories. He instantly checked the light in my living room and had me move to a different location. Then, to create the effect he wanted to tell in my story, he had me move a few times as he searched and searched for just the right light. Doug described it this way...writers chase words while photographers chase light. The artist in the photographer is the part where they gather the light, mechanically or digitally. Then they must chose the hour, spot and angle as well as frame the photo with the lens. He is capable of altering that light to make it a piece of art. It only becomes real when he clicks the camera lens. Many say that the artist is far more superior than the photographer when it comes to gathering light. Ask an artist what they think. They can create the light they want with a brush, but the photographer has just an instant to do the same thing with their camera. If they miss their opportunity, the photograph may never be the same while the artist has time to make changes to his masterpiece. Now...I write this as a photographer and not an artist. An artist friend of mine may write it entirely different. It takes both of us to make it visible to the viewer. And the viewer may rejoice in one rendition while the next viewer may have a different taste. It's all in the eye of the beholder as someone very famous said one time. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy
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