Question 1

Research, written and practical assignment (4 hours)

Throughout this lesson you’ve learnt about the various techniques used and inventors that contributed to the art form that is Photography. Choose only one, do some additional research and in your own words write a report on why you think the chosen technique contributed to what we are able to do today through photography.

Explain your research and choice of technique.
Include any images which you think are necessary to explain your thought process.
This should be 500 – 1000 words.

This was a though choice, after reading and researching the history of photography many steps stood out to me, actually all of them. So many people have influenced and experimented to create a photograph. To believe that the concept was already thought about b.c. it’s something a find very fascinating. History has always in a way fascinated me in a large way. To think that Leonardo DaVinci actually made a working projector and other taking that and made it even better and better, and the way both Daguerrotype and calotype changed the story, to George Eastman who changed photography and the biggest way by putting the cameras in the hands of the people. And to the way we look at photography today. As you may see, many topics I could have chosen and believe me there’s way more.

But for my assignment I chose the technique that I think had the most influence on how photography works today, and that’s the Kodak camera and the film roll created by George Eastman.

Something about George Eastman fascinates me. A man who started rich, got poor, found a job as a clerc/bookkeeper, start a company, to invent a film roll that took a lot of trails and errors to complete, almost went bankrupt and then finally got the success he wanted. And what fascinated me the most was the fact that a man who was that largely involved in business was actually a very awkward man in his social life. But it did not stop him!

It first started when Eastman wanted to go on a holiday, and a co-worker at the bank he worked on said he should document the trip. He went to the local photography store and bought a photographic outfit, but he could not understand how to use it correctly and had to hire a professional photographer to give him lessons on how to use it. And not just that, he thought that the camera was too large and heavy to carry around and all the chemicals was a mess. He wanted to change that and started coming up with ideas to make it much easier and less massy to take a photo. Oh, he never made the trip, but he did get completely absorbed with photography. He first found a new and better way to use dry plates in photography and got a patent on machine that could mass produce the plates in 1879 and later started the Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company together with the businessman Henry Strong, reducing the cost of photography.

They then created what would later revolutionize the photography business, the film roll and a camera that could hold the film roll, the Kodak. The Kodak was very easy to use, just with a few buttons and the picture is taken. The film roll was placed inside the Kodak and the user could take 100 pictures and send the camera back to the company where they would develop the pictures and send the pictures back to the user. With the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest,” it was a success. Normal people could now buy the Kodak and be their own photographers. But with the pricing of 25$ it was a bit to steep for everyone to use it and George Eastman had to come up with an idea where he could lower the cost of making the camera and film roll and thereby could lower the price on the camera.

By experimenting he found a way and made a new Kodak type that was meant for a different audience, children. For only 1$, you could buy a smaller version of the Kodak called “the brownie camera”. The sales shot of and George Eastman and his company could finally enjoy the success they were waiting for.

I would say that the Kodak is the camera and technique that has formed photography to the place it is today. Since the Kodak was meant for the people and not just professional photographers it opened up way for everyone to either become a professional photographer or to just take pictures on a hobby basis, but still it fueled many peoples interest in the subject and photography could reach new heights and creativity. Thank you, George Eastman (and many others) for making that possible.

But like I said at the beginning, It has taken many steps for photography to become what it is today, without creative people and inventfull people Eastman could not have pulled of the Kodak success. The history of photography is something everyone should look up, photographer or not because photography is something that reaches all of us.

I researched this subject by reading the sites the teachers recommended and by searching the name George Eastman, first film roll and Kodak. I also watched a 3-part documentary on youtube called “George Eastman (wizard of photography)” and learned a lot from there.

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