Who would’ve thought all the way back in 1827 when the first photographic image was produced, that photography would be what it is today?
Within seconds of snapping a photo on a mobile device that fits nicely in your pocket, you can upload it to the internet for the whole world to see within seconds. I’m not sure Joseph Niepce envisaged such a future when he was experimenting with sun prints in the early 1800s.
The demand for photography is at an all time high. There is an attitude amongst anyone who has access to a camera and the internet now of “capture it all”. Photos can also now be quickly displayed in a variety of ways from printing them on canvas to sharing them online, instead of being stored in a box in the loft.
People are documenting their lives in picture form and making them available for the world to see, like, and comment on. There is an incessant need for information immediately in society today and most of these pictures from everyday people are nothing more than to display the value in their lives to their peers.
However, the way photography has transformed from chemicals on a metal plate reacting with light to filming and capturing historic events such as natural disasters and terrorist incidents is staggering. Within seconds of any event, there are a huge number of pictures and videos taken from different perspectives so that people on the opposite side of the planet can see it and feel as if they were there.
Back in Joseph Niepce’s time, it would’ve taken days for some news about a town ten miles away to reach him, let alone another country. Nowadays, the speed in which we can experience an event like 9/11 or the meteor that fell in Russia earlier in 2013 is unprecedented. This is owed to the fact that there are so many people who want to “capture it all”.
As well as people wanting to record their lives for memory sake, the people that are fully equipped to take videos and photography at the blink of an eye are the ones that are bringing these worldwide events to our computers in our living rooms.
Not only are we able to view these events from around the globe, but we can watch them over and over again. Rewind 25 years and though we had access to certain footage, we didn’t have it on demand. We had to rely on our memories for what we’d seen and wait until we’d next see it again on our television screens, or pictures in a magazine or newspaper.
Even now, that seems like an archaic way of life. Not being able to pull out your mobile phone from your pocket and watch a video as soon as you want to? Madness!
Compare that to Mr Niepce however with his first photographic image, and we’re what seems like millenniums ahead. His photograph required eight hours of light exposure to even create the image, and would soon after disappear. Events from 50 years ago are available at the click of a button now.
The invention clearly wasn’t wasted. Today, there are now projects such as Google Glass where actually wearing a camera will capture your entire life. It’s a journalist’s dream where there seems to be a race to acquire footage that would otherwise go unrecorded in an attempt to get one over on the competition.
Despite all of the advancements in the past 200 years or so in technology and the massive leaps forward that we’ve made in terms of photographical equipment and recording, still nobody can record some footage of a UFO that isn’t shaky and blurry. Maybe one day, 200 years from now, we’ll see a breakthrough in that department.
About the Author
This article was written by Gary Klungreseth, owner of Beyond a Word, experts in quality personalised wall art, the perfect gift solution for any occasion.