Photography in Today’s World
After the invention and popularity gained by photography through a simple box we call a camera, there was an unavoidable rush into mass producing photo prints. But it did not take place over night. With the arrival of cameras, our lives have been indelibly changed, as now we are capable of recording for posterity personal histories and our progress (or regression!) over the course of decades.
It is said that each picture speaks for itself and that a picture is worth a thousand words. For example, snapshots and film taken in the midst of war and political turmoil have a great impact on people around the world. Additionally, the very concept of privacy has been challenged and altered with the recording of public figures as well as the average “Joe” on the street. Cameras are used to capture almost any type of event, including as proof of events that might otherwise be dismissed with skepticism. (Consider, for example, crimes captured on film but nowhere else.)
Brief History of Photography
The word photography derives from the Greek words, light and graphein (to draw). The method of recording images using the action of light onto a sensitive material.
Around 330 BC, Aristotle pondered on the question… why the sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole?
It was around 1000AD, when Alhazen invented the first pinhole camera, also known as a camera obscura.
A Short History of Photography and Television
Photography and television are both connected with light. The art of photography is to capture scenes using a lens while television transmits full motion broadcasts to receivers. The invention of photography dates back to the 19th century while and it is estimated that by the middle of the 21st century every home will have at least one television.
The first camera obscura was built by Ibn al-Haitham who was an Arab scientist. Before the invention of camera, artists used to sketch the scene which they saw, although it was also an art which still attracts people around the world. The invention of photography took a new turn because scenes were captured in realistic form just by pressing a button.