1826.
Joseph Niepce is known as the first to produce permanent photo (shown right). He used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This would the first recorded image that did not fade quickly and would be what we consider the beginnings of photography.
1841.
An Englishman named William Talbot, who had been working on photography for a few years, developed a new process using paper instead of copper plates. He developed the images using gallic acid. This Calotype process was the first introduction to "paper-negative photo technology".
1860.
Matthew Brady was the first to photograph an American president. He took a picture of Abraham Lincoln visiting New York. While Lincoln had previously been dismissed in his campaign as little more than a bumpkin, Brady’s photograph of Lincoln in a smart suit helped give him a sophisticated look which helped him gain support.
1877.
Eadweard Muybridge developed the first camera shutter, allowing him to photograph images in motion. Before this, the subject had to be still for long periods of time. Muybridge was comissioned by Leland Stanford to capture his horses in motion, which would be conveniently titled as "The Horse in Motion".
1887.
George Eastman had been in the camera business for several years before he developed Kodak. He trademarked the brand, and it quickly caught on. This self-contained box camera that held 100 film exposures and was the first camera inexpensive enough for the average person to afford.
1895.
A German named Wilhelm Roentgen invented a type of photograph that would revolutionize the medical world. This photograph captures dense regions beneath the surface to reveal what our bones look like. He named it the x-ray. Press the button below to take an x- ray picture.
1907.
Up until this point, photographs were in black and white. Auguste and Louis Lumiere introduced the Autochrome, the first color camera available to the public. Click the button below to give the black and white picture some color!
1925-1963.
Over the next forty years the camera evolved at a fast pace. Photocopying became possible, the zoom lens was developed, the Polaroid was released, and the point-and-shoot camera was put out by Kodak. Shake the polaroid picture to help the image develop!
1992-2000s.
In 1992 Kodak introduced a revolutionary development that would change the face of photography again. Storing pictures on a CD led to digital film including digital cameras, digital picture frames, and cameras on phones and tablets.
