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History of Photography
□ In your journal write “History of Photography” at the top of the page.
□ Use Google to research the answers to the questions below.
□ Write your responses (in complete sentences) in the History of Photography section of your journal.
Tip: Number your paper as you go (not all at once). Some responses will require more than one line.
1. What two Latin or Greek words does the word “photography” come from?
a. What do each of those two words mean?
2. Do a Google Image search of “cyanotype of a leaf.”
a. From looking at the images, how do you think a cyanotype is made?
3. The camera obscura was a wooden box that created a photo made only of light. Find a diagram of the camera in use.
a. What is unusual about the image created by the camera obscura?
4. Abelardo Morell is a contemporary photography who uses the camera obscura technique. Go to his website and click on one of the photos then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through some of the other photos.
a. Describe your favorite photograph in this series.
b. Describe how you think the photographer created his camera obscura in that space.
5. Find a picture of the world’s first photograph then answer these questions:
a. What is shown in the photograph?
b. What is the title?
c. Approximately what year was it taken?
d. Who is the photographer?
6. Name one of the people considered to be the father of photography.
7. The Daguerreotype
a. Who invented the daguerreotype?
b. Approximately what year was it invented?
c. Approximately how long did it take to create (expose) a daguerreotype image (there are varying answers online so just write what you find)?
d. Find a picture of the world’s first daguerreotype and list everything you see in that photo.
8. The Stereoscope
a. Go to:
b. Read first two paragraphs and look at the first two photos.
c. Find the stereoscopic photographs in our classroom and write what they show. (Hint: They are hanging on a wall; framed and labeled.)
d. Next, go to the stereoscope station at Ms. Beckman’s desk and use the two different kinds of stereoscopes to view the images.
i. What happens to the images when you view them through the stereoscope?
9. A “carta de visite” was a small photograph that many people carried around with them. Go to the Carta de Visite station at Ms. Beckman’s desk to look at real examples of them. Be sure to look at both the front and back of the cards to get answers to these questions:
a. What was pictured in a carta de visite?
b. What was the purpose of these cards (what did people do with them)?
10. Return to the carta de visite station and look at the backs of the photographs. In the late 1800s and early 1900s the backs of photographs often had advertisements for the photography studio that created them. Some of the ads were simple but some were more decorative like the examples at the carta de visite station. Notice that in these example advertisements you see items related to photography but you also see items related to painting. That is because many photographers at that time also painted portraits of people. Why do you think so many portrait photographers then were also portrait painters? (Think hard on this one. The answer is not just so they could make more money.)
11. Muybridge
a. Go to this website:
b. Scroll slowly down the whole page and read about things that interest you (there is lots of interesting stuff!). Then go back to the moving pictures of the horse (it might just appear as a photo instead of an animation). Read the two paragraphs under it and answer these questions:
i. Who was the photographer?
ii. What year were these photos taken?
iii. Describe how the photos were taken.
iv. Do a Google image search for “Muybridge galloping horse” so you can see the photos individually. Are all four of the horse’s feet ever off the ground at the same time?
12. Go to the white shelves on the History of Photography wall in the classroom.
a. Pick up the Zoetrope (it’s on the corner shelf) and hold it at eye level so you can see the horse through the slots on the top. Be careful with it because the bottom falls off sometimes. If that happens just put it back together.
b. Spin the Zoetrope to see what happens to the horse.
c. Put the Zoetrope back on the shelf labeled “Zoetrope.”
d. What did you see the horse do?
13. Where does the phrase “watch the birdie” come from?
14. Why were mothers in the Victorian era sometimes camouflaged in portraits with their children?
15. How did people get color in photographs before color photography was invented? The answer is simple…it’s not a photographic process and you don’t even need to research this to know the answer. If you had a black and white photo in your hands, what could you do with it to make it color (without using a computer)? (Hint: There is an example framed on the wall in the classroom from the late 1800’s/early 1900’s)
16. What is a darkroom used for?
17. In a darkroom photographers use a dim red light to be able to see what they are doing without damaging the photographic prints they are making. What is this red light called?
a. I have one in the room. Find it and write where it is.
18. When developing 35mm film (the film used in the average person’s camera), the film had to be pulled out of the canister it came in, cut off, wound onto a film reel, and stored in a light-proof film tank. And all this had to be done in complete darkness! After this point, the lights could come back on and chemicals would be poured in and out of the tank but, since the tank was light-proof, no light could get into the tank. Once the film was developed (so you could see the negative images on it), the film was hung in a long strip in a film dryer for about two days and then the film was cut into strips.
a. Find the film canister, film reel, and film tank in the room and write what company made the film that we have on display.
19. Go to the negatives and slides station at the teacher’s desk and look at the negatives and slides on the light box. Use the little magnifying tool called a loupe to look at them. To use the loupe, place it directly on the negative or slide then put your eye down to it. Please be very careful with the negatives and slides because some are VERY old and delicate. Please do not take the negatives out of the plastic sleeves. Note that the slides are labeled “slide” and all the other items are negatives.
a. Write down what you see in one of the negatives.
b. Write down what you see in one of the slides.
c. One of the slides also has the photo that was made from it. What is in that photo?
d. What is different about the images in negatives versus the slides?
20. What is a darkroom enlarger used for?
21. Go to this website which explains how to set up a darkroom.
a. How many chemical baths do you have to put photo paper through in order to develop a black and white photo in a darkroom?
22. Do a Google Image search for “contact sheet.” Based on what you see, what do you think a contact sheet is and why would a photographer make one?
a. Find the contact sheet in the classroom. What year is it from?
23. Mute the sound on your computer. If you don’t know how, ask your neighbor to help.
a. Go to the website below:
b.
c. Click on the following pages and read each one:
i. Brownie @ 100
ii. The Brownie Name
iii. The First Brownies
iv. Birth of a Snapshot
d. Why was the Brownie important to the average American?
e. How many Brownies do we have in our classroom? (Hint: They are all in the same place.)
f. In what years were our Brownies made?
24. What was unique about the photos created from a Polaroid camera?
25. What famous photography company went bankrupt when they didn’t convert to digital cameras?
26. What company did Steven Sasson work for when he invented the first digital camera in 1975?
27. Go to these two websites:
a.
b.
c. Write the names and prices of the most expensive camera on each page.
28. Go to these websites:
a.
b.
c. Write the name and price of the most expensive lens on each page.
29. What year was Photoshop released to the public?
30. When you blow up a film photograph really big you can see the film grain. When you blow up a digital photograph really big you can see the _________.
Fun Fact: Today we take more photos in 2 minutes than all the photos that were taken in all of the 1800’s.
When you have completed all 30 questions, go back to the Assignments page of our website for instruction on what to do next.
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