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What is photography? It is a method to create images that last by using a chemical reaction that takes place when a specially prepared surface is struck by light. The word photography is derived from a combination of two Greek words meaning “writing with light”. Rapid developments in the fields of optics and chemistry in the 19th century resulted in the invention of photography, as we know it.
Photography was originally based on single point or linear perspective, which was an artistic technique, developed towards the beginning of the 1400’s although the technology itself is fairly recent. Single point perspective was a method used by painters to depict 3-dimensional space on a flat surface. It is based on the theory that a single observation point at the convergence of receding lines on the horizon, which is called the vanishing point, provides perspective and dimension to an object.
During the 16th century a number of artists used a camera obscura (Latin for ‘dark room’) to help depict space using single point perspective. The camera obscura was a box with a glass screen on one side and a pinhole on the other. Light would come in through the pinhole and project an image on the glass screen, which the artist could trace by hand. Artists soon realized that a sharper image could be obtained by replacing the pinhole with a small lens.
The fact that certain materials were light sensitive also contributed to the development of photography. However, combining a light sensitive material with the camera obscura still had a long way to go.