History And Development Of Photography In Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE 

1.0 PHOTOGRAPHY

The word "photography" was derived from the two Greek words, photo and graphein. Photo means light while Graphein means draw. Nicephor Niepce in the past, made use of "heliography" and "'sun drawing" till Sir Herschel brought in the advent of photography in 1839. Tejuoso(2013).

One of the most important thing to note is that photograph as a concept has undisputable roles to play in every field due to its recording purpose. People make references to past scenes because there are photographs to show as evidence; however this is done with the help of photograph.

1.1 HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

The history of photography has roots in remote antiquity with the discovery of principle of the camera obscura and the observation that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. As far as is known nobody thought of bringing these two phenomena together to capture camera images in permanent form until around 1800, when Thomas Wedgewood made the first reliable document, although unsuccessful attempt. In mid -1820s, Nicephore Niepee succeeded, but several days of exposure in the camera where required and the earliest result were very crude. Niepce's associate Louis Daguerre went on to develop the daguerreotype process, the first publicly announced photographic process which required only minutes of exposure in the camera and produced clear, finely detailed result. It was commercially introduced in 1839, a day generally accepted as the birth year of practical photography.

The metal based daguerreotype process soon had some competition from the paper based calotype negative and salt print process invented by Henry Fox Talbok. Subsequent innovations reduced the required camera exposure time from minutes to seconds and eventually to a small fraction of a second, introduced new photographic media which were more economical, sensitive or convenient, including roll films for casual use by amateurs; and made it possible to take pictures in natural colors as well as in black and white.

The commercial introduction of computer based electronic digital cameras in the 1990s soon revolutionized photography during the first decade of the 21st century, traditional film based photochemical method were increasingly marginalized as the practical advantages of the new technology became widely appreciated and the image quality of moderately priced digital cameras were continually improved.

The coining of the word "photography" has been attributed in 1839 to Sir John Horschel based on the Greek word [phos], [genitive: photos] meaning "light", and [grapher] meaning "drawing", "writing" together meaning "drawing with light';

THE TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

Photography is the result of combining several different technical discoveries. Long before the first photograph were made Chinese philosopher Moti and Greek mathematician invented a Pinhole camera in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. In the 6n century CB, Byzantine mathematician, Anthemins of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments. Ibn al-Haythan [Alhazen] (1965) in Basra-C 1040 in Cairo] studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera Albertus Magnus discovered silver nitrate, and George Fabricus (1516-71) discovered silver chloride. Daniel Barbara desk ribed a diaphragm in 1568. According to Wilhem Homberg light darkened some chemical [photochemical effects]in 1694. The novel Giphantie (by the French Tiphaigne De la Roche, 1729-74) described what could be interpreted as philosophy of photography.

Michael Moon in his contribution to history of photography added that photography inception can be traced back to time immemorial, when some women in some part of Africa went on tour to catch fun at the riverine area. According to him when they got back from the river and they saw their reflection on water, they were astonished and took to their heels. Michael Moon however, concluded that photography began from there.

Conclusively, before photography was created, people already knew the principle of how it eventually got to work. They could process the image on the wall or piece of paper, however no printing was possible at that time as reserving light turned out to be a lot harder task than projecting it. The instrument that people used for processing pictures was called the camera obscura(which in Latin for dark room) and it was around for a few centuries before photography eame alonsz,.

That photography had been in existence even before some other technological devices is something (.indisputable and factual because it inception can be traced back to time immemorial.

1.2 DEFINITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY