Photography Year 9

1. Intro to
Photography

2. What is ‘photography’
• Photography is derived from the Greek words photos (light) and
graphos (drawing). It is the art, science, and practice of creating
lasting images by recording light.
• Today we use mobile phones and digital cameras to create
photographs but this wasn’t always the case...

3. HOW was the camera invented?
•
The camera was a technological development that started first with the discovery
of a technological device called the camera obscura. This technology first created
an image of a scene that dates back to ancient China!
•
The camera obscura literally means “dark chamber” in Latin. It is a box with a hole
in it which allows light to go through and create an image onto the piece of paper.
A camera obscura receives images just like the
human eye—through a small opening and upside
down. Our brain turns the images the right way
up. In a camera, a mirror is used.

4. Leonardo da Vinci
mentions natural
cameras obscura that
are formed by dark
caves on the edge of a
sunlit valley.
Photographer Abelardo Morell’s
camera obscura turns darkened
rooms into magical landscapes
(Printed in National Geographic
Magazine)
Central Park, New York City
A hole in the cave wall
will act as a pinhole
camera and project an
upside down image on
a piece of paper.
So the birth of
photography was
primarily concerned
with developing a
means to fix (make
permanent) and retain
(keep) the image
produced by the
camera obscura.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/camera-obscura/camera-obscura-video

5. How to make a camera obscura
http://www.howcast.com/videos/387145-How-to-Transform-a-Room-into-a-Camera-Obscura

6. History of
Photography
• Read Chapter 10
of your textbook
• Summarise brief
notes on the
history of
photography in a
one page
worksheet, add this
to your folio.

7. Joseph Niépce: 1826 - 27

8. Extra credit – try to make one!