Polaroid was the first manufacturer of instant cameras and film. They were so popular that we tend to call every instant camera “a Polaroid” even today. However, the company went from an industry giant to bankruptcy but then raised from the ashes. In this video from Business Insider, learn more about the exciting history of the world’s best-known instant camera brand.
Brief history and development of ground glass focusing loupes
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This post is dedicated to a very helpful yet often-overlooked photographic accessory. After scouring the web, at this point, I have only been able to find few brief entries dedicated to those devices, so I hope my writing will be found helpful by inquisitive minds interested in the history of photo equipment.
Tintypes Made Using Focusing Loupes as Lenses is a companion post to this one. Capturing images in this exact manner is something that to my knowledge has not been done before, though of course, I am always ready to be proven otherwise.
Helsinki City Museum shares over 65 000 images online for free use
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Helsinki City Museum has digitized a collection of over 65,000 photos. They are all available online and free to download and use. You can find photos from our day and age, but they date back to the 19th century and there are some real gems among them.
Judge: Photos of slaves belong to Harvard, not a descendant
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In 2019, Tamara Lanier sued Harvard University claiming that she was the rightful owner of daguerreotypes of an enslaved father and daughter. A Massachusetts judge has dismissed her claim, ruling that it’s Harvard that should own the images after all.
The camera history, as told by North Korea
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If you’ve always wanted to watch a cartoon about camera history, you’ve come to the right place: here’s a North Korean cartoon that teaches children camera history. It’s actually a combination of cartoon and studio footage, and it’s is cute, encouraging, and informative. But at the same time, it’s odd and full of moments that will make you scratch your head – and this is why you won’t be able to stop watching.
Who should own photos of slaves?
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In 1976 while rummaging through an attic of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in search of old museum publications, editorial assistant Lorna Condon opened a drawer in a wooden cabinet. Inside, she found a number of flat leather cases which contained a series of daguerreotypes of partially and fully nude Black people. Names were handwritten on paper labels identifying 7 individuals: Alfred, Delia, Drama, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty with assumed ethnicities and occupations. The daguerreotypes represented some of the earliest known images of slaves in the U.S.
Was this iconic war photo staged?
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There are some iconic photos taken through history that turned out to be staged or altered. The example that first comes to mind for me is Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, which was both.
In this video, Vox brings another example of a historic image that was most likely staged. It’s Roger Fenton’s Valley of the Shadow of Death taken in 1855 during the Crimean War. Two versions of the image caused a lot of questions and controversy, and film director Errol Morris was determined to figure it out.
If you ever wondered where the phrase “Watch the birdie!” came from, here you go
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“Watch the Birdie” – that’s what my parents told me, to make sure I look into the camera before they took a photo of me. I guess lots of you guys remember this saying. With the renovation of a 140-year-old historic brass birdie, I show you the origin of this phrase.
This photo book shows male couples between 1850s and 1950s, when it was illegal
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I may be naive and a hopeless romantic, but I firmly believe that love conquers all. In their photo book Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s, Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell prove me right. They have collected a series of photos of male couples from back in the day when it was still illegal to engage in same-sex relationships. They prove that love is stronger than the law, and in case you stopped believing in love, these could make you change your mind.
This is why Adobe’s called Adobe and how one of its founders was kidnapped for $650,000 ransom
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For anybody working in the photography or video industries today, it’s difficult to escape from the behemoth that is Adobe. Whether you use their software or not, they’re still everywhere you look and if you don’t use their software yourself, you still often have to deal with people that do, and wanting to know how they can make their workflow fit with yours.
But how did Adobe’s rise to fame happen? Where did it all begin? And why was one of is founders kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom to the tune of $600,000? This video from ColdFusion takes a look at Adobe’s history and some of the controversy along its journey.
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