Copyright
2000 Michael Kan

Photography History

Joseph N. Niepce (1765-1833),  a Frenchman, in 1820's used a metal  plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen to produce a positive image  that  could be called a photograph. The  early photographs took several hours of exposure.

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), an English pioneer of photography,  in 1841 used paper with silver  salts to produce a photographic negative.  The  paper-based negative/positive method is called the  calotype process.  Talbot patented an enlarger in 1843.  He is considered by many as the "father  of  modern  photography."