Photography began in the 1820s with the first permanent image

The first photograph that still exists was made in 1826 or 1827 by a French inventor named Nicéphore Niépce. He used a camera obscura—a box that lets light through a small hole—and coated a pewter plate with a light-sensitive chemical called bitumen. After eight hours of exposure in sunlight, the image was faint but permanent. It showed the view from his window in Burgundy, France.

Before Niépce, people had known for centuries that light could create images inside a dark box, but no one had found a way to make those images stick to a surface. Niépce solved that problem, which is why he gets credit for the invention. His process was slow, expensive, and produced dim pictures, but it proved the concept worked.

Key Takeaways

  • The first permanent photograph was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 using a pewter plate and bitumen, a light-sensitive chemical.
  • Louis Daguerre improved on Niépce's method in the 1830s with the daguerreotype, which was faster and produced sharper images that made photography practical for portraits.
  • The wet collodion process, introduced in 1851, allowed photographers to make multiple prints from a single negative for the first time.
  • George Eastman invented roll film and the Kodak camera in 1888, which put photography in the hands of ordinary people instead of just professionals.
  • Digital photography emerged in the 1970s and became the standard by the early 2000s, replacing film entirely in most cameras.

How the daguerreotype made photography practical

In 1839, Louis Daguerre, a French painter and physicist, announced a new photographic process that was far better than Niépce's method. The daguerreotype used a copper plate coated with silver and required only 15 to 30 minutes of exposure instead of eight hours. The image was sharp enough to see fine detail, and it could not fade.

Daguerreotypes became wildly popular for portraits. A person could sit for a portrait that was ready in under an hour, and the result was a one-of-a-kind image on a polished metal plate. By the 1850s, portrait studios using daguerreotypes existed in almost every town in Europe and America. The process was expensive—a daguerreotype portrait cost about the same as a week's wages for a working person—but demand was high.

The main drawback was that each daguerreotype was unique. You could not make copies from it. That limitation changed with the next major advance.

The wet collodion process enabled multiple prints

In 1851, an English photographer named Frederick Scott Archer introduced the wet collodion process. This method used a glass plate coated with a sticky substance called collodion mixed with light-sensitive chemicals. The plate had to be exposed and developed while still wet, which meant photographers had to carry a darkroom tent or wagon to their shoots. Despite the inconvenience, wet collodion was a breakthrough because it produced a negative—an image where light and dark were reversed—from which many prints could be made.

For the first time, a photographer could take one picture and produce dozens of copies. This made photography much cheaper for the customer and more practical for commercial use. Wet collodion remained the standard for professional photography for nearly 40 years, until dry plates—glass plates coated with dry chemicals that did not need to be developed when ready—became reliable enough to replace it.

Roll film and the Kodak camera brought photography to ordinary people

In 1885, George Eastman, an American inventor, patented roll film—a long strip of flexible material coated with light-sensitive emulsion. Two years later, in 1888, he introduced the Kodak camera, a small, handheld box camera loaded with roll film that could take 100 exposures. When the film was full, the customer mailed the entire camera back to Kodak's factory. Kodak developed the film, printed the photographs, loaded fresh film into the camera, and mailed everything back.

The Kodak camera's slogan was "You press the button, we do the rest." For the first time, ordinary people who knew nothing about chemistry or darkrooms could take photographs. The camera cost $25, which was expensive at the time, but the process was straightforward enough for anyone. This invention democratized photography and created a mass market that had not existed before.

Faster film and smaller cameras changed what photographers could capture

Through the early 1900s, film became more sensitive to light, which meant photographers could use faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures. This made it possible to photograph moving subjects and to take sharp pictures in dim light. Smaller, more portable cameras became common, and by the 1920s and 1930s, 35-millimeter film—the same format still used in some cameras today—became the standard for serious photographers.

Color film was invented in the 1930s but remained expensive and difficult to use until the 1950s and 1960s, when color photography became practical for everyday use. By then, black-and-white film was so fast and reliable that photographers could shoot in almost any light condition and get sharp, detailed images.

Digital photography replaced film starting in the 1970s

The first digital camera was built by Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak, in 1975. It was large, slow, and produced a low-resolution image, but it proved that light could be converted into digital data and stored on a computer. For the next 20 years, digital cameras improved gradually while film remained the standard for professional and serious amateur photographers.

By the early 2000s, digital cameras had become fast enough, sharp enough, and cheap enough to replace film almost entirely. Digital photography offered advantages that film could not match: you could see the image when ready, delete bad shots, adjust exposure and color on a computer, and store thousands of images on a small memory card. Today, film photography is a specialty hobby, and nearly all photographs are captured digitally.

Smartphone cameras made photography universal

The first camera phone was released in 2000, but the image quality was poor. By 2007, when the first iPhone was released with a 2-megapixel camera, smartphone cameras began to improve rapidly. Within a decade, the camera in a smartphone was good enough for most everyday photography, and by 2020, smartphone cameras rivaled dedicated digital cameras in quality.

This shift meant that nearly everyone with a phone could take and share photographs when ready. Social media platforms like Instagram, which launched in 2010, were built around smartphone photography. The technology that took eight hours and a chemistry degree in 1826 now takes one second and requires no knowledge at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who invented photography?

Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph in 1826 or 1827, so he is credited with inventing photography. However, Louis Daguerre improved the process so much that his daguerreotype became the first practical form of photography used by the public.

Why did it take so long to invent photography if people knew about the camera obscura for centuries?

The camera obscura could project an image, but no one had found a chemical that would capture and hold that image permanently. Niépce solved this by discovering that bitumen hardened when exposed to light. Before that, the image would fade as soon as the light source was removed.

When did color photography become common?

Color film was invented in the 1930s, but it was expensive and complicated to use. Color photography did not become practical for everyday use until the 1950s and 1960s, when faster color films and simpler processing made it affordable for amateur photographers.

How long did it take for digital photography to replace film?

Digital cameras existed in the 1970s, but film remained the standard for professionals and serious amateurs until the early 2000s. By 2010, digital had almost completely replaced film for everyday photography, though some photographers still use film by choice.

What was the first camera that ordinary people could use?

The Kodak camera, introduced in 1888, was the first camera designed for ordinary people. It was straightforward to use, required no chemistry knowledge, and Kodak handled all the development and printing. Before that, photography required expensive equipment and technical skill.