1800s - 1950s Photography

In the early days of photography, photos were created using analogue methods. Although photographers had created other ways using alternate methods beforehand, photography as we know it today began in the late 1830s and mid 19th century in France. Nowadays we are able to use digital photography due to the advancements in technology which are safer, better quality and easily accessible in comparison to outdated methods.

1826/1827 - oldest existing photograph, taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It captures the view outside his window in Burgundy, France - nearly 200 years old. It took him 8 hours to capture this image using a camera obscura, one of the very first versions of cameras. It was rather different to modern cameras as it involved him focusing the camera onto a pewter plate for a sustained period of time as opposed to a simple touch of a button or screen.

Although not much can be seen from this photo due to its grainy resolution, it is also the first landscape photograph, capturing the buildings and towers outside his window. Most noticeably the triangular shape in the centre, which is more prominent than anything else.

1838 - by Louis Daguerre (creator of the 'Daguerrotype', replacing Niépce's method) the first photography to feature a person. It has a considerably better quality and resolution than the first photo, as you can make out the buildings as well as roads, trees and the white building in the foreground. It still, however looks rather like a sketch rather than a photo despite more intricate details which are noticeable such as the chimneys and the two men in the street in the the bottom left corner, one of who is believed to be shining the other's shoes. Due to the ten minute exposure time (meaning the camera's exposure to the photograph it is capturing) only they were captured in it.

1839 - American photographer Robert Cornelius took the first ever portrait photograph of a person. He removed the lens cap, ran into the frame and stood still for ten minutes, before returning the cap to its position.

This is eerily reminiscent of the photos which we know colloquially as 'selfies', many of which are taken 170 later, in the modern era.

1920 - Cameras had almost become hand-held devices at this point in time, in the early 20th century thus allowing this crew to take the earliest known group selfie in the classic ‘arms outstretched, everyone look happy’ style. The men featured in the image are (from left to right) Joseph Byron, Pirie MacDonald, Colonel Marceau, Pop Core and Ben Falk. This is the earliest known group photo. As you can see, the fashion back then was considerably different to nowadays, yet it still resembles photos that you may see on Instagram roundabout 90 years later - with the exception, of course of the black and white colour scheme.

A 19th century photo in New York of Bandit's Roost, now Mulberry Street, an alleyway where gangsters and thugs would congregate. Taken by Jacob Riis, a renowned social documentary photographer and - Bandit's Roost got its name for being a notoriously dangerous place in NY around this time. Many gangs of violent thugs got together in this part and were known has hard drinkers and thieves.

A 19th century photo of the Five Points gang - a notorious gang that occupied their own area in Lower Manhattan. It shows them in their suits and hats lined up, facing the camera. Their status and power is shown in their confident stances and smart outfits.

1936 - This is one of the most influential old photographs of all time, one you may recognize. Taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936, it captures the pain and suffering during the Great Depression. The picture shows a migrant mother with her two children. Her face is etched with worry and resignation as she looks past the camera. It is one of the most iconic images of this period, perhaps due to the detailed capture of what was really going on during this time period.

1946 - Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel, taken by Margaret Bourke-White. This photo is famous simply because of who is shown in the picture, a man who was a leader of India's non-violent independence movement against British rule and in South Africa. This is one of the few remaining photos of him taken less than 2 years before his assassination in 1948, and it was released in many press articles about him as a tribute. It depicts him sewing his own thread with a 'charkha', a portable spinning wheel.

1907 - The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz. Another well known photograph, it has quite a sepia tone. It captures a multi -layered viewpoint, neatly representing what appear to be different groups of people in society - the more upper class (seeming mostly men) above the workers, which appear to be mainly women and children.

1948 - Dali Atomicus, by Philippe Halsman is a photograph taken inspired by Dali's painting 'Leda Atomica', taking 26 takes to get a composition that satisfied Halsman. His approach, to bring subjects such as Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Alfred Hitchcock into sharp focus as they moved before the camera, redefined portrait photography, as well as using motion in objects to create a completely unusual scene.