Roger Cicala: Imaging before photography - a history lesson (Part 1)
I love talking about historical times because they’re weird, chaotic, and often make no sense. But they were fun. Today we efficiently build amazing buildings 160 stories high. But nobody puts gargoyles on them anymore. Nobody puts secret codes in the ceilings, either.
The early days, back when photographic advances were made by individuals rather than corporations, are much more fun to write about. People do brilliant things and stupid things, are petty and magnanimous, are obsessive and distracted. The inventors of photography often despised each other, lived in countries that scorned each other, and fought like they were arguing about lens sharpness on a camera forum.
Even 150 years later, national pride and a host of other factors color all but the most academic articles on the history of photography. Who am I kidding, they color the academic articles, too. The French claim to have invented photography and by strict definition they did. That doesn’t stop the British from claiming they invented real photography, with prints. The Italians, though, say it was all started with their technology. The Scots claim (and they’re right) that they developed the art of photography. And, of course, the Germans say they perfected it technically. Even Brazil has a legitimate claim to originating the term photography.
When I actually started doing historical research, I found it was often impossible to separate fact from fiction; there are usually two or three versions of what actually happened. At first, I spent ridiculous amounts of time deciding which version was true(st), often unsuccessfully. So, generally, when I can’t decide ‘what is most true’ I go with ‘which version is most amusing’.
