Photographic technology emerged in the 19th-century to challenge the preeminence of the lithograph. For the majority of the 1800s, photography could only be done in black and white. Subjects had to wait for up to an hour for early cameras to snap their pictures. The process of getting photographed was so demanding and tedious that subjects inevitably wore negative, exhausted expressions in their portraits. Processing photography takes place in two steps. During Step One, the exposed film gets bathed in chemicals to highlight what are known as negative images. During Step Two, the images get chemically flipped to produce positive images. Photographic cameras, particularly new digital ones, employ sophisticated CMOS and CCD sensors to detect light signals coming through their lenses. Thanks to photographic technology, scientists can catch glimpses of worlds too small, too large, and too odd for the eyes to see. X-ray radio scopes pick up on high wavelength electromagnetic radiation from distant stars and galaxies. Solar photography allows cosmologists to examine the surface of the sun. (Looking directly at the sun would cause instant blindness.) Photography has also been used extensively by great artists to capture human frailties, beauties, and wars. Diane Arbus, for instance, was an American photographer who snapped obscure, oddball pictures of people. Her intent was not to glorify the human condition but rather to expose the animalistic side of our species. Robert Mapplethorpe, another well-known photographer, shocked the world with his collection of gay erotic photographs. |
