- PHOTOGRAPHY
IN THE
20TH CENTURY
In the 20th century,
photography emerged from the experimental darkroom to become a potent sociological
force on the world stage. No longer the peculiar cousin of painting, photography
evolved into a unique art form. From Jacob Riis's searing documentaries
of urban poverty in the early 1900s to Robert Maplethorpe's controversial
portraits toward the century's end, photography continues to captivate
and demand our attention.
There are few
fields of human endeavor not grazed by the camera lens: medicine, advertising,
politics, art, architecture. Still, even as photography fulfilled George
Eastman's dream and became as ordinary and indispensable as the pencil,
the technology continued to evolve and change.
Refinements like
Thomas Dallmeyer's variable focus lens in 1899 helped make photography
an ever more exacting science. In 1907, two Frenchmen, Auguste and Louis
Lumiere, developed a simpler color photography system. The Lumiere brothers
were pioneers in motion picture camera and projection systems, and they
established the 35 mm standard still in use today.
In 1924, documentary
photography was revolutionized by the introduction of Leitz' 24x36 mm camera,
the Leica. Utilizing 35 mm motion-picture stock, the camera was extremely
portable and easy to use. The new type of camera gained favor among press
photographers and eventually became the photojournalist's standard.
Other technical
innovations of this century include instant film (1928); Kodachrome color
slide film (1935); and practical color negative photography in 1939. In
1947, Edwin Herbert Land introduced instant film, and founded the Polaroid
Land company. And in 1950, Kodak's Kodachrome film was widely marketed
for the amateur photographer. Instant color film, developed by Elkin R.
Blout and Howard G. Rogers of the Polaroid Land Company, was released in
1963.