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.