In the late 1870s
in Rochester, New York a junior bank clerk and avid amateur photographer
named George Eastman began making experimental gelatin emulsions in his
mother's kitchen. By 1879 he had developed a successful commercial formula.
That same year, he patented a machine for coating dry plates with emulsion,
and started part-time commercial production in a rented loft.. In 1881
Eastman quit the bank and became a full-time manufacturer. Business flourished
as he developed emulsions of increasing sensitivity and stability. Still,
Eastman realized that photographic processes were not accessible to everyone.
Working with
William H. Walker, he invented rolled paper film. Although crude, this
prototype became the model for contemporary roll films. A year later, in
1885, Eastman patented a machine that coated a continuous roll of paper
with emulsion. A double-coating process allowed the emulsion to be removed
from the paper after development and transferred to a durable gelatin-collodion
film. The resulting prints were sharp, clear and free from paper grain
distortion.
In spite of improvements,
photography was still intimidating to all but professionals and ardent
hobbyists. Eastman wanted a camera that anyone could use. In 1888 he introduced
the camera brand that has become synonymous with photography: the Kodak
portable box camera. The Kodak was an exercise in simplicity and marketing
genius. The company's first marketing slogan, penned by Eastman himself,
elegantly summarized the dawn of a new era. "You press the button,
we do the rest."
Outfitted with
a simple lens and a paper roll of 100 pictures, fledgling photographers
did not need to bother with camera settings, focus or development. After
exposing the film, the entire camera was shipped back to Eastman's factory.
The film was developed, camera reloaded, and mailed back to the customer
with mounted prints.
The Kodak was
a stunning success. In 1889 the company introduced flexible celluloid film
and the popularity of photography soared. But it was the Kodak Brownie
camera, introduced in 1900, that firmly lodged Kodak and photography in
the world's collective consciousness. Selling for one dollar each, the
Brownie could be afforded by almost anyone. At the turn of the century,
Kodak was a household name and global institution.
The first decade
of the 20th century saw innovations roll off assembly lines around the
world. In ten years, photography passed from the province of specialists
to common folk. With cameras held by so many hands, a new world of individual
expression emerged.
