Historical Photography

It's Christmas week and the 12 weeks of Christmas reaches its last installment. There had to be a number 1 and what better choice than the most iconic photo of all time?

Ken Heyman, a photographer that’s worked with cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, shot commissions for Life magazine, and collaborated with President Lyndon B. Johnson, died on December 10th in Manhattan at 89 years old. He died at his home of a heart ailment, as reported by his daughter, Jennifer McCarthy.

Those growing up in the States during the 70s and 80s will no doubt remember adverts for Kodak’s various products, especially around Christmas. One year in particular proved disastrous for Kodak, and Azriel Knight and his magnificent beard take us back in time to explain how it happened.

Harry Styles just released his new album with a cover photo taken with a fisheye lens. This video shows how the fisheye lens was created and adopted by musicians and producers in different eras. 

It is easy to take for granted how easy it is to preserve our images these days; after all, we can create multiple copies of our photos in multiple locations with just a few clicks of the mouse. It was not always so easy, and as this great video shows, the process of preserving historical photographs can be incredibly delicate and require a highly skilled hand. Check out this great video to see the process in action.

A photographer has restored a “magic lantern” given to his great-great-grandfather 160 years ago. In one of the earliest examples of photography as we know it, decades before the invention of cinema, the Lampascope existed.

If Sony's Imaging Division work by movie quotes then they must be using Highlander: "There can be only one!" Are they The Kurgan to Canon's Connor McLeod? And does that make Nikon, Sunda Kastagir? Welcome to the three biggest camera manufacturers — the so-called immortals.

KCET’s “Lost LA” does deep dives into the lesser-known history of Southern California. In a recent episode, photography takes center stage as they tell the story behind some of the most famous images from one of the darkest chapters in American history.

As creatives and photographers, it's essential to study imagery for education and inspiration. The national archive is a wealth of archival and historical photos from America's history. 

Time-honored English fashion and portrait photographer David Bailey is 81. His prominent heyday was a time that now seems remote — one of a young Mick Jagger and the four Beatles. Now Bailey himself thinks that the day of the star professional photographer is gone forever.

Do you want your images to look “good”? Aesthetics will help you understand the value of an image beyond its informative and representative character. Let's ask some great philosophers what they think about it.

Eye-es-oh or eye-soh? Not as simple as you think! Tip: Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Photography is a centuries-old practice with a rich history of innovations and advancement, and it is a fun and informative exercise to take a look at all the events that brought us to where we are today. This great video takes a look at 10 of the most pivotal moments in photography history.

This week, instead of 10 lords a leaping, we have the rather more useful and edifying 10 most inspirational photographic quotes. But which photographers were as good with words as they were with pictures?

This past weekend, The Olympus Corporation turned 100 years old. A review of Olympus' history is eye opening. I didn't realize that Olympus was originally a healthcare company, and it remains a leader in certain healthcare fields today.

If you have ever shot with certain film cameras of the past, you have probably noticed that the prints came back to you with the date of capture superimposed on them in the bottom corner. It is a neat and very useful function, and this fun video will show you how cameras of the past made it happen.

You've heard the saying "a picture's worth a thousand words." A recently published panorama of historic Minneapolis photographs gives us a visually verbose account of an iconic Midwestern city over a century ago.

Well it had to come… the final installment of the A to Z of Photography appeared last week and with that a huge void in my life! With every end there is a new beginning, but before we reach that, where did the A to Z start, what topics did it traverse in its winding journey, and what were some of the highlights?

I’ve paged through his books at bookshops, and I know he’s done some of the Pirelli Calendar campaigns. But I've looked at his work again since his passing, and it gives insight on how he does it, and what type of person he was. 

Where's the line between false advertisement and art in photography? What if it falls somewhere between the two?

Why does vintage photography gives some people "the willies”? Whether or not you've noticed this, the portrait subjects in the oldest black and white images are almost always glaring sternly into the lens.

And so with some sadness, tinged with a sense of relief, we reach the final letter of the alphabet. And what better way to finish than with a vastly successful company that has virtually spanned the lifetime of photography, along with some photographic input from yet another novelist.

In this article we turn to the society photographer, and fortune teller sounding, Madame Yevonde, but before her another Japanese brand that bit the dust. Yashica were prominent in the post-war photographic world, but when did they cease production?

Based on feedback I received about my article investigating the most expensive photobooks ever sold, I reached out to the two largest auction houses in the World to provide a more authoritative list of photobooks sold at auction. What do you expect to see in this list?

The cult of celebrity is alive and kicking, now seemingly the domain of the "influencer". However history is littered with photographers who attained celebrity status — step back 80 years and Weegee made the unusual step from press photographer to, well, influencer! This was long after the second of our two articles, which looks at the wet collodion plate process.

A brief personal recollection of a powerful influence in the world of photography.

This week we continue the A to Z of Photography with an interview with contemporary photographer Benjamin von Wong, renowned for his attention grabbing, fantastical images. We follow this with a history of Vivitar, a camera and lens manufacturer that didn't make cameras or lenses!

Language is a slippery thing. The meanings of words are constantly evolving. Add in the continuing leaps being made by the technology underlying photography, and it's no wonder that the language photographers use is in an almost constant state of flux.

The world's oldest webcam is finally shutting down after a whopping quarter-century of service, marking the end of an era that began in the infancy of the modern internet we know today.

Few historical events have remained in the public consciousness quite like the sinking of the Titanic, and after over a century of sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic, a production team has captured 4K footage of the wreck for the first time.

We now arrive at the second of the three tricky letters of the alphabet. Unfortunately, U is uselessly underwhelming but ultimately and uniquely utilitarian! The first an iconic photo of political protest and confrontation, a theme that continues to this day in newsrooms across the world. Then discover Umbo.

This week we turn to a train wreck of an image — yes the iconic photo "Train Wreck at Montparnasse Station"! But before we get to that, step back to the dawn of photography and understand the principles behind tilting and shifting the lens relative to the sensor. Some of the highest profile photographers use tilt-shift lenses in their day-to-day work, so find out why that is.

Digital cameras have come along way in the last 20 years, but just how far? Blair Bunting recently took an almost-as-new Nikon D1 out for a spin to see how it stacked up to modern cameras.

Sex and stripping seem to go hand in hand, but in this edition of the A to Z of photography, I cover the acclaimed work of fashion photographer Bob Carlos Clark, "Shooting Sex" and then delve into the technical details of the photo finish.

At pretty much three-quarters of the way through the alphabet we stop at R, an eminently popular letter, to look at the foundation of pretty much all contemporary cameras — the Reflex. This is followed by the inspiringly funny work of Tony Ray-Jones whose career was cruelly cut short.

In this issue of the A to Z of Photography we turn to possibly the thorniest letter of the alphabet: Q. Fear not as we take you on a journey from an interview with the antipodean photographer Wayne Quilliam, through Elvis, Brahmanandam Kanneganti, Kim Kardashian, Princess Diana, and Donald Trump before finally arriving at the Queen.

Johnson Publishing Company, the former publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines, filed for liquidation in April of this year. There was a worry that their image archive would end up being sold to a private collector and that the images, which represent decades of African American culture and history, would disappear. 

You might not realize it, but Photoshop has entered its fourth decade of existence, and in those many years, it has had a lot of time to evolve into the highly intricate and powerful application it is today. Ever wonder what it was like to use in its early days? Check out this awesome video that shows what it was like working with a version released in 1988.

With this installment we revisit the whole sub-genre of panoramic photography. Literally(!) a wide subject, discover the history behind it, the software to create it, and the competitions to enter. Once you've scrambled your way through the panoramas, discover one of the most beautiful photos in the universe. Read on.

You might think that when a piece of art is finished, it is done in every sense of the word, now a static object — unchanging, permanent forever. But it’s anything but; in fact, all art is fleeting when you place it on the timescales our planet runs on. Just how do climate and art interact? What can art tell us about climate, particularly as it continues to be at the forefront of discussions of the future of humanity?

Have you ever run out to a shoot and realized that despite your best laid plans, you left something behind? Packed up, boarded a plane, and realized you left your memory cards or film at home? How far back did you have to go to get it? Imagine realizing that you had to travel 238,900 miles? Or worse, 170 years into the past.

With camera technology as good as it is nowadays, it can be easy to forget just how quickly things have advanced in the span of just a few short decades. As a case in point, this fun video reviews the Sega Digio SJ-1, a nifty point and shoot camera from 1996.

Color is the word this week, from the pioneering, contemporary, and successful work of Paul Outerbrdige through to applying the Orton Effect to color landscape images... or indeed, any images.

An amazing new exhibition has just opened, depicting images once lost to history and giving us a behind the scenes glimpse at some of the greatest mysteries of our time.

Moving on to N, we enter the second half of the alphabet and with that a headlong rush to Z. It's been a blast getting to this point, but now we start the countdown. In this issue the A to Z of Photography we visit that most unwanted of digital acquaintances, noise, before taking a peek at the cover work (and Polaroids) of Helmut Newton.

When we think of history and how dry it may appear as a subject to some, what role do visuals play in increasing genuine interest and cultivating understanding of things that have happened?

With M we reach a significant milestone in the A to Z of Photography as this is the halfway mark. So far "Bronica and Burtynsky" and "Fujifilm" have been the most read with the "Family of Man" and "Image Stabilization and Into the Jaws of Death" languishing at the bottom of the popularity charts! Onwards then to Inge Morath and Minolta.

This week we move on to L in the A to Z of Photography and an image of Lenna that has impacted every photographer, along with the little red dot… yes, this article gives a brief overview of the history of Leica, a brand that has influenced everyone directly or indirectly through either their design or the photos shot with them.

Trains, trains, trains. Heritage Railroads offer a lot of fun and a great photographic subject for those who like to travel. In this article I share my methods of capturing these magnificent vintage iron horses.

How could we pass K without perhaps the last word going to the most iconic of iconic brands? Yes, this installment of the A to Z of Photography outlines the rise and fall of Kodak. Can the phoenix arise from the ashes of it's photographic self-immolation? Yevgeny Khaldei accompanies Kodak and, whilst not a household name, his signature image is one of the the most recognizable. Read on.