Recent Historical Articles

The Experience of Photographing September 11th As It Happened

September 11th was a horrific day. Many photographers covered the events of the day, and of them, Phil Penman's images are particularly noteworthy. In this presentation, he shows some of his images and talks about his experience on that day.

'The Scream' Painter Edvard Munch's Rare Photographs to Go on Display

For most people who know the name Edvard Munch, there’s an immediate association with his iconic painting, "The Scream.” This artist, fabled for his emotionally impactful painting, is not known for his photographs, but his lens-based work will soon be available for fans of art and photography.

Photographic History: Documenting an Empire, by the Abdullah Frères

Graphics are international, with photographic ideas and images spreading like wildfire. They speak a universal language, are pan-cultural, yet have their own local meanings and understandings. This sounds like the world of Instagram, 500px, YouTube, and Flickr, but it’s actually 1858, and the Abdullah Frères are setting up their photographic studio in Constantinople.

A Look Back: Viewing Nikon's F6 Film Camera Through a 2004 Lens

While there’s much abuzz about Nikon’s upcoming full-frame mirrorless cameras, it’s easy to forget that Nikon has been in the “full frame” business for a long time. Here to remind us of that is YouTuber Matt Granger, who reviews that Nikon F6, Nikon’s 2004-era 35mm film flagship, which he calls the “DSLR killer.”

The Birth of Photography: When Amateurs Led the Field

Where do the foundations of photography lie? If the physical principles of the camera had been understood for millennia and chemists had known for some time that silver reacted to light, what then led to a convergence of understanding in the 1830s?

The Fascinating History Behind Pentax and Their Cameras

Pentax has been around just a shade under a century now, and it has a fascinating history full of success and tragedy that most of us probably aren't aware of. Learn about how the company came to be what it is today in this excellent video history.

Copenhagen's Five Best Photo Locations

If you have never been to Copenhagen in Denmark, I highly recommend going in summer. All the locals are out enjoying the sun and heat. This 3 hour photo walk is only an introduction to the most common places you must visit.

Cultural Tattoos Invisible in Wet Collodion Prints

A photographer has found an amazingly cool way to capture and honor the art of facial tattoos from the indigenous New Zealand culture the Māori. Using the wet collodion process, the subjects appear to have their ink magically removed in portraits hung next to modern digital photos creating a surreal before and after effect.

The Story of Why Kodak Went From Photography Giant to Bankrupt

It really wasn't that long ago that Kodak was as ubiquitous in photography as the camera itself, and yet, nowadays, the company is sadly a shell of its former self. This great video examines just what happened to bring the former titan to its knees.

Modern History: How APS Film Became the APS Cameras You Know Today

To almost any photographer today, if you mention "APS," they think of crop sensor cameras, namely APS-C or perhaps the APS-H sensor in older models in Canon's 1D line. However, if you mentioned it two decades ago, the response would have been very different.

John Thomson: The First Travel Photographer?

Imagine a world that, wherever you traveled, you were the first to capture an image. That was the ten year experience of John Thomson, but it was 1862 and he used the wet collodion process with photographic requirements that are about as far removed from today as imaginable. So what were his achievements?

The American Daguerre - John Plumbe

Imagine pursuing your dream but lacking the funds to do so, then coming across a technology so amazing that you see the opportunity to establish a new business as a market leader, creating a chain of branches. John Plumbe, the Daguerreotype portraitist, did just this in 1840 which led to some of the most enduring photos of Washington D.C.

What Makes an Extraordinary Photo?

An image is eye catching when it's extraordinary. So why is it that the ordinary and banal can appear extraordinary? And if that really is the case, how can we go about achieving that?

Take a Tour of the Behemoth Kodak Complex in This Video

Kodak is sadly just a shell of what the company used to be, but the majority of the infrastructure that once made up the film giant is still very much in place. You can take a casual tour of the Kodak complex in this great video.

Feeling Flushed: The Toilet as a Still Life

The toilet has a humble and immodest history in photography. So, to follow in the footsteps of the greats, I set out to review it's past and recreate my own in the style of Alfred Steiglitz.

The Top Sportswear Commercials of All Time

Today I take a trip down memory lane to identify a few of the television commercials that, for me, have exceeded the level of infomercial pitch to touch the mantle of enveloping art. As with any "tops of all time list," these are thoughts are completely subjective, but I'll do my best to explain my thinking behind each choice and hopefully, my list will inspire you to start thinking of your own.

Photographic Tribute to Preserve the Legacy of Lumberjacks

There's still plenty of families and communities that heavily rely upon the forestry industry. Finland, a country many of us associate with deep woods and arctic temperatures, continues to carry the strong legacy of those who spent their lives working in the forest, and as such, photographer Sanna Vornanen celebrates the lives of lumberjacks all around the world through her latest project.

Historic Archive of Photos Opened Up

Imagine a large resource of historic photos that were collected at a then industrial scale, for commercial use, that lay neatly archived largely unknown about. Well, last week new startup Timepix launched just such an archive in the UK.

Two Pulitzer Prize-Winning Black Women Photojournalists Discuss Their Experiences and the Industry

As Black History Month continues, Adorama brought Documentary Photographer and Curator Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, co-author of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, to moderate a panel with New York Times Staff Photojournalist Michelle Agins and Akili Ramsess, Executive Director of the National Press Photographers Association (both Pulitzer Prize winners) to discuss the history of black women in photojournalism.

A Fascinating Documentary on the Early History of Photography

Most of us are relatively familiar with the history of photography in the last decade or so, but I'd argue its early years were far more interesting, with patent wars abounding and chemicals making people crazy (ok, maybe I'm glad that part is no longer an issue). This fascinating documentary details the history of early photographic processes, their development, and the stories of the people behind them.

The Incredible Detective Work Behind Finding the Photographer of This Iconic Image

What's the most difficult environment you've ever taken a photo in? The time when you had one chance to get the shot with no opportunity to try again? Does it compare to tumbling around the moon at several miles per second while capturing one of the most iconic images of all-time? Check out this great video that explores the creation of "Earthrise."

The Story of the World's First Digital Camera as Told By Its Inventor

It's hard to believe that digital cameras have been in existence for over four decades, but thanks to one creative engineer, we have one of the most ubiquitous pieces of modern technology. Hear the story of the birth of our beloved cameras from the inventor himself.

Recreating Vintage Ads to Reverse Gender Roles

What happens when a visual artist overhears his uncles discussing how women "are better off cooking, taking care of the kitchen, and fulfilling their 'womanly duties?'" Eli Rezkallah, who's a photographer and a visual artist currently residing in Beirut, came up with the idea of creating a controversial set of photographs that reverse the traditional gender roles, that had been so strongly embedded within our society through advertisement during the twentieth century.