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A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 1 Of 3
From Prehistory to the Renaissance

This blog is the 1st in a series:
See my 2nd blog:
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 2:
The camera moves and photography is born. From Kepler & Galileo to the 19th century.
And my 3rd blog:
A Brief History Of Light & Photography: Part 3
The Modern Era: Kodak, SLRs, Digital Cameras and the Future of Photography

INTRODUCTION

The word photography comes from the Greek and means "light writing" (photo = light, graphy = writing). We photographers are light artists. Drawing with light is very different than drawing with a pen. It requires light sensitive material, optics, dark enclosures and the ability to fix an image so that it does not fade. The history of how all this came to be is intertwined with our understanding of our place in the solar system and the universe. Is there any story more epic, more fascinating?

The modern scientific understanding of light evolved along with the development of the camera and photography -- making photography a unique art form that has always been inseparable from science. Digital photography, for example, came about as a result of the discovery of quantum physics, specifically the insights of Albert Einstein. My mentor, Ross Scroggs who ran the UNC-CH photo lab and who had worked at Kodak for decades, used to call photography that "odd hybrid discipline that combined optics, physics and chemistry." Today we might say: that combines optics, physics and computers.

The development of optics/photography is closely related to astronomy with Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein and Hubble making significant contributions in both fields. In fact, Kepler coined the term "camera obscura" which has been shortened today to "camera." The words come from Latin in which "camera" means "vaulted chamber/room" and "obscura" is translated "dark" so a camera is a "dark chamber/room" -- and the early camera obscuras were quite large, room size in fact -- so a dark room was an accurate description. In addition, starting as early as 1840, cameras were designed to take photographs with astronomical telescopes. After 1900 large telescopes were optimized for photography rather than for observation -- making them essentially telephoto cameras.

In this timeline, I could not help mentioning how often intuition, imagination, accident, spiritual feelings and even poetry played key roles in the scientific understanding of light. While these are more often associated with art, this timeline shows that science and art are often closely related.

I believe this timeline also shows that since the very beginning photography has evolved and will continue to evolve. And as our understanding of light itself improves, this will change photography as well.

PREHISTORY

Our feelings about light undoubtedly go back millions of years -- to the changing light of the seasons and the discovery and use of fire. Light is fundamental to existence. And because of this it has always had important religious significance. Many of the 'light scientists' held a deeply spiritual feeling for the subject.
== In Christianity in the third line of the Bible, "God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good." (Genesis, 1:3-4) Light is a key element in the celebration of Christmas.
== The Festival of Lights, known as Diwali, is a major event celebrated by Hindus and many others in South Asia and other places around the world. For the Hindus it marks the triumph of the return of the good deity Rama and the death of the evil demon Narakasura.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE CAMERA

According to legend, the discovery of the camera may have begun thousands of years ago with desert nomads who saw scenes outside their tents projected upside down on the back wall when a tiny hole in their dark tent let in light during the bright day. This phenomena was known even to the ancient Greeks, such as Aristotle, and others.

Personal note: I experienced this by accident myself, when I stayed in a room on the Mediterranean with two shutters that when closed completely darkened the room. I awoke one morning to see crashing waves in bright sunlight projected on the back wall, as a tiny hole between the shutters created a pinhole camera in my room.

1000 YEARS AGO

In 1021 Arab scientist Alhazen defined the basic nature of light and optics scientifically in his seven volume Book of Optics -- considered the most important book on the subject for the next 600 years.
Alhazen was the first to use experimental methods and logical reasoning to define the essential aspects of light: that it emanated from an outside light source, that light traveled in rays, and that the rays traveled in straight lines. Although not the first to use a camera obscura, he was the first to describe how to construct one; in addition he described how to magnify an object with a lens and to make a sharper projected image with a pinhole by reducing the size of the pinhole.

ROGER BACON AND THE INVENTION OF EYEGLASSES

In 1267 Friar Roger Bacon of England brought Alhazen's discoveries to the west in his book Opus Majus.
Reading a translation from Arabic to Latin of Alhazen's Book of Optics, he was the first in the west to fully describe a magnifying glass. This led to the creation of eyeglasses in Italy around 1286. Roger Bacon also made major contributions to the science of optics, the camera obscura and "focussed on the spiritual quality of light as the fundamental unit of all creation." (http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A2875430).

During the Renaissance pinhole imagery and the camera obscura was discussed by: Leonardo da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus (1502), Gemma Frisius in his book De Radio Astronomico Et Geometric Liber, 1545 (see illustration earlier) and Giovanni Battista della Porta in Magiae Naturalis, 1558. Plus optical and viewing refinements to the camera obscura were suggested by Girolama Cardano in 1550 and Daniel Barbaro in 1569. During this time the camera obscura became widely used for both scientific and artistic purposes.

NEXT ARTICLE:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIGHT & PHOTOGRAPHY: PART 2 Of 3
The camera becomes portable and photography is born
From Kepler and Galileo to the birth of photography

NOTE: See a list of my other articles here at PIXIQ. www.pixiq.com/contributors/rick-doble

For more about my approach to photography see my book: Experimental Digital Photography.

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