From the ancient camera obscura to the 18th-century silhouette, many inventions preceded the advent of photography.
George Eastman Museum
These are sharply defined, highly reflective, one-of-a-kind photographs on silver-coated copper plates.
The Daguerreotype (2 of 12)
Before the negative/positive process, Talbot tried photogenic drawing, salted paper prints, and calotype negatives.
Talbot’s Processes (3 of 12)
This process depends on a photochemical reduction that forms Prussian blue, an iron-based pigment.
The Cyanotype (4 of 12)
The wet collodion process can create thousands of prints. This technique eventually won out over the daguerreotype.
The Collodion process (5 of 12)
What does an albumen print have in common with an omelet?
The Albumen Print (6 of 12)
Platinum prints are characterized by their delicate surface and subtle tonal gradations.
The Platinum Print (7 of 12)
Photographers like Alfred Stieglitz favored the handcrafted look of pigment prints.
The Pigment Processes (8 of 12)
This process was invented in 1864 and achieved acclaim for its exquisite rendering of detail and its permanency.
The Woodburytype (9 of 12)
With its shorter printing time, this process came to dominate black-and-white photography.
The Gelatin Silver Process (10 of 12)
Photography’s earliest practitioners dreamed of finding a way to capture the world around them—in color.
Color Photography (11 of 12)
We carry cameras in our pockets now. How has that technology become possible?