Fixing the shadows

What is camera obscura?

Camera Obscura is an optical phenomenon , it involves covering all the light in a room and then making a pinhole in one area where light could enter into the dark room and it would cause a reflection of whatever was outside such as a building but the image would be in the reverse as in upside down, it is a very natural image.

Name  four photographers and what they are known for ?

1. Henry Fox Talbot;

Born in February of 1800 and died in 1877. In 1834 he joined chemistry and art and put it to paper by creating his “mirror images” on paper or the image in lateral reverse and tonal reverse.  Talbot was an english scientist, photographer and inventor. He in undoubtedly one of “the founding fathers” of photographical development.  His work was possible to replicate.

2. Lois Daguerre;

Born in 1787 and died in 1851. Daguerre is a french photographer , his work focused mainly on light reflections on mirror plates that need to be gilded so that work would not disappear as if not it would easily vanish. his work was very intimate and could not be replicated, his pieces were referred to as “mirror memories”.

3.  Eadweard Muybridge;

Born in 1830 and died in 1904. He is an english photographer known for his landscapes, panoramas and his photographic studies of motion. He would capture movement of animals using multiple camera lenses which means multiple poses could be photographed in a matter of seconds, this possibility led to film strips used for cinematography .

4. Nadar , Gaspard Felix Tournachon;

Born in 1820 and died 1910.  Nadar was his professional name, he re wrote the rules of photography , no fake settings , very simplistic and all done in his daylight studio. Nadar is known for his portrait styled photographs of famous people and artists in a very simple way he wanted people to express the character through themselves and not through trying to use props to express their profession. He preferred to photograph people as equals.  Nadar had red hair and during his time you could not show that through photography so he would stamp all his photos with a red signature to personalise all his work.