What if - Earlier photography?

[UrbanRedneck]

Photography took off in the late 1800's. The American Civil War was the first war covered by photographers and also has the notoriety of the first photos censored by the government.

Thing is photos dont lie. They show the dead as they are and they show leaders and ordinary people, not as caricatures that we see in drawings and paintings, but as real people. So Napaleon would be short. Kings and queens would be shown, not wearing crowns and sitting on thrones, but as ordinary people. We would have much more accurate pictures of what native americans looked like.

Well what if photography had come into use earlier, say the 1600's? I'm saying then because photography needed lenses for focus and I think that was about the time those were available.

Do you think earlier photography might have changed any world events?

 

[Riain]

I'm thinking of the exploration of Australia with a camera in tow. Captain Cook could have taken a lot of photos of his voyage up the east coast of Australia and maybe the settlement would have occured sooner, or later.

 

[SavoyTruffle]

Photography took off in the late 1800's. The American Civil War was the first war covered by photographers and also has the notoriety of the first photos censored by the government.

Thing is photos dont lie. They show the dead as they are and they show leaders and ordinary people, not as caricatures that we see in drawings and paintings, but as real people. So Napaleon would be short. Kings and queens would be shown, not wearing crowns and sitting on thrones, but as ordinary people. We would have much more accurate pictures of what native americans looked like.

Well what if photography had come into use earlier, say the 1600's? I'm saying then because photography needed lenses for focus and I think that was about the time those were available.

Do you think earlier photography might have changed any world events?

Er, he was average height for the time...

 

[UrbanRedneck]

I'm thinking of the exploration of Australia with a camera in tow. Captain Cook could have taken a lot of photos of his voyage up the east coast of Australia and maybe the settlement would have occured sooner, or later.

Imagine photos of Queensland, Perth, and other cities before any people settled there?

If I recall my Australian history we didnt see pictures of the natives of Tazmania until the 1890's when they had changed. Imagine pictures of them in 1790.

 

[modelcitizen]

I see a slightly blurred pic of a dodo looking curiously at the camera


maybe at the constitutional convention, after discussing matters all day in a closed-up room on a summer day, get a gnarly picture of everyone in the summer evening light before they have a chance to freshen up

 

[Mike Stearns]

I see a slightly blurred pic of a dodo looking curiously at the camera


maybe at the constitutional convention, after discussing matters all day in a closed-up room on a summer day, get a gnarly picture of everyone in the summer evening light before they have a chance to freshen up

Photos of Washington on campaign could have interesting butterflies. I could see Franklin and Jefferson as avid photographers.

 

[VictorLaszlo]

... Thing is photos dont lie. ...

Oh yes, they do. Since Photoshop more than ever, but manipulating photographs is nearly as old as photography itself. Just take a look at how Stalin had Trotsky removed from all official photographs in the 1930ies. One of the most blatant examples is a photo of a politburo meeting from the early 1920ies, originally showing more than a dozen participants. By the time of Stalins death, it had been reduced to a meeting between Lenin and Stalin in front of strange looking bushes.

 

[Thande]

Oh yes, they do. Since Photoshop more than ever, but manipulating photographs is nearly as old as photography itself. Just take a look at how Stalin had Trotsky removed from all official photographs in the 1930ies. One of the most blatant examples is a photo of a politburo meeting from the early 1920ies, originally showing more than a dozen participants. By the time of Stalins death, it had been reduced to a meeting between Lenin and Stalin in front of strange looking bushes.

It's particularly odd he uses the American Civil War as an example, because that's one of the most famous early examples of photo-manipulation.

 

[Devolved]

Photography took off in the late 1800's. The American Civil War was the first war covered by photographers and also has the notoriety of the first photos censored by the government.

QUOTE]

Don't wish to be anal but the Crimean War was covered by photographers almost 10 years earlier. Some good pictures too.

 

[Thande]

Don't wish to be anal but the Crimean War was covered by photographers almost 10 years earlier. Some good pictures too.

That's true.

 

[Mike Stearns]

Oh yes, they do. Since Photoshop more than ever, but manipulating photographs is nearly as old as photography itself. Just take a look at how Stalin had Trotsky removed from all official photographs in the 1930ies. One of the most blatant examples is a photo of a politburo meeting from the early 1920ies, originally showing more than a dozen participants. By the time of Stalins death, it had been reduced to a meeting between Lenin and Stalin in front of strange looking bushes.

The Russians were notorious, and infamous, for doing this and they were VERY skilled at it. They were particulary infamous for doctoring photos that came from the Russian space program.

 

[Baruch]

I think it would have been great to have pictures of the Constitutional convention too, but I can't see photography coming in a second before Lavoisier. If only he had kept his head, what wonders might have come from it!

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

James K Polk was the first President to be photographed.

Seeing this. I wouldn't mind seeing photos of Washington and Adams. Would be really awesome.

 

[juanml82]

Wouldn't that require (much) earlier advances in chemistry? And, if feasible, that alone would create massive butterflies.

 

[Flubber]

... I can't see photography coming in a second before Lavoisier.

I must agree. The development of photography needs chemistry instead of alchemy.

One important point about the very earliest photographs is that the process used to create them meant their "shelf life" is very limited. If you wanted them to last more than a few years, the photographs had to be kept in display boxes filled with inert gas.

Longer lasting processes were developed fairly quickly, in less than a decade IIRC, but the earliest photos faded rather quickly.

 

[modelcitizen]

Photos of Washington on campaign could have interesting butterflies. I could see Franklin and Jefferson as avid photographers.

Ben Franklin...


"Patriot Porn-Stash Discovered!"



edit: but, yeah, a pic of Washington looking right at the camera could be really neat.

 

[Grey Wolf]

Don't wish to be anal but the Crimean War was covered by photographers almost 10 years earlier. Some good pictures too.

Ah, I don't have to say it then

However, I did accept the challenge and go have a look at the Mexican-American War and found this

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...ilitary-Photos-Mexican-American-War-1846-1848

I assume Photobucket changed their policy on hotlinking which is why you can't see the pictures, tho Google is still indexing them AS pictures

THIS is interesting
http://camerablogmuseum.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-50-years.html
and shows one of them

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[Grey Wolf]

If you're looking at Fox Talbot rather than Daguerre you might get earlier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Talbot

Talbot engaged in photographic experiments beginning in early 1834, well before 1839, when Louis Daguerre exhibited his pictures taken by the sun. After Daguerre's discovery was announced (without details), Talbot showed his five-year-old pictures at the Royal Institution on 25 January 1839. Within a fortnight, he freely communicated the technical details of his photogenic drawing process to the Royal Society. Daguerre would not reveal the manipulatory details of his process until August. In 1841, Talbot announced his discovery of the calotype, or talbotype, process. This process reflected the work of many predecessors, most notably John Herschel and Thomas Wedgwood. In August 1841, Talbot licensed Henry Collen, the miniature painter (1798-1879) as the first professional calotypist. Talbot's original contributions included the concept of a negative from which many positive prints can be made (although the terms negative and positive were coined by Herschel), and the use of gallic acid for developing the latent image. In 1842, for his photographic discoveries, which are detailed in his The Pencil of Nature (1844), he received the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society.[5]

Whilst Daguerre was apparently an accident, Fox Talbot was working in a field with long origins and deliberately endeavouring to do what he achieved

Thomas Wedgwood seems especially interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wedgwood_(1771-1805)

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

 

[1940LaSalle]

The biggest hurdle is a supply of silver nitrate of consistent quality. My guess is that this might be feasible by the early 1820s or so, meaning you'd have photographs of Jackson's inaugural and the like. It may be possible to push that back perhaps a decade or so, permitting both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as elderly men to sit for photographic portraits.

And I don't disagree for a second that one of the earlier applications would be porn.

 

[Baruch]

The Satyricon proves that rule 34 existed back in Roman times.