14773_01_1-174_r9jm.qxd 2/10/04 3:51 PM Page 31
CHAPTER TWO:
“Mere Copyists”
In 1839, Louis Daguerre invented the first practical technology for producing what we would call “photographs.” Appropriately enough, they were called “daguerreotypes.” The process was complicated and expensive, and the field was thus limited to professionals and a few zealous and wealthy amateurs. (There was even an American Daguerre Association that helped regulate the industry, as do all such associations, by keeping competition down so as to keep prices up.) Yet despite high prices, the demand for daguerreotypes was strong. This pushed inventors to find simpler and cheaper ways to make “automatic pictures.” William Talbot soon discovered a process for making “negatives.” But because the negatives were glass, and had to be kept wet, the process still remained expensive and cumbersome. In the 1870s, dry plates were developed, making it easier to separate the taking of a picture from its developing. These were still plates of glass, and thus it was still not a process within reach of most amateurs. The technological change that made mass photography possible didn’t happen until 1888, and was the creation of a single man. George 31
4TH PASS PAGES
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Co17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 S32 R33