Interesting stories with photos. Rare historical photographs

In life, everything has its beginning, and so any science and art originate somewhere in the depths of centuries, and then they develop, improve, new directions, new trends are formed. This also applies to photography, which I perceive as an art, the development of which is directly related to science, I mean the development of photographic equipment. This article, entitled “A Brief History of Photography,” contains the most important facts about the origin and development of the great art of photography.

It’s worth starting with the main definition of photography, it comes from the ancient Greek words “light” and “writing”, i.e. Light painting is a technique of painting with light. This is the ability to create and save an image using photosensitive material (matrix) in the camera. This is the technically correct formulation. If we talk about photography as a form of art, then the definition may sound like this: the creative process of searching and creating a theoretically correct and artistic composition, which in turn, although partially, is determined by vision. The term itself appeared in 1839.

Brief history of photography

In 1826, the Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niepce surprised many by taking the first photograph in human history using a “camera obscura” (trans. dark room) on a tin plate covered with a thin layer of Syrian asphalt. This photograph depicted the view from the window of J.N. Niepce's workshop and was created over 8 hours, continuously exposed to direct sunlight.

Almost at the same time as Zh.N. Another Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, worked with Niépce to obtain a stable image. In 1829, having united with Niepce and received all detailed information Based on his previous experiences, Louis Daguerre begins to actively work on improving the process. And in 1837 he achieved success and obtained an image in 30 minutes, using table salt as a fixative. This method is called daguerreotype. However, unlike J. Niepce’s method, it was impossible to copy images.

Along with the French, the Englishman William Fox Henry Talbot worked on creating a stable image, and in 1839 he created his own method of producing a negative image called calotype (later it became known as talbotype). The main difference between this process is the special way of preparing sensitive paper. This process dominated the creation of both portrait and architectural images.

The history of the development of photography continues in 1850. Louis Brancard Hervard finds a new type of photographic paper - albumen, which was subsequently used as the main one until the end of the century.

In 1851, the Frenchman Gustave Le Grae invented wax negatives, which in turn replaced the tallotype. This innovation greatly simplified the process of creating images in nature.

The history of photography continues in 1847, when a kind of new stage in its development. This year marks the beginning of the era of glass negatives, with Claude Félix Abel Niépce achieving the first impressive results in this process. And already in 1851, the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer developed the wet callodion process. Due to the legal insecurity of this process, it quickly spread and helped increase. In 1854, the name ambrotype patented in America appeared, which was a kind of more simplified version of daguerreotype.

In 1861, the English physicist James Maxwell managed to obtain a color image for the first time in the world, which was the result of three photographs of the same subject, with different filters (red, blue and green). The wider use of color photography became possible thanks to Adolf Miethe. He invented sensitizers that make the photographic plate more sensitive to other areas of the spectrum. An even greater contribution to the development of this was made by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, who developed technologies that make it possible to reduce shutter speed.

Development did not stand still; from year to year, scientists sought to improve the process of creating images. Thus, a new stage in the history of photography began in 1872, when the Englishman Richard Leach Maddox announced the creation of a dry collodion plate.

In 1876, England began integrated approach to the study of the photographic process by W. Driffield and F. Harter, they focused their attention on studying the relationship between exposure time and the amount of silver formed in the film. In 1879, J. Swan opened the first production of special silver halide photographic paper based on gelatin, which became the main element in the production of photographic paper and is still used in industrial production today. By this time, workers involved in the production of photographic prints could already slightly adjust the tonality and contrast of the image during production.

American banker George Eastman in 1880, after a trip to England, opened his own company in America called the Eastman Dry Record Company, which was later renamed and registered as the KODAK Company in 1888. And in the same year in the summer this brand was released.

In 1869, Eadweard James Muybridge created one of the first camera shutters, which he used to photograph horses. In addition, he created his own photography system. In 1881, photographs of horses brought Muybridge worldwide fame.

The history of photography continues: in 1884, D. Eastman received a patent for roller film on a paper backing and cassette, which was a great innovation in the photography process. And already in 1888, D. Eastman received a patent for a portable camera, which housed the roller photographic film he had previously patented. And already in 1889, mass production of films began.

In 1911, Oskar Barnack came to work for the German company Leitz, who made a huge contribution to further development photos. Thanks to his efforts and research, it went on sale in 1925. a new type of small format camera called Leica I(the name comes from the merger of two words Leitz and Camera), which worked on standard film. Also this year, P. Wierkotter secured the rights to the first flash lamp he invented, and in 1931, G. Edgerton invented the world's first electronic photo flash, which naturally replaced the flash lamp.

In 1932, the world's first small format rangefinder camera Leica II.

Since about the 1930s. Color photography is becoming widespread, all thanks to the Kodak company, which was the first to release Kodachrome color reversible film. And in 1942, the company began producing Kodacolor film, which became very popular among professionals and amateur photographers.

In 1948, Polaroid made a breakthrough in photography with the release of the Polaroid Land 95 camera, which ushered in the era of instant photography.

In 1975, Kodak engineer Stephen Sassoon developed and introduced the first digital camera to the public. had a resolution of 0.1 mega pixels.

The growing public interest in photography demanded a more convenient model and greater production volume, and in 1988, FUJI introduced a truly portable digital camera model, the FUJI DS - 1P.

These days, even when mobile phones With built-in cameras capable of taking fairly good photographs, it can be difficult to imagine that people once spent enormous amounts of time taking just one photo.

The logical result of the development of photography was its transformation into genuine art. And personally, I am infinitely glad that now there is more opportunity to create truly artistic, artistic photographs.

A few more interesting facts from the history of photography:

— Louis Dugger in 1838 took a photograph that is considered the first to depict a person.

— In 1839, Robert Cornelius took his first self-portrait.

— In 1858, Gaspard Tournache took the first aerial photograph of Paris.

— In 1856, William Thompson took the first underwater photograph. His camera was attached to a pole.

— In 1840, Professor John William Draper took the first successful photograph of the Moon.

— In 1972, the first color photograph of our beautiful planet Earth was taken.

What? Where? When? Brief overview

These rare historical photographs can be watched for a long time and with aspiration. We have collected only such footage for you. Enjoy!
25 photographs of the past, where behind each frame whole life, fate and its own unique history.

(Total 25 photos)

1. Children play with wads of money during a period of hyperinflation. Germany, 1922.

2. Nazi parade in Bückeburg, 1934.

3. Nazis encourage people to join a boycott of Jewish stores, 1933.

4. A Jewish woman in Austria sits on a bench with the sign “for Jews only.”

5. SS soldiers take the oath of allegiance in Munich, 1938.

6. Applause and standing ovation for Hitler after the successful annexation of Austria, 1938.

7. Einstein on the beach.

8. A frozen Soviet soldier, placed in a standing position by Finnish soldiers as psychological pressure.

9. Tsarist secret police file on Joseph Stalin, 1911.

10. Joseph Stalin (right) and his double Felix Dudayev.

11. Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili was captured by the Germans in 1941. He was later killed in a prison camp.

12. A German soldier shares food with a Russian woman and child.

13. A fighter lights a cigarette with a flamethrower.

14. A Soviet soldier accompanies a German prisoner of war after the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad.

15. 57,000 German prisoners of war march to Moscow after defeat in Belarus, 1944.

16. German prisoners of war, literally packed into a cramped pen of a prisoner of war camp.

17. Simone Segouin, 18-year-old French resistance fighter, 1944.

19. Joseph Goebbels shaking hands with a very young soldier, 1945.

20. Reaction of German soldiers to photographs from concentration camps.

A selection of old interesting photographs from different times and countries.

A worker removes a book from a shelf at the Cincinnati Main Library, 1874.

Prayer service before the offensive in the 37th regiments infantry division. In the photo, Infantry General A.M. Zayonchkovsky, Cavalry General A.M. Kaledin, cavalry general A.A. Brusilov. Carpathians. July 1916.

Raising the flag during the morning formation at the women's camp of the Imperial Labor Service. Baden. Third Reich. 1940

Fashion show of beachwear. London, 1936

Rasputin, Major General Putyatin and Colonel Lotman, Russian Empire, 1904.
Photographer: Karl Bulla.

Race car driver at the time of the accident, Washington, 1936.

One of the underground Nazi gold vaults captured by the Allies, April 1945.

Fedor Ivanovich Shikunov. In 52 air battles he shot down 25 enemy aircraft. Killed in Germany on March 15, 1945.

Henry Osborne with dinosaur limbs, 1899.

Jean Bugatti next to the Bugatti Royale “Esders”, 1932, France

Fight a few meters from the Rechnoy Vokzal metro station, 1979, Moscow
The photograph captured several colorful characters. Who they are, why they dressed up like that is unknown.

Prostitute in the camp with Soviet soldiers during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, August 1968.

Cubans collect aluminum for the US Army. The inscription on the poster is “With the Americans and for the Americans to the end,” 1941.

New York, 1905.

Young intelligence officer Vanya Mikhailenko, awarded the medal "For Courage". Kalinin Front, 1942.

Ernesto Che Guevara sits proudly and revolutionary on a potty, Rosario, Argentine Republic, 1929.

Robert McGee. In 1864, when Robert was a child, he was scalped by a Sioux chief named Little Turtle.

Drawing on birch bark by a 7-year-old boy, Onfim, who lived in Veliky Novgorod 700 years ago.

Mongolian criminal, 1913.

Saddam Hussein arrives on a friendly visit to the USSR, 1972.

Aborigines Pacific Ocean looking at the F4U Corsair aircraft. At first they mistook the military for gods. 1943

Soldiers of the SS Division Death's Head go on patrol, winter 1942.

Eva Braun does gymnastic exercises on the shores of Lake Königssee, which is still considered the cleanest lake in Germany, 1942.

Police protect a swimming group of blacks and desegregationists from an angry mob. St. Augustine, Florida, 1964.

Mikhail Bulgakov with his sisters Vera, Nadezhda and Varvara.

Soviet soldiers drink to celebrate the New Year on the banks of the Vistula, 1945.

Construction workers queuing for pay, Rockefeller Center, New York, 1931. It was from that year that the tradition of the annual Christmas tree in this center began, which is still alive.

Royal boat in the form of a fish, India, 1857.

A car that could drive on slopes at an angle of 65 degrees. England, 1936.

Broadway, New York, 1850.

Chinese prisoners standing on a pile of stones, one stone removed daily until strangulation occurred, 1900.

A Russian family “marked” the gates of their house to protect themselves during the Armenian pogrom. Baku, 1990

Greek gold bracelets that are over 2,200 years old.

Soviet citizens look at American televisions at an exhibition in Moscow, 1959.

Loggers sitting on the stump of a giant sequoia, 1904.

Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay.

Soldiers of the UVV unit (fascist collaborators) play cards near Kharkov, World War II.

Public transport of shaved-headed French women punished for collaborating with the Germans. Cherbourg, France, 1944.

German soldiers who captured a young partisan, July-August 1943.

Playing cards under a canopy on Safronovskaya Square. Nizhny Novgorod, 1896.

Driving training for the King's African Rifles, 1943.
A stone on the head teaches students not to lower their heads and look at the road all the time. Hussein Obama, the father of US President Barack Obama, also served in KAR.

The German military is preparing a chlorine gas attack, Poland, First world war, 1915.

Warsaw ghetto, April 1943.

Horses and men at war, women plowing on their own, France, 1917.

A boy holds a sign that says "All I Want for Christmas is a Clean White School" - protests after Ruby Bridges, a black girl, was the first to attend an all-white school, New Orleans, 1960.

Excavation of the Sphinx statue in Giza. Egypt, 1850s.

Tsar Alexander III, 1893.

American officers drink at Hitler's private residence in the Bavarian Alps, May 8, 1945.

Hitler talking to Mussolini through a train window, 1940.

Nikola Tesla in national Serbian costume, 1880.

View of the Kremlin with the Stone Bridge, Moscow, 1880s.

José Dusorc at the age of 21, 1905. Height 2.28 meters. Shoe size 62.

Real estate developer Fred Trump with his son Donald, 1970s.
In the background is the American version of “Cheryomushki”; high-rise buildings for the poor in New York.