November 15, 2024
How Kodak Invented the Snapshot in the 1800s, Making It Possible for Everyone to Be a Photographer

We nonetheless occa­sion­al­ly discuss of “Kodak moments,” mak­ing con­scious or uncon­scious ref­er­ence to the slo­gan of the East­guy Kodak Com­pa­big apple within the 9­teen-eight­ies. Even by way of that point, Kodak had already been a going con­cern for close to­ly a cen­tu­ry, fur­nish­ing pho­tog­ra­phers all over the world with the movie they want­ed to cap­ture photographs. Its first actual slo­gan, unveiled in 1888, was once “You Press the However­ton, We Do the Leisure,” and it her­ald­ed the arriving of a brand new generation: one by which, due to the com­pa­big apple’s No. 1 field cam­generation (loaded with the brand new medi­um of roll movie), pho­tographs may well be “tak­en by way of peo­ple with lit­tle or no pre­vi­ous knowl­fringe of pho­tog­ra­phy.”

So says Vox’s Cole­guy Lown­des in the brand new video above, and is the reason how this inven­tion modified the character of pho­tog­ra­phy itself. Peo­ple started the use of Kodak cam­eras “to document­u­ment their trav­els and their dai­ly lives at house”; they “took por­characteristics of every oth­er, but additionally can­did side road scenes.” Such was once the nov­el­ty of tak­ing a percent­ture so fast­ly and eas­i­ly — and smartly out­aspect a stu­dio — that it call for­ed a brand new phrase, or quite, the adop­tion of a phrase from anoth­er area: snap­shot, which up till then had referred to “a snappy shot with a gun, with­out purpose, at a fast-mov­ing tar­get.” Earlier than Kodak, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er sim­ply had no method to cap­ture the instant.

Nevertheless it was once handiest with the intro­duc­tion of the inex­pen­sive Brown­ie, “a sim­ple field cam­generation fabricated from card­board encased in pretend leather-based,” that each and every­one — even a kid — may just turn out to be a pho­tog­ra­ph­er. “Take a Kodak with You,” sug­gest­ed anoth­er of the com­pa­big apple’s slo­gans within the ear­ly twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, and mil­lions took heed. Its posi­tion as each a cor­po­price and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tion was once­n’t seri­ous­ly risk­ened till the top of that cen­tu­ry, when Japan’s Fuji­movie “had begun to devour away on the Amer­i­can pho­to large’s mar­ket proportion,” after which dig­i­tal pho­tog­ra­phy destroyed vast swaths of the movie busi­ness at a stroke.

Iron­i­cal­ly, the primary dig­i­tal cam­generation was once invent­ed in 1975 by way of a Kodak engi­neer, “however the com­pa­big apple, which from the start­ning had constructed itself on promote­ing and professional­cess­ing movie quite than guy­u­fac­tur­ing cam­eras, did­n’t make the alternate quickly sufficient.” After ultimate­ly input­ing financial institution­rupt­cy in 2012, Kodak reor­ga­nized to “focal point on dig­i­tal print­ing ser­vices quite than movie devel­op­ment,” which has by way of now turn out to be “a some­what area of interest mar­ket of ded­i­cat­ed hob­by way of­ists.” Additionally doing its phase to stay the com­pa­big apple afloat is its line of logo-embla­zoned appar­el, which holds out a unfashionable enchantment all the world over — even to younger­sters fast sufficient at the draw with their cam­generation telephones that each and every second would possibly as smartly be a Kodak second.

Relat­ed con­tent:

The His­to­ry of Pho­tog­ra­phy in 5 Ani­mat­ed Min­utes: From Cam­generation Obscu­ra to Cam­generation Telephone

Vis­it a New Dig­i­tal Archive of two.2 Mil­lion Pictures from the First Hun­dred Years of Pho­tog­ra­phy

How Movie Was once Made in 1958: A Kodak Nos­tal­gia Second

Rooster­ri Carti­er-Bres­son and the Deci­sive Second

The Very Con­cise Sui­cide Word by way of Kodak Founder George East­guy: “My Paintings is Accomplished. Why Wait?” (1932)

Hunter S. Thompson’s Recommendation for Aspir­ing Pho­tog­ra­phers: Skip the Fan­cy Equip­ment & Simply Shoot

Based totally in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and vast­casts on towns, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His tasks come with the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Towns and the guide The State­much less Town: a Stroll via Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­guide.


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