subject: Photography in the Modern Age [print this page] Photography in the Modern Age Photography in the Modern Age
Photography can be roughly defined as the art of capturing memories or scenes on a physically persistent medium. In modern days the mediums usually include photographic film or electronic storage devices like hard-disks, CD's, DVD's, flash based memory cards etc.
Man has forever wanted to visually record memorable scenes since ancient times. The paintings of a caveman may be considered the crudest form of photography. As time passed portraits of important persons became increasingly common. However, it was not until the 18th century when independent research by Nicphore Nipce, Louis Daguerre, Hercules Florence, and William Fox Talbot made significant contributions and refinements to the entire process making photography popular. Finally in 1908 Laureal Lippmann became the first person to photographically reproduce colors on a photographic plate and ever since then photographers have never looked backed.
Photography finds its uses in various fields of modern life. The widest use of photography is, as expected, personal in nature. People have and have always had the desire visually record their cherished moments. Modern photography has only made it easier and more convenient for people to do so. The sheer amount of user generated content available on the web and estimated to be in PCs is the best indicator of the success of photography in modern life. The advent of digital cameras and flash based storage devices too have made the technology cheap and convenient to use.
The uses of photography range from collecting detailed forensic evidence in crimes scenes to capturing minute details of galaxies from massive images created by space telescopes. From collecting micro-structural details of cells in biology to massively detailed photographs of geographic locations and areas for mapping. They are used for artistic use by professional photographers depicting abstract ideas to photographs of animals and plants in the wild by wildlife photographers. Finally, of course, photographs that depict the happiness of becoming parents to the sadness of people when a natural disaster occurs causing human losses.
A video too is essentially a collection of photographs (frames) executed very fast (greater than 25 frames per second) in continuous sequence to create the illusion of motion. Photography, or rather the art of capturing moments or memories, will stay as long as humankind continues to exist. The form in which photography may evolve in the future is best left for the imaginative mind to contemplate, but the human desire will remain the same.
