Photos Of Daily Life Before, And What To Come
We have photos and film footage from the 19th century. They usually depict very official situations, often carrying a symbolical weight in a historical context. But there are also photos from private collections, such as family portraits or rudimentary travel photography. If we take a closer look at the early half of the century, there are some magnificient attempts at casual photography from daily life. One such example is the “Boulevard du Temple”, that was taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838 or 1839 (click photo to see a larger version). This is actually the first photograph ever that shows a person. Although the street appears empty due to the traffic during the exposure time of 10 minutes, there is a man standing still getting his boots polished.
As photography was so young in terms of technology, such photos were carefully planned and rigged, with several seconds for exposure. There was obviously no quick action photography, nor many photos from the daily chores of life. The result is a limited set of photos from the lives of older generations, mostly not representative of common daily lives. This is entirely opposite of today’s world of photography and the future generations possibilities to learn about the daily life in the 20th century.
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Lives With Constant Image Updates
Today we have the possibility to record our visual lives in every little step. Not only do we have digital cameras with memory cards that can store Gigabytes, but many are carrying around mobile phones which cameras are as advanced as simple point-and-click cameras. Considering the instant connection to the web with mobile phones, photography and presentation has merged into a quick and efficient way of sharing imagery from our daily lives.
Let us step back for an overview and consider SLR cameras, prosumer or professional cameras, if you so will. With digital SLR cameras, photography has grown into something more than showing locations or people. Photographer can now show off with style, using a wide range of presets for adapting the shutter speed and ISO settings to give photos an effect of motion, stillness, eerie lighting or highlighting people in a landscape. And all this seconds before the photo shoot! Little by little, this development has moved the art of design into digital cameras.
However, SLR cameras are clunky to carry around and so photos taken with these are usually prepared or in contexts such as travel, festivities, fashion or photo for commercial purposes. Enter mobile phone cameras..
Snapping Away On The Go
The later generations of mobile phones offer high resolution cameras, often with adjustments for light and with software to instantly share imagery online, for instance on web services such as YouTube or Flickr. What can we expect of the future? First off it is clear that photography will become increasingly available during daily lives, so every aspect can be captured on images. Second, we are converging towards sharing more and more photos with each other, which sparks more discussion about quality and of course more experimentation to see new angles (pun intended). The future, you ask? Perhaps an integrated mesh online with timelines fitted with plenty of photo material going generations back? Regardless, there are times of innovation up ahead!
Notes
Photo source: Wikipedia. The photo “Boulevard du Temple” was taken by Louis Daguerre in late 1838 or early 1839. This was the first photograph of a person. The photo is of a busy street, which due to the long exposure time looks empty, except for a person standing in the street getting his boots polished. The man stood still long enough to be caught on camera.
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