history of photography

The word photography comes from the Greek words phos (light)  and graphein (writing). The word was coined by Sir John Herschel in 1839. The first successful picture was produced in 1827 by Niépce, using material that hardened on exposure to light. This picture required an exposure of eight hours. Later Daguerre discovered a way of developing photographic plates, a process which greatly reduced the exposure time from 8 hours down to half an hour. Later he also discovered that an image could be made permanent by immersing it in salt. In 1851 a new era in photography was introduced by Frederick Scotto Archer, who introduce the collodion process. This process was much faster than conventional methods, reducing exposure times to 2 or 3 seconds. In 1884 George Eastman introduced flexible film. Four years later he created the box camera, and photography could now reach a much greater number of people.