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The Moment that Bowled Over a Nation
Photograph/Hemendra Anupamlal Shah This article was originally published in February 2014. The day 8 February 1994 was a historic moment for Indian cricket. A lot was at stake when Kapil Dev played the...
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On the Battlefield
This image depicts the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. With this image, Felice Beato possibly produced the first-ever photographic images of corpses. Photograph/Felice Beato. Image source:...
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Early Vintage
Based on Frederick Scott Archer’s wet collodion process, ambrotypes were intentionally underexposed as negatives, which were then optimised for viewing as positives. They were far less expensive to...
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Lighting Up The Ghosts Of The Past!
Image Source/Wikimedia Commons In the history of image projection systems, the first known invented device is the Magic Lantern. It was used extensively way back in the 18th and 19th century and is...
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Early Tornado Chasers
Photograph by: F N Robinson Image Source: Wikimedia Commons This dramatic picture is the second known image captured of a tornado. On 28th August 1884, as large storm systems converged, tornadoes...
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Hidden Mother Photography
When it came to photographing children in the 1800s, portraitists would request their mothers to sit in the frame, often covered by a blanket so as not to draw attention to them. While this made it...
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A Trendsetter
Carte de visites were generally the size of the modern visiting card. Although said to be invented by Louis Dodero, they were popularised by André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, largely thanks to the elite...
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Did You Know: Cameras are Designed Only for Right-handed People
Cameras are designed only for right-handed people Most right-handed people would barely notice how left-handed people use cameras. If you have paid close attention to the body of a camera, you will...
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Roger Fenton’s Quiet Landscapes of War
A lawyer-turned-painter, Roger Fenton’s career path saw a radical change (again) after he viewed the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. Struck by the brilliance of photography, he took it up and...
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Pioneering an Art Movement
The Steerage. Photograph/Alfred Stieglitz The pictorialist movement picked up steam in the 1860s, and flourished as a photographic style to the early 1900s. Photographers part of this movement included...
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Early Flash
By igniting magnesium in a globe of pressurised oxygen, Frenchman Chauffour designed the first photoflash bulb. The device functioned by sealing a magnesium wire inside a glass jar with oxygen. The...
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The Story Behind: The Photograph that Won Lincoln the Presidency
Photograph/Matthew Brady Pioneer photographer Mathew Brady is best known for his photographs of the vivid battlefields of the American Civil War (1861–1865). However, he also photographed 18 Presidents...
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The Three-colour Process
Isaac Newton’s 17th century experiment with a prism that proved sunlight comprised of seven colours was essential to the development of colour photography. To accurately reproduce colours required a...
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The World’s First Selfie
In October 1839, Robert Cornelius made the first self portrait known to the world. Since daguerreotypes required a fair amount of time to imprint a subject onto its surface, he had to remain still for...
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A Burst of Colours
In the 1800s, the colour photographs were black and white pictures retouched with watercolours. These photographs were most popular in the mid-to-late-19th century, and some studios even specialised...
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First Ever Printed Photograph
Photograph by: Unknown | Image Source: The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper Mark Twain once jokingly said to David Croly, Editor of The Daily Graphic: An Illustrated Evening Newspaper,...
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Tintypes
Although the process had first been described by Adolphe-Alexandre Martin of France in 1853, the tintype process was patented in 1856 by Hamilton Smith in the United States. These were relatively...
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Humble Beginnings
Nikon Model I. Formed in 1917, Nikon’s earlier name was Nippon Kogaku which translates to ‘Japanse Optical’. The company was formed by the merger of three small optical firms, including one which dated...
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Up, Up and Away
The earliest aerial photographs made by Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (otherwise known as Nadar), were lost in time. What is now considered the earliest surviving aerial picture is a view of Boston, made...
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Lala Deen Dayal
Around the time Deen Dayal began his service for the Department of Works Secretariat Office in Indore, he also started making pictures regularly. Using the glass plate technology that was available in...
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