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Autochrome Lumière
James Maxwell’s three-colour process wasn’t exactly considered a practical method. Besides being early film pioneers, the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, had a keen interest in developing colour...
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The First Ever Photograph of an Electrocution
Photograph by: Tom Howard Image Source: The New York Daily News Archive— Getty Images The year was 1928. A shocking photograph of an individual being electrocuted appeared on the front page of The New...
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An Awakening
The publication of French poet Andre Breton’s, Surrealist Manifesto marks the beginning of the surrealist movement in art. So far, photography had largely remained a means for documentation. But the...
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An Indictment of America
Photograph/Gordon Parks Image Source: The U S Library of Congress Gordon Parks joined the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1942, which was a government agency set up by President Roosevelt, to...
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The Birth of Magnum Photos
Since its conception, the photo cooperative has documented most major events and personalities from around the globe. It was founded two years after the second World War by Robert Capa, David Seymour,...
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Promoting Art
The oldest photographic society in India was the Photographic Society of Madras. Founded by Dr Alexander Hunter, in its earlier years, the society’s membership largely consisted of Europeans.
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The Family of Man
In 1955, Edward Steichen, the Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, curated perhaps the most ambitious exhibition that was meant to encapsulate the ‘universality of the human...
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The Ultimate Symbol of Protest
Photograph/Malcolm Browne Image Source: Wikimedia Commons Over the years, self-immolation has become one of the most powerful symbols of dissent. And the photograph that started it all was The Burning...
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The Camera that Changed Photography
The Leica I was launched during the Leipzif Spring Fair in 1925. At the time, it was still common for glass plates to be used in cameras, while roll film was only used for miniature devices. It was the...
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A Legacy Beyond Photography
During Hitler’s reign in Germany, Ernst Leitz II of the Leica Camera company and his daughter Elsie Kuehn-Leitz smuggled hundreds of Jews out of Nazi Germany. The rescue effort was known as the Leica...
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Saul Leiter and His Poetic Images
Saul Leiter is remembered as one of the most influential colour photographers whose style of shooting (along with that of Weegee, Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon) is recognised as the New York School of...
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The First Ever ‘Spacewalker’
Photograph/Robert Gibson Image Source:NASA Bruce McCandless was on the receiving end of the transmission at NASA’s mission control, when Neil Armstrong uttered the following… “That’s one small step for...
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A Different Direction
In 1883, the eye-care brand, Bausch and Lomb began by making photographic lenses. They also manufactured shutters in 1888.
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Recreating Reality
The first time Southworth and Hawes were invited to document the public administration of ether on a patient, Hawes balked at the idea of blood. So instead, they photographed a reenactment of the...
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An Accidental Discovery
Photograph by: William Henry Pickering Image Source: Harvard College Observatory The Horsehead Nebula, one of the most familiar astronomical bodies, was first photographed by William Henry Pickering,...
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Paving the Way
William Nicholson Jennings, an amateur photographer from Philadelphia, made the first known photographs of lightning bolts. He did so from 1882-1890. His work eventually paved the way for further...
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Bird’s-eye View
Julius Neubronner, an apothecary from Kronberg, Germany, would use pigeons to deliver light doses of urgent medication to a sanatorium in Falkenstein. An interest in photography led him to develop a...
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Solidarity in Defiance
Photograph by Angelo Cozzi/ Mondadori Image Source Getty Images Tommie Smith and John Carlos were photographed delivering the famous Black Power Salute at the awards ceremony of the 200m race at the...
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A Keen Eye
In her early years as a photographer, most of Homai Vyarawala’s images were published under her husband’s name. India’s first female photojournalist made a name for herself while documenting important...
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Playboy’s Tryst with the Imaging Community
Photograph by: Dwight Hooker/Playboy Image Source: Wikimedia Commons Some photographs attain iconic status by sheer chance. This image is a cropped version of a nude photograph of Lena Söderberg, shot...
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