Pre-Digital Photographic

1A) 

Picture By: Oskar Barnak 

B) The photographic technology I chose to write about is the Leica 35mm. This camera was invented in the 1920s by Oskar Barnack. This camera was what helped journalists document World War II and it was what helped start journalism. The features of this camera were a huge upgrade from what photographers used before. John Wade in the Leica I: The camera that changed photography "A 35mm movie frame size measured 18x24mm, with the film running vertically through the camera. But Barnack ran the film through his prototype horizontally, doubling one of the frame dimensions." This camera was different from the previous invention of photography because it enabled photographers and photojournalists to be able to travel with little equipment and take multiple films. Photographers went from driving around a wagon that carried all of their equipment to being able to carry their cameras around and take multiple films. in this video, Before There Were Pixels-Part 1 "The exposure would take 5 minutes to 8 Minutes" That meant that people had to stay still for so long to have their picture taken.  The Leica 35mm had so many improvements compared to what was used before. According to my research photojournalism began soon after the Leica 35mm was created and World War II began. Many may have the conflict of photojournalism began during the Civil War David Morgan in The Civil War: The Birth of Photojournalism said "Fenton pictures were an early attempt to document war with a camera, but his images were mostly of the landscapes and participants of the conflict." This to me means that although photojournalism did exist during the Civil War many tried to photograph it. It wasn't until the Leica that photojournalists had a chance to truly show what was going on with the war. Instructor Ross Collins in History of Photojournalism "But in the World War II era, Life was probably the most influential photojournalism magazine in the world. During that war, the most dramatic pictures of the conflict came not so often from the newspapers as from the weekly photojournalism magazines, photos that still are famous today" Learning how impacted people were in the World War II era after the magazine Life was able to present the dramatic images taken during the conflict shows how this camera was an impact to the entire world and not just photojournalism.  

C)

Picture By: Shakira Martin on 21 Sep 2024

Who: My Son

What: Playing Soccer

When: 21 September 2024

Where: Springfield MA 

Why: This Photo was taken because it is my son's first time playing soccer and this is his first time making a goal! This will be a core memory for us all and we will be able to show him when he grows up. Another reason was because as I took this picture I realized how easy it is to freeze someone with pictures and back then they didn't have the privilege to do it so easily. However when they were able to see it for the first time they were amazed. In the video Before There Were Pixels Professor Nordell said " People before photographs had no idea what the body looked like frozen in the air" To us now we probably never thought about the impact images back then had on others. We sometimes take for granted how lucky we are in a moment because we never stop to think about how we got here. I believe that if we take the time to appreciate photojournalism and how it has evolved and helped us out in capturing moments such as this. We could appreciate our technology more. 

D) After researching and watching module 4 content on the evolution of photojournalism and pre-digital technology I find it intriguing how over the years photojournalism has improved. Compared to the images back then to now, we can all say that things have improved in the technology aspect. For example, in the wet collodion process, it took a long time to be able to capture one picture and so many steps had to be carefully done leaving no room for error. In this video, The Wet Collodion Process " Producing wet collodion images had to be done quickly and efficiently because collodion will dry out after 10 minutes" This statement shows how back then people didn't have the luxury we have now that we can back up our images and take many different ones in case we do not like it. In 2024 my phone gallery has over 2,000 images of different types of events. This is so different from then because now we can store thousands of pictures in our digital devices without any worries about the images getting lost. I think that sometimes we must look at the past to appreciate the present.