It may sound odd, but it is true! The word photography derives from Greek and literally means “writing with light”. Fotos means light and Grafein means to write.

For me the experiments in the then still unknown world of photography are one of the most interesting technical ingenuities. Around the year 1800 the idea to actually try to capture natural light that travels at very high speed must have sprung from a very special human brain. To get from the initial experimental processes to the first real recorded image, and then from cameras with ‘old’ rolls of film to the current modern world of digital photography, took more than 200 years of continuous development.

In the nineteenth century one started to experiment with taking photographs. They were difficult and time consuming procedures. Around the year 1800 two handy principles were used that at hindsight proved to be essential for taking photographs. The first principle was the operation of the camera obscura (Italian for dark room). The camera obscura was, as the name says, a dark room with a small hole through which light shone. The image that shone through the hole was projected face down on the back wall of the room. However, when the hole was closed the image immediately disappeared, and that was the problem: the image, respectively the light, must be held. Luckily the second handy principle was already known: some materials change colors due to sunlight.

The first photograph ever was taken by the Frenchman Joseph Niepce in 1822. To take the picture took him eight hours. The problem was how to light the photograph and therefore after eight hours the image was still out of focus and dark. It was of great importance that the camera and the photographed subject not move at all. And at that time the photographer did not yet have a camera with lots of buttons and tricks to take the best possible photograph. The apparatus that the photographer used then was a heavy wooden chamber with glass plates. With one glass plate one could take one photo.

A second Frenchman, Louis Daguerre, some ten years after that first picture was taken managed to take a better photograph. The image was sharper and took only half an hour to develop. Daguerre used copper plates instead of glass plates. However, like his predecessor Daguerre had to take a lot of actions to take and develop a good photograph. In 1836 the Englishman William Fox Talbot invented the so-called paper negative. An advantage hereof was that more prints could be made of the image.

The first known photo camera that used a roll of film was invented by the American George Eastman. His camera was called the Kodak, a still existing brand. After this invention photo cameras with loose plates were passé, and taking and developing photographs kept getting faster. And the current situation is that photography is becoming more and more digital.

To record my special moments I experience as a particular form of writing history. Namely, to capture light in a relatively short moment of time: to write with the natural phenomenon light.

Fotos Grafein!

Gerrit Scheper