Photography and Video

Photography and video constitute a burgeoning leisure activity with a wealth of associated consumables; a source of images that can represent, reproduce, and persuade; and a means of perceiving the world. As such, the production and consumption of photographic and video images is a fundamental aspect of consumer culture. Use of photography and video is also increasingly common in research methods designed to investigate everyday life.

Although the theory of concentrating light through a small hole to project an image had existed for centuries, French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first chemically fixed photographic images in the 1820s. Following Niépce's experiments, the men credited as the inventors of photography proper, Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot, independently developed more effective methods for creating lasting photographic images. The following decades saw a series of improvements to camera and printing technologies such that by the 1850s there was a thriving commercial market for professional photographic portraits. However, the technical complexity of the photographic process limited its impact as a popular pastime.

The advent of mass consumer photography is customarily traced to 1888 and inventor and entrepreneur George Eastman's introduction of the low-cost handheld Kodak box camera. By selling the camera preloaded with 100-shot film rolls that were sent back to the factory for processing, Eastman effectively removed the need for home development laboratories. The Kodak camera was also the subject of a highly successful marketing campaign that emphasized the shift to consumer photography with the slogan “You press the button—we do the rest.” In this way, Eastman helped transform an expensive hobby demanding high levels of technical skill into a popular leisure activity. The 1880s also saw the introduction of printing technologies that allowed for the economical mass reproduction of photographic images. For the first time, the photographic image became a practical and appealing medium for advertisers.

Over the next century, the popular market for still and moving photography increased in importance. Although professional and serious amateur photographers remained an important market for specialist publications and equipment, photographic manufacturers more often emphasized the suitability of their mainstream products for family “snapshots” and home movies. Kodak in particular, long an innovator in the technology and marketing of consumer photography, placed great emphasis on the user-friendliness of their cameras and the role photography could play in capturing happy memories.

The most recent major technological change to photographic practice came with the advent of digital photography. The first consumer digital cameras appeared in the late 1980s and became widely popular toward the end of the 1990s. As digital cameras have become smaller, cheaper, and more effective, the use of film cameras has steadily declined. Where film sales were previously a major revenue stream for the photographic industry, the popularization of digital photography has seen the exponential growth of the consumer market in image-editing software and photo printers.

It is not yet clear if the ability to easily produce, store, and circulate photographic images constitutes [Page 1091]a new kind of engagement with photography or simply a reworking of older practices. “Point and shoot” cameras featuring simplified controls remain the most popular consumer models, and family and social events are still the primary subjects of home photography. However, image-editing software has moved complex darkroom processes back into the home of the average photographer. Moreover, the inclusion of cameras in mobile telephones and the introduction, in the mid-1990s, of digital cameras capable of recording video footage has encouraged greater expansion of the camera's possibilities. Online photo-storage and social networking sites now make it possible for people to share images with a wide audience. Indeed, the ability of photographers to quickly capture and transmit images has created the possibility for “citizen journalists” to move into the once almost exclusively professional realm of creating and selling news footage.

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