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Article: Photography: the early stages.
- Article from:
- PSA Journal
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Photographic Society of America, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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To parody an old question to associate it with photography, I offer "What came first--the camera or the film?" Another interesting question is, "What came first--the camera or the lens?" The answer to the first question will lead you to the answer to the second question. I will try to answer the first question.
The forerunner of the camera is the camera obscura, first documented about 350 B.C. and certainly observed a long time before that. Camera obscura means dark room and, as Such, can have no use in making pictures until a lens is installed. In the absence of a lens, a small hole will serve the purpose, although not as efficiently. The history of the camera ...