The Little Black Box

I was about to title this blog post "All things Analogue". But I stopped. If it's not a digital image, is it analogue? The common use of analogue to describe everything that is not digital imaging is widespread but maybe not exactly correct.

Photography has had a long history dating back to 1826 when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the the first permanent image with a camera obscura, or a pinhole camera you may have made as a kid.

In fact the camera obscura was used since 400BC by Chinese philospopher Mozi. It wasn't until the industrial revolution that technology allowed a permanent image to be recorded.

Photography was for a very long time a chemical process, using photo or light sensitive chemicals to create an image. Imagine what it must have been like to magically create an image on a glass plate and later paper.  So maybe I'll call it a photochemical imaging or film photography or as the french say "Argentique" referring to the silver halide chemicals traditionally used.

Whatever the semantics, film photography still has a loyal following. I, for one, first learned photography with  black and white film back in high school. Yes, I think I still have the project.

Funny how things change so much yet they stay the same. Here I am back again.

Loading up a roll of 120 film, which is double the size of a regular 35mm film, I'll be out taking some test shots with the 97 year old camera. I bet you are as curious as I am to see what develops!!

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Want to know more? Read about my newest project at Photography 1926 Style.

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