Read this history of photography in the book Revolutions in Communication. Also, watch this three-part PBS series, American Photography.
- The Developing Image (1900-1934)
- The Photographic Age (1930s – 1940s)
- Photography Transformed (1950s – 1980s)
We’ll be asking questions like:
- Who invented photography in France?
- How did photography expand in 1840s ?
- What were some new processes such glass plates
- Who was Matthew Brady?
- Why was George Eastman’s Kodak Brownie camera revolutionary?
- How well did Edward Curtis document Native American people?
- How did Jacob Riis and Louis Hine use photography to promote social reform? How is that being done today?
- Why did pictorialism develop? How did Alfred Steiglitz promote it? What were some of the commercial questions behind it?
- What was straight photography and how did Paul Strand influence advertising graphics?
- When did the Farm Security Administration operate? Who were some of the great FSA photographers?
- Who were Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke White, Joe Rosenthal, Gordon Parks?
- Was there a lot of censorship of photographic images in WWII?
- How did photography help the civil rights and environmental movements? Around mid term, you should be able to identify every photo and photographer on this page:https://revolutionsincommunication.com/viscomm?page_id=44
Marcus Sparling (pictured here) and Roger Fenton (taking the picture) covered the Crimean War in 1855. This entire wagon, laden with glass plates and photo chemicals, was needed in order to take pictures in the field.