OBA's Photography: The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today

The main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today were the types of photography or quality of images, and the purpose of use for the photos taken. In the 19th Century, there were different types of photography such Daguerreotype, Cyanotype, Waxed Claotype Negative, Salted Paper Print, Wet colodion negative, Albumen Print, and Carbon Print. Portraits in the past were black and white and did not portray as much details as they do now, since all of our photos are high quality in full colour today. The different angles we use to take our photos now were not common before, because photos were taken only of important people, places or architectures. The angles they used before were usually straight, and the hand gestures or postures of the individuals in the pictures were the same. Nowadays, you can take photos for anything or anyone, for any purpose in every position. For example, people use photography to capture special moments in life such as weddings, birthdays, graduations, etc. Companies use photography to take commercial photos of people, cars, products, etc. for advertisement or publishing purposes. People take pictures to remember the past events and moments in history, and that’s one of the same reasons we take pictures today. Not only do words help remember the day something important took place, but also pictures help visualize an image in one’s mind.

Portrait of John R. Connon standing beside a camera, [between 1860 and 1900]
Glass Plate Negative

Tina Fey in Vanity Fair Photographed by Annie Leibovitz

The cost of becoming a photographer in the past was very expensive. Today, anyone can become a photographer by buying a digital camera in the price range of $50 to $300+ plus. Professional photographers today spend a lot of time, money, and equipment to ensure their photos or their clients photos come out in high definition. Photography is no longer an expensive hobby, as it is affordable for just about anyone. Today, everyone wants to finest high quality images with the top of the line camera, rather than worrying more about the cost. The subjects of photos in the past were generally focused more on people, instead of physical objects, landscapes or buildings. Photos were taken of people who were usually rich, famous, memorable and important. Now, you can take high quality photos of anyone or any object because being rich or famous is no longer important, and it’s more meaningful.

Nikon D60 Digital SLR Camera

Technology has advanced significantly throughout the past years. Today, photos are developed by machines and computers instantly, and not in “black rooms” one by one. Even though black rooms still exist through out the world, some people prefer to use the traditional positive and negative developing method, instead of modern day technology. Now, software’s such as Adobe Photoshop are available to edit, enhance, resize, adjust exposure or brightness, red eye reduction and change every little detail in any picture with a click of a button. You can even share pictures online immediately using Facebook or various image-hosting web sites such as Flickr, or Picasaweb on Internet. As technology changes everyday, new ideas and methods will be introduced and we will have to adapt to the changes.