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| Portrait of Abraham Lincoln made by Nicholas H. Shepherd 1846 |
Emily V., Hunter College
This daguerrotype is the
first photograph of the future President Abraham Lincoln, taken in 1846.
In this early form of photography, images were produced on a silver coated
plate. The images were very fragile and had to be protected with a glass
covering. As the process of taking photographs evolved, inventors used,
alternately, glass plates and tin plates, being able to produce images on less
fragile and less expensive surfaces.
Taking a photo continuously became more accessible and affordable.
George Eastman with his company, Kodak, created a camera that required a roll
of film - a much more user friendly and portable device, in the year 1888.
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| Photo from https://www.kodak.com/Kodak/US/en/corp/aboutus/heritage/photography/default.htm |
By 1900, Kodak came out
with a camera aiming to make photography even more affordable, at $1 for the
price of a Brownie camera, and $.15 per roll of film.
The first digital camera
was introduced in 1991. You can see how large it is – it is NOT what springs to
mind when asked today about taking digital photos.
So when I came across a
commercial for a new photo service, I thought I had stepped back in time;
please take a look at this:
The future of photographic display
Fractures are different from traditional
pictures and frames. Instead of printing on paper, we print directly on glass.
Instead of separating the picture, frame, and mount, a Fracture combines all
three into a beautiful, lasting, final product.
In brief, this service
is offering to print your photos onto glass, then ship them to you with a hole
in the back and a screw so you can hang it up.
Interesting, huh? And what also is of particular interest is
the verbiage I am copying here, also on the same webpage:
Do more with your pictures
Taking pictures is
great. Printing pictures can be time consuming, overwhelming, and not all that
fun. Fracture was founded around a simple idea: there should be a better way to
print and display your photos.
What does this
mean? I thought taking pictures on glass
was something we were trying to get away from?
I thought printing photos on paper was faster and better?
And in juxtaposition, I
also want to point out the latest in user-friendly photography: the iPhone X.
“These are the coolest features of the new iPhone X”
With a completely glassed
front and back, this iPhone has upgraded camera capabilities allowing one to take
improved selfies and more professional portraits with depth, shading and
nuance. And the price: around $1,000.
Has technology really come
full circle? Or is this all the
consolidated effort of marketing teams?
Would you pay to have your
photos printed on glass and shipped to you? Is this a return to fragility or
something else?
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