Technology Timeline

Wet-Collodion process 1851: Wet plate collodion photography was one of the first photographic processes. According to the video on the wet plate collodion process, “it was invented in 1851 by the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer, who was looking for a process that could produce fine detail and negatives”. The wet plate collodion process was complicated and took a lot of time compared to digital photography today. As far as how this process affected journalists was that this process was very time consuming. Due to all that this required it was nearly impossible to get motion photos in that time era, so most if not all images were still pictures.

 Image by: J.M Cameron
Source: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/the-lure-of-collodion

Rotogravure Printing 1890: Rotogravure is a printing process in which letters and pictures are transferred from copper cylinder to a web of paper. But clearly the difference between the two is that online newspapers are web based, while rotogravure is more for hard copy. Like Professor Nordell said, in the 1890s how rotogravure came along so it was easy to publish photographs in newspapers. As for the importance, the growth of the internet simply helped. “With the explosion of the internet and the ability to take digital photos and transmit them digitally was huge.” Interesting enough rotogravure was the most looked at page in the newspaper. There would be a special edition in the Sunday with photographs; it was the most looked at page in the newspaper. As far as the benefits, Professor Nordell went to say “for companies’ that advertised in the newspapers in those pages where there were photographs, those ads sold much more; so there was a huge impact on photojournalism."

Image by: Unknown
Source: http://www.sam-na.com/page.php?page_id=96

Speed Graphic cameras 1912: The topic of technology that I chose to research was Speed Graphic cameras. Speed graphic was manufactured by Graflex, who was a camera producer in Rochester, New York. Surprisingly what was found was that although this camera may have been one of the best cameras to ever be produced, they no longer make them. The Speed Graphic has not been manufactured since 1973; the Speed Graphic was America’s first and last great camera. But what made the Speed Graphic camera so high-class? With its two shutters and many different lenses with wide frames it stood out from all other technologies in that time era. This camera affected photojournalism because this was the camera of choice for most photojournalist during the World War II. It was simple to use and got the job done. The first original Speed Graphic was in 1912. When it came to the quality of pictures and the cameras abilities it was what photojournalists wanted. With being able to capture many photos within seconds it made this camera useful for war photojournalism.
Image by: Unknown
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/konabish/9565115260/

Leica 35mm cameras 1925: As far as the Leica 35mm cameras, these cameras were made in Germany and came out in 1925. With just one roll of the 35mm you could take 34-36 pictures per roll. And the creator of this camera was Oskar Barmack. It’s evident what the positives of this camera were with its capabilities. For photojournalists it allowed them to be able to take many pictures in an efficient amount of time. Also the size of the camera worked out in their favor, simply just off the size made it easier to carry and maneuver. What I found interesting was that this camera wasn’t cheap in price. “A Leica was $88 retail price in the US in 1928 (equivalent to 1129 in 2014).”
Image by: Unknown
Source:  https://www.cameraquest.com/leicaa.htm

Black And White Roll Film 1961: With looking at black and white film there is a sense of history behind it immediately. I found through researching that the first black and white film was introduced in 1961. And through many photographers and photographs there was one person who kept coming up. And that was Robert Capa, he was a photographer who targeted all war instances. “Capa’s D-Day photos have become classics.” As far as the effect that black and white roll film had on photojournalists and many others was that it was a new style and wasn’t nearly as expensive as color photos. “According to the NYIP staff even in the past fifty years, there have been lots of reasons to use black-and-white film. Early color film, processing and printing was expensive.”
Image by: GreenEye Photography
Source: https://www.etsy.com/market/bw_photography

Satellite Phones 1979:  According to the before there were pixels video posted, “satellite they have become more popular to use because of how easy it is to use satellite devices.” This was convenient for photojournalists because they could get access from wherever they were, even if traveling. With being able to communicate in multiple places at once really changed how things worked. This created mass communication. according to the same class video. Simply this was just a more effective way for photojournalists to communicate and publish their work. As time went on throughout these new technology advances, it was becoming more convenient for workers like photojournalists. With doing further research on Satellite phones, the first one was founded in 1979. “The only existing satellite constellation 30 years ago was the Inmarsat constellation of satellites. Inmarsat is considered as the oldest satellite phone company in the world and was founded in 1979.”

Image by: Unknown
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_phone

Online Newspapers 1980: What are online newspapers? They are electronic newspapers that are self-contained, reusable, and refreshable version of a traditional newspaper that acquires and holds information electronically. Multimedia is also around the same definition. With multimedia meaning that many different media’s are being used such as audio, video, graphics, drawings or any other media. This digital photographic technology affected photojournalism and photojournalist in some significant ways. With that being that it gave photojournalists another way to get their works out for people to see. Giving that more people would access it through online rather than hard copy because it was free. Also another effect that was major was that with multimedia this allowed for videos to be shown as a part of the photojournalist’s stories. With hard copy newspapers that option was not available. The first newspaper to go online was the Columbus ‘Dispatch on July 1, 1980.
Image by: Unknown
Source: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-global-online-newspapers-image15269222

Blogs 1994: The Oxford Dictionaries of blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style”.  Blogs are a great tool for people to post photos and posts about things that they like and are interested in.  Tim Hetherington talks about how digital photography helped mass communication. As far as the affect on journalists, blogs really helped mass communication. Anyone can create a blog and post photos and news so people all over can see it. Digital photographs enabled blogs to be able to show images to large groups of people quickly. Looking deeper into blogs, interesting enough I found that the first blog invented was “Links.net” by Justin Hall in 1994.

Image by: Unknown
Source: http://photographypla.net/inspirational-photography-blogs/