2000 BC– Methods for glass making discovered in Mesopotamia
750 BC- Ninrud polished crystal lens, Assyria.
500 BC-documents found in China describe observation that reflected light waves of an iluminated object passing through a pin hole into a darkened enclosure result in an inverted but otherwise exact image of the object. During the next thousand years the Camera Obscura spreads throughout Asia and Europe.
1011 –Abu Ali Hansan lbn Al-Haitham aka Alhazn (Arabic) Book of Optics describes the eye as a receiver of light rather than an emitter of rays.
1558-Giouanni Battista Della Porta (Italian) replaces pinhole in Camera Obscura with glass lens.
1701-Johnann Heinrich Schulze (German) describes manner in which some metallic compounds, notably silver, possessed the property of darkening when exposed to light.
1788-Jean Senebir (Italian) publishes “THE ACTION OF SUNLIGHT ON VEGETATION” in Geneva.
1798-Aloys Senefelder (German) invents and describes lithographic printing process.
1799-Thomas Wedgewood (English) makes contact print profiles on silver nitrate coated paper.
1801-Thomas Young (English) expresses theory of Trichromatic Color Vision.
1802-Humphrey Davy (English) publishes “AN ACCOUNT OF A METHOD OF COPYING PAINTINGS UPON GLASS AND OF MAKING PROFILES BY THE AGENCY OF LIGHT UPON NITRATE OF SILVER.”
1804- The single element concavo-convex Meniscus lens was invented by William Hyde Wollaston (UK).
1811– William Vernon Harcourt (British) makes optical grade glass.
1812-Wollaston (UK) describes compound doublet lens to reduce aberration.
1822-Niepce (French) makes photo engraving on glass.
1824-Nicpce (French) invents photogravure process
1827-Joseph Nicephore Nicpce (French) discovers method for fixing silver nitrate image.
1829-Nicpce (French) and Daguerre (French) sign collaboration agreement.
1832-Note books made by Hercules Florence (French) working in Brazil describe chemical process for recording light. The first time the word “Photography” has been written, by Hercules Florence 1832, one of the photographic pioneers and the inventor of the word Photography, Until Proven Otherwise.
1834-John William Draper (USA) publishes “A TECHNIQUE FOR DETERMINING THE EFFECT OF ABSORBENT MEDIA ON THE LUMINOUS, CALORIFIC AND CHEMICAL RAYS OF THE SUN”
1835-Joseph Folden (English) builds Camera Obscura with backing plate film holder.
1838-Sir Charles Wheatstone (English) describes binocular disparity and demonstrates stereoscopic vision.
1839-Louis Jacques Mande’ Daguerre (French) introduces Daguerreotype light recording process.
1839- French government purchases Daguerreotype light recording process and declares it public domain.
1839-Charles Chavalier (French) achromat doublet lens f16 apature.
1839-Alphonse Giroux publishes (French) “HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE”.
1839-Samual Morse (USA) makes Daguerreotype in America.
1839-Sir John Herschel (English) experiments with using Chloride of Silver and Hyposulphite of Soda to record light and also describes projection printing. First use of the word “Photography” derived from the Greek words for light and writing.
1839-Henry Fox-Talbot (English) announces negative/positive photographic process.
1839-L. Ibbetson uses oxy-hydrogen (lime light) to make micrograph.
1839-Robert Cornelius(USA) makes what is believed to be the world’s first self-portrait he snapped one day in October 1839
1840-John Plumb Jr. (USA) opens Daguerreotype studio in Washington DC and conducts training workshops.
1840-Alexander S. Wolcott and John Johnson opened the first commercial photography studio in New York.
1840- Josef Petzval (Slovakia) portrait lens apature f3.6
1841-Richard Beard (English) opens portrait studio in London
1841-Voigtlander (German) builds all metal camera.
1841-Henry Fox-Talbot introduces Calotype paper negative process.
1842-Carl Stelzner (German) makes “news” photo of Hamburg fire.
1842-THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS founded.
1843-using a photograph as an aid, D.O. Hill (English) paints “THE DISRUPTION OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND”.
1844-Henry Fox-Talbot (English) publishes “PENCIL OF NATURE” using photographs.
1844-(appx) William Mansel Llewelyn photographed by his aunt Mary Dillwyn. First known Photograph of a person smiling.
1845-David Octavius Hill (English) makes interpretive photo portraits.
1846- Workshop for precision mechanics and optics opened by Carl Zeiss in Jena.
1846- The first known act of photographic retouching was performed by Calvert Richard Jones (Welsh).
1848-Becquerel (French) records color spectrum on a layer of silver chloride.
1849- Maxime DuCamp (French) makes “travel” photos of the Middle East.
1849-”THE HISTORY AND PRACTICE OF THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY” by Henry Snelling published in America.
1849- Mathew Brady Photographs first setting president James K. Poke.
1850-cameras constructed using bellows allows swings and tilts.
1850-Gustave Le Gray (French) creates seascapes by using one negative for the water and one negative for the sky (HDR)[
1850-”THE DAGUERREIAN JOURNAL” later known as “HUMPHREY’s JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY” published in New York by S.D. Humphrey (USA)
1850-Louis-D’esire’ Blanquart-Evrard introduces Albumen printing process.
1850-Frederick Scott Archer (English) and Peter W. Fry (English) introduce Ambrotype printing process.
1851-Beatley Woodbury (English) and James Page (English) photograph Australia.
1851-Frederick Scott Archer (English) introduces collodion “wet plate” photo process.
1851-John Adams Whipple (USA) and William Cranch Bond (USA) make Daguerreotypes of the Moon.
1851- the Société Héliographique, the “first photographic organization” in the world founded
1851- Solar Eclipse Photographed by Prussian photographer Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski. He’s widely considered to be the first person to photograph the phenomenon.
1852-Hurbert Watkins (English) makes 25X micrographs.
1853-Adolphe Alexandre Martin (French) introduces and describes Ferrotype “instant” (short exposure time) dry plate photo process also known as Tintypes.
1853-Antoine Francois Jean Claudet (French) photographs Queen Victoria.
1853-Royal Photographic Society founded by Roger Fenton (English)
1854-Andre’ Adolphe Eugene Disd’er (French) patents “Carte-de-Viste” (picture postcard)
1854-Governor of Bristol Gaol (jail), James Anthony Gardiner (English), commissions photographs of all inmates for identification.
1854-THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY begins publication and still continues.
1854-Thomas Keith (Scott) makes photo montage.
1855-A MANUAL OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CHEMISTRY by Thomas Frederick Hardwich (English) is published.
1855-Franz Hanfstaengl (German) displays Photographs before and after retouching at Exposition Universelle in Paris.
1855-Roger Fenton (English) photographs in the Crimea. Roger Fenton’s “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” made in 1855 during the Crimean War, was the first well-known conflict photograph and a forerunner of modern photojournalism. But there are two negatives taken by Mr. Fenton at the same location — one showing the road littered with cannonballs and the other with the cannonballs at the side of the road, which means that someone moved them.
1856-John Benjamin Dancer (English) builds stereoscopic camera.
1856-University of London adds photography to curriculum.
1856-Francis Frith (English) photographs on the Nile.
1856-William Thompson makes underwater Photograph
1856-Hamilton L. Smith of Ohio patented a new photographic method that came to be known as tintype.
1856- Levi Hill (USA) published method for making color Photographs.
1857-Queen Victoria purchases “fine art” photographic print by Oscar Gustave Rejlander.
1857-Renjyo Shimooka brings photography to Japan.
1858-Paris photographed from the air by Nadar (French).
1858-Henry Peach Robinson (English) makes composite print “FADING AWAY” using masks and multiple negatives.
1859-C L Weed (USA) makes photographs in Yosemite Vally.
1859-Thomas Sutton (English) designs wide-angle lens.
1860-Thomas Sutton (English) designs single lens reflex camera.
1860-Sabattier shows prints made by reversal (solarization).
1861-Samuel Bourne photographs in the Himalayas and India.
1861- Abraham Lincoln’s head “photoshopped” to another body.
1861-Matthew B. Brady (USA) sponsors photo documentation of American Civil War. First photographs seen around the world.
1861-James Clerk Maxwell (English) demonstrates additive color principle of light.
1861- First color photograph made of a bug.
1862-John Thomson (Scott) photographs in the Orient.
1862-”coffee table book” “RUINED ABBEYS AND CASTLES OF GREAT BRITAIN” by William and Mary Howitt (English) published.
1862-William England (English) designs focal plane shutter.
1862-Napoleon Sarnoy (English) photographs surgical operation as a learning aid for Dr. Sampson Gamgee.
1863-Julius Kruger (German) offers correspondence course in photography.
1863- first handheld camera patented in the world in by William Schmid in New York.
1864-Joseph Wilson Swan (English) produces carbon prints.
1865-William Davey (English) prints and publishes “sport cards” of cricket players.
1865-Alexander Gardner (USA) photographs Abraham Lincoln and damages plate during processing. A single print is made to inspect the damage and plate is destroyed. Ten days later Abraham Lincoln is Assassinated.
1865-Protection for photographs added to US copyright law.
1866-John Dallmeyer designs Rapid Rectilinear lens with F/8 aperture.
1866-Timothy O’Sullivan (USA) hired as expedition photographer for US Geological survey of the 40th Parallel.
1866-Charles Waldack (USA) uses magnesium powder in front of large reflectors to photograph Mammoth Cave.
1868-Louis Ducos du Hauron (French) describes subtractive color process.
1869-Louis Ducos du Hauron (French) publishes photographs in color.
1871-William Henry Jackson photographs Yellowstone Valley
1871-E.O. Beaman photographs the Grand Canyon.
1871-Dr. Richard Leach Maddox (English) introduces gelatin dry plate.
1871-Photography becomes required course at French Military Academy.
1872-Charles Darwin uses photographs to illustrate his book “THE EXPRESSION OF THE EMOTIONS IN MAN AND ANIMALS”.
1873-The Liverpool Dry Plate and Photographic Printing Company founded.
1873-William Willis (English) describes printing process using platinum.
1873-Herman Vogel (German) produces green sensitive emulsion leading to orthochromatic films.
1875-TREASURE SPOTS OF THE WORLD edited by Walter Bentley (English) is published.
1877-First studio lit by electric light was opened by Van der Weyde, who had a studio in Regent Street London.
1878-American astronomer Edward Pickering photographs solar eclipse in western USA.
1880-Henry W. Taunt runs for office in Oxford, uses photographs of himself in campaign literature.
1880-The New York Daily Graphic publishes special edition showing the various methods of photographic reproduction.
1881-Thomas Bolas designs and markets twin lens reflex camera.
1881-Orlando Goff photographs Sitting Bull.
1883-Joseph Pulitzer purchases New York Daily World.
1884-New York stock broker recognized and arrested in Montreal on photographic evidence.
1884- Otto Schott, Ernst Abbe and Carl and Roderich Zeiss found the Schott & Associates Glass Technology Laboratory in Jena, Germany.
1884-Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe (German) alter optical properties of glass by changing its chemical makeup using barium oxide.
1885-Wilson Bently (American) “The SnowFlake Man” begins making his over 5000 Photographs of snowflakes and discovers that no two snowflakes are alike.
1885-George Eastman (USA) manufactures coated photographic paper.
1885-Frederic Eugene Ives (USA) demonstrated a system of natural color photography at the Novelties Exposition His fully developed Kromskop color photography system was commercially available in England by late 1897 and in the US about a year later.
1886-Max Levy describes ruled half-tone method for mass production printing.
1886-Newman pneumatic “front of lens” shutter introduced.
1886- Physicist Gabriel Lippmann (Luxembourg) created the first color photograph without the aid of any pigments or dyes. He tapped into a phenomenon known as interference, which has to do with the propagation of waves. By 1906, Lippmann had presented his process along with color images of a parrot, a bowl of oranges, a group of flags, and a stained glass window. The discovery won him the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1887-Eedweard Muybridge publishes ANIMAL LOCOMOTION: AN ELECTRO-PHOTOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION OF CONSECUTIVE PHASES OF ANIMAL MOVEMENT.
1888-Abbe & Schott produce low dispersion glass.
1888-George Eastman registers KODAK trademark, “you press the button, we do the rest”.
1888-Hurter & Driffield patent Actinophaph light meter.
1888-First known crime scene Photographs made of Mary Kelly, the fifth victim of Jack the Ripper.
1889-Peter Emerson (English) publishes NATURALISTIC PHOTOGRAPHY expounding that a photograph must be faithful to nature.
1889-George Eastman markets “roll film”.
1890-Zeiss Protar lens designed by Paul Rudolf (German) reduces all types of aberration.
1891-Thomas Edison (USA) patents Kinetoscope.
1891-Gabriel Lippmann perfects interference process of color photography.
1891-T.R. Dallmeyer (English) uses telephoto lens
1892-Goerz Dagor lens designed by Erich Von Hoegh (German)
1892-Triplet lens designed by H.D. Talor (British).
1892-Frederick Ives (USA) devises Kromskop color camera.
1892-N.S. Amstutz (USA) produces system for transmitting images by wire.
1892-Henry Peach Robinson founds the “Linked Ring”, pledged to enhance Photography as a Fine Art.
1893-Kombi miniature camera using roll film produced.
1893-Louis Boutan (French) makes underwater photographs.
1893-Robert Demachy (French) uses gum-bichromate process.
1893-Stereoscopic Society founded.
1893- Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented by Dennis Taylor (English).
1893- Chicago Worlds Fair charges fifty cents for admission and two dollars for Photography permit.
1894– Carl Zeiss (German) introduces Convertible Protar lens.
1894-Agfa begins producing dry film plates.
1894- Etinne-Jules Marey (French, 1830-1904) photographs falling cats to study how they land on their feet.
1894- Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914), a French criminologist and anthropologist who created the first system of photography, and record-keeping that police could use to identify criminals which also bore a photographic frontal and profile portrait of the suspect (the “mug shot”).
1895- Wilhelm Rontgen (Prussia) makes X-ray Photograph of human hand and awarded the first Nobel Prize for physics in 1901.
1896-Smithsonian Museum begins Photographic history collection.
1896- Dennis Taylor (British) notes that old lenses are brighter due to oxide build up on the glass surface.
1896-Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (Anglo-Irish) engineer Photographs cavitation, the formation of vapour cavities in a liquid.
1897-Half-tone reproduction appears in New York Tribune.
1898-Secondo Pia (Italian) Photographs Shroud of Turin reveling never before seen details.
1899-T.R. Dallmeyer designs new variable focal length lens.
1900-Kodak introduces Brownie camera.
1900-Mammoth camera makes 4.5ft by 8ft negatives by George R Lawrence.
1901-Edward Steichen exhibits work in Philadelphia.
1902-Photo-Secession movement founded by Alfred Stieglitz.
1902-The first true zoom lens, which retained near-sharp focus while the effective focal length of the lens assembly was changed, was patented in 1902 by Clile C. Allen (USA)
1902- Paul Rudolph (German) designs Zeiss Tessar lens
1903-John Daniels (USA) photographs Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk.
1903-National Geographic publish Half-tone Photograph from the Philippines
1904-The DAILY NEWS of London becomes the first newspaper to be illustrated exclusively by Photographs reproduced by Half-tone process.
1904-Authur Korn (German) transmits Photograph by telegraphic cable.
1905-Thomas Manly (USA) introduces Autotype color “tri-chrome carbo” process.
1906-Wratten+Wainwrite produce panchromatic glass plates.
1906- Frederic Cook (USA) claimed to have achieved the first summit of Mount McKinley using faked Photograph as evidence.
1906- George Lawrence (USA) photographs the ruins of San Francisco, California after the earthquake from a kite taken 2000 feet (600 m) in the air. Each print sold for $125 and Lawrence made at least $15,000 (US$ 393,722.22 in 2014) in sales from this one photograph.
1907-Auguste and Louis Lumie’re (French) produce Auto Chrome, first successful color film using additive process.
1908-LP Bonvillain (French) makes Photograph from airplane.
1910-Herbert Pounting (English) photographs in the Antarctic with the Scott Expedition.
1910-Linholf press camera introduced.
1910- Until 1910, The New York Times never ran photographs on its front page. Until 1997, those photos were always black and white.
1911-Military reconnaissance photographs used by French Army during Morraccan crisis.
1911- “A picture is worth a thousand words”. First uttered by newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane.
1912-”Compur” diaphragm shutter (between the lens) designed by Freidrich Deckel (German).
1912- Francis Browne (Irish) was the official Photographer aboard the Titanic.
1913- Roland Reed (USA) Photographs Blackfoot tribe members at Glacier National Park in Montana.
1914-Benjamin Franklin Loomis Photographs volcanic eruption at Mount Lassin, California
1914-Kodak Autographic 4×5 roll film camera debuts
1914-Dallaeyer produces anastigmat telephoto lens
1916-Alvin Langdon Colburn applies special effects to lens at time of exposure
1918-Soviet Constructivist Art Program.
1920- Carl Gauss(German) makes double Gauss lens.
1923-Heinrich Ernemann (German) makes Ernostar apature f/2 lens and f/1.8 in 1924.
1925-Leica “miniature” camera introduced, designed by Oskar Barnack.
1927-Minolta/Rokkor produced by Chiyoda Kogakuseiko in Japan.
1927-Flash bulb introduced. Paul Vierkotter (Austrian)
1928-Tom Howard, New York Daily News, sneaks photos of execution by electric chair with camera attached to his foot
1928-Rolleiflex camera introduced
1928- Jaques Biederer, (French) the first photographer in history specializing in erotic photos.
1930-In the early 1930s, American company Agfa-Ansco produced what they called ‘Colorol’: a roll type film for snapshot cameras. The average consumer could now purchase color film for their cameras.
1931-Harold Edgerton (USA) designs hi-speed strobe light.
1932- Ziess Sonnar 50mm lens f/1.5.
1932-Large scale Indian Pictographs discovered and photographed from the air
1932-Photomontages by John Heartfield (German) used in political satire
1932-Roy Stryker sponsors Photographs of US Depression through the Farm Security Administration.
1932-F/64 group founded. Edward Weston as its leading spirit, the group’s founders included also Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards , and Henry Swift, as well as Sonya Noskowiak, and Willard Van Dyke.
1932-Weston 617 light meter using selenium photo cell introduced.
1932- Dr. Erich Salomon faked a broken arm so he could hide a camera in his cast to Photograph the US Supreme Court.
1934-Fuji Photo Film founded.
1933- The first Minolta from the Minolta era that got the name “Minolta” on the camera.
1934– J. Franklin Hyde (USA) makes fused silica glass.
1934-Bela Gaspar (Hungarian) introduces Dye Destruction color process (Cibachrome).
1935-Carl Zeiss Contaflex 35mm TLR with interchangeable lens and built in exposure meter
1935-Kodachrome introduced by Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky at Kodak.
1935-Exacta produces 35mm camera.
1935- Natalie Kalmus (USA) publishes “Color Consicousness”
1936-Robert Capa Photographs “MOMENT OF DEATH” during Spanish Civil War.
1936-Life Magazine commences publication with cover Photo by Margaret Bourke-White and uses “photo essay” format.
1937-Minox sub-miniature camera.
1937-Polaroid, founded as a light polarisation lens company by entrepreneur Edwin Land
1937-Edward Steichen edits US CAMERA WORLD annual.
1937-Sam Shere was a photojournalist best known for his 1937 photograph of the explosion of the Hindenburg dirigible balloon as it returned from a transatlantic crossing.
1938-Picture Post makes debut in London.
1938-The first camera with built-in photo electric exposure control introduced, the Super Kodak Six-20 camera.
1939-Victor Hasselblad builds aerial camera for Swedish Royal Air Force.
1939-anti-reflective coating by Ziess
1940-Beaumont Newhall appointed as director of newly founded Department of Photography at MoMA
1941-Fred Spira founds Spiratone, It sold lenses, filters, lighting and darkroom equipment, but not cameras.
1942-Kodacolor print film by W T Hanson introduced at Kodak.
1943-“Birds in Color” by Eliot Porter shown at MoMA
1945-Perhaps no Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph is better known than Joe Rosenthal’s picture of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
1945-Soviets confiscate all personal camera equipment in occupied Germany.
1945-Shigeo Hayashi (Japan) makes 360 degree panoramic Photograph from “ground zero” at Hiroshima.
1946-camera photographs Earth from 65 miles up in captured V-2 rocket.
1946-Kodak introduces Ektachrome.
1947-As “spoils of war” German AgfaColor patents were released and became SovColor in the USSR, FujiColor in Japan, and EastmanColor in the USA.
1947-Magnum Agency founded.
1947-J F Dunn (English) produces “spot” light meter.
1947-Edward Steichen becomes director at MOMA
1947-Edwin Land (USA) introduces Polaroid instant picture camera.
1947- Artur Fischer (German) obtained a patent for the synchronized flash system after struggling to photograph his newborn daughter. His invention was then acquired by the camera company Agfa.
1947- From a chase plane Bob Hoover Photographs Chuck Yeager as he breaks the sound barrier.
1948-Hasselblad 1600F 2 1/4” camera appears.
1948- Nikon 1 introduced
1949-pentaprisam SLR 35mm camera with Zeiss IKON lens introduced by Contax.
1950-Kodak unveils Colorama display transparencies at Grand Central Station, 18×60 feet.
1950-Russel A Kirsch (USA) constructs simple drum scanner and uses it to trace variations of intensity over the surface of Photographic prints and produces oscilloscope display.
1950-All color Photography show at MoMA.
1952-Helmut Gernsheim finds heliographic plate by Nicpce dated 1827.
1952-Aperture Magazine published.
1954-Kodak introduces Tri-X low light B&W film.
1954- Japan Camera Inspection Institute bans copying foreign lens designs and the export of low quality camera equipment.
1955-negatives by Adam Clark Vroman documenting South West US Indian life in the 1890’s found.
1955-THE FAMILY OF MAN exhibit at MOMA
1956- Shirley Page begins posing for Kodak making color reference film. Color references are still known as “shirley’s”
1957-Nikon F camera introduced.
1958- “Man With A Camera” staring Charles Bronson (USA) debuts on ABC.
1959-Voightlander 36-82mm f/2.8 zoom lens designed with electronic computer aid.
1960-Ilford begins marketing Cibachrome archival color print material.
1962-Yuri Denisyuk (USSR) develops technique for recording on photographic plates the image of objects illuminated by LASER beam.
1962-Lawrence Herbert (USA) acquires Pantone Inc.
1962-John Glenn brought a Minolta camera with him on the Friendship 7 space craft
1962-Kodak pavilion at Seattle Worlds Fair exhibits worlds largest outdoor color prints at the “Tower of Photography”.
1963-Polaroid introduces color instant film.
1963-Kodak “instamatic” camera.
1963-Photographer Malcolm Brown (USA) captured a monk immolating himself on the streets of Viet Nam.
1964-NASA uses digital image processing to remove imperfections from images of the lunar surface brought back by Ranger 7.
1964-Leonard Neilson (Sweden) photographs living human fetus in the womb.
1964-Asahi Pentax Spotmatic is first camera with TTL (thru the lens) light meter.
1965-Photographic survey of the Earth from orbit by Gemini IV astronauts.
1965- Photographs made by endoscope “How Life Begins”.
1965- The Photographic Arts and Sciences Foundation (PASF) is born. The next decade focused on adding to a growing collection of historic prints, cameras and equipment.
1965- FotoMat one day film developing koisk opens.
1966-Lunar Orbiter I photographs the globe of the Earth.
1966- Franke & Heidecke designed the Rolleiflex SL 66 as an answer to the Hasselblad 500 cm.
1966-Originally designed to allow NASA capture photographs on the far side of the moon, the Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 is one of the fastest lenses (if not THE fastest) ever produced. Only ten copies of the lens were manufactured.
1966-NASA astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who famously became the second man to walk on the moon in July 1969, laid claim to a spaceflight first: taking the first selfie in space during the Gemini XII mission in 1966.
1966- The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to make a survivable landing on the Moon. Luna 9 sent back nine images from the surface of the Moon.
1968-the Earth and the Moon photographed together in color by William Anders(USA) on the crew of Apollo 8.
1969-Willard Boyle and George Smith (USA) invent charge coupled device at Bell Labs.
1969-Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin make landscape Photographs on the Moon.
1970-Joan Miller (USA) implements 3 bit paint program at Bell Labs.
1971-Dennis Gabor (Hungary) awarded Nobel Prize for discoveries in Holography.
1971-Cannon FD55mm f/1.2 AL was marketed as the first interchangeable lens for 35mm SLR camera employing an aspherical lens element.
1972-Christie’s of London holds sale devoted entirely to Photographic items.
1972-Edwin Land (USA) shows Polaroid SX-70 instant film camera.
1972- The Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 and nine other lenses were developed specifically for NASA’s Apollo program,
1973-the DAYBOOKS of Edward Weston published.
1973- Kodak introduces 110 pocket film and camera.
1973-Anti-reflective coated glass made by Roy Grodon (USA).
1974-Royal Photographic Society holds conference on “The Recognition of Early Photographic Processes, Their Care and Conservation”.
1974-Fairchild Semiconductor produces commercial CCD.
1974-Richard G Shoop (USA) creates “SUPERPAINT” the first complete 8 bit paint program at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
1976-Ilford introduces “Cibachrome Discovery Kit”.
1976- Leica presented a camera at Photokina with working automated focusing.
1977- The International Photography Hall of Fame (IPHF) doors first open in Santa Barbara, California.
1977- Neil Montanus (USA) creates large format underwater Photograph.
1978-Steven Sasson (USA) builds digital camera at Kodak.
1979-Association of International Photography Art Dealers founded.
1980- When Photographer Robert Landsberg (USA) Realized He Wouldn’t Survive The Eruption Of Mount St. Helens, He Used His Body To Shield The Photographs He Had Taken Of The Event.
1980-Elsa Dorfman begins making portraits with 20×24 Polaroid and retires in 2015.
1980- A Day in the Life, American photographer Rick Smolan, had the idea to create a series of books featuring images shot by 100 photographers in 24 hours across a particular country
1982-Sony demonstrates Mavica still video camera.
1987-Cannon debuts EOS (electro optical system) SLR
1988-BarnyScan produces digital desktop scanner for 35mm film.
1989-JPEG standard for image compression adopted.
1989-Bob Pace (USA) publishes “A Professional Approach to Cibachrome.
1989-Iris 3024 ink jet (Giclee) printer introduced
1990-The Dycam digital camera introduced.
1990-Thomas Knoll (USA) introduces PhotoShop.
1990-Bill Gates (USA) purchases electronic rights to well known paintings and Photographs.
1990-Kodak develops PHOTO CD system and proposes standard for defining color in the digital environment.
1990-Sotheby’s holds sale of all digitally printed Photographs by Graham Nash (UK).
1990- Carrie Mae Weems (USA) fabricates social commentary with “Kitchen Table Series”.
1991-Kodak and Nikon release DCS-100 SLR one megapixel digital camera (initial price 30,000$US)
1991-Time Magazine releases first news-magazine on disk.
1991-US Armed Forces and Journalist’s make great use of digital imaging during Gulf War.
1991-Nash Editions founded by Graham Nash (UK) and R Mac Holbert.
1991-The JPEG standard made its debut (publicly in 1992).
1993-Mosaic (later Netscape) web browser deployed.
1993-Henry Wilhelm (USA) publishes “The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs”.
1993-WWW.PHOTO.NET founded.
1993-Evercolor founded. Makes color pigment prints using digital separation negatives.
1993-International Color Consortium (ICC) founded as the ColorSync Consortium led by Apple Computer.
1993-Eric R. Fossum (USA) for the invention of the CMOS image sensor.
1995-Minolta markets worlds first auto-focus camera.
1995-In this year the first consumer digital camera with an LCD screen was introduced to the market, the Casio QV-10.
1995-Online image sharing services provided on the World Wide Web by Picture-Vision.
1995-Toshiba launches Smart-Media flash storage 128MB memory card.
1996-”Burning the Interface” Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney is the first exclusively ROM based art exhibition.
1997-Rob Silvers (USA) publishes “Photomosaics”
1997-Digimarc system for identifying digital image content founded.
1998-National Association of PhotoShop Professionals founded.
1998- Photo Mechanic (version 1.0.1 was available for download on February 4th, 1998).
1999-Kyocera VP-210 places camera into cell phone.
2000-John Paul Caponigro (USA) publishes “Adobe PhotoShop Master Class”.
2000- Epson Stylus® Photo 2000P marked the first assurance of long-term fade-resistant photographs from a compact home-based digital inkjet printer.
2001-Bettmann Archive, some 17 million Photographs moved to mine shaft for long term storage.
2001: Polaroid goes bankrupt
2002-Kodak introduces “Perfect Touch” digital processing.
2002- Cannon Rebel Ti released.
2002- Joint training for war correspondents started in in advance of start of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. When asked why the military decided to embed journalists with the troops, Lt. Col. Rick Long of the U.S. Marine Corps replied, “Frankly, our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment.”
2003-Digital camera sales exceed film camera sales.
2003-Hubble Space Telescope Photographs galaxies 13 billion light years away.
2004-Mark Zuckerburg (USA) launched Facebook.
2004- Epson R-D1 digital rangefinder camera
2004- Thomas Knoll (USA) created the Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) file format while working on the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in for Photoshop.
2005-Nash Editions donates Iris printer to National Museum of American History.
2005- YouTube launched.
2006-Twitter launched.
2006-Dan Margulis (USA) publishes “PhotoShop L*A*B Color”.
2006-Willard Boyle and George Smith (USA) awarded prize by National Academy of Engineering for their work on CCD’s.
2006-Carl Zeiss showcased their massive Apo Sonnar T* 1700mm f/4 lens at Photokina in Germany.
2006- World’s Largest Pinhole Camera Takes World’s Largest Photo. “The Great Picture” is a black and white panoramic print of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, an old military outpost. The print measures 111 feet wide by 32 feet high on seamless white muslin cloth.
2007-Steven Sasson (USA) inducted into Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame for producing first digital camera in 1978.
2008-Nikon D90 adds video capability to still cameras.
2008-Panasonic DMC-G1 mirrorless micro four thirds compact camera.
2009- Kodak discontinues Kodachrome film.
2010- The World Photography Day project started in 2009 and it was celebrated for the first time on August 19th, 2010
2011- Cibachrome (Ilfochrome) was discontinued by Ilford.
2011-Cannon sells its 50 millionth digital camera.
2011- Lytro launched the world’s first consumer light field camera, which lets you “shoot first and focus later.”
2012-Eastman Kodak announces the discontinuance of professional color reversal films.
2012- Barbara Flueckiger posts “Timeline of Historical Film Colors,”
2012-Dan Burkholder publishes “IPHONE ARTISTRY”
2013- French newspaper Libération removes all images from its 14 November issue in a bid to show the power and importance of photography at a time when the industry is facing unprecedented challenges.
2013- The Cooper-Hewitt, (Smithsonian design museum) deploys website allowing innovative ways to browse its online collection including color.
2013- Adobe moves Photoshop to on-line subscription service.
2014- 250 million pictures added to Facebook daily.
2015- A photography class at the Rochester Institute of Technology successfully created what appears to be the first documented case of a pinhole photograph captured from a drone.
2015- 365-Gigapixel Panorama of Mont Blanc Becomes the World’s Largest Photo.
2015- The digital revolution has caught up to film in many regards, killing many of the arguments for film being better than its technological counterpart.
2015- growth in the mirrorless segment shows this new technology and form factor are resonating with consumers. The upward trend in mirrorless camera sales is expected to continue while DSLR sales are expected to decline.
2015- The US Department of Energy has approved the start of construction for a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera—the world’s largest—at the heart of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
2015-Polaroid announced new 10-megapixel Polaroid Snap instant digital camera.
2015- Wyoming just made photography illegal in most of the state. You can face a $5,000.00 fine and a year in jail if you share nature photos with the government. Or photos of any sort of environmental disaster, even those that are an imminent threat to public health.
2015- Filmmaker Daniel Riley(USA) created what he dubbed “the world’s brightest flashlight”: a 1000W LED panel that pumped out an insane 90000 lumens of light.
2016-It is estimated that less that 1 out of 100,000 photographs taken today actually ends up being a printed photograph; there are now nearly one billion smart phone cameras in use.
2016-Hasselblad X1D, the world’s first medium format mirrorless camera.
2016-A report published in the famed journal Science is giving us, perhaps, our first look at the future of optical technology. And that future comes bearing camera lenses that are thinner than a human hair.
2016- With the release of Apple’s iOS 10, the Light Room for mobile app has been updated to support the capture of Adobe raw DNG on iOS devices.
2016- SanDisk and its parent company Western Digital today unveiled a new 1 terabyte SDXC card, ushering in a new era of tiny memory cards with massive storage capacities.
2016- The oldest surviving Nikon camera is now also the most expensive and sold for roughly $406,000 at auction.
2017- More and more “brick & mortar” camera shops closing due to online competition.
2017- Film making comeback. After five years Kodak announces the return of Ektachrome.
2017- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) is no longer available for purchase.
2017- Popular Photography, the largest circulated imaging magazine that launched its first issue in May 1937 in New York City, has ceased publication after being continuously in production for 80 years. The March/April 2017 issue will be the last in print.
2017-Sony has just passed Nikon to become the #2 company in the United States for full-frame interchangeable lens camera sales.
2017-HEIC “High Efficiency Image File Format” is a more efficient image format based on “High Efficiency Video Compression” or H.265 and may replace JPEG.
2018-Canon discontinued the company’s last remaining film camera. The move brings an official end to Canon’s film camera business after an 80-year run.
2018- A U.S. appeals court has ruled in a case over selfies taken by a monkey that lawsuits can’t be filed claiming animals have copyrights to photos.
2018- Fujifilm’s first flagship camera made in China.
2019- China’s Longjiang-2 satellite Photographs the backside of the Moon with the Earth in view.
2019- CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association in Japan) published their June report and the downturn continues – the total number of shipped digital cameras is lower compared to the same month in previous years.
2019- 5.1-foot wide optic—the largest high-performance optical lens ever made, built for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
2019- Steve Fines (USA) was able to use his drone and a thermal camera to help locate a 6-year-old boy who got lost on a freezing cold night..
2019- The Content Authenticity Initiative, aimed at developing an industry standard for digital content attribution.
2020- Nikon shutting down its authorized repair program Users in the USA must rely exclusively on Nikon itself for any repairs.
2020- Olympus will sell its camera business to Japan Industrial Partners.
2020- The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (the CASE Act) is a United States law to establish a small claims court-type system within the United States Copyright Office for copyright owners to seek damages under US$30,000 for copyright violations.
2021- Judge Rules National Park Filming Rule Unconstitutional
2021- An ultra-compact camera equivalent to the size of a coarse grain of salt has been developed by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington.
2021- Canon has developed an image sensor that is capable of capturing high-quality color photography even in the dark.
2021- Sony’s Semiconductor division has announced that it successfully developed the world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor technology with two-layer transistor pixels that grants double the light gathering capability.
2021- Photographer Jason Guenzel captured one of his most detailed solar photos to date, and it reveals the twisted “surface” of the Sun.
2022- The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first photo!
2022- Researchers from Cornell University have designed a photo-taking robot that understands aesthetically pleasing composition.
2022- Fujifilm has announced there will be shortages of 120 reversal films as the company struggles to source the necessary ingredients.
2022- A photography portfolio website has banned AI-generated images to protect “human-generated art”.
2022-Kodak: “we’re the last color film manufacturer standing”
2023- AI-powered software has emerged with one specific purpose: to remove watermarks from images.
2023- Zeiss has exited the photo industry.
2023- Sony just changed photography forever by releasing the Sony a9 III, the world’s first global shutter camera.
2023-Photo Systems Inc brings Kodak Professional-branded development chemicals back into production
2024- Nikon, Sony, and Canon will all reportedly bring out support for the Content Authenticity Initiative’s (CAI) C2PA digital signature system in 2024 as the CAI pivots its messaging as a way to combat AI.
2024-Yashica and I’m Back have teamed up to create the Micro Mirrorless camera, the smallest interchangeable lens mirrorless camera ever.
This is a work in progress, Your suggestions, your comments,
your contributions, your ideas, are welcomed!
