Photography As A New Media

The Importance Photography was a profound invention that brought forward years of technological innovation and advancement. It is a process which we now know is frequently used in many areas of art, media, and science as well as casual everyday use. It is now used as an information source as well; we see it in our news broadcasts informing society on impactful events and in general documenting a variety of things. Not only has it been an information source but a personal one as well, documenting our memories and special moments. With the invention of the commercial camera as a new media the invention of a new art form emerged as well. Used everywhere in our current society; it has advanced tremendously since its beginnings. The kodak “Brownie” Camera was the first commercially produced camera and was a pioneer into the innovation that photography today has witnessed. This Blog will be looking at photography through a historical lens and will be presenting the technology of the first commercially produced camera as if it were a new media form.

[photographyasanewmedia]

Impact on New Media Today

It is fair to say the kodak brownie ushered in the age of modern photography and exposed countless people to casual photography very similar to what is taking over the world of social media today. We see trends in terms of what the Brownie was being used to photograph when it first debuted and what it is popular in photograph today. Without the brownie society would not have been pushed towards casual photography or photography as an art form. The pattern of taking photos to document vacation and people we care about began with the Brownie and those are part of the most posted photos on social media. The brownie created a tend of amateur photographers that simply took photos because they enjoyed it, it made everyone feel as if they were capable of being a photographer and it really did breed some great ones. We see this trend with current new media technologies. The rise of social media photographers generated from casual photography and it casts the same ruse, that everyone can feel like a photographer.

[photographyasanewmedia]

Cultural Impacts

The Eastman Kodak Company sold over a quarter of a million Brownies in the first year since they were introduced. However, the tiny cardboard box did more than just help Eastman become wealthy. It was a cultural shift that would last a lifetime. Soon, handheld cameras of all kinds will reach the market, opening up new careers such as photojournalist and fashion photographer, as well as providing artists with yet another means by which to express themselves. These cameras have provided ordinary people with an inexpensive and open means of documenting and preserving significant moments in their lives, whether formal or accidental, for future generations. It created a whole new art form and even functioned as an escape from everyday lives for some. It developed an industry that captures emotional and intellectual processes which can provide relatable processes as well as works of abstraction.

[photographyasanewmedia]

Economic and Political Impacts

Personal photography became prominent around the turn of the twentieth century. Commercial photography studios were previously the only ones capable of making prints due to the high barrier to entry: the materials used were massive, costly, and required experience. Studio shooting, with glass plate negatives and large format cameras, was preferable to on-the-go photography. Still, thanks to George Eastman and The Kodak Brownie, this inaccessibility was solved, and cameras were now made readily available for convenient use. This simple machine reduced the camera to its most basic components, making it inexpensive and easy to use. In the first year of production, Kodak sold over 150,000 Brownie cameras thanks to a strong marketing campaign aimed at amateurs, especially youth. This brought the world to new heights in terms of documentation and news as well. It was made possible to quickly capture moments that would have not been easily capturable before. Taking photographs for the purpose of documentation became simple and you no longer needed to know when events were going to happen to be prepared to document them, this camera could no be easily set up and used. This changed the face of news and politics as more important moments were able to be captured and distributed.

The Kodak Brownie was affordable, making it accessible to most who desired to begin capturing photos.

[photographyasanewmedia]

Social Implications

One of the greatest events in amateur photography was the introduction of the Kodak Brownie by George Eastman. The Kodak Brownie was made possible by technological advancements in the development of cameras, but the new technology wasn’t the only advancements it brought forward. It was the marketing strategy or George Eastman that was truly brilliant. He made photography available to millions of novice amateurs with no formal experience, technological knowledge, or artistic qualifications by simplifying the apparatus and even processing the film for the user. To emphasise the simplicity of the Kodak machine, Eastman ran an ad campaign that featured women and children running the camera and coined the unforgettable slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest." Snapshot photography became a nationwide craze just a few years after the Kodak was launched.

Snapshot photography became a nationwide craze just a few years after the Kodak was launched. The vast majority of early photos were taken for personal reasons: to remember significant events, to log journeys and vacations, to record celebrations, or simple family gatherings, and to capture the presence of children, pets, vehicles, and homes. The first Kodak images were circular, but later models created a rectangular image, which was typically printed small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. The majority of snapshots taken between the 1890s and the 1950s were intended for inclusion in family albums, which were themselves essential forms of vernacular language. This revolutionized social processes by allowing for new forms of memory and expression. It changed the way people interacted socially and added a new aspect to social gatherings and personal documentation.

[photographyasanewmedia]

In understanding The Kodak Brownie as a new media we can draw upon its importance culturally, politically and socially, now with this technology available, photography was no longer a professional hobby, it was able to be used conventionally for news and distribution of information; It paved the way for photography as an art form and introduced the world to a new storytelling form of media. In analyzing the Kodak “Brownie” as a new media form we can understand the impacts it had on society at the time and the ways in which it changed photography.

(Graphic made by me)

[photographyasanewmedia]

Telling the Story

The Kodak Brownie is the first commercial camera and a revolutionary step towards the development of photograph technology. It takes what was a long inaccessible process and transforms it into something that is easily accessible for personal use. It completely transforms the way photography is looked at and used. The significance of the Kodak “Brownie” in terms of new media can be defined by the revolutions in photography that it will bring forward; implementing new advancements in technology in to its functioning to bring a piece of current technology into the future. It is important to note that with the invention of the commercial camera is when photography becomes convenient and accessible. Before the Kodak “Brownie” camera was introduced, taking a photograph was a complex process only used by “professionals” and it relied on prepared glass plates which were later treated to render the image, it was far too complex and difficult for household usage. The Kodak “Brownie” replaces this process and relieves photography from being a difficult medium to work with. The Brownie operated differently from all other cameras that are currently in production, by simply pushing on a lever. Similar technologies are used within the camera, but the operation is much more advanced. There is a shutter located at the front of the camera which opens allowing for light to be passed through the lens. When the light is passed through it is then reflected from the object be photographed and passed back through the lens forming an image. As it continuous through the lens the image is inverted onto a light sensitive film at the back of the camera.

[photographyasanewmedia]

Define New Media.

Contemporary definitions of New Media are broad and diversified. One definition of new media which I find pertains to my study of the kodak brownie camera is that “New Media is premised on older traditionalized methods that now serve similar purposes VIA the implementation of newer technologies.”