Innovation is important as it the beckoning of new ideas that have the potential to enrich how we live our lives. Throughout history innovation has had great impact and broken boundaries in every aspect of life from medicine, architecture, cuisine, and art, etc. I decided to look at the first handheld camera as it was this development in technology that ushered photography into a new era, making it more accessible, not just an expensive profession for men.
The first handheld camera was invented by George Eastman in 1888, named the Kodak, it was a box camera that came equipped with film that required you to send the entire camera to the kodak headquarters to be developed. Just two years later the technology was again updated with the development of removeable film in the ‘Brownie’ camera which sold for only $1. Eastman making his target audience woman and children, having accessible film and a good price revolutionised how photography was interacted with and viewed as a new form of freedom, embodied in the lack of a tripod.
Britannica (2020) Photography’s Early Evolution, C. 1840–C. 1900. Available from https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography/Photographys-early-evolution-c-1840-c-1900
Britannica (2020) George Eastman American inventor, entrepreneur and manufacturer bibliography. Available from https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Eastman#ref195733
Stewart, J. (2018) How the Development of the Camera Changed Our World. Available from https://mymodernmet.com/who-invented-the-camera-photography-history/#:~:text=All%20this%20makes%20Ni%C3%A9pce%20widely,c
Image: https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NMAH-2006-7472&max=1000