Thanks to the modern day smartphone, nearly everyone is a photographer these days. From Instagram and Facebook to Snapchat and Flickr, society today spends more time behind a camera lens and viewing photographs than at any other time in history. In fact, it’s been estimated that more than 1/3 of all the photos ever taken over the last 189 years or so were taken within the last 2 or 3 years.
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All that being said, it’s easy to take for granted how accessible and photography has become. In an impressive effort to document the journey from grainy black and white photographs to high-res DSLR photos, the YouTube account COOPH recently put together an interesting video detailing the “History of Photography in 5 Minutes.”
From the discovery of camera obscura, references of which date back centuries, to the first photographs ever taken in 1827 (by Joseph Nicephore Niepce), the video provides a broad yet informative overview of how photography (pardon the pun) developed over the course of time. One of the more interesting tidbits explains that long exposure times back in the early days of photography is why people didn’t smile much in old photos, a tradition which carried on for quite some time.
From the first color photograph to the invention of roll film and the rise of Kodak, the video does a great job of highlighting the biggest advancements in camera technology over the past many decades.
