Communication is an art. It is the art of sending a message and knowing how to convey it – through words, gestures, sounds, images – so that it can be perfectly understood by the receiver. Following this same line of thought, one can understand photography as communication, or rather as a form of communication.
Making use of images, photography can bring to man all the splendour of humanity, reporting the most diverse everyday situation. The strength of a photograph is stunning; it can move crowds for or against humanitarian causes. It shows, reveals, exhibits and denounces problems of human life. Endowed with ubiquity, an image has the power to “freeze” a past event and make it live in the present. It reaches everywhere in the world, makes the man from the 21st century to travel in time.
Originating from the Greek words “photos” and “graphis” or “graphe” which refers to “light” and “drawing”, respectively, photography means “drawing with light.” As we know it nowadays, it first appeared in 1826, with Joseph Niepce. However, it was Daguerre who improved the invention, designing the process named Daguerreotype. William Talbot developed new chemical processes that, in 1835, created the negative. The photographic film appeared in 1888 by George Eastman. Claiming the principle of combining colours, James Maxwell brought the first colour photograph in 1861.
The invention of photography in the 19th century, and its further development, paved the way for a new world and a new way of life. Advertising, cinema and the television as well as the press photography were born. The world was never the same. The image and its power have spread around the world. These days, everything is image and it is among us everywhere. Everything revolves around it and the visual society is in imminent growth.
Recently, digital photography has emerged with the evolution of science and technology. Some limitations on the film photography with regard to the developing process have been presented. The darkroom is no longer needed and pictures can now be processed on the computer and printed immediately or even straight from the camera. Image manipulation and montage have started to be on the rise.
Photography is a wide field and it covers many subjects and themes. Some types of photography are:
- Portrait
- Fashion
- Photojournalism
- Street
- Documentary
- Landscape
- Sports
- Studio
- Events
- Architectural
- Nature
- Macro
- Wildlife
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