LATEST POSTS
Famous Photo Hoaxes: The Fairies, Ghosts, and Fakes the World Believed
Quick Facts on Famous Photo Hoaxes:
Topic: Famous photo hoaxes in history
Era covered: 1840 to 1934
Key cases: Cottingley fairy photos, spirit photos, Loch Ness monster
Main methods: Double exposure, paper cutouts, combination printing
Most famous believer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Skill...
The Cooper Union Portrait: How One Photo Helped Make Lincoln President
Quick Facts:
Image: Cooper Union portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Photographer: Mathew Brady (c. 1823-1896)
Date: February 27, 1860
Location: Brady's gallery, Broadway and Tenth Street, New York
Process: Wet-plate collodion, black and white
First mass use: Woodcuts in Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's
...
The Most Expensive Camera Ever Sold: Inside the $15 Million Leica 0-Series No. 105
Quick Verdict: The most expensive camera ever sold is a 1923 Leica 0-Series No. 105, the personal prototype of designer Oskar Barnack. In June 2022 it reached €14.4 million, roughly $15 million, at the Leitz Photographica Auction in Wetzlar, Germany. Its value rests...
Jacob Riis and the Photographs That Exposed How the Other Half Lives
Quick Facts:
Photographer: Jacob August Riis (1849 to 1914)
Book: How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
Published: 1890, Charles Scribner's Sons
Signature image: Bandits' Roost, 59½ Mulberry Street (1888)
Technique: Magnesium flash (Blitzlichtpulver), introduced 1887
Subjects: New...
Edward Curtis Photography and the 23-Year Quest to Document The North American Indian
Quick Facts:
Project: The North American Indian
Years: 1907 to 1930 (project), 1895 to 1930 (full Native American work)
Photographer: Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868 to 1952)
Primary funder: J. Pierpont Morgan and the Morgan family
Output: 20 volumes, 2,228 photogravures, 1,500 textual pages
...
Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter: Alexander Gardner’s 1863 Gettysburg Photograph
Quick Facts:
Photograph: Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter
Date taken: July 6, 1863
Photographer: Alexander Gardner (Timothy O'Sullivan most likely operated the camera; James F. Gibson is commonly named as a third crew member)
Location: Devil's Den, Gettysburg battlefield, Pennsylvania
Process: Wet plate...
The Tetons and the Snake River: Ansel Adams’s 1942 Photograph for the Mural Project
Quick Facts:
Photograph: The Tetons and the Snake River
Date taken: Summer 1942
Photographer: Ansel Adams
Location: Snake River Overlook, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
...
The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz: A 1907 Modernist Photograph
Quick Facts:
Photograph: The Steerage
Date taken: June 1907
Photographer: Alfred Stieglitz
Voyage: SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, New York to Bremen
Subject: Steerage passengers seen from an upper deck
Camera: A 4 by 5 inch Auto-Graflex single-lens reflex
Print form: Photogravure
First major...
The First Photograph of a Person: Daguerre’s 1838 Boulevard du Temple
Quick Facts:
Photograph: Boulevard du Temple, the morning plate
Date taken: Spring 1838, in Paris
Photographer: Louis Daguerre
Location: A window above the Boulevard du Temple, Paris
Process: Daguerreotype on a silver-coated copper plate
Exposure: Several minutes, with sources citing a range of...
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima: The Story Behind Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer-Winning Photograph
Quick Facts:
Subject: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal
Date taken: February 23, 1945
Location: Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima
Camera: Speed Graphic press camera (4x5 sheet film)
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f/8 to f/11, Agfa film
Subjects: Six U.S. Marines...
Pillars of Creation: How Hubble Made the 1995 Photograph of the Eagle Nebula
Quick Facts:
Photograph: Pillars of Creation, in the Eagle Nebula (M16)
Date taken: April 1 and 2, 1995
Date released: November 2, 1995
Photographers: Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen, Arizona State University
Telescope: Hubble Space Telescope
Camera: Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2...
Roger Fenton’s Valley of the Shadow of Death: How the 1855 Crimean War Photograph Was Made
Quick Facts:
Photograph: Roger Fenton's 1855 Crimean photograph
Date taken: April 23, 1855
Photographer: Roger Fenton
Location: A ravine outside Sevastopol, Crimea
Process: Wet plate collodion on glass
Equipment: Field camera, mobile darkroom in a "photographic van"
Surviving versions: Two plates, cannonballs on...
The Photograph Apollo 8 Took of Earth From the Moon
Quick Facts:
Photograph: Earthrise (NASA frame AS8-14-2383)
Date taken: December 24, 1968
Photographer: William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut
Location: Lunar orbit, about 60 nautical miles above the Moon
Camera: Modified Hasselblad 500 EL with a 250mm lens
Film: 70mm Kodak Ektachrome color film
...
Migrant Mother: How Dorothea Lange Made the Defining Photograph of the Great Depression
Quick Facts:
Subject: The Migrant Mother photograph
Photographer: Dorothea Lange
Date: March 1936
Location: A pea-pickers' camp near Nipomo, California
Woman in the photo: Florence Owens Thompson, age 32
Camera: A Graflex Series D large-format camera
Held today by: The Library of Congress
...
The Wright Brothers First Flight: The Story Behind Aviation’s Most Famous Photograph
Quick Facts:
Subject: The Wright brothers first flight photograph
Date and time: December 17, 1903, around 10:35 a.m.
Place: Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Pilot in the photo: Orville Wright
Photographer: John T. Daniels, a local lifesaver
Camera: A Gundlach...
Latest Articles