As we go out and photograph, we very seldom think of those who came before us and who made significant contributions to the craft. In essence, we photograph on the backs of great philosophers, scientists and artists without even thinking about what photography would be and how we photograph without them.
I thought I would spend some time and gather information about some of these great men (and women), their contributions to photography and what they said about it. I hope you enjoy and remember this. You enjoy photography today because of them.
Pythagoras
(570-495 B.C.) Pythagoras, realizing that the earth was round, developed the first app for predicting when and where the
sun would rise and set each day. He had been quoted as saying,
"The only way to be in the right place for great light is to know where and when the sun will rise and set each day. Therefore, I freely give my app to all the photographers in the world so we all can enjoy better pictures."
Confucius
(551-479 B.C.) Confucius was the first photographer who pushed the value of
group critiques of a photographer's photographs, lending his criticism and
philosophy to improve his students' images. He has been quoted as saying,
"Photography without social criticism is like peanut butter without bread."
Socrates
(469-399 B.C.) Socrates devised the “In the Zone” system, which was a
predecessor of Ansel Adams’ Zone System. The “In the Zone” system
called for contemplating a scene in a surreal way and using meditation, before pressing the shutter, to better understand the scene and thus improve a photographer's images. Socrates had been heard several times saying,
"Better images come one at a time from a Zen-like trance rather than using a high speed motor drive."
Plato (427-347 B.C.) Plato created he first
school for beginning photographers in Athens. Plato said,
"Free photographic education is never as valuable as paying through the nose for it."
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) Aristotle was the
photographic guru who created the first photo workshop/tour which involving travel, at a price, to places others visited on vacations." Aristotle has been quoted as saying,
"Why should I tell them where to go for free when I can take them there and make a buck out of it? Nothing in life is free!"
Euclid (325-265 B.C.) Euclid, using his geometric principals and advanced mathematics, invented shutter speeds
and f/stops in order to correctly calculate exposures. His inventions rocked the photographic world. He famously said, and which is still repeated all over the world today,
"1/60th of a second and be there!"
Archimedes (287-212 B.C.) Archimedes, not being able to securely attach his camera to his tripod, invented
the tripod socket to go with his ¼" X 20 screw. This changed photography forever and spurred many new inventions. Archimedes had been quoted saying,
I have received great satisfaction in teaching people how to screw things up. Most of the time, I can't stop laughing at them."
Da Vinci (1452-1519) Leonardo, the great inventor, scientist, photographer and artist invented the aerial drone with camera mount so as to be able take aerial images for his real estate sales and wedding photography businesses. Leonardo said famously,
"I don't really care what the FAA says, this will give me an edge on my competition and make me a lot of money! I may even be able to sell these to the King for use by his military one day. Business is business."
Copernicus (1473-1543) Famously devised
the technique for photographing the planets and stars by inventing a machine
that would rotate his camera in synchronization with the earth’s rotation. He was the father of planetary and celestial photography. He credits inventing this device by saying,
"With these new digital cameras and HDR, I can be the first to get my night sky photographs published in every photography magazine in the world. There is no stopping me now!"Michelangelo (1475-1564) Michelangelo was first photographer to use color in his images and always disparaged using black and white film. He has been quoted several times as saying,
"Black and white sucks. Go color or go home!"Galileo (1564-1642) Galileo was the first photographer hired by the Catholic Church to make portraits of the Pope and his staff. Galileo then went on to invent the fisheye lens so he could get the entire Vatican in one image for the front of the Church’s annual report. He said,
"Everyone thinks the sun is the center of the universe. I plan to prove that photography is the center of all things, even if that disagrees with Church doctrine. Is there a price I may pay? I'm not worried about it."
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) invented time lapse photography and used it to photograph a running horse long before Leland Stanford paid Muybridge to recreate the photograph in 1978. Kepler said of his invention,
"I am delighted to now give the world this invention so photographers can make images of objects that, previously, we could never see move. Personally, I look forward to finding out how long an opossum can play dead before he moves."
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Rembrandt Van Rijn invented the electronic strobe and was the first to use lights set in a specific way when painting his subjects. Even today, this is known as Rembrandt lighting. Rembrandt was quoted as saying,
"Using strobes has allowed me to photograph my subjects, thus freeing them from sitting for days on end and being painted. I make better paintings from the still photographs than from the subjects actually sitting there as they tend to tire and slightly move. That has always thrown me off."
Isaac Newton (1643-1727) Isaac Newton, frustrated that he couldn't keep his tripod still as the wind in his neighborhood was incessant, devised a method to
use gravity to hang a heavy bag under his tripod to steady it in the wind. He was delighted when he was overheard saying,
"This gravity stuff I invented is the best thing since sliced bread!"
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Darwin, after many years of advanced education and study of photographers around the world, documented the evolution of the camera. In later years, he went on to predict the theory of "natural selection" of camera formats and models after reading years of comments on photography forums. Darwin said in his later years,
"Anyone who believes that cameras are a result of intelligent design has never used a Chimpanon 3A."
He went on to say,
" I have come to the conclusion that contributors to photographic forums have more knowledge, insight and innate intelligence than any other culture I have studied around the world. We must look to them for wisdom and guidance."Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) Mendel trained as a botanist, but his love of photography led him to create the first macro lens so he could make closeup photographs of his plants. He had his lab assistant hold a magnifying glass in front of his lens as he made his images. Later, he marketed his invention by attaching a magnifying glass to the lens with a bent coat hanger. Mendel gleefully said,
"I'd rather score with a great negative than preform with a mediocre print."
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) Pasteur has been credited for saving the lives of countless photographers as he was a stalwart advocate for bringing food, especially milk, along with them when on a photo shoot. He went on to lobby Congress to have milk ads contain milk residue on the lips of famous photographers so everyone would be aware of the dangers of dehydration. Pasteur was quoted as saying,
"Got money? It was my idea and I was ripped off!"
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Marie Curie, the only woman in our list (the others I contacted would not allow me to use their names and identities), was the first person to examine and redefine the
grain of film using X-rays and a mass spectrometer. It was Ms. Curie who first saw digital noise as bad and advocated all photographers use plug-ins to recreate the grain of their favorite films. Ms. Curie was noted for saying,
"I'd rather "glow" with pride the rest of my life than to never had found that radium mine and given the proceeds to my favorite charity."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein created an
improved film with finer grain using a new atomic film coating machine. His coating formula, E=MC
"I should have started a bagel company with my brothers than to mess with this film stuff. There is more money in bagels than film."
Edwin Hubble
(1889-1953) Hubble invented the telephoto lens. As a boy he used to sit on a mountain top and stare at the stars, but also at the window of a great looking young lady next door. By inventing the telephoto lens, he was able to achieve both of his life long dreams. Later in life he dabbled in music and is better remembered for a song he wrote with the lyrics,
"I can see for miles and miles and miles..."
Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) Heisenberg, a man with low self-esteem, realized the uncertainty of whether or not you got the picture with film
cameras and was an early advocate of digital cameras with a rear LCD so the
photographer could know whether or not he/she got the picture. He wasn't sure his invention was worthwhile and continually second-guessed himself never getting over the uncertainty of it all. He was quoted as saying to a friend,
"I'm just not sure about all this and I don't know exactly what I should do about it."
Thanks for looking.
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or image.
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