In the late 19th century, the earliest daguerreotype cameras also known as the ‘boxes’ were used to capture images on monochrome tints but produced through lengthy periods of time. From the large black and white box cameras, the transition shifted to handy type mobile film cameras that instead of using large film sheets, cameras in the 1950s used smaller rolls of cameras which were converted later own to negatives. Starting from this, the trend towards photographic innovation became fast-forward up to the point of the emergence of the smartphones and DLSR cameras that uses digital pixels instead of film rolls. Digital photography has diminished the need for traditional film cameras for the sake of convenience. In this respect, despite the fact that digital photography has contributed a lot in the emergence of picture editing tools, the lack of training in traditional film cameras makes it impossible for the modern photography students to learn the essence of photography based on the earlier materials available. Digital photography has indeed became a huge success through the invention of smartphones that allowed people to take various pictures in anyplace at any moment such that the nature of photography remains distorted. In the past, photography was only limited to professional photographers and depended highly on film printing shops that convert these film rolls to images, as a final step in viewing pictures as output products. The future of modern photography lies on the digital devices in preserving representations from the modern world. (Kirchman 1-2; Scruton 577). It was precisely because of this reason the film giant Kodak established by Eastman in the late 19th century filed bankruptcy and became obsessed in filing copyrights against the companies or entities that used their works especially on the internet. The story of Kodak’s demise from a business film giant to a broken company shows the evidence of its failure to adapt to the constant change in photography. (Weissmann, What Killed Kodak).
“Kodak also failed to read emerging markets correctly. It hoped that the new Chinese middle class would buy lots of film. They did for a short while, but then decided that digital cameras were cooler. Many leap-frogged from no camera straight to a digital one.” (The Economist, The Last Kodak Moment).
WORKS CITED
Kirchman, Susan. “Digital Image: Digital Photography.” Leonardo. Supplemental Issue 3(1990): 31-32. Web. JSTOR.
Scruton, Roger. “Photography and Representation.” Critical Inquiry 7.3 (1981): 577-603. Web. JSTOR.
“The Last Kodak Moment?” The Economist. 14 Jan. 2012. Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2016.
Weissmann, Jordan. “What Killed Kodak?” The Atlantic. 5 Jan. 2012. Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2016.
