Photography was not invented by one single person. It was the result of many discoveries throughout the history of mankind. From the historical point of view it is important to know that the principle of the camera was discovered long before a method of recording what the camera saw was found. The following is a short timeline of the history of photography.

The word photography comes from the Greek and means - WRITING WITH LIGHT

The camera obscura, the forerunner of the photographic camera, was developed during the period from 11th to the 16th century. Its purpose was to show on paper an image that could be traced by hand to give accurate drawings of natural scenes.

1558

Giovanni Battista della Porta illustrated camera principles in his book "Natural Magic".

1568 

Daniello Barbaro fitted the camera obscura with a lens and a changeable opening to sharpen the image.

1725

Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that the change in color of a mixture of silver nitrate and chalk, in sunlight, was caused by light, not heat.

1802

Thomas Wedgwood and Sir Humphry Davy recorded by contact printing, on paper coated with silver nitrate or silver chloride, silhouettes and images of paintings made upon glass. However, they could not make these prints permanent.

1816

Joseph N. Niepce made a crude photographic camera from a jewel box and a simple lens. With it he made a negative image. 

1835

William Henry Fox Talbot (Philosopher, Egyptologist, classicist, mathematician, philologist, transcriber and translator of Syrian and Chaldean cuneiform texts, physicist, and photographer) discovered a method of rendering the camera obscura image permanent. The image was fixed on silver chloride paper by means of sodium chloride. Talbot was the first to make positives from negatives, the first to make enlargements by photography, and the first to publish a book illustrated with photographs (book published 1844). 

1839

Sir John Herschel used sodium thiosulfate, or hypo, to make pictures permanent.

1841

William Talbot patented the calotype process. Sometimes this process was called the talbotype process. The modern photographic process is based on Talbot's negative to positive principle.

1851

Frederick Scott Archer invented the wet collodion process for making negatives. The wt-collodion process was used by many well known photographers such us: Roger Fenton, Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. 

1861

James Clerk Maxwell reproduced a colored ribbon by the three color additive process.

1869

Louis Ducos du Hauron and Charles Cros independently, published pieces on the various methods used in three color photography.

1871

Richard L. Maddox prepared the first gelatino bromide emulsion.

1872

Eadweard Muybridge first made serial photographs of moving animals and people Later, he projected them, showing motion.

1873

Herman W. Vogel discovered that by adding certain dyes to the emulsion plates could be made sensitive to all colors. Early photographic material were sensitive only to blue light.

1880

George Eastman began his dry plate business in Rochester (New York). The Kodak system was started in 1888 by the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company, and a box camera was placed on the market. The camera was sold already loaded with enough film for 100 exposures. After exposure, both camera and film were returned to Rochester, where the film was removed and processed and the camera then reloaded and returned to the customer.

1889 

Thomas Edison made the first motion pictures on 35 millimeter film with the transparent, flexible roll film made by the Eastman Company.

1924

The Leica 35 millimeter camera was marketed in Germany, initiating widespread interest in candid, or unposed, photography.

1931

The electronic flash was invented and patented in the US.

1947 

Edwin H. Land introduced the Polaroid Land camera. Camera was able to develop and print B&W photographs in 60 seconds.

1947 

David White Company marketed the first stereo camera.

1963 

Land introduced the Polaroid color camera. Color photographs were developed in 50 seconds.