Smile for the Camera
If you ever get have the opportunity to visit Los Angeles, and the Le Brea Tar Pits, you will probably see many tourists taking photographs of the scientists at work. Photography today is so easy, now that we can make pictures digitally. But in the early days, using a camera was not something that just anyone knew how to do. Steve Ember joins us now with information about picture taking over 150 years ago.
The invention of the daguerreotype in the 19th century led to modern photography. With daguerreotypes, people could sit for just a few minutes while their image was captured in what is now known as a photograph. Before that, people had to sit long hours for an artist to paint a picture.
America’s Smithsonian Institution is now working with the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago to study daguerreotypes. Scientists say these early photos are in danger of being lost forever.
The young woman in one daguerreotype they’re working on was most likely a teenager or in her early 20s when the picture was made. Her image was captured on a copper plate with finely polished, shining silver in the middle of the 19th century.
“It was the first time you could go into a studio and have your photograph taken, and you could put it up somewhere and show it off.”
That’s Daniel Weinberg. He works at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago. He has studied many daguerreotypes. He says they are popular with collectors and historians alike.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25