Historical research

Early forms of photography -

Exploring the medium of photography within my project means I require relevant knowledge on the subject, this including where it all started and further development in terms of techniques and technology, providing me with an overall important, wider understanding of photography. The technology that started photography was the pinhole camera/camera obscura, used in the 10th century, using light rays passing through a tiny hole and reversing the opposite way round onto something placed parallel to the hole. This phenomenon lead to events such as the discovery of white light by Isaac Newton 16th century, the process of refracting white light of a prism splitting into various rainbow colours.
One of the earliest physical examples developing throughout centuries being Heliography in 18th century, consisting of a pewter plate with added coated substances from the artist's previous experiments such as Asphalt by the artist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The plate was placed opposite the camera and was exposed to the sun, creating a hard patterned surface in the end product. After Nicépce's work was photographer Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, developing the self-titled Daguerreotype process. A Daguerreotype is a heavy metal plate, producing sharp, clear and detailed results. The end product is fragile and vulnerable and is a development from Niepce's work as it requires minutes of exposure, rather than days.  An artist named William Henry Fox Talbot then created a photography presented technique called Calotype, consisting of chemical substances such as salt and sodium chloride also following the camera Obscura exposure settings and creating negative calotypes. The process involves darkrooms and exposure to light timing settings. The idea of developing photographs within darkrooms and depending on exposure as a big element of the photograph intrigues me and has informed my decision on using film photography, involving the possible use of Polaroids and darkrooms. 
The first colour photography by artist James Clerk Maxwell was produced in 1861, taking Isaac Newton's colour/white light theories into account by photographing through red, blue and yellow filters. The Lecia camera was one of the first to be factory produced in the 19th century, this developing to the cameras that allowed technology to develop the further the years passed, including the Rolliecord, Polaroid and Fuji Fulix. The first camera we use frequently today in our projects being a Nikon was 1959, the Nikon F. 20th century further developed to roll films, full-colour photography on phones with the flexible and easy access to select desired filters or options in black and white and cameras with technology/companies such as Kodak, Nikon DLSR, Casio and Canon. The camera I will use for instant Polaroid photos is the Instax 9 - FujiFilm with ISO 800 film.
The development under technology including colours and filters is an important subject to consider within a photography project in itself, signifying referencing changes made and how, along with how these changes have had an impact in terms of being able to express something through photography. For example, the growth from black and white photography to colour, new settings added to modern cameras such as white balance. These settings not only meaning the aesthetical features of a final photograph can be adjusted but the perspective and manner in which the photograph can be interpreted. 

Early forms of photojournalism -

Photojournalism began when members of the public gained more of an interest in social and political events within the 1850s. The process of practicing photography as an occupation rather than as a hobby or source of entertainment intertwined with the sudden liking to current affairs meaning a convergence of the two- the beginning of photojournalism. Technical wise, the daguerreotype process was still the most developed and used form of photo documentation, though due to the long exposure time of up to 20 minutes, capturing fast movement/journalistic events was 'a major stumbling block.' (Baatz, 1999: 48) This lead to the Collodion process, a faster exposing, wet plate process requiring Collodion, a nitrate chemical and a darkroom producing a positive image demonstrated by photographers such as Phillip. H Delamotte, beginning early forms of photographic documentation. As processes and technology grew with profits to be made, documenting war through photography became more popular and reliable than documenting using paintings beginning from the 1850s onwards. One of the first notable war photographers to overtake a painters job was Roger Fenton. With war documentation from 1855 of the Russian-Turkish war, Fenton's role was to make the war seem more interesting by photographing English troops supporting the Turkish in battle as assigned by the British war ministry. When viewed by the public, the photograph's intentions were to 'sway the... critical public opinion of British participation in the war.' (Baatz, 1999: 49) This, as well as war photographers moving soldiers bodies and tampering with the scene for better composition, strikes the controversy stigma that photojournalism holds - is it a true reflection of reality, did painters replicate a scene in a more truthful manner than photographers, and, in linkage to our theme, does photography help tell the truth?

Another impactful story in linkage to photojournalism and the truth is 'The starving child and Vulture,' a 1993 photograph captured by Kevin Carter, in which the photographer travelled to Sudan to document South African life. On his journey, he came across a starving child and a vulture, in what seems like the vulture is about to attack the child. Carter had a conflicted moment here - if he should save the child, or take the photograph. In taking the photograph, he was awarded a 'Pulitzer Prize' and 'American Magazine Picture of the Year' (McCabe, 1994) Though these prestigious rewards, Carter could not help but feel guilt after taking the photograph, considering he had just experienced a situation in which he could have helped the child, but did not, and therefore committed suicide. This story demonstrates the physical emotion in which photojournalism can have, hence its importance and possible reasoning as to why it was a chosen medium over painting back in the 18th century.

Bibliography:
- Baatz, Willfried (1999) 'Photography: A Concise History' London, Laurence King.
- Goldberger, Jones, Ben, Radhika (2019) Starving Child and Vulture http://100photos.time.com/photos/kevin-carter-starving-child-vulture [2020]