Chapter Two: Pre-Digital Photographic Technology

Photo by: Anonymous- A veteran with his wife
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion_process

The collodion process is the invention that opened the door to photojournalism. The technique that was used was different than any other, and gave photographers the opportunity to take their work on the road. This was made possible by F.Scott Archer, the creator of the Collodion process. Its work was published in1851, but it was not until 1855 that this image process replaced both the daguerreotypeand the calotype process. This was brought forward by William Henry Fox Talbot. What exactly is the wet collodion process? It consists of six chemistry specific steps that are crucial to the process of taking and developing photographs. Without them, the photographs wouldn’t have their character and beauty. Alternative photography states that this process is used to makedifferent image types: The Ambrotype, the Tintype, and a negative. They also mention the important steps needed in order to successfully take and develop a photograph using this process.

The development of the wet collodion process led the path the success of many photojournalist; for instance Rodger Fenton. Many would claim that because of him, the birth of photojournalism happened, and made the impossible, possible. In 1855, he was sent to Crimea to capture the gruesome photos of wounded soldiers and to help tell the stories of these resilient men. He used the wet collodion process to take all those images, and he did it differently than most. He took all his equipment and put it inside a truck and therefore he was able to travel and photograph everything around him. This showed others that if he could do it, so could other photojournalist.

Unlike the photojournalist of today, Fenton had to only photograph still objects. And that’s what happens when using a collodion process. It becomes more difficult to capture the point of interest if it is moving. But nonetheless, Fenton changed how photojournalist photographed their images, as well as creative innovation on how to use the collodion process. Uncc.edu mentions a statement given by Evans that reads: “Roger Fenton, who was in a way the father of modern photojournalism,took a photo wagon to Crimean War with the deliberate aim of taking photographsthat would boost domestic morale…(Evans 32) ”

Photo By: Alejandra Ocasio

The photograph I share today has important meaning not only to myself, but to my family. We are a small, but strong and united. We will always be there to hold on another up when we feel like we can no longer stand our own two feet. The day I took this photo was a day that I will never forget. When I took that photo, I had no idea what photojournalism was or what it even meant. But now I can reflect; and understand the artistic side of this image. It is very different than the photographs Fenton took and from images taken by the wet collodion process, but yet it is so similar. When using the wet plate, there are many techniques that are used and specific solutions required in order for the image to come out as clear as possible. Even though I did not use any of those specific products, I too had to use proper technique to capture this image. My photograph looks nothing like the ones produced by the wet plate, but without the invention of the collodion process, it would have been impossible to capture mine. I now have the opportunity to capture an image on my phone or on a handheld camera and be able to save it for many years to come. Civil war trust states “Today pictures aretaken and stored digitally, but in 1861, the newest technology was wet-platephotography, a process in which an image is captured on chemically coatedpieces of plate glass. This was a complicated process done exclusively byphotographic professionals” . That could not be any more true. In the world we live in today, anyone has the ability to capture beautiful photographs and share them with the world, like the way I am today.