Pre-Digital Photographic Technology

The Leica 35mm camera was the camera that changed photography, which lead to changing photojournalism. The camera was made and released in Germany in 1925. In the article, Leica 35mm 1(A) Camera, it writes, “The leica was an immediate success.” People thought it was amazing that a camera could be so much smaller and yet capture such a great shot. This made a difference in photojournalism because cameras could be brought to events more efficiently, and taking photos became a much easier job. The photos were still black and white, but the transformation of the type of device that was taking the picture was a big and beneficial change.

In the video, Before There Were Pixels - Part 2, Professor Nordell says, “If you just had your camera hidden, you could take a picture, no one would notice.” This was also a big effect that the Leica camera made. Now instead of photojournalists having to take huge cameras with them, they now had a small portable camera. It made it easier to take snapshots of something or to take pictures “of verbs” instead of standing objects. Of course the images were not as clear and nicely portrayed as todays photos, but this change was huge in the photojournalism industry. In the article, The Leica 1: The Camera that Changed Photographs, it states, “It was the first to make 35mm truely viable.” With the Leica, the photos were more easier to perceive than earlier technologies of cameras.

Since the Leica camera there have been a lot more updates and new technology in regards of cameras. Starting from photos taking 5-8 minutes to be produced, then to cameras like the Leica, and finally to today when there is a camera on every smartphone. The modern day camera has evolved so much. Today, almost anyone can take a picture with a lot of different tools. There of course is the digital camera, which has a lot of different brands and types, and there's also the phone that carries a camera. For photojournalists, today technology with cameras makes it so much easier to take photographs. Cameras today are more comfortable to carry, and bring along for photojournalists out in the field, and they can take multiple pictures in just one second. With this almost every moment of an event can be captured.

In the article, How Has Technology Impacted The Photography World, it writes, “In just a few short decades, technological advances have had a major impact on our everyday lives.” Technology keeps growing and keeps updating the world with better cameras that give out more powerful photographs. When the first cameras were made, photojournalism was a much more difficult job. Those cameras made it that much harder and almost impossible to capture moments that needed to be seen by the public. After learning about the Leica camera and taking a photograph myself it made me realize that with today's technology, any moment with a photojournalist and a camera, a photograph can be captured; when before this was not possible. The innovation of camera's changed so much for photojournalists today.

Photo by : Dorothea Lange

Image source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Owens_Thompson

Photo by : Liliya Stepanchuk