Photography: Snapshots--The Box Camera


Figure 1.-- Frances Benjamin Johnston as a young woman raised eyebrows. She was a rare woman journalist in the late-19th century. A family friend, George Eastman gave her one of his new Kodak box cameras. The light-weighr, easy to operate camera which could be taken anyhere turned her into a photo journalist --a brand new form of journalism (1890s). She beagan taking photographs of family and friends and then local personalities. And because she lived in Washington, D.C. soon developed a national reputation. She opened her own photographic studio in Washington, D.C. Some of the iconic photographic portaits of the great figures of the day were taken by Johnston, including suffragette Susan B. Anthony, writer Mark Twain, and African-American leader Booker T. Washington. She was a rare photographer that not only left us portraits of these avant guard figures, but also of high society. She famously photographed Alice Roosevelt in her wedding gown and the gardens of Edith Wharton's famous villa near Paris. Other notable portraits included war hero Admiral Dewey on the deck of the 'USS Olympia' and the Roosevelt children with Macaroni, ther beloved pet pony at the White House. Here we see her with her box camera, but we do not know who the children are or where they are.

The box camera was a major innovation. Until the box camera, photography was so complicated and expensive that only the most committed amateurs could persue photography. George Eastman in 1889 introduced the Kodak box camera bring photography within reach of a much larger market--but it was still relatively expensive compared to what earlier cameras cost. We begin to see affluent people taking snap shots at this time. Even children could operate a box camera. We see, for example, boys at exclusive private schools with box cameras in the 1890s. The Kodak box was the first box camera to become widely adopted by the public. The design was soon copied by competitors, but it was the archetype for the cameras that made the family snapshot possible for middle-class Americans. The secret to the box camera was flexible roll film which made the cameras light weight and portabl. Heavy tripods were no longer necessary. And doing away with heavy, fragile glass photographic plates freed the photographer to go about anywhere. And Kodak solved the development process which was complicated. The first Kodak camera was pre-loaded with film. The the customer mailed the the camera to Kodak which processed and relaoded the camera with flim. If the individual could afford it, the box camera was a simple cameras that could be easily operated by amateurs. The film was on a strip which could be advanced by simply winding. Thus by the 1890s snap shots begin to appear in contrast with the formal studio shots previously available. Box cameras while not cheap in the 1890s, were a fraction of the cost of the elaborate cameras previously required. Prices steadily fell in the next centuary which would bring photography available to virtually everyone.







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Created: 10:06 AM 3/11/2019
Last updated: 10:06 AM 3/11/2019