TOEFL Experts Reading Practice 18
Photography is the art and science of still-image creation. It is accomplished through the recording of light or other electromagnetic radiation—indeed, the word “photography” comes from the Greek “photos,” meaning “light,” and “graphe,” meaning “drawing or writing.” Together, these words can be interpreted as “drawing with light.” The nineteenth-century scientist and photographer John Herschel is typically credited with coining the term in the 1830s. However, some have claimed that others were independently using the term around the same period; a French painter used the term in his correspondence, and a German astronomer spoke of the term in a newspaper article.
Photography began with the discovery of the camera obscura, or the “dark room.” Camera obscura is the phenomenon by which a pinhole in the wall of a dark room will project an image, lit from outside the room, onto an inner wall of the enclosed dark room. The image is reversed and inverted, or flipped upside down. This is the same mechanism by which the human eye sees images, with the pupil as the pinhole (the brain simply flips the image back so that it is observed as normal). Since the sixteenth century, artists have used a device referred to as the “camera obscura” (named along with the natural phenomenon it captures) in order to assist in drawing. Scientists have also used it to observe solar eclipses, which are generally unsafe to view directly.
It is well-established that certain substances, such as particular salts, change color when exposed to sunlight. In 1727, German scientist Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that certain salts darkened when exposed to sunlight, not because of heat or air, but as a response solely to the light itself. It was not until the early nineteenth century, however, that this chemical reaction was incorporated into what would become the photography that we know today. When the camera obscura process of projecting an image through the pinhole was applied to paper that had been chemically treated to be light-sensitive, modern photography was born. The pinhole camera became the first photographic camera.
Over the next number of decades, the camera underwent steady improvements. After the pinhole camera, the “daguerreotype” was invented, which involved not one but two boxes—an inner box and an outer box—which allowed the photographer to sharpen, or focus, the image. For years, photographers controlled the length of exposure time by manually removing the cap from the camera lens, the part of the camera that captures the light from the subject and brings it into focus. The photographer then counted the required amount of time in seconds or minutes before returning the cap to cover the lens. Eventually, the “shutter,” or mechanism that opens and closes the camera lens, was invented, freeing the photographer from this task in taking a photo. In 1885, American entrepreneur George Eastman began manufacturing the first photographic film—paper on which photographs could be taken. Starting in 1888, it was sold in a simple camera preloaded with the film. This camera was called the Kodak.
Today, most photography is conducted using digital cameras. In digital photography, an “image sensor” has replaced the traditional photographic film. This sensor is still a light-sensitive surface, but the image is stored as digital memory rather than etched directly onto a physical surface, as with photographic film. Some contemporary photographers, however, such as Cuban photographer Abelardo Morell, have chosen to work predominantly with early models of photography. A photography professor, he turned his classroom into a dark room in order to teach his students the optics behind the camera obscura technique. Morell is known for the images he takes using a “camera obscura,” which range from panoramas of New York City to Italian landscapes. He flips his images right side up with an old-fashioned prism, though he does use a digital sensor instead of film to cut their exposure time. Morell even carries around a portable “camera obscura” with which he can project images onto the ground.
Photography is the art and science of still-image creation. It is accomplished through the recording of light or other electromagnetic radiation—indeed, the word “photography” comes from the Greek “photos,” meaning “light,” and “graphe,” meaning “drawing or writing.” Together, these words can be interpreted as “drawing with light.” The nineteenth-century scientist and photographer John Herschel is typically credited with coining the term in the 1830s. However, some have claimed that others were independently using the term around the same period; a French painter used the term in his correspondence, and a German astronomer spoke of the term in a newspaper article.
Photography began with the discovery of the camera obscura, or the “dark room.” Camera obscura is the phenomenon by which a pinhole in the wall of a dark room will project an image, lit from outside the room, onto an inner wall of the enclosed dark room. The image is reversed and inverted, or flipped upside down. This is the same mechanism by which the human eye sees images, with the pupil as the pinhole (the brain simply flips the image back so that it is observed as normal). Since the sixteenth century, artists have used a device referred to as the “camera obscura” (named along with the natural phenomenon it captures) in order to assist in drawing. Scientists have also used it to observe solar eclipses, which are generally unsafe to view directly.
It is well-established that certain substances, such as particular salts, change color when exposed to sunlight. In 1727, German scientist Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that certain salts darkened when exposed to sunlight, not because of heat or air, but as a response solely to the light itself. It was not until the early nineteenth century, however, that this chemical reaction was incorporated into what would become the photography that we know today. When the camera obscura process of projecting an image through the pinhole was applied to paper that had been chemically treated to be light-sensitive, modern photography was born. The pinhole camera became the first photographic camera.
Over the next number of decades, the camera underwent steady improvements. After the pinhole camera, the “daguerreotype” was invented, which involved not one but two boxes—an inner box and an outer box—which allowed the photographer to sharpen, or focus, the image. For years, photographers controlled the length of exposure time by manually removing the cap from the camera lens, the part of the camera that captures the light from the subject and brings it into focus. The photographer then counted the required amount of time in seconds or minutes before returning the cap to cover the lens. Eventually, the “shutter,” or mechanism that opens and closes the camera lens, was invented, freeing the photographer from this task in taking a photo. In 1885, American entrepreneur George Eastman began manufacturing the first photographic film—paper on which photographs could be taken. Starting in 1888, it was sold in a simple camera preloaded with the film. This camera was called the Kodak.
Today, most photography is conducted using digital cameras. In digital photography, an “image sensor” has replaced the traditional photographic film. This sensor is still a light-sensitive surface, but the image is stored as digital memory rather than etched directly onto a physical surface, as with photographic film. Some contemporary photographers, however, such as Cuban photographer Abelardo Morell, have chosen to work predominantly with early models of photography. A photography professor, he turned his classroom into a dark room in order to teach his students the optics behind the camera obscura technique. Morell is known for the images he takes using a “camera obscura,” which range from panoramas of New York City to Italian landscapes. He flips his images right side up with an old-fashioned prism, though he does use a digital sensor instead of film to cut their exposure time. Morell even carries around a portable “camera obscura” with which he can project images onto the ground.
- The history of photography as an art form dates back to its invention in the early 1800s.