Digital manipulation software arrived on personal computers in 1990, which increased the popularity of digital cameras. Now images could be processed and manipulated at home without the need for costly materials or a dark room. Brass was usually used for the fittings attached to cameras, from the mid 1890s aluminium became popular but its use had all but ceased by the early 1900s. Previously aluminium had been very expensive but new production methods adopted around 1890 drastically reduced the cost. Brass or aluminium binding refers to metal let into the surface of the wood to strengthen joints and prevent warping (fig. 15). Brass fittings were usually finished plain and lacquered, worm or hatching markings (fig. 17) were favoured by some makers (e.g. Perken, Son & Rayment, Chapman). Wet-plate slides were available during this period, they were still advertised by Lancaster in the 1890s. Transitional cameras were sold with perhaps a single wet-plate and three double dark-slides. Older cameras could have been updated by buying some new slides or, less conveniently, the wet-plate slide could be use. Focusing The images produced by these early cameras could only be preserved by manually tracing them, as no photographic processes had been invented yet. The first cameras were large enough to accommodate one or more people, and over time they evolved into increasingly compact models. By the time of Niépce, portable box camera obscurae suitable for photography were widely available. Johann Zahn envisioned the first camera small and portable enough for practical photography in 1685, but it took nearly 150 years for such an application to become possible.

Sensitive, subtly political and unsentimental, her work was published in several books, the most influential of which was Land (1985). Land featured photographs taken over a ten-year period, many of which were taken while Godwin was in receipt of a major Arts Council grant that she had been awarded in 1978. This pattern has similarities with the Kinnear pattern and with the small front focus bellows cameras produced in the wet-plate period. Fortunately, among the people who instantly accepted the false claim without question, some resisted the nonsense.

When Ernst Leitz took over the directorship of the Optical Institute in 1869, the German engineer was only 27. The institute made its money selling lenses, primarily in the form of microscopes and telescopes. Anna Atkins (1799–1871) was one of the first female photographers and is known for having produced the first photographically illustrated book in Britain. Entitled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the three-volume publication appeared in instalments over a ten-year period from 1843 onwards. The completed work contained over 400 photographs of British algae. Sir John Herschel had invented the cyanotype process in 1842, and Atkins used it to make her images. Where the front standard can be disengaged from the baseboard it is simply pushed towards the rear standard and the baseboard can fold up to cover it (fig. 70). This is similar to Folding Bed designs.

Lewis Hine (1874–1940) was a seminal American photographer, best remembered for the contribution he made to the reform of American child labour laws. He is also known for the work he undertook on behalf of the National Child Labour Committee, which aimed to help protect children from exploitation and danger in the workplace. Originally trained as a sociologist, Hine’s first photographic project documented European immigrants as they arrived at Ellis Island, New York. Hine always imbued his subjects with dignity, communicating a sense of the immigrants’ individuality and challenging the prejudice they faced. If a person sits in a dark room, camera obscura could allow a hole the size of a pin to project an image of the garden outside on their wall. If you made a box with a hole on one side and thin paper on the other, it could capture the image of the world on that paper. Many charities for the poor, like the Salvation Army and Barnardo’s, were established during the Victorian era. They fed the hungry in soup kitchens, and looked after the poorest children in orphanages. Several proposals were made for Monorail cameras but came to nothing. Wood was not the best material for this design and metal would have resulted in a heavy camera. Sizes The first digital camera was invented in 1975. Its creator was Steve Sasson, an engineer at Kodak. This camera took 0.01 megapixel images. For comparison, many modern mobile phones have a camera that takes images of 12 megapixels or more!In 1949 Rodger produced a large and unique documentary project, of which this image is a part. After a difficult journey to the remote, hard-to-find Nuba, he lived among the tribespeople for six weeks, photographing their daily lives, rituals and routines. The project proved controversial: Rodger’s photographs ultimately brought the tribespeople unwelcome attention that eventually destroyed their traditional way of life. Developments of the camera obscura technology meant that the camera obscura became closer and closer to what we think of as a ‘camera’ today.