This article is troubling. It raises an important point that, yes, all technologies are always used to subjugate and control other people. But emphasizing this

This article is troubling. It raises an important point that, yes, all technologies are always used to subjugate and control other people. But emphasizing this aspect in the history of photography is really overstating the case. The person most responsible for the popularization of photography and its transition from the domain of specialized experts to the purview of the common man is George Eastman, the founder of Kodak. His sales strategy of "You press the button; we do everything else" and his invention of cameras and centralized film development which made that strategy possible transformed photography into the snapshots we know today. It had nothing to do with slavery or oppression and everything to do with simplifying a technical process so that it became available to more people. Leaving out this fact, which impacted photography more than the use in documenting slave ownership, is a misleading telling of the tale.