5 ms·

The Miracle of Photography

42 points by prismatic 3y ago

Almondsetat 3y ago
Photography is an interesting example of an invention that had only one piece missing for millennia. If the ancient Greeks knew enough chemistry to produce a light sensitive material (and a way to fix the result in place) we would have had Aristotle's selfie printed in some temple's wall
- jl6 3y ago
  Reminded me of archaeoacoustics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoacoustics#Discredited_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoacoustics#Discredited_t...
- civilitty 3y ago
  “Only one piece missing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There is an entire tech tree between the Ancient Greeks and photography not the least of which is the hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance without which the development of chemistry stalled for many centuries. Their very metaphysics trapped them and prevented their philosophers from making those kinds of developmental leaps - they were stuck with earth, wind, water, and fire. The irony being it took more than 2,000 years to come full circle to Platonic ideals with the periodic table and atomic theory, which are the foundations of chemistry.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    With the benefit of hindsight, the ancient Greeks had both some perhaps surprisingly advanced science and gaps, especially in the physical sciences, that wouldn't be filled in for millennia.
  - vivekd 3y ago
    >hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance I'm highly suspicious of the historical accuracy of this popular claim. I don't think any such transition occurred. In fact I think the idea of the Renaissance is more myth than reality. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis
- Daub 3y ago
  > If the ancient Greeks knew enough chemistry to produce a light sensitive material (and a way to fix the result in place) We can imagine that they might have. According to Greek myth, the centaur Chiron made a silver shield that could capture a likeness. Maybe it was made of Silver nitrate? Add that to the fact the Greeks had a decent understanding of parabolic mirrors and that the aztecs produced optically correct lenses... One can imagine... Only imagine.
- qingcharles 3y ago
  It's possible the Shroud of Turin is a photograph.
throw_pm23 3y ago
That was a nice article, and amusing that the first "photo" of that Paris street is still better than 99.9% of the shots taken today.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- greg7mdp 3y ago
  Nothing really compare to a well made daguerreotype.
- ghaff 3y ago
  First photograph of a person. This is usually credited as the first photograph. https://www.artandobject.com/news/what-you-might-not-know-about-worlds-oldest-photograph https://www.artandobject.com/news/what-you-might-not-know-ab...
  - livrem 3y ago
    Text says "the world’s oldest surviving photograph", so I guess there were other known (or suspected?) photographs even before that, just not any that we still have a copy of?
jl6 3y ago
> Since that anonymous bootblack and his customer had their portraits shot, there have been an astounding 3.5 trillion photographs taken. I suspect this is a wild underestimate. Google Photos alone claims to have 4 trillion stored: https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/ https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/
- mikewarot 3y ago
  Most of humanity has a phone now, and if half of them have cameras, we're talking at least 2 Billion cameras... a few thousand photos per person (that have almost zero cost)... I can see that happening quickly.
- laserDinosaur 3y ago
  I think they got the stat from this article: https://fstoppers.com/other/stats-how-many-photos-have-ever-been-taken-5173#comment-thread https://fstoppers.com/other/stats-how-many-photos-have-ever-... , which claims they got the stats from this other article (which ublock origin blocks for me, so I didn't open the link) http://1000memories.com/blog/94-number-of-photos-ever-taken-digital-and-analog-in-shoebox http://1000memories.com/blog/94-number-of-photos-ever-taken-... According to this page, the number is closer to 12.4 trillion: https://photutorial.com/photos-statistics/ https://photutorial.com/photos-statistics/

42 points by prismatic 3y ago

Photography is an interesting example of an invention that had only one piece missing for millennia. If the ancient Greeks knew enough chemistry to produce a light sensitive material (and a way to fix the result in place) we would have had Aristotle's selfie printed in some temple's wall

jl6 3y ago
Reminded me of archaeoacoustics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoacoustics#Discredited_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoacoustics#Discredited_t...
civilitty 3y ago
“Only one piece missing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There is an entire tech tree between the Ancient Greeks and photography not the least of which is the hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance without which the development of chemistry stalled for many centuries. Their very metaphysics trapped them and prevented their philosophers from making those kinds of developmental leaps - they were stuck with earth, wind, water, and fire. The irony being it took more than 2,000 years to come full circle to Platonic ideals with the periodic table and atomic theory, which are the foundations of chemistry.
- ghaff 3y ago
  With the benefit of hindsight, the ancient Greeks had both some perhaps surprisingly advanced science and gaps, especially in the physical sciences, that wouldn't be filled in for millennia.
- vivekd 3y ago
  >hard transition from Platonism to empiricism during the Renaissance I'm highly suspicious of the historical accuracy of this popular claim. I don't think any such transition occurred. In fact I think the idea of the Renaissance is more myth than reality. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_thesis
Daub 3y ago
> If the ancient Greeks knew enough chemistry to produce a light sensitive material (and a way to fix the result in place) We can imagine that they might have. According to Greek myth, the centaur Chiron made a silver shield that could capture a likeness. Maybe it was made of Silver nitrate? Add that to the fact the Greeks had a decent understanding of parabolic mirrors and that the aztecs produced optically correct lenses... One can imagine... Only imagine.
qingcharles 3y ago
It's possible the Shroud of Turin is a photograph.

throw_pm23 3y ago

That was a nice article, and amusing that the first "photo" of that Paris street is still better than 99.9% of the shots taken today.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
greg7mdp 3y ago
Nothing really compare to a well made daguerreotype.
ghaff 3y ago
First photograph of a person. This is usually credited as the first photograph. https://www.artandobject.com/news/what-you-might-not-know-about-worlds-oldest-photograph https://www.artandobject.com/news/what-you-might-not-know-ab...
- livrem 3y ago
  Text says "the world’s oldest surviving photograph", so I guess there were other known (or suspected?) photographs even before that, just not any that we still have a copy of?

jl6 3y ago

> Since that anonymous bootblack and his customer had their portraits shot, there have been an astounding 3.5 trillion photographs taken. I suspect this is a wild underestimate. Google Photos alone claims to have 4 trillion stored: https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/ https://blog.google/products/photos/storage-changes/

mikewarot 3y ago
Most of humanity has a phone now, and if half of them have cameras, we're talking at least 2 Billion cameras... a few thousand photos per person (that have almost zero cost)... I can see that happening quickly.
laserDinosaur 3y ago
I think they got the stat from this article: https://fstoppers.com/other/stats-how-many-photos-have-ever-been-taken-5173#comment-thread https://fstoppers.com/other/stats-how-many-photos-have-ever-... , which claims they got the stats from this other article (which ublock origin blocks for me, so I didn't open the link) http://1000memories.com/blog/94-number-of-photos-ever-taken-digital-and-analog-in-shoebox http://1000memories.com/blog/94-number-of-photos-ever-taken-... According to this page, the number is closer to 12.4 trillion: https://photutorial.com/photos-statistics/ https://photutorial.com/photos-statistics/