Early Travel Photography

The world seemed full of unexplored wonders until the mid 19th century. That was until steamships, railroads, and cameras made it possible for more people to travel to distant and exotic lands and share their visual experiences. People were hungry for these mysterious and far off places and hungrier still for those photographs.

Previously drawings and paintings were the only way for people to experience these strange lands from the comforts of their homes, but this was an artist’s personal vision and interpretation that was being handed down. Then the camera came around and offered an extension of one’s own vision; a photograph was accepted as “real”, a faithful image created by a technical and scientific method.

One of the first and most prolific travel destinations for early photographers was the Near East. This was due to it’s exotic scenery and it’s association with biblical history and ancient cultures. Within months of the announcement of the daguerreotype in 1839 a photographic team was in Egypt. Because there was no way of reproducing the daguerrotypes directly, they had to be traced and reproduced as copperplate engravings. The invention of the calotype and the collodian processes allowed reproductions of Near East photographs to be made available to more people.

One of the most spectacular regions of all, the western frontier of the United States remained largely unexplored and recorded by photographers until the late 1860s. Explorers and artists had been in the Rocky Mountain area long before this time but their stories and sketches were long thought to be exaggerations. After the American Civil War photographers were set out to explore and map the West with government expeditions. This was a daunting task as the camera in it’s strong box was a heavy load to carry up the rocks.

Yet the photographers and government explorers did take the task head on and provided some of the very first travel photographs of the American frontier. Now almost every expedition from government agencies to family outings is accompanied by photographer helping to record the history and the landscape of the world as we know it.

Something to consider when we look at travel photography today.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Related posts:

1. The Importance of Early Portraiture in the History of Photography
2. Photography and History Collide
3. The Birth of War Time Photography
4. LORNE RESNICK ANNOUNCES 2010 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
5. Inner Vision and Photography