Illuminating photography: From camera obscura to camera phone - Eva Timothy

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

翻译人员: Emily Hill 校对人员: Cissy Yun

Let me guess,

让我猜一猜

you've got Facebook albums full of photos.

你脸的相册里充满了照片

You have photos on your computer desktop,

你的电脑桌面上有照片

on your mobile phone,

你手机上

on your bedroom wall.

你卧室墙上

You see photos in magazines and newspapers,

在杂志和报纸里你看到很多照片

on the side of buses,

在公交车的两边

and of course, in your family albums.

当然，在你的家庭相册里

We take photos for granted in a major way.

我们把拍照片当作是理所当然的

But, creating a picture

但是，创造一幅图片

that looked exactly like the person or thing

看上去和那个你拍过的人或一件物品一模一样

that you were photographing wasn't always obvious.

并不是很明显

In fact, in the past, it was a big mystery.

事实上，在过去，这是一个很大的奥秘

How could you, in essence,

你怎么能，在本质上，

take your reflection in the mirror

把你镜子里的影像

and freeze it in there?

固定在那里？

In the 9th century,

在九世纪，

the Arab scientist Alhazen

阿拉伯科学家Alhazen

had come up with the idea

想到了一个点子

of using the camera obscura,

来利用Camera Obscura （小孔成像）

which was literally a dark room, or box,

字面上的意思是一个黑暗的房间，或者一个盒子，

with a single, small hole in one side that let light through.

在某一端有单独的，能让光透过的一个小孔

This would project the image outside into the wall inside.

这能够把外面的景象映射到内壁

During the Renaissance,

在文艺复兴期间

artists like Leonardo DaVinci used this method

像达芬奇这样的画家利用这个原理

to introduce 3-D scenes onto a flat plane

将3-D画面引进到一个平面

so that they could copy things,

这样他们就能更加简便地复制

like perspective, more easily.

例如透视的景象

In 1724, Johann Heinrich Schultz discovered

在1724年， Johann Heinrich Schultz发现

that exposing certain silver compounds to light

将某种银化合物暴露在光线下，

altered their appearance

会改变它们的外观

and left marks wherever the light touched.

并且会在光线接触到的地方留下痕迹

Essentially, Schultz found a way to record the images

实际上，舒尔兹找到了一种方法

that Alhazen was able to project,

它可以记录下阿尔哈曾所投射出来的影像

but only for a little while.

但只能维持短暂的时间

Schultz's images disappeared soon after he had made them.

Schultz创造的影像不久便消失了

It wasn't until 1839 that people figured out

直到1839年，人们才想到方法

how to project images onto light-sensitive surfaces

让投影出来的影响呈现光敏感的表面上

that would retain the image after exposure,

还可以让影像在曝光后依然保留着

and thus, photography was born.

自此，照相技术诞生了

At that point, it was mostly two inventors

在那个时间点，有两个发明家

who fought for the best way to make photos.

在研究最好的照相技术上竞争着

One was British scientist Henry Fox Talbot,

其中一个是英国科学家Henry Fox Talbot

whose calotype process used paper

他的卡罗法使用纸张，

and allowed many copies to be made

并且从一张负片就

from a single negative.

能够复制多幅影像

The other inventor, Louis Daguerre,

另一个发明家 Louis Daguerre,

was an artist and chemist in France.

是一个法国艺术家和化学家

He developed something called a daguerreotype,

他发明了一种叫银版照相

which used a silvered plate

他采用了银色的盘子

and which produced a sharper image.

使之产生清晰的图像

But the daguerreotype could only make positive images

但银版照相只能产生正面形象

so copies had to be made by taking another photo.

所以副本不得不由以另一张照片

In the end, the daguerreotype won out

在最后，银版照相胜出了

as the first commercially successful photographic process

作为第一个商业上的成功的摄影过程

mostly because the government made it freely available to the public.

主要是因为政府作免费提供给公众

So now that photography was available,

所以现在摄影的情况下

getting a picture of yourself would be a snap, right?

拍一张自己的照片会是小菜一碟，是吗？

Well, not exactly!

好吧，不完全是

This process still required a whole dark room

这一个过程仍然需要整个黑暗的房间里

at the location of the photograph,

在这张照片的位置，

which was a big hassle.

这是个大麻烦

Picture the early photographers lugging

想想早期的摄影师拖着

enormous trailers with all their equipment

巨大的拖车，载着他们所有的器材

wherever they wanted to take a picture.

无论他们想在何地拍一张照片，

Not only that, but the early processes

不只是这样，在早期过程，

had extremely long exposure times.

摄影需要很长时间的曝光

To get a good photo, you would have to stand perfectly still

若是要获取一张好照片 你必须站得一动不动

for up to two minutes!

起码两分钟！

This led to development of inventions like

这个引导了各种发明的发展

the head holder,

比如头部支撑器

a wire frame that would hide behind you

一个隐藏在你背后的铁丝架

while supporting your head.

支撑着你的脑袋

It's also why you don't see people smiling

这也是为什么

in early photographs.

在早期的摄影中你不见人们微笑

It's not that life was that bad,

这并不是因为生活是那么糟糕

it was just hard to keep a steady grin

这只是因为很难保持一个稳定的笑容

for more than a few seconds,

超过几秒钟

so people opted for a straight-faced look.

所以人们选择了严肃的表情

And then George Eastman came along.

然后，George Eastman到来了

Eastman believed that everyone

Eastman相信大家

should have access to photography,

都应该能够享受摄影

and he spent many late nights

于是他花了很多个夜晚

mixing chemicals in his mother's kitchen

在他母亲的厨房里调制化学物质

to try to achieve a dry plate photographic process.

尝试着实现干版照相的过程

This would allow exposed negatives

这样能够使曝光的负片

to be stored and developed later

被储存并且在之后被开发

at a more convenient place

在一个更加便捷的地方

instead of carting those dark rooms,

以此代替用马车将储存湿版的暗箱

necessary for wet plates, around.

拉来拉去

在他开了一家商店

After starting a business,

which initially made dry plates,

刚开始的时候制作了干版的时候

Eastman eventually discovered plastic roll film

Eastman最终发现了塑料管卷

that would fit in hand-held, inexpensive cameras.

能够装进手持的，便宜的相机

These cameras sold by the millions under the tag line,

这些相机在广告的作用下卖了上百万

“你按个键，

"You push the button,

we do the rest."

我们来做剩下的。“

While Eastman was largely responsible

虽然Eastman对摄影推广的绝大的部分

for making photography a universal pastime,

做出了贡献

even he could not have dreamed of the ways

就连他也不能够想象

photography had since shaped the world.

从那以后摄影如何改变了世界

It's now estimated that over 380 billion photographs

据估计现在有超过三千八百亿的照片

每年都在被拍摄

are taken each year.

That's more photographs each day

那是每天都有更多的照片在被拍摄

than were taken in the first hundred years

相比较于那些在摄影被发明的 最初几百年拍的照片

after photography was invented.

加起来的总和

笑一个！

Say cheese!