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Photography as an art form and medium easily caught on as a business since its early days. But at first, because of the difficulty of producing just one photograph, it was more of a scientific thing than a business. Just imagine having to stay still for at least ten minutes posing in front of the camera for your portrait to be taken. You definitely will not like that as a customer. But by 1847, photography was already a popular medium for middle-class portraiture with a select few technical enough to exploit the brisk business. As a business and wonder of science and technology, photography was highly regarded in its early days. Aside from the necessary technical know-how in the process of getting the image to film and later developing it onto expensive special paper, artistic skills were needed to retouch the negative images while still raw on the film. It was done under a magnifying lens with the film lighted from under the semi-transparent working table. Could that be the reason why old photographs often had better-looking images than how people actually looked in person? Does this not remind us of today’s Photoshop as its more versatile digital counterpart? Before the camera film was invented, taking photos was a bit more cumbersome. It involved directly recording the image as the shutter opened to a silver-coated copper plate treated with iodine vapour that made it sensitive to light. Developing the image was done with mercury vapour and then fixed with a strong solution of ordinary table salt. Later innovations allowed for direct image exposure to an improved version of sensitised plates or paper. The plate type yielded better products than the early film types and were still in use well into the 1900s. As business and technology matured, specialised establishments were set up to effectively market photography to the general public. Among the first was Kodak followed in later years by many others. The Japanese showed early signs of technological superiority with their own name brands such as Canon and Fujifilm among others. Kodak’s made the mistake of being complacent believing that Americans will not desert the company. The Japanese’s low-pricing entry initiated by Fujifilm led to Kodak losing a firm hold in the US market. The shift to digital imaging technology compounded Kodak’s woes as it staunchly maintained its roll film business position. Efforts in trying to catch up with technology were a bit too late. By January 19, 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection with a February 15, 2013 deadline. Take note of this if you ever plan and go into business. Being number 1 today is more reason to always be vigilant and suffer not to be number less tomorrow.
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