AboutDavid Silver Expertise My name is David Silver. Antique and classic cameras, vintage photographs, general photography and all areas of the history of photography are my expertise.
Experience I've been a professional photographer and a student of the history of photography for nearly 30 years. During that time my collection of vintage cameras and photographic paraphernalia has grown beyond 2000 significant pieces. I've published nearly 70 articles in the field, including 16 in the popular "Buying Classic Cameras" series for PHOTO SHOPPER MAGAZINE from 1995 to 1997, I'm currently a contributing editor for CAMERA SHOPPER MAGAZINE and McKEOWN'S PRICE GUIDE TO ANTIQUE AND CLASSIC CAMERAS, and I've written numerous entries for WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA. Portions of my collection have been displayed in museums and special exhibits in the past two decades, and many of the items were photographed as illustrations for books. In 1985 I founded the International Photographic Historical Organization (InPHO), which eventually evolved into its intended purpose as the best first resource for information on the history of photography. I'm also a founding member of several e-mail forums dedicated to specialized areas of photography, and I'm the moderator of the Internet Directory of Camera Collectors (IDCC), which remains the largest and most successful such group in the world. For more information about the International Photographic Historical Organization and its many services, please visit its web pages at:
Question Hello, How has the camera affected life is today?
Thank you for your consideration.
-Jennifer
Answer Hi Jennifer,
That's a VERY complex question, and it would require a VERY long answer to cover the MANY different effects. However, I believe there is one effect in particular that had the most impact.
Prior to photography, news of events or reports of adventures and exploration took a long time to get to the people. To "see" things, somebody had to draw or paint a picture. To describe things, somebody had to write. Art and writing are expressive dimensions that take time to do, and then even more time to reproduce so many people can appreciate them. Events that occurred far away would take days, weeks, sometimes months to be fully understood because of the slow nature of communication. With the explosion of interest in photography in the 1850's, that time was greatly reduced. Photographs could then be made "instantaneously", they could easily be reproduced for quick publication, and people could then see and experience exactly what was happening in other places (whether it was across the world, or just across town!) without waiting for somebody to write about it or create an artistic representation. It might still have taken days if the events were far away, but no longer weeks or months. With photography, people also saw and experienced events with greater detail than before. This changed the way people viewed their world, and empowered them to want to explore or effect more of it for themselves because there was so much more immediacy in their experience and response to world and local events. Even before the great revolution in communication with radio and telegraphy at the end of the 19th century, photography made the world a much "smaller" place, and people were much better informed about the real wonders, beauties, tragedies, and horrors taking place at that very moment. With better technology, photography continued to make the world smaller and more immediate in our day to day experience. Just look at what is happening in Iraq. One aspect of photography has evolved into television, and coupled with current digital and communication technology we can see the events of that war while they are actually happening. Wouldn't your understanding and opinions of this conflict be different if you had to wait weeks to learn about it? Yes, of course, but the immediacy of photography/television makes us see that reality right now, and that shapes our world view in a better informed way. Photography is immediate, and the factual details it provides evoke our honest informed response.
