History of Photography Quiz

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the oldest surviving camera photograph, a view from his window, on a pewter plate coated with bitumen that hardened where light struck it. The exposure lasted many hours. Daguerre, his later partner, perfected the more practical daguerreotype after Niépce died.

A daguerreotype was a unique, non-reproducible image formed directly on a silver-coated copper plate. Unlike the negative-positive process that followed, there was no intermediate negative and no way to make duplicate prints from the same plate.

George Eastman sold a simple box camera loaded with a roll of film; the owner sent the whole camera back for developing and reloading. Roll film replaced fragile glass plates, and his company's slogan promised that the owner only had to press the button. Single-lens reflex mirrors and digital sensors came from others, much later.

Camera obscura is Latin for dark room or dark chamber. The device projected an inverted image of the outside world through a small opening onto the opposite wall, and was used by artists and astronomers centuries before photography existed.

Henri Cartier-Bresson articulated the idea that the perfect photograph occurs at one specific instant when geometry, light, and meaning align. His concept of the decisive moment became a guiding principle of street and photojournalistic photography.

The correct answer was the first color film to succeed widely on the market, first for home movies and then as still slides. Earlier color processes, such as autochrome, used glass plates rather than film. The other films listed came along later, and one of them is a black and white film.

The Brownie was a simple, very cheap box camera aimed even at children. Its low price and easy roll film made snapshots an everyday activity for ordinary families, which is why it is remembered as the camera that brought photography to the masses.

Edwin Land invented instant photography: film that develops into a finished print within about a minute of the shot, with the processing chemicals packed into the print itself. The company he founded became so tied to it that its name is still used for instant photos.

The first self-contained digital camera was built by an engineer at the leading film company of the time, not at an electronics or computer maker. It recorded a 0.01 megapixel black and white image onto cassette tape, taking about 23 seconds per picture, and proved that photography without film was possible.

The wet plate collodion process coated a glass or metal plate with a light-sensitive chemical that had to be exposed and developed while still moist, giving the photographer only a few minutes between coating and development. The entire darkroom had to travel with the camera.