MODULE POLICE PHOTOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY

OBJECTIVES:
a. Enumerate significant events in the
pre-photographic history

PRE-PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY
The early cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic period can be considered as the
earliest creation of pictorial recording. Such can be traced as far back as about 35,000
years ago. These “pictures” could possibly be a record of actual hunting of the time, or
they could be religious petitions for a bountiful hunting. They could also simply be
depictions of icons that serve to brighten domestic activities. These pictorial images are
significant to the discussion of history because they demonstrate how human culture is
inextricably linked to photography (Wright, 1999).
The history of imaging begins with the camera obscura, the first pinhole camera.
Although there may be a conflict among authors as to who is the first to describe the
camera obscura, Robert C. Sanders considers that it is most likely the Arab scholar
Hassan bin al Haitham who wrote about it in 1038. These early pinhole cameras were
used by scientists to observe the sun and by artists to make sketches. Two others who
are credited by some authors as the first to describe the camera obscura are Roger Bacon
in 1267 and Leonardo da Vinci in 1490 (Sanders, 2010).
The evolution of the camera obscura includes the addition of lens in 1550 by
Girolamo Cardano, the further addition of lenses and curved mirrors to produce an
upright image in 1558 by Giovanni Jean Hellot may have been the first one to use the
word “photography,” which means writing with light. He was reported to have used a
photographic process to make secret writings visible by exposure to light in 1737. In 1795,
Thomas Wedgwood made the first known attempt to use a photographic process to take
a photograph with a camera obscura. However, his attempt failed due to a combination
of underexposure and his inability to fix the image.
The editors of the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography define photography as
beginning when the recording of images “could-be made-permanent.” The book provides
the following dates to outline important pre-photographic events in history (Peres, 2007).

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1200s Simple glass lenses were introduced.
1472 Leonardo da Vinci discovered the multicolored nature of white light.
1676 J.C. Sturm invented a portable camera obscura with reflex mirror and focusing lens.
1777 Sir Isaac Newton published Opticks in which he presented his discoveries in optics
and elaborated on his corpuscular theory of light.
1777 J.H. Schulze experimented on light sensitivity of silver salts, contact images (from
stencils) on liquid mixtures of chalk and silver nitrate in a bottle.
1758 John Dolland invented the achromatic lens.
1704 G.C. Lichtenberg developed electrostatic discharge patterns with dry powder.
1725 C.W. Scheele discovered that blackening of Silver chloride in the violet and the blue
of the Spectrum is quicker than by other colors.
1800
• Sir John F. W. Herschel discovered infrared radiation. He used a beam splitter to
split out a white light source into individual colors when he Placed a thermometer
next to the red end where there was no visible color of light.
• T. Wedgwood and H. Davy discovered that contact copying of silhouettes, leaves,
etc., on leather is sensitized with silver nitrate, J.W. Ritter discovered the
blackening of silver chloride by ultraviolet radiation.
• Sir David Brewster invented the optical system of the future parlor stereoscope.
• J. Nicéphore Niépce discovered that camera photographs on paper are sensitized
with silver chloride.
• Sir John F.W. Herschel discovered thiosulfates and the solution of silver halides
by “hypo.”
• J. Nicéphore Niépce discovered copying of engravings on glass, zinc, and pewter
sensitized with bitumen to further attempts at direct photography.

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HISTORY OF FORENSIC PHOTOGRAPHY
In 1839, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre invented the daguerreotype, the first
commercially successful photographic process. It used a silver nitrite light-sensitive
emulsion that was developed with mercury vapor and fixed with a strong salt solution to
produce a positive photo graphic image. The latent image and use of silver combined with
iodine (silver iodide) that were in basis of every major camera process of the 19th century
until the introduction of gelatin bromide emulsions used in the manufacture of dry plates
and developing-out papers (Sanders, 2010).

In 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype, a silver chloride-coated
light-sensitive paper that was fixed with strong salt solution, the calotype (from the Greek
kalos, meaning “beautiful”) was later patented by Talbot in 1841. In 1844, he improved
the calotype paper negative process using a gallic acid and silver nitrate solution with a
hypo fixer. This is the process that eventually evolved into the photographic negative
printing process that is in use today (Peres, 2007)
The calotype did not become popular in the USA because the daguerreotype was
already well established. In 1841, the Paris police department became the first agency to
use daguerreotype mug shots. By the late 1840s, the daguerreotype process was being
used commercially in every industrialized nation of the world.
Another milestone in the history of photography was the discovery of the UV fluorescence
by Sir George G. Stokes in 1852. This led to the formulation of the Stokes’ Law as the
fundamental theoretical basis of all fluorescent photography currently used in law
enforcement. It states that the wavelength of the fluorescence is always longer than the
wavelength of the light that excited the fluorescence. The fluorescence will not be as
bright as the exciting light source.

The History of Photography

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGncepmrckE

The Camera Obscura References:

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