y-plate process meant you didn't have to have the cumbersome wet-plates, or a darkroom tent. George Eastman is particularly remembered for introducing flexible film in 1884. But four years later he introduced the box camera, and photography could now reach a much greater number of people. Herman Vogel, developed a means whereby film could become sensitive to green light. Popular in the Victorian times was stereoscopic photography, which reproduced images in three dimensions. It is a process whose popularity waxed and waned - as it does now - reaching its heights in the mid-Victorian era.Dr. Peter Henry Emmerson, a Brit., was one of the first artists in photography. He didn't believe in using special effects or copying paintings, his work reflects his complex philosophy, that reality only exists when seen. Man Ray was a founder member of the New York Dada Group, founded in 1917. The New York camera club (1902) was a benchmark for new photography. Paul Strand, a pure photographer, and Alfred Steiglitz, a painter and photographer, were both members. In 1920 Steiglitz opened a gallery which showed paintings along with photographs, the first gallery to do so. He produced prints to explain and describe. Paul Strand was an influence to Ansel Adams, a member of the f64 group, who used precise large format (5"x4") and large depths of field. Imogen Cunningham, the grandmother of photography, was also a member of the f64 group, and challenged P.H. Emmersons approach to photography and his philosophy.Documentary photography began to take off, Walker Adams and Dorothy Lange, photographed the people made poor by the stockmarket crash. William Eggleston is another famous documentary photographer, who also practised fine art photography. With the birth of Abstract Expression, around 1950, and painters like Jackson Pollack becoming successful for painting from the subconscious. Contemporary photography began in the 1960's, and being conte...
