Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
For centuries, artists used the camera obscura, a dark box that throws the outside world onto a wall. The problem never changed: the image vanishes the moment the light goes out. In 1839, photography was officially born. It was not the work of one genius, but a race between French and British inventors.
In less than a century, the process freed painting from its role as a document and became the first mass medium. It changed our relationship to time, to memory, and to visual truth.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2From Niépce to the daguerreotype
- 3A portrait for everyone, proof for everyone
- 4When painting had to reinvent itself
- 5Kodak and the culture of the image
Open-book quiz9 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary15 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
