For National Camera Day, we’re going to take a look at how New Jersey’s newspapers reflected the development of this society-changing scientific advancement. Photography and the photographic camera were developed in the early 1800s, building off of pre-existing discoveries. Although the early pioneers of this new technology were French, it did not take long for the process to come to the United States. But while it made its way here, given the complicated nature of the process and the cost, photography remained the realm of professionals. This changed, however, with the launch of George Eastman’s Kodak. Especially with the introduction of one of the most popular Kodak models, the Brownie, photography became a lot more accessible, as Eastman sold his cameras and film for cheaper than his competitors and also had photographers send their film to his company to develop, making the process less complicated. Photography as an amateur hobby took off.
Beyond the ads, the rise of photography can be seen in New Jersey’s newspapers in other ways. Newspapers were not devoid of any visuals prior to the introduction of photography (see the cover of the October 19, 1819 Elizabeth-Town Gazette below, which featured an illustration of a steamboat), but it was not something that was prevalent, especially for smaller papers.
Even as photography grew, many newspapers did not feature photographs, initially because the technology did not make it feasible to print photographs. Illustrations and woodblock engraving continued, and they became increasingly common, although they did not mach the ubiquity of photographs.
However, as technology made it easier and cheaper to print, photography came to have great prominence in print media. Photos were often used to add to the written coverage, and in some cases, became key aspects of telling a story. Take, for instance, this page from the April 30, 1909 issue of The Perth Amboy Evening News, which featured two stories accompanied by several photos.
Interestingly, the bottom story, “Snapshotting as a Fine Art,” discussed the rise of photography as a hobby and in journalism, highlighting the skill required to capture fast moving objects that set some photographers above others. As the author wrote, “Of the thousands of men and women who have taken up photography either as a pastime or professionally, there is only a very small proportion of these who have mastered the art of snapshotting, or are, to use a technical term, manipulators of the rapid shutter,” highlighting how, while many used rapid-shutter cameras, it took a great degree of skill to capture truly fast subjects.
Newspapers were very aware of how rapidly photography became entrenched in the daily lives of readers. Papers like the Perth Amboy Evening News and the Palisadian even featured photo sections in their papers.
This rapid change was not lost on the journalists working on these papers. In an article titled “Making Snap-Shots of Celebrities,” from the December 23, 1910 issue of The Lambertville Record, one wrote,
Few newspaper readers who take delight in the mass of pictures spread nowadays over every printed page, ever stop to reflect what a comparatively short time ago it was that first saw such embellishment of the chronicle of the day’s happenings. Most of our readers can doubtless remember distinctly the time when pictures were unknown in their favorite newspaper, and even after crude cuts began to make their appearance in the advertising columns of the weeklies, and later in the dailies, it was a long lapse ere the pictures were to be found in the reading columns and a yet longer time before the reader came to expect not mere scenic subjects but graphic pictures of the current happenings of the busy world.
As this makes clear, photography was embraced by readers so quickly that it became an expectation for even those who could remember back to the time before newspapers included photos. It is truly a testament to how awesomely photographs changed how we consume the news, something that is especially easy to overlook in a day and age where photos and videos can be taken and shared nearly instantly all over the world.
(Contributed by Tristan Smith)
Sources:
Grundberg, Andy, Naomi Rosenblum, Beaumont Newhall, Helmut Erich Robert Gernsheim. “Histroy of Photography.” Britannica, January 10, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography.
“History of Periodical Illustration.” Nineteenth Century Newspaper Analytics. North Carolina State University. Accessed April 17, 2023. https://ncna.dh.chass.ncsu.edu/imageanalytics/history.php.
“When Was the Camera Invented? A History of Photography.” MasterClass, February 3, 2022. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/when-was-the-camera-invented.