When did China get a camera?

The earliest people who used cameras in China were relatives of the Qing Dynasty and the first generation photo studios in port cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou, which were run by foreigners, China people themselves and "Sino-foreign joint ventures". However, the research on pinhole imaging principle in history was discussed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Shen Kuo, a scientist with outstanding achievements in the fields of finance, literature, mathematics, astronomy and medicine in the Northern Song Dynasty, elaborated in detail. (103 1 year ~1095) lived in seclusion after 58 years old, and wrote "Meng Qian Bi Tan" in Meng Xi Park in his later years. 1985 when Shen Kuo's tomb was discovered in taipingwu, xiwan village, anxi county, yuhang, my father and son were lucky enough to take part in the photography work of this tomb discovery and published it in the Shenzhen special zone newspaper, Youth Evening News.

We ancients have been studying the principle of pinhole imaging, that is, the principle of camera. When the world invented the camera, it could quickly master and use it. 1903, Yu Xunling took photos of Cixi in the Qing Palace, and of course took photos of the emperor and other relatives of the Empress Dowager. Although some photos have passed 100 years, they are still widely circulated in the collectible market. Of course, it is a remake of the "old photo", which is the photo of the most important relatives in the Qing Dynasty. However, as soon as foreigners arrived in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other port cities and opened photo studios, photography was introduced to China in the second year after the French publication of Photography in Daguerre-1840, and photography was introduced to China in various ways, such as missionary work, business, medical treatment and military aggression. 1844, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Minister of Trade and Industry of Five Ports should present his portrait photos to the officials of Britain, the United States, Italy and Portugal as a courtesy when negotiating with France in Macao.

Photography was first introduced to China in Hong Kong and Guangdong, and later in the southeast coastal cities such as Shanghai, Ningbo and Hangzhou, Afong Lai in Hong Kong, Zou Baiqi in Guangdong, Luo Wenyou in Shanghai, and "Erwoxuan" in Hangzhou. It is worth mentioning that Zou Baiqi (18 19~ 1869) made it himself. Afong Lai started to open a photo studio in Hong Kong in 1950s, when he was a first-class photographer in Hong Kong. The important thing is that Zou Baiqi made the first camera in China at 1844 and used it for photography.

After we first learned about the people and things that use cameras, it pointed out the direction for us to collect antique cameras. Wet-board cameras and dry-board cameras-The cameras used in China in the early days should be distributed in Hongkong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Beijing and Tianjin, and the number was very small at that time. For example, Hangzhou Gao's camera collection, the first two batches were obtained from these places (see Table of 100 Treasures in Gao Library).

As we all know, photography was invented by French L Daguerre. 1839 August 19 France announced to the world. L Daguerre's full name is Louis Jacques Mond Daguerre. Born in1787-died in 185 1 year. He is a landscape painter who is good at painting the stage background. At that time, a tool-black box was popular in landscape painting and painting. The function of the black box: the scene enters the 45O mirror in the black box through the lens and then reflects on the ground glass above the black box, and then a canvas is laid on the ground glass for painting. By chance, he found a faint shadow on the canvas left on the camera yesterday, so he found out how to leave the image on the camera glass on the canvas. Daguerre learned that J.N. Nipps was also doing experiments in this field. At this time, J.N. Nipps was over 60 years old. He felt that he lacked financial resources, energy and material resources before agreeing to cooperate with L. Daguerre.1829 65438+On February 4, 2009, the two sides signed a ten-year cooperation agreement. In order to help each other and learn from each other's strengths, they announced themselves. The two sides agreed to publish the research results in their own names and share the benefits equally.

Chaion, the residence of J n Nipes, signed an agreement with L Daguerre, and immediately took out his detailed production method and made a demonstration, but L Daguerre didn't take anything out, so some people suspected that L Daguerre hadn't tested the results yet. After the agreement was signed, the two sides conducted their own experiments and never met again. 1833, J. N. Nippes died, and his son I. Nippes inherited the cooperative relationship. Unfortunately, I Nipes didn't want to do any experiments, so L Daguerre was left to explore alone.

1837, after eight years of exploration, l Daguerre finally succeeded in shooting a still life movie under natural light. 1839, 19 In August, the first page of the world photography history was opened-the French Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts held a grand meeting, at which this great invention-black box lithography (photosensitive plate) was announced as a positive film shooting.

So the first camera in the world and the methods of exposure, development and fixing were all invented by L Daguerre.