The Invention of Photography and Sir John Herschel: A New Way to See the World

The invention of photography in the 1800s changed everything about how people captured and preserved their surroundings. It wasn’t the work of just one person but a collective effort by several pioneers, and one key figure in this story is Sir John Herschel. While names like Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot are often more well-known in photography’s early days, Herschel’s contributions were just as important and laid the groundwork for the photography we know today.

In 1839, two major breakthroughs in photography were revealed to the public: Louis Daguerre’s daguerreotype, which used a silver-coated copper sheet to create sharp images, and Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype, which used paper negatives to allow for multiple copies of an image. These processes marked the beginning of photography as a practical way to capture life.

That same year, Sir John Herschel made a critical leap forward by creating the first photograph on a glass plate. This might seem like a small detail, but using glass as the base for images instead of paper or metal turned out to be a game-changer. Glass provided a more stable and clear surface, and this idea paved the way for the wet-collodion process, a photography method that dominated the field in the mid-1800s.

Herschel didn’t just stop at glass plates. He also developed the cyanotype process, which is where we get those iconic blue-colored prints that became widely used for making blueprints. Even beyond his technical contributions, Herschel gave photography some of its most important terms, like “negative,” “positive,” and even the word “photography” itself.

Herschel’s scientific background helped him take a fresh approach to photography, especially when it came to the chemicals needed to make images permanent. Before his work, many early photographs would fade or deteriorate over time. Herschel’s discovery that sodium thiosulfate could “fix” photographs and prevent them from fading was a huge breakthrough.

How Photography Changed the World

Photography didn’t just improve how we captured images—it fundamentally changed how people communicated and documented the world. Before photography, only trained artists could create accurate visual representations of people, places, or events. With photography, that power was suddenly in the hands of many more people, making it easier to share information, capture history, and even fuel artistic movements.

Photography became a tool for journalism, giving rise to photojournalism, where images could tell stories in ways words couldn’t. It also changed the art world by inspiring movements like realism and eventually shaping modern and abstract art in the 20th century.

As technology evolved over the next century, photography became an essential part of everyday life. From preserving personal memories to documenting scientific breakthroughs, photography touched almost every part of society. Today, it’s hard to imagine a world without it.

Sir John Herschel’s contributions to photography, from his first photograph on glass to his technical innovations, helped push the art and science of photography forward. His work, along with other early pioneers, transformed how people saw and recorded their world, shaping history and culture in ways that are still felt today. Herschel’s legacy is still alive every time we snap a photo to capture a moment.