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Invention of Photography
Then and Now
I base my reflection on the Invention of Photography as the course title of Roddy's McInnes's class. But this is no ordinary course compared to just the history of photography because of the focus of Invention. The focus drew me to the obsession of keeping an image forever, in the same ways we wish to document our lives daily through our cameras. I have been unable to completely wrap the amount of persistence and energy our Inventors of Niepce and Fox Talbot had to endure before their discoveries. This self portrait was taken at the Niepce House where the first photography was ever taken in France near Chalon du Salon with a Camera Obscura around 1826.
What if Photography was never invented? I would not be able to stand in this photo in front of you in color with a digital camera that I asked my friend to shoot with. But the larger picture of it all is that because of these two inventors I would not be the person who I am today. I as well would not have the wonderlust to capture an image nor would I have ever taught a Photography class on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at Red Cloud.
It was only then my mentor for my life and Photography asked me "Where do you fit in to the history of photography? And where does Real Life Indian fall in? What you do everyday is a part of that legacy." To rewind a bit in my life back home United States I have not been able to solely focus on just photography because of graduate school and overall life. I havn't been able to hear my own voice in silence in the past year since I started my Masters. Traveling forces me to focus on the moment and gives me the reasons to leave everything at home behind me to just think......and only think of Photography.
(Camera Obscura)
