Early photography

History

The Australian curriculum: History

The Australian Curriculum: History aims to ensure that students develop:

interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens
knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society
understanding and use of historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability
capacity to undertake historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources, and in explanation and communication.

This resource contains extracts from the Australian Curriculum and is current as at 25 May 2011. © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2010.
ACARA neither endorses nor verifies the accuracy of the information provided and accepts no responsibility for incomplete or inaccurate information. You can find the unaltered and most up to date version of this material at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home
This material is reproduced with the permission of ACARA.

History activities [3]

Activity 1: 1800s photography

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Subtheme(s): Art, music and literature; Inventions and electronic media

Photographs tell a unique story about a time in history. They were not available in Australia until 1841 when the first daguerreotype arrived. A daguerreotype is a unique image on silver-plated copper. It is unique because it is the same plate that was in the camera and there is no negative. This photographic technique was popular until the mid 1850s.

Discover

Students could create a photo album of pictures that depict everyday life or children. There are images available from the series in the My Place for Teachers 'Stills gallery' that could be used. Additionally, students could locate royalty-free images through the National Library of Australia, 'Picture Australia' website, http://www.pictureaustralia.org or other related websites.
The album could be produced as a book or presentation. If a slideshow presentation program is used, each image should be linked to the website the images came from.

Reflect

Ask students to annotate what the images represent within the theme of their album and reference the original photographer, if the name is available.

Activity 2: A picture speaks a thousand words

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Subtheme(s): Art, music and literature

A photographic album tells the story of someone's life in pictures. In many family photo albums, words are not required: the pictures tell the story. People and places within a photograph are captured in time.

Reflect

Students can choose one photograph from the album they created in Activity 3:1800s photography. The photograph will be explored further through reflective writing. The reflective piece must be written through the eyes of the person or object in the photograph and must relate to the era of the photograph.

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Student Activity Sheet H12.2: Reflective writing

Activity 3: The early camera

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Subtheme(s): Historical events; Inventions and electronic media

In this clip, Mr Merry is using an early photographic method to develop a paper photographic image. This method dates back to the 1870s when the dry plate was invented and a glass negative plate with a dried gelatine emulsion was used to print the images.

Discover

How has the camera apparatus changed over 100 years? Students could research the camera and discover how the equipment and procedures for photography have changed over time, using the library and the internet for pictures and descriptions. Make sure that students note who invented different prototypes, when they were invented and what impact it had on the advancement of technology in this field.

Reflect

Give each pair of students a decade to research, spanning 1820–2010. Students should research pictures and information about the camera and photography of that decade. Their pictures and a short paragraph of information can be presented on an A4 card and then all the cards can be displayed in the classroom in chronological order. This will become a pictorial display of the evolution of the camera.