POST #12 – LECTURE – PHOTOGRAPHY, PRINTED MEDIA, FILM

 This week’s lecture showed how photography, print, and film totally changed how we share stories, news, and art. It all started with people drawing on cave walls thousands of years ago. That was their way of sending a message or maybe recording events. Later, monks spent months writing and decorating books by hand—pretty intense!

Then came the big game-changer: the printing press, invented by Gutenberg around 1450. For the first time, people could make tons of books quickly, which helped more people learn how to read and spread ideas way faster.

Fast forward to the 1800s, and we got photography. At first, it was super slow—like an 8-hour wait for one picture! But it kept improving. Soon, we could take real-life photos instead of just drawing stuff. This helped a lot with recording history, like when Matthew Brady showed the harsh truth of the Civil War through his photos.

Then, people like Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey started using cameras to show movement. This eventually led to video and movies! The Lumière Brothers even showed the first motion picture to a crowd. It freaked people out at the time, but it kicked off the movie industry.

Overall, all these inventions—from the printing press to the camera—changed how we communicate and see the world. Without them, we wouldn’t have books, newspapers, photos, or movies the way we do today.

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