A Brief History of the Chemical Processes Used in Photography Over the Years

Thanks for that Mike!

Must be something compelling about photographic imagery that caused people people to go to such considerable lengths to make it. We have it too easy today!

Something really haunting about those old photographs. The camera really does capture spirits. When I find a cache of such images on the web, I am inevitably drawn into spending time with them. Simply as prints those old, ghostly images have a quality unlike anything we have today, although perhaps some of the metallic papers are pale evocations.

Kind of glad I wasn't around for those mercury-rich Daguerreotype days. I would have been attracted to such a process. The guy in the video alluded that such practitioners did not lead especially long lives. Photography is a harsh mistress, both then and now.

But honestly, I don't miss the darkroom that much. Had been away from photography for a long time, and would probably not have come back to it had I needed to build yet another darkroom to add to the long string of abandoned darkrooms that trail behind me, like Marley's chain.