Instant Photography

Instant photography was born 67 years ago and has ever since remained one of the few milestones of photography that still attracts customers to the day.  Even though technology has advanced a great deal, instant cameras still function with the same chemical reactions that were used in the first instant camera developed in 1947. In an instant camera, a colour film is enclosed in a light tight part of the camera. This plastic film consists of three light sensitive layers, sensitive to the colours blue, green and red. In between each of these layers there is a dye developer, which will later turn the photons into metallic silver. Two more very important layers, the light-sensitive layer and the image layer, are located just above the different light sensitive and dye layers. If you take a picture with an instant camera, light hits the light-sensitive layer (covered in silver particles) of the colour film and causes a chemical reaction. A reagent, a mix of opacifiers (light blockers), alkali and white pigment, then starts off the developing process of the picture. While the picture is being passed out of the camera the reagent is spread over the topmost layer, the light sensitive layer. The different chemicals in the reagent slowly make their way downwards through the different layers (light sensitive layers as well as dye layers). In the light sensitive layers, the photons are turned into metallic silver particles by the reagent. After all of the developer dye has been dissolved, the silver particles can move up to the image layer now that the colours are all fully developed. Which of the colours are developed depends on which of the three light sensitive layers has remained unexposed. At this point, the picture is fully developed but it cannot yet be seen. This last step, the reaction of the acid layer with the opacifiers, results in the opacifiers clearing up. Now, after only a couple of minutes, the picture can be discerned.

Group Comment on Instructional (camera lucida)

Regarding Tim Hunkin’s set of instructions on how to make a camera lucida, we have to remark that they seem more confusing than helpful. There are no detailed explanations delivered on how to perform the different steps. In order to understand Hunkin’s instructions, specific knowledge is required, which makes this set of instructions suitable only for people with more advanced knowledge about how to construct a camera lucida. Above all, the construction of the wooden scaffold for the camera lucida remains a mystery to us, as there is not a single word mentioned in the instructions on how to build it. If you are not familiar with building something by yourself, this step might cause you serious problems. Apart from this lack of information, this set of instructions doesn’t  fulfill two more important aspects. The steps are neither numbered nor in a chronological order, which might cause errors during the process of building the camera. The font used in the set of instruction makes the instructions even more confusing because it is almost impossible to discern the unit of length. Also, at the beginning, the list of needed materials and tools is missing.The only positive aspect we found is the use of pictures in this instructional text, as they make it easier to follow the instructions.

Group Work: Descriptive Text: Napalm Girl

The very first thing that catches the eye of someone observing the picture we chose, would be a young naked and barefooted girl slowly running towards the person taking the picture. She has her arms stretched away from her body, as if she was shaking them to try and alleviate unbearable pain. Her mouth is hanging wide open and her face is contorted with what might be excruciating pain or extreme anger. This girl is depicted as the centre of both the photograph and the scene displayed in the photograph. Around her there are four more children, almost all of them equally distressed, following or preceding the young girl. If you look at the position of their arms and legs, it seems like they are not walking, but running away from something which might be the cause of their distress. The five children are running along a broad and seemingly deserted road and are followed by five calm-looking soldiers, some of them armed with machine guns. The street, which runs a straight line through the picture, is surrounded by what might be a flat meadow landscape and three or more dilapidated looking houses. If you focus your eyes on the end of the road, you can spot a billowing cloud bank of smoke in the back of the picture, which might be the source of the children’s distress. The smoke cloud completely covers the sky and causes the rest of the landscape to disappear into impenetrable darkness.
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