Although camera inventions of the 17th and 18th century established the base of photography, it took another 50 years before the camera became available for everyday consumers. With the invention of modern photographic film technology in 1901 by George Eastman and the first mass-market camera, the Brownie, in 1901, photography became a phenomenon on its own and the vast majority of the population became fascinated by it (Oliver, 2007). Shortly after its introduction to the market the demand and popularity of the simply and affordable Brownie camera skyrocketed. The Brownie made it also possible for people “who were previously excluded from photographic expression due to their gender, age or economic status, […] to partake in the leisure activity of photography” (Oliver, 2007, as cited in Ostroff, n.y.a.). Over the years, companies, such as Kodak, Sony or Canon, became trendsetters in the field of photography and strongly shaped the industry for many decades (Bellis, 2015a; …show more content…
In 1948 the first Polaroid camera was marketed by Edwin Land, followed by the introduction of the high speed Tri-X film in 1954 by Eastman Kodak and the first underwater camera for the U.S. Navy in 1960 by EG&G. To name few further developments of the camera, the first colour film was introduced in 1963 by Polaroid, a tool also used to shoot the first photograph of the Earth from the moon in 1968. In the 70s, 80s and 90s Polaroid, Konica, Sony, Canon, Pixar and Kodak further introduces newer and better cameras than their predecessors, not only to satisfy the increasing demand of consumers, but also to defend and expand their market share. This also led to additional inventions that strongly shaped the future of photography. Especially the development of the first digital still-camera by Sony in 1981 and the first Photo CD as digital image storage medium by Kodak in 1990 opened the doors for further inventions in the field of photography (Bellis,