Two centuries through the lens

AUSTIN (KXAN) - In the summer of 1826, French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the earliest surviving image of nature taken with a camera, the view of a courtyard from his second story workroom.

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 7, anyone can walk in to the first floor exhibit space at the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center and look at it. That is the launching point for " Discovering the Language of Photography: the Gernsheim Collection ," an exhibit featuring over 175 items from the massive collection of photography historians Helmut and Alison Gernsheim.

From 1945 to 1963, the Gernsheims collected more than 35,000 pieces and wrote some 30 books and 200 articles based on their passionate research. In 1963, the university purchased the entire collection.

Niépce's work was only one approach to producing such images. Across the English Channel, another idea was gaining headway and the clash between the two unfolded somewhat like the competition between VHS and Betamax video tape systems in the 1980s.

"There was a real battle at the beginning of photography about the direction photography would go into, whether it was going to based on paper to produce a negative," said Ransom Center photo curator David Coleman, "or was it going to be based on metal and produce unique images that were incredibly detailed?"

Things moved quickly, though and by the turn of the 20th century, Kodak's new box camera enabled ordinary people to take photos of their own. The Ransom Center exhibit includes one of those cameras and a "snapshot" created by another one of Queen Victoria of England.

"To set the shutter, you would pull a string at the front corner, Coleman said. "You'd pull that up; it would basically set the spring that then activate the shutter and there's a button on the left side that you would push, that would take the picture. And then after you took one exposure, you would wind a key on the top to advance the film to the next shot. When you were done taking your 100 exposures, you would send the whole camera back to Kodak, which would then process the film, reload it with more negatives and send you prints."

By 1936, photography had advanced so far that fast films were reducing the size of cameras and making it possible to freeze movement.

A remarkable example of that hangs on the far wall of the Ransom Center exhibition space. Taken by Robert Capa on a Spanish Civil War battlefield, the photograph catches a soldier at the moment he is shot. Or does it?

"It is a bit of a controversial image as to what's going on exactly, as to whether this is a staged photograph or a real shot," said Coleman. "It's a militiaman, a loyalist militiaman being, essentially, shot and then being photographed or being shot while being shot. There has been evidence, so-called, dug up by various factions, either proving or trying to disprove the fact that this was actually what it purported to be. But no one can really deny that it then became one of iconic images for the war, regardless of its truth factor, really - and became a very celebrated image in the history of photography."

Of course, we all know how the story turns out: Lightweight digital cameras and cell phone cameras in every pocket and purse, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Even established professional news gathering operations regularly feature photographs of news stories taken by ordinary citizens as they come across them. The truth, though, is that the story is nowhere near its end. Coleman can even imagine a time when human beings take photographs with their eyes.

"You know, that day is coming, I really I think, when we can somehow process in a more instantaneous way than we even can now the world around us and record it forever," he said.

Meanwhile, he wants visitors to the exhibition to spend some time there, reflecting on the development of the process that so profoundly affects all of our lives on so many different levels.

"I also hope that young photographers or people who want to be photographers come in and get inspired," he said, "with knowing the field is always changing; it's always evolving; it's always getting faster and more widespread and, you know, they can be part of its history."

Along the way, the Ransom Center show promises an intimate look into the human condition through the lens of the camera.

"That's where the power of photography can come, is through people recognizing other people's daily lives, their struggles for existence, the fighting against the abuse of others, celebrating successes," he said.

Just one note of caution: When you head for the Ransom Center, leave your cameras behind. No photographs are allowed.