Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshots

Popular photography can properly be said to have started 120 years ago with the introduction of the Kodak camera, the invention of an American, George Eastman (1854-1932). It was a simple, leather-covered wooden box – small and light enough to be held in the hands. Taking a photograph with the Kodak was very easy, requiring only three simple actions; turning the key (to wind on the film); pulling the string (to set the shutter); and pressing the button (to take the photograph). There wasn’t even a viewfinder – the camera was simply pointed in the direction of the subject to be photographed. The Kodak produced circular snapshots, two and a half inches in diameter. The Kodak was sold already loaded with enough paper-based roll film to take one hundred photographs. After the film had been exposed, the entire camera was returned to the factory for the film to be developed and printed. The camera, reloaded with fresh film, was then returned to its owner, together with a set of prints. To sum up the Kodak system, Eastman devised the brilliantly simple sales slogan: ‘You press the button, we do the rest.’

(Images and text courtesy of The National Media Museum via Flickr)

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Operation Doorstep	The Spirit Photographs of William Hope	The Maps of Piri Reis	Dr Julius Neubronner's Miniature Pigeon Camera
Art in Art	Huexotzinco Codex	Sessions for the Blind at Sunderland Museum	Eugène von Guérard's Australian Landscapes
Landscape and Marine Views of Norway	The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy	Space Colony Art from the 1970s	Men in Wigs
De humana physiognomonia libri IIII (1586)	Field Columbian Museum	Maps from Geographicus	Arnoldus Montanus' New and Unknown World (1671)
World War II from the Air	Halloween Postcards	Engravings by Dominicus Custos	Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshots
Kitab al-Bulhan or Book of Wonders (late 14thC.)	The Daddy Long Legs of Brighton	Amundsen's South Pole Expedition (1912)	A Catalogue of Polish Bishops
Harry Clarke's illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe (1919)	The Embalming Jars of Frederik Ruysch (1710)	Labors of the Months from the Très Riches Heures (1416)