Lights! Camera! Action! Those words have echoed through many movie and TV sound stage sets for more than 100 years. Today, if you have a phone, iPad or computer, you have a camera. There are cameras everywhere due to the introduction of the personal computer and personal security systems. Many people even have a back-up camera in their cars.
Approximately 200 years ago in the mid-1820s, Nicéphore Niepce first managed to fix an image that was captured with a camera, but it took at least eight hours, often even several days, for exposure, with the result being very crude images. Niépce's associate, Louis Daguerre, went on to develop the daguerreotype process, the first publicly announced and commercially viable photographic process. The daguerreotype required only minutes of exposure in the camera and produced a clear and finely detailed image. This process was introduced to the world in 1839, a date generally accepted as the birth year of practical photography.
Have you ever heard the expression, “A picture is worth a 1,000 words”? It was so true during the mid-1800s when Mathew Brady developed his photographs of the American Civil War and when people could travel all over the world using the stereopticon cards with a viewer. One iconic photograph was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt on the V-J Day celebration in Times Square, New York City. It portrays a U.S. Navy sailor embracing and kissing a total stranger, a dental assistant, on Aug. 14, 1945, at the end of World War II. One more iconic photograph has to be the placing of the American flag on the moon.
The Historic Burlington Antiques and Art Emporium will display items for sale relating to photography from the middle of January to the end of February. Cameras, frames, photographs, books on photography, and coffee table books of photographs are some items that will be showcased and offered for sale. The Emporium is closed on Mondays but open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, with extended hours on Thursday and Friday until 7 p.m.
The multi-dealer shop is located at 424 High St., Burlington, N.J.
For directions or additional information, call 609-747-8333.