Starting from the Stone Age, humans have been trying to preserve the world around them – the things, creatures, and peoples – as images. Unfortunately, the only technique they could use for that was drawing or painting. The situation changed in the XIX century when scientists realized that light by itself can draw. That was done using the so-called wet photographic process, a technique that had been widely used until the 2000s and is now being used mostly by professional photographers and artists.
During our semilab, we will study the chemical bases of the photographic process, learn how to develop photographic films, and learn how to print photographs on paper. Students will get a chance to prepare photographic emulsion and to make their own photographic paper, thereby reproducing XIX-century experiments that led to the discovery of photography. The students will get acquainted with modern photographic techniques and with some specific photographic processes that allow the creation of various special effects.