DEPARTURE LOUNGE // SPRING 2018
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
THEN & NOW
Modern day travel photographers have to
contend with some heavy gear bags (and
nightmarish airport security), but all that
pales in comparison to the efforts it took to
travel the globe and take photos 100 years
ago. Here’s a look at travel photography
then and now.
DEATH BY SELFIE | Between 2014 and 2017,
213 people have died in pursuit of the perfect selfie, with
India the destination of choice for this misadventure.
At least 60% of the world’s recorded selfie deaths
have occurred in this populous South Asian country
– researchers say driving while distracted, accidental
drowning and reckless behaviour (such as taking photos
while laying on train tracks) is often to blame.
THEN (circa 1918):
In the early 20th century, travel for the
masses was typically from necessity rather
than leisure – if you were poor, your main
method of travel was by foot or cart, while
only the über-rich could afford horse-drawn
carriages, ocean liners and flights.
Air, ship and train travel back in the early
1900s included unlimited luggage, steak
dinners and on-board bar lounges: fitting
luxuries for a journey that often took days,
weeks or even months!
So what did it take to be a travel
photographer back in the day? By 1918,
the Eastman Kodak Company had
commercialised its “Brownie” box cameras.
These lightweight point-and-shoot cameras
were limited in their abilities but available to
non-professional shooters for about US$2.
They were made of cardboard and leather
(and later, aluminium), came preloaded with
100mm or 120mm film and could take about
eight photos per spool of film.
Meanwhile, professional equipment was
extremely bulky, not to mention heavy (you
needed a porter or two at least to lug it all
around), and a photographer would typically
have to arrange the entire trip around the
logistics of getting equipment to their
destination. Exposures were in black and
white, but by the turn of the 20th century
a few vanguard photographers had begun
working in colour. (continued on page 14)
12 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE
WORLD’S
SMALLEST
CAMERA
Researchers at
the Fraunhofer
Institute in Germany
developed a camera
that’s no larger
than a grain of salt.
Measuring 1mm x
1mm x 1mm, the
“microcamera” was
developed primarily
for endoscopes –
cameras attached
to tubes that assist
in surgeries.
THWART THIEVES
WITH A BABY | Worried you’ll lose your wallet
while travelling? A study by Scottish psychologist Richard
Wiseman reveals that tucking a photo of a baby into
your wallet can drastically improve your chances that
it will be returned. Researchers “lost” 240 wallets,
each containing the contact info of their make-believe
owners. Wallets with a picture of an infant were returned
88% of the time, as were 53% of wallets with a picture
of a puppy. Photos of families and elderly couples also
scored decently (48% and 28% respectively), but only
15% of wallets with no pictures were returned.
GHOSTLY FURNITURE
| Back in the 1820s, early cameras
took several hours to capture an
image, so it’s no surprise most
people didn’t hold a smile, and
photographing kids was an even
bigger challenge. To keep them in place, moms would
sometimes cover themselves with a sheet to disguise
themselves as a chair and then hold their offspring still.
WORLD’S
LARGEST
CAMERA
The LSST , or
Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope,
is currently being
built in Chile and
is set to be the
largest camera in
the world. It will
feature a staggering
3 200 megapixels,
be two stories tall,
and will be used
to photograph the
entire visible night
sky twice a week.