 Handle me with care
by Tissa Hewavitarane
My ancestors who lived in the
middle ages around 1000 AD are no more. But I am told that I am a
descendant of a breed of aesthetic inhabitants. I had no idea or any
knowledge of my parents, but as some say I was adopted. Around 330 BC,
people were inclined to creativity and to invent.
 They were on the lookout for recording images by the action of light,
or related radiation, on a sensitive material. In 1827, a person by the
name of Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first image by letting light
draw the picture. They were called sun prints. As years passed, many
inventors were making experiments to introduce a practical process of
recording images.
A Frenchman Louis Daguerre was able to invent the first practical
process by forming a partnership with Joseph Nicephore to improve what
Niepce had developed. In 1839 after several years of experiment and
Niepce’s death, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective
method of recording images by the action of light naming it after
himself - the daguerreotypy.
After a few years Daguerre and Niepce’s son sold the rights for the
daguerreotype to the French Government and published a booklet
describing the process. The daguerreotype quickly gained popularity. As
a result by 1850 there were over seventy Daguerreotype studies in New
York City alone.
However, my adopted parents wanted to improve my quality and made
every effort to make me a public figure and be of some use to society.
Next they sought advice from various experts to develop my hidden
skills. I had to undergo many hardships. Many components were added to
make my body beautiful and for a healthy survival.
Finally in 1889, a person named George Eastman invented film with a
base that was flexible, unbreakable and could be rolled and could be
inserted to my body as such Eastman, made the mass produced box camera a
reality. While I advanced in age and became popular I became
commercially viable. At last I was looking elegant and there was a big
demand.
There was a lot of admirers and lovers who sought me. The people who
wanted to possess me were in numerous age groups from childhood to
adults, and different nationalities. My best lovers were from the
newspaper world, professional photographers, travellers, wildlife
photographers.
My parents wanted me to go out and see the world. So they took me to
a big shopping mall for a display. One day a good looking man set eyes
on me paid a handsome price and took under his care. He looked after me
well. It didn’t take much time to know who my lifelong partner was.
He was a reputed photographer attached to a leading newspaper
organisation. I was very happy to attain maturity which provided me with
a patio and an awning to brush shoulders with the intellectual elite of
the time particularly the journalistic fraternity who dominated the
Colombo media empire.
Apart from my owner’s press duties, the most rewarding and certainly
thrilling experience is to leave city life behind and step into the
jungle. I could spend hours, days, weeks or months capturing the varied
birds and beasts that our jungles are still teeming with wildlife
photography, though good fun means a lot of hard work. |
