Photograph.

Traditionally, an image recorded on light-sensitive material such as film or paper which has been treated in such a fashion that it’s photosensitive. The term now refers to any two-dimensional still image recorded using some optical process, which nowadays includes digital cameras.

The word photography comes from the Greek words “photos,” light, and “graphikos,” writing. The term was coined by Briton Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) in a paper presented to the Royal Society in 1839. The same paper yielded the new terms “positive,” “negative,” and “snap-shot,” in fact.

cf. film, hologram, light, negative, paper, photosensitive, positive.

Entry last updated 2002-04-11. Term 915 of 1487.

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