Unidentified photographer, around 1900, self-portrait in mirror

Albumen print, 24 x 19.5 cm

Below:

Zeiss Ikon Cameras, Projektions- u. Kino-Apparate, Contessa - Ernemann - Goerz - Ica, around 1929, advertising card

Printed postcard, 14 x 9 cm

Unidentified Austrian amateur photographer, 1910s, Gelatin silver print, 13.8 x 8.8 cm

Advertisement in Deutscher Camera-Almanach, vol. 9, Berlin 1914

The earliest forms of photography used the camera obscura. This device used a pinhole to project an image onto a light-sensitive surface. In the early 1800s, camera makers began to experiment with ways to fix the image by using chemical processes.  Photographers used glass plates and wet plates which had to be coated with chemicals before being exposed to light.