When the Kodak camera came out, was there a backlash against Kodak and Kodak camera from professional photographers?
The Kodak camera is a quintessential amateur’s camera. And the amateur before the dry plate was a very dedicated amateur, was really a form of professional; he just didn’t make money from his practice of photography. The gelatin dry plate created a different type of amateur, but still a very dedicated and skilled amateur. It simplified photography, made it possible for many thousands to practice it for fun, for recreation, for personal application. But with that came a sort of diminishing of the professional aspect of the photographer. The photographer had tried to establish himself as something special in society, as not only a skilled technician, not only something of a scientist, but also an artist as well. The high end of the profession saw their profession as an art as well as a science, as well as a technique and a technology. But the amateur photographer didn’t have that pride, didn’t practice the art in the same way. And of course professionals would look upon that as a sort of
