Year 1 - History
The challenges of early photography
Photographs from history: what can they tell us about Britain's recent past?
Study Hub
Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores photography as a recent invention that records history, highlighting early photos of lost ways of life and the challenges of early 20th-century photography. Students learn about changes in recent history, including food, clothing, and more, through photos from the past century.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe some of the challenges of early photography and compare these with photography today.
Key Notes
- Early photography was not like photography today, which is quick, easy and available to everyone.
- Not everyone could afford a photographer to take their picture, but it was still cheaper than having someone paint you.
- Early cameras were complicated, big and bulky compared to today's cameras and smartphones that can take photographs.
- Early cameras took a long time to take a photo, meaning people sitting for photographs had to stay very still.
- Early photographs had to be developed using very complex processes involving chemicals and equipment.
Vocabulary To Learn
- developed: Photographs taken with old cameras had to be developed using camera film and special liquids to make prints of the image on paper.
- camera film: camera film is a roll of plastic that is stored inside the camera.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may assume that people in the past used phones and tablets to take photographs.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Summarise this historical learning in two key ideas.
Early photography was not like photography today, which is quick, easy and available to everyone. Not everyone could afford a photographer to take their picture, but it was still cheaper than having someone paint you.
2. Define this history term and explain why it matters in this topic. 'developed'
Photographs taken with old cameras had to be developed using camera film and special liquids to make prints of the image on paper.
3. Correct this common history misconception using evidence language.
Mistake: Pupils may assume that people in the past used phones and tablets to take photographs. Correction: Show pupils the various devices that have been used in the past to take photographs and how they have evolved.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 1 History guide library.