140 years of change

AP has become the world’s oldest surviving consumer photo magazine because we have moved with the times, says Nigel Atherton

- Nigel Atherton

The photographs shown above could not provide a more stark illustration of how photography has changed since AP has been writing about it. On the left, a self-portrait by AP contributor and pioneering legend Alfred Stieglitz, taken in 1886. AP was already two years old when he made this photo, but it summarises how photography worked at the time. It was a slow and fiddly process. Cameras were large and tripod-mounted. Exposure times were long. Making a photograph involved a lot of faffing about with glass plates. It was practised almost entirely by affluent, educated middle-class men – and a few affluent, educated, middle-class women like Julia Margaret Cameron.