It wasn't until 1935 that Eastman Kodak came to market with a film that was made up of three-color emulsion coated on a single piece of plastic film (Davenport 1999). This film needed to be sent to away to be developed until 1942 when Kodak and a Germany company, Ansco, came up with films that a photographer could process himself. At the same time, Kodak announced a new negative-to-positive film, called "Kodacolor." By 1947, a photographer could take, expose, develop, and print his own color photos (1999). Another revolution took place in 1947 when Edwin H. Land developed Polaroid instant photography (Davenport 1999). Chemistry was no longer necessary in being a photographer who developed his or her own pictures. "It was an odd choice of phrases, as the system was based on an idea virtually as old as photography -- that of sensitizing, shooting, and developing film inside a restricted area" (1999). This had a major impact on society at that time as everyone wanted fast everything. McDonald's had just started the world's introduction to fast food and airplanes were the way that people now wanted to travel. The local corner store was now no longer the preferred place to shop; people wanted one-stop shopping (1999).

As early as 1972, people were already thinking about ways in which they could be "green." In 1972, Polaroid came out with a completely waste-free process: the sx-70 system. The process was a self-contained, entirely automatic single-lens-reflex system could be shot and then processed in minutes (Davenport 1999). Kodak was very impressed by Polaroid's invention, of course, and he then wanted a piece of the action. Polaroid was furious and filed ten different patent infringement suits against Kodak within just a couple of years (1999) -- and so begins the creation of our litigious society.

Holography was perfected in the United States during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Holography is the science of giving images a three-dimensional appearance. These images appeared to actually exist in space even though the actual...

"Split laser beams project the image of an entire object; interact with mirrors, lenses, and each other; and are then recorded on photographic emulsions to produce a holograph" (1999).
Computers must be mentioned in the discussion of photography, technology and society. With computers, photographs that already exist can be "uploaded" into the computer through digitization and can then later be "downloaded" for whatever purposes a person wants (Davenport 1999). Different images can be "cut" and then combined to make completely new images.

Not only were photographic images transformed by the advent of computers, but today photographic images have become major business. While it was a major event when photography became considered an art form worthy of museums, today photographs are part of our celebrity-obsessed culture. While in the past such magazine as Life were considered reliable sources of photojournalism, today photographs of celebrities are pasted on about 80% of the magazines one sees at the grocery store or even in a reputable book shop. Though professional photographers -- such as Annie Liebovitz, took some of these photographs most are taken by paparazzi who spend their days (and nights) chasing after famous people in order to make a quick buck from their photos. They now shoot on digital cameras, which offer them the luxury of viewing photos on a computer before deciding which are the best ones to print out. Because of this technology, time and money is saved, and in a society that is even faster than the one that saw the beginning of McDonald's and airplanes, there is nothing more precious than time.

Photography has come a long way since Daguerre's days, but there is still the fascination capturing a moment in time or history with a camera. Whether art or not, the photographic image has transformed society in unimaginable ways and will continue to do so for many more centuries.