Page 149 - ce_cusco_2019

Since the invention of the daguerreotype, the first real camera, the world has never been the same. Louis

Jacques Mande Daguerre, the inventor, described his discovery with such explicit accuracy when he stated,

“…it is not merely an instrument which serves to draw Nature; on the contrary it is a chemical and physical

process which gives her the power to reproduce herself.” It is a perfect description of what a photograph can

truly capture. In 1864, not long after the invention of the camera, photography began its use in the

preservation of the environment. It was then that Carleton Watkins took some of the first breathtaking photos

of Yosemite Valley that persuaded Abraham Lincoln to preserve it as inviolable.

Soon after, in the 1890’s, William Finley used images of birds to convince Theodore Roosevelt to create the

first national wildlife refuge in the United States. Ansel Adams released photographs of the vastness of

biodiversity, prompting Franklin Roosevelt to sign the bill that established King’s Canyon Park in the 1940s.

These types of images led to many conservation initiatives throughout history.

It wasn’t until the 1960s, the true environmental awakening began when William Anders captured the first

photograph of our home, planet Earth. This image was so empowering it has been credited as the birth of the

environmental movement. With that movement, came the initiative to act against the detrimental downfall of

nature occurring due to humanity’s selfishness and growth. These types of images have sparked the

conservation movement we know today.

149