This post is part of a series that charts the history of photography since the 1900s. The series takes a decade by decade look at how the skills a photographer needs have changed in light of technological, economic, and societal change.

Digital cameras

The 1990s heralded a sea change in technological advancement for the humble camera.

In 1991, Kodak announced the first Professional Digital Camera System – the DCS100 (Pritchard, 2015). By today’s standards, the DCS100 was still incredibly cumbersome, requiring a separate digital storage unit (we would not see SD cards for another ten years) and a separate shoulder bag to carry the batteries, but digital had finally arrived.  The DCS100 had a price tag of around $30000 and less than 1000 units were sold, but it did pave the way for further digital innovations (Pritchard, 2015).

A number of more slimline models appeared later in the decade, such as the AP NC2000 in 1994, which was developed alongside the Associated Press and saw its members granted early access (Pritchard, 2015).  A number of high profile cases involving press photographers arose in the 1990s. Western society’s hunger for celebrity news had built momentum in previous decades, and the newspapers became ever more zealous to satiate demand.

Paparazzi

The term ‘Paparazzi’ came into common currency and was synonymous with the type of photographer that would go to any lengths to get the right image. The ethical issues we discussed in the 1960s section are even more relevant here because the Paparazzi were often seen to be out of control with no respect for a subject’s privacy. The image below recounts the death of Princess Diana, a case in point here. Some people believe the car accident that resulted in her death in 1997 was directly caused by her trying to escape overzealous Paparazzi (Smith, 2018).

The switch to digital also allowed photographers a greater degree of control over manipulating images in post-production.  In 1990, Adobe launched Photoshop, which saw many iterations before it moved to the cloud-based subscription service we know today.  After Adobe purchased the software from brothers Thomas and John Knoll it saw a number of upgraded versions throughout the 1990s (Lindblad, 2020).

• Version 1.0 in 1990
• Version 2.0 in 1991
• Version 2.5 in 1993
• Version 3.0 in 1994
• Version 4.0 in 1996
• Version 5.0 in 1998
• Version 5.5 in 1999

Although all of these versions are now obsolescent, it’s interesting to see the software’s pace of change throughout the 1990s, as this introduces a new skill the photographer needs to master. Post production editing skills in Photoshop have only become more important as photography has developed. It’s also important to acknowledge that a whole range of software applications now exist on the market, of which Photoshop is but one (Adobe didn’t release Lightroom until later in 2007).

Enjoying the series? Jump back to the 1980s or forward to the 2000s.

Relevant Photography Skills in the 1990s

• Understanding legal and ethical issues: As discussed previously in the 1960s section, the rise of the Paparazzi in the 1960s makes this skill even more relevant.

Post production software: A thorough understanding of how to manipulate, edit, and crop images in post production, using software like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. The process of post production has become a normalised step in a modern photographer’s workflow, and access to and competency with such software are part of the job.

References

Lindblad, M. (2020). ‘The history of Photoshop – Photoshop through the years.’ Filtergrade [online]. Available at: https://filtergrade.com/history-of-photoshop-through-the-years/ [Accessed 20 June 2023].

Pritchard, M. (2015). ‘A history of photography in 50 cameras.’ Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Smith, I. (2018). ‘The short story of photography.’ Laurence King publishing.