Popular Culture Review
Eastman developed the first Kodak camera. In less than SO years (1839-1888),
the photograph grew into .. the most accessible and accepted means of visual
representation. It was the ultimate democratic art form.”27 What was known as
“The Kodak” not only gave everyone the chance to be photographed, but also
gave everyone the opportunity to make original photographs. Instead of
cumbersome glass plates, the convenient Kodak camera came loaded with 100
exposures of new roll film. The entire camera, which could be easily mailed to
Rochester, New York, for processing, was returned to the owner with the
finished prints, along with a fresh roll of film—all set to repeat the user-friendly
cycle. Kodak’s slogan (“You take the picture and we do the rest”) removed the
labor-intensive—and mysterious—chemical process from picture making, so
that everyone could create photographs. It is no wonder that the medium grew
exponentially.
Believing that females would be his most loyal customers, George Eastman,
in the true spirit of American free enterprise, aggressively targeted his marketing
toward women. In 1893, he introduced his “Kodak Girl”28 to the world market.
In Eastman’s advertising, the “Kodak Girl” was a free spirit. Although she could
not vote, she could freely roam the world with her camera. This ingenious
commercial campaign (1893-1920s) surely attracted females, but also told men
that using the camera was so simple that “even a woman could use it.” The
Kodak camera and Eastman’s philosophy gave birth to the “amateur”
photographer and the snapshot. Moreover, the concept of the travel photograph
expanded through such clever advertising slogans as “Take a Kodak with you”
(1901), “Bring your vacation home with a Kodak” (1905), “All out-doors invites
your Kodak” (1911), and “Kodak as you go” (1915). It should be noted that,
quite literally, the camera empowered American women before the U.S.
Constitution did.
If photography is the medium of the masses, then it follows that the
postcard is the ultimate byproduct of this democratic medium. Postcards are
synonymous with photography; they are the most “common and
conventionalized” souvenir—created solely for mass production and
consumption.29
The photograph and aggression
The camera has always been linked with exploration. By the mid-1800s, the
photograph was still trusted to be accurate and objective, so photographers
joined government expeditions and captured each new discovery with their
cameras. The photograph is also linked with colonial imperialism: When the
camera recorded westward expansion in the United States, the photographs from
this era visually represented “manifest destiny.”30
The very act of taking a photograph carries with it the connotation of
aggressive behavior. The standard rhetoric of shooting with a firearm is also
applied to using a camera. Photographers “shoot” pictures. They take “shots” of
their subjects. Such language is far from neutral, as noted by Susan Sontag,
whose notion of violation applies literally to the aggressive act of photographing