Francis Galton (1822-1911). Image provided by Wellcome Library, London (CC BY 4.0).

This time we move into the second half of the 19^th century, where a number of familiar technologies had arisen, such as the photographic camera. The camera as an invention has a long, complex and somewhat disputed history to it, dating back to the Arabian scholar Hassan bin al Haitham in the 11^th century who described the ‘camera obscura’- a forerunner of the camera. This claim of the origin of the camera is debatable, however the first cameras enabling the creation of photographs were produced in the early 19^th century by the likes of Joseph Niepce in 1816, who is credited as being the inventor of photography. However it is in the latter half of the 19^th century that the camera was refined and developments to photography had important implications to the…