History of infrared photography
Development of infrared film
Frank Zappa’s album cover for ‘Hot Rats’ made use of false-color infrared film
In 1910, an American physicist named Robert Williams Wood sensitized his own photographic plates and produced the first known infrared photographs of various scenes. The pictures were published in the Royal Photographic Society’s October 1910 Photographic Journal. Wood’s pictures were taken using experimental film which required very long exposures.
Although Wood sensitized his own plates and took infrared pictures in 1910, infrared film only became commercially available in the 1930s, when Kodak developed emulsions that were sensitive to infrared light. 33 types of black and- white infrared film were available from five different manufacturers by1937.
The popularization of infrared photography started in the 1960s when 35mm false-color infrared film became available from Kodak. Another reason that IR photography became popular in the 1960s is because a number of recording artists – including Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa – made use of the technique on their album covers.
In 2007, Kodak announced that it would discontinue its 35mm infrared
film due to a decline in demand for the product.
