Matinees On Main Street: A Movie History Podcast

A British emigrée to America attempts to make a career out of selling books and artwork during the Gold Rush, before heading back to Europe just as the civil War breaks out.  Once there, he discovers the joys of photography.  He turning to America after the war, he makes a name for himself in the West as a landscape photographer, before being approached by one of America's richest men to make a gl...

This is a short introduction to Matinees On Main Street, as I explain who I am, how I want to explain this story, as well as the nuts and bolts of the podcast.

After a brief introduction about the movies and our culture, the early ideas that lead to photography pass from the ancient Greeks to the scientists of the Enlightenment.  From there, we watch as three men, Nicephore Niepce, Louis Daguerre, and Henry Talbot experiment with light sensitive chemicals as they struggle to find a way to capture images of the real world using those chemicals.