This was the era of the calotype, the first negative-positive process. The exposure time was long. The positive prints were produced using silver salts and kitchen salt! This marked the beginning of modern silver halide photography.

This was the era of glass plates. Initially wet plates were used, but these subsequently gave way to dry plates coated with photographic emulsion. The technique would lead to the invention of film 20 years later.

Flexible and transparent celluloid roll film was marketed for the first time by the American George Eastman in 1884. Chronophotography was the precursor to the cinema of the Lumière brothers.

First portable cameras equipped with a roll of negative film marketed by Kodak. Once the 100 pictures had been taken, users would take their camera to the manufacturer to have their photos developed and get their camera loaded with a new roll of negative film. The famous advertising slogan is still relevant today: “You press the button, we do the rest.”

“La Vie au Grand Air”, the first sports news magazine (1908). 70% of its content was image-based; a forerunner to the magazines that exist today. Sports photographs were set up using close-up, overlapping and photomontage techniques.

The 500g small-format Leica model was mass produced and sold from 1925. This was the first camera to use 35mm roll film, which had previously been used exclusively for cinema. The standard 24×36 format photographs were in use until the end of the 20th century. A ground-breaking innovation that created a new form of popular expression!

The first electronic flash was invented using a stroboscope in 1931. Movement was frozen by alternating between light and dark phases, allowing film to capture action that was too fast to be seen by the human eye and producing a softer form of light. After the light, the colour!

Photo-finish cameras were introduced for the 100m events at the Games in Los Angeles in 1932. At the Games in London in 1948, OMEGA placed a camera on the finish line that filmed and timed continuously. Like a “magic eye”. This became the official technique at the Games in Mexico City in 1968.

The colour negative process, which produced photos that were easy to expose and develop, marked the beginning of the colour era in the mid-20th century. Agfacolor (1935) then Kodachrome (1942) were the first colour film products. The technique would not become popular until the 1970s.

Ongoing technological evolution and optimisation from the early 1960s opened the way for amateur photographers. The reflex camera with its interchangeable lens, telephoto lenses, zooms and special filters, wide-angle lens, etc. turned photography into a real means of expression. The rise of the personal photo was well underway!

The first patent for a digital camera was registered in 1978. Kodak refused to put it on the market, fearing that people would stop buying film… At the time, the general wisdom was that no one would want to look at photos on a screen!

The first Canon D413 digital camera was a prototype designed for the Games in Los Angeles in 1984. The images were sent to Japan via telephone lines in under 30 minutes. The Games in Sydney in 2000 saw digital photography establish itself as the undisputed dominant form of photography.

Digital cameras went on sale to the general public for the first time. Technical innovations which had been in development since the 60s, such as the remote control, were now readily available and easy to use. Photography had been liberalised, ushering in the “power of photography” era.

The boom in new and digital technologies, such as 360° techniques, offered a more personal and immersive experience of the action captured by the camera. Photography, through smartphones and reflex cameras, has truly become a part of our everyday lives.

For the first time ever, a drone equipped with a miniature camera was custom designed to film the snowboarding and skiing competitions at the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014. The best frames and viewpoints were selected to become spectacular sports images. Photos, films, videos, clips, time-lapse footage, GIFs, MOV files and mp4… they are all images! The next chapter in the history of sports photography will be written using new forms of expression.