The technologies that have enabled digital imaging as we know it today, began to fall in place in the latter part of the 1980's. Desktop computers were appearing on more and more desks in the corporate workplace. First as spreadsheet and word processing tools, and then later as drawing and paint software evolved, they began to be used in a variety of design and engineering applications.

First VGA and then 8-bit color display technology began to displace the then predominant monochrome displays. The first twenty-four (24) bit color displays made their first appearance around 1985 with the ATT Targa video cards for IBM PC's. The Targa card was one of the first video digitizers for the computer, allowing one to capture video camera images directly into the computer without the loss of quality inflicted by first recording on an analog medium such as videotape. The included software then allowed you to do fantastic things with this incredibly clear and vibrant image you'd captured.

Memory chips were getting larger and cheaper, and PC operating systems were beginning to enable one to address this additional memory. The first CCD (charge coupled device) had been invented in the early 80's and now CCD sensor technology was becoming inexpensive enough for some consumer applications.

In 1984 Sony demonstrated the first electronic still video camera, called the Mavica, which used a CCD array and wrote still images with analog recording technology to a 2.5" still video floppy disc. You could store 25 full frame images or 50 field (half resolution) images on one disc. The image quality of these units however, was extremely pretty poor, suffering from the limitations of NTSC composite video and the subsequent analog storage (same technology as VCR recording). Kodak and many other companies scrambled to put together development teams to exploit this new technology even though none of them really knew who was going to buy this stuff.

Kodak's brand new Consumer Electronics Division was having no luck selling 8mm video cameras. They reasoned that there must be not be a market and "made an exit from the 8mm business" in 1986, even though Sony and others managed to sell quite a few in the years since. Apparently they thought there was more potential to make money with this new still video floppy standard and the small format video thermal printer being developed. So in the spring of 1986 the Consumer Electronics Division was renamed the Electronic Photography Division

As one of the original members of that short lived Electronic Photography Division of Kodak during this period, I witnessed what was to be a very turbulent era in Kodak's history and in the history of photography as well.

What follows is the tale of my journey of exploration during this exciting period of time. Please keep in mind that this is the story of my experiences, from my perspective, and as such is not intended to be a definitive history of digital imaging. I am sure however, that my story will shed some light on how digital imaging had evolved at Kodak and throughout the industry in general.

The computer, besides being the most wonderful creative tool I've ever used, is a great archealogical tool as well. Every time you create a new document and save it to disk, it is automatically time stamped. If you're careful and backup all your work, you create a trail in time that can be followed backwards revealing the thought processes that occured. That's sort of how this project came about. While looking back at the files I've saved over the years, they were snapshots of my journey. Combining these snapshots with my recollections and information from articles in the various Mac magazines of the time (I still have most of them in boxes in the basement), I hope to assemble an illustrated document of those experiences.

This project is one I've been contemplating for a number of years but have been very reluctant to tackle. Not only because of the scope, but also for lack of a medium that could effectively present all the media types I've accumulated over the years. Everything from MacPaint files to Studio Pro animations, also Hypercard stacks, product illustrations, software prototypes, hi-res scans, 3D models, VR movies and more.

A book wouldn't have done it justice, much too linear. I had considered an interactive multimedia presentation possibly using Director, but there were issues with licensing (I couldn't afford it) and with the distribution across various platforms. Perhaps a gallery installation would be the way to go, it's a possibility I've yet to rule out. Any galleries interested?

In 1996 however, I discovered the Worldwide Web and HTML and was surprised at how dynamic it could be. It also doesn't cost much to get into except maybe in the time spent. This definitely was the medium I'd been waiting for.