Through the past 50 years society has seen a rapid increase in new technology; some of which benefits us all greatly and some technology that is best left to a side note in the history books. Our grandparents saw technology changes that were radical at the time yet they transformed society. Some of these changes we take for granted now. Think of the changes that they saw: electricity, indoor plumbing, telephones, motor vehicles and the phonograph.

The baby boom generation; including myself have seen entire technologies that were created and then retired, or soon to be retired. We have seen an evolution in recorded music where we have seen the introduction of the compact disc, mobile music formats like MP3 and streaming radio. This has lead to the decline of the concept of a record store and soon the death of the compact disc.

From a photographic perspective we have seen an evolution in image taking with the introduction of digital camera technology. This has lead to the pervasive and invasive of digital imaging in society, such as cheap point and shoot cameras, cell phone cameras and digital surveillance cameras. One of the saddest foot notes in history is that the company that introduced digital imaging has also lead to its demise. Kodak commercialized photography for the masses and it is so ironic that its introduction of digital imaging caused its untimely death.

In the gallery below we are reminded of our technology roots and how this technology and evolved or has been retired.

Watsonphotography.ca creates unique images of fashion, models, people, travel, nature and racing sports by Toronto photographer Peter Watson.