The bridge player plays bridge at the table and achieves a victory, which is possible by participation. Many bridge players are private persons, but bridge websites have begun displaying pictures of individual victories at the bridge table, of team victories at national and international competitions, of group victories at various bridge events around the world.

We would like to present these pictures in our Portrait Gallery. They have been collected from many sources, especially from the Bridge Bulletins, from other official to semi-official photographers, from other websites, from individual bridge players. We have attempted to present these pictures in the best manner possible, and with the utmost respect to the person or persons portrayed.

The visitor can click on the individual letter, as shown below, which corresponds to the surname of the individual. We present only the picture and no other or additional information, unless it is to clarify the date and location and the members of the portrayed group.

We hope that this attempt meets with your approval, that we have presented each player in the expected dignified manner, and that the visitor enjoys our Portrait Gallery. Contributions are also greatly appreciated.

Photography and History

The actual word or designation photography has its derivation from two Greek words: photos, which means light in the English language and graphein, which means to draw. The word itself was first employed by Sir John Frederick William Herschel in the year 1839.

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, a scientist born in Basra, Iraq, and later in Cairo, Egypt, made significant contributions to the principles of optics, which was known early in the second millenium around 1040 after the Common Era. He is also known under the name of al-Basri, Ibn al-Haytham, and also Alhazen.

Note:He invented the first pinhole camera, (also called the Camera Obscura) and was able to explain why the images were upside down. The first casual reference to the optic laws that made pinhole cameras possible, was observed and noted by Aristotle around 330 before the common era, who questioned why the sun could make a circular image when it shined through a square hole.

According to the history of photography Mr. Nicéphore Niépce took the very first photograph. These first pictures were, however, not permanent and the picture gradually lost its image. The instrument was the creation of Mr. Charles and Vincent Chevalier in Paris, France. However, he made his first permanent photograph in the year 1827 by coating a pewter plate with bitumen and exposing the plate to light. The bitumen hardened where light struck.

In the year 1836 it fell to Mr. Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who was Daguerre's partner, but who also died before their invention was completed, to formulate the first practical photographic method, which was named the daguerreotype. Mr. Louis Daguerre coated a copper plate with silver, then treated it with iodine vapor to make it sensitive to light. The image was developed by mercury vapor and fixed with a strong solution of ordinary salt (sodium chloride).

The camera, following the evolution of the principle of optics, became a ubiquitous household item. It became a universal instrument to preserve the history of civilizations, to freeze in time occurences and occasions, to archive the events of historical proportions, to maintain a record of the past, to conserve the visual knowledge of presidents, kings, emporers, and dictators. to protect history from distortion.

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