George Eastman was the inventor of Kodak, a photographic technology company. He was born in Waterville, New York in 1854 and founded the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1880. Eastman developed the first commercially successful photographic film in 1888, which he named Kodak. He also invented the first hand-held camera in 1900, which revolutionized photography. Eastman's inventions made photography accessible to the masses and changed the way people take pictures.