Remote patrol

Of all the end-of-the-century specials airing this fall, "American Photography" (7 p.m., Channel 19) might actually be the one best suited to the period's arbitrary contours. It was on Feb. 1, 1900, that Eastman Kodak introduced the first mass-production camera, the "Brownie. " At this end of the century we are moments away from the mass availability of desktop video editing, which will make the moving image as portable as the still image in the average American home. This three-hour special looks at photography from several angles, as it were: technological (e.g., the halftone process that makes photos a staple of every newspaper and magazine), aesthetic (the move toward realism during World War II) and social (the triumphant arrival of Life magazine). By the half-century mark, photography's heyday is already passing as the nation buys up another new image box by the millions: the TV. >>>