Would it be possible for a pre-digital society to have evolved naturally to the same level as post-industrial-revolution Europe, without the technology of photography and, by extension, moving pictures?
Whether this is due to the lack of resources (silver nitrate, iodine, mercury, etc) which enabled early research, or some other, less obvious reason isn't that important, as long as this reason is expanded into the effects on other major technologies - if mercury wasn't available, for example, mercury-based liquid mirror telescopes couldn't exist.
I would still like the society to have at least a similar technological level to, say, Western society in the mid 1900's or so, including telescopes and such, and even live broadcast TV, just not the means to produce a permanent image on an object for storage and distribution (representations via paintings, etc are obviously allowed). This needs to include moving film, camera obscuras and other related image-based technologies.
I think by the nature of the question, this society would not be possible on Earth as-is, but could it exist on another planet, or an alternative-history of Earth, if that's what is needed?
What major differences would such a society have?
I have limited this to the pre-digital era only, as I would like to explore the effects that a digital revolution (which includes the ability to produce digital images) would have on a society that didn't have a non-digital precursor of any form.
If this question is too broad or opinion-based, or needs clarification, please advise (it's my first question). Any help on tags would be appreciated too.