History of Photography Notes PDF

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Krista Wortendyke...

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History of Photography Thursday, January 19 Pre-Photography: the development of optical devices -

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Developed over a long period of time, and slowly there were things that made it more and more able to come to what we know photography to be today Camera obscura: a dark room (or a dark box) with a very small hole in one wall that lets in light. Directly across from the hole the image from the outside world will be projected into the wall upside down.  1490 Leonardo Da Vinci began writing about it, he realized there were similarities between the human eye and the camera obscura  Can be made out of anything, as long as there is a hole and light Developments began in order for people to as closely portray real life as accurately as possible Camera Lucida: clamp that could be placed onto anything, prism on top to see what is in front and below you at the same time, thus able to trace what is there

The invention of photography as we know it today -

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All over the globe people invented photography without really connected, it came out of nowhere Zeitgeist: “the spirit of the times,” meaning the trend or thought and feeling in a period. It is a product of the sociocultural system, and therefore the antithesis of the notion that history is made by the ideas and actions of great individuals standing outside their society and culture.  Term suggests that the discovery or invention is determined not by individual scientists but by developments internal to a particular science of by emerging social needs. Thomas Wedgewood (British, 1771-1805): scientist and inventor, began to explore the possibility that light can alter a surface  Wanted to get a picture of life but never was able to fix  Figured out how to make a photogram, impress an image upon paper Joseph Nicephore Niepce (French, 1765-1833): managed to capture an image on a piece of metal Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (French, 1789-1851)  Mimesis: the idea of an exact copy of the real  Extremely shiny photographs, fragile William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800-1877): used the camera Lucinda Hippolyte Bayard (French, 1801-1877): very similar process to Daguerre, Daguerre announced similar process and given pension, however Bayard did not Hercules Florence (French, living in Brazil, 1804-1879): went to Brazil for an expedition, responsible for drawing in detail everything they came upon  Process similar to what was happening in Europe, negative and positive process (like Talbot), used cloth  Invented photography 3 years before Daguerre Daguerreotype vs calotype  Daguerreotype: Single direct deposit, only one image, could not be reproduced

History of Photography Different kind of value attached to there only being one copy, every single one was a unique image o Less value in society because it cannot go out into the world and show them things they haven’t seen, because there is only one o Extremely detailed and realistic o A few minutes worth of exposure Calotype: negative positive process, on paper o Foggy, tonality is a little off o Long exposure, over the course of a day o Photography as we know it today, negative positive, able to send out into the world o

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Photography’s uses -

Remembrance Sharing information Storytelling Ubiquity Foster appreciation of other fine arts

Tuesday, January 24 Portraits for the Millions: the Art and Business of Photography & Stereography: the Alternative Technology of Photo-Vision Key terms: Momento Mori/Post-mortem photography, wet collodion, carte-de-visite/cabinet cards, stereograph -

Developed a habit as a culture that posed for pictures, represented themselves as separate from who they are

Rise in post-mortem photography -

Victorian era thought very differently about death than we do now For many, the only available image of a loved one could come from a post-mortem photo Post-mortem photography showed an actual moment of someone between life and death

Daguerreotypes and pornography Photography practitioners -

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Southworth and Hawes  Some of the first photographers to think of themselves as artists and push the idea of photography as art  More expensive due to their thought of their elevated status as artists David Hill and Robert Adamson  Used the calotype process  Well known for making portraits

History of Photography Photographed the people of New Haven fishing town, worked with social documentary photography  Calotypes had a long exposure time, so they were always made outside. Harsh images, sharp highlights and dark shadows Augustus Washington  Son of a slave, living in a time when African Americans had no access to anything, attended Dartmouth  Abolitionist, became one of the hallmarks of that city in a time when blacks were not respected 

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The Cult of Celebrity: a new interest in personalities -

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Wet Collodion Process: developed by Fredric Archer  Sped up the photographic process  Combined the good from daguerreotypes and calotypes  Polish a glass plate, coat the plate in various liquids, sensitize the plate, develop the plate, make a contact print from the negative glass plate Nadar  Brought his caricature knowledge into photographing people  Had an interest in the people who “mattered”  Asked to photograph specimens for science  Made pornography

Carte de Visite -

Disderi created a camera that allowed multiple images to be taken People would collect these “business cards” Women often took on a character

A New Way of Seeing: stereography -

Devices that would separate the eyes and see two images and the brain would see them together Photographers began to recognize that it would made a 3D image and emphasized the foreground, middle ground, and background Whole industry that emerged around stereographs Stereographs show us distance and the way that we see, broke some boundaries with optics Stereographs stand in for experiences, let someone experience something they had never been in front of

Thursday, January 26 War Photography A piece of information that depicts a real experience, emotion, story, etc. Knowing that something is truthfully representing a group of people, a particular time frame

History of Photography Not set-up, posed. It is real life, real action. The people, the place, are all real and accurate. Getting a sense of what is happening even if you are unable to understand or be there Being true to what the experience or people or the place is. Not trying to make it something it’s not. Getting the whole picture, not just part. Being true to what the cause is, not having bias or your own opinion show in the piece.

Documentary: of the nature or of consisting in documents. Factual, realistic; applies especially to film or literary work based on real events or circumstances, and intended primarily for instruction or record purposes. Document:

An instruction, a piece of instruction, a lesson. That which serves to show, point out, or prove something, evidence, proof. Something written, inscribed, etc. which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed, tomb-stone, coin, picture, etc.

Authenticity:

The fact or quality of being true or in accordance with fact. Quality of truthful correspondence between inner feelings and their outward expression. The fact or quality of being real.

Authentic:

Of a person or agent: that is a source of reliable information, credible, trustworthy. Of a document: that is the origin or source of something, not a copy. That has an objective existence; real, actual, not imaginary or pretended.

Documentary Authenticity

Tuesday, January 31 Travel & Topographic Photography. The Expanding Doman (1854-1880) The Grand Tour -

Young affluent men in Europe would be expected to take before they became part of society Travel around Europe through France, Spain, Italy. Circle in Western Europe. Experience art, learned what it meant to be a part of the classical society Few months or a few years

Travel -

Thirst for images from archeological sites, biblical sites Handful of people traveling and photographing these places Maxime du Camp, early visitor to Egypt, documented the different images of Egypt Francis Frith, primarily interested in depicting everyday life in these places

History of Photography US Geographic Surveys -

Document the untamed nature of the west, find railroads, document Native Americans After the civil war, people started moving westward because it was free and open

Manifest Destiny -

The doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable; this (expected) expansion itself; also in extended use. Idea of opportunity and space but that it was also the US duty to explore westward

Carleton Watkins -

Photographed the railroad that connected the east and west

Timothy O’Sullivan -

Photographed ancient ruins in the Canon de Chelly in New Mexico

Different tones in color, one has a much darker feel to it, one has a much brighter and cheerier feel Left image has vegetation, right image does not have any Both have moving water, but the left is more focused on the place whereas the right is focused on just the water and the falls themselves You can see buildings in the left but no buildings in the right

Picturesque -

Nature is presented as rough, irregular, and asymmetrical while also being inviting, hospitable, and stimulating. Decayed man-made and natural objects are typically contrasted with robust, flourishing nature. The viewer is given easy entry into the picture through a path in the foreground that may wind its way through the composition. Human figures can be seen in the foreground as surrogates for the viewer.

Sublime -

Origin in the passion of terror. Embraces the dual emotional quality of fear and attraction. It results from the reaction to obscurity, darkness, or the power of a vastly superior force (silence, solitude). Awe inspiring and will make you feel as though you are on the precipice, at any moment you may fall. They will be treacherous and breathtaking vistas.

History of Photography Thursday, February 2 Photography, Art & the Amateur: Idealism vs. Realism Victorian England: Idealism vs. Realism -

Fight between whether photography was strictly for science or that it was art

Charles Baudelaire (1863) -

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Objected to photography  Easy out for artists, refuge for lazy or ill-endowed painters  Narcissism  Mechanical reproduction  No interpretation; temps artists to paint what they see, and not what they dream  Something for the idolatrous mob  Makes art subservient to reality Photography is good for  Evidence  Science, microscopic things can be seen, keeping record of things  A supplement to memory  A servant to art and science  To provide information with necessary exactitude

Henry Robinson (1887) -

Contradicts Baudelaire’s ideas  Every art is a learned practice  It is a mistake to rely on genius over effort  Successful photography relies heavily on the same principles of art as painting and other classical arts  The way it deals with Nature may be different, but is not literal

Pendulum -

Back and forth between Photography and Fine Arts  Photography: truth, realism, selection, objectivity  Fine Arts: imagination, idealism, synthetic, subjectivity

Realism -

Objective representation of the external world based on the impractical observation of contemporary life Consciously democratic, including in its subject matter things previously considered unworthy of representation of high art

History of Photography Idealism -

Subjective representations of the external world that are a mental conception of beauty and that affirm the imagination. In art, idealism is the tendency to represent things, as aesthetic sensibility would have them rather than as they are in Nature.

Oscar Gustave Rejlander (1865) -

Father of fine art photography, pushed a lot of boundaries Combination printing Focused on subject matter that dealt with emotion

Tableaux Vivant -

“Living picture” Victorian parlor game where participants came together to act out some form of event Either have people positioned and hold still and be photographed, or, as Rejlander did, photograph them all separately  Rejlander, “Two Ways of Life”

Robinson -

Promoted photography as a fine art, one of the driving forces Made combination prints “The Lady of Shallot,” “Fading Away”

Julia Margaret Cameron (1870) -

Considered as an amateur Embraced her mistakes, such as blur and out of focus Titles of her work represented stories  The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty  Zoe, Maid of Athens

Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll (1863) -

Found friendship in children, photographed many young children Wrote children’s books such as Alice in Wonderland Controversy concerning his relationship with children

Lady Clementina Hawarden (1860s) -

Extremely affluent Pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in photography Interested in female sexuality, used her children to portray this

History of Photography Tuesday, February 7th Colonialist Photography: Photographing & Cataloging the Other Orientalism -

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The wholesale social labeling on non-Western people as passive, rather than active; childlike , rather than mature; feminine, rather than masculine; and timeless, that is, apart from the progress of Western history Describes the phenomenon of titling sexual interest or intrusive observation of people from nonWestern cultures, especially women Edward Said on Orientalism, 1978

Ethnographic Photography -

Ethnography: a scientific description of specific human cultures The study of the external characteristics of the “Other.” This “science” was based on topical visual evidence rather than what we call “anthropology of culture.” Physical anthropology eventually was discredited as a junk science.

Edward Curtis & the Native American Indians -

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Threatening savage: image of Native Americans as “threatening savages” was predicated on the belief in Manifest Destiny. Since the westward expansion of White America was perceived as justified and inevitable, the Natives that stood in the way of this expansion were cast as villains who prevented the peaceful appropriation of land. Noble savage: represented Indians as untouched by civilization and sullied by industrialization, as people more in touch with primitive, basic human virtue. Typically, they were fitted intopreexisting categories of nobility – Roman-ess, Garden of Eden, etc - rather than accepted on their own terms.  Constructed by the modern world  Seems like a positive stereotype, however it is damaging; Native Americans are so different that they are unable to coexist with us Vanishing race: vanishing Indians

Tuesday, February 14 Time and Space: The Extended Present. Seeing the Invisible. Muybridge & Marey and the study of movement -

Muybridge’s background is in landscape, topography; uses grid to legitimize himself  Horse in motion Marey was a scientist, motion in relationship to itself  Used a photographic gun

Thomas Edison -

Kinetoscopes, boxes containing a moving device that would show movies, “peep shows”

History of Photography Scientific Advancements -

Nikola Tesla: Shadowgraph of a human foot in shoe Berenice Abbott: Water pattern, Beams of Light through Glass Harold Edgerton: Bullet through apple, milk drop coronet

Taylorism -

“The one true way” Idea of scientific management Train those less efficient to perform the actions of the more efficient in the exact same way Made models of the motions of the most effective actions

The perfect medium, photographing spirits -

Fluids through mediums Glowing orbs Reveal the truth, things that we cannot know

The futurists, photodynamism -

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Dynamism: the quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and progress, the theory that phenomena of matter or mind are due to the action of forces rather than to motion or matter Photodynanism: rather than creating a fixed moment, sought to replace the objective reality of a subject captured in an instantaneous snapshot with a projection of the subject’s interior essence, which he identified as pure movement Futurist images took interest in motion  Full movement, part of the world surrounding them rather than ripped from it

Thursday, February 16 Photography and Reform: The White City & The Grey City Vernacular Photography -

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Photographs, usually by amateur or unknown photographers, who take everyday life and common things as subjects. These images are typically thought of as “authorless” images  Include travel and vacation photos, family snapshots, and photos of friends, class portraits, identification photographs, and photo-booth images Found itself in the world through the Kodak company

Dry plate -

Material used when dry would allow mass production Made things a lot more accessible to people

Kodak Brownie Camera -

Switched from plates to film

History of Photography -

Groundbreaking camera, was sold for $1, anyone could buy it, $2 to have pictures developed, send back to Kodak when finished shooting Marketed towards women and children Produces circular images

Snapshot -

A photograph that is “shot” spontaneously and quickly most often without artistic or journalistic intent Commonly considered to be technically imperfect or amateurish – out of focus, poorly framed, or not well composed The subject matter of the photographer is everyday life, things that are of the vernacular

The Gilded Age The Grey City -

Grey, dirty, mismanaged city Urbanization, industrialization, immigration Alice Austen, first woman photographer to work outside the studio and home  Photographed Quarantine Island  Photographed street types on the lower east side of Manhattan

Jacob Riis -

Photographed for social reform “How the Other Half Lives” looking at the poor and tenement homes  He was not a trained photographer, but knew he needed photographs to covey this info he had and make an impact

Lewis Hine -

Worked for the National Child Labor Commission Photographed in factories, canneries, mills and the child workers Direct approach, subjects are engaged, eye contact, humanity Intimate portraits that people could relate to

History of Photography Tuesday, February 21 The White City: World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 -

Opposition to the grey city smoldering outside Meant to be completely temporary, stood for 6 months Charles Dudley Arnold, Court of Honor, Chicago’s World Columbian Exposition Amateur photographers were the ones to accurately describe what the fair was like versus what the image the fair wanted to uphold

Photography & Art: Naturalism vs. Idealism, the Emergence of Pictorialism Major art movements at the turn of the century -

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Classicism: has its roots in depicting an ideal vision and version of the human experience, a process started within ancient Greek and Roman civilization.  Stressed order, proportion, balance, harmony, and avoidance of excess  Believes that art is g...