History of Photography
The Middle Ages (5th-16th Century)
Commonly called the Medieval Period.
Most artwork of this time were made for telling stories from the Bible.
Most were produced in monasteries which were the centers of learning and art.
Almost all artwork was commissioned by the Church.
Coronation of the Virgin,
1375
Coronation of the Virgin,
1375
Bartolo Di Fredi
The Adoration of the Magi
1385-88
The Renaissance (15th-17th Century)
3 levels of society: Wealthy, Monks and Nuns, and the Peasants, but now included a working class (merchants).
The merchants began commissioning artwork, not the church.
The Camera Obscura was used to make more accurately drawn figures.
System of perspective drawing was first established.
Camera Obscura
Literally means: “dark room.”
Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to document it in detail (had been around since the Ancient Chinese).
A room completely sealed from light except for a very small hole in one wall.
An image of outside would be projected, upside down and reversed right-to-left, onto the opposite wall or screen.
Portability
Continued to evolve into a small portable box.
A lens and a mirror, which reflected the image and focused it on a viewing screen, were eventually added.
This helped artists in making sketches on location.
No way to PERMANENTLY record what one saw.
An image of the New Royal Palace at Prague Castle, created on the attic wall by a hole in roof
Botticelli
The Adoration of a Magi,
1475
Jan Van Eyck
Portrait of Giovanni Arnollfini and his Wife,
1434
The Enlightenment (late 17th-18th Century)
Changes in thought.
People started demanding proof, rather than relying on myth and religion.
Began to study the natural world.
Education, rather than birth, guaranteed happiness and success.
The Beginning of Photography
In 1727, a German Surgeon, J.H. Schulze observed that a mixture of silver nitrate and chalk (Bromide) darkened when exposed to light.
Published his results in a scientific journal.
Found the chemical by accident.
Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805)
In 1800, in England, Wedgwood experimented with Bromide to produce silhouettes.
The pictures were not permanent and would turn black when removed from a dark room.
He was studying infants and how they see the world.
Thomas Wedgwood
Quilian Leaf
1805
John Herschel (1792-1871)
Astronomer, physicist and chemist
1819- publishes findings on how to "fix" a photograph
Basically, should be considered the "inventor" of photography, but he never pursued it
Coined the term "Photography"
Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833)
In the early 1800's Niepce began to experiment with a new printing process called lithography (book making). He wasn't good at it.
He experimented with chemicals trying to find an easier way to add imagery.
This led to the process that created the first permanent photograph in 1827.
It required an exposure length of 8 hours!
Joseph Nicephore Niepce
View from the Window at la Gras
1827
Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre
(1787-1851)
Meanwhile, Daguerre was also experimenting with silver-halide images.
He heard of Niepce and in 1829 they became partners.
They worked together until Niepce’s untimely death in 1833. Daguerre and Niepce's son took over the business (but not for long).
A sheet of copper was sensitized with a coating of light-sensitive silver iodine.
Daguerrotype- Pros and Cons
Expensive
Dangerous!
Capable of fine detail
SINGLE IMAGE PROCESS
Exposures of several minutes
It was a complicated procedure
Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre
Beoulevard du Temple, Paris
1838
One of the first portraits of a human in existence
Robert Cornelius
Self-Portrait
1839
Daguerre
Inside his Studio
1839
Robert Cornelius
Seated Couple
1840
Realism and Naturalism (18th-19th century)
Subject matter documents "everyday life."
Heavily influenced by the development of photography.
People began to travel more and wanted souvenirs.
A new interest in more natural portraits.
Gustave Courbet
The Stonebreakers
1849
Honore Daumier
The Third Class Wagon
1862
Changes
Growing middle class became the new patrons of art.
They couldn’t afford expensive paintings or engravings.
Studios popped up all over the country.
Daguerrotypes
1838-1853
Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Biot
Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre
1844
Case was required to prevent fingerprints or scratching
Photographer Unknown
Daguerrotype of a Gentleman
1845
Gustav Oehme
Three Young Girls
1845
Thomas Easterly
Keokuk, Sauk Chief
1847
Photographer Unknown
Frederick Douglass
1847
Photographer Unknown
Edgar Allan Poe
1849
Photographer Unknown
Portrait of an Unidentified African-American Woman
1840
Albert Sands Southworth and
Josiah Johnson Hawkes
Rollin Heber Neal
1850
Frederick Coombs
Montgomery Street, San Francisco
1850
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
Around 1840, in England, Talbot coated plain paper with light-sensitive silver. When exposed to light, the paper created a negative image of the subject.
He claimed he was the first to make a photograph, but he was too busy to publish his findings before Daguerre did.
First negative-to-positive process.
Calotype ("beautiful picture")
PRO’s and CON’s:
Talbot’s photographs lacked sharp detail.
Negatives could be reproduced.
Much cheaper and safer than the daguerrotype.
Paper backing, rather than metal
William Henry Fox Talbot
The Haystack,
1844
Talbot
The Open Door
1844
Talbot
Ships at Low Tide
1844
Talbot
The Ladder
1845
Sir John Herschel
Cyanotypes
We will be painting paper with a special set of chemicals to create images.
Vocabulary:
Opaque- what is it?
Transparent- what is it?
Translucent- what is it?
Opacity- digital term
**CHEMICAL SAFETY**
F. Scott Archer (1813-1857)
In 1851, he developed the wet-plate collodion process (also called Ambrotype)
Used a glass plate coated with collodion as a base for light-sensitive silver halides.
The process was easier than the daguerreotype, and much less expensive.
Sharper negative than the calotype- because of glass.
Soon became the most popular technique.
Wet-Plate Collodian Process
CONS:
The plate was only light-sensitive while wet, so you could not prepare them in advance.
People had to travel with makeshift studios (in wagons).
Glass is breakable.
F. Scott Archer never patented his technique and died very poor.
Talbot sued him for copyright infringement, but it was determined that the collodian process was different than the calotype.
More Early Photography
1854-1864
Thomas Keith
Bakerhouse Close,
Canongate, Edinburgh
c. 1854
Roger Fenton
A Quiet Day in the Mortar Battery
1855
William M. Grundy
“The Country Stile”
1859
Lewis Carroll
Alice Liddell as
“The Beggar Maid”
1859
Oscar Gustav Rejlander
Lewis Carroll
(Rev. Charles L. Dodgson)
1863
Oscar Gustav Rejlander
Hard Times
1860
James Wallace Black
Boston from the Air
1860
Mathew Brady
The Lincoln “Cooper Union
Portrait”
February 27, 1860
Mathew Brady
Robert E. Lee, [General Custis Lee, left, and Colonel Walter Taylor, right]
1865
Mathew Brady
Clara Barton
1866
Mathew Brady
(1822-1896)
Opened his own studio in 1844.
He opened a second studio in D.C. in 1849.
He made a lot of money photographing the wealthy in NYC and politicians in D.C.
He decided to take some photos of the Civil War
He began employing others whom he supplied with traveling darkrooms.
Almost all the photographs his employees made are credited to the name “Mathew Brady.”
All 10,000+ images made during the Civil War were paid for by Brady, who expected the government to buy them from him when the war was over.
BUT, no one wanted a reminder of the war.
He went bankrupt in 1865, finally receiving $25,000 in 1875, but it wasn’t enough.
He went blind and his wife died, then died penniless after being hit by a car in 1896.
He had photographed 18 of the 19 presidents, and his photo of Lincoln is on the $5 bill.
Timothy O’Sullivan
“The Harvest of Death”- battlefield of Gettysburg
July 1863
Timothy O’Sullivan
Richmond, Virginia
1865
Photographer Unknown
Dead Confederate Soldier in Trench Beyond Cheveaux-de-frise, Petersburg, Virginia
1865
Photographer Unknown
John Wilkes Booth
n.d.
Photographer Unknown
Powder Monkey, “U.S.S. New Hampshire,” off Charleston, S.C.
1865
George M. Bernard
Ruins of Charleston, S.C.
1865
Dr. Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne
Faradisation du muscle frontal
1862
Lady Clemtina Hawarden
Photographic Study
1863
Julia Margaret Cameron
Ellen Terry
1864
Julia Margaret Cameron
Paul and Virginia
1864
Julia Margaret Cameron
(1815-1879)
She was given a camera as a gift from her daughter to help her from being lonely.
She tried to capture the emotion in the subject she was photographing.
Her images are imperfect, sometimes fuzzy or blurry, and most had dust spots.
She wasn’t trying to be a professional, as she was a wealthy woman already.
Her photography wasn’t very well received at the time, but has had an impact on modern photographers.
She crops the subject very close and tried to capture a person’s natural beauty.
The Kiss of Peace
I Wait
Travel
1865-1880
Lewis M. Rutherford
Moon
March 4, 1865
Alexander Gardner
Lewis Payne, One of the Lincoln Conspirators before His Execution
1865
Alexander Gardner
[Execution of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators], The Scaffold
1865
Phillippos Margaritis
Untitled [Acropolis]
1865
Carleton Watkins
El Capitan
1866
Thomas Annan
“Close No. 75 High Street,” Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow
1868
John L. Dunmore and
George Critcherson
Sailing Ships in an Ice Field
1869
Andrew J. Russell
Meeting of the Rails, Promontory Point, Utah
1869
Felix Bonfils
Jerusalem, Damascus Gate
1870
William Henry Jackson
Yellowstone Canyon
1871
Richard L. Maddox
In 1871, he invented the Dry-plate Collodian process.
He used a gelatin to suspend the chemicals on the glass plate
Could be prepared in advance!
Widely used beginning in 1879
William Henry Jackson
Began his career as an artist, working in a photographer’s studio retouching photos.
When he was 19 he ran away to the West to work in a silver mine.
There, he saw the opportunity to document the creation of the West.
He began photographing the American Indians and the construction of the railroad.
Dr. Ferdinand Hayden saw the photos and offered him a position as a photographer on his trip to Yellowstone.
Jackson worked for the Survey for seven years, documenting unexplored and unique areas.
W.H. Jackson (1843-1942)
He produced over 54,000 negatives in his career.
After the Survey, he opened a portrait studio in Denver.
William Henry Jackson
Mount of the Holy Cross
1873
William Henry Jackson
Old Faithful
1870
William Henry Jackson
Grand Canyon
1883
Pictorialism (1885-1935)
Lack of sharp focus
Manipulation of the image and/or negative
Attempt to make it resemble paintings or drawings
Visible brushstrokes
Clarence H. White
Raindrops
1903
Edward Steichen
The Pond-Moonlight
1904
Alfred Stieglitz
1864-1946
Venetian Canal
1897
The Steerage
1907
George Eastman (1854-1932)
Founded Kodak company
Invented "roll" film on a clear gelatin base in 1888
1900- Brownie Camera - $1.00/100 frames
Mass-marketed photography
Invention of the “snapshot”
Motion Pictures (Movies)
William Lincoln patented the "Zoopraxiscope" in 1867
Eadweard Muybridge used it to document horses running
In 1891 Thomas Edison successfully demonstrated his device called "Kinetoscope"
Roll film was necessary for this to work
George Eastman and Thomas Edison in 1928
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
He bet the Governor of CA, Leland Stanford, that a horse takes all hooves of the ground
Set up 12 cameras, with a trigger for the horse
The bet was $2000, but ended up costing $50K (1.1 million in today's $)
Created a more-sensitive emulsion and faster shutter
Modernism (early 20th C)
Rejects Realism, moves into abstract.
Modernists were interested in experimenting with new types of paints and media.
They created abstractions and fantasies, rather than representing something realistically.
Modernism Movement
Modernism
Dada
Surrealism
Man Ray, Photograms
Dada (1910-1930)
“Dada:” A child’s word for horse in French.
An anti-art movement
Used junk as a medium.
Tried to shock the public into realizing the destruction and inhumanity during WWI.
Man Ray (1890-1976)
Originally named Emmanual Radnitsky
“Rayograph” is the term he used for his cameraless photos.
Now known as a "photogram"
Lived and produced art in New York, Paris and Hollywood, CA.
Man Ray
Rayograph
1922
Surrealism (1920-1940)
Considered to be the most "extreme" modern art movement, sometimes really graphic in nature.
The style or movement starting in the 1920’s which was influenced by Freud’s focus on dreams.
Works often appear dreamlike and fantastical in their presentation.
Hand Catching a Bird
1968
Phillipe Halsmann
Salvador Dali
1948
Salvador Dali
The Persistance of Time
1931
Straight Photography (mid 1900's)
No manipulation
Rejected Pictorialism
“Pure” photography
Initiated by Paul Strand, an American photographer
F/64 Group founded by Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston
Paul Strand
Wall Street
1915
Paul Strand
The Family: Lazarra, Italy
1953
Ansel Adams
Half Dome, Apple Orchard, Yosemite
1932
Edward Weston
Shells
1927
35mm film and camera- 1920's
Before the 35mm camera, photographers could not be very spontaneous
It was a handheld camera with roll film, instead of requiring a tripod and sheet film
Small film= small camera
Allowed for true photojournalism and reportage photography
Leica, 1925
Argus, 1939
Polaroid Land Camera, 1948
Color film and flash
1935- Kodachrome was debuted by Kodak
High cost, and poor quality made it undesirable at first
In 1950, most people still used Black and White
Not until 1970's, when electronic flashes were used, did it become popular
Arrival of Digital- Kodak DCS 100, 1991
1.3MP sensor
Nikon D1, 1999
2.74 MP, $6000
$3000 (body only)
Nikon D800
36.3 MP
Full HD Video with Surround Sound