1. October 4, 2010: Photography (Chapter 9)
Art Appreciation
October 4, 2010:
Photography (Chapter 9)

2. Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelle (1873)

3. Paul Martin, Entrance to Victoria Park (1893)

4. Lewis Hine, Breaker Boys Working in Ewen Breaker of Pennsylvania Coal Co. (1911)

5. Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)

6. Photography and the traditional arts

7. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”

8. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”
Photography as the “democratic” art form

9. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”
Photography as the “democratic” art form
Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth

11. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”
Photography as the “democratic” art form
Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth

12. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”
Photography as the “democratic” art form
Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth
aesthetic form or document of life?

14. Photography and the traditional arts
“Original” and “copy”
Photography as the “democratic” art form
Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth
aesthetic form or document of life?

15. The camera obscura

17. The first photograph – Niepce (1825)

18. Louis Daguerre

19. Louis Daguerre
Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce

20. Louis Daguerre Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce
Image formed through mercury and silver compound to produce an image on a silver plate

23. Problems with the Daguerreotype
There was no negative; only originals
Left-right reversal
Expensive silver plates
Very fragile
Highly poisonous bromine & mercury vapors

24. Daguerre’s Le boulevard du temple (1838)

25. Problems with the Daguerreotype
There was no negative; only originals
Left-right reversal
Expensive silver plates
Very fragile
Highly poisonous bromine & mercury vapors
Long exposure times

26. The Calotype Process

27. The Calotype Process
Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841

28. The Calotype Process Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
Photography on paper, with a few minutes of exposure time in good light

29. The Calotype Process Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
Photography on paper, with a few minutes of exposure time in good light
Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could be made

30. The Calotype Process Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
Photography on paper, with a few minutes of exposure time in good light
Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could be made
Paper lessened the detail of the picture

31. The Calotype Process Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
Photography on paper, with ½ hour exposure time
Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could be made
Paper lessened the detail of the picture

32. The Collodion process

33. The Collodion process
Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851

34. The Collodion process
Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
Replace the calotype’s paper with glass

35. The Collodion process
Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
Replace the calotype’s paper with glass
Creates a more detailed, stable negative

36. The Collodion process
Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
Replace the calotype’s paper with glass
Creates a more detailed, stable negative
Allows the artist to make an unlimited number of prints from a single negative

37. Louis Pierson, Countess Castiglione (1860)

38. The Collodion process

39. Early experiments in photographic portraiture: daguerreotype (1843)

40. Early experiments in photographic portraiture: daguerreotype (1843)
A tripod
The rigid posture and expressions of the sitter
Timing of the exposure
Two prints required two sittings

41. Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype

42. Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Free Church of Scotland, 1843 (oil painting)

43. Capt. Robert-Barclay Allardyce (Hill/Adamson)

44. Hill/Adamson, The Misses Binny and Miss Monro (1845)

45. Hill/Adamson, The Misses Binny and Miss Monro (1845)
Relative to painting, the
calotype showed “the imperfect
work of man … and not the
perfect work of God.”

46. Collodion’s impact on Portraiture

47. Collodion’s impact on Portraiture
Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale

48. Collodion’s impact on Portraiture
Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale
Ease of reproducing prints and better quality of prints

50. Photography & Portraiture

51. Photography & Portraiture
Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’

52. Photography & Portraiture
Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’
Neither Daguerre’s or Talbot’s process suitable to portraiture: 15 minutes or more of stillness in sunshine

53. Photography & Portraiture
Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’
Neither Daguerre’s or Talbot’s process suitable to portraiture: 15 minutes or more of stillness in sunshine
The development of collodion that makes portraiture commercially viable and popular

54. Debates over photography

55. Debates over photography
Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”

56. Debates over photography
Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”
In the decades following its discovery, a search for ways to fit a mechanical medium into traditional ideas of art

57. Debates over photography
Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”
In the decades following its discovery, a search for ways to fit a mechanical medium into traditional ideas of art

58. In this debate, three main positions emerged:
1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art

59. Charles Blanc: “Photography copies everything and explains nothing, it is blind to the realm of the spirit.”
Lady Eastlake: Claimed that art was about “Truth, Reality, Beauty,” and that the camera image could fulfill the first two of these, but never the third

60. In this debate, three main positions emerged:
1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art
2. Photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and painting

61. In this debate, three main positions emerged:
1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art
2. Photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and painting
3. Camera images could be significant as handmade works of art

62. “The lens is an instrument like the pencil and the brush, and photography is a process like engraving and drawing, for what makes an artist is not the process but the feeling.”

63. Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

64. Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups

65. Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups -Soft focus

66. Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups -Soft focus -used lighting to enhance the images of her subjects

67. Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups -Soft focus -used lighting to enhance the images of her subjects -raking light

69. The impact of photography on the traditional arts

70. The impact of photography on the traditional arts
Artists begin to incorporate ‘camera vision’ into the traditional arts

71. The impact of photography on the traditional arts
Healy, Church, and McEntee: The Arch of Titus (1871; oil on canvas)

72. The impact of photography on the traditional arts
Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans ( )

74. Charles Negre, Young Girl Seated with Basket, (1852)
Humbert de Molard, The Hunters (1851)

76. Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)
Charles Philippe Auguste Carey, Still Life with Waterfowl, 1873

77. Photography

78. Photography
Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world

79. Photography
Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
Photography means “light-writing”

80. Photography
Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
Photography means “light-writing”
usually associated with family history, journalism, advertising, public relations

81. Photography
Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
Photography means “light-writing”
usually associated with family history, journalism, advertising, public relations
An artistic means of expression

82. Photography as Art
The artist’s choices:

83. Photography as Art
The artist’s choices:
Subject

84. Photography as Art
The artist’s choices:
Subject
Light

85. Photography as Art
The artist’s choices:
Subject
Light
Angle

86. Photography as Art
The artist’s choices:
Subject
Light
Angle
Focus

87. Photography as Art The artist’s choices: Subject Light Angle Focus
Distance

88. Photography as Art The artist’s choices: Subject Light Angle Focus
Distance
Composition

89. Ansel Adams

90. Adams, Moonrise (1975) The artist’s choices: Subject Light Angle Focus
Distance
Composition