1. Time and the Fourth Dimension
The Camera Arts
Time and the Fourth Dimension

2. “…a process of instant assemblage, instant collage.”
- Robert Rauschenberg
Walker Evans, Roadside Store between Tuscaloosa and
Greensboro, Alabama, 1936

3. Early History of Photography
camera is the Latin word for “room”
in the 16th century the camera obscura – a darkened room – was used by artists to copy nature accurately – eventually small portable “dark boxes” came into use
the major drawback – images could not be preserved

4. Camera Obscura

5. The Birth of Photography
Photogenic Drawing and
The Daguerrotype

6. Photogenic Drawing Invented in 1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot.
Negative images are fixed on paper using light sensitive chemicals

7. William Henry Talbot Fox, Botanical, 1839

8. The Daguerrotype
Invented in 1839 by two inventors – Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre.
The use of light sensitive chemicals on a polished metal plate produced a permanent positive image.

9. Pros and Cons of Daguerrotype
The medium was an instant success.
It became the preferred medium for portraiture.
The availability of portraits were no longer limited to the wealthy.
The process of preparing, exposing and developing the plate was lengthy and time consuming.
The sitter had to remain absolutely still during the exposure period (from 1 to 10 minutes) to avoid blurring.
The image could not be reproduced.

10. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Le Boulevard du Temple, 1839

11. “From now on, painting is dead!” – Paul Delaroche, painter
Richard Beard, Maria Edgeworth, 1841,
Daguerrotype.

12. Calotype
Talbot improved upon the photogenic drawing process by using sensitized paper.
The exposure time was greatly reduced (from minutes to seconds) and produced a latent image that could be developed by dipping the paper in gallic acid.
This process is the basis of modern photography

13. William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1843

14. Wet-Plate Collodion
Introduced in 1850 and almost universally adopted in 5 years.
A dark-room technique.
Liquid collodion (pyroxyline dissolved in alcohol or ether) is poured over a glass plate bathed in a solution of silver nitrate.

15. Wet-Plate Collodion Exposure time was short – 15 minutes.
Process cumbersome and TOXIC.

16. Julia Margaret Cameron
Self-Portrait
I Wait, 1860’s

17. Documentary Photography

18. Timothy O’Sullivan, Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863

19. The tension between form and content.
Timothy O’Sullivan, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, 1870

20. The tension between form and content.
Alfred Stieglitz, Evening
from the Shelton, 1931

21. The tension between form and content.
Charles Sheeler, Criss-Crossed
Conveyors – Ford Plant, 1927

22. The tension between form and content.
Paula Martino, Steel Spiral-Alcratraz Penitentiary, 2005

23. Filo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for this photograph.
John Paul Filo, Kent State-Girl Screaming over Dead Body,
May 4, 1970

24. Word and Image
Ron Haeberle, Peter Brandt, and the Art Workers’ Coalition,
Q. And Babies? A. And Babies., 1970

25. Conflicts between the real and the ideal.

26. Color Photography

27. Joel Meyerwitz on the use of color photography
“Color makes everything more interesting. Color suggests more things to look at, new subjects for me. Color suggests that light itself is a subject.
…..There’s more content! The form for the content is more complex, more interesting to work with.”

28. Joel Meyerowitz, Porch, Provincetown, 1977

29. Digital Photography

30. Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 1999

32. From Still Pictures to Film
The Birth of Movies

33. D.W. Griffith, Innovator and Master of Film Editing
Griffith sought to create visual variety using an alternating repertoire of shots.
He innovated the full shot, medium shot, close up and extreme close up, the long shot, the pan, and the traveling shot.

34. The Birth of A Nation

35. The Wizard of Oz, 1939

36. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” in Fantasia, 1940

37. Video Art

38. Nam Paik June, TV Buddha, 1974-1982

39. Bill Viola, Stations, 1994

40. Computer and Internet-Based Art Media
….the immaterial is blending seamlessly with the material. – William J. Mitchell, MIT

41. John F. Simon, Unfolding Object, 2002
Mark Napier, net.flag, 2002

42. A process of instant assemblage, instant collage.
Photography -
A process of instant assemblage, instant collage.