Photography

2. Photography ***** Birthed from Science Nurtured with Curiosity Ripened by Mastery & Ready to Rock the 21st Century

3. Overview • Art or N’art? • The Founding Fathers • Early Portraiture: Nadar • Stereophotography • Photojournalism • Documentary Photography: Jacob Riis • Pictorialism & Photo-Secession • Motion Photography: ‘Ed Weird’ • 20th Century Photography: Paris & America • Photography’s Heroic Age: War & The Great Depression • Photomontages & Propaganda Photography • The Photogram • Modern Photography

4. * Art or N’art? * Philosophy: “The invention of photography was a response to the artistic urges and historical forces that underlie Romanticism: harsh realism and unvarnished truth.” • Photography as an art… • involves the imagination • is the organization of experience and record of a mental image • Subject and style tell us about artist’s inner/outer worlds • A form of printmaking • A moment in time, captured to make us see the world in new terms First camera to be commercially manufactured; c.1839

5. Founding Fathers • Niépce – first permanent photographed image, 1822 • Daguerre – simplified photographic process (daguerreotypes) • Fox Talbot (photograms)

6. Early Portraiture: Nadar • Entertained 280 sitters including… • Actress Sarah Bernhardt • Romantic Pose reminiscent of painted portraits: drapery and soft expression

7. Stereophotography • Portable Twin lens camera; imitates human vision and creates an illusion of depth • Demonstrated photography’s ability to enlarge human vision • Lost to the 1880s after the invention of the halftone plate (used for reproducing images on a printed page)

8. Photojournalism • Philosophy: “The present is history in the making.” • Pieces like Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa” inspired the accurate representation, and perhaps untold stories of contemporary events. • The American Civil War: Matthew Brady & Alexander Gardner • War images reminiscent of the harsh realism of David’s “The Death of Marat.”

9. Documentary Photography • Late 19th century; brought harsh realities of poverty to the public’s attention • Camera becomes an instrument of reform • Tells the story of people’s lives through a pictorial essay • First photo-documentary: John Thomson’s “Street Life in London” (1877) featured posed figures.

10. Jacob Riis • Invention of gunpowder flash 1887 • Photographers gained the element of surprise • Jacob Riis: police reporter in NYC; photographed crime infested slums and their poor living conditions • Published several newspaper exposés • His work led to revisions of labour laws and housing codes

11. Pictorialism • England; Photographic Society of London; leader in movement dedicated convincing of critics that photography, by imitation of painting and printmaking, was art. • Oscar Rejlander; “the two paths of life”; composite printing • Julia Margaret Cameron; pursued ideal beauty; portraits of prominent Victorians

12. Photo-Secession • Early 1890s; the “Linked Ring”; rival to the RPS; seeked a pictorialism independent of science and technology; • Resolved the dilemma between art and mechanics by making photos look like paintings; did not use composite/multiple images; • Implemented tools in the darkroom to create images • Stieglitz opened his photo-secession gallery in NY 1905; key piece: Edward Steichen’s photo of Rodin in his studio surrounded by his works

13. Motion Photography • Eadweard Muybridge; “Female Semi-Nude in Motion”; father of motion photography • Devised a set of cameras capable of photographing action at successive points • Devoted 100,000 photographs to the study of animal and human movement; some taken from several vantage points

14. The 20th Century

15. Paris • Atget: images of Paris which he sold to artists (Picasso, Duchamp, Man Ray, etc). • Photos display a haunting technical perfection that is unmatched. • Cartier-Bresson: photojournalist; master of “the decisive moment”; • The instant recognition of an event at the most intense moment of action and emotion in order to reveal its inner meaning, not simply to record its occurrence. Key work: “Mexico, 1934” omits head of figure to focus on tension alone rather than meaning of the gesture.

16. America • Alfred Stieglitz; founder of modern photography in the US; published “Camera Work” to back his photography-as-art philosophy; • Key Piece: “The Steerage” (1907) division of class is represented in its natural state; not to record, but to express his philosophies; first to use theme of clouds (later in his career). • Edward Weston; leader pf “pure” approach to photography rather than Stieglitz’s “straight” approach; images are renowned for their design and detail; • Key work: Pepper (1930) a sensuous shape bathed in dramatic lighting.

17. America Cont’d • Ansel Adams; co-founder of Group f/64; used smallest lens openings to achieve uniform depth and detail; foremost nature photographer in the US Key work: “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico” (1941); full tonal range; images unable to be duplicated • Margaret Bourke-White; photojournalist for mass-circulation magazines Life and Fortune; Key Work:Fort Peck Dam, Montana (1936)

18. The Heroic Age Dorothea Lange Robert Capa

19. Photomontages & Propaganda • Pieces of photographs cut out and assembled into new images • Anti-Nazi posters; political propaganda; ex: John Heartfield’s “As in the middle ages, so in the Third Reich” (1934)

20. Photograms • Invented by Fox Talbot • Objects placed on photo paper and exposed to light • Man Ray; Rayographs; Dada and surrealism

21. Post 1945 • American social commentary on materialism and experimentation with surrealism; • England: use of lenses and filters to alter and distort images.

22. Fin