Art Appreciation

October 4, 2010: Photography (Chapter 9)

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

Paul Martin, Entrance to Victoria Park (1893)

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

Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)

Photography and the traditional arts

Photography and the traditional arts

• “Original” and “copy”

Photography and the traditional arts

• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form

Photography and the traditional arts

• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth

Photography and the traditional arts

• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth

Photography and the traditional arts

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

Photography and the traditional arts

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

The camera obscura

The first photograph – Niepce (1825)

Louis Daguerre

Louis Daguerre

• Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce

Louis Daguerre

• Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce

• Image formed through mercury and silver compound to produce an image on a silver plate

Problems with the Daguerreotype

• There was no negative; only originals • Left-right reversal • Expensive silver plates • Very fragile • Highly poisonous bromine & mercury vapors

Daguerre’s Le boulevard du temple (1838)

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

The Calotype Process

The Calotype Process

• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841

The Calotype Process

• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841• Photography on paper, with a few minutes of

exposure time in good light

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

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

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

The Collodion process

The Collodion process

• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851

The Collodion process

• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851

• Replace the calotype’s paper with glass

The Collodion process

• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851

• Replace the calotype’s paper with glass • Creates a more detailed, stable negative

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

Louis Pierson, Countess

Castiglione

(1860)

The Collodion process

• http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?cat=2&segid=1726&segnr=1

Early experiments in photographic portraiture: daguerreotype (1843)

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

Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype

Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Free Church of Scotland, 1843 (oil painting)

Capt. Robert-Barclay Allardyce (Hill/Adamson)

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

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

• Relative to painting, the calotype showed “the imperfectwork of man … and not the perfect work of God.”

Collodion’s impact on Portraiture

Collodion’s impact on Portraiture

• Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale

Collodion’s impact on Portraiture

• Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale

• Ease of reproducing prints and better quality of prints

Photography & Portraiture

Photography & Portraiture

• Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’

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

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

Debates over photography

Debates over photography

• Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”

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

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

In this debate, three main positions emerged:

• 1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art

• 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

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

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

• “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.”

Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

-Pioneered the use of close-ups

Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

-Pioneered the use of close-ups

-Soft focus

Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

-Pioneered the use of close-ups

-Soft focus -used lighting to

enhance the images of her subjects

Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)

-Pioneered the use of close-ups

-Soft focus -used lighting to

enhance the images of her subjects

-raking light

The impact of photography on the traditional arts

The impact of photography on the traditional arts

• Artists begin to incorporate ‘camera vision’ into the traditional arts

The impact of photography on the traditional arts

• Healy, Church, and McEntee: The Arch of Titus (1871; oil on canvas)

The impact of photography on the traditional arts

• Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans (1849-50)

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

Charles Philippe Auguste Carey, Still Life with Waterfowl, 1873

Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)

Photography

Photography

• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world

Photography

• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world

• Photography means “light-writing”

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

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

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices:

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance

Photography as Art

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance– Composition

Ansel Adams

Adams, Moonrise (1975)

• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance– Composition