PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY...National Portrait Gallery, London which contains over a quarter of a million...

Information and Activities for Secondary Teachers of Art and Photography

John FrenchLord Snowdon,vintage bromide print, 1957NPG P809© SNOWDON / Camera Press

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHYFrom the Victorians to the present day

Teachers’ Resource Portrait Photography National Portrait Gallery


Introduction 3

Discussion questions 4

Wide Angle

1. Technical beginnings and early photography

Technical beginnings 5

Early photography 8

Portraits on light sensitive paper 11

The Carte-de-visite and the Album 17

2. Art and photography; the wider context

Art and portrait photography 20

Photographic connections 27

Technical developments and publishing 32

Zoom

1. The photographic studio 36

2. Contemporary photographic techniques 53

3. Self image: Six pairs of photographic self-portraits 63

Augustus Edwin John; Constantin Brancusi; Frank Owen Dobson Unknown photographer, bromide press print, 1940sNPG x20684

Contents

Teachers’ Resource Portrait Photography

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National Portrait Gallery


This resource is for teachers of art and photography A and AS level, and it focuses principally on a selection of the photographic portraits from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London which contains over a quarter of a million images. This resource aims to investigate the wealth of photographic portraiture and to examine closely the effect of painted portraits on the technique of photography invented in the nineteenth century.

This resource was developed by the Art Resource Developer in the Learning Department in the Gallery, working closely with staff who work with the Photographs Collection to produce a detailed and practical guide for working with these portraits. The material in this resource can be used in the classroom or in conjunction with a visit to the National Portrait Gallery and as follow up material post-visit.

There are two main parts to this teachers’ resource, part one: WIDE ANGLE and part two: ART and PHOTOGRAPHY and a further three in-depth studies of specific aspects of the genre called ZOOM. All four sections can be downloaded separately.

All look at photographic portraits in depth and comprise:

• Reproductions of the portraits• Contextual information• Guidance in the understanding of the history of photography and its role in

society• Discussion points for students to examine portraits in detail• Related activities• Further related photographic web links

The contextual information provides background material for teachers that can inform the students’ work as required. The discussion points give questions and introduce concepts for the teacher to ask a group or class – it may be necessary to pose additional supplementary questions to achieve the full depth of meaning. Students should pose their own questions, too. It is recommended that these discussions are carried out first when tackling a new portrait or photographic exhibition.

The historical and aesthetic information in this resource relates to the range and content specified in the requirements for the study of Photography at A level. Students should be encouraged to generate their own enquiry topics and make their own photographic portrait studies using the portraits in this resource, as well as attempting the projects suggested here. The activities in this resource provide opportunities to make links between photography and art. In both subjects, the focus is on the key concepts of creativity, cultural understanding and making.

Other activities link critical thinking about identities, how images relate to social, historical and cultural contexts and how ideas, feelings and meanings are conveyed through portrait photography and ultimately how they shape our history. All images are © National Portrait Gallery, London unless otherwise stated.

Introduction


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Use the following questions to help your group appreciate and analyse aspects of portrait photography:

• How big is the image?• Is it in ‘hard copy’ or on ‘screen’? (analogue or digital?)• Is it in colour or black and white?• Work out how the subject was lit; is there any strong directional lighting? • Where from?• Is there more than one person in the portrait?• Is it a portrait showing the sitter’s head, head and shoulders, are they

seated or standing? • Are their hands in view? How do they hold them?• Does the subject look directly at the viewer or are they turned away or in profile?• What sort of background is there?• Is it an interior or exterior view?• Is it an urban or a country setting?• When do you think that the photograph was taken?• Why do you think that the photograph was taken?• What future purpose might it have?• Is it worth anything? Financially or sentimentally?• Could there be any other sorts of values attached to this photograph?• Do you think that it took much time, money and energy to make?• Do you think that the photographer needed to be creative to take the portrait?• Do you like or dislike this portrait photograph? Where was the photographer

positioned in relationship to the sitter?• Focal point: what is the focus of this image? Is there more than one?

Questions about a portrait photograph


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Technical beginnings and early photography

In the early twenty-first century we are so familiar with the photograph and other technically reproduced imagery, that to imagine a world without these visuals is hard. The invention of photography was such an astonishing achievement in the mid-nineteenth century that perhaps its only imaginable equivalent might be the invention of the internet.

Photography now relates to everything within society and art. In portraiture, the impact of photography is huge; the correlation between ‘reality’ and ‘likeness’ as perceived within the format of the photograph is undeniable. This combination of illusion and real life, guarantees its continuing success as a medium for this purpose, whether digital, moving or other lens-based methods of making portraits.

Although the invention of photography is dated at approximately 1839, it is more correct to date the fixing of an image at this time. The basic principles of the medium were known to the Chinese in the fourth century BC, and were first described outside China by the Arabian scholar Alhazen in around 1030. Alhazen was also responsible for working out perspective and the two are linked. It was, however, the chemistry that accompanied the camera obscura that was unknown. The camera obscura, from the latin camera = room, obscura = dark, is literally a darkened room. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura

Camera obscura From Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers,Denis Diderot andJean le Rond d’Alembert , 1751Wikimedia Commons

WIDE ANGLE 1.

Technical beginnings


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Wide Angle 1. Technical beginnings and early photography

A completely darkened room with a small hole in one wall will produce an image on the wall opposite (try this and see). The image will be an inverted picture of what is outside. The bigger the hole, the brighter but more blurred the image. A pin hole camera works the same way.

The Italian, Daniele Barbaro (1513-70), suggested placing an elderly gentleman’s spectacle lens (this is a biconvex lens prescribed for correcting long-sightedness), in the pinhole, in order to sharpen the focus of the image. (La Practica della Perspectiva, Barbaro, Venice, Italy. 1569.Ch.5.p.192)

A mirror correcting the inversion was demonstrated by Giovanni Battista Benedetti (1530-90) in 1585. He showed how the addition of a mirror at 45º to the plane of the lens would turn the previously inverted image the right way up. The clarity of the image then depends on the quality of the lens and mirror.

Even though the telescope was introduced in 1609, astronomers continued to use a camera obscura for solar observations because of the danger to their eyes when looking directly at the sun. Portable camera obscuras were introduced in the seventeenth century and became popular with artists as an aid to accurate perspective drawing.

Robert BoyleJohn Chapman after Johann Kerseboom,stipple engraving, published, 1800 NPG D10729



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Imagine and discuss what it would be like to live in a world without photography.

Think up and list alternative ways of doing what this medium does for us.

Experiment with darkening a space and piercing a hole to replicate early camera obscuras.

Research the life and achievements of Robert Boyle (1627-91) and Alhazen (965-1039).

Discussion points

Projects

Activity

These portable camera obscuras were typically shaped like a pyramid with a mirror and lens at the top. Inside, the image was focused on a sheet of paper, and the artist could trace round the picture accurately. These tents, were consequently refined to the type of ‘writing desk’ style of equipment used by Robert Boyle, (1627-91), a chemist and natural philosopher, who in his tract, Of the Systematicall and Cosmical Qualities of Things, (Oxford, 1669), wrote about a portable box camera he had constructed. Having described how to make a piece of opaque paper transparent by greasing it, he goes on to recount the delights of such a box.

‘If a pretty large box be so contrived that there may be towards one end of it a fine sheet of paper stretched like the leather of a drum head at a convenient distance from the remoter end, where there is to be left a hole covered with a lenticular [shaped like a lentil or lens] glass fitted for the purpose, you may, at a little hole left at the upper part of the box, see upon the paper such a lively representation not only of the motions but shapes and colours of outward objects as did not a little delight me when I furst caused this portable darkened room, if I may so call it, to be made ... since when divers ingenious men have tried to imitate mine (which you know was to be drawn out or shortened like a telescope, as occasion required) or improved the practice.



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In 1826, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), made the first photograph, see http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/. His research was continued in 1839, by his then business partner, Louis-Jaques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm and independently by an English scientist, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77).

Photography, one might argue, was invented by both Niépce and Fox Talbot when placing light-sensitive material onto the screen of a camera obscura. From then on, portable photographic camera obscuras evolved into the miniature precision instruments we now use to take our own pictures.

Daguerreotypes (named after Daguerre) were unique, small images made by the action of light on silver-based chemicals coating a silver copper plate. The marvel was the pin-sharp quality of the image; the disadvantage was the difficulty in reading the mirror-like polished surface, where the picture, using a direct positive, was literally reversed.

The first commercial daguerreotype studio in the world was opened by Richard Beard (1802/3-1885) in 1841, and 'daguerreotypomania' soon swept through Europe and America. Seehttp://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/beard.htm

In 1849, 100,000 daguerreotype portraits were taken in Paris alone. At last, having a portrait made was no longer the prerogative of the very rich. For twelve years the daguerreotype remained supreme in the photographic studios of the world.

The daguerreotypes below measure 55x44mm (2 1/8x1 3/4) inches and 90x38mm (3 1/2x1 1/2 inches):

Early Photography

Maria EdgeworthRichard Beard, daguerritype, 1841 NPG P5

George Francis Robert Harris, 3rd Baron HarrisRichard Beard, daguerrotype, c.1840, NPG P117


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The following quotation from a letter written by poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-63), gives us some idea of the impact of these small portraits:

‘My dearest Miss Mitford, do you know anything about that wonderful invention of the day, called the Daguerreotype? – that is, have you seen any portraits produced by means of it? Think of a man sitting down in the sun and leaving his facsimile in all its full completion of outline and shadow,steadfast on a plate, at the end of a minute and a half! The Mesmeric disembodiment of spirits strikes me as a degree less marvellous. And several of these wonderful portraits … take back like engravings – only exquisite and delicate beyond the work of the engraver – have I seen lately – longing to have such a memorial of every Being dear to me in the world. It is not merely the likeness which is previous in such cases - but the association, and the sense of nearness involved in the thing … the face of the very shadow of the person lying

there fixed for ever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think - and it is not at all monstrous in me to say what my brothers cry out against so vehemently … that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artist's work ever produced.’Stefan Richter, The Art of the Daguerrotype, p.5, 14, 15. Viking , 1989.

Browning’s image is reproduced using a later photographic development; the albumen carte-de-visite (literally translated as ‘visiting card’). Taken on 19 June 1860, in Florence, she is seated next to her eleven-year-old-son who stands to her left. As was fashionable at the time, the boy wears his curly hair long. These small images relate to Elizabethan miniatures especially in the way that they were kept, often as love tokens. Their scale meant that they could be secreted either about the body (for example in a pocket or a locket) or kept in a drawer.

Elizabeth Barrett BrowningAlessandri,albumen carte-de-visite, 19 June 1860 NPG P1094

Robert BrowningAlessandri,albumen carte-de-visite, March 1860 NPG P1093

Early Photography


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Talk about the importance of scale in photography, from the photobooth miniature portrait to the billboard advertisement.

Discuss the purposes and merits of both. One is domestic and the other is commercial, how do these differences benefit from the dynamics of scale?

Choose a portrait image and using Photoshop (or similar), print this out in two different sizes.

Now take the same image and enlarge it using Rasterbator™ www.snapfiles.com/get/Rasterbator/html. Choose the image that you like best and work out how you could use it either privately or commercially.

Discussion points

Projects

Activity

Early Photography


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Unlike Daguerre's process that made unique pictures, W. H. Fox Talbot discovered a way for duplicates to be reproduced, he had invented the paper negative and his work was ultimately preferred to the unique daguerrotype. His invention provided the seeds of the modern photographic process, as the negative allowed for the production of multiple prints.

It was the astronomer Sir John Herschel, 1st Bt (1792-1871) who in the 1840s used the word photography in English, it was taken from the Greek ‘photos’ meaning light and ‘graphein’ meaning to draw. He was also the first to use the words ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ to describe Fox Talbot's two-stage process. He discovered that sodium thiosulphate (commonly known as hypo) was a more effective fixing agent than the sodium chloride (common salt) used by Talbot and Daguerre, thus further advancing photo-chemical technology.

Fox Talbot made his experiments at his home Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tlbt/hd_tlbt.htm. He used sensitive paper in a dry state which needed an exposure time of up to half an hour. He wrote the following with reference to the copying of engravings, in a paper presented to the Royal Institution entitled:

The Art of Photogenic Drawing‘If the picture so obtained is first preserved (i.e. fixed) so as to bear sunshine, it may be afterwards itself employed as an object to be copied, and by means of this second process the lights and shadows are brought back to their original disposition. In this way we have indeed to contend with the imperfections arising from two processes instead of one, but I believe this will be found merely a difficulty of manipulation. I purpose to employ this for the purpose more particularly of multiplying at small expense copies of rare or unique engravings.’

Portraits on light sensitive paper

Sir John Herschel, 1st BtJulia Margaret Cameron, albumen print, 1867 NPG P201


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In other words, he had what we now know as a negative. Talbot's breakthrough came accidentally on 20/21 September 1840, re-using a batch of exposed paper (that had failed to produce a visible image), on re-sensitizing the paper (with gallo-nitrate of silver) the latent image appeared. This chemical had accelerated the process . . . 'I now had to watch it (the camera) for barely a minute or so. Portraits were now easily taken in moderate daylight, a condition essential to success.’

It took three minutes for the first portraits to be made in this way. Talbot patented this process on 8th February 1841, and called the result a calotype from the Greek kalos meaning beautiful. See http://www.nls.uk/pencilsoflight/history.htm.

The Scottish partnership of Hill and Adamson employed this method in 1843 to help document the 447 faces of all those to appear in the monumental (152cm x 345cm) painting, ‘The first General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, signing the Act of Separation and the Deed of Demission’, which took David Octavius Hill (1802-17) twenty-three years to paint. See http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/specialcollections/collectionsa-z/hilladamson/hilladamsonbiographies/ and http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hlad/hd_hlad.htm


Robert AdamsonDavid Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson,calotype, c.1843-1848 NPG P6(181)

David Octavius HillDavid Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson,calotype, c.1843 NPG P6(1)


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Sir David BrewsterDavid Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson,calotype, 1843 NPG P6(10)

Study for... the first General Assembly of the Free ChurchDavid Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson,calotype, 1843 NPG P6(105)

Hill’s painting includes the physicist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), together with Robert Adamson (1821-48) with his camera and David Hill (1802-70) with sketchbook and pencil.



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Hill was the painter and Adamson the technician, together they produced photographic albums depicting fishing folk from Newhaven, near Leith Docks, Edinburgh.These provide the first photographic documentation of the working classes, and are a fascinating social record, for example see Jeanie Wilson.


Jeanie WilsonDavid Octavius Hill, and Robert Adamson,calotype, 1843-1848NPG P6(207)


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The next improvement came from Frederick Scott Archer whose wet collodion process (March 1851) was faster and of better quality than any of its predecessors. It revolutionised commercial photography and became the dominant photographic process between 1851-80. It was used by amateur photographers such as Lewis Carroll (1832-98), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79) and David Wilkie Wynfield (1837-87). Even though the photographer may not have made the ‘exposures’ themselves, these portraits are definitely 'self-styled' and so can perhaps be seen as self-reflections, in other words, self-portraits. The boost given to photography by the wet collodium process was enormous; in 1851, fifty-one photographers were registered in England; ten years later the number approached 3,000.


Julia Margaret Cameron with her two children, Henry Herschel Hay and Charles Hay Unknown photographer, albumen print, c. 1860 NPG P148

Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll,albumen print, 2 June 1857 NPG P7(26)


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David Wilkie WynfieldDavid Wilkie Wynfield,albumen print, 1860s NPG P87

Marie Stillman (née Spartali) Julia Margaret Cameronalbumen cabinet card, 1868NPG x18051

Cameron was aged forty-eight when she was given her first camera. Talk about how you think life must have been for a woman in 1863 with six children, and a husband twenty years her senior. Try to imagine how unusual she was as a pioneering photographer. Discuss the importance of early photography in terms of social records.

Compare the photographs of Carroll and Wynfield. List their similarities. List the positive and negative aspects of working in a collaborative relationship. Work with a friend to produce a drawing and a photograph of the same person. Make notes about each portrait sitting and discuss the relative success of each work.

Find out more about the practical complexities of early photography, the hardware and the chemicals. Research recipes for mixing the basic chemicals to make black and white prints.

Discussion points

Projects

Activity


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The Carte-de-visite and the Album

In 1854, André Disdéri patented the 'carte-de-visite' photograph: this was an image measuring approximately 90mm high by 65mm wide, mounted on sturdy card. With his method, multiple poses could be taken on the same negative. The invention sparked off a whole new craze, in 1859 Napoleon III had his own likeness published and issued to his troops. His cousin Julie Bonaparte wrote in her diary in 1856:

‘It is the fashion to have your portrait made small in a hundred copies: it only costs fifty francs and it is very handy to give to your friends and to have their images constantly at hand.’

People collected the images and put them into special albums. Queen Victoria had a large collection of these photographic likenesses of famous individuals, and their popularity overshadowed the art of the miniature painters who until this time were still working successfully.

Prince Albert sat 'to a man who makes photographic likenesses' in March 1842, and both he and Queen Victoria were fascinated by photography. He was a keen photographer; having a darkroom constructed at Windsor Castle, and she was the first British monarch to be photographed. Perhaps the earliest example of this, combined with a public national event, was the opening ceremony of the Crystal Palace on 10 June 1854.

In 1861, John Jabez Edwin Mayall's carte-de-visite photographs of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) were sold to the general public for the first time.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-GothaJohn Jabez Edwin Mayall,hand-coloured albumen carte-de-visite, February 1861 NPG Ax46717

Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice of BattenbergArthur James (‘A.J.’) Melhuish, albumen cabinet card, 1879NPG x76537


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Photography proved to be a useful aid to painting. The composition of Landseer's Queen Victoria, John Brown and two of her Daughters relies directly on a photograph taken by W.Bambridge (of Windsor), and was suggested to the artist for that purpose by the queen.

Landseer substitutes Osborne House as the background, to suit his re-interpretation of the photograph (in a kind of Victorian version of computer manipulated imagery). The image is very similar to that by W&D Downey, 1868, of Queen Victoria and John Brown. This carte-de-visite sold 13,000 copies.

Queen Victoria, John Brown and two of her DaughtersEdwin Landseer,oil on canvas, 1886The Royal Collection © 2011,Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

John Brown and Queen VictoriaW. & D. Downey,albumen print, 1868NPG P22(4)


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Why was there a craze for the carte-de-visite? What contemporary equivalents could you suggest?

What is the point of collecting images of famous people?

Using www.npg.org.uk/collections, see how many different photographic images of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) you can find. Compare her poses and the clothing she wears. Analyse how her attire changes after Prince Albert’s death in 1861.

Investigate the backgrounds of the photographs. How often do they seem like constructed (fake) interiors? Are there any external backgrounds to be found? Make three small black and white photographs of your friends using a specially constructed interior background and then take another three outside. Which do you prefer?

Discussion points

Projects

Activity



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Commercial photographers Maull and Polyblank produced a series of celebrity portraits, for example Isabella Mary Beeton (1836-65) the author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, (London, 1861). Her book was an essential guide to running a Victorian household. It included advice on many things including fashion, child-care, science and a large number of recipes. This image was the third photograph to join the National Portrait Gallery Collection and it conforms to a repetitively rigid formula reminiscent of eighteenth-century 'standard' portrait work, significantly different from the type of photographs produced by artists such as Cameron (1815-79) and Wynfield (1837-87).The latter, a member of the 'St John's Wood clique', a nineteenth-century painting group, produced photographic portraits inspired by Old Master and Italian Renaissance painting; sitters assumed appropriate poses and wore period costume.

Isabella Mary Beeton (née Mayson) Maull & Polyblank, hand-tinted albumen print, 1857 NPG P3

WIDE ANGLE 2.Art and photography; the wider context

Art and portrait photography


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Wide Angle 2. Art and photography; the wider context


Sir John Everett Millais 1st Bt, as DanteDavid Wilkie Wynfield,albumen print, 1860s NPG P79

See the web resource Portraits in Disguise http://www.npg.org.uk/live/eddisguise00.asp

The artist Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt (1829-96) poses in costume as the Italian poet Dante, he wears a laurel wreath, a traditional symbol for the Renaissance poet. Wilkie Wynfield’s portraits inspired Julia Margaret Cameron, who was given her first camera in her forties and practised the art for only twelve years, producing remarkable portraits. Her full-face unfocused

portrait heads acknowledge Wynfield’s artistic influence. In a letter to William Michael Rossetti dated 23 January 1866 she wrote about his inspirational work, ‘to my feeling about his beautiful photography I owed all my attempts and indeed consequently all my success’.


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The poet Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-92) was her neighbour in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, and consequently Cameron had access to his famous visitors for her photographic subjects. She made portraits of Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), Charles Darwin (1809-82), Anthony Trollope (1815-82) and Alice Liddell (1852-1934) who was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

G.F. Watts wrote: ‘I wish I could paint such a picture as this’, on the mount of her 1872 portrait of Florence Fisher and he signed his name in approval. See http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/about/primary-collection/documents-relating-to-primary-collection-works/victorian-portraits/gf-watts-selected-letters.php.

Thomas Carlyle (right)G.F. Watts,oil on canvas,1868NPG 1002

Charles Robert Darwin (right)Julia Margaret Cameron,albumen print, 1868 NPG P8

Thomas Carlyle (left)Julia Margaret Cameron,albumen print, 1867 NPG P122

Charles Robert Darwin (left)John Collier,oil on canvas, 1883NPG 1024


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Alice LiddellJulia Margaret Cameron,albumen print NPG P988

Alice LiddellLewis Carroll,albumen print, July 1860 NPG P991(8)

When Lewis Carroll met Mrs Cameron, he noted wryly,‘In the evening Mrs Cameron and I had a mutual exhibition of photographs. Hers are all taken purposefully out of focus - some are very picturesque - some merely hideous - however, she talks of them as if they were triumphs of art.’ Morton N. Cohen, ed., with the assistance of Roger L. Green, The Letters of Lewis Carroll, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979) No.66

Cameron stated her ambitions in the following way; ‘My aspirations are to ennoble photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art’. She was writing to Sir William Herschel on 31 December 1864, her letter is now in the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford.


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Miniature painting might have died with the birth of the camera, but portrait painting was enhanced, with G.F. Watts making good use of the invention. Writing to Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Bt (1843-1911) in 1873, he said, of photographs: ‘They help to make me acquainted with the peculiarities and shorten the sittings necessary’.

Cecil John Rhodes, (1853-1902), an imperialist who shaped the economic and political development of South Africa also sat for Watts's 'Hall of Fame' (all fifty-nine paintings from this series were bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery) wrote to him on 12th May 1898, saying: ‘I have sent photographs to your house, so that you can begin on Tuesday without me.’ It would be wrong, however, to assume that Watts was utterly reliant on photography for his portrait painting. Photographs were used as a convenient tool and aide-memoir.

George Frederic WattsGeorge Frederic Watts, oil on canvas, c.1879NPG 1406

George Frederic WattsEdward Steichen, photogravure, 1903NPG P168 Permission Joanna T. Steichen


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Auguste RodinAlvin Langdon Coburn, photogravure, 21 April 1906NPG Ax7776© reserved

G.F. Watts, the great portrait painter, championed the renowned American photographer, Edward Steichen (1879-1973). The result of their meeting is an interesting point of contact between two cultural icons who worked in different media, and came from different generations. Steichen also photographed the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rodn/ho_55.635.9.htm who made this comment in the magazine Camera Work, in October 1908. ‘I believe that photography can create works of art, but hitherto it has been extraordinarily bourgeois and babbling . . . I consider Steichen a very good artist, and the leading, the greatest photographer of our time. Before him, nothing conclusive had been achieved.’ In New York, Steichen was part of an American

movement led by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946). The aim was the furthering of the genre of pictorial photography, making exhibitions and publishing the reproductions in Camera Work (first published 1902), where photography was featured equally alongside the disciplines of painting and sculpture. Alvin Langdon Coburn had this to say about the subject:‘When I began my career photography was hardly considered an art, or a photographer an artist. It had its own battle to fight and win, but it was to achieve victory by virtue of its own merits, by the unique subtlety of its tonal range and its capacity to explore and exploit the infinite gradations of luminosity, rather than by imitating the technique of the draughtsman.’


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Talk about whether it is useful to have strong criticism of one’s own artwork, can this be beneficial? Or is it destructive?

How much influence did painting have on photography and vice-versa, in Victorian times and does it have any today?

Find out about different photographic methods for reproducing images. See how many you can discover. Find examples of hand-coloured prints.

Find examples of paintings and photographs of the same person. Decide which method you think is best for making portraits. Find a three-quarter length original photograph you like of someone you admire and make a painting of them inspired by the photograph.

Discussion points

Projects

Activity

Virginia Woolf’s great aunt was Julia Margaret Cameron. Woolf was an enthusiastic photographer and developed her own photographs as a teenager, and in later life used photographs to help with her writing.

Virginia Woolf (née Stephen) George Charles Beresfordplatinum print, July 1902NPG P221



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Photographic connections

William Powell Frith (1819-1909) certainly used photographs to help him with his 1858, elaborate documentary painting entitled, Derby Day, a complex and exciting view of the grandstand and other activities at the races. See http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=4672

John Ruskin (1819-1900) described the work as ‘a kind of cross between John Leech and Wilkie, with a dash of daguerreotype here and there, and some pretty seasoning with Dickens’ sentiment.’ John Ruskin, Academy Notes, 1858, No.128, pp.137-8

William Bell Scott, John Ruskin & Dante Gabriel RossettiWilliam Downey, for W.& D.Downey, albumen cabinet card, 29 June 1863 NPG x128797

William Powell Frith with model William Powell Frith,oil on canvas, 1867 NPG 1738


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William Powell Frith (1819-1909) should not be confused with the photographer Francis Frith (1822-98) who made three expeditions to the Middle East and whose company published nine volumes documenting his journeys. Frith’s portable darkroom and equipment weighed 120 pounds and could be carried on his back. see http://www.francisfrith.com/.

Agnews, the publishers, were patrons of another dynamic photographer, Roger Fenton (1819-69). They encouraged him to make a photographic history documenting the Crimean War in 1855, making him a first war photographer. Fenton also spent time documenting the collection at the British Museum.

Francis FrithFrancis Frith, albumen print on paper, 1857 NPG x13682

Roger FentonHugh Welch Diamond, photogalvanograph, 1868NPG P226


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Early photographic portraits relied heavily on the conventions of the painted portrait. Victorian artists commonly used pillars and swathes of drapery to enhance the backgrounds of their photographs. In addition to these traditional backdrops, appropriate symbols of wealth or signs of the person’s occupation would be included. It was this type of conventional, and sometimes rather turgid photographic portrait practice, that was the hallmark of studios such as that of Maull and Polyblank.

Sir Samuel White BakerMaull & Co.,albumen carte-de-visite, 1860sNPG x369

Unknown womanMaull & Polyblank,albumen print, c.1855 NPG P106(20)


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Isambard Kingdom BrunelRobert Howlett,albumen print, 1857 NPG P112

Isambard Kingdom BrunelJohn Callcott Horsley,oil on canvas, 1857 NPG 979

These portraits of the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel illustrate the widening gap that begins to occur between conventional and more documentary portraits taken by photographers who moved their equipment out of the studios and on location.

The painting by John Callcott Horsley, 1857, reflects a serious, pensive, posed Brunel, working at his desk.

The photograph by Howlett, taken in the same year, is an astonishing record of a man caught briefly resting during the launching of the ship, Great Eastern, one of the most momentous occasions of his life. This ship was constructed on the Thames from 1854 and finally launched in 1858; it was five times the size of any other contemporary ship under construction, was revolutionary in design and construction, and was used to lay the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. Brunel stands nonchalant, in a relaxed pose with his weight on one leg. He wears muddy boots and trousers, has

his hands in his pockets and a cigar in his mouth (he was an avid smoker), his gaze is determined and his stance solid.

What differentiates this photograph from many taken at that time, and puts it into a new context for photographic portraiture, is the juxtaposition of the man and the huge chains that fill up the background. In this surreal way, the man is literally dwarfed by the trappings of his own creation. Implicit in this portrait is the idea of the lone man controlling huge steam ships, and simultaneously being overwhelmed by their inanimate mass.

The photograph was later cropped and used (both head and shoulders and in full length) as a carte-de-visite. Within two years of the photograph being taking Brunel was dead, and thus the background chains became a symbol of his life’s achievement and simultaneously perhaps the things that dragged him down. In turn this image became an icon celebrating Victorian engineering.



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Find other works by William Powell Frith and discuss how you think he might have put these works together. Why do you think he wanted to make paintings when he could have simply taken a photograph of the scenes?

Look at different kinds of war photography and discuss how this genre (type) of photography has changed over the years.

Make a collage using magazine photographs. Make three distinct sections of clusters of more than three people. Connect the clusters so that you construct a workable composition. Scan the collage and heighten colours in some areas.

Take a portrait of someone with a particular hobby or job. Select something that symbolises their profession. Using Photoshop, or another similar programme, enlarge this (in the manner of the Brunel portrait), and use the enlargement as the background to your sitter.

Discussion points

Projects

Activity



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Technical developments and publishing

In the early twentieth century various aspects of photographic usage became common. Photographic documentation of different subjects for different reasons, whether political or commercial, became more widely spread.

The process of photography influenced the worlds of medicine, education, science and individual family histories. In 1888, the Kodak No.1, a small box-type camera was introduced onto the market. This camera took circular pictures, 2 and 3/4 inches in diameter and was a popular accoutrement for wealthy men and women. Soon other box cameras became widely available. See http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kodk/hd_kodk.htm

These small cameras enabled photographers to leave the studio more easily, producing more informal images outdoors. The cameras, film and developing were relatively cheap, and taking pictures was more simple with such equipment. This all resulted in the democratisation of photography.

Lady Ottoline Morrell‘Mummy blown away’possibly by Lady Ottoline Morrellvintage snapshot print, c.1923 NPG Ax141605

Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938), a leading patron of the arts, was a keen photographer and the National Portrait Gallery possesses twelve of her snapshot albums. The image on the right shows her with her camera. By contrast the picture by the early fashion photographer Baron de Meyer, taken indoors, is consciously posed, in colour and has an impressionistic style. The autochrome process used glass negatives whereas the snapshots taken by Lady Ottoline Morrell would have been on a type of acetate negative. Stieglitz published De Meyer’s work in Camera Work in 1908.

Lady Ottoline MorrellBaron de Meyerhalf-plate autochrome, c.1907 NPG P1099


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Harriet Cohenunknown photographer snapshot print, 1930s NPG x39410

Princess Monchsa by Emil Otto (‘E.O.’) Hoppé photogravure, c.1920 NPG Ax132956 © 2010 E.O. Hoppé Estate Collection / Curatorial Assistance Inc.

In 1903 the British newspaper the Daily Mirror was the first daily paper to be illustrated solely with photographs, thus heralding the profession of photojournalism. The painter Walter Sickert used photographic press imagery to inform his work. He stated in the 1890s that demanding more than one sitting for a portrait, when photographs were available, was ‘sheer sadism’. Wendy Baron has suggested the following as his probable portrait method: ‘The sitter came to Sickert’s

studio. Sickert painted the rough outline of his likeness and form onto the canvas, in what seemed to him a characteristic pose. He then had the sitter photographed in the same pose and worked thereafter from the photograph.’ (Sickert, Phaidon, 1973). For more information about Sickert’s use of photography. See page 8/14 in this resource:http://www.npg.org.uk/assets/files/pdf/teachersnotes/NPGTeachersNotes_GerhardRichter.pdf


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In 1913, Dr Oskar Barnack produced the 'Leica', the first simple-to-use small format 35mm camera. By 1925, these were being mass-produced from a factory owned by Leitz in Germany. This was followed in 1929 by the 'Rolleiflex'. A similar camera called a ‘Mamiyaflex’, appears in a 1960s self-portrait by Ida Kar (see Zoom 1). These technical developments affected visual culture as they had done in the nineteenth century, and the reproduced photographic image flourished. Photographic imagery began to be reproduced in printed publications, this also affected the visual culture and social communications of the time. In 1929, reportage photographs were published in the Illustrated London News, where previously the illustrations had been line engravings. The first issue of Life magazine, New York, appeared in 1937, Look, arrived in 1937, followed by London’s Picture Post in 1938 - all were photographic image-based publications.

These six portraits, taken in the early twentieth century, are good examples of the breadth and diversity of this developing medium. Indoors or outdoors, thoughtfully posed or playfully and artfully directed, the photographic portrait was here to stay.

Since then, the plethora of photographs has overwhelmed our visual vocabulary, mesmerising us with this ‘second-hand’ way of seeing. From the still camera, film was developed, then television, video, DVDs, the internet and other digital means of interpreting and reinterpreting our world in pictures.

King George V, published by Illustrated London News (right)after Emil Otto (‘E.O.’) Hoppégravure printed in colours, published 26 November 1928 (1921) NPG D34017

Florence Mills in ‘Dover Street to Dixie’ at the London Pavilion (bottom right)Bassano,vintage print, 1923 NPG x85305

Sir Jacob Epstein (left)Emil Otto (‘E.O.’) Hoppé,modern print on sepia-toned Veribrom paper, 1911 NPG x132916

Anna Pavlova (bottom left)Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd),whole-plate glass negative, August 1927 NPG x49320


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How many different types of photographs could be taken once the restrictions of the bulky camera were diminished and the hand-held ‘Box Brownie’ arrived?

Talk about the way that family portraits changed once every family owned their own camera. How does knowing someone intimately change the type of portrait you make of them?

Take some portraits that show evidence of specific weather conditions. For example: wind, rain or very bright sunshine.

Design a newspaper front page, either local news or national. Invent stories and stage photographs that describe the events in the headlines. For example: ‘Allotment news – Jennifer’s giant marrow wins competition’ or ‘Oil prices soar worldwide’.

Discussion points

Projects

Activity


Unless otherwise indicated all images are © National Portrait Gallery, London

Further useful weblinks

www.npg.org.uk/collections/explore/glossary-of-art-terms1/glossary-of-art-terms-a.php

www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collection/Photography

www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/index

www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=199

www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=20

www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tlbt/hd_tlbt.htm

www.hrc.utexas.edu


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A resource for teachers of A and AS level Photography, focusing on a selection of images of photographic studios from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Aims

• Introduce the concept of a photographic studio.• Discover how the development of photography has changed the type

of studio used by professionals.• Consider the importance of the geographical location of the studio

in business terms.

Objectives

• Encourage a critical analysis of historical photographs in order to gain period information.

• Learn more about specific photographic techniques by studying images of studios.• Gain some insight into the lives of the photographers who worked in these studios.

Angus McBeanAngus McBean, bromide postcard print, 1965NPG x125283© estate of Angus McBean

ZOOM 1.The photographic studio


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Zoom 1. The photographic studio

Previously a junior diplomat in Paris, Camille Silvy established himself as one of the leading portrait photographers in Victorian London. He moved to London in 1859 and bought Caldesi and Montecchi’s studio on Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, a smart building with substantial outhouses for

processing photographs. As you can see from the images, the processing of the photographic plates (in those days negatives were created onto glass) was done outside using natural light. The house had originally been built in 1829/30 for the painter John Linnell (1792-1882).

Camille Silvy

View of four workers in the processing back yard of Camille Silvy’s photographic studio, 38 Porchester Terrace, daybook number 9140Camille Silvy,albumen print, c.1862 NPG Ax58962

The same image reproduced on page 244 of Silvy Daybrook, Vol.7. These ‘daybooks’ were large books with numbered reference images stuck into themCamille Silvyc.1862NPG Ax58962-Ax56965


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Silvy improved the accomodation and it became renowned for its tasteful furnishings and elaborately painted backgrounds. Except for Queen Victoria, he photographed all of the royal family of the time and most of the British aristocracy. In 1864, when he was twenty-six years old, he had forty employees. He kept daybooks; visual records of portrait sittings, with details of each sitter, the date the portrait was taken, and a sample file print stuck into the book (see image). Some of these albums are now in the National Portrait Gallery’s archives. In 1868 he retired due to ill health, thought to have been provoked by the toxic photographic chemicals he worked with, he consequently returned to France.

View of the house as shown in the day book reference image number 9141Camille Silvy,albumen print, c.1862NPG Ax58963

View of the front of the houseCamille Silvy,albumen print, c.1862NPG Ax58944

Camille Silvy


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Think about the logistics of running a large studio. Discuss what might be the difficulties and advantages of running such a business.

Silvy’s studio was in Porchester Terrace in west London. Discuss the type of location that you would choose were you to be running a photographic portrait studio today.

Try and find pictures of other Victorian photographic studios to compare with that of Silvy.

Make your own ‘day book’ and fill in details of five sitters, as well as pasting in a reference image of them. You could make these fictitious.

Discussion points

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Activity

Camille Silvy


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Silvy employed forty workers in his factory-style studio. It was described like this: ‘One room is found to be full of clerks keeping the books, for at the West End credit must be given; in another scores of employees are printing from the same negative. A large building has been erected for the purpose in the back garden. In a third room are all the chemicals for preparing the plates; and again in another we see a heap of crucibles glittering with silver. All the clippings of the

photographs are here reduced by fire, and the silver upon them is thus recovered. One large apartment is appropriated to baths in which the cartes de visite are immersed, and a feminine clatter of tongues directs us to the room in which the portraits are finally corded and packed up. Each portrait taken is posted in a book and numbered consecutively’. A. Wynter, ‘Cartes de visite’, Once a Week, 25 Jan 1862, p137

Camille Silvy

Detail of outside showing prints drying on racks and workers in their shirt sleeves. Camille Silvy,albumen print, c.1862NPG Ax58964

View of the back of the house, with seven people on the balcony, and around twelve outside at the back in the printing area. Camille Silvy,albumen print, c.1862NPG Ax58945


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This image taken on the Isle of Wight was created by Signor Caldesi and it seems ironic that Silvy should have taken over the Caldesi & Montecchi studio premises, as unlike them, he was never to have the honour of photographing Queen Victoria. The photograph exists in both the NPG(P26) and the Royal Collection where the following text accompanies the picture online:

Following the birth of Princess Beatrice on 14 April 1857, Queen Victoria went to Osborne on the Isle of Wight to recuperate with her family. On 23 May Signor Caldesi, of Caldesi and Montecchi, was summoned from London to make a series of photographs of the royal children. Caldesi’s account for these photographs reveals that in the following month the photographer was also called to Buckingham Palace several times to make a further series of photographs. Some of these were part of the flurry of photographic activity that preceded the wedding of the Princess Royal; others were intended as birthday presents for Prince Albert. This is one of the few photographs which show Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with all their nine children. It was taken two days after the Queen’s birthday. A month later, in June 1857, Prince Albert was given the official title of Prince Consort. See http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=20

The Royal family on the terrace at Osborne HouseLeonida Caldesi,albumen print, 1857NPG P26

Camille Silvy


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Lallie Charles

Rita MartinLallie Charles,sepia-toned matt postcard print, 1900s NPG x125451

Lallie CharlesLallie Charles,bromide contact print, early 1910NPG x68950

Lallie Charles (1869-1919) was inspired by the success of another photographer, Alice Hughes. Charlotte (‘Lallie’) Charles opened her first photographic studio in 1896, at The Nook in Regent’s Park, London. Lallie and her sister Rita became the most commercially successful women portraitists of the first decade of the 1900s.


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Beaulah (‘Bea’) Martin, assistant to and sister of photographer Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin), and Rita MartinLallie Charles,whole-plate glass negative, c.1899NPG x68949

Lallie Charles

Discuss how photographic processes have changed since Victorian times and how this factor has had an effect on the photographic studio space today.

How difficult do you think life would have been as a professional female photographer in the 1890s? Discuss the potential trials for a woman photographer before the turn of the century.

Research and list in order of priority the most essential aspects of a photographic studio today.

Look at the image of Lallie Charles’s studio (NPG x68949) and analyse the photograph. Comment on the composition, tonal values, lighting and positioning of the sitters. Reconstruct the work using your friends as models.

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Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) began her photographic career as an apprentice to Bond Street photographer Marian Neilson. Wilding was the first woman to be appointed as the Official Royal Photographer for the 1937 Coronation and opened a second studio in New York in the same year. She is best known for her brightly lit linear compositions photographed in high key lighting against a white background.

Her autobiography In Pursuit of Perfection was published in 1958. Her surviving archives were presented to the National Portrait Gallery by her sister Mrs Susan Morton 1976 and formed the basis of a major National Portrait Gallery retrospective exhibition and catalogue in 1991, also entitled The Pursuit of Perfection.

Dorothy Wilding

Dorothy Wilding’s assistant retouching a photograph of the Queen MotherDorothy Wilding,1930sNPG RN43735© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London

Dorothy WildingDorothy Wilding,contact print from half-plate negative, 1956NPG x35930© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London


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Notice the mosaic around the wood burning stove, the wooden designer surround, and the semi-circular sunburst mirror with dynamic sculpture in front.

These, together with the chic matching wooden desk and parquet floors give the reception area a fashionable refined atmosphere.

The studio of Dorothy WildingDorothy Wilding,glossy bromide print, 1930sNPG x27408© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London

Dorothy Wilding


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Discuss the different aspects of a commercial studio space, where the client is greeted (see p.45) and where some of the work is done. Think of ways that the photographer can make their client feel relaxed.

Think about the psychology of the sitter when they arrive to have their photograph taken, discuss the reasons they may have for being in different mental states. For example, the photograph might be commissioned for a magazine spread or perhaps a record of a special personal occasion.

List five reasons for special décor in the reception spaces. Invent some different interior looks that could reflect the studio ethos.

Using pictures from interior design magazines, make a collage of a perfect reception room for a fashionable contemporary portrait photographer. Decide in advance if this studio is to appeal to a young or old market or if it should do both.

Discussion points

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Activity

Dorothy Wilding


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Madame YevondeMadame Yevonde,black and white reprint, c.1930sNPG x131756© Yevonde Portrait Archive

Madame Yevonde

Madame Yevonde studioMadame Yevonde,black and white reprint, c.1968NPG x131758© Yevonde Portrait Archive

Madame Yevonde (1893-1975) was a pioneer in photographic techniques, experimenting with solarisation and associated particularly with the development of the now-defunct Vivex colour printing process.


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Madame Yevonde

Discuss why you think that photographers have fresh flowers in their studios. Discuss further the purpose and symbolism of flowers, what they can mean and why we buy them.

Think and talk about reasons for Madame Yevonde to record herself looking so fashionable and glamorous in her self-portrait.

Take two self-portrait photographs and for each of them choose specific clothes to wear. Make sure that your choice reflects two different moods or aspects of your personality. Give reasons for your choices.

Looking at the photographs of the studio reception fittings and light sources in Madame Yevonde’s studio and compare and contrast them with those in Dorothy Wilding’s space. Decide which studio you would prefer to visit in order to have your portrait taken.

Discussion points

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Albumen carte-de-visiteElliott & Fry,albumen carte-de-visite, late 1880s or afterNPG x128799

Elliott & Fry

The firm of Elliott & Fry, founded in 1863 and active until 1963, was one of the most important in the history of studio portraiture in London. Opened by Joseph John Elliott and Clarence Edmund Fry, their first premises were a series of studios at 55 Baker Street, London. H. Baden Pritchard in his 1882 book, The Photographic Studios of Europe, records his tour of their extensive galleries, where the predominant decoration consisted of important contemporary art works, which relaxed his sitters before their actual photographs were taken. Posed in the naturally lit 'glass-room', they could choose from a selection of fifteen painted backgrounds. Sittings were charged at a guinea (equivalent to £90 in contemporary money), which entitled the sitter to eighteen cartes-de-visite (visiting card size) or six of the larger ‘cabinet portrait’ photographs. This was twice the sum for the best theatre seats and was deemed by many followers of fashion as ‘an amusement a la mode.’

Elliott & Fry premisesElliot & Fry,whole-plate glass negative, 3 August 1956NPG x100941 (left)NPG x100942 (right)

These pictures show the location of the Elliott & Fry photographic studio in Baker Street, they occupied these premises until 1919.


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The studio Elliott & Fry (reception room)Elliot & Fry,whole-plate glass negative, 3 August 1956 NPG x100940

The studio Elliott & Fry (interior)Elliot & Fry,whole-plate glass negative, 3 August 1956 NPG x100944

Elliott & Fry

This is where the client would be photographed, notice the lighting systems and the different curtain backdrop options. Imagine how you would pose in a similiar studio situation and how you would pose your sitter if you were the photographer.


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Elliott & Fry

The images show the building and the reception room for clients visiting the Elliott & Fry studio. Notice how both here and at the Wilding Studio, the portraits are displayed. Notice also the amount of white surrounding the portraits and how they are exhibited in the spaces. Discuss this in terms of marketing the ‘brand’ of Elliott & Fry.

Discuss the idea of the professional makeover studio portrait. Do these photographs reflect the ‘real inner person trying to get out’ or are they just constructs that fuel fantasies of being a celebrity?

Follow this link to learn more about the Elliott & Fry studio which was destroyed in the war. See http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2007/victorian-photographs-by-elliott-and-fry.php List the equipment and other office material that you might have to save if you knew the working studio was suddenly in peril.

Design a carte-de-visite that advertises an imaginary photographic studio from the 1880s. Design a second business card that advertises a contemporary photographic studio.

Discussion points

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Vogue

Vogue studio assistants (Roy Walwood; Gordon Bishop; Jane Felstead; Yvonne Rabbets) Gordon Bishop,resin print, 1953NPG x126324

Notice how the shadows of the group fall onto the backdrop, the shutter release is held (by Bishop), the size of the camera, and the huge tripod on which it sits. Do you think that this is a mirror reflection or that somebody else took the picture? Discuss the dynamics of a group portrait, the hierarchies and the overall shape that the sitters make in space. Could this be considered as a self-portrait?

It is interesting to compare this Gordon Bishop photograph to the other photographs of studios. Both are working for commercial purposes, but whilst the others were operating in order to receive paying customers, the Vogue studios invited individuals to sit for their portrait to order, as illustration for one publication. Discuss the relative difficulties of making portraits to order in both circumstances.

Go to http://www.npg.org.uk/assets/files/pdf/collections/explore/by-artists-and-sitters/PEmorley.pdf and http://www.npg.org.uk/assets/files/pdf/collections/explore/by-artists-and-sitters/PEoneill.pdf to listen to Lewis Morley and Terry O’Neill discussing their photographic techniques.

Look at the work of these photographers and create some images that imitate their particular brand of image-making. Pay attention to composition, lighting and any specific idiosyncrasies and characteristics that you can identify.

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Chrissie Hynde; Jill FurmanovskyJill Furmanovsky,colour archival art inkjet print, 1993NPG x125363© Jill Furmanovsky

A resource for teachers of A and AS level Photography, focusing on a selection of images that reveal contemporary photographic techniques from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Aims

• Introduce four contemporary methods of producing photographs.• Consider the positive and negative aspects of the different procedures.• Discuss the ways that the techniques influence the resultant works.

Objectives

• Consider at variety of ways of communication via symbolism and composition.• Discuss the use of the title in portrait photography.• Encourage students to use their aesthetic judgement.• Think about the importance, effects and function of colour in photography.

ZOOM 2.Contemporary photographic techniques


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Zoom 2. Contemporary photographic techniques

Digital self-portraits

Ian Breakwell'Parasite and Host'Ian Breakwell,digital print, 2005NPG P1291© estate of Ian Breakwell

Self-portrait with Fried EggsSarah Lucas,iris print, 1996NPG P884(5)©Sarah Lucas

In these digital prints, both artists use visual symbols on their bodies, almost like badges. Both artists give their portrait a descriptive and dramatic title.

Breakwell’s (1943-2005) cancer is evoked by an invented collage combining flower form and crablike claws. His emaciated body, defensively clasped arms and direct stare confront us with the reality of his situation; his impending death by the no-longer controllable growth of the cancer that has invaded his body.

Lucas (1962- ), with a similarly confrontational stare, sits laconically in a chair, legs apart, challenging us to stare at her fake breasts; two real fried eggs almost slipping from her flat chest. They parody her bosom and refer in an oblique way to the way that the woman’s body has been the subject of much debate within art history, particularly since the 1970s.

Breakwell bares his chest, whilst Lucas’s torn jeans signify male working clothes.


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Digital self-portraits

Compare the ways that these portraits have been constructed, on the one hand the computer manipulated ‘growth’ in the Breakwell, and in the Lucas; the ‘real life’ collage of fried eggs.

Discuss the merits of the different backgrounds; the plain, dramatic and perhaps funerial black in the Breakwell and the chequered floor (possibly a reference to those represented in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings) and the domestic interior in the Lucas.

Find out about the different types of digital prints that can be made from computer files. Experiment with three of these to make a self-portrait.

Construct using Photoshop (or similar programme) an image that represents what is happening to you in your life at the moment. Embed your invented (or found) image into your self-portrait.

Discussion points

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Polaroid portrait

Stuart Hall (1932-), a cultural theorist and Professor of Sociology at the Open University (1979-98), was photographed at the National Portrait Gallery, during a short residency by the photographer Dawoud Bey in 1988. The diptych consists of unique Polacolor photographs created with a 20”x 24” Polaroid camera, one of only five ever made.

For information about Dawoud Bey see: http://www.dawoudbey.net where you can see his other portraits made with the 20 x 24 inch large format instant film camera.

The Polaroid process is becoming obsolete, but some photographers are trying to save the technology. See this article: http://www.wallpaper.com/technology/the-rebirth-of-polaroid/3040

Stuart McPhail HallDawoud Bey, polaroid colour print, 1998NPG P730© Dawoud Bey


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Polaroid portrait

Discuss or debate the difference between the words ‘collusion’ and ‘collaboration’, in the creation of the portrait photograph. What is the relationship between artist and sitter?

Discuss whether you think that a photographic portrait is a truthful portrait? Discuss the words ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’ in this context.

Make a diptych portrait in the manner of Dawoud Bey, where the head fills the space of the lens. On one side of the portrait the sitter must look directly at the camera lens, and on the other, away from it suggesting a public and a private dynamic to the portrait interpretation.

Using Photoshop or a similar programme, change the flat colour of the background three times. Notice what effect the different colours make. Choose the one that ‘suits’ the sitter best. The one in which you feel that the colour adds to the portrait and perhaps reflects the personality of the sitter.

Discussion points

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Iconic colour photograph

Annie Leibovitz worked for Rolling Stone magazine in the early 1970s, when she became famous for her images of rock stars and other celebrities. Her reputation grew with original, unusual and sometimes startling portrayals of public figures. For the magazine Vanity Fair she became celebrated for her complex photographs of groups of people united by their fame and profession.

The following discussion questions and activities relate to the famous double portrait she took of John Lennon (1940-80) and Yoko Ono (b.1933).

Yoko Ono and John LennonAnnie Leibovitz,c-type colour print,8 December 1980NPG P628© Annie Leibovitz

Leibovitz (b.1949) took this double portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their apartment in the Dakota building near Central Park in New York on 8 December 1980. Five hours later, Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman just outside the building. Because it was the last photograph ever taken of this very famous singer, composer and ex-Beatle, it has become celebrated in a very special way.


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Iconic colour photographThe photograph is unusual in a number of ways. In a reversal of roles, he is the naked partner, whilst Ono wears the trousers (Lennon was known for being a proud father and ‘house-husband’). He appears foetus-like, eyes closed, kissing her tenderly with his arms in an elegant embrace framing her head. It is a poetic stance, not without some tension provided by the balancing toe and the inclusion of the edge of the bed where we see Lennon’s discarded jeans. It is the ‘uncropped’ bed that gives us the clue to the ruse of this work. We know that they are lying on the carpet, but we want to imagine that they are somehow standing upright - the photograph is presented in this way. Ono’s clothing is simple; blue jeans, black sweater and plain earrings. Her magnificent hair spreads out in a voluptuous mane, a halo cascading about the pair. Her hair and clothes are dark in contrast to his pale freckled body and the light tones of the bed and carpet.

This photograph has a resonance beyond its initial high quality as a remarkably creative double portrait of an intensely talented and artistic couple. The circumstances of history have turned it into an iconic work; elegant, passionate, private and simultaneously public; an affirmation of commitment that echoes the politics of their young love. When recently married in 1969, they honeymooned in a peace protest ‘bed-in happening’ in the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel. Footage of this can be seen on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBxIIsirkis

Leibovitz has created a powerful photograph in collaboration with her sitters. The image below by Tom Blau is also a collaboration as it shows the couple just about to kiss. The focus is on their heads and the shape made by their almost joined profiles. It is one of three from a series in the collection, their closed eyes and the inclusion of Lennon’s hand in relation to Yoko’s face evokes a similar intimacy to that of the later portrait by Leibovitz.

Yoko Ono and John LennonTom Blau, Camera Press, modern bromide print from an original negative, November 1969NPG x131957© Camera Press


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Iconic colour photograph

What is an iconic picture? Find out about this expression and seek out works that are considered to be ‘iconic’. Choose three that you like and analyse these pictures. Do they have anything in common? Is it the person portrayed that makes an iconic photograph, or is it the way in which they have been photographed?

Do you think that you can isolate the parts of the photograph that make up the ingredients for a great shot? Do you think that collaboration with artists would be easier than with, for example, people in the world of business?

Look at portraits by Leibovitz that seem to have been made in active collaboration with a sitter. Think about how difficult this must be when dealing with certain celebrities. How do you think she persuades them to do some things? Imagine you have been commissioned to photograph the Beckhams. How would you work with them? Do you think that John and Yoko had much input into the way that they were represented?

Decide on a special concept for your photograph using Leibovitz’s work as inspiration. Ask a friend to collaborate with you. Take the photograph and discuss with your colleagues how successful these portraits have been. On plain paper, draw the outline of the shapes made by the figures in the Lennon/Ono portrait and then those made by your own.

Discussion points

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New technology and portraiture

As technology develops, so do the means whereby artists use it to produce new forms of portraiture.However, if you look at photographic portraits made in the nineteenth century, one can see that the basic format of contemporary portraits is traditional – often a head and shoulders view.

Artists are consistently inventive and new technologies allow their creativity to flourish. The National Portrait Gallery has a number of innovative portraits that incorporate computer software and this portrait is an example of a marriage of techniques producing a result that falls somewhere between photography, drawing, pop art and film. Michael Craig-Martin’s portrait of Iraqi-born Hadid relies on colour to give it zest and a contemporary style. Originally a conceptual artist, this commission marks a new departure into the realm of portraiture for him. Although the linear portrait is fixed, the colours are controlled by computer software that makes constantly randomised choices. The work slowly changes over time in infinite combinations. These colour combinations could be seen to reflect the many aspects of the sitter’s personality. Known for her signature building design, Hadid is not an architect of modest and demure constructions, like the highly pitched hues of the portrait her work grabs our attention whether we like it or not and in this way this portrait could be seen to reflect her personality. Opie’s self-portrait is a computer animation, on an LCD screen. Because of this, it also needs to be seen live, in order for the viewer to appreciate the artful wit of the work. The figure appears to be breathing and from time to time, he blinks both eyes. This ensures our attention and engagement in a different way to the portrait of Hadid.

Zaha Mohammad Hadid (left)Michael Craig-Martin,commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery with the support of J.P.Morgan through the Fund for New Commissions,wall mounted LCD screen with integrated software, 2008NPG 6840

Julian Opie, 'Julian in a T-shirt' (right)Julian Opie,LCD screen with integrated software, 2005NPG 6830 © Julian Opie / DACS; courtesy Lisson Gallery


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Are these works cartoons? Discuss the notion of an artist’s ‘signature style’. Notice the impact of the black lines set against the bright colour and simplification of the facial features.

Do you think that these portraits would function well as identification tools? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a portrait that moves? Notice how the colours affect the portraits. How long is the time between changes in the portraits? How many colours have the artists used?

Investigate and research Julian Opie’s artistic style by visiting his website. Compare his way of creating portraits to that of Craig-Martin. View and compare their works on their websites: http://www.julianopie.com and http://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/

Ask someone to take a three quarter-length digital portrait photograph of you and print it out. Using a thick felt tip pen, outline your figure and mark up the facial features. With another colour, square up the image and then transfer it onto a larger piece of similarly shaped paper. Now select vibrant colours and use them to bring your portrait to life. You could also animate the portrait using a programme such as Photoshop or by making a flipbook. Look at this: http://www.designandtech.com/fotoshop/tutorials/julianopie/julian_opie_tutorial.htm

Discussion points

Projects

Activity

New technology and portraiture


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A resource for teachers of A and AS level Photography, focusing on six pairs of photographic self-portraits from the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Aims

• Introduce the history of photographic portraiture via the self-portrait.• Introduce different types of photographic processes.• Consider the difference between collage and Photoshop (or similar program) in

analogue and digital photography.• Discuss collaboration in making photographs, including performance, providing

examples for comparative analysis.

Objectives

• Think about the function of the mirror in self-portraiture and within the camera itself.

• Familiarise students with some of the great names in portrait photography such as Cecil Beaton, Camille Silvy and Dorothy Wilding.

• Encourage an adventurous mindset regarding the use of self-presentation in photography.

• Think about the importance of the identity photograph in our world today, at work, for travel, and also the use of surveillance cameras and police records.

Baron Adolph de Meyer (1868-1946)Baron Adolph de Meyer, gelatin silver print, 1920sNPG P1367

ZOOM 3.Six pairs of photographic self-portraits


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Zoom 3. Six pairs of photographic self-portraits

Pair 01

Camille Silvy (1834-1910) Camille Silvy,albumen print, May 1860NPG Ax50058

Madame Yevonde (1893-1975) Madame Yevonde,colour dye transfer print, 1940sNPG P620© Yevonde Portrait Archive

Both photographers rely on props to enhance their self-portraits. Think about and discuss the types of objects that you could use to relay messages about yourself to viewers of your photograph.

Discuss why you think Madame Yevonde has framed herself and what Camille Silvy is telling us about himself in his image?

Describe what is going on in these pictures by listing and describing what you see, and analysing the elements of the self-portraits.

Find out what an albumen print and a colour dye transfer print are. Describe how these prints differ from contemporary inkjet prints. Try and find some old prints to look at to help with your descriptions.

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Pair 02

Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) Dorothy Wilding,cream-toned bromide print on tissue and card, mid 1920sNPG P870(13)© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London

Cecil Beaton (1904-1980)Cecil Beaton,bromide print, 1927NPG P219

List the different ways that photographs are kept and presented. Discuss family albums and wedding photographs, why are these important to people?

Notice how these two images are mounted and signed. Discuss what effect this has on how we respond to the portraits.

Find an old analogue (non-digital) portrait photograph. Gather together different papers to mount it onto and select two kinds of backdrop for your image.

Consider the difference that colours and textures make to how we view the image and also how the size of the margins affects this. Think about the ‘objectness’ of the photograph when it is presented in this way.

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Pair 03

Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) Dorothy Wilding, chlorobromide print, 1930sNPG x27403© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London

Cornel Lucas (b.1920) Cornel Lucas,resin print, 1952NPG x127031© Cornel Lucas

Notice how Wilding holds the cable release in her right hand and the assisted self-portrait shows Lucas with his No 3 Kodak Portrait Camera which had a 12 x 10in back adapted to take 10 x 8in film plates. The camera was first introduced in 1933 and was used by Lucas to take most of his portrait photographs whilst working in the film industry.


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Pair 04

(Mary) Olive Edis (Mrs Galsworthy), (1876-1975)Olive Edis,sepia-toned matt print on photographer’s card, 1918NPG x7960

Ida Kar (1908-1974)Ida Kar,modern bromide print from a 2¼ inch square film negative, 1960sNPG x88688

Research different types of cameras, how big and small cameras can be, old cameras tend to be rather cumbersome. Discuss how the size of the camera could influence not only the way that the photographer could take the picture on location, but the circumstances of the shoot regarding the relationship of the sitter to the photographer.

Research the size of lenses on cameras that the paparazzi use today. Brainstorm a list of ways in which photography is part of our everyday lives.

Try and find some very old cameras to look at, notice the way that they are constructed. What do they have in common with digital cameras? Investigate the difference between analogue and digital cameras. Look for pictures of old cameras on the web.

Take portraits of friends in an interior setting with both analogue and digital cameras. Make notes of the process of setting up and taking the portrait photographs. How did the different equipment influence the final outcomes?

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Pair 05

Cornel Lucas (b.1920) photographing Yyonne De CarloCornel Lucas,resin print, 1954NPG x127032© Cornel Lucas

Angus McBean (1904-1990)Angus McBean,bro

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY...National Portrait Gallery, London which contains over a quarter of a million...

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