The Camera Arts

Time and the Fourth Dimension

Walker Evans, Roadside Store between Tuscaloosa andGreensboro, Alabama, 1936

“…a process of instant assemblage, instant collage.”- Robert Rauschenberg

Early History of Photography

• camera is the Latin word for “room”

• in the 16th century the camera obscura – a darkened room – was used by artists to copy nature accurately – eventually small portable “dark boxes” came into use

• the major drawback – images could not be preserved

Camera Obscura

The Birth of Photography

Photogenic Drawing and

The Daguerrotype

Photogenic Drawing

• Invented in 1839 by William Henry Fox Talbot.

• Negative images are fixed on paper using light sensitive chemicals

William Henry Talbot Fox, Botanical, 1839

The Daguerrotype

• Invented in 1839 by two inventors – Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre.

• The use of light sensitive chemicals on a polished metal plate produced a permanent positive image.

Pros and Cons of Daguerrotype

• The medium was an instant success.

• It became the preferred medium for portraiture.

• The availability of portraits were no longer limited to the wealthy.

• The process of preparing, exposing and developing the plate was lengthy and time consuming.

• The sitter had to remain absolutely still during the exposure period (from 1 to 10 minutes) to avoid blurring.

• The image could not be reproduced.

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Le Boulevard du Temple, 1839

Richard Beard, Maria Edgeworth, 1841,Daguerrotype.

“From now on, painting is dead!” – Paul Delaroche, painter

Calotype

• Talbot improved upon the photogenic drawing process by using sensitized paper.

• The exposure time was greatly reduced (from minutes to seconds) and produced a latent image that could be developed by dipping the paper in gallic acid.

• This process is the basis of modern photography

William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1843

Wet-Plate Collodion

• Introduced in 1850 and almost universally adopted in 5 years.

• A dark-room technique.

• Liquid collodion (pyroxyline dissolved in alcohol or ether) is poured over a glass plate bathed in a solution of silver nitrate.

Wet-Plate Collodion

• Exposure time was short – 15 minutes.

• Process cumbersome and TOXIC.

Julia Margaret Cameron

Self-Portrait I Wait, 1860’s

Documentary Photography

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

Timothy O’Sullivan, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, 1870

The tension between form and content.

Alfred Stieglitz, Eveningfrom the Shelton, 1931

The tension between form and content.

Charles Sheeler, Criss-CrossedConveyors – Ford Plant, 1927

The tension between form and content.

Paula Martino, Steel Spiral-Alcratraz Penitentiary, 2005

The tension between form and content.

John Paul Filo, Kent State-Girl Screaming over Dead Body,May 4, 1970

Filo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for this photograph.

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

Word and Image

Conflicts between the real and the ideal.

Color Photography

Joel Meyerwitz on the use of color photography

“Color makes everything more interesting. Color suggests more things to look at, new subjects for me. Color suggests that light itself is a subject.

…..There’s more content! The form for the content is more complex, more interesting to work with.”

Joel Meyerowitz, Porch, Provincetown, 1977

Digital Photography

Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 1999

From Still Pictures to Film

The Birth of Movies

D.W. Griffith, Innovator and Master of Film Editing

• Griffith sought to create visual variety using an alternating repertoire of shots.

• He innovated the full shot, medium shot, close up and extreme close up, the long shot, the pan, and the traveling shot.

The Birth of A Nation

The Wizard of Oz, 1939

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

Video Art

Nam Paik June, TV Buddha, 1974-1982

Bill Viola, Stations, 1994

Computer and Internet-Based Art Media

….the immaterial is blending seamlessly with the material. –

William J. Mitchell, MIT

John F. Simon, Unfolding Object, 2002

Mark Napier, net.flag, 2002

Photography -

A process of instant assemblage, instant collage.