In the beginning… competing technologies [cf. VHS vs Beta] early public fascinations with photography everyone could now have their own personal visual history
Aug 31, 2014
In the beginning…
competing technologies [cf. VHS vs Beta]early public fascinations with photographyeveryone could now have their own personal visual history
Pre-photography
Niepce, View from His Window at Le Gras, 1826-27
Portable camera obscura,late17th century
The daguerreotype [1837-39]
both one-of-a-kind precious object and ephemeral image
capable of incredible detail long exposure times: one minute minimum the death of portrait miniaturists now everyone could have their own
personal visual history
The daguerreotype
Competing photographic systems: the English calotype [1841] a paper-based negative/positive system second on the scene
– the role of nationalism: France vs England– the restrictive patent system taken out by Henry
Fox Talbot stifling its growth outside of England
high volume printing establishments spreading the photographic message
William Henry Fox Talbot British, London, April 1839Photogenic drawing negative
"[T]he plates of this work have been obtained by the mere action of Light upon sensitive paper. They have been formed or depicted by optical and chemical means alone, and without the aid of any one acquainted with the art of drawing."
William Henry Fox Talbot British, Wiltshire, England, November 4, 1839 Photogenic drawing negative
"We have sufficient authority in the Dutch school of art, for taking as subjects of representation scenes of daily and familiar occurrence. A painter's eye will often be arrested where ordinary people see nothing remarkable."
The Open Door, 1844William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Salted paper print from paper negative
Hill and Adamson
he First General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland; signing the Act of Seperation and Deed of Demission - 18th May 1843 (D.O. Hill RSA).
Hill & Adamson Scottish, about 1843Salt print
Industrial efficiencies
The daguerreotype in America [1839] no formal art training necessary
– apprenticeship Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Holgrave in The House of
Seven Gables– his seventh profession, no more lasting than the first six– money, not art, technique not aesthetics: “earn his
bread by some other equally digressive means”
The daguerreotype in America [continued]
the photographic ordeal– one advertisement:
“Photography in all styles without pain”
– somber, stern, and unsmiling sitters
the excellence of the American Process: Yankee ingenuity and industrial skill at work
– infatuation with machinery: electroplating, power buffing
John Plumbe, Jr and the United States Photographic Institute [1841] the first franchise
operation: 14 galleries nationwide
credit going to the studio rather than the individual photographer
the chronicling of ordinary faces in relatively ordinary activities
John Plumbe, Jr. Washington, D.C., about 1846
Matthew Brady and the celebrity portrait
opened Daguerrean Miniature Gallery in NYC, 1844
pictures of both celebrity and more common type displayed in opulent surroundings
– everyone getting the same product– “every man a king”
distribution of portraits to the new picture papers
Lincoln: “portrait made me president”
M.B. Brady's new photographic gallery, corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, New York,
1861
Southwork & Hawes
Southworth & Hawes American, about 1852Daguerreotypes
Southworth & Hawes American, 1848"The Greek Slave," by Hiram Powers Daguerreotype
Photographic representation becoming seen as the normal appearance of things
photographic rendering– detail– geometric perspective
scientific application the travel picture incorporation into
western expeditions
John Whipple, The Moon [1852]
Southworth & HawesThe Use of Ether for Anesthesia1847
Platt Babbitt, Tourists viewing Niagara Falls from Prospect Park, ca. 1855
Attributed to Henry Hollister Canadian, Niagara Falls, Canada, 1860sAmbrotype
Unknown French, 1847 – 1853Daguerreotype, hand-colored
Unknown American, 1860Ambrotype
“Picture factories:” portraits for four bits assembly-line production with task
specialization– complete process from start to finish in under
15 minutes sloppy trading in erotic art
Daguerreotype Saloons: the spread to the countryside
norms of portraiture coming to the hinterland
Daguerreotype Saloons: the spread to the countryside
the post-mortem portrait
Charles Durheim Swiss, about 1852 Hand-colored daguerreotype
the decline of the daguerreotype [1855] ferrotype: the first “instant”
process– less than a minute total– itinerant street photographers
faster, easier, cheaper collodian process blending the advantages of both the daguerreotype and the calotype
– allowing multiple prints from the same negative