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In the beginning… competing technologies [cf. VHS vs Beta] early public fascinations with photography everyone could now have their own personal visual history
48

Ams 312 Lecture 2 090922

Aug 31, 2014

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Page 1: Ams 312 Lecture 2 090922

In the beginning…

competing technologies [cf. VHS vs Beta]early public fascinations with photographyeveryone could now have their own personal visual history

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Pre-photography

Niepce, View from His Window at Le Gras, 1826-27

Portable camera obscura,late17th century

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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

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The daguerreotype

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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

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William Henry Fox Talbot British, London, April 1839Photogenic drawing negative

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"[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

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"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

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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).

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Hill & Adamson Scottish, about 1843Salt print

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Industrial efficiencies

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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”

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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

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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

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John Plumbe, Jr. Washington, D.C., about 1846

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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”

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M.B. Brady's new photographic gallery, corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, New York,

1861

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Southwork & Hawes

Southworth & Hawes American, about 1852Daguerreotypes

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Southworth & Hawes American, 1848"The Greek Slave," by Hiram Powers Daguerreotype

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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]

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Southworth & HawesThe Use of Ether for Anesthesia1847

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Platt Babbitt, Tourists viewing Niagara Falls from Prospect Park, ca. 1855

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Attributed to Henry Hollister Canadian, Niagara Falls, Canada, 1860sAmbrotype

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Unknown French, 1847 – 1853Daguerreotype, hand-colored

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Unknown American, 1860Ambrotype

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“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

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Daguerreotype Saloons: the spread to the countryside

norms of portraiture coming to the hinterland

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Daguerreotype Saloons: the spread to the countryside

the post-mortem portrait

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Charles Durheim Swiss, about 1852 Hand-colored daguerreotype

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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

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