Gateways To Art Chapter 2.5

Chapter 2.5

Photography

PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields


Chapter 2.5 Photography

The History of Photography

Camera obscura Latin for dark room

Image is projected into the camera obscura

Outside scene is flipped upside down and backward

A person could trace over the image projected on the wall to capture it

2.71 Rainer Gemma-Frisius, first published illustration of a camera obscura, 1544. Gernsheim Collection, London

16th century (1500s)

17th century (1600s)

17th – 19th centuries (1600-1800s)

2.72 Abelardo Morell, Camera Obscura Image of the Panthéon in the Hotel des Grands Hommes, 1999. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 24”

2.73 Anna Atkins, Halydrys Siliquosa, 1843–4. Plate 19 from Volume 1 of Photographs of British Algae. Cyanotype, 5 x 4”. British Library, London, England

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Daguerreotypes: early form of photography on a copper plate




Photographic Genres

Genres of photography Portraiture

Landscape

Still life




Portraiture

Substitute for more costly painted portraits

2.76 Nadar, Sarah Bernhardt, 1865. Albumen print, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France

2.77 Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.




Landscape

Can be used to raise awareness of nature’s grandeur

2.78 Ansel Adams, Sand Dunes, Sunrise—Death Valley National Monument, California, c. 1948




Still Life

Allows the artist to study formal relationships

2.79 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, The Artist’s Studio, 1837. Whole-plate daguerreotype. Collection of the Société Française de Photographie




Photojournalism

The use of photography to tell a news story

2.81 Lewis Wickes Hine, Ten Year Old Spinner, Whitnel Cotton Mill, 1908. Photographic print. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

2.82a Steve McCurry, Afghan Girl at Nasar Bagh Refugee Camp. Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984

2.82a Steve McCurry, Afghan Girl at Nasar Bagh Refugee Camp. Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984

2.82b Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula. Peshawar, Pakistan, 2002

2.84 Steve McCurry, Dust Storm. Women Take Shelter from Strong Dust-Laden Winds, Rajasthan, India, 1983

2.83 Hiroko Masiuke, Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photographs, exhibition at the New York Historical Society, September 2007




The Art of Photography

It was not until the 1980s that photographs were collected in major fine art museums

2.85 Oscar Gustav Rejlander, The Two Ways of Life, 1857. Albumen silver print, 16 x 31”. Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England

2.86 Loretta Lux, The Waiting Girl, 2006. Ilfochrome print, 11⅞ x 15⅞”

2.87 Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907. Chloride print, 4⅜ x 3⅝”. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Art Institute of Chicago

2.88 Garry Winogrand, Central Park Zoo, New York City, 1967. Gelatin silver print, 11 x 14”




Black and White

Dominant until at least the 1930s

Now looks “artsy,” nostalgic, or old-fashioned

2.91 Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855. Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

2.92 Sally Mann, The New Mothers, 1989. Gelatin silver print, 8 x 10”




Color

Color film became commercially viable in the 1930s

2.93 Sandy Skoglund, Radioactive Cats © 1980. Cibachrome or pigmented inkjet color photograph, 25⅝ x 35”

2.94 Edward Burtynsky, Manufacturing #17, Deda Chicken Processing Plant, Dehui City, Jilin Province, China, 2005




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Art & Photos

Gateways To Art Chapter 2.5