Science or Art?

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Science or Art?

• The Evolution of Photography as an Art Form

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Scientific Beginnings

• Early photography was developed as an instrument
  to aid scientific discovery or as a purely
  documentary device.
• This image of a leaf, an early photogenic
  drawing, was thought to have been created by
  William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839, but may have
  been created by Thomas Wedgewood in 1805.

Early Calotype by Fox Talbot or
Thomas Wedgewood(?)
Photograph of Mental Patient by Dr. Hugh Diamond
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Pioneers of Artistic Photography

• William Henry Fox Talbots paper negative images
  were not very good for portraiture, but they were
  excellent for conveying an artistic mood to an
  otherwise mundane subject.
• Talbots research and artistic use of the
  photographic process laid the groundwork for
  photography to be seen as an art form equal to
  painting or drawing.

Fox Talbot calotype c. 1835
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Early Artistic Uses

• Painters used photographs of models as a
  substitute for live models.
• David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson created
  scenes of character types that were used as
  drawing models in the 1840s.

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Gustav Le Gray

• One of the first calotype artists, Le Gray
  proclaimed that the future of photography was on
  paper. Le Grays work focused on landscapes and
  seascapes.

Gustave Le Gray. (French, 1820-1882). The Great
Wave, Sète. 1856. Albumen silver print from
collodion glass-plate negatives, 13 1/4 x 16 1/4"
(33.6 x 41.3 cm).
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The Pictorialist Style
Pictorialists sought to distinguish artistic
art from amateur snapshots. Pictorialists were
heavily influenced by Renaissance and Pre-
Raphaelite Painters H.P. Robinson, He Never
Told His Love. 1884
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Renaissance and Pre- Raphaelite Influences

• Henry Peach Robinsons 1860- 1861 photographic
  interpretation (left) of Ophelia, painted by John
  Millais (right) in 1850

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Henry Peach Robinson

• Robinson (along with Rejlander) was a master of
  the montage technique. The Pictorialists had no
  qualms about using tricks to create complicated
  allegorical images. They viewed the photographic
  process as another means to the same ends a
  painting has- the depiction of a creative
  statement.

H.P. Robinson. Fading Away. Combination Print
using five different negatives. 1858
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Oscar Gustav Rejlander

• Oscar Gustav Rejlander was considered by many to
  be the Father of Fine Art Photography. He was
  very outspoken about the artistic value of
  photography.

Oscar Gustav Rejlander. Two Ways of Life.
Combination Print using 30 different negatives.
1858
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Julia Margaret Cameron

• Julia Margaret Cameron was one of the few women
  photographers of her time. She was heavily
  influenced by Renaissance and Pre- Raphaelite
  painting, which draws from mythological and
  allegorical subjects.

Vivien and Merlin, 1875
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallot.
1888
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Julia Margaret Cameron
Call I Follow, I Follow, Let Me Die, 1867
Beatrice Cenci, 1866
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PH Emerson and Naturalistic Photography
Peter Henry Emerson, fourth cousin of American
writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reacted against the
Pictorialist photographers use of tricks and
dramatic subject matter. He thought that nature
was the only proper source for photo- graphic
images. His ideas heavily influenced future
generations of American photographers. His
approach was called Naturalistic or Purist
photography.
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Peter Henry Emerson

• Pictures of East Anglian Life, 1888
• Gathering Water Lilies, 1886

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Other Naturalistic Photographers
William B. Post, Summer Days, 1895
Frances S. and Mary E. Allen, Louise Rogers
pulling Mable Brown's hair, 1896-1899.
Church and Old Town Landing, Annisquam,
Massachusetts, 1900
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Modernism

• Modernism is a term used to refer to a new
  philosophy and approach to visual and performing
  arts as well as science and technology. During
  the first half of the 20th Century, artists and
  scientists made a concerted effort to throw off
  traditional ways of thinking.

Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending A Staircase. 1912
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Photo- Secessionists

• The Photo- Secessionist Movement was started by
  Alfred Stieglitz and inspired by the writings of
  PH Emerson. Their approach was more reality-
  based, with emphasis on interesting subject
  matter in everyday life. The Secessionists also
  were among the first photographers to attempt
  abstracted views. The use of abstraction and the
  cameras ability to capture things unseen by the
  naked eye were major influences on subsequent
  movements throughout the visual arts, including
  surrealism, futurism, cubism and others.

Alfred Stieiglitz, by Edward Weston
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Alfred Stieglitz
Street Design For A Poster, 1903
Equivalent, 1929
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Alfred Stieglitz
Georgia OKeefe, 1933
The Steerage, 1907
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Edward Steichen
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Clarence White
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Laura Gilpin
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Alvin Langdon Coburn
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Surrealism
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Phillipe Halsman
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Man Ray
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Laszlo Moholy- Nagy
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Andre Kertesz
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Florence Henri
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f/64

• f/64 was a modernist group of photographers whose
  ideals for photographic art included images with
  extremely sharp detail. This group of
  photographers sought to replicate human vision as
  closely as possible to evoke the same kinds of
  feelings looking at the photograph as were felt
  by the photographer seeing the scene in person.

Point Lobos, 1940. Edward Weston
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Edward Weston
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Tina Modotti
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Ansel Adams
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Imogen Cunningham
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Journalistic Photography

• The World Wars introduced the stereotypical
  hard-nosed, do- anything- to- get- the- shot
  photographer portrayed in many movies. They had
  to be just as tough as the soldiers they were
  documenting.
• Journalistic photography differs from documentary
  photography because the journalistic photographer
  puts an editorial twist on the imagery.

James Nachtwey in action
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Nadar
Aerial photograph of Paris 1858
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American Civil War
Dead Federal Soldier during the American Civil
WarPetersburg, Virginia, April 1865Source
Library of congress Photo attributed to Timothy
OSullivan
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Aerial Photography in WWI
Aerial photographs taken by cameras mounted on
carrier pigeons
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The Farm Security Administration
Photograph by Ben Shahn
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Dorothea Lange
Migrant Mother, 1936
White Angel Breadline, 1933
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Walker Evans
Kitchen Corner in Floyd Burroughs Home, Hale
County, Alabama, 1936
"Farmers Kitchen, Hale County, Alabama," 1936
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Arthur Rothstein
"Fleeing a Dust Storm Cimmaron County, Oklahoma,
April, 1936.
Sharecroppers Daughter, 1935
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Gordon Parks
American Gothic, 1942
Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple, 1985
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Robert Capa
Capas photographs from the D-Day invasion of
France during WWII powerfully capture the frenzy
and confusion of war. The original publisher
noted that these images were, slightly out of
focus, due to the photographers hands shaking
in fear as he held the camera. Capa was the
founder of the journalistic photographers
group, Magnum. He was an extremely influential
figure in journalistic photography.
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Joe Rosenthal
Marines Raising the American Flag Over Mt.
Suribachi, Iwo Jima
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Horst Faas
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Don McCullin
Don McCullinGhaziveram, Cyprus, April 1964.A
Turkish woman mourns her dead husband, victim of
the Greek-Turkish civil war.
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Larry Burrows
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Eddie Adams
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James Nachtwey
Afghanistan, 1996
Sudan, 1999
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Setting the Stage For Now

• The techniques and philosophies of the
  Pictorialists, Purists and modernist groups
  solidified photographys role as a creative
  artistic process with the same formal concerns as
  painting.
• Through its raw portrayal of the human condition,
  photo- journalism proved photographys power as
  an instrument for social change.