The Art of Photography

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The Art of Photography

• FYS 100 -- Creative Discovery in Digital Art
  Forms
• Spring 2002

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The Pioneers

• The forerunner of the camera was the camera
  obscura.
• Nicéphore Niepce (an amateur inventor) made the
  first successful photograph in 1827, a heliograph
  on pewter.
• Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (a professional
  scene painter) formed a partnership with Niepce
  and improved upon his techniques using a plate of
  iodized silver exposed to mercury vapor, reducing
  exposure times to 30 minutes.

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The Pioneers

• After Niepces death, Daguerre improved the
  technique, calling it the daguerrotype.
• William Henry Fox Talbot, a scientist from
  Cambridge University, independently invented his
  own photographic process using light sensitive
  paper.
• Daguerrotypes were clearer but could not be
  duplicated.

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First Criticism

• Photography was immediately compared to painting
  and drawing.
• It could give incredible detail to a picture with
  much less effort.
• Initially, it was not possible to capture motion
  and color.
• Some saw photography as a shortcut to art. It
  was no longer necessary to study perspective,
  optics, etc.

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Recognition of Photography as Art

• Photographic societies were formed, made up of
  both professionals and amateurs. For example, in
  1853 the Photographic Society, which later became
  the Royal Photographic Society, was founded in
  London.
• The Société Française de Photographie was founded
  in Paris in 1854.

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Early Notions of Photography as Art

• Early attempts to establish photography as art
  emphasized altering the photograph beyond what
  the lens captured.
• More than one negative could be combined into one
  picture for example, The Two Ways of Life by
  Oscar G. Rejlander, 1857.
• Scenes were intentionally thrown out of focus.
• Pictures were liberally retouched.

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Schools or Styles of Photography

• Historical
• Mathew Bradys scenes of the Civil War
• Portraiture
• Landscape
• Timothy H. OSullivans scenes of the Southwest
• Naturalistic
• A reaction against artificiality. Peter Henry
  Emerson in Naturalistic Photography (1889)
  advocated a return to natural subjects and a more
  natural approach to the camera and photographic
  processing.

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Advancement of Photography as an Art in its Own
Right

• The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring was founded in
  London in 1892. It emphasized the pictorial
  rather than the mechanical aspect of photography.
• The Photo-Secession group was founded in the
  United States in 1902 by Alfred Stieglitz.
  Stieglitz was a proponent of naturalistic
  photography.
• Camera Work was published four times a year from
  1903-1917 by Stieglitz (50 issues).
• Paul Strand combined realistic subjects with more
  attention to form.
• Ansel Adams put his focus on nature.

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Influence of Abstract Art

• Camera-less photographs, or photograms, were
  created by placing three-dimensional objects on
  photgraphic paper and exposing them to light.
• Artists experimented with negatives, X-rays, and
  ultra-high speed photographs in an abstract style.

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Photomontage

• Photomontage combined photographs with watercolor
  paintings and other media.
• Violent contrasts in scale, perspective, and
  subject matter were used substituting machine
  parts for human organs, cropping heads and
  bodies, and other shock effects.

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Documentary Photography

• Eugene Atget (in the late 1890s) produced around
  10,000 photographs of Paris and the vacinity
  straightforward and poetic.
• Often, documentary photography illustrated the
  plight of the poor, as in the work of Jacob A.
  Riis, a police reporter in NYC, who crusaded on
  behalf of poor immigrants.
• The suffering of the Depression era was
  documented by numerous photographers in the
  1930s.

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Photojournalism

• The invention of the Emranox in 1924 and the
  Leica 1925 led to a new era in photojournalism.
  The cameras were small and needed only short
  exposure times, allowing for more candid shots.
• As opposed to the unobtrusive miniature camera
  used by the Germans, Life and Look used large
  format cameras requiring slow lenses to get
  pictures of greater sharpness and depth. They
  also experimented with different flashes for
  different lighting effects.

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Photojournalism

• German magazines like Weekly Illustrated and
  Picture Post preferred available-light shots,
  giving a more natural look.
• Some photographers at Life (e.g., Leonard
  McCombe) adopted this style.
• Photojournalists prided themselves in an ability
  to capture a decisive moment and compose a
  picture instantaneously.

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Color Photography

• When color photography was not available, artists
  were sometimes asked to hand-tint daguerrotypes
  or copy photographs onto canvas where they were
  painted in oils.
• The first practical color photography process was
  introduced in France in 1907 by August and Louis
  Lumière.

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Trends in Artistic Photography

• One view the art of photography should be based
  on the unique qualities of photography and the
  use of the camera.
• Another view photography should be blended with
  other media.
• Another view the focus in artistic photography
  should be on the subject matter, emotions, and
  meaning behind the pictures

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Emphasis on Meaning

• Stieglitz and his followers emphasized content
  and meaning.
• Following in this vein, Minor White, founder of
  Aperture magazine, argued that a photograph
  should be able to uncover an inner message not
  viewable on the mere surface. (See Mirrors,
  Messages, and Manifestations, a collection of
  photographs published in 1970.)

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Photography for Social Commentary

• Photographers like Robert Frank, Bruce Davidson,
  and William Klein made photography a form of
  social commentary.
• They and others photographed the problems of
  urban life and poverty, the bombings in World War
  II, night life in Paris, etc.

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