History Lecture #2

• Roger Fenton, first war photographer
• photographed the Crimean War
• Matthew Brady, American War
• sent people out to take pictures and took credit
• Timothy O'Sullivan, one of his photographers
• American Civil War, wet plate process
• Harvest of Death
• magnesium flares
• in Panama after Civil War
• geological survey
• William Henry Jackson
• Yellowstone, Rocky Mountains
• hot springs, geysers
• in 1875, on the Rocky Mountains with 12 glass plate negs the size of 20x24 and his camera
• used the collodion process
• sold "postcards"
• aerial photography, Nadar
• 1854, aerial pictures of Paris
• in hot air balloon naked, using wet plate process
• wet plate process cumbersome, achieves detail
• around 1851-1880, was popular
• Richard Maddox 1871, discovers gelatin a carrier of silver salts
• Richard Kemnet and Charles Bennet
• 1879 gelatin a practical process
• use of faster shutter speeds, more light sensitive
• 1882, Edward Weston
• standardization in photographic process with gelatin
• 1876 experiments with photo sensitivity
• Hurter and Driffield
• finding published in 1890
• lead to simplification in developing process and developing in the dark
• prior black and white negs developed in red light development of neg material that could record color
• replace glass plates
• 1854 flexible film base was experimented with
• 1888 George Eastman invented flexible film base
• not transparent
• emulsion separate from backing
• goal to simplify
• buy box camera preloaded with 100 negs
• circular, 2.5 inches
• send back to company, and sent back contact print and reloaded
• $25 for camera, first roll of film and contact print
• $10 after first development
• 27mm f/9 box camera
• buckeye, bullseye, eclipse, PDQ, Tomthumb, Kodak Box
• by 1891 using transparent film with nitrate cellulose
• same process we use today, essentially
• invented by Hannibal Goodwin, came up with nitrate cellulose but could not patent until 1898
• Kodak offered free camera to children under 12 or 13
• "a photographic notebook..." Eastman
• more sensitive film base, less flammable
• better lenses and now new grinding techniques
• larger apertures
• developed color positive and led to the color negative
• 1930 electric flashes
• 1931 photo electric light meters
• 1947 instant photography, Edward Land, Polaroid
• more automatic and now digital
• read pages 256-269
• photography not considered as a visual art until 1998
• painters turned photographers
• photographs created like paintings
• Oscar Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson
• The Two Ways of Life, 1857 (Rejlander)
• combination print from 30 images, took 6 weeks, 31x16 inches
• displayed in Manchester 1857
• purchased by Queen Victoria
• Bringing Home the May, 1862 (Robinson)
• Dawn and Sunset, 1885
• Carolling, 1887
• sketched out picture before taking it
• Fading Away, 1858 made from 5 negs
• people thought it was horrible, because at the time people believed photos had to tell the truth
• Julia Margaret Cameron
• myth and fable, allegory
• one negative
• straight forward portraits
• photographed Charles Darwin
• Allegorical portraits
• Head of a Child
• "deliberate blur"
• Kiss of Peace
• Rosebud of a Girl
• 1880s, Peter Henry Emmerson
• art form independent from painting
• Coming Home From the Marshes, 1886
• an honesty to his work
• Gathering Water Lillies, 1886
• Setting the Bow, 1886
• "photographs should mimic what the eye sees"
• In the Barley Harvest, 1888
• The Pond, 1888
• fuzzygraphs, soft focus photos
• pictorialism
• 1890-1920 group pictorialists
• accept as a fine art
• Alfred Stieglitz in North America
• in New York group the Photo Secession
• View of Montreal, 1852
• Clarence White
• Ring Toss, 1899
• Gertrud Casbur, Photo Secession
• The Sketch, 1902
• Harvesting Black Forest in Germany, Stieglitz
• 1903-1917, magazine Camera Work
• reproductions of modern art
• 291 Gallery in New York
• shifted to straight photography
• photographic images should be produced without any overt manipulation
• subject matter grew to be more abstract but maintained a straight photography field
• Edward Steichen, Photo Secession
• The Pond, 1898
• Lotus, 1915
• attention to form, clarity of focus
• fine art and commercial photography
• worked for Vogue
• final issue of Photo Works published Paul Strand

History Lecture #3

• Paul Strand, straight photography
• published 1917 last issue of Camera Work
• direct approach to picture making
• abstract images of street scenes, objects, shadows
• Stieglitz "pure and direct"
• photo secession
• Toadstools and Wet Grasses, 1928
• grew through WWI
• Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams
• members of Group F64 in 1932
• promote the straight photography aesthetic
• typically a large view camera with small aperture for sharp image, no cropping, worked very hard to have perfect neg,minimal burning and dodging
  show the world as it was
• Oak Trees, Yosimite 1935
• St. Francis Church, New Mexico
• Imogen Cunningham
• Magnolia Bud, 1920
• Edward Weston
• Dunes, 1936
• stayed true to straight photography aesthetic
• landscape and studio work
  Alvin Langdon Coburn, photo secession
• exhibition 5 photos of New York
• Trinity Church, 1912
• cubist art
• optical device vortoscope based on a kaleidoscope
• vortoscope 3 mirrors
• vortograph 1 and 2
• Christian Schad, 1918 cameraless abstractions made photographs
• schadographs
• laid out cut pieces of paper
• Manray and Lazlo Maholy-Nagy were surrealists
• referred to Bauhaus as well
• Maholy-Nagy was a professor at Bauhaus
• the objects he used were based on evocative value
• interested in using extreme angles and unusual viewpoints
• optical true distortions
• our brain makes sense of the scenes
• emphasize form, shape and line
• House Painting
• Untitled, 1928
• Manray photographed an entire scene and would only print a small portion, which led the end result being grainy
• wanted to show part of the photographic process
• first to work with the Sabbatier process
• solarization also referred to as
• Lillies, 1933
• subject the print to raid change in temperature, reticulation
• melted the emulsion, gelatin
• in camera double exposures, photographing reflections
• dream-like, ethereal, photo montage, collage with non-photographic elements
• Jealousy
• Leda and the Swan, 1925, photo montage
• read pages 285-292, 273-284
• social documentary photography, war photography, photojournalism and social landscape (photographing people, buildings and events that represent society at its time) all fall under the same umbrella as straight photography
• influence of surrealism, unusual viewpoints
• pictorialists, soft focus
• Eugene Atget, social landscape
• people overlooked by pictorialists
• Portrait, 1890
• unknown, after death, his work was recognized
• photographed in 1898, Paris and surrounding areas
• worked published in 1926, a year before he died
• Corner, 1924
• House, 1927
• Notre Dame, 1925
• Cafe Entrance, 1901
• Cafe, 1908
• Store, 1925
• St. Claude, 1915
• Versailles, 1901
• democratic approach to photography
• Lampshade Peddler, 1900
• Prostitute, 1921
• Organ Grinder
• posed, long exposure, tripod, achieved clarity
• used glass negatives and a view camera
• "...new process went fast than he could think"
• Jacques Henri Lartigue
• small hand-held camera
• 1963 his work was discovered, took pictures in 1911
• received a view camera when he was 6 years old
• rich, little boy in Paris
• received a Block-Notes camera for Christmas, collapsible, took 4-6 glass plates c. 1/60 of a second
• 4.5x6
• photographed between 6-7 to the age of 12
• Untitled
• The Beach at Vilavil
• Paris DeArcacia, 1912
• My Cousin Jean
• photographed for himself like Atget
• Experiments with Aeroplane
• Grand Prix
• had a focal plane shutter
• not exhibited or published until 1963
• seen as prophetic
• Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz used small hand held cameras, part of social landscape
• capture segments of the flow of life
• Paris 1930s
• Loners, Budapest 1915
• Wandering Violinist, Hungary
• Siesta, Paris 1924
• Eiffel Tower, 1924
• "...the moment always dictates in my work"
• often photographed from buildings looking straight down
• in 1937-38 immigrated to the US
• worked as a chimerical photographer
• Brassaï first studied sculpture, did not not photography
• Paris' night life was his interest
• didn't get into photography until he saw the work of Kertesz
• 1963 portait of himself by his friend Kertesz
• Female Couple, 1932
• Henry Muller, 1932
• Salvador Dali, 1933
• Street Walker
• straight forward presentation
• shot with a flash and on a tripod
• altered light existing at the scene
• used indoors and outdoors
• Gate, 1932
• Prison Wall, 1932
• Henri Cartier-Bresson, in Paris
• epitomizes the ability to capture the moment
• started as a painter,started photographing in 1932
• "align the head,the and the heart"
• work shown in New York in 1933
• described as taken accidentally, criticism
• seen as unreal and no deliberate
• Paris, 1932
• coined the phrase "the decisive moment"
• subject and form coming together
• describe the camera as extension of the eye
• "for me the camera is a sketch book"
• Paris, 1954
• Far From Home, Santa Clara Mexico 1934
• Istanbul, 1965
• "a simplicity of expression"
• environmental portraits
• photographed Matisse, 1944
• more like his street photography, spontaneous
• William Falkner, Mississippi 1945
• India, China
• "...when emotion and form collide"

History Lecture #4

• social documentary photography
• their culture, time and society (described)
• like a social activist
• 1880, Jacob Riis
• police photographer, New York
• affect position change
• was a police reporter, not a photographer first
• people in the slums
• Bandit's Roost
• Pifford and Lawrence (photographers) and Dr. Nagle
• Baxter Street Alley, 1888
• lantern slides
• 1888, published 12 drawings of his photographs
• article name Flashes from the Slums
• shot with a large view camera, magnesium flare and glass negatives
• 1890, book, How the Other Half Lives
• 36 images, 17 were printed in half tones, 19 were shown as drawings / engravings
• the impact wasn't there or what he intended
• badly reproduced
• Alexander Eland, found the negatives in 1947, reprinted them and displayed them in New York
• sympathetic
• Louis Hine,sociologist, 15 years later
• thought camera would be a useful tool
• hoped to make better for poor or underprivileged
• in New York and photographed immigrants arriving after WWI
• Looking for Lost Baggage, 1905
• understood that his photos were subjective
• same intent as Riis
• referred to as photo interpretations
• Carolina Cotton Mill, 1908
• photographed child labour
• Child Labour, Chester New Hampshire
• Coal Sorters, Pennsylvania
• c. 1918 went to Europe to photograph red cross workers
• Men at Work, book in the US people doing different jobs
• not creating an image for melodrama, but a straight-forward representation of jobs that happen to be dangerous
• August Sander, working on an atlas / catalog of people, Germany
• Man in the Twentieth Century
• trained as a portrait photographer
• his own studio near Cologne
• Studio portrait and environmental portrait
• got tired of photographing the wealthy
• made over 600 photos for his project
• Architect, 1929
• Boxer, 1929
• Business Man, 1928
• Circus Artist, 1926
• Circus People, 1930
• City Children, 1932
• Corps Student, 1928
• 1929 first volume of his work, Face of Our Time
• first of what he hoped to be part of 20 volumes
• Varnisher, 1932
• his plates were destroyed, Nazi regime did not approve
• the only volume that got published
• 1930s depression in the US
• US created agencies to promote financial aid
• one agency was to hire photographers to document the progress of these agencies, and the people they met
• Farm Security Administration, FSA, government agency
• Walker Evans, 1936, FSA
• prior, during and after FSA work, explored a "dual theme" the American form and the American people
• large view camera, 8x10
• Burrows Alabama
• Burrows Kitchen, 1936
• schools, churches, graveyards
• New York subway portrait
• sat on the subway and hid his camera in his coat
• 35mm camera, smaller, less noticeable
• Chicago street portraiture project
• remembered by his work for the FSA
• Dorthea Lang, joined FSA in 1935
• prior interest by people affected by the depression
• exhibition in Oakland, c 1934, 1935
• remembered for people
• Ditched, Stalled and Stranded, 1935
• families, mothers and their children
• Jobless at the Edge of a Pea Field
• Migrant Mother, 1936, more published and widely well known
• hands, off, do not molest or touch, arrange
• sense of place, sense of time
• no manipulation
• late 70s, Florence Thompson, after Lang's death, wrote a letter expressing anger towards not being paid for the picture
• had a stroke and family could not afford medical expenses
• didn't ask for her name or to ask to take their pictures
• Florence felt exploited
• Dorthea didn't introduce herself
• Steglitz and White worked with metaphor to get passed the subject matter
• emotionally symbolic idea that was created by formal or structural elements, the sentiment
• Sun in rock, 1947
• Rock and Frost, 1958
• Minor White
• for what else it is
• 1957, article found photographs
• Aaron Siskind
• Kentucky, 1951
• Symbols in Landscape, 1944
• both are abstract, but like straight photography
• Jerry Uelsmann, practiced combination printing
• studied under Minor White
• "...a certain moment when things just come together"
• '...produce something that is uniquely his"

History Lecture #5

• Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander - street photography (for the most part), socical landscape but more of a critical eye
• interested in seeing more than the human eye
• creates meaning, expresses something of the maker's experience
• kind of similar to the straight photography aesthetic, no post manipulation
• Diane Arbus is an exception to falling under these categories for sure
• Robert Frank, from Switzerland, came to the US in the early 1950s
• received Guggenheim in 1955, American grants
• published a body of work "The Americans"
• "sorted, neglected and forlorn" slammed by critics
• used 35mm
• loose, restlessness in his work
• intuitive, responded to what he found interesting
• Candy Store, New York City
• Charleston
• The Hearse
• had an influence on the next 3 photographers
• Garry Winogrand, American culture
• influenced by Robert Frank and Walker Evans
• city and urban landscape
• animate and inanimate objects, juxtaposition
• gives the feeling that something is just about to happen
• often utilizes a slanted horizon
• close, rapid and close to subject, tilted
• published 5 books, published by subject matter
• "The Animals" taken at zoos
• animals exuded human-like qualities and humans seemed to exude animal-like qualities
• "Public Relations" media events
• hoped to highlight life at that time
• "I photograph to see what the photograph will look like"
• passed away in 1984, photographed until his death
• Lee Friedlander
• influenced by Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Robert Frank
• photographed American culture
• foliage, street images, nudes, landscapes, portraits and self portraits
• densely packed frames
• busy scenes and created order
• strong formal appreciation for geometry
• photographed between 1964-1972
• New Orleans
• Route 9 West, New York
• Texas, 1965
• Diane Arbus
• photographed between 1962-1971, until her death
• worked in fashion, father owned a fur store
• opened a studio with her husband Allan Arbus, later divorced
• photographed people on the fringes of society
• Albino Sword Swallower
• photographed normal people and their oddness, and well as odd people and their normalises
• influenced by August Sander
• posed subjects, frontal pose and lighting almost always centered
• brought up issues of subject representation
• talked to subject until there were exhausted
• photographing people with a marginalized life
• felt her parents sheltered her
• King and Queen of a Senior Dance
• Lady Bartender
• Man in Curlers
• Jeff Wall, Canadian photographer
• A Gust of Wind
• started as a painter
• wasn't interested in taking a photojournalistic approach
• constructed like a painting
• 3 aspects of how images were displayed: Large size - his work is measured in feet, not inches. Produced images as unique objects, not as editions. Presented them as enormous, back lit transparencies
• the way he constructed his images
• inspired by paintings, and things he witnessed on the streets
• his images are contrived and artificial
• concerned with the physical beauty of his image
• more than 100 shots, digital files
• would work on some pictures for over a year or two
• The Flooded Grave
• In Front of a Night Club
• Men Waiting
• Grogory Prudson, influenced by Jeff Wall
• contemporary photographer Andres Girsty
• Shanghai, 2000
• images are digitally manipulated
• uses overhead, broad views
• concentrates on capitalism
• sites of tourism, offices, hotels
• 99¢
• Philip-Lorca diCoricia
• reworking the documentary style
• strange place between documentary and fiction
• straight documents that look like film stills
• no manipulation afterwards
• hid lights on the streets
• Gregory Crewdson
• overwrought-Americana
• works in New England area, staged
• Ophelia
• Luring Augustine, 2006
• film crews, make up artists
• "underline an edge of anxiety..."
• pays attention to lighting
• no one definition of what art should be
• Wolfgang Tillmans