The Expanding Domain (1854-1880) Chapter 3: Popular Photography and the Aims of Art
1854-1880 1854 15 years after the invention of photography (In 1839, Daguerre had invented the daguerreotype.) Photography has become a household word and a household want; it is used alike by art and science, by love, business, and justice; it is found in the most sumptuous salon, and in the attic. - Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, 1857
1854-1880 Rapid commercialization of photography in the late 1850s Wet-plate (collodion) process (faster exposure, lower priced prints) New stereographic cameras, popularity of stereographs Carte-de-visite cards First aerial photography (from balloons) Quicker communications: telegraph, railroad, steamship, clipper ship Civil War in America (1861-65) U.S. Surveys, Transcontinental Railway, Natl. Parks Expansion, of colonialism and of photography throughout the world Depicting ethnic and low-economic types Photography as fine art
Photographic Improvements in late 1840s (albumen & glass plates, wet plates) glass negatives (cheaper than silvered plate, without graininess of paper); so had negative-positive process of calotype with sharp detail of daguerreotypes 1847 Claude Niepce discovered albumen (egg white) excellent binder for silver salts on glass plate Disadvantage: still usually needed 5-minute minimum of sunlight
Collodion (Wet-Plate) Process 1849 Frederick Scott Archer, coated glass plate with iodized collodion & exposed while wet Wet-plate kept silver salts from dissolving or floating off glass smooth overall coating meant fine, consistent detail & tone Faster exposure than dry (albumen) process
Prepare & develop under darkroom conditions: Use clean, prepped glass plate Pour collodion with potassium iodide on glass Tilt plate back and forth for even coat Dip plate into sensitizing bath of silver nitrate Immediately put into the camera and expose it (As collodion dries, the sensitivity drops.) As soon as exposed, develop plate in pyrogallic acid and fix with hypo
Collodion/wet-plate advantages Increased light sensitivity, so could be exposed in just 20 seconds (or more) Could be produced quickly and cheaply Raw materials inexpensive More consistent and predictable tonal range and details than paper processes Produced a negative, so could make multiple copies So: became more commonly used than daguerreotype or calotype
Albumen Paper, Collodion Process Invented by Claude Niepce; Developed by Banquart Evrard in 1850 Albumen (egg white) on paper created smooth and glossy surface, able to retain detail like daguerreotypes Photographers could make their own albumen paper (even cheaper); still using collodion process Prints generally gold-toned (could be altered with intense red-brick color to make it warm purplish brown/blue-clack hue) Possible to produce multiple copies (editions), like calotypes Longer exposure time than wet-process
Stereographs New stereographic camera had two lenses and could take simultaneous photos from each eye s viewpoint When viewing in a stereoscope, would look 3-D : the mind feels its way into the very depths of the picture.. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1859
1892
1840s stereographs had needed two separate cameras attached with apertures at eye distance. Claudet. Geography Lesson.
Entertainment Copyrights needed, especially for best-selling stereo cards
Infoentertainment included educational travel scenes, architecture, etc. Also, it had two apertures, received more light, so had the ability to stop the action so it was not blurred!
Compare Daguerre s View of the Boulevard du Temple. 1839.
Oh, infinite volumes of poems that I treasure in this small library of glass and pasteboard! -Oliver Wendell Holmes of his stereograph collection
-Now everyone could see the world -Stereograh producers made millions of stereographs with a global distribution network -needed copyrights -tried to create bestsellers
Civil War stereograph George Barnard. Sherman s Hairpins, 1864. Note: stereographic cameras were lighter than standard cameras, so many photographers carried them in addition or instead of the larger format ones.
Carte-de-visite (card photograph) patented 1854 by Andre Adolphe Eugene DISDERI. small portrait pasted to back of visiting card (4 x 2 ½ ). Camera took up to 8 different images (negatives) on one photographic plate (cheap); Disderi s studio sold 3,000-4,000 francs worth of cartes a day.
Andre Adolphe Eugene DISDERI. Princess Buonaparte Gabrielli. 1862. uncut Carte-de-visite
People collected photos of famous people and friends. Millions of cartes printed in 10 years.
In England, 70,000 cards were sold of Prince Albert the week after his death, 1861
In the U.S., 1,000 cards a day sold of Major Robert Anderson, hero of Fort Sumter
Photography & Fine Art (1854-1880) Art reproduction (art museum photos for the masses) Used as a tool for painters Can photography be fine art? (Is art too truthful to be art?) ` Creating inspirational scenes using combination prints Expressive portraits (Margaret Cameron)
Using photographic techniques in creating fine art In cliché verre, invented 1839, scratch image into surface, use plate as photographic negative Final, oil painting version of The Sower by Jean Francois Millet
Art Reproductions Photos of paintings,drawings, prints, and sculpture of great museums: art now available to the masses Lantern slides and projectors developed; Art History courses introduced Art reproductions as a social equalizer: Even poor people could take the Grand Tour without leaving home
Great and true Art is republican, and is for all men, needing no education to appreciate it no more than we need education when we fall in love. - Athenaeum It was believed that the poor would become more cultured and would develop better temperament and understanding if they experienced art education
Photography is a useful tool for painters, but is it fine art?
Delacroix s views on photography (Leading artist of Romantic Movement) Delcaroix, by Nadar
It is the tangible proof of nature s own design, which we otherwise see only very feebly. - Eugene Delacroix Used photographs for studies for paintings
Delacroix on art and photography: The central activity of art is soul speaking to soul Camera is a machine and can not perceive as humans do
Henri de la Blanchere on photography and art: (French critic) The less the machine, the more the art.
John Ruskin s views on photography (writer and critic) Art expresses the personality, the activity, and living perception of a good and great human soul. Believed photography couldn t.
Charles Baudelaire s views on photography (French poet and critic) 1855 by Nadar 1862 by Etienne Carjat
Photography was fine for recordkeeping Photography restricted imagination. Each day the painter becomes more and more given to painting not what he dreams but what he sees. Charles Baudelaire, 1859 By Nadar
Nadar (Gaspard Felix Tournachon), French caricaturist & photographer Self-Portrait
Nadar (Gaspard Felix Tournachon) considered himself an artist
Nadar. Theophile Gautier (who believed in art for art s sake) 1854-55. albumen salted paper print. What can not be taught is the feeling for light It is how the light lies on the face that the artist must capture. Nor can one be taught how to grasp the character of the sitter...you must put yourself at once in communion with the sitter, size up his thoughts and his very character. -Nadar, 1856
Nadar and Adrien Tournachon. Pierrot the Photographer. 1854-55. paper print.
Nadar. The Sewers of Paris. 1864-65. Used carbon-arc lamps using Bunsen batteries for lighting.
High Art Photography Like painting, photography should instruct, purify, and ennoble. C. Jabez Hughes Literary or Biblical subject matter, emphasizing universal truths and morally uplifting themes Used tableaux vivants (actors holding poses for 20 seconds or so) Influenced by sentimental, moralizing art Started using combination printing to rearrange and create scenes
Don Quixote in His Study (by William Lake Price) tableau vivant
Oscar REJLANDER. The Two Ways of Life. 1857. Combination print from more than 30 negatives & many tableaux. 16 x 31 Took six weeks to complete
School of Athens by Raphael. 1508-11.Plato and Aristotle in center. Plato pointing to heavens; Aristotle pointing to earth, material knowledge
Oscar REJLANDER. The Two Ways of Life. 1857. (Youths choosing dissolute life or moral life of hard work)
Gambling, prostitution and drink Penitence, 1 st publicly displayed photographic nude; looks towards moral life Virtue, hard work, religion, knowledge, mercy
Henry Peach Robinson. (A painter first, then a photographer.) Group with Recumbent Figure (Sketch with cut-out) 1860. Made preliminary sketch, shot segments of his picture, developed each, and glued them over the sketch. Then re-photographed.
He Never Told his Love.
*Henry Peach Robinson. Fading Away. 1858. Albumen composite print (5 negatives)
: Henry Peach Robinson: : Any dodge, trick and conjuration of any kind is open to the photographer s use so that it belongs to his art, and is not false to nature It is his imperative duty to avoid the mean, the bare and the ugly, and to aim to elevate his subject, to avoid awkward forms, and to correct the unpicturesque.
Pre-Raphaelite painting. Ophelia.
Henry Peach Robinson: Tennyson s Lady of Shallott
Bouguereau. Little Beggar Girl.
Lewis Carroll. Alice Liddell as The Beggar Maid. 1859. albumen print.
hand-colored albumen print.
Lady Filmer. Untitled. (All pictures are related to the person in the center) Collaged photographs with watercolor additions. Lady Filmer was possibly the first artist to collage with photographs.
When I have had such men before my camera, my whole soul has endeavoured to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. Julia Margaret Cameron. Herschel. 1867. albumen print.
Julia Margaret Cameron Made expressive portraits of friends & cultural figures, including scientist John Herschel, writer and critic Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Tennyson, & Charles Darwin Created psychological moment within sitter by: Using light Using slightly blurred focus (using lens with short focal length so only a small area was sharp) Making close-ups of faces
1867
Tennyson. 1865 Darwin. 1868.
Ophelia, Study #2. 1867.
Cameron s slightly blurred images helped suggest more universal, timeless images: imagined, remembered, or from another era The Kiss of Peace. 1870
Thy Will be Done
Lady Hawarden. Girl in Fancy Dress. 1860. collodion print.
Use of mirror (what s real? What s art, what s life?) and lighting
Rossetti
How were women more involved in photography than most fields at this time? How were women still blocked from great success in photography at this time?