Art Appreciation
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Transcript of Art Appreciation
Art Appreciation
October 4, 2010: Photography (Chapter 9)
Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelle (1873)
Paul Martin, Entrance to Victoria Park (1893)
Lewis Hine, Breaker Boys Working in Ewen Breaker of Pennsylvania Coal Co. (1911)
Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)
Photography and the traditional arts
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth• aesthetic form or document of life?
Photography and the traditional arts
• “Original” and “copy”• Photography as the “democratic” art form • Photography = communicates RELATIVE truth• aesthetic form or document of life?
The camera obscura
The first photograph – Niepce (1825)
Louis Daguerre
Louis Daguerre
• Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce
Louis Daguerre
• Invented the daguerreotype process with Niepce
• Image formed through mercury and silver compound to produce an image on a silver plate
Problems with the Daguerreotype
• There was no negative; only originals • Left-right reversal • Expensive silver plates • Very fragile • Highly poisonous bromine & mercury vapors
Daguerre’s Le boulevard du temple (1838)
Problems with the Daguerreotype
• There was no negative; only originals • Left-right reversal • Expensive silver plates • Very fragile • Highly poisonous bromine & mercury vapors• Long exposure times
The Calotype Process
The Calotype Process
• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
The Calotype Process
• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841• Photography on paper, with a few minutes of
exposure time in good light
The Calotype Process
• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841• Photography on paper, with a few minutes of
exposure time in good light• Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could
be made
The Calotype Process
• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841• Photography on paper, with a few minutes of
exposure time in good light• Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could
be made• Paper lessened the detail of the picture
The Calotype Process
• Introduced by Fox Talbot in 1841
• Photography on paper, with ½ hour exposure time
• Advantage over daguerreotype: prints could be made
• Paper lessened the detail of the picture
The Collodion process
The Collodion process
• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
The Collodion process
• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
• Replace the calotype’s paper with glass
The Collodion process
• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
• Replace the calotype’s paper with glass • Creates a more detailed, stable negative
The Collodion process
• Renders both daguerreotype and calotype obsolete – 1851
• Replace the calotype’s paper with glass • Creates a more detailed, stable negative• Allows the artist to make an unlimited number
of prints from a single negative
Louis Pierson, Countess
Castiglione
(1860)
The Collodion process
• http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?cat=2&segid=1726&segnr=1
Early experiments in photographic portraiture: daguerreotype (1843)
Early experiments in photographic portraiture: daguerreotype (1843)
• A tripod• The rigid posture
and expressions of the sitter
• Timing of the exposure
• Two prints required two sittings
Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype
Early experiments in photographic portraiture: calotype
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Free Church of Scotland, 1843 (oil painting)
Capt. Robert-Barclay Allardyce (Hill/Adamson)
Hill/Adamson, The Misses Binny and Miss Monro (1845)
Hill/Adamson, The Misses Binny and Miss Monro (1845)
• Relative to painting, the calotype showed “the imperfectwork of man … and not the perfect work of God.”
Collodion’s impact on Portraiture
Collodion’s impact on Portraiture
• Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale
Collodion’s impact on Portraiture
• Made commercial portraiture possible on a large scale
• Ease of reproducing prints and better quality of prints
Photography & Portraiture
Photography & Portraiture
• Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’
Photography & Portraiture
• Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’
• Neither Daguerre’s or Talbot’s process suitable to portraiture: 15 minutes or more of stillness in sunshine
Photography & Portraiture
• Since Renaissance, portraits associated with ‘inner character’
• Neither Daguerre’s or Talbot’s process suitable to portraiture: 15 minutes or more of stillness in sunshine
• The development of collodion that makes portraiture commercially viable and popular
Debates over photography
Debates over photography
• Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”
Debates over photography
• Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters with too little talent”
• In the decades following its discovery, a search for ways to fit a mechanical medium into traditional ideas of art
Debates over photography• Baudelaire: Photography is “the refuge of failed painters
with too little talent” • In the decades following its discovery, a search for ways to
fit a mechanical medium into traditional ideas of art
In this debate, three main positions emerged:
• 1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art
• Charles Blanc: “Photography copies everything and explains nothing, it is blind to the realm of the spirit.”
• Lady Eastlake: Claimed that art was about “Truth, Reality, Beauty,” and that the camera image could fulfill the first two of these, but never the third
In this debate, three main positions emerged:
• 1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art
• 2. Photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and painting
In this debate, three main positions emerged:
• 1. Photographs were too ‘mechanical’ to be art
• 2. Photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativeness to drawing and painting
• 3. Camera images could be significant as handmade works of art
• “The lens is an instrument like the pencil and the brush, and photography is a process like engraving and drawing, for what makes an artist is not the process but the feeling.”
Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups
Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups
-Soft focus
Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups
-Soft focus -used lighting to
enhance the images of her subjects
Julia Margaret Cameron, Annie (1864)
-Pioneered the use of close-ups
-Soft focus -used lighting to
enhance the images of her subjects
-raking light
The impact of photography on the traditional arts
The impact of photography on the traditional arts
• Artists begin to incorporate ‘camera vision’ into the traditional arts
The impact of photography on the traditional arts
• Healy, Church, and McEntee: The Arch of Titus (1871; oil on canvas)
The impact of photography on the traditional arts
• Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans (1849-50)
Humbert de Molard, The Hunters (1851)Charles Negre, Young Girl Seated with Basket, (1852)
Charles Philippe Auguste Carey, Still Life with Waterfowl, 1873
Hermann Krone, Still Life of the Washerwoman (1853)
Photography
Photography
• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
Photography
• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
• Photography means “light-writing”
Photography
• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
• Photography means “light-writing” • usually associated with family history,
journalism, advertising, public relations
Photography
• Reveals the photographer’s personal way of seeing and responding to the world
• Photography means “light-writing” • usually associated with family history,
journalism, advertising, public relations • An artistic means of expression
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices:
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance
Photography as Art
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance– Composition
Ansel Adams
Adams, Moonrise (1975)
• The artist’s choices: – Subject– Light– Angle– Focus– Distance– Composition