Photography

Photography

“The art or process of producing imagesby the action of radiant energy and

especially light on a sensitive surface (film).”

Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary

1. Chinese Philosopher Mo Ti – 5th B.C.E.Noticed that light passing through a pinhole opening into adarkened chamber forms an exact view of the world outside,but upside down

2. Alhazen – Arab mathematician and physicist, 11th A.D. Concluded that light travels in straight lines (similar to the human eye)

3. Camera Obscura - Renaissance

The Birth of Photography

Used during the Renaissance period.

Camera Obscura – “Dark Chamber”

Camera Obscura – “Dark Chamber”

Pinhole Camera

1. Camera Obscura - RenaissanceOn optical device that projects an image onto flat surface

2. Lens – approx. 1570Help to focus an image projected

3. Daguerreotype - 1837Preserves an image

4. Improved LensesReduce exposure time to a fraction of a second

Other Photographic Inventions

Image is preserved on a light-sensitive surface – a copper plate coated with silver iodide

Daguerreotype – 1837

Le Boulevard du Temple, Louise Jacques Mande Daguerre, Daguerreotype, 1839

Photographer Unknown. Daguerreotype of a Couple Holding a Daguerreotype, 1850

1st Commercially viable method for making permanentimages from reflected light

Daguerreotype – 1837

A camera is a light-tide box with an opening at one end to admit light, a lens to focus and refract the light, and

a light-sensitive surface such as film to receive the image and hold it.

First Portable Cameras

French Daguerreotype Camera, 1850 (left) / 5x7 Eastman View Camera, 1885 (right)

1888 – Invention of Kodak by George EastmanCan be taken anywhere you go!!!Photography becomes a hobby.

First Lightweight, Handheld Camera

Kodak Camera & Film, 1888

Lincoln “Cooper Union” Portrait, Mathew Brady, 1860

Mathew Brady - Portrait Photography

Charles Darwin (left); The Rosebud Garden of Girls (right), Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868

Julia Margaret Cameron’s Portraits

Ancient Ruins in the Canon De Chelle, Timothy O’Sullivan, 1873 (left)Colorado River From Camp 8, Timothy O’Sullivan, 1871 (right)

Landscape Photography

The Role of Photography:

1. Record events as history is unfolding

2. Document and preserve a visual recordof what existed for a time

Invention of photomechanical reproduction –high-speed printing of photos and type (1900)gives rise to Photojournalism.

Documentary Photography is Born!

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange, (hired by Farm Security Administration), 1936 (left)Migrant Mother Series, Dorothea Lange, 1936 (right)

Photography During the Great Depression

“One aspect of photography that some felt stood in theway of making art was its detailed objectivity, whichseemed more suited for science.”

Artists tried to make their work look like painting:– Created images that looked painterly (blurry, atmospheric, etc.)

– Staged things, people to be photographed toresemble a painting

– Created images by placing objects directly onphotographic plates, etc.

Photography and Art

Fading Away, Henry Peach Robinson, 1858, Composite print

Photography and Art

Composite Photograph, John P. Morrissey, 1896

Tableaux Vivants contained “high art” themes andwere designed to resemble classical paintings.

Photomontage Technique

The technique of making a picture by assemblingpieces of photographs, often in combination with

other types of graphic material.

1. Composite pictures made by darkroom masking (multiple exposures made onto the same plate, unexposed areas – masked by pieces of black velvet )

2. Images were created using “cut and paste” technique, than re-photographed

3. Double Exposure

4. Direct contact printing of objects placed on photographic plates

How Were Photomontages Made?

Man With the Rubber Head, Film Still, 1902

German Postcard, Anon, 1902

Examples of Photomontage

Direct contact printing of objects placed on photographic plates, Man Ray, 1922

“Rayograph” images

“For photography to be an art, it must be true to itsown nature; it should not try to be painting.”

Alfred Stieglitz

“Pure” Photography

- Emphasis on formal values: composition,line, value

- Images framed with the viewfinder;not cropped, not manipulated

- Composition, tonal values, etc. are visualizedin advance

Bridalveil Fall, Ansel Adams, 1960, photographic print (left)Untitled, Alfred Stieglitz, 1924, photographic print (right)

Photography and Art

Photography Itself Becomesthe Subject Matter

As everyday life gets flooded with photographicimages which start to compete with direct

experience, artists start to examine the roleof Photography in society (the particularvision of the world it promotes, and the

assumptions we make about it).

What is Photography?

Is it a tool for making imagesor a tool for recording the world?

Cut With the Kitchen Knife Dada through Germany’s Last Weinmar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch, Hannah Hoch, 1919, collage

“Found” Images and Collage

Untitled #123, Cindy Sherman, 1983

Contemporary Photography

Untitled #209, Cindy Sherman, 1989

Untitled Film Still #14, Cindy Sherman, 1978

Contemporary Photography

“I wanted to make somethingthat anyone off the street couldappreciate... I wanted to

imitatesomething out of the culture,and also make fun of theculture as I was doing it.”

Cindy Sherman

Binh Dahnhttp://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=7660

Contemporary Photography

Chtulhu People, Image #d6, Gulnur Guvenc, Adobe Photoshop

Photography & Computer – 1980s to Present

Peter Kennard – London, 1980s“There is a problem with montage in that you see it everywhere now because

of digital technology. There is so much transformed imagery around that people accept constructed images without questioning their meaning. I think

my work is losing impact because of that.” – Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard, Protect and

Survive, 1981 Peter Kennard,Untitled ,1982

Exercises

What is Camera Obscuraand how does it work?

What kind of painting technique is this?

What kind of painting technique is this?

What kind of painting technique is this?

What kind of painting technique is this?

2 Categories Which Can Be Applied to Drawing Materials Are:

Film

The Invention of Film1878 – Eadweard Muybridge – motion studies (series ofstill images documenting animals and people in motion)

Horse Galloping, Eadweard Muybridge, 1878, Collotype

The Invention of Film

1. Film depends on “persistence of vision” phenomenon

2. Celluloid film is invented by George Eastman which allows to string single images together – 1888

3. Thomas Edison creates 1st motion picture – 1894

4. Brothers Lumiere invent a movie projector - 1895

The Invention of Film

1st Public Exhibition of a Movie Picturehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk&feature=related

Fantasy and Film

Georges Melies, “A Trip to the Moon” – 19021st stop action Sci Fi Movie ever made!!!

Incorporates theatrical sets, props, real actors.

A Trip to the Moon, Georges Melies, 1902

Movie Studios

1. Studios began to take shape – 1910s

2. Movies can be produced on a larger scale

3. All aspects of the movie industry are under one roof: directing, producing, writing scripts, filming…

4. A concept of a “Movie Star” is created

5. The job of a Producer becomes increasingly important

One of the 1st Commercial Films

Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick, 1939, MGM Studios, Hollywood, CA

Filmmaking Vocabulary

1. “Shot” - an unbroken sequence of movie frames

2. “Pan Shot” – camera moving from side to side

3. “Traveling Shot” – camera moving back to front

4. “Cross-Cutting” – two or more shots are alternated to foster the advancement of the story

JR – French graffiti artist, photographerhttp://www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html