This document provides an overview of the history of photography and film from the early daguerreotypes through the development of motion pictures. It summarizes key figures and innovations including Louis Daguerre and the daguerreotype (1839), Fox Talbot and the calotype process (1834-1844), Alfred Stieglitz establishing photography as an art form in the early 20th century, Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange using photography to document the Great Depression, and Eadweard Muybridge whose sequential photography of motion in the 1870s led to the development of motion pictures by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895.

1. Art 1100
Joan Jonas
“They Come to Us without a Word”
U.S. Pavilion,Venice Biennale, 2015

2. 2
The Camera

3. Daguerreotype: earliest photography.
Photography
1).As art.
Key figure:Alfred Stiegletz
2).As document.
Key figures:Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange
Motion Studies: leads to motion pictures.
Key figure: Eadweard Muybridge
Early Film
1). Lumiere Brothers
2). Melies “Journey to the Moon”.
Chapter Nine:The Camera

4. 4
Camera obscura (Latin for dark room) was first invented during the
Renaissance as a drawing tool for perspective and proportion.The
image would appear upside down, and was traced onto a sheet of
paper. Later, artists invented a lens to focus the blurry image, which
helped them refine the technique for creating chiaroscuro.

5. Invention of Photography
Each daguerreotype is a remarkably detailed, one-of-a-
kind photographic image on a highly polished, silver-
plated sheet of copper, exposed in a large box camera
with a variety of chemicals.
Required 10-20 minute exposure.
Daguerreotype:
Invented by Louis-
Jacques-Mandé
Daguerre in 1839.
Louis-Jacques-
Mandé Daguerre,
ca. 1844
Unknown Artist
Daguerreotype
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0op6lFPxqrQ

6. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre,
Le Boulevard du Temple, 1839.
Invention of Photography

7. 7
Other early Camera Pioneers
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877),
While using the camera obscura to draw one day Talbot wrote..
“The inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature's painting which the
glass lens of the Camera throws upon the paper in its focus—fairy
pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade away."
These thoughts in turn prompted Talbot to muse "how charming it
would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint
themselves durably, and remain fixed upon the paper."
In 1834 he invented a chemical process based on salt solutions
that darkened in the sun that he called “photogenic drawing”.

8. The Pencil of Nature, 1844–46
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Printed book in six parts with 24 salted paper prints from paper negatives
Invention of Photography

9. A Scene in a Library, 1843–44
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Salted paper print from paper negative
Invention of Photography

10. “It may suffice, then, to say, that the plates of this work
have been obtained by the mere action of Light upon
sensitive paper. [...] without the aid of any one
acquainted with the art of drawing.
They are impressed by Nature's hand; and what they want
as yet of delicacy and finish of execution arises chiefly
from our want of sufficient knowledge of her laws.”
The Pencil of Nature
William Henry Fox Talbot
London, 1844
Invention of Photography

11. Articles of Glass, 1843
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Salted paper print from paper negative
Invention of Photography

12. Woman and Dog on Beach, Far
Rockaway, NewYork], ca. 1920
Unknown Artist,American School
Gelatin silver print
1888: George Eastman
created the “Kodak” camera.
Sold with preloaded film
for100 “snapshots.” When
finished camera was returned
to Eastman for processing.
Slogan:
“You press the button,
we do the rest,”
Invention of Photography

13. 13

14. [Boston from a Hot-Air Balloon], October 13, 1860
James Wallace Black (American, 1825–1896)
From the beginning,
photography meant new
ways of seeing the world.
It also had a dual
character as...
1). A medium of artistic
expression
2). A powerful
documentary and
scientific tool
Invention of Photography

15. Photography as Art

16. Henry Peach Robinson,
Fading Away, 1858.
Photography as Art
Initially photography wasn’t considered to be art.
Early fine art photographers called the “Pictorialists”.
• Set up their subject matter.
• Posed the hired actors.
• Combined separate negatives to create their images.
• Emulated serious painting compositions.

17. Henry Peach Robinson,Autumn, date unknown
Photography as Art

18. Dawn and Sunset, Henry Peach Robinson (English, 1830–1901)
Photography as Art

19. Alfred Stieglitz
(1864-1946):
American photographer
who preferred a
“straight” style of
photography.
Defended photography as
an artistic medium.
This composition
(considered to be the
first “art photo”)
was not created, but
rather discovered and
captured by the artist.
Photography as Art
Stieglitz,The
Steerage, 1907.

20. Alfred Stieglitz,
The Steerage, 1907.

21. Equivalent, 1926
Alfred Stieglitz
(American, 1864–
1946)
By photographing
clouds, Stieglitz shows
"to hold a moment, how
to record something so
completely, that all who
see [the picture of it] will
relive an equivalent of
what has been
expressed."
Photography as Art

22. From the Back
Window, 291, 1915
Alfred Stieglitz
(American, 1864–
1946)
Platinum print
Photography as Art

23. Criss-Crossed
Conveyors, River
Rouge Plant, Ford
Motor Company,
1927
Charles Sheeler
(American, 1883–
1965)
Photography as Art

24. Paul Strand
WireWheel,
NewYork, 1920
Printed in 1976-77
Palladium print
Photography as Art
Modernist
photographers used
cropping in
photography to
create “abstract”
images.

25. Abstraction,Twin Lakes, Connecticut,
1916
Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976)
Silver-platinum print
Photography as Art

26. From the El, 1915
Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976)
Platinum print
Photography as Art

27. Photography as Art
Paul Strand’s Manhatta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qduvk4zu_hs

28. Composition, 1929
Maurice Tabard
(French, 1897–
1984)
Surrealism and Photography
Surrealists used
techniques such as
double exposure,
combination printing,
montage, and
solarization to show the
union of dream and
reality.

29. Man Ray, Champs
delicieux, second
rayogram, 1922.
Rayogram
Made by placing
objects directly on
the negative and
exposing it to light.
Surrealism and Photography

30. Rayograph, Man Ray
(American,
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 1890–
1976 Paris), 1922
Gelatin silver print
Surrealism and Photography

31. The Doll, 1934–35
Hans Bellmer
(French, born Silesia,
1902–1975)
Gelatin silver print
Surrealism and Photography

32. Contemporary examples might include....
People who xerox their faces...

33. http://scanwiches.com
Or scanwiches...

34. Bunuel and Dali,An Andalusian Dog, 1928.
Film
Artists and Film

35. Photography as Document

36. [Orange and Alexandria Railroad Bridge, near Union Mills,Virginia], ca. 1863
Attributed to Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1830–1902)
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Photography as Document

37. 37
The other strand of photography was as a kind of
document. Photography was used to record historical
events, scientific experiments, working conditions, vanishing
cultures and to provide political propaganda. Photography’s
reputation as the “pencil of Nature” led to its’ being seen as
a “truthful witness” of events that happened in front of the
lens.The camera was an “index” of real events.
This leads to documentary film, crime scene photos,
archeology documentation etc. etc. etc. Politically this kind
of accurate depiction of real life events was a shocking new
reality for people to deal with.
Photography as Document

38. Field Where General Reynolds Fell, Battlefield of Gettysburg, 1863
Timothy O'Sullivan (American, 1840–1882)
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Photography as Document

39. Newsies at Skeeter Branch, St. Louis, Missouri, 11:00 am, May 9, 1910
Lewis W. Hine (American, 1874–1940)
Gelatin silver print
Photography as Document

40. Photography as Document
Walker Evans,Times Square /
Broadway Composition, New
York, 1930

41. "Fleeing a dust storm". Farmer Arthur Coble and sons walking in the face of a dust
storm, Cimmaron County, Oklahoma.Arthur Rothstein, photographer,April, 1936.
(Library of Congress)
Photography as Document

42. Photography and Documentary
During the Depression years of 1935–36,
Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange.
Employed by the U.S. Department of the Interior to photograph the
Depression. Migration, starvation, public works projects associated
with the New Deal.
Evans’ photographs of roadside architecture, rural churches, small-
town barbers and cemeteries secured his reputation as America's
preeminent documentarian.
Lange's photographs were intended to bolster support for the
establishment of migrant camps in the area by the Resettlement
Administration. She felt that her "negatives are loaded with ammunition."
and that the situation was "no longer a publicity campaign for migratory
agricultural labor camps" but rather "a major migration of people and a
rotten mess."

43. Dorothea Lange, Resettlement Administration
photographer, in California, 1936 Feb.

44. Alabama Tenant Farmer, 1936
Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975)
Gelatin silver print
As a series, Evans' photographs seem to have elucidated the
whole tragedy of the Great Depression; individually, they are
intimate, transcendent, and enigmatic, as in this portrait of the
farmers Allie Mae and Floyd Burroughs.
Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936
Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975)
Gelatin silver print

45. Lange, Dorothea, photographer.
Migrant agricultural worker in Holtville 1937 Feb.
Lange, Dorothea, photographer.
Eighteen-year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a
California migrant. 1937 Feb.
Photography and Documentary

46. Dorothea Lange, Migratory Cotton Picker,Arizona, 1949
Photography as Document

47. 47
The Cinema!

48. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByTuwzTndBs
Film
“MOVEMENT OFTHE HAND,
DRAWING A CIRCLE”
ANIMAL LOCOMOTION
PLATE 532, 1887
COLLOTYPE
By the 1860s, Eadweard Muybridge, born in
Kingston-upon-Thames, England, had
reinvented himself as “Helios”, one of San
Francisco’s most important landscape
photographers.

49. In 1872 Muybridge’s photographic skills
•Prove whether a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off
the ground at one point to settle a $25,000 bet by the
wealthy businessman Leland Stanford.
•Took place at his Sacramento racetrack.
•Set up a series of 12 cameras that fire in succession.
Film

50. Eadweard Muybridge, Horse
Galloping, 1878.
Film

51. 51
Eadweard Muybridge, Horse
Galloping, 1878.
Each frame is another foot in the horses journey.This image
settled the bet. YES! In fact the horse did raise all four feet
when it galloped. It’s not hard to see from this image how the
sequential photographing of objects in motion leads to the
idea of film.
All that was needed were new cameras and a projection
system.

52. He later combined successive images in a spinning wheel
(similar to flip-books), called a zoopraxiscope.This led the
search for continuous motion photography, or film.
Film

53. Muybridge, Eadweard (1881) "Athletes.Walking High Leap "

54. Auguste and Louis Lumiere, two brothers from Lyons,
France, widely recognized as the world's first film makers.
(1896-1900)
• Made more than 2,000 silent black-and-white short films.
• The first popular films to show in “cinemas”.
• Each lasts less than a minute.
• The films were “hand cranked” in front of the projector.
• Recorded the domestic and social life of their time.

55. Watch some Lumiere Brothers Films here
(In the film examples tab)

56. McCay, Gertie the Trained
Dinosaur, 1914.
Film
Animation:The creation
of movement by making
sequential images.
Requires 12-24 drawings
per second of running
time.
(In the film examples tab)

57. George Melies,
Trip to the
Moon, 1902.
Film
The French filmmaker Georges Méliès (1861–1938) created this
imaginary tale of a Trip to the Moon one year before the Wright
brothers’ first flight. He used painted scenery and stop-motion
photography to create special effects with real objects and
people.

58. Show ATrip to the Moon here...
(In the film examples tab)