de Beaufort AA ch9

1. Photography

2. Photography
• Literally, “light writing”
Many uses in journalism, science,
advertising, and personal record
keeping
• Exposure controls light and
darkness
Jane and Louise Wilson.
The Silence Is Twice as Fast Backwards
I. 2008.
Photograph (C-print). 72" × 72".

3. 1
The Evolution of Photography
Concept preceded medium by more than
three hundred years
Camera obscura
• Literally, “dark room”
Reflected sunlight passing through
small hole in the wall of a darkened
room
• Inverted image of what was outside
• Developed a lens and angled mirror
for ease of tracing Chemical
development
• 1826 first vague photographic image
by Niépce

4. Daguerreotypes
• Iodized silver plates exposed to
mercury vapor, then fixed by
mineral salt solution
Only stationary objects recorded
due to long exposure times
• First figure to appear is a man
getting his shoes shined, taken in
1839
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. Le
Boulevard du Temple. 1839.
Daguerreotype.

5. 1
A Typical Digital Camera
• Modern camera
• Resembles traditional camera
obscura Lens collects light
• Image sensor collects image upside
down
• Sensor converts light into an
electric charge Photographer
Three important adjustments :
1. Focal length =Distance between
lens and the sensor
2. Aperture (F-stop: ratio of focal
length to the size of the opening)
effects “depth of field” (f1.8-f22)
3. Shutter speed
Aperture and Shutter Speed determine
brightness of the resulting photo

6. Early Art Photography
• Public initially reluctant to accept
photography as art
• Seen as a mechanical device
• Portrait photography
• Julia Margaret Cameron
Posed children off-center in Paul and
Virginia
• Suggestion of characters in a popular
novel about a pair of shipwrecked
children
Julia Margaret Cameron. Paul and
Virginia. 1864.
Albumen print. 10" × 7-7/8".

7. Early Art Photography
Stieglitz- owned a Photography gallery,
NYC in 1905
Magazine, Camera Work, published
photography alongside art essays
Photography showed influence from
paintings and prints
Alfred Stieglitz. Spring Showers, New York.
1901.
Photograph. 3-3/4" × 1-1/2".

8. Early Art Photography
Element of time and environment
Drama and parallel of man jumping like
the dancer in the poster behind him
Captured “decisive moments ” in his
work
Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Place de l'Europe Behind the Gare St.-
Lazare, Paris. 1932.
Photograph.

9. Early Art Photography
Man Ray
Innovative “rayographs” made by
placing objects on light-sensitive paper
and exposing them to sunlight
Not really photographs
No cameras or lenses Subjects
sometimes unclear
Man Ray. Rayograph. 1927.
Gelatin silver print. 11-7/16” × 9-1/8”.

10. Photography and Social Change
Photographer as witness of each
generation
Visual statements of photography more
believable than in any other medium
Lends itself to documentation to bring
awareness of events
Jacob Riis
Early leader of photography for social
change (How the Other Half Lives)
Five Cents a Spot
• Drew attention to squalid living
conditions
Led to improved housing/work safety
Vividness of photo made possible by
recent invention
• Flash photography
Jacob A. (Jacob Augustus) Riis (1849–
1914). Five Cents a Spot. Unauthorized
lodging in Bayard Street Tenement. c.1890.
Gelatin silver print.

11. Photography and Social Change
Photographic “truth”
“The Camera Never Lies”
Margaret Bourke-White
Concept of photographic essay
Collection of photographs on a
single subject
Arranged to tell a story or convey
a mood
Margaret Bourke-White. African
American Flood Victims Lined Up.
1937

12. Environmentalism
• Ansel Adams
• Need for conservation of natural environment
• Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California
• Grandeur of nature
Symbols of spiritual life, transcending the conflicts of society
Ansel Adams.
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California. 1944.
Photograph.

13. Today’s environmental
photographers
More likely to focus on human
impact
Chris Steele-Perkins
Traveled to the Marshall Islands
Makeshift sea wall
Collaborated on book and
exhibition
Chris Steele-Perkins. Marshall
Islands. 2004

14. Color Photography
• Black-and-white for the first hundred
years of photography
• Technical problems persisted through
twentieth century Development
began in 1907
• Improved in 1932 with Eastman
Kodak Company color film
• Disdain for use in art throughout
1960s (faded to red)
• Color associated with family photos
• William Eggleston
• Exhibit in color at MoMA in 1976
• Elegant compositions of everyday
things
• Skillful arrangement of off-balance
diagonals Evokes a specific setting
William Eggleston.
Untitled (Nehi Bottle on Car Hood).
From Los Alamos Portfolio. 1965–74.

15. Pushing the Limits
Artists exploring techniques to go
beyond photography’s limits
Susan Derges
Lays sheets of photosensitive paper on
the bottom of shallow ponds at night
Shines light on the paper through
surrounding bushes to emphasize
shadows Creates landscapes looking up
from below the water's surface
Susan Derges. Gibbous Moon Cloud.
2009.
Unique ilfochrome print. 66-1/2" × 36".

16. Highlights contemporary questions about government secrecy Limit Telephotography
Got as close to secret government installations as legally allowed Results are blurry but still better
than naked eye
Trevor Paglen. Open Hangar, Cactus Flats, NV, Distance ~ 18 miles, 10:04 a.m. 2007.
C-print. 30” × 36”.

17. Binh Danh
Vietnamese-born artist
Recorded photographs onto plant
material
Uses images of the victims of warfare
in Southeast Asia
Iridescence of Life #7
Genocide Museum in Cambodia
Work seems fragile, precious,
beautiful
Binh Danh. Iridescence of Life #7.
2008.
Chlorophyll print, butterfly specimen,
and resin. 14” × 11” × 2”.