History of Photo E1 Terms/Main Reading Arguments

Camera Vision

how a camera visually organizes a scene

Thaumatrope

"wonder turner" - invented by J.A. Paris - was manufactured in 1825 as an optical toy based on afterimage research - it consisted of a disk, about two inches in diameter, with a drawing on each side and strings attached through holes drilled on opposite sides of the circle - one side of the disk might picture a bald headed man, the other side a wig. when the disk spun, the man would appear to have hair on his head - proved that perception was not instantaneous and demonstrated the contrived and delusionary images of nature of image formation - such devices demonstrated the fractures between perception and the subject being perceived

Collodin (Collodion) Process

- 1849 - Fredrick Scott Archer - Mid 19th century from Greek kollōdēs 'gluelike', from kolla 'glue'. - collodion as a substitute for paper, with the hope that by its means a surer and more delicate medium might be produced to work upon than paper was ever likely to be. - Archer coated a glass plate with iodized collodion and exposed it while it was still wet - This process provided a finely detailed negative, one that was reproducible and required less exposure time than Niépces method. - became known as the "wet plate process" because all the procedures had to be carried out while the plate was damp, since the ether in the collodion rapidly evaporated. - The coating procedure required speed, on-the-spot darkroom access, and the ability to follow preparation directions that read like a cookbook. - Before making the exposure it was necessary to pour the collodion, a syrupy mixture of potassium iodide, alcohol, ether, and nitrated cellulose onto a cleaned prepared glass plate under darkroom conditions. - The photographer had to tilt the plate back and fourth to ensure an even coat or the pour marks would be visible in the negative, and therefore on the positives. Next the plate was dipped into a sentizing bath bath of silver nitrate and exposed because its sensitivity to light slowed greatly as the collodion dried. As soon as the exposure was made, the plate was developed in pyrogalic acid and fixed with cyanide or Herschels sodium hyposulphite. - The collodions increased light sensitivity meant that a small, highly detailed portrait could be made in as little as two seconds in the studio. - Glass plate negatives print faster than paper - collodions materials were raw and inexpensive, and once mastered, tended to be more conostant and predictable than the paper process. - by 1855 a majority of photographers added this process to their repitoire -reigned until the 1880s

Union Cases

- Ambrotypes often were set in elaborately designed, molded, and hinged holders (these) - Introduced in the early 1850's, Union Cases marked the beginning of thermoplastic molding in the U.S. and produced in hundreds of designs featuring scenes derived from classical works of art and popular culture concerning history, nature, patriotism, and religion. - Sometimes the photographers name and hometown were imprinted on the gold-colored interior mat or the cases "velvet-pillow" as an abbreviated form of advertising; other times, a printed card with greater detail would be secured inside the case. - The case gave the ambrotype a physical weight and honorific quality typically accorded to the daguerreotype - secured with a latch it also maintained an element of surprise, a sense of drama as one held the jewel box like object in ones hands, wondering what was going to be pictured inside. As the case was opened, the sense of theatre became part of the viewing experience.

persistence of vision

- Belgian physist Joseph Plateau's afterimage experiments in the late 1820s defined the theory - had been documented by the Greek mathematician Euclid and then later experimented on by Newton - The theory states that if several objects differ sequentially in form and position are rapidly viewed one after the other, the impression they produce on the retina is of a single object that's changing its form and position - since an image lingers for a fraction of a second, individual images appear in continuous motion, as in a flip book - a machine generated visual experience unfold over time

Albumen Silver Prints

- Désiré Blanquart-Evrard - 1850 - introduced the albumen-coated paper, whose emulsion layer was applied only after it was coated with egg white, which gave the print more detail and contrast. - Solving a major public aesthetic barrier regarding the calotypes softness (concealment of detail), for the image no longer rested in the papers fibers but above them, on a separate, glossy, smooth surface. - The downside was this glossy surface reduced the visual intricacy the paper fibers had provided and diminished a sense of depth, as the picture floated ever so slightly aloft from its own support base. - Albumen prints became the principle medium of photographic printing until the end of the 19th century when they were superseded by gelatin silver prints. - Latin, 'egg white', from albus 'white'.

Cyanotype

- Herschels invention in 1842 - Alternate Name : blueprint - "blueprint" process - he devised this process to make fast copies of his notes, foreshadowing the electrostatic copier - Process: iron salts were absorbed into a sheet of paper that was exposed to sunlight in contact with a negative or drawing on tracing paper - produced an image in Prussian blue, an image fixed by washing it in water - used by amateurs after the introduction of small roll film cameras - was adopted by shipbuilder to copy their working plans and utilized to copy line-based documents by architects (as "blue prints") late in the twentieth century

Oliver Wendell Holmes : The Stereoscope and the Stereograph, 1859

- Homse's critics say he has an over reliance on old theory and exploded ideas MAIN GIST - Democritus of Abdera (Laughing Philosopher) he did not consider the study of truth inconsistent with a cheerful countenance, believed and taught that all bodies were continually throwing off certain images like themselves, which subtle emanations, striking on our bodily organs, gave rise to our sensations. - Epicrurus borrowed the idea from him ^ and incorporated it into the famous system, of which Lucritus has given us the popular version - images at different distances will not be the same - exuvice of objects when separated from their illuminated source, perish instantly when withdrawn - the Daguerreotype has fixed the most fleeting of our illusions that which the apostle and the philosopher and the poet have alike used as the type of instability and unreality. - The photograph has completed the triumph by making a sheet of paper reflect images like a mirror except to lock them in place THE STEREOSCOPE - invented bt Professor Wheatstone 1838 - an instrument that makes surfaces look solid - all pictures in which perspective and light and shade are properly managed, have more or less of the effect of solidity: but by this instrument that effect is so heightened as to produce an appearance of reality which cheats the sense of truth - life and death, the main object the picture was meant to delineate - form is divorced from matter

héliograph

- Héliogravures: Niépces camera images were not able to withstand the chemical treatment, he devised to produce prints in ink - Héliographes: unique images produced from Héliogravures - he realized his process needed crucial revision to be productive - A type of early photographic engraving made using a sensitized silver plate and an asphalt or bitumen varnish. -Etymology: helios (greek) meaning sun, graphien meaning "something written"

Stereoscope

- In 1832, experiments by Sir Charles Wheatstone led to the discovery that the illusion of depth could be replicated by looking at two slightly different drawings of a subject side by side through a binocular device that approximated human vision - this device allowed the right eye view only the right eyes images and the left eye to only the left eye image. When the brain combined the images, a viewer got the visual sensation of 3D - before vowels stere-, word-forming element meaning "solid, firm; three-dimensional; stereophonic," from Greek stereos "solid" (from PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff"). - word-forming element indicating "an instrument for seeing," from Late Latin -scopium, from Greek -skopion, from skopein "to look at, examine" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe"). (91-93)

Ambrotype

- In Europe they were referred to as amphitypes - a unique collodion positive made on glass - the name ambrotype was devised by Marcus A Root in 1855, from a great word meaning "imperishable" - when shown in the U.S. in 1854, ambrotypes were called "daguerreotypes on glass" because, like daguerreotypes, they too were laterally reversed, one-of-a-kind objects that practitioners frequently hand-colored, deliberately made in the same-size formats, and put into similar cases - lacked the highly reflective surface of the daguerreotype and appeared dull and flat in comparison, but was less expensive to produce. - it is often possible to identify an ambrotype because it's backing had deteriorated. When the back varnish starts to crack and fracture the image can give a visual sense of separation and physical relief as well as a ghostlike translucence. - often were elaborately designed, modeled, and hinged holders called Union Cases. - were generally used in portraiture. The posing was usually intimate, featuring tight head and shoulder shots - a negative image could reproduced by holding the ambrotype at different angles to the light, but it was still much easier to view than the daguerreotype. - Mid 19th century; earliest use found in Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer. Probably from ἄμβρο- + type, although compare Ambro-. (page 74-75)

Cliché verre

- It was invented due to the search for a photo-based process capable of reproducing editions of hand-created art at affordable prices - devised shortly after Talbot announce his photogenic drawing, cliche verse was the product of three English artists and engravers... - Inventors: John and William Havell and J.T. Wilmore - exhibited prints from this technique in March of 1839 - This technique combines the hand work drawing with the action of light sensitive photographic materials to make an image. Originally, a piece of glass was covered with a dark varnish and permitted to dry, and then etched with a needle. The finished glass was used as a negative and was contact printed onto photographic paper. - Adalbert Cuvelier modified this process later, to utilize the wet plate glass negative process. - Early 20th century; earliest use found in Print Collector's Quarterly. From French cliché verre from cliché photographic negative + verre glass.

Crystalotype Process

- John Adams Whipple - 1852 - he copied one of the moon plates with this process. - The process is a glass-plate negative process that used egg white to hold the light-sensitive emulsion in place. - he used this process to produce paper prints that were tipped (glued) into the July 1853 issue of the Photographic Art Journal - 19th century usage

quick stuff

- John Fredrick Goddards creation - 1840 - to increase the light sensitivity of the plate and to reduce exposure time. - He refumed and iodized the surface of the plate with bromide, and his accelerator (aka quick stuff) - THE QUICK STUFF - could increase the speed five to ten times, reducing the 10 minute exposure to 1 minute. - Antoine François Jean Claude a competitor of Beard also invented a chlorine and iodine vapor accelerator for the same purpose in 1841

Shadowgraph

- Mungo Ponton created a spin off method of Talbots process where he sensitized paper with potassium bichromate (potassium dichromate) instead of silver salt to produce camera less shadowgraphs - he made them by replacing objects on top of the paper and exposing his set up to sunlight - the image was processed by washing with water. the areas effected by light did not dissolve during washing, but the unexposed coating under the object did - the washing served to fix the image - the final result was a white silhouette of the object on an orange background - the process showed that the solubility of potassium bichromate was proportional to the amount of light it received and was cheaper and easier than Talbots method - Ponton demonstrated this technique to the Society of the Arts of Scotland on May 25, 1839, and correctly predicted it to be an imprint aid to lithography

Sublime

- Sir Walter Scotts Romantic Concepts - Edmund Burke came up with these concepts in painting - Late 16th century (in the sense 'dignified, aloof'): from Latin sublimis, from sub- 'up to' + a second element perhaps related to limen 'threshold', limus 'oblique'. - the picturesque landscape of Romanticism was built on the pictorial concept - like a storm on the ocean, locate its origins in the awe, terror, and vastness beyond human scale - a masculine term that refers to the greatness with which nothing can be compared, that is beyond the possibility of calculation, imitation, and measurement. - Characteristics include astonishment, darkness, infinity, solitude, and immensity - It features intense directional light and a dynamic interaction between highlights and shadows.

Beautiful

- Sir Walter Scotts Romantic concepts - Edmund Burke in painting came up with these concepts - a calm harbor sunset, situates it's lineage within the feminine organization of society - what the picturesque landscapes of Romanticism were based apon - Being delicate, rounded, smooth, and well-proportioned, the beautiful is less powerful and favors a soft, diffused light. It was admirable, but it was not capeable of arousing great passion. - late 16th century when it was created - Middle English: from Old French beaute, based on Latin bellus 'beautiful, fine'.

Leininger-Miller

- The compilation covers almost his entire career, which lasted over 50 years and took him from coast to coast in the United States, as well as to Hawaii and Europe. -Ball was an award-winning artist, celebrated internationally for his portraits of Well - known whites, African Americans, and Asians. - His sitters included such celebrities as Frederick Douglass, Jenny Lind, and the Ulysses Grant's family. - The exhibition featured 60 original images. - Since Ball began his career in Cincinnati and spent a quarter-century there (created 1845 - 1871), it was appropriate that the show accentuated those early years. - An American journey, although a modest historical display in the John A. Ruthven Community Gallery, was a non-ticketed show that admirably met its goal of raising local awareness about the numerous artistic and entrepreneurial talents of this remarkable African American man. - It, included much new information unearthed since the publication of Deborah Willis's book, J.P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer (New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993), and presented this in text-heavy wall labels. - Fig. 1, Introductory area of exhibition, An American Journey: The Life and Photography of James Presley Ball, Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, 2010. - An American Journey appeared in a 900-square foot peripheral gallery on the lower level of the Cincinnati Museum Center located in the acclaimed art deco Union Terminal train station (1933). - Because the Ruthven Gallery is underground, there is no natural light. Although the low light level was admittedly necessary for displaying fragile, light-sensitive works over six months, the exhibition's introductory space was drab, dark and cramped. - The lack of original photographs in this area and the dull installation in a shallow space only reinforced a cave-like and unwelcoming atmosphere at the entrance to the show - The first scene was an approximation of Ball's "Great Daguerrean Gallery of the West" at No. 28 West Fourth Street in Cincinnati, - based in very limited form on a woodblock illustration from Gleason's PictorialDrawing-Room Companion (April, 1854). - An enlarged facsimile of that print hung on the back wall for reference. It depicted fifteen white appreciative clients in a large, elegant reception room furnished with a piano, five oil paintings by Cincinnati African American landscapist Robert S. Duncanson (1821-1872) (who worked for Ball as a retouch artist), and at least forty-two photographs by Ball. - An arrow superimposed on the photograph points to the bottom of the neck brace behind the legs of the standing client, who needed the support to help keep still during the long exposure time, which could last up to a minute. - The large introductory wall label featured the only known photograph of the bald, long-bearded, and light-skinned Ball, taken from Esther Hall Mumford's book, Seattle's Black Victorians, 1852-1901 (1981), itself copied from a Washington newspaper. - Rather patronizingly, the text stated, "Even an African American photographer could succeed if he could learn to attract white clients who wanted to sit for their portrait." - It explained that Ball was a middle-class entrepreneur in a small community of African Americans, who arrived in the "Queen City" in 1845. - Also known as "Porkopolis" (because of the prosperous pork industry), Cincinnati was the fastest growing city in America at that time, connected to rapidly growing markets by railroad and steamboat, then the border of slavery. - Ball was an abolitionist who sought to educate people about the horrors of slavery. - One way he did this was by commissioning a team of African American artists to create a 2,400-square yard painting, "Ball's Splendid Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States, Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade; of Northern and Southern Cities; of Cotton and Sugar Plantations; of the Mississippi, Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers, Niagara Falls, & C." (1855). - He exhibited the unprecedented work for profit both in Cincinnati and at Boston's Amory Hall. Alas, the amazing canvas no longer exists and there are no images of it. - Thus, Ball had several goals with this project. Clearly, he wanted to promote the cause of abolition by illustrating the breadth and depth of the slave trade in the western world. The panorama would have been appreciated in a city known for anti-slavery activity; -- - Further, Cincinnati was home to ardent activists, such as lawyer Salmon P. Chase, "attorney general for runaway slaves," Levi Coffin, who sheltered black fugitives with his wife, and the afore-mentioned Pugh, who published The Philanthropist, an abolitionist newspaper, from 1835 to 1843 with editor James G. Birney, a former slave owner. - However, Ball was also motivated financially and artistically. He clearly wanted to make a profit, and boasted that he had invested $6,000 in the project, the same amount that Leon Pomarède had put into his panorama of the Mississippi River in 1849. Ball was well aware that large paintings of that grand body of water enticed large audiences. In 1847, John Banvard bragged that he made $200,000 when he toured the "Biggest Picture in the World" (supposedly three miles long) in New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C., where over 400,000 people saw it. Later, Charles Dickens published a review of Banvard's endeavor when it appeared in London. - In 1848, Henry Lewis also produced a panorama of the Mississippi, launching his enterprise in Cincinnati. He then exhibited the painting throughout the United States and Germany for two years. In addition to competing with these successful showmen, Ball sought to rival local daguerreotypists Charles Fontayne and William Porter with his imagery, praised for its exacting nature because he based his mammoth pictorial tour on daguerreotypes he had taken "on the spot." In 1848 Fontayne and Porter created a magnificent panorama of Cincinnati on the Ohio River in a series of eight stunning whole-plate daguerreotypes taken in Newport, Kentucky, which they exhibited at the first world's fair in London in 1851. None of these significant details appeared in the CMC display of Ball's work, but that would have made the show more text-heavy. One walked through the exhibition in a counter-clockwise direction, around a central, freestanding wall unit. In the next section was text about Ball's beginnings as an itinerant daguerreotypist in Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1840s. A free man born in Virginia to free persons of color (who had married in 1814), Ball had apparently learned the still-new daguerreotype process from an African American, John B. Bailey (originally from Boston), in White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, in the fall of 1845, and first tried his hand at business in Cincinnati. He settled again in the city in 1849 and hired his brother Thomas as an operator. Later his brother Robert would also work with him, as would his father and brother-in-law, Alexander Thomas, as well as his son and daughter. Within a short time, Ball owned the largest daguerrean gallery west of the Alleghenies, and exhibited his work at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in 1852, 1854, 1855 and 1857, winning a bronze medal in the latter show. Fig. 2, Introduction to "Glossary of Common 19th Century Photographic Terms and Processes"; daguerreotypes and other images by J.P. Ball in cases. Fig. 3, Case containing nine daguerreotypes. Fig. 4, J. P. Ball, Harriet Buchanan, ca. 1855. Sixth plate daguerreotype. As visitors rounded the corner, they saw two glass-topped black cases (fig. 2). In the first were nine of Ball's exquisite cased daguerreotypes—three sixth plates, three quarter plates, and three half plates, all ca. 1855 (fig. 3). The sitters in six of them remain unidentified. One featured Ball's sister Elizabeth, her husband Alexander Thomas, and their daughter Katie. Another depicted Ball's paternal grandmother, Susan. Another was a crystal-clear likeness of the pious, but fashionable Harriet Buchanan (ca. 1801-1885), wife of Robert, a grocer, industrialist, and distinguished civic leader (fig. 4). Although the labels give little information, one can see the reasons why clients found Ball's work attractive. Although many daguerreotypists enhanced the preciousness of their unique images, silver-coated copper plates, by housing them in velvet-lined leather or Union cases, Ball took extra care with polishing plates to a lustrous finish, using natural light (his studio had a skylight), posing sitters, eliciting a sense of their personality, and embossing his name and "Cincinnati" diagonally in the lower corners on brass mats. Placing a group of daguerreotypes in a case was likely the easiest and safest way to display them in this out-of-the-way environment (often unguarded), but it is a pity the portraits could not be hung on the wall at eye level and spotlighted individually. The next wall label, "The Daguerreotype: Mirrors of Truth and Realism," included reproductions of one of the earliest daguerreotypes, Louis Daguerre's Boulevard du Temple (ca. 1839) and a carte-de-visite of Samuel F. B. Morse with one of his cameras (ca. 1871). An advertisement for Fontayne and Porter's Gallery of Daguerreotypes in the Cincinnati Directory (1850-51) stated "Prices for Pictures, all complete, from $2.00 to $20.00, according to the size and style, or richness of case and frame." That was the equivalent of $57 to $579 in 2010 dollars. The second case in this area was beneath a large label, "Glossary of Common 19th Century Photographic Terms and Processes," with descriptions of the processes and dates of usage of albumen prints, ambrotypes, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, the collodion process, daguerreotypes, and tintypes. These were listed alphabetically, although the information might have been easier to digest if the processes been ordered according to dates of invention and use. Examples on display included two ambrotypes and three tintypes with personal items, such as two brass Civil War-era buttons (apparently to provide some contrast in scale and texture), a cameo brooch, and photo-jewelry pins and lockets. None of the latter items were identified as made by Ball or his partners. Fig. 5, Installation view of main space in An American Journey: The Life and Photography of James Presley Ball. Turning around, one was in the most open space of the exhibition (fig. 5). Walking to the left, one found a woman's blue geometric striped silk dress with pagoda sleeves and a lace collar in the cage crinoline style (ca. 1855). The point was to show period clothing representative of the kind Ball's sitters wore. The outfit, on a headless human form, stood next to a small round table with a Bible, as though a client were in the process of posing for a photograph. While the gown added some life-size three-dimensionality, color, and texture to the exhibition, it did not demonstrably enhance an understanding of Ball's work. To the left was a lengthy label, "J.P. Ball in Cincinnati, 1849-1871," outlining Ball's drive and financial success, as well as his partnerships, and the half-year long trip he made to Europe in 1856, where he claims to have opened studios in London, Liverpool, and Paris. Unfortunately, those claims have yet to be substantiated; Ball does not appear in business directories or scholars' lists of photographers active in those cities at those times. It is possible that Ball had contacts abroad (he supposedly had a letter of introduction to Dickens from a gentleman in Cincinnati) and operated businesses informally, under the radar. In London, he resided in a neighborhood called the Quadrant, where a number of people of color lived. There, his daughter Estella Victoria was born in May, and Ball named her, in part, after the queen. The text does not state that, according to the London Times, Ball photographed both Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens while in England; those images have not been found. Reproduced here are Cincinnati city directory advertisements for Ball's studios (announcing his photo jewelry and willingness to take pictures of the deceased at a moment's notice), as well as a rare daguerreotype of Myers & Co. Confectioners in Cincinnati (ca. 1850). Not stated is the fact that this broke all auction records for a daguerreotype when it sold to a private collector for $63,800 in the early 1990s. This is one of the earliest known works by Ball, remarkable because it is an outdoor scene in sharp detail (the horse is not blurred in the least), and it is a shame that the original was not shown. Fig. 6, Installation view of "J.P. Ball & Abolition" and "Alexander S. Thomas." Fig. 7, Case containing Ball family album and cartes-de-visite, ca. 1860. To the right of the dress was a wall text, "J.P. Ball & Abolition: Communicating the Horrors of Slavery to the Public" rather out of order, situated on the opposite of the introductory scene (fig. 6). The label is also duplicative, as it reproduces the cover of the pamphlet for the panorama, as well as the exterior of the Ohio Mechanics Institute, where the painting was first exhibited. The text simply says that the narrative, detailing "the horrors of slavery from capture in Africa through middle passage to bondage," would be told by unwinding the gigantic canvas before an audience. In local papers Ball's advertisements lured customers with advance publicity starting in January 1855. He stated that the panorama would "offer a most useful geographical lesson," for only ten to thirty cents. Ball claimed that thousands came to his twice-daily, two-and-a-half hour shows that took place for twelve days, beginning March 11, 1855 in Cincinnati. Sympathetic to those with lower incomes, he offered benefit showings to families, children, and schools. He then took the display to Boston's Amory Hall, starting April 30. Little of this information is in the labels. Next is a small case with four items (fig. 7). These were the well-worn Ball family album (ca. 1860), open to envelope-like pages with openings in them holding a tintype of Thomas Ball opposite a cdv of Alexander Thomas, whose names are handwritten in graphite beneath them. Also on view were photographs of Grandma Ball (ca. 1874-75), and Elizabeth "Betty" Ball (ca. 1874-77). In the center was a lace collar, similar to the one worn by Ball's sister. The large panel above this, "Alexander S. Thomas," provided a mini-biography of Ball's brother-in-law (1826-1910), who worked as a steward on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. In November 1857, Thomas became a full partner in the business and the name of the studio changed to Ball & Thomas. Three years later the union dissolved for unknown reasons, and Thomas continued in business with Tom Ball, still under the name of Ball & Thomas. Within two months a tornado destroyed that gallery, but many white friends helped them to repair the place, outfitting it more elaborately than before. On this placard are large reproductions of a cabinet card depicting young white siblings by Thomas, and a daguerreotype of the debonair Thomas, leaning his cheek upon his fist, elbow propped on a table. It is regrettable that this arresting original was not in the show. Fig. 8, Case related to "cartomania." Fig. 9, Map showing "J. P. Ball and A. Thomas' Cincinnati Studio Locations". Fig. 10, Civil War photographs, journals, military buttons, hat and belt. Crossing the room again, one encountered one of the most compelling cases in the exhibition, which displayed six cdvs, a Union Army uniform button, an ivory hair comb, a fan, two cdv albums (one open, one closed, to show the brass fittings), a copy of The Photograph Manual; A Practical Treatise (1862), and Robinson's Patent Photograph Album (patented 1865) (fig. 8). The latter was a box in which one mounted cdvs on a long piece of paper, then wound the scroll via exterior knobs and viewed the images through two oval windows on the lid. Four of the sitters are unidentified, but two African Americans' names are known, those of Edward W. Berry, a prominent caterer, and Mattie Allen. A white man, Timothy C. Day (1819-1869), is shown standing against a blank backdrop, hands in pockets and staring straight ahead. He became managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1849 and was elected to Congress in 1854. Although the header, "Carte de Visite: The Pocket Sized Images That Revolutionized Photography," of the accompanying text doesn't make it quite clear, this case deals with "cartomania," the intense demand for inexpensive, paper cartes-de-visite in the 1850s and 1860s. To the left of this case was a very useful map of Ball and Thomas's Cincinnati studio locations (fig. 9). The relatives had multiple places of businesses in the heart of downtown, on 4th and 5th Streets, as indicated by the circle on the city grid. Five colored dots indicated the prime real estate where the men worked, ca. 1851-1877. Next was one of the most popular collections in the show, concerning the Civil War (fig. 10). In addition to six cdvs were two Union Army uniform buttons, a military belt, and a U. S. Army Model 1858 officer's uniform hat (ca. 1863), and a letter from General Jacob Ammen to his wife, Martha Beasley Ammen (Jan. 29, 1862), in which he asked her to buy a regulation regimental color, including a belt and socket for the color bearer, from Shillito's, a Cincinnati department store. Two of the cdvs are of individual shots of the couple (ca. 1864-66). Another is of Henry Daggett (1842-1862). Also in the case is Dagget's diary (ca. 1861-62), in which he wrote about women in Bardstown, Kentucky who smiled in derision as Union troops marched through town. Daggett died after eating "green fruit" in 1862. The next wall label, "The Impact of Early Photography on Society," was brief, simply saying that the new medium had a transformational effect on American society, facilitating the memorialization of friends and family, changing the perception of time and history, and becoming part of the mourning and grieving process. In particular, stark photographs of the Civil War created a sensation. To drive home the point, there were two reproductions of photographs of dead Confederate soldiers on the Antietam battlefield by Alexander Gardner (1821-1882). Such personal effects and handwriting truly enlivened the display. Fig. 11, Timeline of J.P. Ball's life. Fig. 12, Cartes-de-visite of prominent people in Cincinnati. The "Timeline of J.P. Ball's Life" on a panoramic wall label might have been better placed at the beginning of the exhibition (fig. 11). It reproduces images already seen, such as the streetscape by Daguerre, a city directory advertisement for Ball's work, the panorama pamphlet cover, and woodblock print of Ball's studio, but also cabinet cards of unidentified white women who posed in Montana. Below this is a case of cdvs featuring Cincinnati leaders/celebrities, such as Robert Buchanan (1797-1879) (whose wife appeared earlier in the exhibition), Rev. Moncure D. Conway (1832-1907), Rabbi Max Lilienthal (1815-1882), surveyor R.C. Phillips (1811-1881), sculptor Thomas D. Jones (1811-1881), Professor William Byrd Powell (1799-1866), opera house owner Samuel N. Pike (1822-1872), and Ulysses Grant's mother and siblings, Orvil, Clara, and Virginia (fig. 12). The captions of the mini-biographies of these important people were larger than the photographs themselves, but they would be hard to read otherwise. Historical documents included a program for a performance of Hamlet at the opera house and a speech, "East and West: An Inaugural Discourse," that Conway delivered to the First Congregational Church in 1859 as he abandoned Unitarianism for his "free Church." In addition, there was a compelling cdv, a bust of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) with his leonine shock of white hair, when he spoke in Cincinnati on January 15, 1867, accompanied by a facsimile of a clipping about the event from the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. This assemblage indicated the respect with which prominent Cincinnatians held Ball. When faced with a choice of over thirty white photographers in town, they selected him, whether out of sympathy for African Americans generally, and/or because of Ball's skill, location, impressive business, and affordability, all factors he frequently touted in local newspapers. Rounding the next corner, one found a poignant display of family likenesses, such as the young Meader brothers, each standing in suits with their right arms resting on truncated columns, a mother cuddling her son (the Bishops), and three of the nine Graveson siblings, as well as their parents. Their father, Isaac, was a stonecutter who made the base and esplanade for the Tyler Davidson Fountain (1871). On view was a receipt from I. & W. Graveson Steam Mill and Stone Yard for services connected with the construction of the fountain. Assorted three-dimensional props included a child's cast iron top and accessories (ca. 1850) and children's leather shoes. Two of the most attractive images were delicate, hand-tinted ambrotypes of sisters Belle and Emma Dyer, wearing identical pink striped dresses. Also included were charming cdvs of brothers James and Wallace Polk, two of the few cdvs of African American children by Ball whose identities are known. Fig. 13, Case with camera on tripod, albumen print on back wall, and woman's blue dress. Fig. 14, Video screen with video showing the entire Cincinnati Museum Center collection of photography by Ball and his partners. The last case, a tall diorama of sorts, featured another woman's dress, an Empire Studio camera on a tripod with glass plate holders on the ground, and a large albumen print by Thomas on the wall (ca. 1878-1886; fig. 13). One label described the development of the dry plate camera around 1871. The other gave a mini-biography of Colonel William B. "Policy Bill" Smith (1828-1914) whose photograph Thomas took sitting in a horse-drawn carriage in front of a big house. Smith was commander of the First Regiment of the Ohio National Guard. The fact that someone of such stature selected Thomas as his photographer suggests the high esteem with which Cincinnati leaders held him. The final label, "Ball Moves South and West," traced Ball's peripatetic career. In 1871 he moved to Greenville, Mississippi, and later to Vidalia, Louisiana. (One wonders why a black man would head south during Reconstruction. Not stated here is the fact that Ball bought and sold quite a bit of real estate.) He then kept moving westward, following railroad lines, through Missouri, Minnesota, Montana (where he photographed Chinese immigrants at work, Catholic nuns, and black service men, among others), and Washington, practicing photography all the way. At the turn of the century, Ball moved to Honolulu, presumably to help relieve his crippling rheumatism. Ball had numerous adventures, challenges, and successes along the way, none of which are recounted here. The last item in the exhibition was a screen of moving digital reproductions of the entire collection of images by Ball and his partners in the CMC (fig. 14). The photographs were sometimes cropped, or not seen in their entirety, as the camera panned from head to toe, and the images appeared somewhat compressed horizontally. Still, at least one could see a much wider range of subjects, styles, and mediums than were physically on display. Even at the rate of only several seconds per image, the video program lasted about half an hour, and it seems that no one stayed to see the whole thing. Six CMC staff members co-curated An American Journey Scott Gampfer, Director of History Collections; Beth Gerber, Preservation Manager; Linda Bailey, Curator of Audiovisual Collections; David Conzett, Curator of History Objects; Dave Might, Exhibits Production Coordinator; and Jay Bader, Exhibit Project Coordinator. Although they did not produce a catalogue of the exhibition, there is a "capture" on the internet; one can read Ball's mini-biography and view scans of 231 of images by him and his partners on the online catalogue of the Cincinnati Historical Society Library: http://library.cincymuseum.org/ball/jpball.htm. In sum, this was an important show that gave viewers a sense of the scope and complexity of nineteenth-century daguerreotypy and photography, using Ball as a case study. This was not a major, traveling exhibition in an art museum accompanied by a full-color extensive catalogue (as many would have preferred), but rather a brief historical introduction to an extraordinary American whose career began in Cincinnati. The curatorial team did as well as it could, with very limited space and resources. An American Journey met its mark in contextualizing Ball's work and history in summary fashion, opening the door for deeper analysis of a fascinating man, one of a small community of nineteenth-century African American photographers. Theresa Leininger-Miller Associate Professor, Art History and Director of the Graduate Museum Studies Certificate Program University of Cincinnati theresa.leininger[at]uc.edu

melainotype

- The patent that Peter Neff was supposed to create for the Ferrotype only covered what was the melainotype - Neff attempted to exploit the process's commercial potential by building a tinplate factory, sending out teachers to instruct daguerreotype operators in anew method, and giving away a manual, The Melainotype Process Complete - known as Tintypes in America - A collodion photograph on either glass or metal, especially one on glass that has to be viewed against a dark background. - Mid 19th century; earliest use found in Porter's Spirit of Times. From ancient Greek μελαίνειν to turn black + -o- + -type.

binocular vision

- The phenomenon of stereo vision-the appearance of three-dimensionality based on binocular vision - was observed. as early as 280 B.C.E by Euclid - Leonardo calls attention to the topic and regrets that painting cannot render volume as persuasivley as the eye can perceive it. Regardless of how well chiaroscuro and perspective are used to create illusion of depth, they rarely overcome the obstacle of surface flatness. - Vision using two eyes with overlapping fields of view, allowing good perception of depth. (91)

picturesque

- William Gilpen - (of a place or building) visually attractive, especially in a quaint or charming way. - unusual and vivid. - Early 18th century from French pittoresque, from Italian pittoresco, from pittore 'painter' (from Latin pictor). The change from -tt- to -ct- was due to association with picture. - "picturesque effect" : Created by Sir William Newton, altering a negative by a chemical or other process to emphasize areas of light and shade while downplaying detail, or to make up for defects created in the process.

William H. Wollaston : Description of the Camera Lucida

- Wollaston (1766-1828) invented the Camera Lucida in 1807 - Camera Lucida = light room - this article attempts to address three interrelated matters... 1. the history of the camera Lucida's creation 2. the "principles on which it was constructed" 3. the many advantages it posses over the common camera obscura (dark room) - The Camera Lucida was assembled from three small glass pieces: a "pain glass", a mirror or "looking glass", and a "convex lens" MAIN GIST OF THE READING - this was a more portable replacement for the bulky camera obscura - while looking at both through a Camera Lucida and at a selected scene and simultaneously down at a piece of drawing paper, artists could trace the image virtually superimposed onto the paper by their "minds eye" - Wollaston claimed that with practice, objects and scenes before the Camera Lucida may be drawn with facility and with any required degree of precision - the original design and purpose of this was to instrument to facilitate the delineation of objects in true perspective - Wollaston struggled to draw just from looking and because of this, it was inspiration for him to create a device that the scene could naturally transfer to the paper. He hopes this device will be accepted by society and even to trained artists since it has more advantages than the camera obscura. - He states that if he holds a piece of plain glass between his eye and the paper at a 45 degree angle he can see the reflection of the scene however it is flipped upside down. He states that in order to have a direct view, he must have two reflections. The transparent glass must be inclined to the perpendicular line of site only the half of 45 degrees, that it may reflect the view a second time from a piece of looking glass placed beneath it inclined upwards at an equal angle. Making the projected image direct rather than reversed. - In order to be able to use the pencil without the issue of it being reversed, he fixes this by viewing the paper and pencil through a convex lens and get it in the right spot so that there is a perfect focus, allowing the viewer to see the pencil and scene correspond with the paper in distant as well as direction. - prismatic reflection: when a ray of light has entered a piece of solid glass, and falls within on a surface at an inclination of 22 or 23 degrees, the refractive power of the glass allows the light to pass out and the surface becomes a reflector - when the prismatic reflector is being used, since no light can be passed directly through it, the eye needs to be placed so that only the pupil may be intercepted by the prism. - Basically the pupil will see the scene that portion of the eye is looking at while the other part of the pupil can see the paper and pencil - In order to avoid inconvenience that happens due to motion of the eye, there is a small hole made of brass which by moving on centre is able to adjust the scene - Since the instrument is used so close to the eye, it is not necessary for it to be big - it can help a learner to copy what has already been drawn and become skilled in outlining - in order to do this the paper must be the same length away as the sketch so that they turn out the same size - this camera allows you to have two things at an unequal distance but allows your eye to see them both distinctly. - on the stem of the camera, there are measurements ensuring that you get the perfect distance each time - by transposing the convex lens you can enlarge a sketch - a deeper lens might deliniate an object in a deeper magnification COMPARING THE CAMERA OBSCURA TO THE CAMERA LUCIDA 1. The camera obscura is too large to be carried about with convienence. The Camera Lucida is as small and portable as can be wished. 2. In the camera obscura, all objects that are not situated near the centre of view are more or less distorted. In the camera lucida, there is no distortion; so that. every line, even the most remote from the centre of view, is as straight as those that pass through the centre. 3. In the camera obscura, the field of view does not extend more than 30 or 35 degrees at most with distinctness. In the camera lucida, as much as 70 or 80 degrees might be included in one view.

Ferrotype

- a collodion spin off - first described by Aldolphe Alexandre Martin in 1853 - The name ferrotype (Latin ferrum is iron) was originally used by Robert Hunt in the mid-1840's for a paper negative process (Energiatype) that utilized iron compound developer - the ferrotype was an enameled black or black-brown plate that was coated with collodion sensitized just before exposure. Basically, an ambrotype made on a thin sheet of iron instead of glass - the process was patented in 1856 by Hamilton L. Smith who assigned the patent rights to his partner Peter Neff - the patent only covered how to produce what Neff advertised as melainotypes.

Zoetrope

- a rotating cylinder with slits, through which one or more people could see sequential, simulated action drawing of acrobats, boxers, dancers, and jugglers permitted an immobile viewer to have a machine-generated visual experience unfold over time - 19th century - Mid 19th century formed irregularly from Greek zōē 'life' + -tropos 'turning'. - Invented by Joseph Plateau

carte-de-viste

- a spin off of the collodion process - visiting card - a number of photographers claimed credit for this process but the idea was patented by André-Adolphe-Eugene Disdéri and introduced it to the Parisian public in 1854 - the concept of using photography on documents such as licenses, passports, permits, and visiting cards was purposed by Louis Dodero of Marseilles in 1851 - aka carte - was a 2 1/4 X 3 1/2 inch photograph, usually a full or bust length portrait mounted on a 2 1/2 X 4 inch paper card. - a number of exposures were made with multi-lens camera on a single collodion wet plate these negative images were then all contact-printed together onto one sheet of albumen paper. Finally on cards. - The multi-lenses, referred to as tubes, could be individually uncovered (there was no shutters) making possible a variety of poses on a single plate. The intent was to take the time and expenses needed to make one print and divide into many prints, thereby reducing the cost of each unit. - The more carte people had made, the greater the photographers profit. - became popular in 1866 - Mid 19th century French, 'visiting card'. (page 78-82)

Sir William J. Newton : Upon Photography in an Artistic View, and in Its Relations to the Arts, 1853

- because people thought photography was a threat to traditional art media, Newton argued for hierarchy: all photographers should first learn how to draw, because the opposite approach could summon artistic laziness or worse, "injury". He says the only way to make photographs look like handmade drawings is to put them a little out of focus. - Franz Roh countered Newtons statement by arguing that it would be mere romanticism to maintain that "short cuts" by relieving him of all effort, lead but to mans greater dullness and laziness. On the contrary, he claimed that photographies labor saving provided access to visual literacy for larger numbers of people, and increased their capacity for self expression. MAIN GIST "With a view to establish that photography can only be considered as an science to those who investigate its properties; but that to the public; its results, as depicting natural objects, ought to be in accordance (as far as it is possible) with the acknowledged principle of fine arts" - The idea for a Photographic society came about due to photographies applicability to fine arts and the sciences and will produce important results for both - he isn't going to focus on photography as a science, but rather its artistic character which is most important, the mode proceeding which a photographer should adopt and how is labors and productions should bare upon it. What are these productions...? - the subjects very with the taste of the operator and the collection, which showed how solar action had been applied - every variety of subject from the, from the most solid and substantial to the most light and airy, were displayed with that exactitude of delineation which completely sets a naught the exertions of manual integrity: still the general tones of nature has yet to be accomplished by photography - it is vein to look for true representation of light and shade in photography, which is to be found in a work of fine art - What course therefore might a photographer to pursue? - let them devise and discover and perfect his practice in a laboratory but not forget that his subjects are principally natural objects, powerfully acted upon by atmospheric influence - make sure the pictures are not as chemically beautiful as they are artistically - the camera is by no means bound to teach the principles of art; but to those who are well versed in these principles this may serve as an advancement in their skills - it's not necessary for an artist to represent and attain every minute detail, but to capture natures details, the camera will help in that respect. He says its more interesting in the whole image is not in focus because its more realistic to the breath of nature - because photography hasn't been perfect yet, the rendering of colors is not accurate and therefore photography can't quite copy nature - depending on what you are photographing, is when you want to determine how much is in focus - when taking positives by the negative process; more artistic character is produced, more under control, greater certainty

Physionotrace

- created by Gilles Louis Chrétien in 1786 - it combined two inexpensive methods of portraiture: the cutout silhouette and the engraving - the operator could trace a profile onto glass using a stylus connected to an engraving tool that replicated the gesture of the stylus onto a copper plate at a reduced scale - a tracing could be done in about a minute and multiple tracings could be done from the same plate - reduced portrait making to a mechanical operation that required only moderate hand eye coordination - it expanded the portrait market to the middle class while mimicking the styles of miniaturist painters - satisfied societies desire for multiple copies of of an accurate visual description of ones presence and social status - late 18th and early 19th century - French, from physiono- (from physionomie facial features, from Middle French phisonomie, physionomie facial features, physiognomy) + -trace (from tracer to trace, draw)

Albumen Paper

- had a smooth, glossy, surface - Designed by Blanquart-Evrard in 1850 - Late 16th century from Latin, 'egg white', from albus 'white'. - rapidly supplanted the matter surface of the calotype and it remained in use until the end of the 19th century. - when making this paper, one was supposed to only use fresh eggs, then get the white of egg, entirely free from the germ and yolk, and beat the egg up well with a wooden spatula until completely converted to froth. This operation must be performed perfectly, free from dust as possible. Then the albuminous mixture is covered with a clean sheet of paper and put aside to sit for a couple of hours - The paper, once floated by hand, was stored for 3-6 months, so the albumen could completely harden, and then it was coated again and hung up to dry in reverse direction to equalize the unevenness of the first coating - this paper gave a new look and consistency to photographic print making, allowing for the simpler and more consistent production of editions, where the first to last images printed from the same image would look alike. (73-74)

William Henry Fox Talbot : Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing, March, 1839

- he defined photography as an art, specifically one he called photogenic drawing - Talbots photography was an art that replaced the artists hands/eyes/pencil with the sun, light, or nature. "Solar Pencil" - Talbot said Laycock Abbey was the first building to "draw its own picture" - Peter Geimer argues that "Talbot undoubtedly reaches a false conclusion when he remarks that 'it is not the artist who makes the picture, but the picture which makes itself'" - an English country house cannot produce an image of itself MAIN GIST - In spring of 1834, he employed the use of a chemical property known by the nitrate of silver to discolorate when exposed to UV light rays - he thought it could be used when spread in a sufficient quantity onto paper, the paper would then be set in the sunlight with an object casting a shadow onto it. The light would blacken the rest of the paper and the shadow covering would remain white. - by doing this he knew the image would look somewhat like the shadow - he also figured out after the image sat in the light after removing the shadow that the whole paper would go black. He would have to keep the images in a portfolio and only view them by candle light. - After experimenting with this process, he questioned whether the process had been done before. - the only account that he had found was in the Journal of Royal Institution that explained that the idea was originally started by Mr. Wedgewood and Sir Humphry Davy, but their attempts ended in failure. - after discussing this with a scientist, he found that Wedgewood and Davy gave up too soon (even after entertaining the idea) to fix the images APPLICATIONS OF THIS PROCESS - the first objects he attempted to copy we're of flowers and leaves. - He figured out that no matter the size of the object he chose, it took the same amount of time to create the image. He says that the same capturing by drawing or painting would take days and weeks but with this process would only take seconds. - to prove the accuracy of this process, he used a piece of lace to create an image and when he held the image up away from the viewer, the viewer thought the picture was actually lace. ON THE ART OF FIXING A SHADOW - he figured out how to fix the image on the paper so if exposed to the sun again it will prevent any change from occurring - he also figured out that not all images need to be fixed and there are a few ways the images will remain as long as it is not in direct sunlight. - he says there is a type of paper that is good if you need to preserve an image for a certain amount of time, that you can expose the paper and then put it in a portfolio, however the ground is not even PORTRAITS - this method would be helpful in making outline portraits or silhouettes since the hand can cause err PAINTING ON GLASS - the glass itself around the painting should be blackened - paintings on the glass should have no bright yellow or reds because they stop the violet rays - the pictures formed from this resemble the work of a pencil more than any other - he claims people he have shown these images to have mistaken them for hand drawing - he says he even saw reminents of color but didn't pursue this idea further APPLICATION TO THE MICROSCOPE - he claims this process will be helpful when using a microscope because no one has the patients to draw all the details with pencil - when the sensitized paper is placed in a dark chamber and the magnified image is projected and while exposing for a quarter of an hour, the image is done - saves time and trouble - there are many objects, especially microscopic crystallizations, which alter so greatly in the course of three or four days that they can't be drawn in the usual way - when a sheet of sensitized paper is brought to a window (where the sun doesn't shine) it still discolors. So since it is exposed by daylight, it must not be left uncovered, and be put to dry in the dark or at night by the fire. ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND EXTERNAL NATURE - he says it would be interesting to capture the general shapes and tints and shades from the natural scenes projected from the camera obscura - he tests this by making his own camera obscura and puting a light sensitive sheet inside, taking it 100 yards from a building and after an hour or two of exposure saw the building on the sheet. - he then made a smaller camera obscura with a smaller lens to test this out and found he got a distinct image but it was small - in the summer of 1835, he made small cameras and adjusted the paper to the proper focus and positioned them infront of his house. After a half an hour, he took them inside to open - he is aware that this process is not perfect and therefore cant replace the pencil completely DELINIATIONS OF SCULPTURE - he used this process to copy statues and bas-reliefs COPYING ENGRAVINGS - this process may be used to copy drawings/engravings - the engraving is pressed on upon the paper side with its engraved side in contact with the paper. the pressure must be as uniform as possible so the contrast will be perfect. When placed in the sun, the solar light gradually transferses the paper, except where the lines of the engraving are. - the exposure time depends on thickness of paper - the only way an engraving could be ruined is if a stain gets on it but even then a stain cam be removed with a chemical which doesn't damage the print or engraving

Salted Paper Print

- invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1833 - a printing-out process that allowed him to make camera-less images of botanical specimens, engravings, pieces of lace, and even solar photomicrographs - for Talbots first prints he soaked sheets of ordinary writing paper with sodium chloride, permitted them to dry, and then recoated them with silver nitrate, forming silver chloride - he discovered that silver chloride was more sensitive to light than silver nitrate and thus reduced exposure time - the image and paper became one (no separation between the emulsion and its support)

Camera Lucida

- invented by the English scientist William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) in 1807 - was an optical instrument (not camera) designed to help one overcome a lack of drawing skill - consisted of a glass prism, held at eye level by a brass rod attached to a flat, portable drawing board - one looked into the peephole at the center of the prism and simultaneously saw both the subject and the drawing surface. - The idea was to let ones pencil be guided by the "virtual image" and to trace the image onto a sheet of paper attached to a drawing board - was difficult to operate, leading Henry Fox Talbot to find an automatic way to record a scene - ETYMOLOGY/ALTERNATE NAME : latin for "light chamber"

camera obscura

- literally means "dark chamber" in latin -early 18th cen the discovery being credited to Ibn al-Haythem - designed to reproduce linear perspective - a large dark room an artist physically entered - light filtered through a small hole in one of the walls and projected a distinct, but inverted, color image onto the opposite wall that could then be traced - Leonardo da Vinci wrote the earliest surviving description of the camera, as a device designed to reproduce linear perspective. - the prototype of the photographic camera - Before Leonardo, Alberti created a device which seems to have been somewhat like a camera obscura, the images which he called "miracles of painting" - Albrecht Durer was one of the first to ingeniously adapt these camera-based principles of prospective and proportion to his drawings - in 1558, Giovanni Battista della Porta published his treatise Magiae Naturalis (Natural Magic) describing the camera obscura and how It could make drawing easier (pages 3-4)

Szarkowski : The Photographers Eye

- photography is a process based on synthesis not selection - Paintings were made constructed from a storehouse of traditional schemes and skills and attitudes but photographs were taken - this new medium could not satisfy the old standards and the photographer must find new ways to make his meaning clear. - photography has been practiced by those who shared no common tradition or training, who were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as science, an art, a trade, an entertainment, and who were often unaware of each others work - the enormous popularity of the new medium produced professionals by the thousands - each picture was part of a massive assault on our traditional habits of seeing - people complained that this developed a wave of people taking photos of everything and not focusing on the important aspects - some of the new images were memorable and seemed significant beyond their limited intention - Painting was difficult, expensive, and precious and it recorded what was known to be important. Photography was easy, cheap, and ubiquitous, and it recorded anything - the photographer learned in two ways: first from a workers intimate understanding of his tools and materials and second he learned from other photographs PROBLEMS IN THE MEDIUM 1. The Thing itself - photography dealt with the actual - he learned that the world itself is an artists of incomparable inventiveness, and that to recognize its best works and movements, to anticipate them, to clarify them and to make them permanent, requires intelligence both actual and supple. - what the photographer believes to be factual is different from the reality itself - it was the photographers problem to see not simply the reality before him but the still invisible picture - what our eyes see is an illusion and the camera sees the truth - the image would survive the subject and become the remembered reality 2. The Detail - the photographer can only isolate a fragment not assemble the whole narrative - if photographs could not be read as stories they could be read as symbols - the function of photographs is not to make the story clear but to make it real 3. The Frame - The central act of photography, the act of choosing and eliminating forces of concentration on the picture edge - the line that separates in from out- and on the shapes that are created by it 4. Time - there is no such thing as an instantaneous photograph - it alludes to the past and future only in so far that they exist in the present, the past through its surviving relics, the future through prophecy visible in the present - there was pleasure and beauty in this fragmenting of time that had little to do with what was happening. It had to do rather with seeing the momentary patterning of lines and shapes that had been previously concealed within the flux of movement. 5. Vantage Point - it is photography that has taught us to see from an unexpected vantage point and has shown us pictures that give the sense of the scene, while withholding its narrative meaning -

Plato : Allegory of the Cave in The Republic

- the allegory relates to photography because it's an imaging system in which shadow images of the world are brought to the attention of viewers who do not experience the "real" world directly - this text is sited as an alternative beginning point for humanities fascination with cameras - Theorists suggest that Platos cave, and shadowy images projected inside of it, could be regarded as the first camera, or camera obscura - the title Republic relates to the issue of how an ideal state should be governed - Socrates starts by asking "how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened". He contrasts a republic with those extant "in which men fight with one another about the shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is great good" - Plato stresses the importance of honoring one's awareness of the shadows one sees and of understanding the limitations of human perception, visual or otherwise The Main Gist - For the prisoners, the shadows is all they know since they cannot turn their heads. It is what they believe to be true especially since they name these shadows. They would also relate any sounds or voices with the shadows. - Basically, the whole truth for them is the shadows of the images - When a prisoner has been freed they want to turn towards the light, but when it hurts their eyes they don't want to look. They realize that what they saw in the shadows was an illusion and at this point they can make a choice. Either to stay and treat the shadows as fact or walk into the sun, though it may be difficult, and learn - When his eyes adjust he will have a "clearer vision" and will be confused when he sees the objects because he will believe the shadows are truth. However, though it is difficult and sometimes needs to be forced, he will see the sun and reflections on the water, coming to realize the sun is truth shining light on objects that then cast shadows. - The idea of this is that the things in the physical realm are not all that is there and therefore is an illusion to the bigger picture. - When he goes back to the cave to tell the prisoners of what he learned, the try to fight him because they don't believe him since they have not had an awakening themselves and continue to believe the shadows are reality. Main Arguments - Plato is discussing how education can be tough journey. - A lot of times when we are not willing to learn we are forced to become enlightened. - The prisoners in the cave who only accept the shadows as truth are the living example of ignorance being bliss. It is easier to be comfortable in what you know than to see other points of view or to grow as a learner. - This reading is supposed to relate to Socrates who was killed because no one believed his findings and the people at the time thought he was too radical and so he was dangerous. - The prisoners in the cave also serve as a way to say that the people in power can have a hold on the public by keeping the truth from them, for if they know the truth they could over take them. - grouping concrete things under abstract terms - bascially urging the reader to break towards "the light" even though it may be difficult because it will help you to grow in your education.

gold-toned

- the base color of the paper, once dominion of each photographer, also became standardized as commercially prepared papers in a limited range of colors achieved market dominion. - These new surface changes provided unmistakeable evidence that the image originated from a photo based process, Albumen prints were gold-toned to make the print more stable and to alter the intense red-brick color to more acceptable warm purplish-brown or even blue-black hue.

tonal masses

- the calotype excelled in effect, the emotional atmosphere created by the artist's handling of this as distinguished from linear elements. - Definition: areas of light and shadow. - As photographers considered the artistic potential of their medium, they adopted these painterly concepts, considering photographic detail a mechanical imprint, and the control of tonality as the mark of artistry. - 19th century usage/invention

Tintype

- the name known in America but is a melainotype - made in a variety of sizes, the most common being 2 1/4 X 3 1/2 inches (about the same size as albumen on paper carte de visit) and were often hand colored - never achieved a high level of art market influence, but it did find a niche and - perhaps due to its very low cost materials - outlasted all the wet plate processes (a dry tintype process was introduced in 1891) - Itnerant and street photographers used this until they switched to polaroids in the 1950's and 60's - the visual currency of soldiers and their families during the American Civil War because they were lightweight, durable, cheap, with little "gem" size tintypes, taken with multiples for 25 cents. - many tin typists were unskilled in other photographic processes and occupied the lowest rung on the photographer latter. (76-77)

Calotype

1841 - Talbot deduced that the gallic acid with which he brushed the paper prior to exposure had acted as a developer, causing an invisible latent image (enclosed by light) to appear. - from the greek words kalos (beautiful) and tupos (impression), meaning "beautiful print" - involved taking an exposed sheet of iodized paper into the darkroom and brushing it with gallic acid until a potent negative was developed. This negative was contact-printed onto unexposed, salted paper in sunlight to form a positive print - the procedure formalized photography as a two-step process beginning with one tonally reversed (negative) image from which (theoretically) infinite number of tonally correct positive copies could be produced - formed the foundation for the silver-based negative/positive photographic system that reigned the supreme until the arrival of digital image-making - ANOTHER NAME - Talbotype

John Berger : Understanding the Photograph

Class Notes: - art critic, novelest, poet, painter - He does not think of photography as a fine art or any art as a fine art for that matter because of the monetary value involved. - This would mean they are property - He celebrates that photography is reproduceable because then it can never be valueable. - He likes that everyone can do it - His writing is Marxist; he is concerned with economies and values - He says photos shouldn't be any more valueable than a cartiogram because it's just a visual. - The element of photography that is different from any other art is the use of light and time. Photography is about documenting but mostly about this moment in time. "This is worth recording" - What's special about photography is what you're not showing - language of photography is the language of events - chosen moment in time Reading Notes - photographers and their apologists have argued that photography should be considered a fine art - the vast majority of people do not consider photography to be a fine art even though they practice, enjoy, and value it - It looks as though photography (whatever kind of activity it may be) is going to outlive painting and sculpture as we have thought of them since the Reniassance - museums do not keep many photographs and therefore photographs are not being historically preserved - painting and sculpture are dying because no work of art can survive and not become valuble property. this implies death because property, as once it was not, is now inevitably opposed to other values. - photographs have little or no property value because they have no rarity value. the very principle of photography is the the resulting image not unique, but reproducible - photographs are recorded of things seen - our mistake has been to categorize things as art by considering certain phases of the process of creation. But logically this can make all man-made objects art. It is more useful to categorize art by what has become its social function. - a photograph is a result of a photographers decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen. - I have decided that seeing this is worth recording - What distinguishes memorable photographs from the most banal shots are the degree to which the photograph explains the message, the degree to which the photograph makes the photographers decision transparent and comprehensible - The paradox of the photograph: the photograph is an automatic record through the mediation of light of a given event: yet it uses the given event to explain its recording. Photography is the process of rendering observation and self-consciousness. - The idea of a well-photographed image being well-composed only rings true if we think of photographic images imitating painted ones. - Nothing is arranged in a photograph like in a painting. The formal arrangement of a photograph explains nothing. - The true content of a photograph are invisible, for it derives from play, not with form, but with time. - while a photograph records what is scene but naturally refers to what is not seen. It isolates, preserves, and presents a moment taken from a continueum - one learns to read photographs as one learns to read footprints or cardiograms, the language it deals is the language of events - the only decision a photographer can make is the moment they choose to isolate - what is shows invokes what is not shown - this quantum truth may be found in an expression, action, juxtaposition, visual ambiguity, or a configuration - There is no transforming in photography, only decision, only focus - the degree to which I believe this is worth looking at can be judged by all that I am willingly not showing because it is contained from within - every photograph is in fact a means of testing, confirming, and constructing a total view of reality

hyalotype

Created by the Langenheim brothers - in 1854, they created the American Stereoscopic Company and began to sell settee views (both glass transparencies and card-mounted prints) of American scenery originally recorded as hyalotypes. - Definition: clones of Niépce de Saint-Victors process that used albumen to bind a silver salt emulsion to a glass plate, were almost identical to John Adams Whipple's previously patented crystalotype albumen plates. - hyalotypes (from Greek hualos meaning glass) - the brothers used this process to produce magic lantern slides, making the first images designed for projection

Anthotype

Definition: a paper process sensitized with various plant juices that formed the final image by removing the unwanted parts of the emulsion through a bleach-out method and is a forerunner of the silver-dye-destruction processes (which were later used to make color prints from transparencies) - Herschel invented this in 1842 (used mid 19th century) - antho = from the greek meaning a flower of flowers - type = from latin typus "figure, image, form, kind" from Greece typos "impression, mark, effect or figure in relief, image, or statue"

François Arago : Report [on the Daguerreotype to the Chamber of Deputies] July 1839

In class discussion notes - Daguerre and Niépce were partners until Niépce died and his son, Isodore, took his place. The process of the Daguerreotype had been happening since 1822 - Daguerre went to Arago asking for help and for a deal to be cut for him. Arago was very excited about Daguerres process and thought they should tell the government about it. - Arago wanted to go to the government and make a public proclimation so Daguerre would give for free as Frances gift to the world and in exchange the French government would give him a small pension for it. - It's part patriotism and part nationalism. Arago is really proud of his compatriots and experiments and wants to make this widely available. - Daguerre wondered whether he should take a lump some or a lifetime pension. He chose a life pension because a lump some might just seem like a pension as if he gave the process over to someone. - Initially he was going to split the pension with Isodore but Daguerre ended up getting more money because Isodore was not able to contribute as much to the project after his father died. - daguerre was sharing not only his photographic process but his inking process serving as a joint reveal. -Under what circumbstance did Arago sponser Daguerres invention? (4 main reasons the French Government should sponsor the Daguerreotype): Is the process of M. Daguerre unquestionably an original invention? Is this invention one which will render a valuable service to archaeology and the fine arts? Can this invention be practically useful? Is it to be expected that the sciences may derive any advantage from it? 1- Arago establishes that this is an original invention and he explains the years of research that went into it and how Daguerre was able to increase the rapidity of the project from going from 10-12 hours down to just a few minutes. This is incredible because once Daguerre figured out how to "fix" the image for years their purity, brilliance, and harmony would remain. 2- In terms of helping archaelogy, instead of taking leigions of people to draw the hieroglyphics in Egypt, which would take decades, you can take a Daguerreotype and have crystal clarity of it. The government had sent this commission to do archaelogical research so this will be a huge boom to the sciences. 2- In terms of the fine arts, Paul Delarache supported the Daguerreotype saying it would be a great aide to the arts. It will be helpful to painters because of its unimaginable precision 3- Arago is saying that it is quite practical and even though it involves some chemicals and even though it is on metal instead of paper, it's not that expensive (only 3 or 4 francs) and you could reuse the same plates excessively. The process isn't that hard an anyone can learn it. 4- Besides archaeology, Arago is excited the Daguerreotype can be used for astronomy, to study the moon-planets-and stars. This will be especially helpful for physisists because they will be able to calculate distances based on light. Reading - Daguerre received governmental compensations for his work where Talbot did not. Daguerre was more of a business man anyhow - François Arago was Daguerres champion. He was a politician in the Chamber of Deputies and Secretary of the Academy of Sciences - He presented this report in order to purpose a Bill for the purchase of the Invention of the Daguerreotype by the French Government to donate to the world at large - in exchange for lifetime yearly pensions of 6,000 francs for Daguerre and 4,000 for Isodore Niépce (Nicéphores son, Nicéphore was his original partner), the partners agreed to give their process to the world - the bill passed easily in July 1839 - Daguerre also got this patented in Britain - critics argue the Arago' argument was overdetermined and conflates photography-as-an-end and photography-as-a-means as well as demonstrates the powerful tendency of the bourgeois thought to collapse the teleology into the sheer, ponderance immanence of technological developement MAIN GIST - the interest in the invention of the Daguerreotype was keen, enthusiastic, and unanimous - he asks the commerce to take great care in making the decision to pass the bill and that there will be high rewards asked of them in the name of National glory - Chamber lines followed in the examination... 1. Is the process of M. Daguerre unquestionably an original invention? 2. Is this invention one which will render a valuable service to archaeology and the fine arts? 3. Can this invention be practically useful? 4. Is it to be expected that the sciences may derive any advantage from it? - Partnership agreement between Niépce and Daguerre in December 14, 1829 - later agreement made between Daguerre and Niépces' son, Isodore, to be heir/new partner - this later agreement mentions improvements made by Isodore added to the method invented by physicist Chalon and an entirely new process discovered by Daguerre (capable of reproducing images sixty to eighty times more rapidly than earlier processes) - Niépce had many trial and error moments and almost completely gave up hope ... - the chemical preparations he used did not darken quick enough under the action of light (required 10-12 hours of exposure) - during the long time of exposure, the shadows of the subject would change from one side to the other so that the resulting picture was flat and monotonous in tones, lacking all pleasing effects which arise from the contrast of light and shade - one was never certain of a successful result because after taking enumerable precautions, inexplicable and accidental occurrences intervened. There was sometimes a passable result, or an incomplete image resulted showing incomplete spaces - when exposed to sunlight, the sensitive coating if it refused to darken would become brittle and flake off MORAL OF THE STORY - because of the discovery of this method being achieved after countless laborious, delicate, and costly experiments, that Daguerre should be credited. - the effect of sunlight on the finished pictures does not diminish even after years - Arago reminds the commerce of their exploration of Egypt in 1798 and how if they had had photography then that they would possess pictorial records of what they learned and uses this as an example of what the Daguerreotype could do for them now. - he goes further to use an example of copying hyroglyphics and that by hand it would take years but by Daguerreotype would do it faster and in perfect accuracy - He also claims that because the Daguerreotype follows the laws of geometry, that they can re-establish the exact size of in accessible structures - this process has economic advantages which goes hand in hand with prefecting production in the arts - Arago uses M. Paul Delaroche's argument to say that even the best painters will use the Daguerreotype in helping them to create work - Arago stresses that the Daguerreotype has unimaginable precision of detail which does not disturb from the general effect - Delaroche also says that the Daguerrotype is important to a painters afterstudy - the plates on which light produces the admirable picture images are plated tablets i.e., copper plates which have been coated with a thin deposit of silver - Arago does state that although paper would have been better, it did not work as well, it had a lack of sensitivity, the confused image, the uncertainty of results, and the accidents which often happened during the operation of reversing the lights and shadows - Arago mentions that although it is expensive to make these plates, the plates can be reused - The success of Daguerre can be attributed to... - in part the fact that he uses an extremly thin coating, a vertible film (need not concern themselves with the cost of material because it was so cheap) - it calls for no manipulation - no knowledge of the art of drawing and demands no special dexterity - when the rules are followed step by step anyone can do the process as good as Daguerre - the exposure time is only 10-12 minutes during the winter and 5-6 in the summer, 2-3 in the south. In total from set up to take down it only takes about half an hour. - the perfection, delicacy, and harmony of the picture images are the result of the perfect smoothness and incalcuable thin coating - Daguerre feels that before any further developements that he should recieve a National award - Arago claims that because the Daguerreotype has a bleaching power and that the moon has the same rays of light that they will be able to document astronomy - Arago says this process will help physists study different kinds of light and their effects and can reuse plates to compare - Arago uses the example of accidental discovery in nature with the story of the children and the two lenses that is adopted by the astronomers to see different stars and planets. (Aka the telescope) He also uses this in an example of the microscope - The discovery of Daguerreotype offers interests under 4 aspects... 1. its originality 2. it's usefulness in the arts 3. it's speed of execution 4. the valuble aid which science will find in it - Arago persudaes the commerce by urging them to accept this because they should be the first nation to share this idea and not let anyone else get there first - Arago says that Daguerre remarked that the stipulation of a lumped sum might give the contract the character of scale. It would not be the same with a pension

gilding

Inventor: Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau Date: 1841 - In the assembly line approach, a gilders job is to tone the image being made - improved the plates contrast to make it less susceptible to to abrasion and oxidation thus increasing it's life expectancy. - Middle English, from Old English gyldan; akin to Old English gold gold

Afterimage

the presence of a visual sensation in the absence of a visual stimulus - discussed by Goethe in his theory of colors (1810) - "whatever the eye saw was 'optical truth' and there was no such thing as an illusion" - the eye constituted a model of autonomous vision: the optical experience is produced by and within the person - this theory challenged the Aristotelian belief in the truthfulness of optical perception by tethering the act of observation to the body, fusing time and vision -19th century

Photogenic Drawing

the term Talbot used to describe this early salted paper process, is the archetype for the silver printing-out papers of the nineteenth century - incorporated the textural imprint of the paper into the picture, the process produced a broad tonal range that favored volume and shape over detail - talbots exposure times were excessive and the process initially appeared overly complex, involving a second series of steps to produce a finished image - did not compare with the exact verisimilitude of the daguerreotype - In Talbots "Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing (January 1839) indicates awareness that the temporal premise of his process was different from other tracing methods. It brought together transitory and permanent elements. It took no less time or effort to record a simple subject than it did a complex one. - mid 19th cen - (W. H. Fox Talbot's word for) a photograph; specifically a photographic image of a flat translucent object (as a drawing on translucent paper, a leaf, etc.) obtained by placing the object under glass in contact with light-sensitive material; (also, as a mass noun) this art or process, photography. - "produced or caused by light" - etymology: photo=light, genic=produced by