photo history 2

Metaphor

n literature, a metaphor is a figure of speech that suggests an analogy between two elements by using one to stand for the other. A photographic metaphor works in the same way when the subject or content of a photograph transcends mere description to serve as a symbol.

Conceptual Photography

Conceptual art may have less to do with traditional aesthetic expression than with the presentation of ideas about the medium an artist is using, our perceptual habits as humans, or the culture we live in. Photography is the perfect medium for conceptual practice because it is fundamentally based upon looking, generally related to the world, and quite frequently accepted as a surrogate for that which it represents.

Deadpan

the most popular or common definition of this contemporary style is that a Deadpan photograph is evoid of emotion expressed as a straight forward, uninflected photograph of a subject. Deadpan images are frequently photographed from a frontal perspective with little or no visual affectation or "emotional" affectation if the subject is a humam. The deadpan photograph simply says "this is how things are". Deadpan portraits show people in their natural state, typically not showing any sort of emotion.

Alternative Process

A general term that refers to photographic processes that deviate from traditional silver-based photography and/or allow the photographer to significantly manipulate the image throughout the picture making process. In most alternative processes, the photographer prepares her own photographic emulsion that can be applied to a number of surfaces such as paper, wood, ceramic, cloth, etc. Many experimenting with alternative processes combine them with other media such as painting and drawing. Examples of non-silver, alternative processes include cyanotype, gum print, and platinum print. Silver-based alternative processes include: salt print and Van Dyke brown print.

Photogram

A general term used to identify a photographic image made without a camera. Transparent, opaque and semi-opaque objects are placed on top of a piece of photographic paper or film, exposed to light and processed to reveal areas of light and dark. Talbot called images made in this way Photogenic Drawings.

Group f/64

A group of photographers including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and others active in the San Francisco Bay area during the early 1930s. The group's preference for sharp focus and strict adherence to not manipulating the photograph before or after exposure was in contrast to the soft-focus, manipulated imagery popular with Pictorialist photographers. The name "f/64" was taken from the smallest aperture available on large-format view cameras that resulted in images of great clarity and depth of field. Edward Weston occasionally displayed work with the group but was not an official member.

Postvisualization

A photographic approach codified by Jerry Uelsmann in the 1960s. Uelsmann believed that the pre-visualized approach in photography had restricted experimentation by neglecting the importance of "in-process discovery" that was so characteristic of all other arts. Uelsmann called for a broad-based approach to photography that was open to experimentation and receptive to a re-visualization of the image at any point in the entire photographic process. In his own work, Uelsmann gave new attention to working in the darkroom which he believed was like "a visual research lab; a place for discovery, observation, and meditation." (

Previsualization

A photographic approach in which the photographer "visualizes" how the print will look before the negative is exposed. Previsualization is inextricably connected with a purist or straight approach to photography. Purist photographers conceived of the photograph as "a window on the world," with the goal being to produce as much information in the photograph to advance its illusionism. (See straight photography, zone system, Postvisualization)

Halftone

A photographic reproduction (as in a newspaper or magazine) created on a printing press from a metal plate. The tonal range of a photograph (whites, grays and blacks) is recreated on the plate as raised dots in white or black that will be printed with ink for a near photographic appearance. If you look at an image in a book with a magnifier, you will see the halftone dots.

Decisive Moment

A term describing a photographic approach most closely associated with 35mm street photography - particularly European photojournalism of the 1930s, 1940s, and later. In 1952, the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson published a book of his "street" photographs in which he coined the term moment décisif. He described the approach as "the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression." Decisive moment photography is characterized by a visual elegance and geometric arrangement that, at times, can appear as if staged. By the late 1950s, photographers such as Robert Frank challenged decisive moment photography by producing images that arguably lacked formal elegance, but were nevertheless spontaneous and psychologically charged glimpses of everyday life.

Equivalent

A term first used by Alfred Stieglitz referring to a photograph used as a visual metaphor. In other words: showing one thing in a photograph but symbolizing or evoking another thought or idea. Stieglitz's earliest photographic equivalents were of clouds that (for him) communicated emotional states, much like music. In order for a photograph to function as an equivalent (symbolically), the viewer must be able to "read" it as more than just a descriptive picture of something or someone. (See metaphor)

Straight Photography

An approach to photography in which non-photographic manipulations of the photographic negative or print image are shunned or kept to a minimum for reasons of truthful documentation or aesthetic choice. (See the work of Weston, Strand, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans)

Collage

Collage (to glue) is combining different visual materials, photographic or not, on a common support. Generally, collages are roughly hewn with little or no attempt to conceal the edges of the individual parts. There may also be handiwork with pen, pencil, or other medium on the surface. See Montage.

Pinhole Camera

Essentially a miniature camera obscura. Light is projected through a pinhole onto light sensitive paper or film placed opposite the pinhole. Pinhole cameras continue to be popular with photographers interested in making their own cameras and experimenting with the expressive effects of this primitive form of photography.

Montage

Montage or photomontage refers to the combination of two or more negatives into one print. The simplest way to make a photomontage is to make a print from two negatives "sandwiched" together. Another method is to print two or more negatives on a single piece of photographic paper in the darkroom. A montage can also be created by constructing an image through a computer software program such as Photoshop. Photomontages are sometimes called combination or multiple prints.

Postmodernism

One might suggest that postmodernist art is not illustrated by a particular style but rather by a collection of ideas about how art functions within the contemporary culture. Postmodernist ideas about art spawned imagery (beginning in the late 1970s) that directly addressed issues of self, race, gender, class, environment, politics, etc., rather than traditional modernist notions of form, style, beauty, and individual expression. In postmodern art, the "image" is understood as more of a commentary upon the world than a statement about what the world looks like.

Documentary Photography (Social Documentary

Photographs made to record or interpret a subject, often with a preconceived viewpoint or purpose in mind. Documentary photography is dependent upon the realism of the photograph. When used in social campaigns by individuals and governments, photography of this type is usually referred to as "social documentary" photography.

Photojournalism

Reporting with a camera. Typically, the type of photographs published in newspapers, magazines, and television that are linked to the coverage of newsworthy events. In theory, photojournalistic photographs are understood as informational/objective images. However, journalistic images can also serve didactic or political functions.

Appropriation

Simply stated, appropriation is taking an image from its original context and using it for another purpose. Appropriation of images probably had its earliest manifestation in the making of collages and montages from preexistent images both photographic and non-photographic.

Staged Photography (Tableau Photography)

Staged photography (aka directorial, fabricated, tableau photography) is predicated upon the photographer fabricating subject matter or scenes that may or may not refer directly to reality. Staged photography places emphasis upon the fictional nature of photography by using the realism of the medium to create elaborate and unrealistic images.

Farm Security Administration

The FSA was established in 1935 by the US Government to support small farmers by helping refurbish land and communities ruined by the Depression. Roy Stryker, head of the administration's Historical Section, hired photographers to document the people and land affected by the Depression. The result was a vast image bank of documentary photographs. The photography produced by the FSA revealed how documentary photography could serve as a force for social change (and political purposes).

Digital Imaging

The procedure of breaking an image into discrete areas, called pixels, and assigning numbers to the average color and density of each area. The numbers can then be stored and manipulated by computer techniques. The number of pixels determines the resolution for a digital image, with a greater number of pixels providing higher resolution. Digital images are achieved in one or a combination of the following ways: The image is electronically created by a digital camera that encodes pictures on a photosensitive electronic chip instead of photographic film. The digital file can then be transferred directly to computer. Digital images can also be created in the computer via a variety of graphics software, or by scanning a photograph or other image into a digital file

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