The Camera Arts
Time and the Fourth Dimension
“…a process of instant assemblage, instant collage.”
- Robert Rauschenberg
Walker Evans, Roadside Store between Tuscaloosa and
Greensboro, Alabama, 1936
Early History of Photography
• camera is the Latin word for “room”
• in the 16th century the camera obscura – a
darkened room – was used by artists to
copy nature accurately – eventually small
portable “dark boxes” came into use
• the major drawback – images could not be
preserved
Camera Obscura
The Birth of Photography
Photogenic Drawing and
The Daguerrotype
Photogenic Drawing
• Invented in 1839 by William Henry Fox
Talbot.
• Negative images are fixed on paper using
light sensitive chemicals
William Henry Talbot Fox, Botanical, 1839
The Daguerrotype
• Invented in 1839 by two inventors –
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis
Jacques Mandé Daguerre.
• The use of light sensitive chemicals on a
polished metal plate produced a
permanent positive image.
Pros and Cons of Daguerrotype
• The medium was an
instant success.
• It became the preferred
medium for portraiture.
• The availability of
portraits were no longer
limited to the wealthy.
• The process of preparing,
exposing and developing
the plate was lengthy and
time consuming.
• The sitter had to remain
absolutely still during the
exposure period (from 1
to 10 minutes) to avoid
blurring.
• The image could not be
reproduced.
Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Le Boulevard du Temple, 1839
“From now on, painting is dead!” – Paul Delaroche, painter
Richard Beard, Maria Edgeworth, 1841,
Daguerrotype.
Calotype
• Talbot improved upon the photogenic drawing
process by using sensitized paper.
• The exposure time was greatly reduced (from
minutes to seconds) and produced a latent
image that could be developed by dipping the
paper in gallic acid.
• This process is the basis of modern photography
William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1843
Wet-Plate Collodion
• Introduced in 1850 and almost universally
adopted in 5 years.
• A dark-room technique.
• Liquid collodion (pyroxyline dissolved in
alcohol or ether) is poured over a glass
plate bathed in a solution of silver nitrate.
Wet-Plate Collodion
• Exposure time was short – 15 minutes.
• Process cumbersome and TOXIC.
Julia Margaret Cameron
Self-Portrait
I Wait, 1860’s
Documentary Photography
Timothy O’Sullivan, Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863
The tension between form and content.
Timothy O’Sullivan, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, 1870
The tension between form and content.
Alfred Stieglitz, Evening
from the Shelton, 1931
The tension between form and content.
Charles Sheeler, Criss-Crossed
Conveyors – Ford Plant, 1927
The tension between form and content.
Paula Martino, Steel SpiralAlcratraz Penitentiary, 2005
Filo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for this photograph.
John Paul Filo, Kent State-Girl Screaming over Dead Body,
May 4, 1970
Word and Image
Ron Haeberle, Peter Brandt, and the Art Workers’ Coalition,
Q. And Babies? A. And Babies., 1970
Conflicts between the real and the ideal.
Color Photography
Joel Meyerwitz on the use of color
photography
“Color makes everything more interesting.
Color suggests more things to look at, new
subjects for me. Color suggests that light
itself is a subject.
…..There’s more content! The form for the
content is more complex, more interesting
to work with.”
Joel Meyerowitz, Porch, Provincetown, 1977
Digital Photography
Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 1999
From Still Pictures to Film
The Birth of Movies
D.W. Griffith, Innovator and Master
of Film Editing
• Griffith sought to create visual variety
using an alternating repertoire of shots.
• He innovated the full shot, medium shot,
close up and extreme close up, the long
shot, the pan, and the traveling shot.
The Birth of A Nation
The Wizard of Oz, 1939
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” in Fantasia, 1940
Video Art
Nam Paik June, TV Buddha, 1974-1982
Bill Viola, Stations, 1994
Computer and Internet-Based
Art Media
….the immaterial is blending
seamlessly with the material. –
William J. Mitchell, MIT
John F. Simon, Unfolding Object, 2002
Mark Napier, net.flag, 2002
Photography A process of instant assemblage,
instant collage.