Beginnings Of Photography Research Articles

Manifestation of Alchemy Symbols in Corresponding with Islamic Mysticism and Art

From the beginning of photography, various views were presented about the relationship between the body and photography, most of which focused on body as the subject of photography. Although such views address significant aspects of photography, very few studies have concentrated on the photographer’s body in creating works of art. Focusing on the concept of bodily perception, which is a bodily phenomenon in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s point of view, and employing his extensive reviews on photography, this study investigated Merleau-Ponty’s theories with regard to photography in order to indicate how the body in photography takes a position beyond a mere subject of photography. This study intended to show that although Merleau-Ponty considered photography as nothing but mere freezing of a moment in time, which lacks the capabilities of other art media and thus was not in the center of his thought, he believed that the world is perceived through the subjective perspective of the body. Thus, like any other artist, the photographer can be considered at the core of such a reading. This paper would try to find a suitable answer about the idea of Merleau-Ponty’s reductionist approach to photography at early 20th century. It seems that the main reason of this attitude is the ignorance of many essential aspects of the relationship among the photographer, the photograph, and the world. However, by reflecting on his criticisms, Merleau-Ponty’s opinions can be applied to photography, presenting a different view of him.

INVESTIGATION OF STAGE PHOTOGRAPHY IN JEE LEE'S WORKS AND COMPARINGTHEM WITH THE WORKS OF SANDY SKOGLUND

Staged photography is a kind of art reconstruction, which, unlike intrinsic realistic nature of photography, presents a dramatic and unrealistic identity to the medium. Many artists from the beginning of photography have entered this field. Two of the artists are Sandy Skoglund, an American female artist, and JeeYoung Lee, a Korean artist. Surprisingly, the images of the two artists are very similar to each other. In this research, it is tried to compare the photoscaptured by these two artists and analyze the similarities and differences between the works identified and study the effects they had on one another. The main question of the current research is which one is the leading artist, and which one is the follower, and whether these similarities are indicative of blind imitation or artistic creation? By a qualitative and quantitative comparison of works and photos taken by the two artists and by analyzing the biographical reviews and interviews with the two artists, one can find a common pattern used by both of them and of course, innovations cannot be ignored. Since Skoglundis older than JayYong, and has begun her career earlier, it can be said with certainty that she has inspired Jay Yong. However, artistic abilities and innovative innovations of Jay Yong are admirable. This way of being inspired and creating artwork creates new and exciting works that can be the guide for photographers and fans in this branch of photography.

The Beginnings of Photography in Central Europe: Friedrich Franz and the First Daguerreotypes in Brno

This essay aims to examine the beginnings of photography in the Moravian capital of Brno, which, albeit for a short period between 1839 and 1842, was the gateway for the dissemination of photography to Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia. With the support of learned societies and other institutions in the region, local photographers were able to keep up with recent advances in daguerreotype processes. The most proficient among these enthusiasts was the Premonstratensian and Professor of Physics at the local Philosophy School, Friedrich Franz. Six daguerreotypes preserved in collections in Brno, as well as our knowledge of the social and institutional context of their origin, provide the foundation for this study of the beginnings of photography in Brno, and in Central Europe in general.

Italian Photographers in Iran 1848–64

The article focuses on the contribution made by several Italian photographers (Luigi Pesce, Antonio Giannuzzi, Luigi Montabone) who were working in Iran at the beginnings of photography. Their work is studied in relation to the life and interests of Shah Nāser-ed-Din and compared with the experiences of other early photographers, both Iranian and western, who were active during the same period at the Qajar court. Their contribution, which has resulted from the extensive studies carried out on photography collections about Iran, played a fundamental role in the creation and development of the singular events of Iranian photography. Facilitated by the dense network of diplomatic relations created by the Shah to defend the independence of his country and to encourage modernisation, this contribution reveals highly original characteristics compared with those in other eastern countries. In particular, the experience of Italian photographers at court allowed a fruitful comparison between different portrayal systems, whilst also stimulating the creation of new figurative interests that are found in these early origins of Iranian photography.

Herschel's chrysotype: A golden legend re-told

From the beginnings of photography, gold was considered as a potential imaging substance and in 1842 Sir John Herschel succeeded in inventing an iron-based process called chrysotype for making contact-prints in gold. Despite their stability, the process failed to compete with Talbot's silver photography and never gained acceptance into the photographic repertoire owing to its expense and technical difficulty. Nonetheless, there were sporadic attempts to ‘re-invent’ gold printing — with little success — until the close of the nineteenth century, by which time gold had been condemned as ‘useless’ per se for photographic imaging, despite its extensive employment for toning silver images to improve their stability and colour. In the alternative process revival of the 1980s, however, the application of some modern chemistry enabled an economic chrysotype printing process that competes with platinotype in image quality, thus vindicating Herschel's original visionary idea.

The Navajo photography of Edward S. Curtis

Abstract The Navajo people of the American Southwest have been abundantly photographed since the beginnings of photography's extension into Western America — indeed, from almost since the beginnings of photography itself. Navajoland ‘offered’ dramatic landscapes and ‘The People’1 have served as exemplar for an assorted series of Western projects, changes in Western projects, and objects of Western desire. The photographs of Native Americans by Edward S. Curtis, though largely ignored during his lifetime, emerged shortly after his death in 1952 to become popular icons, which were so dramatic a phenomenon from the 1960s that today they are something of a cliché. ‘Original’ prints currently sell for thousands of dollars.2 This resurrection is also characteristic among specialists on Native Americans. Indeed, after having been neglected and abused by anthropology for many years for his elaborate staging, soft focus, excessive pastoral romanticism and nostalgia, Curtis has more recently become fashionable again and now enjoys something of an anthropological embrace.3

The Transcendental Machine? A Comparison of Digital Photography and Nineteenth-Century Modes of Photographic Representation

Both contemporary digital photography and analog photography of the nineteenth century place mechanical representation at the service of the imagination. These media are part of a perceptual continuum that began with the Industrial Revolution and reflect its mechanical and scientific extension of the human ability to create a visual microcosm. A capacity for literal mimesis also existed at the juncture of art and science of that period. This interdisciplinary relationship gave rise to a belief that a description of reality was a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of objective ‘truth’. Thus, from the beginnings of photography, the objectivity of the photograph was often conflated with the structure of the reality it rendered. Although digital photography is like its nineteenth-century predecessor in this regard, its origins in computer science and its links to the graphic arts and constructivism also help to define its content and style.

Representations of India: Normalisation and the ‘Other’

Representations of India: Normalisation and the ‘Other’

‘The Laboratory of Mankind’: John McCosh and the Beginnings of Photography in British India

Abstract PHOTOGRAPHY. —I would strongly recommend every assistant-surgeon to make himself a master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metalic plates. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study — especially the new process by Collodion for the stereoscope. During the course of his service in India, he may make such a faithful collection of representations of man and animals, of architecture and landscape, that would be a welcome contribution to any museum. The camera should be made of good substantial mahogany, clamped with brass, made to stand extremes of heat. The flimsy, folding portable cameras, made light for Indian use, soon become useless … French paper, Canson frères is the best, and does not get damaged by damp so soon as English paper.

The Langenheims of Philadelphia

Abstract The history of American photography begins in Philadelphia in the 1830s; in particular, at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania. Medical education was much more generalized then, and many students took the medical course as an all-round preparation for scientific research. Working together with the likes of Robert Hare, Professor of Chemistry, a number of individuals important to the beginning of photography in the United States developed their scientific knowledge at Penn, and a few did specific research in the chemistry of light sensitive substances. As a result, Daguerre's 1839 announcement fell on fertile soil. Dr Paul Beck Goddard, who taught anatomy at the University, developed the bromine accelerator for the daguerreotype. Dr Bird, a chemistry professor, first scoffed at Daguerre's invention as a ‘moon-hoax’, but later became, in M. A. Root's words, ‘the ablest writer on sun-painting in the United States’.1 Dr Kirkbride graduated in 1832, and went on to become the city's fo...

Art Photography in Poland, 1900–1939

Abstract The beginnings of photography in Poland, and the course of its development during the first 60 years or so, have been described in this journal by Julius Garztecki1. The end of the 19th century marked a distinctive turning point in the aesthetic composition of photographic images. Until then, photography Lvas completely dependent on painting, which provided it with standardized motifs, and perpetuated its own viewpoint according to firmly established principles. Later on, the wide dissemination of photography led to a veritable flood ofpictures produced in stereotype fashion, something to which the more gifted amateurs strenuously objected. There were always some to whom photography was a scientific discipline, but most people treated it simply as a spare-time activity or hobby; what should be emphasized is the great independence of these people from the standards which professional photographers tended to impose. Amateurs aimed at making photography an art, that is to say, a medium of self-expression, according to their personal sensibilities. Through their individualism they separated themselves from ‘mechanical photography’ and from the ‘thoughtless following of rules’, as they searched for their own uniqueness. From the perspective of the present, we see that in this type of photography, painterly canons were taken for granted, and since the physical world was assuined to be the objective and perceptible reality, it was there that photographers looked for visual confirnlation of their philosophy, a procedure notable for its lack of ontological consistency.

Beginnings of photography

Photography touches our lives, directly and indirectly, in an immense variety of ways. Almost every form of science, technology and commerce is in some way dependent on it and, to a much larger extent than is generally appreciated, it has helped to shape the character of modern art.

A Light Intensity Meter

Ever since the beginning of photography, the judging of light value has been one of the great problems, to the photographer or camera man. In many cases in the past as now, the person responsible for taking of pictures is required to judge light values using his naked eye as an indicating means. His accuracy or ability to do this is the product of his appreciation and his experience as received through this natural indicator. The unassisted eye at its best is considered unstable with a possible error of 100 percent or more from day to day when used as a light intensity measuring instrument. It is unreasonable to expect that two or more men would come very close in a simultaneous check. In order to assist the eye in measuring light and to obtain consistent results, several types of photometers have been developed. In most cases, these instruments are rather awkward to use because they require a comparatively slow process of matching of light intensities, to obtain a reading. Therefore, they might be classed as laboratory equipment, from a studio standpoint, rather than practical and portable direct reading indicators.