Final Image ID

Discussion notes from last class (08.02.11)

The Photo-Secession

Formed in 1902 by Stieglitz to compel “the serious recognition of

photography as an additional medium of pictorial expression” - declaring

himself as the prime figure.

Founding members:

John G. Bullock, Eugene, Kasebier, Edward Steichen and Clarence H. White

Gallery 291

1905 - 1917

Opened by Alfred Stieglitz at 291 Fifth Ave - New York City to feature contemporary national and

International fine art.   

The Intimate Gallery 1925 - 1929

Mounted exhibitions featuring the art by seven Americans.  The works demonstrated the artists

shared vision, as well as their interest in experimenting with the subjects and materials of

their art.

An American Place 1927 - 1946

Opened on the seventeenth floor of 509 Madison Avenue and closed upon Stieglitzs death in

1946

Publications

Camera Work 1903 - 1917

Quarterly journal established by Alfred Stieglitz in 1903,

New York City.  This publication produced

Fifty issues before it was discontinued in June, 1917.  

"Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with

photography - that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term

amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs.

As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who

are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies,

an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular

classification is readily apparent."

                                                                                    -Alfred Stieglitz

DOCUMENTATION: THE SOCIAL SCENE

Social documentary:

An inexpensive and replicatible means of presenting (supposedly) truthful verifications of visual fact…

How did photography become an important adjunct of the campaigns for social reform?

            and was this an auxiliary or subordinate relationship?

Social documentation: who is the audience?

Method(s) of image distribution:

Lantern slides in support of

progressive program

Illustrations in pamphlets, periodicals

and handbills

Supportive material pertaining to

social movements: explanatory lecture,

and supporting text

Distribution and mass production of photographic images:             

                                                technology & photographic representation In the media  

Photogravure:

A form of intaglio printing, in which a photographic image is chemically etched into a copper plate.

When the plate is inked, then wiped clean, the ink remains in the pits of the plate and is transferred to

a sheet of paper during the printing process.  William Henry Fox Talbot experimented with this process

as early as 1852, however, the process was not widely used until the 1870’s when Karl Klic

developed a way of satisfactorily dusting the plates with resinous powder.

Woodburytype:

Photo-mechanical ink based printing process that is credited to W. B. Woodbury ca. 1865 used

primarily for photographic reproduction in small editions to accompany book publications

(as illustrations).  The Woodburytype offered a continuous-tone for reproductions by exposing a

negative to dichromated gelatin to create a relief mold, which is then embedded in lead for the printing.  

Pigmented gelatin is poured into the mold and transferred to paper under pressure, resulting in an

image in which the deepest parts of the mold produce the darkest areas of the print.

Halftone:

A reproduction made by re-photographing a picture (photographic or other) through a gridded

screen in order to break up the continuous tones into a field of dots.  Dark areas of the image

appear as large, closely spaced dots; the dots representing light areas are smaller and farther

apart.  

The halftone has been credited to: Frederick Ives in 1888

Jacob A. Riis

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York, (book produced:1890)

Urban Poor within New York City

Housing tenements: ca. 1880’s

August Sander

To present a “sociological arc” identifying all of German cultural in linear sequence: peasants - statesman -

the unemployed to provide the viewer with the social and cultural dimensions as well as the stratification

of real life.

Published:                        Antlitz der Zeit

                        (Face of Our Time)

Farm Security Administration (FSA)

The Historical Section Project

Headed by Roy E. Stryker in 1935 under the direction of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(Resettlement Administration,RA) New Deal plan (headed by Rexford Guy Tugwell).

Project goal: To record the activities of the government in helping destitute farmers.  Also, to

introduce Americans to Americans.

The FSA employed eleven (11) photographers:

Arthur Rothstein,            Theo Jung,             Ben Shahn,             Walker Evans,

Dorothea Lange,             Carl Mydans,            Russell Lee,             Marion Post Wolcott,

Jack Delano,             John Vachon,             and John Collier

Approx. images produced during the six year

project: 270,000

Stereoscopes --> Animated GIFS

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/06/28/137450464/3-d-motion-pictures-from-the-civil-war?sc=emaf

Class 07 Synopsis

Review Midterm exam.


- - -

Photographic essay at the Arsenal Penitentiary

- - -

Photography and Art: The First Phase
1839 - 1890

Baudelaire:

Regarding photography as “a very humble servant of art and science, like printing and stenography and largely unable to transcend external reality…”

   

…also, that it was for the lazy and unendowed painters….

- - - 

Three main positions about the potential of camera art circa 1850's

1.Images are produced by chemical and mechanical

  production and not of human hand and “spirit”

2.A widely held view by artists working within a more established

  medium, was that the photograph was useful to art but not to

  considered equal in creativeness to some of the traditional

  methods (drawing, painting, sculpture ext…).

3.Replicateable technique such as etching and lithography

  assisting in the propagation of existing “art” and would have

  a beneficial influence on the arts and culture.

- - - 

Francis Wey (art and literary critic):

  ...suggested that: “photography can be inspired as well as informative and in the capable hands

 

  of a true artist, he clamed, would be relieved of menial tasks and become free to devote themselves to the more important spiritual aspects of their work.

 - - -

“…photography copies everything and explains nothing, it is blind to the realm of the spirit.”

  -Charles Blanc

- - -

The Royal Photographic Society 1853

and the Societe Francaise de Photographie 1854

Established the existence and value of the photograph as high art

The Photographic Discourse:

Professional publications:

La Lumiere (Paris)

Photographic Journal (London)

- - -

Kenneth Clark is credited with identifying this distinction between “naked” and “nude” in his 1956 book titled “The Nude.”

Naked   =   exposed, vulnerable, embarrassing

Nude   =   no uncomfortable overtone.  The vague image

  it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and

  defenseless body, but of a balanced, prosperous

  and confident body…

MIDTERM IMAGE ID'S

Midterm Image ID's:

MIDTERM

Greetings,

Our midterm will be next class, June 21st.  Please look for an email with the PDF of new images for review.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.  Our midterm will address all material discussed in class to date.

Class 05 Synopsis

This is a breakdown of some of the discussed topics from class 05.  Please note that this is not a “study guide” simply a synopsis and an on-line continuation of the class conversation.

Discussion points:

Positivism:

A philosophy founded by Auguste Comte witch declares natural (empirical) sciences to be the sole source of true knowledge and rejects the cognitive value of philosophical study.   Positivism emerged in response to the inability of speculative philosophy to solve philosophical problems which had arisen as a result of scientific development.    Positivism is essentially empiricism brought to extreme logical consequences in certain respects:  inasmuch as any knowledge is empirical knowledge in one form or another, no speculation can be knowledge.  Positivism has not escaped the lot of traditional philosophy, since its own propositions (rejection of speculation, phenomenalism, etc.) turned out to be unverifiable by experience and, consequently, metaphysical. 

Comte’s view of transforming society on the basis of scientific understanding of material reality.

Additional information on Positivism can be found in The Dictionary of Philosophy, Progress Publishers

Q: What led to the development of artistic and scientific representation of the landscape and photography’s position(s) within this genera?

A: The perfection of the camera obscura to represent nature with exact accuracy from perspective to detailed organic depiction of study supported advancements in chemical fixation of reflected images.

A: Photographic consumption: The demand for souvenirs of the “exotic” for the middle-class traveler’s demand

A: Photographic consumption: The demand for souvenirs of the “exotic” for the middle-class traveler’s demand

Photographic campaign’s and sponsorship

Missions Heliographiques

Organized in 1851 by the Commission des Monuments Historiques

(Commission on Historical Monuments) under the supervision of Napoleon III

to provide a pictorial census of France’s architectural patrimony.

The documentation of aged structures prior to their restoration under the guidance

of the architect Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc

Photographers nominated:

Edouard Denis Baldus, Hippolyte Bayard, Gustive Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, and

O. Mestral

Colonialism

See: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/

First published Tue May 9, 2006

Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. One of the difficulties in defining colonialism is that it is difficult to distinguish it from imperialism. Frequently the two concepts are treated as synonyms. Like colonialism, imperialism also involves political and economic control over a dependent territory. Turning to the etymology of the two terms, however, provides some suggestion about how they differ. The term colony comes from the Latin word colonus, meaning farmer. This root reminds us that the practice of colonialism usually involved the transfer of population to a new territory, where the new arrivals lived as permanent settlers while maintaining political allegiance to their country of origin. Imperialism, on the other hand, comes from the Latin term imperium, meaning to command. Thus, the term imperialism draws attention to the way that one country exercises power over another, whether through settlement, sovereignty, or indirect mechanisms of control.

The legitimacy of colonialism has been a longstanding concern for political and moral philosophers in the Western tradition. At least since the Crusades and the conquest of the Americas, political theorists have struggled with the difficulty of reconciling ideas about justice and natural law with the practice of European sovereignty over non-Western peoples. In the nineteenth century, the tension between liberal thought and colonial practice became particularly acute, as dominion of Europe over the rest of the world reached its zenith. Ironically, in the same period when most political philosophers began to defend the principles of universalism and equality, the same individuals still defended the legitimacy of colonialism and imperialism. One way of reconciling those apparently opposed principles was the argument known as the “civilizing mission,” which suggested that a temporary period of political dependence or tutelage was necessary in order for “uncivilized” societies to advance to the point where they were capable of sustaining liberal institutions and self-government.

The goal of this entry is to analyze the relationship between Western political theory and the project of colonialism. After providing a more thorough discussion of the concept of colonialism, the third and forth sections of the entry will address the question of how European thinkers justified, legitimize, and challenged political domination. The fifth section briefly discusses the Marxist tradition, including Marx's own defense of British colonialism in India and Lenin's anti-imperialist writings. The final section provides an introduction to contemporary “post-colonial theory.” This approach has been particularly influential in literary studies because it draws attention to the diverse ways that postcolonial subjectivities are constituted and resisted through discursive practices. The goal of the entry is to provide an overview of the vast and complex literature that explores the theoretical issues emerging out of the experience of European colonization.

The U.S. Geological Survey:

The USGS was created by an act of Congress on March 3, 1879.  It was charged with the “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.”  This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803

Please visit the USGS at:             www.usgs.gov

West of the 100th Meridian along the 40th Parallel

The Rephotographic Survey Project 1977

Third View

http://www.thirdview.org/3v/rephotos/index.html

detail, atmosphere and tonal range:

Photographic critic Lady Elizabeth Eastlake from the Quarterly Review, 1857:

“…if the sky be given, therefore, the landscape remains black and underdone; if the

Landscape be rendered, the impatient action of light has burnt out all cloud form in one blaze of white…”

Combination printing:

Using masks and combining two negatives on the same print - one for the sky and one for the ground - or employing hand-manipulations to remove unattractive mottled and gray areas.