...LOOK FOR THINGS...

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Class 07 Synopsis

Review Midterm exam.


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Photographic essay at the Arsenal Penitentiary

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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….

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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.

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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.

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

  -Charles Blanc

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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)

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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…

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