the invention of photography

• has never congealed as a medium
• first announced in 1839 in france
• depended on copper plate coated w light-sensitive silver solution & chemical bath

in early stages:

-regarded as a natural phenomenon (light exposes an image)

-"photography"= "pencil of light"/"light writing" itself onto a page

-chemistry: photo-sensitive paper

-discipline/field: war/medical/forensic/fine art photography

-more of a mass-consumer object before it was an art form

-slow exposure, weak clarity

• developed by niepce & daguerre

-niepce started the process & brought daguerre onto the project
-daguerre took over the project when niepce died
-daguerre is most known

joseph-nicephore niepce, view from the window at le gras, tinplate, 1826

louis jacques mande daguerre, boulevard du temple (daguerreotype), ca. 1838

theodore maurisset, la daguerreotypomanie, 1839
makes fun of how people are worshiping photography
& wanting to take their picture taken

walter benjamin (on photography):

-sense of permanence of daguerreotype 

-sense of aura & energy

-mysterious & alluring bond w the sitter

david octavius hill & robert adamson, elizabeth johnstone, seated newhaven fishwife, 1843-48

• spirit photography: double printing or double exposure to "photoshop"/"edit"/alter photo --> transforming reality 
• stands & architectural elements used as support for people to stay still

early uses & abuses of photography:

• used in science & governing authorities

-orientalist/imperialist photography

 photographers sent out to accumulate knowledge (photos) of places to colonize

 lead to fervor for orient

maxime du camp, cidi's tomb, upper egypt, c. 1850

-war photography

• do you photograph the real aftermath of war or the prettier picture, more artistic/compositionally appealing?

roger fenton, hardships at the crimea

roger fenton, shadow of the valley of death, 1855

timothy o'sullivan, a harvest of death, gettysburg, july 4th
1863

-medical photography

 duchenne de boulogne, 1850s-60s

 ^physiognomy- facial construction had some connection to who you were as a person (debunked)

--> 

-forensic photography

 forensics: criminals tracked by facial features

 alphonse bertillon --> 

 bertillon system: fingerprinting, collecting info on criminals, mugshot, filing system

 francis galton- early eugenicist 

 came up w average set of features that belonged to certain groups of people (debunked)

• how to make a photograph to show as art

the two ways of life, oscar gustav rejlander
1857
copies what we would see in a history painting (poses, arrangement, etc.)

pictorial photography:

-first movement that is purely photographic

-what can photography do differently than other mediums?

-self organized into "camera clubs"

 "amateur" photographer indicated that they were not commercial

-julia margaret cameron advocated for pictorial photography (highly crafted picture)

the whisper of the muse, julia margaret cameron
1865

venus chiding cupid & removing his wings,  julia margaret cameron
1872
blurriness, romantic, allegorical subjects

• movements feeding off once another before pure photography emerges in early 20th century (similar ideas, composition, styles)

the ring toss, clarence white
1899

dancers practicing at the barre edgar degas, 1877