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Photography (movements (a series of artistic movements and…
Photography
a series of artistic movements and countermovements inspired new approaches by new generations of photographers and artists
pictorialism: in defense of their art against critics, pictorialists depicted subjects with soft visual effects and artistic poses
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The success of the 291 Gallery inspired another reaction in Straight Photography movement: photographers like Paul Strand thought pictorialism was too apologetic and did not take advantage of the new medium; he presented photography as absolute unqualified objectivity; formed f/64 Group in the early 1930s
Strand was politically liberal, and like other photographers of the era use the camera to advance social causes as well as present artistic subjects
like nearly all great inventions, photography grew out of many small advances that set the stage for the critical breakthrough
Thomas Wedgewood is sometimes called the first photographer because he experimented with light-sensitive chemicals and created the first unfixed photographic picture in 1792. However, he did not find a way to fix the images
Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a French lithographer, started experimenting with photography around 1826 and found a partial solution to the problem
Niepce and Daguere started working together around 1829. After Niepce's death, Daguerre found sodium thiosulfate ("hypo") in 1837 and began taking and exhibiting pictures that quickly became know as Daguerreotypes
Daguerre disclosed the exact process to the French Academy of sciences and made it freely available to everyone. Within a matter of weeks and months, photographic studios sprang up in cities around the world
2 war photographers
Matthew Brady: Civil War photographer and famous for his portraits, including one of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. He sought help from chemists to help refine his techniques
other war photographers preceded Brady: first was an unknown photographer who captures images from the Mexican-American war of 1848.
More notably, Brady was preceded by Roger Fenton, a British photographer who travelled to the Russian Crimean region with British troops in 1855. He avoided taking photos of the dead and wounded soldiers. A few years later, Brady did not hesitate to reveal the macabre aftermath of the battle to the public
both Brady and Fenton have staged some of their photographs, while also facing some very real threats to their safety
- a question of art and copyright
As photography became popular in the 1840s and 50s, the question of whether photography was art or simply some form of mechanical reproduction became important on an abstract cultural level and also for legal and economic reasons
one case: a photographer who was originally commissioned to help a painter get an exact likeness for a portrait, but who then sold prints of the photograph
another case:resale of images of famous people originally taken by photographers working with Mayer and Pierson publishers in Paris: issue of a public domain invention vs. artistic copyright
the French high court took a middle course, deciding that while photographs are not "creations of the mind", certain images could be considered artistic and therefore could have copyright protection
similar case in the US over a picture of Oscar Wilde-> supreme court ruled in favour of the photographer suing the lithographer who was distributing them
- Democratising photography
improvement of celluloid film in the 1880s, which allowed everyone to be a photographer
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- Social change and photography
Jacob Riis: took pictures of squalid conditions, dangerous alleys and suffering children. Also took advantage of a new media technology: the "halftone" process taht screened photography into small dots that could be printed on paper
1890: he published How the Other Half Lives, which set a standard for muckraking reporting and spurred investigations that changed the building codes and health rules for New York
Lewis Hine: portraits of children working with dangerous machinery which helped bring about child labor reform
Life magazine, founded in 1936; became an overnight success; employed some of the 20th century's best photographers, including Dorothea Lange and Robert Capa
BIZ, Germany 1891. Originally illustrated with engravings, but made the switch to photographs early in the 20th century
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