Photography and Early Art Is Photography Art ?
• Photographers emulated themes of Painting • !emes included: Landscape, Allegorical
costumed "gures, Still life, Nudes and Genre views.
• Some photographers were content with the photographs graphic ability to render information and ideas.
• Middle and other classes had the opportunity to experience images for the "rst time.
Photography and Early Art
– Photographers and Painters select themes and treatments that present situa3ons “naturalis)cally”
– Images should have a posi)ve and upli7ing message.
– Photographs should be truthful and inspira)onal
– The teaching of Art History became popular using photographs of objects and pain)ng.
NADAR (GASPARD Felix TOURNACHON). TWO cartoons. "Photography asking for just a liKle place in the exhibi3on of fine arts.” Engraving from Pe3t journal pour rire, 1855. "The ingra3tude of pain3ng refusing the smallest place in its exhibi3on to photography to whom it owes so much." Engravings from Le journal amusant, 1857. Bibliotheque Na3onale, Paris.
!ree main positions on the use of photography
• Photographs should not be considered “art” because they were made with a mechanical device and by physical and chemical instead of by human hand and spirit. (painters and public)
• “Photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in crea3veness to drawing and pain3ng.” (Thomas Eakins, painters, some photographers and cri3cs)
• As with etching and lithography, camera images were or could be as significant as handmade works of art and they may have beneficial influence on the arts and culture in general.
G.P.A. Healy, Frederic Church and Jervis McEntee, The Arch of Titus, 1871. Oil on Canvas
Unknown Photographer. Longfellow and Daughter In Healy Studio in Rome, 1868-‐69. Albumen Print.
The Voices of opposi3on to Photography
France Charles Baudelaire (cri3c and poet) regarded photography as a “very humble servant of art and science.
England Lady Elizabeth Eastlake (one of the first to write about early photography) “PHOTOGRAPHY” She wrote, “is concerned with the rela3onship of truth” and “reality”
John Ruskin (English and American cri3c) welcomed photography as a” mechanical inven3on of value and then later denounced it as trivial”
Photography and Early Art Pictoreal !emes embraced by photographers
Nudes and costumed "gures
Landscape
Still life
Genre views
Nudes and costumed "gures
Hermann Krone. Nude Study, 1850. Daguerreotype
Julien Vallou De Villeneuve. Women with Pitcher, 1855. Calotype.
Amercian Painter !omas Eakins
THOMAS EAKINS. !e Swimming Hole, 1883.
Nature
ASHER B. DURAXD. Trie Pool, Cliche verre from albumen print. 1859
Charles_Marville. Salt Print from Calotype negative 1851
Still Life
ROGER FENTON. Still Life of Fruit, 1860 ADOLPHE BRAUN. Flower Study, c. 1855.
Still Life
ADOLPHE BRAUN. Stil lLife with Deer and Wildfowl, C. 1865. Carbon print
VALENTIN GOTTFRIED. Hunt Picture, late 17th-early 18th century. Oil on canvas
Genre Photography
CHARLES NEGRE. Young Girl Seated with a Basket, 1852. Salt print.
What were photographers saying about the status of Photography as Art?
• Many painters/photographers believed that camera images were capable of expression, thought and feelings.
• Roger Fenton: England • Charles Negre, Gustav Legrey: France • Carleton Watkins: America
!ere were other artist/painter/photographers who embraced a different vision. Oscar Gustav Rejlander 1813 –1875
Henry Peach Robinson 1830-1901
Composite Photography
“Two Ways of Life”
Oscar Rejlander . Two Ways of Life” Albumen Composite print 1857
Oscar Rejlander . Two Ways of Life” 1857
Raphael !e School of Athens (1510-1511)
Composite Photography
Oscar Rejlander. Hard Times, 1860. Albumen print
Composite Photography
Henry Peach Robinson. Preliminary Sketch with photo inserted, 1860. Albumen print and pastel collage on paper
Fading Away Henry Peach Robinson
Fading Away. 1858. Composite Albumen Print.
Narrative, Allegorical, and Genre Images Julia Margaret Cameron 1815-1879
Lancelot and Guinevere , about 1877 I Wait (R. Gurney), 1872
Narrative, Allegorical, and Genre Images Lady Clementina Hawarden 1822-1865
CLEMENTINA, LADY HAWARDEN. Young Girl with Mirror Reflection, 1860s. Albumen print.
Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936)
In the Barley Harvest from Pictures of East Anglian Life, 1888. Gravure print.
Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936)
• Alfred Steiglitz