History of Photography

1
History of Photography
2
The Early Years BW

• Daguerreotypes
• Calotypes
• Tintypes
• Stereographs
• Documentary

• George Eastman
• Pictorialist
• Straight Photography
• Photojournalism

3
The Daguerreotype
4
Unidentified PhotographerPortrait of Pamela
Steele Harrison, circa 1849-1852DaguerreotypeSix
th Plate (2 ¾ x 3 ¼ inches)
Abraham Lincoln, Meserve no. 3,
DaguerreotypeDate July 11, 1858Creator
Schneidaui-Loraut, Polycarp von
5
John Ruskin's Daguerreotype of a group of windows
in the façade of the Casa degli Zane, Venice
6
The Daguerreotype Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
invented the daguerreotype process in France. The
invention was announced to the public on August
19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of
Sciences in Paris. American photographers quickly
capitalized on this new invention, which was
capable of capturing a "truthful likeness."
Daguerreotypists in major cities invited
celebrities and political figures to their
studios in the hopes of obtaining a likeness for
display in their windows and reception areas.
They encouraged the public to visit their
galleries, which were like museums, in the hope
that they would desire to be photographed as
well. By 1850, there were over 70 daguerreotype
studios in New York City alone. Popularity of the
daguerreotype declined in the late 1850s when the
ambrotype, a faster and less expensive
photographic process, became available. A few
contemporary photographers have revived the
process.
7
The Process The daguerreotype is a
direct-positive process, creating a highly
detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a
thin coat of silver without the use of a
negative. The process required great care. The
silver-plated copper plate had first to be
cleaned and polished until the surface looked
like a mirror. Next, the plate was sensitized in
a closed box over iodine until it took on a
yellow-rose appearance. The plate, held in a
lightproof holder, was then transferred to the
camera. After exposure to light, the plate was
developed over hot mercury until an image
appeared. To fix the image, the plate was
immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or
salt and then toned with gold chloride.
8
Exposure times for the earliest daguerreotypes
ranged from three to fifteen minutes, making the
process nearly impractical for portraiture.
Modifications to the sensitization process
coupled with the improvement of photographic
lenses soon reduced the exposure time to less
than a minute. Although daguerreotypes are unique
images, they could be copied by redaguerreotyping
the original. Copies were also produced by
lithography or engraving. Portraits based upon
daguerreotypes appeared in popular periodicals
and in books. James Gordon Bennett, the editor of
the New York Herald, posed for his daguerreotype
at Brady's studio. An engraving, based on this
daguerreotype later appeared in the Democratic
Review.
9
The Cameras The earliest cameras used in the
daguerreotype process were made by opticians and
instrument makers, or sometimes even by the
photographers themselves. The most popular
cameras utilized a sliding-box design. The lens
was placed in the front box. A second, slightly
smaller box, slid into the back of the larger
box. The focus was controlled by sliding the rear
box forward or backwards. A laterally reversed
image would be obtained unless the camera was
fitted with a mirror or prism to correct this
effect. When the sensitized plate was placed in
the camera, the lens cap would be removed to
start the exposure.
10
Daguerreotype Plate Sizes Whole plate 6-1/2" x
8-1/2" Half plate 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" Quarter plate
3-1/4" x 4-1/4" Sixth plate 2-3/4" x 3-1/4" Ninth
plate 2" x 2-1/2" Sixteenth plate 1-3/8" x 1-5/8"
11
The Calotype
12
Location Ann Arbor, MIArtist David Octavius
HillNationality BritishArtist Dates
1802-1870 Title St. Andrews, Baiting the Lines,
Fishergate, from the series "Calotype Views of
St. Andrews", 1846Date 1843-46 (negative), ca.
1916 (print)
13

Mrs Logan Mrs Seton two unidentified men Fishwives and Fishes. HA0767 calotype negative (waxed) and HA440 salt print.
14
Conceptually, and in many ways, the photographic
technique employed by Adamson and Hill was very
similar to that still in use today. A negative
was exposed in the camera, developed in a dark
room and then printed on sensitive paper. Their
cameras, while wooden and large, are easy to
relate to modern cameras. However, their
sensitive materials were quite different from
ours in one important aspect. Modern photographic
film and paper are highly refined highly
technological products made under strict controls
in a factory setting. In addition to the other
problems they faced, Adamson and Hill had to make
each and every sheet of negative or print
material by hand. There are no significant
records of their particular working practices.
However, we know they were in close touch with
the art's inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot
(especially through their mutual friend, Sir
David Brewster) and it can be assumed that their
practice built on Talbot's approach. The
calotype negative process was sometimes called
the Talbotype, after its inventor. It was not
Talbot's first photographic process (introduced
in 1839), but it is the one for which he became
most known. Henry Talbot devised the calotype in
the autumn of 1840, perfected it by the time of
its public introduction in mid-1841, and made it
the subject of a patent (the patent did not
extend to Scotland). The base of a calotype
negative, rather than the glass or film to which
we have become accustomed, was high quality
writing paper. The sheet of paper was carefully
selected to have a smooth and uniform texture
and, wherever possible, to avoid the watermark.
The first stage, conducted in candlelight, was to
prepare what Talbot called his iodized paper. The
paper was washed over with a solution of silver
nitrate and dried by gentle heat. When nearly
dry, it was soaked in a solution of potassium
iodide for two or three minutes, rinsed and again
dried. As long as this iodized paper was stored
carefully, it could be kept for some time, so it
was generally prepared in batches ahead of
time. Immediately before taking a photograph, a
fresh solution of gallo-nitrate of silver was
mixed up. This was made from equal quantities of
a solution of silver nitrate and one of gallic
acid the solution was unstable and had to be
used right away. Under weak candlelight, a sheet
of iodized paper was coated with this solution,
left to sit for about thirty seconds and then
dipped in water. It was then partially dried in
the dark, often using blotting paper. The
calotype paper could be employed completely dry,
but was more sensitive when moist, and in any
case had to be exposed in the camera within a few
hours of preparation (Talbot found that he could
sometimes put it away for future use but its
keeping qualities were never predictable). Under
near-total darkness, the sensitive calotype paper
was loaded in the camera. It was exposed to the
scene, sometimes for as little as ten seconds,
usually for a time closer to a minute, and
sometimes for tens of minutes. If one were to
examine the sheet of paper after withdrawing it
from the camera, no image would be seen (just as
no image is visible on modern film when it is
first removed from the camera). An invisible
latent image was formed by the action of light. A
fresh solution of gallo-nitrate of silver was
brought into play. Washed over the sheet of paper
in a darkened room, it developed a visible image,
usually within a few seconds. When the operator
judged that the development had proceeded far
enough, the paper was then washed over with a
fixing liquid. This was sometimes a solution of
potassium bromide and sometimes a solution of
hypo (similar to modern fixers). Washing and
drying completed the process. At this point,
there would be a negative image, deep brown or
black in colour, on one surface of the writing
paper. Being plain paper, the temptation to
correct errant details in pencil was natural to
most operators. The artist Hill, and possibly the
technician Adamson, frequently used pencil or ink
to retouch the negatives. Sometimes the dried
negative was waxed to make it more
transparent. Strictly speaking, the term calotype
referred only to the developed negative process.
Prints could also be made on calotype paper,
exposed and then developed much like modern
photographic papers, but this was a more
complicated process and led to what were
considered unsatisfactory cold print tones. Only
a few prints were made experimentally using the
calotype process itself. Instead, the common
practice was to turn to Talbot's original
photogenic drawing paper, invented by him in 1834
and the one first introduced to the public in
1839. Talbot's original process was based on the
same type of smooth writing paper employed in
making the negatives. The printing paper was
first soaked in a solution of common table salt,
dried, and then brushed on one side with a
solution of silver nitrate. This embedded
light-sensitive silver chloride within the
surface fibres of the paper. The dry paper was
placed under the finished calotype negative,
sandwiched under glass, and then placed in bright
light. Within perhaps fifteen minutes, a visible
image had formed on the print paper. It was then
fixed, most often in hypo, washed and dried. The
image would be present in rich brown tones,
sometimes tending towards red, sometimes towards
purple, depending on various factors and rarely
fully controllable. These prints did not have a
widely accepted name in the 1840s (they were
sometimes called transfers). Today, they are
generally called salted paper prints or salt
prints. Like the calotype negatives, these plain
paper prints could be easily retouched in ink or
wash. However, unlike some of their
contemporaries, Hill Adamson preferred to do
their work on the negatives, and modified the
prints very little.
15
The calotype negatives and the salt print
processes, both invented by Talbot, share many
characteristics. In both cases, the final visible
image was finely divided particles of metallic
silver (the brown colours presented by this are a
natural result of the scattering of light). Both
were based on the same kind of writing paper the
image is in the surface fibers of the paper, not
in an emulsion or under a coating. Both were
really negative processes (being itself a
negative, the printing paper reversed the tones
of the camera negative back to the tones of the
original subject). Multiple prints, of course,
could be made from one negative. The sensitivity
of the paper was suitable only for contact
printing, meaning that no enlargement took place
and that the negative had to be the same size as
the desired final print. The salt prints were a
printing-out process. The final image was
composed of fine particles of metallic silver -
the energy to reduce this silver from the
sensitive compounds came entirely from the light,
and the visible image formed under its action. It
was a relatively simple and economical process
and produced pleasing print tones. The calotype
negative process was a developed-out process. It
gained a much greater sensitivity by chemically
amplifying an invisible latent image left by the
light. The colour of the negative was not of much
import and the extra complications in its
preparation were worthwhile in the context of
shortening exposure times. Aside from the sheer
work involved in producing each piece of
thousands of sheets of sensitive material by
hand, Adamson Hill faced numerous
uncertainties. The paper base was one of the most
capricious and a good batch of paper was avidly
sought after. Like Talbot, Adamson Hill favored
Whatman's Turkey Mill paper, a high quality
product for writing. However, as a base for
chemical operations, the paper had problems. It
varied slightly in thickness from spot to spot.
Patches undetectable when looked at by reflected
light (as in writing a letter) became painfully
apparent when light was shown through (as it
would be for a negative). There were various
chemical impurities. One of the most serious from
a photographic point of view was the presence of
tiny pieces of metal, invisible to writers, but
ready to create a spot when hit by the chemicals
the photographers employed. These particles came
from buttons accidentally chopped up when the
rags used to make the paper were processed.
Chemicals were also not required to meet any
standard and were only as pure as the skill (and
honesty) of the chemist could make them. It was
not unusual to have traces of gold in silver
compounds and various contaminations and
adulterations in other compounds. Another factor
was water, the essential solvent that removed the
photographically sensitive chemicals after use -
if any traces remained, the print might fade or
develop blotches. Nicolaas Henneman, Talbot's
former assistant, set up the world's first
photographic print establishment in Reading,
England. The municipal water supplies were
erratic, often flowing only a few hours a day,
and heavily contaminated, particularly with
organic materials. Fortunately, Adamson Hill
had a steady supply of pure water and this might
do much to explain the better lasting qualities
of their prints. A final factor was the sun.
Virtually all the images were taken out of doors
in order to gain as much light as possible.
Reflectors were almost certainly employed to
control the light and to augment it where need
be. On a good day, an average portrait negative
outdoors might take about a minute's exposure.
The prints, made on the printing out paper, took
much longer to expose. The light had to filter
through the paper negative and then provide all
the energy to make the print image. An exposure
time of fifteen minutes would be good - this
could extend to half an hour or even several
hours on an overcast day. Prints made with
extended exposures like these eventually became
dark enough but never had the richness of tones
available with bright light exposures. In
addition, they were more vulnerable to fading.
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
Pictorialist
20
Alice BurrUnder the Arches, Tunisca.
1910-19Plantinum print
Alice Burr, Telegraph Hill.Bromoil print, ca.
1915
21
Photographs by SF pictorialist photographer
Sigismund Blumann
22
1906 work "Watching the Dancers," Edward S.
Curtis photographed Hopi girls on a rooftop of
Walpi pueblo. LC-USZ62-80169 (black white film
copy negative)
23
Documentary
24
Eugene Atget, "Untitled Still Life"
Familia italiana en Ellis Esland, New York, hacia
1905
25
Galloping Horse 1878
26
DocumentaryScouts and guides for the Army of the
Potomac, Berlin, Md., October 1862. Photographed
by Alexander Gardner
27
(No Transcript)
28
George Eastman
29
George Eastman invented dry, transparent, and
flexible, photographic film (rolled photography
film) and the Kodak cameras that could use the
new film in 1888. George Eastman, an avid
photographer was the founder of the Kodak
company. "You press the button, we do the rest"
promised George Eastman in 1888 with this
advertising slogan for his Kodak camera.
30
Eastman wanted to simplify photography and make
it available to everyone. In 1883, Eastman
announced film in rolls. "Kodak" was born in 1888
when the first Kodak camera entered the market.
Pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures,
the camera could easily be carried and handheld
for operation. After exposure, the whole camera
was returned to the company in Rochester, New
York, where the film was developed, prints were
made, new film was inserted, and then returned to
the customer.
31
(No Transcript)
32
Stereograph
33
(No Transcript)
34
Court of the Universe and Arch of the Eastern
nations from the Palace of Agriculture,
Panama-Pacific Int. Exp., San Francisco, Calif.
35
John Muir and Theodore Rooseveldt
36
(No Transcript)
37
Straight Photography
38
(No Transcript)
39
Edward Weston. Pepper 30
40
(No Transcript)
41
Photojournalism
42
Tomoko in her Bath, 1972
Albert Schweitzer, 1954
43
Lange, Dorothea, photographer, "Destitute Pea
Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children.
Age Thirty-Two. Nipomo, California." February,
1936.
44
Louise Dahl-WolfeWilliam Edmondson and Miss
Louisaca. 1934-7