Photography: a Concise History

By Xlibris US

A dedicated amateur photographer all my adult life, I have often thought
of writing a concise history of the subject. It isnt that there are no other
histories of the subject. But most of these are reference works or just
specialized studies dedicated to one or a few photographers. I know of
no work that pretends to cover the entire subject, yet could be read over
a weekend. One might think of including enough references so that a
potential reader could track down all the further details. There is no
longer a need for a Monster Book, where every thought is illustrated
by a picture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499045109

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Donald Kahn.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911821

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-4511-6

      Softcover      978-1-4990-4512-3

      eBook         978-1-4990-4510-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/07/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Prehistory, the Light Shows of Daguerre, and Fixing an Image

Chapter 2 Fox Talbot, Calotype, Negatives and Positives, Other Nineteenth-Century Processes

Chapter 3 Color; Autochrome through Ilfochrome and Beyond

Chapter 4 The Great Photographers and Their Influence: France, England, Hungary, Germany, the USA

Chapter 5 Italy, Japan, Russia, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Other Countries Where Photography Flourished

Chapter 6 Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Latin America, Etc.

Chapter 7 War! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing

Chapter 8 The Great Exhibitions

Chapter 9 The Great Recurring Photo Meetings

Chapter 10 Specialties: Photos in the Mountains, from the Air, Underwater

Chapter 11 The Great Collections

Chapter 12 The Agencies and Associations

Chapter 13 The Prizes, Their Importance and (Lack) of Influence

Chapter 14 Where to Now

Some References For Photography:A Concise History

To the memory of Peter Keane

Introduction

A dedicated amateur photographer all my adult life, I have often thought of writing a concise history of the subject. It isn’t that there are no other histories of the subject. But most of these are reference works or just specialized studies dedicated to one or a few photographers. I know of no work that pretends to cover the entire subject, yet could be read over a weekend. One might think of including enough references so that a potential reader could track down all the further details. There is no longer a need for a Monster Book, where every thought is illustrated by a picture.

Almost all the great photographs by famous photographers can now be found online, with no cost. Martin Parr and Gerry Badger (see references at the end of this book) have even written a three-volume history of photo books. Sadly, Kodachrome slide film is now gone, and digital photography may even take over. Some magazines (such as Wired) have quoted experts predicting the death of film photography, but this has not yet happened. The amount of film being produced in countries like China and Croatia remains staggering.

These things have led me to rethink the way in which we look at photography, especially the way in which earlier photography influences what comes later. The influence of certain photographers on others is known but often not really appreciated. The importance of nationalities—in my opinion—needs a more serious examination. For example, why are there so many great Hungarian photographers, yet relatively few Greek or Indian photographers? I would be a fool to pretend that I know all there the answers. But we need an open discussion.

It is important to be clear about what this book is not. It is not a course book in photography, photochemistry, or digital technology. It is about still photography, almost entirely with visible light. Even at that, the subject is enormous. I have been forced to make some choices, and some readers will surely disagree with the choices that I have made. At the suggestion of friends, I have added some photos of my own and a few that are in the public domain (you can’t write a book about photography with no pictures).

I received my first box camera—as a birthday present—in the fall of 1942. I immediately shot pictures of fighter aircraft in the sky, since we lived near a naval air station. I was devastated to see that the planes came out as tiny dots. Some years later, with the help of a brother who was traveling through a duty-free port, I got my first Leica and began to learn what this is all about. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Even better, I hope you are encouraged to look deeper into the topics that I have considered in this book.

Finally, we need to look into the question of how we classify photos and how we can look seriously at the influence of some photographers on others. The possibilities are endless. I like to think of photos lying on a line. On the left, we might put posed or manufactured pictures, such as fashion, portraits, weddings, food, etc. On the right, we might put photos which are out there. These could include wildlife, sports, wars, and astronomy. The left might represent the creator of images, the right the recorder of images.

The scheme is not perfect, and some pictures are deceptive. The second famous photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima, as opposed to the first (below), is a re-enactment.

Figure%201.jpg

On the other hand, Korda’s picture of Che Guevara (sometimes called the most reproduced picture in the world) is a snapshot taken at a rally, and not a posed portrait.

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Still I find my scheme useful.

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Another way to look for comparisons and influences comes from the writings of the photographers themselves. A striking example might be Henri Cartier-Bresson (a very famous French photographer, hereafter HCB) writing about Boys in the surf, Lake Tanganyika by the Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi. He wrote, I suddenly realized that photography can capture eternity in an instant … I am still dazzled by it even today.

One can also study the letters of famous photographers (Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz left many letters.). We can see the way that different photographers looked at the same subject. This is not science, just an attempt to put order in a complicated world.

Last of all, I must thank Tom Rose (Art Department, University of Minnesota) and John Roth (the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography), for many useful conversations and suggestions, and my son Jeremy for teaching me so much about computers and software.

Chapter 1

Prehistory, the Light Shows of Daguerre, and Fixing an Image

It is not surprising that there are different versions of the history of photography. One version claims that photography arises as an outcome of the painting of the day. The chief proponent of this idea is Peter Galassi (who had been the director of the photography section of the Museum of Modern Art in New York). His most controversial assertion on this subject is probably photography was not a bastard left by science on the doorstep of art, but a legitimate child of Western pictorial tradition. A very different look at this might be Helmut Gernsheim’s claim: that photography was not invented earlier remains the greatest mystery in its history.

The pros and cons of these, as well as many other theories, will surely be debated—without any definitive answer—forever. But every person knows that light has an effect on certain substances. A freshly cut tree will darken in sunlight. One could make an image (a pictogram) by leaving a tool on the cut in bright sunlight. However, the image is not fixed and it will eventually fade and become invisible.

The sensitivity to light of certain chemicals (silver salts) was observed by the German chemist Johan Heinrich Schultze long before photography. T. Wedgewood (of the family of the famous English maker of porcelain) made similar observations. However, it was up to the French to capture—with some degree of permanence—an image from nature.

Nicephore Niepce, along with his brother Claude, came from a wealthy family in the town of Chalons-sur-Saone, some 150 miles southeast of Paris. The brothers invented an early version of the internal combustion engine, and even an early sort of bicycle. Niepce discovered the photogravure process (etching on stone) to be used in printing; with modifications, it survives to this day. He also made the first photograph (around 1829). He used bitumen on a pewter plate. Somehow he was able to fix the image. The image was of a farmhouse, and the exposure took eight hours in full sunlight. Of course, there are no traces of animals or people, because they did not stand still for the full eight hours.

REPLACEMENT%20IMAGE%20FOR%20PAGE%2014.jpg

It was thought that this picture was lost for many decades, but it was rediscovered in 1952 by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. It is now in a museum at the University of Texas.

Niepce died of a stroke in 1833, but in his later years, he came into contact with Louis Daguerre. In fact, Daguerre approached Niepce with a letter where he expressed his burning desire to learn about what Niepce had achieved. During the 1820s, Daguerre ran a popular light show, or Diorama, in Paris. It was a room with paintings or drawings of famous scenes such as battles or churches on the walls. Images were also projected on the walls. The images were changing, and the audience could also rotate to increase the effect.

In order to create the images, Daguerre probably used a camera obscura, an artist’s aid that was popular at the time. Canaletto and Vermeer were suspected to have used this device to make more perfect paintings.

Figure%205.jpg

Another similar device was the camera lucida. This was a prism whose function was also to help an artist make more perfect drawings. The early English inventor, scientist, and photographer Fox Talbot was known to have used that device.

The diorama survives to this day in natural history museums. Religious fanatics in Kentucky have a diorama showing people and dinosaurs together. The modern camera obscura is a darkened room where 360-degree images from outside are projected on the walls. They can be found in Edinborough Havana, San Francisco, etc. Finally the Camera Lucida survives as an application for an Apple I phone.

Always looking for ways to improve his light show, Daguerre experimented with light sensitive chemicals. He came across a technique which some called a Mirror with Memory. He placed a silver plate over a box with iodine creating a coating of