Photography is not purely mechanical. It is a science and an art. The Greek roots for photography mean “to write with light”.
Ansel Adams is probably best known for his many photographs taken in the Yellowstone area. Works like this are good examples of “straight” photography. We see his compositional considerations, the way he chose shape, texture, value contrast etc. Also we sense his mastery of the camera, and the process. Man is dwarfed by the awesomeness of nature. Adams viewed aspects of nature as the symbols of spiritual life.
There are 2 technical aspects of photography : camera and film
The camera, simply explained, is a light proof box with an opening
Most of us receive images with the use of two eyes (stereoscopic). The eye receives a constant flow of light and changing images that are interpreted by the brain.
The camera shows us monoscopic images, flattened images. The camera can only record a single image at a time.
F-stops refer to sizes of aperture openings. You can see that at f/2 the aperture is wide open, letting the maximum amount of light in. The length of time the aperture is open can be adjusted as well.
The photographer selects films that heighten the effects he or she seeks to protray. Different speeds and grains are available.
After being exposed to light, treated chemically, this becomes the negative.
Porter took time to notice the beauty close at hand instead of traveling the world to look for exotic subjects. You can see that this image could represent any river, lake or stream, but he has very carefully waited for the right lighting and weather conditions to compose the image.
The newest rage in collecting and manipulating imagery. It is nice to be able to almost instantly see the “shot” you just took and respond accordingly (delete, e-mail, print, etc.)
The Camera Obscura was born out of the Renaissance. It’s original use was to help in rendering depictions of nature through a kind of tracing technique. It was very large in size, an actual room, but through the years it evolved into a portable box, a lens was added and later an angled mirror.
Eventually photosensitive surfaces would allow images to be recorded, rather than an artist tracing them.
In 1727 Heinrich Schulze realized that silver salts had light sensitive qualities.
1802 Thomas Wedgewood discovered that paper soaked in silver nitrate could take on a recorded image but could not stop the process so the paper would continue to blacken and the image would be lost.
1826 Niepce used Bitumen (asphalt residue) on a pewter plate. Bitumen was soluble in lavender oil if in the dark, but insoluble if struck by light. The plate could be exposed several hours with a type of camera obscura. Using lavender oil, the unexposed areas were washed away and the pewter shown through.
The next innovation was made by Niepce and Daguerre in 1829. A thin silver plated copper sheet was chemically treated and exposed in a camera obscura then chemically treated again.
This is the first successful daguerreotype. Drawbacks to this process were: the long exposures, 5-40 minutes; reversed images; the plate was the actual print, so no enlargements or copies could be made; the surface was so delicate that the plate had to be sealed behind glass. Within 10 years the process really improved and because of shorter exposure times, families could have portraits taken for not a lot of money.
In 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot realized that the photosensitive emulsion could be added to paper. Then he exposed actual objects on the paper. Light and dark values were inverted. Then he learned to create a positive by using a second sheet of paper and re-exposing the image. In 1907 Louis Lumiere invented the autochrome process using glass plates coated with 3 layers of dyed potato starch that filtered colors. A layer of silver bromide emulsion covered the starch. In 1932 Kodak refined the process with more advanced materials and produced color film.
You can see that after only 33 years of development as a process, the quality of the image can be pretty good.
Because of photography, major historic events could be recorded and reported.
Photographers are able to bring attention to human suffering caused by war, poverty, hunger and neglect.
Photographic images are powerful because we know the photographer was actually there. We join them as a witness. We are not only informed but moved emotionally. Hine- used his skill to communicate concern for working children and played a significant role in the creation of child labor laws.
In this image we see the brutal and ironic differences between the glamorous life promised in the advertising and reality.
Margaret Bourke-White introduced the idea of the photo essay- a collection of photos arranged to tell a story.
She had a huge impact because she recorded memorable images of most of the world’s major events for nearly 30 years and she expanded the boundaries of the woman’s traditional role.
In the beginning people were reluctant to give photography recognition equal to other arts because it relied on a mechanical device. Today most people agree that the camera is a tool or vehicle of self expression and that it incorporates many variables of communication and composition.