ARH318 History of Photography 2021

  [Unidentified elderly woman seated, three "spirits" in the background] by William Mumler      I have always been a little bit fascinated by popular conventions and trends in photography and art when studying their history, so I was really excited to explore that in during out last class. When looking back throughout the last 150 years, we can see that we are still taking the same kinds of photographs as we always have. One classic example of a timeless subject is a large group family photo, with the older generations in the middle with the kids posed around them. But another cool example of a photo-specific convention that has stood the test of time is the concept of being able to pose for a photo with a deceased loved one.      This photo of an elderly woman with what appear to be three ghosts was taken by a man named William Mumler in Boston, sometime between 1862 and 1875. He took many photographs like this one during that time, passing off the do...

The Hand of Man by Alfred Stieglitz, 1902 The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz, 1907      I really wanted to take a look at another photograph of Alfred Stieglitz’s for this blog post, because I’ve always been interested in both photography and fine art, and have felt invalidated in the past by people who believe the two practices can’t overlap. Stieglitz however, back in the early 20th century, was rather obsessed with that very idea. He’s credited with being the proprietor of what would eventually become known as Gallery 291 - a small art gallery dedicated to showcasing mostly photography - and the editor of popular photographic journals of the era, Camera Notes and Camera Work (Szarkowski).      The photo on the top, titled The Hand of Man, was taken in 1902 and originally published in Stieglitz’s debut issue of his journal Camera Work in 1903 (The Art Institute of Chicago). It depicts a locomotive blowing black smoke into an overcast Long Island sky while c...

  A daguerreotype of Abraham Lincoln in 1846, attributed to Nicholas Shepherd The same as above, edited for clarity (Shepherd, 1846)      This is the earliest-known photo of Abraham Lincoln (Shepherd, 1846), taken when he was 37 years old and working as a lawyer in Springfield and a congressman of Illinois (Ostendorf, p. 4). If you were to ask Walter Benjamin in the 1930s what he thought about such a portrait, he might tell you that the formal pose, tense expression, and literal depiction of the figure lacks aura (Benjamin, p. 515-517). And he might be right, but I am of the belief that a photograph doesn’t have to have aura or even significant intention to be able to connect with it, and that the inherent ability of the photographic process to capture a moment of the past - whether 100s of years or mere minutes ago - can be just as valuable to the human experience as an artistic statement.      Learning about the early inventions in photography betwee...