Transcript Birth of Photography 1837 by Louis M. Daguerre invented

Birth of Photography
1837 by Louis M. Daguerre invented the first practical
process of photography
To take the first portraits, the subject
had to sit dead still for twenty
minutes. The subject’s neck was
clamped in a vise hidden from the
camera’s sight. Daguerreotypes were
wildly popular.
War photography
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Matthew Brady 1823-96
brought home the horrors of
the Civil War
Wagonload of camera
equipment became a target
It took 3 minutes to make an
impression
Confined to pictures of
posed soldiers, camp
pictures, corpses
The new medium claimed to
be a mirror with a memory
Documentary Photography
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Jacob Riis (1849-1914)
was a New York police
reporter
He invaded robber’s
hangouts, sweatshops,
and squalid conditions
His graphic images led
to the 1st legislation to
reform housing codes
and labor laws
Portrait Photography
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Nadar did portraits of
artistic figures of Paris
in 1853
He posed figures and
used dramatic lighting
for photographs
This photo is of Sarah
Bernhardt 1859,
showing her in a
dramatic sweep of
drapery
Art Photography
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Julia Cameron (181579) wanted to capture
ideal beauty
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She was the first to have
lenses built for a softfocus effect in her
sentimental pictures
Photography’s impact
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The art of painting miniature portraits was
doomed
Daguerreotypes could be ready in 15 minutes
for 12 cents
Some painters proclaimed “From this day,
painting is dead.”
Painters who did painstakingly detailed scenes
were threatened
Some artists viewed photography as helpful
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Delacroix used them as studies for hard- to- hold poses
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Some painters used photos for portraits instead of long sittings
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Bierstadt used photos for his panoramic landscapes
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Degas used photos for unusual poses and unconventional compositions
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Within 3 generations after the invention of photography, painters abandoned
the image for abstraction
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Photographers insisted their craft was more than snapping a picture, but fine
art in itself
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The camera excelled at reproducing images realistically but photographers
aspired to imitate painting
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Photographers manipulated the mechanically produced images by
retouching the negative, painting the prints, superimposing the negatives