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Art Movementes and Isms

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Pictorialism

Time Period : 1880-1920

Key Characteristics: The make it look like art, look handmade. It reacted against mechanization and industrialisation. They abhorred the

Methods/Techniques/Processes: Rub Vaseline on the camera lens to blur parts of the picture. Scratch the negative, and use chemicals to create an interesting print.

Artist Associated:
Alfred Stieglitz. He was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was known for the New York art galleries that he ran in the early part of the 20th century, where he introduced many avant-garde European artists to the U.S. He was married to painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

Hugo Henneberg. An amateur photographer originally trained in the sciences, Henneberg came to the medium from his study of physics, chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics. His knowledge of the technical aspects of photography served his aesthetic interests particularly well, as he created gum bichromate prints that involved multiple stages of development.

Julia Margret Cameron. The bulk of Cameron’s photographs fit into two categories closely framed portraits and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works.

Realism / Straight Photography

Time Period : 1915

Key Characteristics: Politics, Revolutions, Cubism. Straight photographers were photographers who believed in the intrinsic qualities of the photographic medium and its ability to provide accurate and descriptive records of the visual world. These photographers. Realism photography grew up with claims of having a special relationship to reality, and its premise, that the camera’s ability to record objectively the actual world as it appears in front of the lens was unquestioned. A belief in the trustworthiness of the photograph is also fostered by the news media who rely on photographs to show the truth of what took place.

Methods/Techniques/Processes: Sharp Focus, Shape, Form, To face reality. “The camera is an instrument of a new kind of vision.”

Artist Associated:
Paul Strand. He was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century.

Walker Evans. Often considered to the leading American documentary photographer of the 20th century. He rejected Pictorialism and wanted to establish a new photographic art based on a detached and disinterested look. He most celebrated work is his pictures of three Sharecropper families in the American South during the 1930s Depression.

Modernism

Time Period : early 1900s through to the 1960s.

Key Characteristics: characterised intellectually by a belief that science could save the world and that, through reason, a foundation of universal truths could be established. The common trend was to seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature of art and human experience. Modernity imbue all aspects of society and are apparent in its cultural forms including fiction, architecture, painting, popular culture, photography.

Methods/Techniques/Processes:

Artist Associated: Joe Cornish. He is a British photographer noted for his large format landscapes. Born in Exeter, Devon, England in 1958, he graduated with a degree in Fine Art from University of Reading in 1980 and then went to America to train as a photographer’s assistant.

Ansel Adams. He was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph.

Edward Weston. He was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called “one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…” and “one of the masters of 20th century photography.”

Post-Modernism

Time Period : second half of the 20th century

Key Characteristics: Postmodernism is relativism – the belief that no society or culture is more important than any other. It explores power and the way economic and social forces exert that power by shaping the identities of individuals and entire cultures.

Methods/Techniques/Processes:

Artist Associated: Anna Gaskell. She is an American art photographer and artist from Des Moines, Iowa. She is best known for her photographic series that she calls “elliptical narratives”

David LaChapelle. Is a famous American pop photographer, moviemaker and video artist that made his name by shooting celebrities like Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Michael Jackson, etc. But unlike most “celebrity photographers” he expands his portfolio with other kinds of work and creates beautiful exhibitions. His photography often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages.

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Art Movements and Isms

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Pictorialism

Time Period: 1880s – 1920s.

Key Characteristics/Conventions: This type of photography was supposed to appear handmade and have similar visual qualities to art. This meant these pieces were made to look foggy, naturalistic and romantic. If these images incorporated people, they were often staged photographs not candid. Furthermore these photographs could be said to contain allegorical qualities, with photographers aiming to communicate a underlying meanings within their work, often using characters to personify these abstract ideas.

Artists Associated: Alfred Stieglitz was one of the first photographers to promote this medium as an artform, suggesting that the camera was only a tool, like a paintbrush is to a painter. Julia Margaret Cameron was also key in developing this genre, through her allegorical portraits, influenced by Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Some photographic groups also took part in the start of this new age of photography, including The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring (London), The Vienna Camera Club (Austria) and Photo-Secession (New York), which was founded by Alfred Stieglitz.

Key Works: The pieces of photography created during the pictorialism movement have often been compared to artists such as Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance period.

  • Fading Away (1858) – Henry Peach Robinson
  • The Onion Field, Mersea Island, Essex (1890) – George Davison

Methods/Techniques/Processes: Photographers often used a soft focus and even put Vaseline on the lens of their camera in order to create foggy and romantic images. Photographers also experimented with manipulation in the dark room. Various chemicals were also used to distort the image as well. In addition, they also were known to scratch onto the negatives to imitate the texture of a canvas.

Realism vs Pictorialism: A Civil War in Photography History | PetaPixel

Realism/Straight Photography

Time Period: 1920s

Key Characteristics/Conventions: Photographs in this style usually incorporated geometrical shapes, high contrast, rich tonalities and a sharp focus. These photographs often showcased seemingly mundane objects and landscapes, with the aim of the photograph to produce an accurate and descriptive record of the visual world. Photographers of this artistic movement did not want to treat photography as a kind of monochrome painting

Artists Associated: One of the pioneers of this photographic movement was Paul Strand, said to have brought new perspectives to often overlooked subjects, who studied under photographer Alfred Stieglitz. These two photographers were said to be influenced by European avant-garde art movements, which can be seen in there abstract and geometric images. Walker Evans also helped to develop this genre, instead focusing on portraits containing detached and disinterested expressions from the subjects.

Key Works:

  • ‘A Sea of Steps’, Wells Cathedral, Steps to Chapter House (1903) – Frederick Henry Evans
  • Bowls (1917) – Paul Strand

Methods/Techniques/Processes: Most of the time these photographs are not manipulated and rely on the eye of the photographer. These images were often taken in an abstract manner and from unique angles. In order to take these images, photographers used crisp focus with a wide depth-of-field, contrasting with the style of Pictorialism.

Modernism

Time Period: 1900s – 1940s

Key Characteristics/Conventions: Modernism can be identified as a term that encompasses the broadness of all the avant-garde isms that were seen in the beginning of the 20th century. This new movement was a reaction to ‘the enlightenment’, which saw science and reason become more prevalent in society than spiritualistic beliefs. This dramatic change of thought lead to many artists seeking answers concerning fundamental questions about the nature of art and human experience. Many came to the conclusion that art needed to renew itself by confronting and exploring its own modernity. Works in this style were often based on idealism and a utopian vision of human life, as well as society and a belief in progress.

Artists Associated: Ansel Adams can be described as an early modernist photographer, with his dramatic photographs of North America’s vast landscapes that showcased large contrast in tones. Alfred Stieglitz was known to also be a modernist photographer as well, taking photographs that displays striking architecture with a sharp focus, after moving away from his soft edge pictorial style.

Key Works:

  • The Art Critic 1919-20 Raoul Hausmann 1886-1971
  • Blind – Paul Strand (1916)

Methods/Techniques/Processes: There were not many key defining techniques that were in constant use throughout this movement, however modernist artist usually experimented with form, technique and process. This was in contrast to purely focusing on subjects, believing they were able to find a way of reflecting the modern world.

Post-Modernism

Time Period: 1970s – 2000s

Key Characteristics/Conventions: Post-modernism was a rejection of modernism and its formality. Many works seen in this photographic movement were ambiguous and diverse in nature, whilst being influenced by disenchantment brought on by World War Two and refers to a state that lacks central hierarchy. This sceptic style argued the ideas that there are universal certainties or truths, and instead stated that individual experience and interpretation was more concrete than any abstract principles seen in modernism. This mean that it often embraced complex and even sometimes contradictory layers of meaning.

Artists Associated: Cindy Sherman is a post-modernist photography, best known for her self portrait that depict herself in extremely different contexts. Another photographer who worked in this style was Jeff Wall, whose work varies from mundane urban environments to complex tableaux pieces that are back lit and on a scale comparable to 19th-century history paintings. 

Key Works:

  • Cindy Sherman
  • Marilyn Diptych – Andy Warhol

Methods/Techniques/Processes: Post-modern photography varies greatly in style, but tends to posses a sense of chaos and relate to conflict, whether personal or political.

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ROMANTICISM

Romanticism in Art

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that ran from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century. It focused on strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe. It elevated folk art, language, and custom. Romanticism rose as a reaction against the excessive rationalism of the Enlightenment. It drew upon the French Revolution’s rejection of aristocratic social and political norms. It was also influenced by the theory of evolution and uniformitarianism, which argued that “the past is the key to the present.” This lead some Romantics to look back nostalgically to the Middle Ages and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period. The ideals of the French Revolution influenced the Romantic movement in other ways. Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as misunderstood heroic individuals and artists that altered society, and legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art.

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism in Art

Impressionism was a radical art movement that began in the late 1800s, centered primarily around Parisian painters. Impressionists rebelled against classical subject matter and embraced modernity, desiring to create works that reflected the world in which they lived. Uniting them was a focus on how light could define a moment in time, with colour providing definition instead of black lines. The Impressionists emphasized the practice of plein air painting, or painting outside. Initially disapproved by critics, Impressionism has since been embraced as one of the most popular and influential art styles in Western history. Artists abandoned the traditional landscape palette of muted greens, browns, and grays and instead painted in a lighter, sunnier, more brilliant key. They began by painting the play of light upon water and the reflected colours of its ripples, trying to reproduce the manifold and animated effects of sunlight and shadow and of direct and reflected light that they observed.

MODERNISM

Modernism in Art

Modernism, in the fine arts, was a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression. Modernism fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following World War I. In an era characterized by industrialization, the nearly global adoption of capitalism, rapid social change, and advances in science and the social sciences, Modernists felt a growing alienation incompatible with Victorian morality, optimism, and convention. New ideas in psychology, philosophy, and political theory kindled a search for new modes of expression. In the visual arts the roots of Modernism are often traced back to painter Édouard Manet, who, beginning in the 1860s, not only depicted scenes of modern life but also broke with tradition when he made no attempt to mimic the real world by way of perspective and modeling. He instead drew attention to the fact that his work of art was simply paint on a flat canvas and that it was made by using a paintbrush.

REALISM

Realism in Art

Realism, in the arts, is the accurate, detailed, and unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favour of a close observation of outward appearances. Realism was stimulated by several intellectual developments in the first half of the 19th century. Among these were the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, with its emphasis on the common man as an artistic subject. Gustave Courbet is often considered the leading figure of Realism. He laid the groundwork for the movement in the 1840s, when he began portraying peasants and labourers on a grand scale typically reserved for religious, historical, or allegorical subjects. Prior to Courbet’s radical emergence, painters did not depict scenes as they saw them; instead, they idealized them, virtually erasing any flaws or imperfections. To Courbet, this approach was detrimental to painting, as it eliminated any sense of individuality.

CUBISM

Cubism in Art

The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honoured theories that art should imitate nature. Cubist painters were not bound to copying form, texture, colour, and space. Instead, they presented a new reality in paintings that depicted radically fragmented objects. The monochromatic colour scheme was suited to the presentation of complex, multiple views of the object, which was reduced to overlapping opaque and transparent planes. Some historians have argued that these innovations represent a response to the changing experience of space, movement, and time in the modern world. This first phase of the movement was called Analytic Cubism.

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History of Photography Essay

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The medium of photography is a well known art form, with it now being more accessible than ever, whether it is taking pictures with your phone or using a film camera. Nowadays we consume hundreds of images a day and are able to produce them at ease, however it has taken many scientists, inventors and artists hundreds of years to perfect this process.

The first known method used to capture and present images can be dated back to 400BC. This was known as a Camera Obscura, meaning ‘dark chamber’ in Latin, which was a method that involved creating a completely dark room with one small hole in it. As a result, this created a projection of the image outside the room onto the walls of the dark room upside down. For hundreds of years this was an invention that was used in order to view the eclipse of the sun, without causing damage to the eyes. Although a revolutionary discovery, this method did not allow for the image to be permanently captured. This was an issue many struggled with for years until the late 1820s, when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, was able to create a camera obscura which was portable and could expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to the projected image. This made him the first person to record an image that did not fade quickly after it was captured.

Soon after this, the idea of photography was commercialised by Louis Daguerre after his invention of the daguerreotype, a process named after himself, in 1839. With this new form of photography, extremely detailed images were able to be created. This was achieved by using a copper plate with a thin sheet of silver on, which had to be polished enough so that the surface would look like a mirror. After this plate had been transferred to the camera, it was then exposed to light and developed over hot mercury. This meticulous technique and outcome was something only the rich could afford and most of the time was used to create portraits of them. However, even though Daguerre’s invention resulted in beautifully detailed photographs, each image was one of a kind, as it didn’t use negatives, meaning there was no way to make further prints. In addition to this, portraits usually took around three to fifteen minutes to take, meaning a more inexpensive and efficient alternative had to be made.

Leaving a gap in the market, this allowed British Henry Fox-Talbot to solve this problem by inventing the calotype in the 1830s. This is due to the process that required using a sheet of paper coated in silver chloride being exposed to light in a camera obscura. As a result, the places on the paper which had been exposed to light became dark and vice versa, in turn creating a negative image. With this negative, it meant that photographs could be reprinted by contact printing the negative onto another piece of sensitised paper. As well as this, the Calotype allowed for a shorter exposure time as fast as one minute. This method was then improved by English inventor Richard Maddox, who introduced the dry plate in 1871. Using dry plates meant that the plate could be transported and the negative could be exposed and developed at a later date, rather than in the same sitting. All of this caused photography to become slightly more accessible and appealing to the public.

It was not long after until George Eastman invented the roll of film in 1889, revolutionising the way we take photographs. Eastman developed these rolls on a transparent base, a standard that still remains in the present, containing 100 exposures. He named this camera Kodak, a name he coined himself, therefore starting the infamous camera company that still exists today. With this camera users would send the entire thing back to the manufacturer, with the used film inside, which they then developed and sent back with the reloaded camera. This quick and efficient process meant that less people held poses and more candid photographs were taken. This transformed the image of photography into something enjoyable and a way to capture happy memories, with Kodak even encouraging users to smile at the camera. In 1900, eleven years after first introducing the roll of film camera, Eastman distributed the Brownie Camera. This product was originally made for children and priced at one dollar, making photography more accessible than ever. It can be said that Kodak was the start of contemporary photography.

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Personal Study – Genius of Photograhy Notes

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Andre Kourtez – Meurdon = transformation. “Photography always transforms what it describes. Photography tells a story beyond the frame through intuition.

Fixing the shadows – photography invented 1839 – Louis de Gaye, Henry Fox Talbott. Goes further back than that – Camera obscura used by renaissance artists in the 15th century. The two inventors found a way to fix this camera obscura projection onto a surface. Daguerreotype – copper plate. Abdudlla Morell. Well befor 1839 it was known that materials had a sensitivity to light. Talbott started experimenting as he couldnt draw. He started using silver salts on paper and ‘moustraps’ to start creating negatives. His paper negatives represented the breakthrough of photography. Positives were created from these negatives and produce many copies. Louis – mirrored metal – daguerreotype, immediacy. Depth of field and tonal range and detail. Guild – burning the image into the dag. Talbott system still dominated as daguerreotypes could not be copied many times. Dags are fragile. Beginnings of photography were all about the struggle to see which process will prosper – sense of industry. Photography mid 19th century – industrial revolution – huge technological change. Photography was part of the invention of modernism. Speed. Motion studies – precursor of cinema – Moybridge. Stanford came to Moybridge to study if horses feet all came off the ground. Daguuera never saw photography as an artform. George Eastman – roll of film, kodak. Kodak camera created mass production for photography. You press the button well do the rest. Brownie – low cost more accessible. Vernacular – photography not for art. Pictorialism – artistic photography.

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Personal Study – Contextual Studies

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Jeff Wall

ICP Talks: Jeff Wall | International Center of Photography

Jeff Wall is best known for constructing and photographing elaborate mise-en-scènes, which he displays in wall-mounted light boxes as large-scale colour images. He takes his cues from the neorealism of Italian cinema, working with nonprofessional actors to stage scenes of everyday life. The above is Jeff Wall’s image titled, ‘Passer-by’ (1996). It is a street photography image where Jeff has captured a naturally occurring event. An event that he has encountered almost by accident that portrays a scene and can be interpreted beyond the frame by using intuition. This encapsulates one of Wall’s strong views of what makes an intriguing and meaningful image.

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Quote from David Company’s So Present, so invisible

The image is of a sidewalk in what seems like an urban American suburb. Framed in the centre of the image is a tree, and on either side of the tree we see two men. The man in the foreground is wearing denim jeans and a denim jacket, we cannot see his face as he is looking over his shoulder at the other man while continuing to walk. The other man in the background is running towards a stop sign in the distance in the opposite to the man in the foreground. Overall the image has an overwhelming feeling with a low exposure and abundance of shadows the image has a sober emotion throughout. The image has a wide tonal range with the man in the foreground being well lit, along with an illuminated white wall which possesses the images highlights. In the background where the man is running is very dark and underexposed giving the images its pure black’s and therefore this wide tonal range. This tonal range connotes a sense of innocence for the well exposed man in the foreground who can be seen looking over his shoulder into what can seem like a world of darkness he is leaving behind. The man in the background is presented as a more corrupt character in the scene as he can be seen to run towards the theoretical ‘ dark side’. This lighting looks as if it has been achieved using an artificial source of lighting during the night time to achieve the vast contrast between the foreground and background. The lighting casts long shadows from the subjects and the tree in the centre of the image. These shadows aid in making the image significantly more dramatic as it adds more to the dark, ominous aesthetic while introducing a sense of depth. These shadows also connote to the theme of innocence and corruption, almost insinuating the man in the foreground is leaving his dark side behind him. The lighting also adds a shiny highlight to the leaves of the tree in the middle of the image. This gives it a glistening texture adding to the innocence of the foreground, while the background remains without light and therefore keeps a grainy texture adding to the theme of corruption. I think this method of casting shadows shouldn’t be overlooked as it can being a lot more meaning to how photography is interpreted. The development of modern photography has preached a certain aesthetic to be correct, I think Jeff’s work challenges this. Having these drooping shadows can be undesirable by the modern photographer seeking to achieve this ‘correct’ aesthetic with a lot of photographers using fill-lighting to cancel out shadows in the background. Jeff challenged this view and believe in a balance between aesthetics and narrative. He used the shadows to add to the narrative of this image.

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Quote from David Company’s So Present, so invisible
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Quote from David Company’s So Present, so invisible

Jeff used a narrow aperture to achieve the depth of field in the image and get everything in focus which allows him to tell relay the narrative of innocence and corruption between the foreground and background. Shooting with a closed aperture also aids in underexposing the image and making it appear darker. The way the image is framed where the tree separates the two men and the man who represents corruption is hiding behind the tree almost representing hiding from his true identity.

The above gives further insight into Jeff Wall’s perspective of photography and the importance to investigate pictorialism and how imagery can create art. He talks about how photography is like poetry where all elements of a photos narrative and aesthetic qualities evoke emotion and relay purpose like a poem does. This aligns with the above Quotes from David Company’s So Present, so invisible where Jeff discusses the relationship between the vernacular and the pictorial and how there is no one way to create art. I believe that the strongest pictorial images originate from a documentation of accidental circumstances that outline a subject. I believe art can be interpreted in all images that relay a narrative and also the importance of imagery in accurately documenting in a artistic fashion. I therefore wholly agree with Jeff’s view on photography.

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History Of Photography

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THE BEGGINING – 1826

The worlds first photograph was made in a camera in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore. The photograph was taken from the upstairs windows of Niépce’s estate in the Burgundy region of France. It was the worlds first image that didn’t fade quickly. He used camera obscure to capture his image, however he added a photo sensitive plate coated with silver chloride, which darkened where it was exposed to light. This is how he recorded his image.

history of photography timeline 3 image

It took 8 hours to record the image. You can see sunlight illuminating both sides of the buildings. He made it by exposing a bitumen-coated plate in a camera obscura for several hours on his windowsill. Which leads to the question what is camera obscure?

Camera obscura is the Latin name means “dark chamber,” and the earliest versions, dating to antiquity, consisted of small darkened rooms with light admitted through a single tiny hole. The light rays enter the tiny hole and inside the box there will be the scene projected on the wall, however it will be upside down. Camera obscura isn’t a camera, it was invented by a Chinese philosopher called Mo-tzu (or Mozi) in 400BC. He noted that light from an illuminated object that passed through a pinhole into a dark room created an inverted image of the original object. Although, the first known date that camera obscura was 1021 AD.

DAGUERREOTYPE – 1837

In 1837, Louis Daguerre introduces the daguerreotype, a fixed image that did not fade. From 1839 on, the popular metal plate process known as daguerreotype opened up this mix of art and technology to the masses. 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. After exposure to light, the plate was developed over hot mercury until an image appeared.

It was one of the easier metal plate photographic processes, it was still messy, expensive, very time consuming, and somewhat dangerous.

Replica of Daguerre-Giroux camera | Science Museum Group Collection

CALOTYPE – 1841

Calotype, also called Talbotype, is an early photographic technique invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s.

In this technique, a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride was exposed to light in a camera obscura; those areas hit by light became dark in tone, yielding a negative image. The revolutionary aspect of the process lay in Talbot’s discovery of a chemical (gallic acid) that could be used to “develop” the image on the paper, it accelerates the silver chloride’s chemical reaction to the light it had been exposed to. The developing process permitted much shorter exposure times in the camera, down from one hour to one minute.

The developed image on the paper was fixed with sodium hyposulfite. However, if you touched the paper it would destroy it, as the emollition sits on top of the image. The “negative,” as Talbot called it, could yield any number of positive images by simple contact printing upon another piece of sensitized paper. Talbot’s process was superior in this respect to the daguerreotype, which yielded a single positive image on metal that could not be duplicated. Talbot patented his process in 1841.

history of photography timeline 4 image

KODAK – 1888

George Eastman of Rochester, New York had an idea. Use this new roll film, build a simple, easy-to-use camera, and market it as a fun use product. In the history of photography, Eastman was a master of marketing photography to the masses. “You push the button, we do the rest.”

history of photography timeline 8 image

POLAROID CAMERA – 1948

Edwin Land launches the Polaroid camera. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and the retinex theory of colour vision, among other things. His Polaroid instant camera went on sale in late 1948 and made it possible for a picture to be taken and developed in 60 seconds or less.

Polaroid introduces the instant camera, February 21, 1947 - EDN

CANON DIGITAL – 1984

In 1984 Canon demonstrates first digital electronic still camera, which set the path for digital photography for todays world.

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the history of photography

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The Arab scholar Ibn Al-Haytham (945–1040) is generally credited as being the first person to study how we see; he invented the camera obscura to demonstrate how light can be used to project an image onto a flat surface. Earlier references to the camera obscura have been found in Chinese texts dating to about 400 B.C., and in the writings of Aristotle around 330 B.C. By the mid-1600s, artists began using the camera obscura to help them draw and paint elaborate real-world images with the help of finely crafted lenses. Magic lanterns, the predecessor of the modern projector, also began to appear at this time. Using the same optical principles as the camera obscura, the magic lantern allowed people to project images, usually painted on glass slides, onto large surfaces. They soon became a popular form of mass entertainment.

In 1826, French scientist Joseph Nicephore Niepce developed the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen and then exposed it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce placed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image appeared. These heliographs, or sun prints as they were sometimes called, are considered the first photographic images. However, Niepce’s process required eight hours of light exposure to create an image that would soon fade away.

View From The Window at Le Gras | Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

In 1829, Louis Daguerre formed a partnership with Niepce to improve the process Niepce had developed. In 1839, following several years of experimentation and Niepce’s death, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography and named it after himself. Daguerre’s daguerreotype process started by fixing the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He then polished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. Then he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes. After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution of silver chloride. This process created a lasting image that would not change if exposed to light.  The daguerreotype gained popularity quickly in Europe and the U.S. By 1850, there were over 70 daguerreotype studios in New York City alone.

Daguerreotypes

One drawback to daguerreotypes, however, was that they could not be reproduced; each one was a unique image. The ability to create multiple prints came about from the work of Henry Fox Talbot, an English botanist and mathematician. Talbot sensitized paper to light using a silver-salt solution. He then exposed the paper to light. The background became black, and the subject was shown in different shades of grey. This was a negative image. From the paper negative, Talbot made contact prints, reversing the light and shadows to create a detailed picture. In 1841, he perfected this paper-negative process and called it a calotype, Greek for “beautiful picture.”

In 1889, photographer and industrialist George Eastman invented film with a base that was flexible and could be rolled. The 35 mm film most people know today was invented by Kodak in 1913 for the early motion picture industry. In the mid-1920s, the German camera maker Leica used this technology to create the first still camera that used the 35 mm format. The drawback to nitrate-based film was that it was flammable and tended to decay over time. Kodak and other manufacturers began switching to a celluloid base, which was fireproof and more durable. Most films produced up to the 1970s were based on this technology. Since the 1960s, polyester polymers have been used for gelatin-based films.

Having perfected roll film, George Eastman also invented the box-shaped camera that was simple enough for consumers to use. Once the film was used up, the photographer mailed the camera with the film still in it to the Kodak factory, where the film was removed from the camera, processed, and printed. The camera was then reloaded with film and returned. Over the next several decades, major manufacturers such as Kodak in the U.S., Leica in Germany, and Canon and Nikon in Japan would all introduce or develop the major camera formats still in use today. Nikon and Canon would make the interchangeable lens popular and the built-in light meter commonplace.

Apple later introduced its smartphone camera with its first iPhone in 2007, and other companies followed, such as Google and Samsung. By 2013, smartphones with cameras were outselling digital cameras by more than 10-to-1. In 2019, more than 1.5 billion smartphones were sold to consumers, compared with about 550,000 digital cameras over roughly the same period.

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Personal Project – Statement Of Intent + Mood Board/Mind Map

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MOOD BOARD+ MIND MAP

I made a mind map and mood board for the topic that I chose fo my personal study is on, which is Bouley Bay. This is because I live close to it, and I feel that there is a lot of history that be explore and because it is a landscape that has a wide variety of features I can use lots of photographic techniques to capture the bay.

STATE OF INTENT

My idea is to make a photobook in which I explore the area Bouley Bay, overall I want to capture the activity, views, and close ups of key feature such as rocks, shells, heritage, the hill climb, and the bay. I could also look into the history of the bay and the Jersey Folklore, involving the Black Dog.

It is important to me as I grew up in that area, and have many memories of it. And I hope to capture it in the same way in which remember it.

I wish to develop my project by exploring the bay and collecting lots of objects to photograph in a studio, and also to take long exposure, aerial, and underwater of the bay, as I have been inspired by many photographers, such as, Martin J Patterson (@ mjplandscapes on Instagram), Jaun Munoz (@ drjuanmdc on Instagram), and David Aguilar (@ davidaguilar_photo). Using these images I can look into topics such as, beach pollution, environment and beach life. Hanna-Katrina Jędrosz and Barron Bixler have studied environments, so it would be interesting to analyse them and their work.

FIRST PHOTO SHOOT PLAN

My first photoshoot, I will go down to Bouley at Sunset when it’s not cloudy and high-tide, and take long exposure photos using a tripod, and some neutral density filters.

Independent, Reading, Resource, Task

Reviewing And Reflecting

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My pervious work over Year 12 and Year 13, that showcases some of my best images and interesting photographic techniques

Formal Elements

My first project I started was based on the formal elements using formalism, where I scrunched up and teared up paper into shapes such as, balls, holes, and different textures, then took photos of the paper. I set up multiple different lighting environments to shoot in.

Firstly, I used 1 light source, which was the camera flash, for the image of the paper ball I also made the exposure darker to emphasis the contrast between the highlights and the shadows which made creases in the ball more noticeable, additionally it made the black paper background even darker so that you couldn’t see any of the marks on the paper. This is using minimalism to direct the focus of the image to the main focal point.

In the other photos I used 2 phones to emit different coloured lights, which made the colours clash as the paper as at different heights as it was crumpled up.

In Photoshop, I didn’t really do much adjustments image were very basic. All I adjusted was the contrast and saturation, to boost the colours, or the opposite to make it black and white by setting the saturation to 0.

Surface and Colour

In this topic I used serval different camera lens to gain a different perspective. However, most of these image were shot using a macro lens.

This allowed me to achieved a really close up shot were you can clearly see the pattern and the repetition of shapes and the different textures of the subject. Additionally, I was able to use a shallow depth of field, which created a focus onto key features by blurring the edges.

Having these images in black and white helps remove any distraction of colour and helps the viewer focus on other aspects of the photo, such as the subject, the textures, shapes and patterns, and the composition.

Abstract

To create these images I played a colourful video on my laptop and shot the images through different glasses, eg, wine glasses and perfume bottles to distort the video, which created a unique and abstract effect. I also used the glass to make reflections to act like a mirror.

To also create some of these images I changed my camera to manual focus and made it super blurry, then I took photos of different glasses in front of the screen, using the same method.

Minimalism – (Artist Reference / Kevin Saint Grey)

Kevin Saint Grey is a photographer I studied who is a primarily black and white LA based photographer with a minimalist approach to his subjects which creates a drastic contrast. He shoots mostly landscape and architecture, and his work distinguishes itself for the serendipity of black and white, “humanness” and silent images. He accomplishes this by using techniques such as, symmetry and long-exposure, and he manages to get amazing, creative photographs, by using camera movements while exploring unique angles while shooting architecture.

This is one favourite minimalistic images I took, it is of a glass lamp stand. I made it so the full object is not in view as it creates a minimalistic effect, that features the curve of the sphere, and the light which reflects off of it.

I submitted this image to a photography competition hosted by the Jersey Arts Centre on their Facebook page, and it won “Best minimalistic photo of the day.”

Portrait/Close Up

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I have used the photography studio when taking portrait photos. This allowed me to experiment with different lighting colours, set-ups, etc.

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I have created a photomontage using post-processing techniques in Photoshop by using layers after lining all the images up, which created a multi-exposure image.

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The eye contact with the camera makes it a stronger image as there is more of a direct and emotional atmosphere between the viewer and the image.

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Since I used a macro lens I was able to create a shallow depth of field. This made it so the eye and part of the eye lashes were focused, and the rest wasn’t, which draws more attention to the eye itself. Macro photography is one of my favourite ways to shoot however, it one of the hardest to get right, as its only manual focus. This means you have to move closer/further away from the object or adjust the focal length.

Landscape

The landscape project was heavily inspired by Ansel Adams. Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. Also, he is considered the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century.

Both images are of natural landscapes, which display rock formations and both cover the whole of tonal zone system, going from 0, being black through to 10 being white, displaying different shades. This really puts emphasis on the highlights as it creates a high harmonious contrast.

These two images demonstrate the 3 levels of tonal values, is what makes this image stand out. It consists of the blacks in the foreground, with the grey behind it, then finally to the light-grey figures in the background which the lighthouse is apart of. Overall the harsh contrast between the sky and the rocks juxtapose each other against light and dark. I achieved the star effect caused by the sun, by using a high f-stop value, eg. f-32.

I used multi-bracket exposure to capture these images. The camera takes 3 photos, 1 over exposed, 1 normally, and 1 under exposure image. I edited it in Photoshops Camera Raw Filter after Photoshop merged the 3 images to create a HDR image. (High Dynamic Range.)

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These 4 images are more generic landscape photos, however do include unique aspects such as lens flares and reflections from the water.

This are some of the urban landscape photos I took at night in town, using long exposure. Since the exposure time was so long I had to use a tripod so that the camera was stable to create a clear image. Long exposure is one of my favourite photography techniques, as it creates unique images every time.

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This is my favourite image from the whole urban landscape topic. It captures a bus driving past a traffic light. However it did take many attempts to capture this shot, which is part of the fun.

Long Exposure – Water Photo Shoot

On the topic of long exposure these are 2 strong images that where apart of another topic, that I really like.

Street Photography/ Candid Photography

These 2 images were tableaux (set up/knew they were being photographed) Overall, I didn’t really like asking people if it was ok to take their pictures. However, it did allow me to capture the subjects closer compared to the photos below.

Where as, these 2 images aren’t set up and captures peoples natural state, emotion, and pose. Therefore, i fell that they poses more of a story.

Anthropocene

For my Anthropocene project I split it into 2 sections. The first was space, and the second was plastic water pollution.

These were some of my favourite photos I got of the full moon at 4 AM. I used a telephoto lens and a tripod to capture the moon.

These are my attempts astrophotography, I went to the west of the island at 12-1 AM and used a 18mm lens, with a low aperture using a long shutter speed of 20 seconds to capture the stars. Before I took the photo I had to manually focus the camera on the north star, this is so that the stars would in focus. Overall, these turned out good, however it wasn’t the right season, so I could do better when the milky way is more visible.

This is my best final piece which I made in Photoshop, using my own images to create a concept image using photo manipulation of plastic water pollution in Jersey. This took approximately 7.5 hours, using over 500+ layers inside photoshop, where I documented the process on my blog. I have lots of experience in photoshop and a great knowledge of the software.

Identify and Community Photoshoots Best Images

These images were taken whilst I was walking around town. This is one of my favourite ways to photography unique and different things in a new place/area.

In these images there was a metal chain across the car. This was very distracting so I removed it in Photoshop which improved the image. I also made the black background darker to remove the small details to create an old, minimalistic style.

These images work well in black and white. The image on the left demonstrates depth of field and unique angles, however the right image captures motion of flying pigeons.

These images use framing to create a focus on the key features and remove distractions around the outside of the image.