Photography has many different functions, this can range from; recording history/memories, creating art, changing the way the human eye perceives images, creating companies advertisements and making us experience emotions that move us and make us think/see things differently.
Photography as an art form
Photography being used as an art form grew from technological developments where images where now able to be manipulated by photographers into ways that fit their artistic expressions.
Using photoshop, etc photographers are able to completely change the way an image can be perceived by their audience and how they want people to interpret it by experimenting with different lenses, cameras, films and how they frame or time a shot.
Photography as a science
Photography is an art and science but scientifically, the camera which creates the art also helps us to capture and teach us understandings which may or may not be visible to the human eye as they are too small or far away.
This can include:
– The action for the light sensitivity which is needed to produce pictures.
– How the images may be fixated through the camera, object or person.
– The process of how light helps to create the picture.
The difference between the study and practice of photography
Studying photography means to gain basic knowledge about photographic elements and techniques. It is where you will learn about photo composition, camera use/maintenance, how to use a darkroom and digitally editing and processing.
To practice photography means is creating art through application and creating images by recording light well. This is done either electronically by a camera or on a phones camera, chemically by using light sensitive materials like photographic films. Practicing photography helps us to document memories/history throughout life, recreating events, change how people see things, etc.
Hamptonne is a country life museum which shows Jerseys history which carried back as late as the 15th century. There are many different houses and a farm, with various animals, which make up Hamptonne, along with the Cider Barn where a festival is held around the middle of October every year, where fresh cider is made from the horses crushing the fresh apples from the Orchard.
Things that you are able to do at Hamptonne
– Explore the Orchard and see the various farm life around the site.
– Meet characters in their houses/places and hear stories or history about them.
Hamptonnes History
The name ‘Hamptonne’ came from Laurens Hamptonne who purchased the site in 1633 but the site may also be known as ‘La Patente’ named after the road it is on.
Royal patents were awarded letters to those who had provided a particular service to the reigning monarch (King Charles II at this time) or a close relative. For Hamptonne this came from the owner Richard Langlois loyalty to the Royalist cause during the English Civil war, when he was the executive officer (Vicomte) of Jerseys Royal Court.
Hamptonne had gained a lot of support from King Charles II which they received several grants: To preserve the integrity of the property, meaning it couldn’t be broken into parts/split amongst family members and only inherited by the eldest child, permission to rebuild the ruined Colombier which originally was granted to Richard Langlois but located outside the museums boundaries, etc.
The Houses and Country yards
Hamptonnes shape is square which includes all different types of buildings which were made during different time periods and found over 2 country yards. The farm has mainly medieval origins, but improvements to the living conditions have been made over the years. The main buildings are named after the Langlois, Hamptonne and Syvret families who lived there during the 15th to 19th centuries.
After you exit the gift shop, you enter a north courtyard where a row of 19th century farm buildings were made to meet the requirements for the workforces vehicles and horses. It also includes a labourers cottages, coach house, bake and laundry house and stables. Opposite it a glass barn is found which holds various farming devices and to the east there is a walled vegetable/herb garden with a playground and orchard further on.
To the south you find Langlois House, which holds stabling and a under croft on the ground floor with a parlour and bedroom on the first, and a house for pigs and a pond. Then at the south-west corner you’ll find a stone arched gateway which leads to the road.
To the west of the site is Cider House (pressoir) with a granite apple crusher and press. then to the far south end of the row is Syvret house which has a kitchen, parlour, 2 bedrooms and a small cabinet. This house is shown to be what one would have looked like of a tenant farmer around 1948.
The Cider Apple Orchard
To the far east of the farm is where you’ll find the Cider Apple Orchard where many trees are found and hold apples of sweet, bitter and sharp range of flavours which taste when when mixed together for cider. A small footpath at the end can lead you into a small woodland, which use to be an important source for wood, fuel and building materials with a great range of plants and wildlife with a National Jersey trust toads trail which carries on the footpath.
Tom Kennedy is a photographer and film maker who’s pictures are inspired by ‘Painting with light’ through inspiration of Dutch Masters paintings in the 17th Century such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.
You watched the documentary on ‘Fixing the Shadows’ from BBC Genius of Photography, Episode 1.
To embed your understanding of the origins of photography and its beginnings you’ll need to produce a blog post which outlines the major developments in its practice. Some will have been covered in the documentary but you may also need to research and discover further information.
Your blog post must contain information about the following and keep it in its chronological order:
Camera Obscura
Nicephore Niepce
Louis Daguerre
Daguerreotype
Henry Fox Talbot
Richard Maddox
George Eastman
Kodak (Brownie)
Film/Print Photography
Digital Photography
Each must contain dates, text and images relevant to each bullet point above. In total aim for about 1,000-2000 words.
Archives in contemporary photography: Also read text about the resurgence of archives in contemporary photography by theorist David Bate: archives-networks-and-narratives_low-res, make notes and reference it by incorporating quotes into your essay to widen different perspectives. Comment on quotes used to construct an argument that either support or disapprove your own point of view.
Origins of Photography: Study this Threshold concept 2: Photography is the capturing of light; a camera is optional developed by PhotoPedagogy which includes a number of good examples of early photographic experiments and the camera obscura which preceded photography. It also touches on photography’s relationship with light and reality and delve into photographic theories, such as index and trace as a way of interpreting the meaning of photographs.
Photography did not spring forth from nowhere: in the expanding capitalist culture of the late 18th and 19th centuries, some people were on the look-out for cheap mechanical means for producing images […] photography emerged experimentally from the conjuncture of three factors: i) concerns with amateur drawing and/or techniques for reproducing printed matter, ii) light-sensitive materials; iii) the use of the camera obscura — Steve Edwards, Photography – A Very Short Introduction
View from the Window at Le Gras by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827
Debates about the origins of photography have raged since the first half of the nineteenth century. The image above left is partly the reason. View from the Window at Le Gras is a heliographic image and arguably the oldest surviving photograph made with a camera. It was created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. The picture on the right is an enhanced version of the original which shows a view across some rooftops. It is difficult to tell the time of day, the weather or the season. This is because the exposure time for the photograph was over eight hours.
What is a daguerreotype?
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate.
In contrast to photographic paper, a daguerreotype is not flexible and is rather heavy. The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. Since the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing. Different types of housings existed: an open model, a folding case, jewelry…presented in a wooden ornate box dressed in red velvet. LD a theatre set designer
The invention of photography, however, is not synonymous with the invention of the camera. Cameraless images were also an important part of the story. William Henry Fox Talbot patented his Photogenic Drawing process in the same year that Louis Daguerre announced the invention of his own photographic method which he named after himself. Anna Atkins‘ British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions of 1843 is the first use of photographic images to illustrate a book. This method of tracing the shapes of objects with light on photosensitive surfaces has, from the very early days, been part of the repertoire of the photographer.
Henry Fox Talbot – Latticed Window, 1835
In the month of August 1835, William Henry Fox Talbot produced the first photographic negative to have survived to this day. The subject is a window. Despite the clear connection, it is an entirely different image compared to those of his colleagues Niépce and Daguerre. Those are photographs taken from a window, while this is the photograph of a window. From the issue of realism, we shift here into an extremely modern outlook which today would be likened to conceptual and metalinguistic discourse. While the window constitutes the most immediate metaphor to refer to photography, Talbot doesnʼt use it but more simply he photographs it. He thus takes a photograph of photography. The first to comment on this was the author himself, writing a brief note (probably added when it was displayed in 1839) on the card upon which it is mounted. The complete text reads:
Latticed Window (with the Camera Obscura) August 1835 When first made, the squares of glass, about 200 in number could be counted, with help of a lens6
In 1978, the German photographer Floris Neusüss visited Lacock Abbey to make photograms of the same window. He returned again in 2010 for the Shadow Catchers exhibition at the V&A to create a life-sized version of Talbot’s window (below right).
That 1878 photogram was the start of our adventures in creating photograms of large objects in the places where we found them […] we took our equipment to Lacock Abbey and made a photogram of a fixed subject. This particular subject was for us not just a window in a building but an iconic window, a window on photography, opened by Talbot. The window is doubly important, because to be able to invent the photograph, Talbot first used photograms to test the light sensitivity of chemicals. His discovery became a window on the world. I wonder what percentage of our understanding of the planet we live on now comes from photographs? — Floris Neusüss
The idea of photographs functioning like windows makes total sense. Like the camera viewfinder, windows frame our view of the world. We see through them and light enters the window so that we can see beyond. Photographs present us with a view of something. However, it might also be possible to think of photographs as mirrors, reflecting our particular view of the world, one we have shaped with our personalities, our subconscious motivations, so that it represents how our minds work as well as our eyes. The photograph’s glossy surface reflects as much as it frames. Of course, some photographs might be both mirrors and windows. If you’re interested in thinking a bit more about this you might want to check out this resource.
Examples of Jersey-based Photographers—the early days…
The British scientist Sir John Herschel discovered the cyanotype process in 1842.
The process remains the same today, producing a white image on a deep blue background.
Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints. The process uses two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.
English botanical artist, collector and photographer Anna Atkins was the first person to illustrate a book with photographic images. Her nineteenth-century cyanotypes used light exposure and a simple chemical process to create impressively detailed blueprints of botanical specimens.
Anna’s innovative use of new photographic technologies merged art and science, and exemplified the exceptional potential of photography in books.
Anna’s self-published her detailed and meticulous botanical images using the cyanotype photographic process in her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. With a limited number of copies, it was the first book ever to be printed and illustrated by photography.
Bulldog clips – or you can use masking tape or sellotape instead
An interesting range of objects to create your print from
Alternatively, you can print out an image on clear transparency to create your blueprint from…
Tips
You could source a piece of acrylic from a picture frame and even put it back afterwards!
The cyanotype paper is light sensitive, so only take it out when you are ready to start using it, and protect the remaining sheets from light.
When exposing your composition to light, watch the paper slowly change from blue to almost white. This should take around 3-5 minutes in full sun but longer if it is cloudy.
Wash your print for at least one minute using gentle cold water.
When it is dry leave your print under a pile of books overnight to flatten it out.
Task
Create a blog post that describes and explain the cyanotype as both a science and an art-form
Include visual examples
Include reference to Anna Atkins and other photographers who have experimented with cyanotypes
Photos are a way of solidifying memories and personal experiences it also lets us relive and remember special events that have happened, birthdays, weddings, parties and family that are no longer here. Photography also allows us to share these memories with other people and share our experiences.
Why is photography important?
Photographs play an important role in everyone’s life, they help us keep memories and connect to our past. Photography is also a way to express ourselves and lets us see things that we would have never noticed. It also lets us see into other peoples minds and helps them conveys a message to the rest of the world, they have a positive influence on society by letting people express their emotions.
How many different kinds of photography can you think of?
There are many different types of photography that change in subject manner, equipment and technique. Some include landscape photography, wildlife photography, aerial photography, sports/action photography, portrait photography, architectural photography, wedding photography/event photography and fashion photography.
Can photographic images be trusted?
With all the editing software that allows us to modify and change anything we want in pictures, it has become increasingly more difficult to trust. Many people can now edit pictures to make them look like something that hasn’t actually happened which could have many effects on the world or peoples view of it. But photography can also show us the real issues in the world and without them, many of the issues would never be seen or talked about.
In my opinion there are multiple functions/ uses of photography it can be used to capture memories and events in someone’s personal life, or on the other hand it can become very general and varied, such as pictures of natural events in the newspapers. Furthermore, it can be used to communicate everything that is occurring all around the world at one time, although photographs only capture one point in time and sometimes don’t show the whole story, pictures can communicate important issues such as climate change, mental health and the pandemic. Personally the main function of photography is to capture memories such as holidays around the world and growing up in my childhood home.
Photography as an art form
Photography can be viewed as a from of art and self expression as it can portray someone’s emotions through an image or a collection of images, people can manipulate their images to emphasise specific parts of the image. However, this makes images untrustworthy and misleading, for example when celebrities use photoshop to make their images look more aesthetically pleasing. Photography contrasts with other visual art forms as in my opinion its the most misleading, but can have the most influence other other opinions, mostly because a whole story sometimes cant be told through one photo. Photography as an art illustrates how the work is done by the photographer/ artist rather than jus the camera itself, this allows famous photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson to explain the thought process and development behind his images.
The study and practise of photography
One of my favourite thing about visual arts in general is the many ways in which it can be used in very serious situations such as finding out what a criminals face looks like on CCTV or illustrating how many children starve in third world countries. The practise of photography is very important as even though we might not know it we need it to show evidence of everything from school work, to the discoveries of new planets, as some of my favourite high resolution images are of earth from thousands of miles away. I think that the main benefit from the study of photography is how it can change your perspective on things, anything from the angles and the lighting to the way in which situations are viewed. For example, the famously controversial image that Kevin Carter taken had a serious message behind it, not telling the whole story, whereas if he had included the food bank in the background of his image then maybe it would not have bee as controversial in a negative way, this demonstrates how easily images can be manipulated.
The lighting within this image is more underexposed, rich and dark towards the bottom of the image, but towards the top of the image the lighting is harsh and artificial. In the area of windows in the middle of the image, there is an area of high overexposure. The white balance is warm, and there is an orange tone to the image. This shot is shot in portrait, with a slightly blurry texture, and slightly fine grain. This means that the light sensitivity was higher, creating this grain.
Visual Elements
The tone in this image is rich and dark, however with high light points in the middle section of windows. The angle in which the photo is taken creates a triangle shape leading towards the background. This creates natural leading lines within the image, drawing the eye from the subject of the mage to the background of the factory. The doorway above the subject’s head creates a natural frame for this dramatic portrait. There is slight shadow on the subject’s face, but deep underexposure, and tones of black and orange on the middle of his face. The use of repeated rectangle and square shapes in the construction of the factory creates a sense of a uniformed and rigid environment, and creates an organised composition.
Contextual Elements
Alfred Krupp, the subject of this picture, was a factory boss in WWII. He was very controversial figure in post war Germany, due to his encouragement and use of forced and child labour in his factories during the war. He sourced his workers from concentration camps, and forced these victims to work in horrific and dangerous conditions, making weapons for the German army. He was charged with crimes against humanity, in 1951, and died in 1967.
Krupp’s trial.
Conceptual Elements
I believe that the idea behind this image is to showcase the power of money and industrial strength that was behind World War II.
Photography is medium that allows news to be spread, and new ideas to be shared eg: Photojournalism, documentary photography, and ways of advertising: fashion photography as well as product photography. Photography is important for this reason: it allows voices that would otherwise silent to ber heard, and different perspectives and points of view to be voiced.
An example of photojournalism: documenting the stories of migrants within the current crisis. Picture by Adim Ghirda.
Photography can be used to tell stories, as well as provoking memories. People make photographs to capture memories as well as to document a time, or place. The passing of time is a common idea that photographers seek to portray: for example age, or historic moments. To be a good photographer, you need lots of patience, as well as an eye for different shapes and symmetry.
Can photographic images be trusted?
Unfortunately, in today’s digital age, images can be heavily manipulated, as well as only telling one side of a story. Tools such as cropping, photo manipulation and different angles allow photos to be twisted and changed to show only one view, or be made to look older / newer than reality. This can cause issues in the world of politics and social media, as well as current affairs and news.
Kevin Carter took this photo in 1993 of a starving Sudanese boy (who was initially thought to have been a girl hence the photo name), who collapsed on his way to a feeding centre whilst a vulture waited nearby. This photo sparked controversy because people wondered why he had taken the photo instead of helping the boy. However just out of the frame was the child’s parents and the feeding centre. Carter took them out of the frame in order to to draw more public compassion.
The angle the photo is taken at presents the vulture as superior and makes the viewer anticipate what will happen next. The fact there is no second frame adds to this, which is why it is such a well-recognized image. The contrast between the kneeling child and the towering vulture represents how different the life of these photographers are compared to the people they are taking photos of.
Carter was working in a time when photojournalists were told not to touch famine victims for fear of spreading disease. He estimated that there were twenty people per hour dying at the food centre. The child was not unique. However, he wanted to photograph the child in a way that would cause controversy to bring attention to the amount of young famine victims, not just in Sudan, but around the world.
This is one of Kevin Carters most “iconic”, but “controversial” images which was published in the New York Times in 1993. The image of the collapsed Sudanese girl and the vulture leave the viewers in suspense because they don’t get a second image leaving them to image what happened next. The image is cold and depressing because the little girl was on her way to a feeding centre when the picture was taken and because of the vultures stance it seems like he thinks the little girl is there prey. This image shows the real struggles which people who live in these parts of the world experience and it shows what many people don’t see in everyday life.
Carter got a lot of backlash for this image and was scrutinised for not helping the little girl which led to his unfortunate suicide due to being blamed, but what the public didn’t see was what surrounded the girl. The child was just outside the feeding centre with her parents but unfortunately collapsed when Carter took the picture.
Henry Fox Talbot – Latticed Window, 1835
