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After the first photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, photographs have been used to capture moments in time/history.

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As photography evolved so did photography. The history of the camera began even before the introduction of photography. Cameras evolved from the camera obscura through many generations of photographic technology – daguerreotypes, calotypes, dry plates, film – to the modern day with digital cameras and camera phones.

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Juxtaposition is an act or instance of placing two elements close together or side by side, they can contrast either through visual elements or through different meanings. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences, etc. The definition of juxtaposition is placing two things together to show contrast or similarities. In photography, we use composition, forced perspectives or props to convey the contrasts in the picture. Photographs can also rely on cultural ideas and identities of the viewers.

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I chose these images as I think they truly represent juxtaposition as they show one place at two different times creating the contrast between new and old.

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In both images the props are flowers but different colours and Lara gilks photo is more saturated than mine making the colours stand out

 Juxtaposition refers to the side-by-side placement of two or more contrasting things. As with colour, shape, and cropping, juxtaposition can become a key component of photographic compositions, helping to tell a story and emphasize differences or similarities between objects or people.

EXAMPLES OF JUXTAPOSITION

Juxtaposition in street photography is hugely influenced by individuals emotions – some may volunteer to be photographed whilst some shots are candid. This photo shows two people, perhaps lovers, standing in front of a painting of two individuals kissing. The two in front are looking away from each other and away from the camera, this could symbolize conflict between the two. The woman is holding her arm as an act of defiance. The painting behind them juxtaposes the couples emotions.

MY PHOTOS

I edited these photos on Lightroom and Photoshop. For the first one i used the warp tool and motion blur to convey emotion, for the second one i increased the saturation and clarity to give the photo a soft blur and more vibrant background.

The juxtaposition between my photos is reliant on emotion. The first photo suggests a sadder more chaotic atmosphere, with the lack of eye contact due to the eyes blurred out to make it more mysterious. The black background makes the individual in the photo stand out more so she is the main focus. The second photo is the opposite – i am smiling in the photo to show a happier atmosphere, the brighter colours and light background furthermore suggest this.

Portrait photography has had a long and varied history since Louis Daguerre introduced the photographic process in 1839. In that same year, Robert Cornelius produced what’s considered the first photographic self-portrait. Photography has served many purposes, mainly to commemorate occasions and periods in history.

How Portrait Photography Has Evolved Over Time

If you were a wealthy individual in the early 1800s, you might have been able to commission an artist to paint a portrait of you. This was not likely to have been a pain-free process, however, even if it meant that you got a framed likeness of yourself at the end. Think multiple sessions of sitting still and trying to keep your features frozen in a dignified smile. And if you didn’t quite like how the portrait turned out, there wasn’t much you could do about it.

Luckily, the invention of photography transformed portrait making into something less time consuming and with more reliable results. Early portraits were daguerrotypes. They were named after the French inventor, Louis Daguerre, who came up with this technique of imprinting images on an iodine-sensitized silver plate using mercury vapor. Daguerrotypes were produced for around twenty years starting in 1839 before they were edged out by other photographic techniques. Since they had a pretty short run overall, daguerrotypes that survive today (such as the two below) are valuable collectibles.

Photography. An art form invented in 1830s, becoming publicly recognised ten years later.

Today, photography is the largest growing hobby in the world, with the hardware alone creating a multi-billion dollar industry. Not everyone knows what camera obscura or even shutter speed is, nor have many heard of Henri Cartier-Bresson or even Annie Leibovitz.

In this article, we take a step back and take a look at how this fascinating technique was created and developed.

Before Photography: Camera Obscura

Before photography was created, people had figured out the basic principles of lenses and the camera. They could project the image on the wall or piece of paper, however no printing was possible at the time: recording light turned out to be a lot harder than projecting it. The instrument that people used for processing pictures was called the Camera Obscura (which is Latin for the dark room) and it was around for a few centuries before photography came along.

It is believed that Camera Obscura was invented around 13-14th centuries, however there is a manuscript by an Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan dated 10th century that describes the principles on which camera obscura works and on which analogue photography is based today.

Camera Obscura is essentially a dark, closed space in the shape of a box with a hole on one side of it. The hole has to be small enough in proportion to the box to make the camera obscura work properly. Light coming in through a tiny hole transforms and creates an image on the surface that it meets, like the wall of the box. The image is flipped and upside down, however, which is why modern analogue cameras have made use of mirrors.

In the mid 16th century, Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian scholar, wrote an essay on how to use camera obscura to make the drawing process easier. He projected the image of people outside the camera obscura on the canvas inside of it (camera obscura was a rather big room in this case) and then drew over the image or tried to copy it.

The process of using camera obscura looked very strange and frightening for the people at those times. Giovanni Battista had to drop the idea after he was arrested and prosecuted on a charge of sorcery.

Even though only few of the Renaissance artists admitted they used camera obscura as an aid in drawing, it is believed most of them did. The reason for not openly admitting it was the fear of being charged of association with occultism or simply not wanting to admit something many artists called cheating.

Today we can state that camera obscura was a prototype of the modern photo camera. Many people still find it amusing and use it for artistic reasons or simply for fun.

The First Photograph

Installing film and permanently capturing an image was a logical progression.

The first photo picture—as we know it—was taken in 1825 by a French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It records a view from the window at Le Gras.

The exposure had to last for eight hours, so the sun in the picture had time to move from east to west appearing to shine on both sides of the building in the picture.

Niepce came up with the idea of using a petroleum derivative called “Bitumen of Judea” to record the camera’s projection. Bitumen hardens with exposure to light, and the unhardened material could then be washed away. The metal plate, which was used by Niepce, was then polished, rendering a negative image that could be coated with ink to produce a print. One of the problems with this method was that the metal plate was heavy, expensive to produce, and took a lot of time to polish.

Deadpan photography is defined as a devoid of emotion. There is no visible joy or sorrow in the photos. The only subject of focus us the object or person itself.

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Perhaps two of the most famous deadpan photographers in history, Bernd and Hilla Becher became famous through their typological deadpan photographs of water towers, coal mines, industrial landscapes, grain elevators and gas tanks. Their many different series of photographs offer a look into the industrial past of the world, and showcase landscapes and subjects that cannot be seen as readily in the world today. While many viewers may see the images as lacking substance or meaning, their work resonates with many people today as a typology of a world that no longer exists.

For my experimentation, I decided to use people instead of objects.

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First photograph – portrait photograph of me dressed up as a male (black suit and tie, beard etc.)

Second photography – portrait photograph of me dressed up as a female (dress, makeup, skirt etc.)

Third photograph – portrait photograph of me looking in the mirror dressed as a female but the reflection shows me dressed as a male (symbolises that society perceives me as a female as I look like one, but actually I’m a man and have always been one, just never knew it yet)

Fourth photograph – portrait photograph of me wearing a mask that has gender symbols drawn all over it, signifying my struggle with gender identity

Fifth photograph – a full body photograph of myself with my face blurred and scribbled out and top surgery scars being drawn under my chest (fully clothed – scars will be drawn onto my clothing)

Sixth photograph (may or may not do) – portrait photograph of myself with the use of the shutter speed technique (displaying the overwhelming sense of defeat and it being the final image of the set to show that the entire process of figuring out who I am, has consumed me and taken away who I really am)

I would like to be able to apply these photos in a series as to give off the impression of an overwhelming process that is involved in gender identity. I would like for it to be displayed as an incredible difficult journey where it eventually gets to the stage where you no longer understand what you might be and end up giving up on figuring out who you really are. Completely wiping out your loss of identity due to so many stressful experimental scenarios.

DIAMOND CAMEOS

A diamond cameo contains a portrait displayed (commonly 4 times) in circular shapes arranged in a diamond shape. Typically, the main subject would change their composure (i.e look to the left) for each picture, it then would be arranged in such a way where each separate picture is looking the opposite way. They were common in the late 19th century and were often commissioned by wealthy, upper class people or figures of monarchy/authority. They are often very informal compared to the existing portraiture of the time, which was often very serious and formal.

HENRY MULLINS

Headshots by Mullins of both Jersey men and women were produced as vignette portraits -which was a common technique used in mid to late 19th century- they were then arranged into diamond cameos.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND HENRY MULLINS

STUDIO

In the studio we did a small shoot of passport-type images, I used these images for my diamond cameo.

First I edited the images in Lightroom- turning them to black and white and resizing them- then I exported them to Adobe Photoshop.

Using the cut out tool I cut out my main subject in a circular shape then placed and arranged them on a black background.

This is my final image, I believe it lives up to the classic definition of a diamond cameo however I decided to overlay some of the portraits to create a textured, more layered effect. I changed the images to black and white to incorporate the traditional photography of the time, where images were black and white.

Overall I like the outcome of my diamond cameo experimentation, I really like the way the subject is looking in different directions, with only one image where they are not looking at the camera. I find this composition really interesting.

Your next project will be largely based on Landscapes. We will study

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