Chiaroscuro, deriving from the Italian describing the contrast between light and dark in imagery, comes from the painting technique of using high contrast in light modelling to establish a three-dimensional effect.
It first appeared in 15th Century artworks in Italy and Flanders (Holland), but was developed further in 16th century works within the Mannerism and Baroque movements.
Key subjects were usually dramatically lit by unseen sources in pieces by the old masters such as Rembrandt and Caravaggio.
Johannes Vermeer, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, 1665 (Dutch)The Flagellation of Christ by the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, 1607 (Italian)
Chiaroscuro is employed commonly in cinema, especially within the Film noir movement of 40s and 50s Hollywood. Film noir concerns a style of glamorous crime/spy thrillers – particularly those that foreground moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. It is therefore clear why the use of chiaroscuro is so apparent in this genre, as the darkness and suspense is emphasised through this shadowy visual theme.
How can this be used in photography?
In a photographic studio, chiaroscuro can be achieved by using one key light or a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.
Do you remember the picture of a large bay window, the first paper negative ever to be made – that we watched in the film Fixing the Shadows – episode one of the first major television series devoted to the medium of photography, The Genius of Photography.
‘Fixing the Shadows’ from BBC Genius of Photography, Episode 1.
In the summer of 1835 William Henry Fox Talbot experimented with various chemicals to develop paper coatings suitable for use in a camera. He placed small wooden cameras that his wife called “mousetraps” all over his estate. The earliest surviving paper negative dates from August 1835, a small recording of the bay window of Lacock Abbey (left). 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).
Henry Fox TalbotFloris Neusüss
That 1978 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.
Photo-historian, Gerry Badger who was part of the editorial team producing the television series The Genius of Photography wrote in the introduction of the book of the same name that John Szarkowski’s distinction of photographs as ‘mirrors’ or ‘windows’ is useful, but only to a point, ‘because most photographs are both mirrors and windows.’ (Badger 2007:8)
The exhibitionMirrors and Windows, anexhibition of American photography since 1960, opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMa) in July of 1978. The curator John Szarkowski’s attempted to categorise photographers whose work largely reflected the subjectivity of the artist in comparison with those whose work largely sought to see outside themselves. Szarkowski wrote in the catalogue essay that accompanied the exhibition:
“The two creative motives that have been contrasted here are not discrete. Ultimately each of the pictures in this book is part of a single, complex, plastic tradition. Since the early days of that tradition, an interior debate has contested issues parallel to those illustrated here. The prejudices and inclinations expressed by the pictures in this book suggest positions that are familiar from older disputes. In terms of the best photography of a half-century ago, one might say that Alfred Stieglitz is the patron of the first half of this book and Eugène Atget of the second. In either case, what artist could want a more distinguished sponsor? The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” — John Szarkowski, 1978
MIRRORS AND WINDOWS has been organized around Szarkowski’s thesis that such personal visions take one of two forms. In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as a mirror – a romantic expression of the photographer’s sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window – through which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality.
Take a look at the images below. Think about whether, in your opinion, they are mirrors or windows.
You could draw a horizontal line with the word ‘Mirror’ at one end and ‘Window’ at the other. You could add a list of words that help to describe what these words suggest.
Now, try placing each of these images somewhere on this spectrum. Annotate the images to explain your decisions.
Garry Winogrand – Los Angeles, 1969 Gelatin-silver printBill Brandt – Nude, East Sussex, 1968Nan Goldin – Nan and Brian in bed, NYC. 1983 CibachromeRobert Heinecken – Figure Sections/(Multiple Solution Puzzle), 1966Bernd + Hilla Becher – Lime Kilns, Kalköfen, Harlingen, 1968Richard Hamilton – Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? Collage 1956Eugene Atget – Street Musicians, 1898William Eggleston – from Memphis, Tennessee, Dye transfer print, early 1970sRobert Rauschenberg – Windward, Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas, 1963Richard Long – A line made by walking, England 1967
TASK 1: 1000 word mini-essay Essay question: How can photography be both ‘mirrors’ and ‘windows’ of the world? DEADLINE: WED 6 DECEMBER
Follow these instructions:
Read two texts above and select 3 quotes form each that is relevant to your essay.
Select two images, one that represent a mirror and another that represents a window as examples to use in your essay.
Use some of the key words that you listed above to describe what the mirrors and windows suggest.
Essay plan Introduction (250 words): Reflect on the origin of photography and describe in your own words the difference between the two photographic processes, Daguerreotype and Calotype. Consider how they could be viewed as either a mirror or a window of the world according to John Szarkowski’s thesis. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s text and comment if you agree or disagree.
Paragraph 1 (250 words): Choose an image that in your view is a mirror and analyse how it is a subjective expression. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s thesis and another from Farrah Karapetian’s analysis which is opposing Szarkowski’s original point of view. Make sure you comment to advance argumentation in providing perspective.
Paragraph 2 (250 words): Choose an image that in your view is a window and analyse how it is an objective expression. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s thesis and another from Farrah Karapetian’s analysis and follow similar procedure as above ie. two opposing points of view and commentary to provide a critical perspective.
Conclusion (250 words): Refer back to the essay question and write a conclusion where you summarise Szarkowski’s theory and Karapetian’s critique of his thesis. Describe differences and similarities between the two images above and their opposing concepts of objectivity and subjectivity.
TASK 2: Photo-assignment A creative response to documentary (reality) and tableaux (fiction) photography DEADLINE: MON 11 DEC
RECORDING > Based on the theme of ‘NOSTALGIA‘ – and with relevance to your Personal Study – produce 3 images that are documenting reality and another 3 images that are staging reality. Use either camera or AI technology, or a combination at free will. The focus here is on creativity, imagination and experimentation. Add images to your essay as photographic responses to Szarkowski’s thesis and evaluate.
DEADLINE: MON 11 DEC Publish essay and your photographic responses
GUIDELINES: ESSAY WRITING
Marking Criteria
Literary Sources:
Read key texts that will provide you with knowledge and understanding
It demonstrates evidence of reading and will enable you to draw upon different points of view – not only your own.
Select relevant quotes and make notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages including page number
Write down author’s name, date it was published, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography
Bibliography:
List all the literary sources that you have read and arrange in alphabetical order. For example: Szarkowski, J. (1978), Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960. Museum of Modern Art: New York
Quotation and Referencing:
Why should you reference?
To add academic support for your work
To support or disprove your argument
To show evidence of reading
To help readers locate your sources
To show respect for other people’s work
To avoid plagiarism
To achieve higher marks
What should you reference?
Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source
How should you reference?
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
Rim lighting is a technique which lights up a subject by using off-camera flash. It highlights the contours of a subject and creates a dramatic and mysterious effect.
Rim lighting, also referred to as back or edge lighting, is created by placing a single light behind the subject.
This lighting technique is characterised as a high-contrast lighting technique. Dark subjects were dramatically lighted by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device seen in the paintings of old masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
In photography, the Chiaroscuro lighting technique is achieved through using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.
Using Flash: An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” can be tried wherever there are white walls/ ceilings. Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios such as: flash “bouncing”, fill-in flash, TTL / speedlight flash, remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting), fast + slow synch flash, light painting c/w slow shutter speeds.
Butterfly lighting is a lighting technique used in portraiture photography, created where the key light is placed above and pointing down on the subject’s face. It is characterised from a shadow created under the nose and chin that resembles a butterfly.
This technique creates shadowing under the subject’s cheekbones, making them look more defined. It is one of the most common lighting techniques in portraiture photography as it is flattering on almost anyone.
Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuous, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speed lights, LEDs or even the sun. This technique can be utilised using hard or soft lighting depending on the desired outcome.
Rembrandt lighting is a standard lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography and cinematography. This technique utilises one light and one reflector or two separate lights. The technique results in a lit-up triangle underneath the subject’s eye on the less illuminated area of the face.
How to create a Rembrandt lighting setup:
Light: Lighting styles are determined by the positioning of your light source. Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.
Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium – or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders. A 50mm works really nicely for portraits and will give a nice depth of field if you’re shooting at a shallow aperture. But a 35mm will give you a wider point of view and is great to fit more of the body in of your subject.
Here are some which I think are good examples:
My experimentation with Rembrandt lighting
These are some photographs I have taken which I think you can see some undeveloped features of the Rembrandt lighting technique.
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 and practices. Some will have been covered in the documentary above but you 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 & Pinhole photography
Nicephore Niepce & Heliography
Louis Daguerre & Daguerreotype
Henry Fox Talbot & Calotype
Robert Cornelius & self-portraiture
Julia Margeret Cameron & Pictorialism
Henry Mullins & Carte-de-Visit
Each must contain dates, text and images relevant to each bullet point above. In total aim for about 1,000-2000 words.
Try and reference some of the sources that you have used either by incorporating direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, or historical fact.
Ibn al-Haytham came up with the idea of camera obscura which led on to be the origin of photography, came up with fixing the shaddows.
Camera Obscura & Pinhole photography
Origins of photography became with a small box with a little whole in which produces an image which can be known as pin whole photography
Henry Fox Talbot came up with the invention of film negatives he produced them on paper he used copper sulphates he came up with the idea because he couldn’t draw. He saw the beauty in film negatives made the Calotype.
Henry Mullins made over 9000 carte de visite portraits of Jersey’s ruling elite and wealthy upper classes. The collection that exists of his work comes through his studio albums, in which he placed his clients in an ordered grid with reference to mid-nineteenth century social hierarchies.
typical family photo by Mullins
André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri was a French photographer who started his photographic career as a daguerreotypist but gained greater fame for patenting his version of the carte de visite, a small photographic image which was mounted on a card. He was the one who created the Carte-de-visite photography style wich inspired Henry Mullins, Disdéri photos were used as calling cards in the olden times.
Felix Nadar was a french photographer who was known for the idea of using aerial photographs for map making. In 1858, Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, who used the pseudonym Nadar, captured the first aerial photographs, photographing Paris from a tethered balloon at an altitude of sixteen hundred feet.
Aerial photo by felix.
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.
Heliography is a photographic process that was invented by Nicéphore Niepce. In some cases – it is still used today (mainly for photo engraving). It was the process of Heliography that created the first and earliest known permanent photograph, taken from a nature scene.
At the time of invention, Heliography was a ground-breaking process. Here’s a rough outline of how the Heliography process took place:
The naturally occurring asphalt bitumen, is applied as a coating on glass or metal
This chemical then hardens in relation to the light exposure available
The plate is then washed with oil of lavender
After washing with oil, the only area remaining would be the hardened area where the image formed.
In Niépce’s famous photograph “The View from the Window at Le Gras” he recorded having given the image an eight-hour exposure, which gives you an idea of how long this process took.
Here are some images I took in the school studio using the flash lighting system and a softer variation of Rembrandt lighting. As I did not edit these too heavily, I have included the final selection of images below.
Overall I am very happy with these because I think they look very professional and as much as they do not specifically utilise lighting techniques like Rembrandt/Chiaroscuro, they are some very strong images in my opinion.
Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique used for portrait photography. It is named after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the great Dutch painter and refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.
In Hollywood in the early 20th century they used Rembrandt lighting and it became widely used in promotional photographs of film stars showing them in a dramatic and eye-catching way.
By using Rembrandt lighting you instantly create shadows and contrast which adds an element of drama and psychological depth to the character of your sitter. It’s effective, not just because it gives an individual ‘look’ to your portrait, but also because it acts as a photographic device to draw the eye. You can do this in so many ways in photography such as; leading lines, depth of field and negative space. These are all methods of drawing the viewer’s eye to the focal point/subject of the image. In portraiture, the eyes of your subject are nearly always the main point of focus. The triangle of light, placed just below the eye on the shadow side of the face, will increase the emphasis and the viewer really will be ‘drawn in’ to your image.
In order to create Rembrandt lighting you must focus on:
Light: Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.
Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium, or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders.
Butterfly Lighting
Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera. You may also hear it called ‘paramount lighting’ or ‘glamour lighting’.
It is used for portraits and is a light pattern that flatters almost everybody, making it one of the most common lighting setups. It was used to photograph some of the most famous stars from classic Hollywood, and that’s why it’s also called Paramount lighting. With it, you can highlight cheekbones and create shadows under them as well as under the neck – which makes the model look thinner.
In order to create butterfly lighting you must focus on:
Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuous, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speed lights, LEDs or even the sun. A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light, it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want. If you want to create a soft light, you’ll need to use modifiers. Alternatively, you can use grid spots to direct it and create different effects.
Experimentation: Once you have the key light set up, you need to fill the shadows. You can use a reflector to bounce the light back up and soften the shadow under the chin and the one from under the nose. To do so, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on. Experiment with different positions to achieve different effects. You can also change the colour of the reflector. A white one will give you a neutral tone, while a golden one gives a warming overcast. The subject’s face needs to be towards the light in order to have the butterfly shadow under the nose.
Chiaruscuro
Chiaroscuro is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark. A certain amount of chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting where 3-dimensional volume is suggested by highlights and shadows. It first appeared in 15th century painting in Italy and Flanders (Holland), but true chiaroscuro developed during the 16th century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art. Dark subjects were dramatically lighted by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device seen in the paintings of old masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood’s classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.
In order to create Chiaruscuro lighting you must focus on:
Using Flash: An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” can be tried wherever there are white walls/ ceilings. Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios such as: flash “bouncing”, fill-in flash, TTL / speedlight flash, remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting), fast + slow synch flash, light painting c/w slow shutter speeds.
Camera obscura literally means ‘dark chamber’ however it is defined as a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. The earliest known written account of a camera obscura was provided 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.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce who was the first to make a permanent photographic image. He was a son of a wealthy family suspected of royalist sympathies, Niépce fled the French Revolution but returned to serve in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte. Dismissed because of ill health, he settled near his native town of Chalon-sur-Saône, where he remained engaged in research for the rest of his life.
Heliography is technique, Niepce used to create the world’s oldest surviving product of a photographic process: a print made from a photoengraved printing plate in 1825.
Traces of solar energy are burnt into the film material using self-constructed devices and lenses with a diameter of up to one meter. Afterwards, the shots are enlarged and printed on paper or the film sheets are directly shown in light-boxes. Or, the film slides themselves are projected onto hangar-sized walls.
Louis Dagueterre was a French painter and physicist who invented the first practical process of photography, known as the daguerreotype. Though the first permanent photograph from nature was made in 1826/27 by Nicéphore Niépce of France, it was of poor quality and required about eight hours’ exposure time. The process that Daguerre developed required only 20 to 30 minutes.
Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. “Daguerreotype” also refers to an image created through this process. 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.
To make the image, a daguerreotypist polished a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish; treated it with fumes that made its surface light-sensitive; exposed it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting; made the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor; removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried it; and then sealed the easily marred result behind glass in a protective enclosure. [FOUND FROM WIKIPEDIA]
Henry Fox Talbot was an English chemist, linguist, archaeologist, and pioneer photographer. He is best known for his development of the calotype, an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor Louis Daguerre. Talbot’s calotypes used a photographic negative, from which multiple prints could be made; had his method been announced but a few weeks earlier, he and not Daguerre would probably have been known as the founder of photography.
The Calotype 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—i.e., accelerate the silver chloride’s chemical reaction to the light it had been exposed to.
Robert Cornelius was an American photographer and pioneer in the history of photography. He designed the photographic plate for the first photograph taken in the United States, an image of Central High School taken by Joseph Saxton in 1839. His self image taken in 1839 is the first known photographic portrait of a person taken in the United States.
Cornelius attempted to perfect the daguerreotype, due to this around October 1839, at age 30, Cornelius took a self-portrait outside the family store. The quality of the photographic plate and the technique used required him to sit motionless for 10 to 15 minutes. He took the image by removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back he wrote “The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.”
THE “ETERNAL RETURN”: SELF PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY AS TECHNOLOGY OF EMBODIMENT
The “Eternal Return”: Self portrait photography as technology of embodiment
‘In these works, the subject performs herself or himself within the purview of an apparatus of perspectival looking that freezes the body as representation and so—as absence, as always already dead—in intimate relation to lack and loss.’
In Jones’ book about self portraiture she discuss’ how people can become whomever they would like to be perceived as to the viewer of the image. A picture ‘freezes the body’ in a still image which is how the person will be represented. Cornelius was required to sit for 10-15 to get his self portraiture, which implies he created a stance to represent himself the way he would like other people to see him.
Robert Cornelius and The first Self Portrait [Selfie]
Julia Margaret Cameron is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature, she was an ambitious and devoted pioneer of photography. Cameron is best known today for her moving and sensitive portraits of eminent Victorians. A paramount example is her 1867 photograph of Sir John F. W. Herschel, in which the scientist, mathematician, and photographic experimenter looks directly at the camera, emerging from the shadows with the tousled hair and deep facial lines of a man devoted to the intellectual life.
Cameron and her pictorialist contemporaries pursued painterly compositions, subjects, and qualities, hoping to elevate photography to a high art. A representation of a person or thing in a work of art.
Julia Margaret Cameron Pictorialism
HENRY MULLINS & CARTE-DE-VISIT
Henry Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. For a brief period in the 1860s he also worked in London, but judging by the collection of his photographs which is now held by La Société Jersiaise, he found plenty of willing sitters in the island prepared to pay half a guinea (promoted as “one half of that in London”) to have their portrait taken by him. His speciality was cartes de visite, it was originally a calling card, especially one with a photographic portrait mounted on it.
Mr Bolton, photographed by Henry Mullins in 1849-50
