Camera Obscura

how is an image produced using Camera Obscura?

A Camera Obscura ‘dark chamber’ is a dark room or box with a small hole in one wall/side in which the rays of light from outside passing through to form an image and project a scene from outside the box onto the surface opposite to the hole, resulting in an upside down and reversed projection of the view outside.

Camera Obscuras with a lens in the opening have been used since the second half of the 16th century and became popular as aids for drawing and painting. The technology was developed further into the photographic camera in the first half of the 19th century, when camera obscura boxes were used to expose light-sensitive materials to the projected image.

The camera obscura was used to study eclipses without the risk of damaging the eyes by looking directly into the Sun. As a drawing aid, it allowed tracing the projected image to produce a highly accurate representation and was especially appreciated as an easy way to achieve proper graphical perspective.

Daguerreotype

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, known for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. He is most famous for his contributions to photography but he was also an accomplished painter, scenic designer, and a developer of the diorama theatre.

The daguerreotype Creates 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. The silver-plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror.

The daguerreotype process made it possible to capture the image seen inside a camera obscura and preserve it as an object. It was the first practical photographic process.

It was introduced worldwide in 1839, There has been a revival of the daguerreotype since the late 20th century by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes. Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s.

Calotype

Calotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low contrast details and textures.

Talbot made his first successful camera photographs in 1835 using paper sensitised with silver chloride, which darkened in proportion to its exposure to light. This early “photogenic drawing” process was a printing-out process, i.e., the paper had to be exposed in the camera until the image was fully visible. A very long exposure—typically an hour or more—was required to produce an acceptable negative.

Richard Maddox

Richard Leach Maddox was born at Bath, England, on 4 August 1816. 

Long before his discovery of the dry gelatine photographic emulsion, Maddox was prominent in what was called photomicrography – photographing minute organisms under the microscope. The eminent photomicrographer of the day, Lionel S. Beale, included as a frontispiece image made by Maddox in his manual ‘How to work with the Microscope.

Maddox freely gave his discovery of the dry gelatine process to the world, saying that “I had no thought of bringing the subject into notice until it had been lifted from the cradle”. Maddox, at the initial stage of invention, could probably produce only ‘lantern slides’ contact-copied from his microscope plates, the slow speed being impracticable for camera lens images.

It was these origins that led to the miniaturization and adaptability of photographic emulsions, and consequently paved the way for social and action photography and cinematography.

The advantages of the dry plate were that photographers could use commercial dry plates off the shelf instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom. Negatives did not have to be developed immediately. Also, for the first time, cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held, or even concealed: further research created ‘fast’ exposure times, which led to snapshot photography and the Kodak camera with roll film, paving the way for cinematography.

George Eastman & Founding of Kodak

George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time. Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry.

In the 1870s, Eastman became interested in photography. After receiving lessons from George Monroe and George Selden, he developed a machine for coating dry plates in 1879. In 1881, he founded the Eastman Dry Plate Company with Henry Strong to sell plates, with Strong as company president and Eastman as treasurer, where he handled most executive functions. Around the same time, he began experiments to create a flexible film roll that could replace plates altogether. In 1885, he received a patent for a film roll, and then focused on creating a camera to use the rolls. In 1888, he patented and released the Kodak camera. It was sold loaded with enough roll film for 100 exposures. When all the exposures had been made, the photographer mailed the camera back to the Eastman company in Rochester, along with $10. The company would process the film, make a print of each exposure, load another roll of film into the camera, and send the camera and the prints to the photographer.

The separation of photo-taking from the difficult process of film development was novel and made photography more accessible to amateurs than ever before, and the camera was immediately popular with the public. By August 1888, Eastman was struggling to meet orders, and he and his employees soon had several other cameras in development. The rapidly growing Eastman Dry Plate Company was reorganized as the Eastman Company In 1889, and then incorporated as Eastman Kodak in 1892.

Digital Photography

Digital photography is a process that uses an electronic device called a digital camera to capture an image. Instead of film, it uses an electronic digital sensor to translate light into electrical signals. In the camera, the signals are stored as tiny bits of data in bitmaps, tiny bits of data that form the image.

While digital photography has only relatively recently become mainstream, the late 20th century saw many small developments leading to its creation. The history of digital photography began in the 1950s. In 1951, the first digital signals were saved to magnetic tape via the first video tape recorder. Six years later, in 1957, the first digital image was produced through a computer by Russell Kirsch.

The first consumer digital cameras were marketed in the late 1990s. Professionals gravitated to digital slowly, converting as their professional work required using digital files to fulfil demands for faster turnaround than conventional methods could allow. around the year 2000, digital cameras were incorporated into phones. In the following years, phone cameras became widespread, particularly due to their connectivity to social media and email.

What is Narrative?

A narrative is a story that you write or tell to someone, usually in great detail. A narrative can be a work of poetry or prose, or even song, theatre, or dance. Often a narrative is meant to include the “whole story.” A summary will give a few key details and then the narrative will delve into the details.

the purpose of narrative is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration.

What is a Story

A narrative about people and events, usually including an interesting plot, is a story. A story can be fictional or true, and it can be written, read aloud, or made up on the spot. Journalists write stories for newspapers, and gossips spread stories that may or may not be true.

My Zine Story

My zine is going to be about Jerseys harbour and maritime. I will create a zine that shows different parts and history of and around the harbour that represents the laboured hard work that goes into being in the industry.

3 words:

Jersey, fishing, history

How will you tell your story

I will tell my story by taking photos around the maritime museum and the harbour and portray what it is like to work, live or be associated with everything to do with the harbour.

Harbour History

Before 1700 St Helier had no decent harbour although a map of 1545 does show two stone piers in the area under Le Mont de la Ville, near where South Pier is today. The modern harbour dates back to the construction of the stone fronted quay at La Folie in the early 1700s.

So it was to St Aubin that the States turned when the demand for a harbour could no longer be ignored, and during the 17th century this certainly became the island’s principal port, where vessels headed to and from the cod fisheries on the Canadian coast would moor, alongside cargo vessels and privateers and their captures.

It was not a convenient location, however, because the berths dried out at low water, and there was no road to St Helier, which was still the island’s main town and marketplace. Cargoes had to be transported across the long beach from St Aubin to St Helier by horse and cart.

In 1790 work started on a new northern pier, known as the North Quay, and later the New North Quay, but it would be 25 years before it was completed.

There have been a number of 20th century developments. The tanker berth was built to allow tankers to offload fuel and oil supplies near to the fuel farm. It is also the outermost part (at the southern edge) of the harbour. Further north, La Collette Yacht Basin backs onto the Victoria Pier, and provides a deep-water harbour for leisure craft. Nearby is the area for the fishing fleet.

It was the 1980s when the Elizabeth Harbour, with its new terminal building for passengers, and separate freight area, was planned. It was opened by the Queen in 1989.

Mood Board

What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

When the first Europeans reached Canada is unclear, but it is thought to be Italian explorer John Cabot’s descriptions of ‘new found landes’ and a sea swarming with fish in 1497 that drew fishermen to the north of the continent, and around 1600 English fishing captains still reported cod shoals 

By the beginning of the 16th-century Basque fishermen were travelling to the region to fish and, by 1580, around 10,000 European fishermen were making the transatlantic voyage to the area each year to fish for cod.

Channel Island fishermen were among these and by the 1750s they had set up lucrative trade routes between Canada, Europe and America, establishing bases on the Gaspé Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod. 

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

A concerted effort to build harbours did not take off until the late 17th century, when work began on building a pier on the islet on which St Aubin’s fort stands. During the 18th century St Aubin’s harbour proper was constructed and work began on developing St Helier as a port, although the capital had to wait until the 19th century before it really began to develop as a port.

It was during the early 19th century that stone piers were built at La Rocque, Bouley Bay, Rozel and Gorey, to accommodate the oyster boats. The harbour at Gorey also took passenger traffic from Normandy. The primary purpose of these harbours was the movement of cargoes and not people.

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

Jersey cod-merchants also exported cod-fish to British colonies in the West Indies and later Brazil too in exchange for plantation goods, such as sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco which it brought to markets in America, Europe and the UK (inc. Jersey). Within that context Jersey benefitted from the profits made in the British Empire build on a capitalist model of a slave-based economy.

To what extend, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?

 By the 1770s there may have been up to 70 Jersey ships and 2,000 Jerseymen engaged in the cod trade. By the 1840s it is estimated that the industry directly employed 4,000 people. Also, many others were engaged in manufacturing goods to be exported to the Canadian settlements. https://www.policy.je/papers/jerseys-history

Design 1

This was my first design I made but I didn’t like the way the three images on the side looked in a row because I thought it was too squished and if I put the filling writing in it would be a lot going on in one place and be boring to look at because everything is set out for you and it wouldn’t make you look around.

This is my final look the page spread I chose the to use the pictures that I took in Edinburgh. I edited these images originally on Lightroom to edit each image slightly before moving onto photoshop. On photoshop I used the same coloured filter on each image called ‘Septa’. I chose this filter because I thought it looked old and vintage and I took these pictures in the Old Town in Edinburgh so I thought it matched well. After I selected the filter I wanted I outlined each of the most prominent thing in the image and kept them in colour, the main accent colour in the page spread was blue. I then went on InDesign and created the page spread. I picked the big main image as a woman posing for a picture with a church/cathedral in the background. The image underneath is of a man in a blue tracksuit which goes with the blue in the big main image. The rest of the images are smaller on the side going down in a zig zag pattern. I chose to lay it out this way because I liked the way it goes with the writing next to each image.

Design 2

For this page spread I mixed pictures that I took in Paris and Edinburgh together. I chose to mix these two together as the ‘old’ vibe was still carried through in Each city. On my first attempt for this design I chose no text and three images but I didnt like the way the three images looked squashed together so I decided to use one less image and spread out the right two images from the others instead of all being joint together and put filler text in the fill the space where the other image was.

For my final images I went for Black and White as the main theme. I chose this because of the structures I was taking photos of were mainly old and looked best in black and white.

Decisive Moment

For these pictures I chose to put filters over them and selected the thing that stood out the most in each image (people) and I kept them in colour so there was a nice contrast of dark filters and a pop of colour.

Cropping and Removing on Photoshop

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. 

He studied painting when he was just 5 years old, taking an apprenticeship in his uncle Louis’ studio. Cartier-Bresson was introduced to oil painting by his uncle Louis, a gifted painter and winner of the Prix de Rome in 1910. But his painting lessons were cut short when uncle Louis was killed in World War I.

The Decisive Moment

In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published his book The Decisive Moment. Cartier-Bresson took his keynote text from Volume 2 of the Memoirs of 17th century Cardinal De Ritz “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment”. Cartier-Bresson applied this to his photographic style. He said: To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.

“Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

Cartier-Bresson’s photography took him to many places, including China, Mexico, Canada, the United States, India, Japan, Portugal and the Soviet Union. While traveling in China in 1958, Cartier-Bresson documented the construction of the Ming Tombs Reservoir He became the first Western photographer to photograph “freely” in the post-war Soviet Union.

Technique

Cartier-Bresson almost always used a Leica 35 mm rangefinder camera fitted with a normal 50 mm lens, or occasionally a wide-angle lens for landscapes. He often wrapped black tape around the camera’s chrome body to make it less conspicuous. With fast black and white film and sharp lenses, he was able to photograph events unnoticed.

He never photographed with flash, a practice he saw as “impolite…like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand.”

He believed in composing his photographs in the viewfinder, not in the darkroom. He showcased this belief by having nearly all his photographs printed only at full-frame and completely free of any cropping or other darkroom manipulation. He insisted that his prints be left uncropped so as to include a few millimetres of the unexposed negative around the image area, resulting in a black frame around the developed picture.

He worked exclusively in black and white, other than a few experiments in colour. He disliked developing or making his own prints and showed a considerable lack of interest in the process of photography in general, likening photography with the small camera to an “instant drawing”. Technical aspects of photography were valid for him only where they allowed him to express what he saw.

Image Analysis

This image was taken 1954. The decisive moment is the boy with two wine bottles in each of his arms. The boy’s face expresses happiness and a cheeky smile, In the background you see more children looking at the boy and it seems like he knows they are looking because he has his head held high a proud smirk on his face. The image is solely focussed on the boy in the middle so you can’t tell if there are any adults around or with the other children in the background. The boy’s name was Michel Gabriel and when he grew up he kept in touch with Henri Cartier-Bresson.

My photos are in order of my favourite images and final results from the typography and Anthropocene topic. For all the images in the galleries I made, I added perspective to each and distorted them to make them the right shape for the perspective. This made sure that all the images where correctly placed against the walls where they are on the side or at an angle. I added drop shadows to make it look like they are mounted against the wall for a more realistic look. I used different galleries for each theme. Where I have more final images than the other I used a more strategic gallery where I can fit more images into it, for example typography has the most final images so I went with a more spacious and complex design that has the most area to put images so I could fit all my chosen images in. However, my Anthropocene gallery is square shaped as I did not have many final images so I went with a gallery that would be easy to fill without it looking underwhelming compared to my typography gallery.

Typography + Anthropocene Gallery

Typography Gallery

Anthropocene Gallery

Typography Final Images

Anthropocene Final Images

Experimenting with Images + Final Photos