Review of development of photography in context of Realism in the 19th Century; for Ms. Fuentes AP Art History Class

1. 19th Century AP Art History
PHOTOGRAPHY

2. “The photograph was the ultimate
response to a social and cultural
appetite for a more accurate …
representation of reality, a need that
had its origins in the Renaissance”
- Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography
TEDed History of Photography

3. Camera Obscura
Invented in 11th century by
Alhazen in Persia
Used by Vermeer
Inverted image projected
onto a surface.

4. Early Themes
Document events or
traditional fine art themes
portraiture, still life and
landscape.
Changed over time
What does this remind you of
(Painting?)
Antoine François Claudet, The Geography Lesson, 1850

5. The Artist’s Studio, Louis-Daguerre, daguerrotype, 6.5” x 8.5”, 1837.
Still life photo inspired by vanitas still life paintings…

6. Louis Jacques Daguerre
Daguerre painted stage sets and illusionistic scenery for
The Diorama, a popular visual entertainment in Paris.

7. The Daguerreotype
Photograph laterally reversed and
printed onto a metal plate.
Portrait of Louis Daguerre, 1829
Early Daguerrotype Camera Louis Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, 1838
(first known photo of a human being)

8. Talbot’s Photograms (Callotypes)
Talbot’s initial experiments –
photograms or, what he called
‘Photogenic Drawings’
Window, 2012
Callotype Advantage:
a negative for sharing multiple copies
William Henry Fox Talbot, Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey, http://youtu.be/Mh42xZQL6-k
1835

9. Nadar: Artist, Balloonist,
Photographer
• French caricaturist &
portrait photographer
• First aerial photos
• Romantic artist:
heroes Delacroix,
Dumas & Hugo
• Friends with
Baudelaire, Pierrot

10. Portrait of Charles Baudelaire,
Nadar, 1863
French poet and art critic; rejected
Romanticism; believed man
inherently evil.
Baudelaire credited with term
“modernite” - fleeting ephemeral
experiences of urban life and duty of
artist to capture those moments.
Forehead often highlighted
Controlled camera angles, often left
one side of face in shadow
(Baroque?!)

11. Pierrot, 1855, silver colloidal
print by Nadar
• Captured personality
of laughing mime
• Saw mime Pierrot as
essence of modern
artist: theatrical,
humorous, inventive
• New method quicker
than daguerrotype

12. Muybridge – 1st High Speed Photo
http://youtu.be/FYKZif9ooxs

13. Social Realism &
PhotoJournalism
Mathew Brady, Civil War photographer…generals, battlefields, etc.

14. Tenement Interior in Poverty Gap, an English Coal Heaver’s Home, Jacob Riis, 1889.
Published study in NY called How the Other Half Lives
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZl4KXsaKVE

15. 1848-1860s - Economy
• Industrial Revolution
– conclusion of Napoleonic Wars
– trains – transport raw materials to factories in city
• Three class system
– capitalists --> centralized economic control
– laborers--> poor education & living conditions
– middle class --> “laissez-faire”

16. Exploring human evolution &
social equality in Realism
• political context: Marxism
• Communist Manifesto (c. 1850)
all history was history of class
struggles determined by
humanity’s relationship to
material wealth
• Darwin: theory of
evolution
• Comte: positivism…all
knowledge comes from
tested scientific proof

17. Role of Artist in Culture
– role of artist:
• no longer to simply reveal beautiful & sublime
• aimed to tell the truth
• not beholden to higher, idealized reality (i.e., God)
– subjects:
• ordinary events and objects
• working class & broad panorama of society
• psychological motivation of characters