History of Photography: annotated links to sites related to
course content
There is a wealth of material out there on the internet that is related to what we are covering in the course. What follows is a very selective list of sites (most of them full-text and illustrated) which may be helpful to you in your further exploration of the ideas introduced in class or in your research for your final papers. I'll be amending this continually, so check back frequently. Your suggestions for additions to this page are welcome. (Use the "mail-to" at the bottom of the page or pass them along to me in class.)
Technological
determinism :a well-written overview of the subject by Dr. Daniel Chandler, a
professor of media studies at the University of Wales who explores in this article the
various ways in which technology has become established as the dominant ideology of 19th
and 20th century western societies. Dr. Chandler has generously put several of his
writings on-line. To get to his home page and these other articles, click on the
"DC" logo at the bottom of his pages.
The Social Construction of the American Daguerreotype Portrait, 1839-1860 by
Ben Mattison: an excellent article concerning the social function of the daguerreotype in
American culture. "The photograph is rich with connotation; it is often said to evoke
the past, to provide a sense of the nineteenth century that extends beyond the borders of
the picture. I believe that this process is not accidental. Early photography was
intentionally used to evoke, to represent classes, occupations, cultures, and lives in the
lights and shadows of a daguerreotype..." Chapters include: "The Mourning
Portrait", "The Private Portrait", The Occupational Portrait" and
"The Triumph of the Private".
Library
of Congress: Prints and Photographs Division: Thousands of images on-line from one of
the largest collections of photography in the world, searchable by photographer, subject
or keywords. See especially their collection of Civil War photographs, Daguerreotypes and
color photographs from the Farm Security Administration. (No, the Great Depression did not
happen in black & white!) You can also order prints of these photographs (often from
the original negs. or slides) for very reasonable prices: see their link on ordering...
New York Public Library Digital Picture Gallery: A superb source of photographs on a variety of topics. See especially their collections on photographers Berenice Abbott ("Changing New York"), Lewis Hine, early American Landscape Photography and Middle East Photographs and Prints.
Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg" by Errol Morris. This three-part article published in the New York Times in February, 2008 is a blog by filmmaker Errol Morris that traces his fascination with Roger Fenton's two photographs of "The Valley of the Shadow of Death" from the Crimean War. One photograph shows the cannonballs on the road, the other shows them off the road. Did Fenton and his assistants move the cannonballs onto the road or did them remove them and why? Morris' pursues his obsession with the images to the limit, visiting the exact location of the photograph. His investigation evolves into an unusual mix of forensics, philosophy and photographic aesthetics and a unique interrogation of the notion of photography as an arbiter of truth. In three parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film: Extensive on-line image resource from the most comprehensive collection of photography in the U.S.
California Museum of Photography: Features excellent on-line exhibitions including animations of Edweard Muybridge's locomotion studies, an exhibition on the portrayal of Native Americans in early photography and a stereograph collection of photographs of immigration at Ellis Island. Follow the links to "collections", then "featured".
Secure the Shadow by
Jay Ruby: If you are fascinated by the relationship between photography and death and
those 19th century postmortem photographs, check out this site, which provides a summary
of this excellent book on the subject. See especially the links, "A Reflexive
Interlude" and the gallery of images..."SECURE THE SHADOW is an exploration of
the photographic representation of death in the United States from 1840 to the present. It
focuses upon the ways in which people have taken and used photographs of deceased loved
ones and their funerals to mitigate the finality of death...I am convinced that an
examination of this topic provides an important perspective on Americans' cultural
expectations and attitudes toward photography, death, funerals and mourning. The reward of
combining death and photography into one study is that the synthesis offers something that
an examination of each alone lacks." See especially the links "a reflexive
interlude" and the gallery. (A copy of the book is on order at our library, and can
be obtained on interlibrary loan from other SUS librarires.)
Memento Mori:
Death and Photography in 19th Century America by Dan Meinwald: sorry to be depressing,
but here's another excellent article on the subject, accompanied by illustrations...
"death is treated in twentieth century society much like sex was treated in the
nineteenth century. The subject is avoided, especially with children, or spoken of in
euphemisms if it cannot be avoided. Death now, like sex then, is hidden, an event which
takes place behind closed doors. The opposite is also true: in the nineteenth century,
death was discussed as freely and openly as sex is today." Chapters include: The Site
of Death, The Body, War, The Funeral, The Cemetery, The Afterlife.
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord: the full text of Debord's 1967 critique of contemporary life complements many of the arguments Sontag makes in "On Photography" and is considered to be a major contribution toward the definition of the modern "spectacle"....."In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation...The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be reestablished." This link is part of www.nothingness,a site from Canada devoted to alternative culture and which includes extensive full-text archives on situationism as well as info. on dadaism, anarchism and the fight against McDonalds.
Orientalism:(from
the program in postcolonial studies at Emory University): a clearly-written and brief
summary of orientalism as it has been explicated by Edward Said in his groundbreaking book
on the subject.
Idea
Photographic: A beautifully designed site from
the
Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: The complete text of Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay, written in 1936, on the role of reproductive technologies such as photography and film in the development of mass culture. Benjamin introduces the concept of the "loss of the aura" and explores the contemporary desire to gain access to all things in the world through reproductions. This essay has had an enormous influence on contemporary art and cultural criticism and its ideas are reflected in the work of writers such as Susan Sontag and John Berger. Also see The Walter Benajmin Research Syndicate, a comprehensive web resource for writings by and about Benjamin.
Richard
Avedon's "In the American West" by Maz Kozloff: complete text of Kozloff's
articulate critique of Richard Avedon's portraiture which raises disturbing questions
about the responsibility of the photographer toward his subjects and of the power
relationships inherent, and often obscured, in the "realist" style of
portraiture exemplified by Avedon and Arbus. Kozloff states: "Where is the moral
intelligence in this work that recognizes what it means to come down heavy on the weak?
Even the thought that such hard luck cases might arouse class prejudice does not surface
in the book's text. All that would be required for 'polite' society to imagine these
subjects as felons would be the presence of number plates within the frames."
Illustrated with several of Avedon's photographs and prefaced by a letter which explains
that the author placed this article on-line as a response to its print version having been
withdrawn from publication after a threatened lawsuit by Avedon. (Originally appeared in
"Art in America", January 1987.)
The Visual
Representation of Developing Countries by Developmental Agencies and the Western Media
by Shahidul Alam: an examination of the misrepresentation of the non-western world by the
industrialized nations which elaborates upon our discussion in class of photography's role
in the construction of an exotic "other" toward which we can feel both
benevolent and superior (i.e., the "Sally Struthers" problem)..."The
history of photography ails to mention the work done by photographers in poorer countries.
While the heroic feats of Hill and Adamson are extolled, the photographers who had to
import all their equipment and materials from the wealthier countries and documented their
cultures for little financial gain have never been registered in the archives."
Collected Visions: established
by artist Lorrie Novak, Collective Visions is an innovative and interactive site that
explores the meaning of family photographs by inviting visitors to submit their own family
photographs and/or to submit short essays about their own snapshots or to write essays
about other photographs in the archive, which now numbers over 1,000 images. Featured also
are quotes from artists and writers who have explored this subject, a comprehensive
bibliography of related books, articles and links, and Novak's own evocative work that
utilizes family photographs. This is a good place to start for anyone interested in
learning more about this subject and in sharing their own images, insights and memories
with others.
Zone Zero: from analog to digital photography:
This is a site developed by Pedro Meyer, an artist/activist/critic who is at the forefront
of digital photography. "ZoneZero © is dedicated to photography. Its name intends to
be a metaphor for the journey from analog to digital image making. One of the references
comes from "The Zone System" a fine example of the analog heritage in
photography made so famous by Ansel Adams. From the analog dark room we are now moving to
the digital one; where everything analog is transformed into digits represented through
the infinite combinations of either zeros or ones." Check out the magazine which
features some excellent articles, photo essays, a page of useful links to related sites
and an entire photo book "Distant Relations" which can be downloaded for free.