Ch 4 Photography

Dorothea Lange’s classic photo, Migrant mother, and the previous sequence of photos (above in the header).

From early woodcuts to modern photographs, the visual revolution changed the way people see the world.  This chapter describes the invention and development of photography, the questions of art and copyright, the photographic movements, the uses of photography for social reform, the advent of digital photography and the ethical issues that photography presents.

Photography on this site

• Photography 1820s – 1880s 
• Photography 1880s – 1920s
• Photography 1920s – 1940s
• Photography – Migrant Mother

Discussion questions

1. Gift to humanity: Louis Daguerre gave away his patents to photography. How did this inspire other inventors in the history of media?
2. Social reform and photography:  Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine used photography to expose suffering and spur reform. Who else has done or is doing similar work?
3. Technology and change:  How did the invention of celluloid film and flash photography influence the social uses of photography?

People & Events

Louis Daguerre, Joseph Niepce, Matthew Brady, Roger Fenton, Edward Steichen, Joseph Steiglitz, Paul Strand, George Eastman, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Sebastio Salgado, Henry Luce, Gordon Parks, Robert Capa, Joe Rosenthal, Ansel Adams, Jacques Cousteau

Invention by Daguerre, copyright and photography, celluloid film, flash photography for indoors, Pictorialist movement, Straight photography movement,  Farm Services Administration, photo magazines, war photography, digital photos, ethical issues, future of photography.

Documentary Videos

American Photography: A Century of Images, a three-part PBS documentary,  introduces most of the major movements and US figures such as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams and Annie Liebowitz.

Useful links

The image before photography: anthropology, cave painting and symbolic communication

1. Prehistoric flute dates European pre-history to 42,000 years.
2. The story of the Altamira Cave.

The image before photography:  engraving, lithography, political cartoons

1. Currier & Ives prints  of everyday life in the mid 19th century.
2. Editorial cartoons of Thomas Nast also The conviction of Boss Tweed –New York Times, Nov. 3, 1873
3. More Nast cartoons about the election of 1872 and Horace Greeley
4. Puck magazine cartoons from post-Civil War era politics.
5. Rise of the Image: fall of the word by Mitchell Stephens (Preface from the book)
6. Why are political cartoons incendiary?  Victor Navasky, New York Times, Nov. 12, 2011.
7. Cartooning and plagiarism, Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2011.  Also see This Island Press take on another plagiarmism case.
8. Was Belle Star the female Jesse James?  Stuff you missed in history class podcast is worth checking out.

19th century photography

1. Roger Fenton’s Crimean War photo mystery — were the cannon balls originally ON or OFF the road?   Did Fenton throw cannon balls on the road to make it appear more dangerous? Or did someone clear off the cannon balls to reduce the danger?
2. PBS American Photography – Home page for the excellent  documentary series.
3. Photo history quiz -- Can you recognize the photographer?
4. Daguerreotypes — Library of Congress
5. 1848 Daguerreotypes Bring Middle America’s Past to Life |  Wired.com
6. Civil War Photos – Library of Congress collection
7. Spirit photography and the Brown Lady of Raynham
8. Interview with Matthew Brady 1891
9. How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob Riis. Published in 1890, this is about social work and photography in the slums of New York.

20th century photography

1. Lewis Hine Project – Great web site gives more information on his investigative photojournalism and foll0ws up on Hine’s subjects.
2. Dorothea Lange interview 1960 – 1961  oral history interview by University of California  Berkeley’s Suzanne B. Reiss. Extraordinary pdf download from Internet Archive.   Interesting comments on the Japanese relocation camps and Ansel Adams’ “shameful” approval of it.  (Note: An Adams photo from those camps is on p. 133 of the printed version of Revolutions in Communication.)
3. “Bound for Glory” — Library of Congress collection of 1930s – 40s photos in color.
4. Ellen Fried, Images that endure — From Pearl Harbor to Elvis, National Archives Prologue magazine, 2004
5. Archive of  Life Magazine 
6. April, 2011: The EPA is calling for documentary photos of environmental issues.  Here are links to the AP Story and also EPA Flickr site.
7. Masters of Photography – Commercial site that gives a good overview of the variety of photojournalists and photographic artists.

21st century photography

1. Facing Change is a new photography project in the tradition of the FSA of the 1930s.  And here’s a Washington Post article about Facing Change.
2. Rachel Nuwer, A Photographic Call to Action, New York Times, October 25, 2011,  noting the idea that photography could rally others to work together to save nature’s places of spiritual sanctuary for future generations.
3. Why the Lytro camera is a ‘game changer’ for photography – Washington Post, March 1, 2012.