Cundall's and Howlett's Crimean Heroes

Abstract

In keeping with her deep regard for the brave men who served in the Crimean campaign, Queen Victoria, in 1856, commissioned Joseph Cundall and Robert Howlett to produce a series of portraits of the worthy veterans, strapping soldiers, and wounded victims alike. Though some of these images were on view in the Photographic Society's fourth major exhibition during the winter of 1857, and presumably available to the purchasing public, surprisingly few prints seem to have been produced by the commercially minded publisher/photographer, Cundall. The Queen, having ordered the work, retained the negatives and when Cundall needed them to make further prints, he had to apply to Dr Ernest Becker, photographer in residence to the royal household. Becker replied in a letter from Osborne House dated 20 August 1856 that ‘her majesty will let you have the negatives for a short time … the other ones are at Windsor. Would you want them too?’¹     

Sun pictures: Printing Talbot's calotype negatives

Abstract

The inspiration for a major exhibition to commemorate the centenary of W. H. F. Talbot's death in 1877 arose from a number of projects in which the Kodak Museum had been involved. In September 1973, for the first programme in the BBC Television series ‘Pioneers of Photography’, the author visited Lacock Abbey to demonstrate Talbot's early photogenic drawing process. The sensitizing process used was based upon Talbot's own formulae, modified for use in a teaching programme prepared for the Kodak Education Service some years before¹. Thin paper, of the type used for making carbon copies of typewriting, of weight 45 grammes per square metre, was soaked in a solution of 50 grammes of sodium chloride in one litre of water until thoroughly wetted. The salted paper was dried, and sensitized when required by soaking in a solution of 100 grammes of silver nitrate in one litre of distilled water, to which 10 millilitres of glacial acetic acid had been added. About one minute was sufficient to convert the salt in the paper to silver chloride, and to give the necessary excess of silver nitrate to make a sensitive printing-out paper. When dried, the paper could be used to make prints by exposure to strong light under a leaf in a printing frame, yielding excellent prints in a few minutes in bright sunshine. Talbot stabilized his early pictures by treating them with a strong salt solution; to give greater permanence to the modern prints, they were fixed in conventional photographic fixing solutions. In the early summer of 1975, the same process was used to produce photogenic drawings both by contact and through the camera for display in the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock, then under construction. During this work, some of Talbot's original calotype negatives were printed experimentally, while on loan from the Royal Photographic Society. Though not perfect, these modern calotype prints were sufficiently successful to suggest the possibility of an exhibition, to be prepared in honour of Talbot's centenary. It was intended that the display include a number of ‘salted paper’ prints from original negatives. It was felt that these would convey the special character of the calotype print far more effectively than would be possible with modern photographic materials.     

Ansel Adams and Fiat Lux

Abstract

In 1963, Clark Kerr, then President of the University of California, approached Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall to participate in the centennial celebrations (in 1968) of the founding of the University. Adams's photographic work on the nme campuses in the years following resulted in the production of six thousand negatives, from which six hundred and five were produced as fine prints (placed in the University Archives at the Bancroft Library at Berkeley) and many others reproduced in the book, Fiat Lux (1968), with text by Nancy Newhall. In 1990, an exhibition consisting of one hundred of those photographs (to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the University of California at Irvine) toured the campuses of the University between January 1991 and May 1992, accompanied by the exhibition catalogue, Ansel Adams: Fiat Lux.     

有一种爱叫做放手

人生犹如一次无人可替代的旅程,今天有人离开,明天有人到来。今天的你会因缺少知己而感孤独、但明天的你却一定更会因在心中迷失自我,忘了来时的方向、去时的路而烦恼;今天的你会因失去爱的人与物而痛苦,但明天的你却更会因在灵魂深处少了一方宁静的城池、在浮躁中遗弃了独立的人格而遗憾。你们最需要的,不一定是别人的怜悯或关怀,而是一种顽强不屈的自助。     

On storage conditions for photographic film

Abstract

Conservators generally agree that it helps to know the composition of an object when determining controlled environmental conditions for its storage, or if a restoration treatment is required. This holds true for processed photographic materials as will be demonstrated later on. Keepers of photographic collections are fortunate to have available a series of four specifications for the storage of photographic records. Published by the American National Standards Institute—which reviews its published standards every five years—three of these recommend conditions for processed photographic plates, paper prints and safety film, respectively, while the fourth specifies materials to be used—or to be avoided—in the manufacture of filing enclosures for photographs, i.e., folders, sleeves and envelopes.^1–4     

A High Speed Colour Printer

A high-speed printer for making colour paper prints from colour photographic negatives has been engineered and constructed by Technicolor Corporation. Salient features of the printer are: automatic operation; two printing beams; high production rate; preceding of negatives; stable operation. Special design features to attain fast, stable operation are incorporated.     

Anastas Jovanović, The first Serbian photographer

Abstract

Anastas Jovanovi? was one of the first photographers in the world, and a contemporary of Talbot. He was educated in the arts, and exceptionally productive as a photographic enthusiast and professional, and a great many of his works having survived. It is all the more regrettable that Jovanovi? has remained virtually unknown to this day, except for mention in a few Yugoslav publication^1–10 and a rare article or reference abroad^11–14. In an attempt to remedy this situation, an exhibition was held at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (August–October 1977), in Belgrade. It was the cultural event of the year, and a comprehensive catalogue of 420 pages was issued on that occasion.     

Sidney Carter and Alfred Stieglitz: The Canadian Pictorialist Exhibition (1907)

Abstract

On a late autumn afternoon in 1907, to the sweet strains of orchestral music, 500 of Montreal's cultural elite turned out for the opening of Canada's first international exhibition of pictorial photographs, in the galleries of the Art Association of Montreal, the oldest and most prestigious art museum in the dominion.¹ Sidney Carter (figure 1), a young Photo-Secessionist zealously determined to advance ‘the cause’, had single-handedly solicited the support of the Art Association, gathered the prints, written the catalogue and hung the show.     

Helen Levitt's Cropping

Abstract

Helen Levitt was born in 1913. After her initial success in 1943 with a one-person exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (and the articles that came out on that occasion) she was held in high esteem, and continued to be exhibited at the Modern but was not known nationally except to a community mainly of photographers and friends. The publication of A Way of Seeing in 1965 was followed by a second edition in 1981 and a third edition in 1989,¹ in the course of which her work was gradually to become better known through the general growth of photographic interest, and through her consequent inclusion in gallery exhibitions and publications.²     

LPK,世界品牌与包装设计界的传奇

LPK这个名字你可能没有听说过，但是在你的家里，你的日常生活用品或食品中，总会有由LPK公司设计包装的产品……     

Kunst and conscience

Abstract

This book owes its existence largely to the ‘discovery’ of a new cache of Zille photographs, now in the possession of one of the artist's descendants. Altogether, there are 418 negatives on glass, some glass positives, some contact prints, and about a hundred photographs of which negatives have not been traced. None of this material, had been treated with any particular care; its value had remained unrecognized, in harmony with Zille's own view of his photographic activities, as a means to a very practical end. Famous as a painter and cartoonist of the Berlin scene, he did not himself consider his photographs as Hochkunst, but there is no doubt whatever that modern sensibilities and judgements place them into that category. It is true enough that the present selection of 200 items, beautifully printed and presented one to a page, includes some trivial material, but an astonishing number of images invite comparison with the work of the more famous turn-of-the-century masters, and yield nothing at all to their superior reputations. Zille, who began photographing in 1890, might conceivably have know of Nègre, but there is no evidence that he had ever seen work by Atget, Coburn, Riis or Hine. Indeed, many of Zille's most important photographs predate some of their American parallels, and yet his images reflect the intrinsic qualities of all these artists, while at the same time exhibiting a freshness of approach which is peculiarly his own. This does not come through as a minor descant on a familiar theme; on the contrary, it is the dominant impression, important enough to secure Zille's place in any photographic Hall of Fame. The two examples available as illustrations for this review, though entirely competent, cannot by themselves confirm the impression of the originality and richness that are in store for the reader.     

Gilbert Radoux: An early photographic publisher

Abstract

The printing industry has always been a leading-edge application of photography¹. It is no coincidence that the desire to improve on traditional graphic processes was the stimulus which fuelled the researches of both Niepce and Talbot. Since its invention, photography has been used as an information bearer in most domains of human activity. As Talbot recognized when he set up his Talbotype Printing Establishment in Russell Terrace, Reading, in late 1843 or early 1844, printing was a promising industrial sector for the exploitation of photography. He was also forced to realize, when he shut down the operation some three years later, that photographic publishing was perhaps an idea whose time had yet to come.² The necessary preconditions for ensuring commercial success - minimum viability in the form oflow unit costs, mass-produced prints of marketable quality and evidence of a real demand for the finished product - had still to be met.     

The Poet's Pose

Abstract

In July of 1868, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was on his fourth and final tour of Europe. He had become a literary lion in the grand tradition of the 19th century and enjoyed the kind of reverential celebrity that is now nearly out of style. It was obligatory that he visit with Dickens and Tennyson, and he duly did so. On the 17th or 18th of July 1868, during one of his several visits to Tennyson's house at Farringford on the Isle of Wight, he was taken by Tennyson to be photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron. Tennyson, along with others among his contemporaries, was aware that the strange woman who took such pains with her photographs and who tyrannized her sitters might be something of a genius. Longfellow was probably just mystified. In a famous quotation, Tennyson abandoned Longfellow to her tender mercies: ‘I will leave you now, Longfellow. You will have to do whatever she tells you. I will come back soon and see what is left of you’¹. Of what was left we cannot be sure, but the photograph that was taken was of an angry old man, with a head resembling the crest of a stormy wave; emotional, strong, raw, and indisputably great. A later critic speculated on a century that could allow men to grow into that special mould of greatness so evident in their very look, and we may also speculate on how they found the photographers who could mirror them so well.     

Oliver Wendell Holmes as an amateur photographer

Abstract

On 6th July 1862, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a letter to Coleman Sellers, thanking him for some photographs received and excusing his own negligence in writing. His eldest son, missing in action in Richmond, commanded all his attention, but then Holmes added: ‘If it were not for this war, I should begin getting photographic apparatus tomorrow. If peace ever returns I feel sure I shall try my hand at the art and then I shall be only too happy to send you some of my handiwork in return for the many favors I have received from you’¹. The letter catches Holmes at an interesting point in his life. Always intrigued by photography and well known among his friends as a popularizer of it, he was finally thinking of turning theory into practice.     

The darkroom abolish

Abstract

‘You press tlie button and we do the rest' had been Kodak's proud slogan slnce 1888, but as the success of popular pliotography grew, the wisdom of allowing hundreds of thousands of amateurs to do ‘the rest’ themselves became very clear. By 1902, the annuals sales of photographic paper alone had reached three million dollars¹, and Kodak's famous propaganda slogan was tacltly disowned with the publication of The Darkroom Abolished. In eloquent terms, and supported by the highest photographic authorities in the land, the notion came to be propagated that ‘You’ should not only press the button, but also ‘do tlie rest’ yourself. If ‘The Kodak Girl’ could do it, fragile and delicate woman that she was, anyone could. No mention here of the fact that at least 18 women were formal members of the Photo-secession in that year, or that two had been among the founders. The early years of this century were not, of course, attuned to these sensibilities; indeed, plctures of pretty girls selling enticing products like potassium ferrous oxalate to an eager publoc will be with us for a while yet. In the testimonials for the new products, Eickemeyer ranks discreetly above (or at any rate ‘before’) Stieglitz, and through the four quotations are almost on a par, one may guess that the layout of the brochure was more popular in some quarters than in others. And Edward W. Newcoinb, while equally positive, was evidently confused about the limits of human skill. Frederick Remington's endorsement must have been valued more for the sake of the artist's name than for its own persuasive qualities. His cautious tone notwithstanding, it is known that his own practice as an illustrator was shaped, at least in part, by the public's insistence on the kind of pictorial authenticity that only a pliotograph could sulpply².     

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990: implications for managers

What happens if an applicant for a job in your firm has a disability--is blind or infected with HIV or epileptic? Will you know how to treat that applicant without discrimination? The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed to make sure that the 15 million disabled people not already covered by antidiscrimination legislation would be assessed for jobs on their skills and abilities, not on their disabilities. This article will help you begin to plan for the day that applicant walks in your door.     

An album of seascapes by Gustave Le Gray

Abstract

In 1856 Ernest Lacan, a journalist and early critic in the field of photography, advanced a prediction which only recently has been confirmed, that Gustave Le Gray (1820–c. 1882) ‘s'est fait un nom qui restera dans l'histoire des progrès de la photographie’¹. There is little doubt that in the 1850s Le Gray was considered at least the equal of contemporary luminaries such as Nadar, owing to the following activities and accolades: his highly advanced technical experiments, discoveries and improvements; his several treatises and short notes in journals which dealt with such; his extensive and consistent exhibition record which was accompanied by almost exclusively positive and enthusiastic reviews; persistent application of and investigation into nearly every photographic technique and iconographic theme popular at the time; his informal or professional training of photographers of note such as Henri Le Secq, Charles Nègre, Charles Marville, Maxime Du Camp, Roger Fenton, and Adrien Tournachon; and the ultimate approbation, the grant to him in c. 1858–1859 of the title ‘Photographe de S. M. L'Empereur’. Accordingly, one finds in the histories and photographic journals of his day repeated references to the exceptional quality of Le Gray's prints and the widespread influence of his writings and instruction. Nadar, in his Quand j'étais photographe of c. 1900, included extensive remarks relating to Le Gray's personal life and photographic career, but because of a span of 40 or more years between original events and recollections, Nadar's account of his subject's endeavours is at best superficial, and tends to emphasize anecdote as opposed to factual history. Short treatments dealing primarily with the technical aspects of Le Gray's photography do appear in most 20th-century surveys (Freund, Lécuyer, Gernsheim, Newhall, etc.), but neither these brief synopses nor Nadar's reminiscences constitute what may even faintly be construed as a serious attempt at a reconstruction of the photographer's career and accomplishments2 For essentially revisional biographical information concerning Le Gray, see the author's dissertation¹, especially pp. 1–20, 41–42, 52–53, and 63–47. . In recent years, however, photographic historians, art historians, and to some extent the general public, have witnessed a renaissance of interest in Le Gray's life and works, a revival which has led to more detailed and accurate textual inforinntion, and the attendant availability of a wider range of examples of his works and writings³. It therefore seems propitious to add to this rapidly expanding corpus of Le Gray studies an intensive discussion of what may well be the photographer's most distinguished technical and aesthetic achievement, the Vistas del Mar album of scascapes, here dated c. 1857–1859, now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago.     

John Bishop Hall

Abstract

Excitement, elation, and scepticism travelled throughout the photographic industry when first reports of a new colour and stereoscopic relief process were published on 1 August 1856.¹ The process was patented by John Bishop Hall in New York, on 27 May 1856 and 20 January 1857. Hall's location at 585 Broadway, New York City was known as the ‘Temple of Art’, occupied by the well known photographer Charles Deforest Fredricks. The photographic journals conceived the name hallotype, a derivative of the ambrotype process on glass. The ambrotype was patented July 1854 by James Ambrose Cutting. Legal action relating to Cutting's several patents on the ambrotype began in the early 1860s. In 1868, Cutting's ambrotype patent extension was denied by the patent office. Jerimiah Gurney, a leading photographer at 349 Broadway, New York City, co-signed Hall's patent. On 13 November 1853 Gurney was awarded first prize in a photographic contest sponsored by Edward Anthony. He was awarded a silver pitcher for his tinted whole plate daguerreotype of a mother and her child. Several medals were awarded to Gurney in 1857, at the annual exhibition of the American Institute.² Gurney objected to the ambrotype process, claiming that it was not permanent. He preferred the hallotype claiming that it could be ‘colored by transparent painting put on from behind; — and the ambrotype is taken on one piece of glass and covered by another, the atmosphere being excluded by a balsamic cement, which secure the faces to each other’.³ A business venture employing the name Hall & Gurney was established at 349 Broadway, known as the ‘Palace of Art’, to exploit the hallotype process.⁴     

British Nature Photographers in Wild Life

This article concerns the work of a group of British wildlife photographers just prior to World War I. A photographic exhibition in 1912 by members of the Zoological Photographic Club led to the publication of Wild Life: An Illustrated Monthly, edited by Douglas English. Wild Life was published between 1913 and 1918, and, especially in the pre‐war issues, it achieved an impressive standard of reproduction of natural history photography. Mammals and birds were pictured in their natural habitats; hitherto most wildlife pictures had been taken in Zoos, where the subjects were shown out of context. The editor of Wild Life believed that nature‐photographers should have an opportunity to mitigate or correct artistic defects in their negatives. I argue that it is a wildlife photograph's consideration of content and context that determines its artistic merit.     

Degradation of Gelatin in Historical Photographs

Abstract

In order to study age related changes in photographic gelatin toe analysed black-and-white roll film before and after accelerated ageing and samples of naturally aged glass plate negatives. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PACE) was used to separate collagen chains In the gelatin by isoelectric point (pi) and molecular weight. The results shoiv that the x-chatns break down into smaller fragments on ageing. Amino acid analysis ivas performed to examine the oxidative deterioration of gelatin. It shows that the amount of lysine decreases with age.