This is not designed to be a course on the history of photography such as a resource to dip into. In addition to pen-portraits of many of the most important photographers of the period, it contains information on some of the most significant processes used during the early days of photography.
The project was confined to the first eighty years or so, as this is often a convenient cut-off point in books and when dividing courses into a syllabus. To some extent this has been a frustration, in that there have been many important developments and many interesting photographers who practised during and subsequent to that date. It is hoped that a sequel will be forthcoming in due course.
This work is intended to be of general interest, but it may also be a useful starting-off point for students preparing for courses which include brief study of the history of photography.
The site will be revised regularly in the light of feedback and further study.
A PRIMER ON PROCESSES
Photographers in the nineteenth century employed a wide variety of materials and processes; everything from honey to uranium found its way into one method or another. In some cases there is no way to tell, short of exacting scientific analysis, just what sort of variation was used to obtain a specific result. Most early photographs, however, fall into recognizable categories for which brief descriptions follow in alphabetical order.
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Photography for a Cause
Taking photographs for charities is a delicate balance of fulfilling the brief, respecting your subject and never working for free. The work can also enrich your understanding of human nature, writes Helen Stone. "
THEORY - "Image and Artifact: The Photograph as Evidence in the Digital Age"
Image and Artifact: The Photograph as Evidence in the Digital Age
By Martha A. Sandweiss
The brief essays in this round table collectively explore how photographs can be used to understand the past. Their broad mix of voices-from the archivist and the historian, the photographer and the photographic subject-makes it clear that there is no one way to understand an image. Even a quick reading reveals interpretive tensions: the photographers' intentions clash with the ambitions of the subjects, and both appear at odds with the needs of the viewers, who bring to the image their own experiences and interpretive concerns. Despite their differences, the essays taken together pose two critical questions. What does a historian need to know to interpret a photograph as a historical document? And how stable are images as records of the past?
For two hectic weeks between the US presidential election and the inauguration, one photographer was invited to make portraits of every member of Obama's new incoming administration. The result is a series of 52 unlikely semi-formal portraits that reveal a refreshingly diverse, young, energetic group of the people who will be key to helping forward Obama's agenda.
This series of portraits originally appeared in The New York Times Magazine, in print and online. Now, for the first time anywhere, an exhibition of life-size prints of these images will go on display (not in America) but in Birmingham, UK.
UK-based photographer Nadav Kander talks with Jim Casper of Lens Culture about how this daunting project came into being, and provides some very interesting personal observations about his brief encounters with the new power-brokers of America. See some of the images, and listen to the interview, here in Lens Culture.
Ryan Sholin on the future of newspapers, online news and journalism education.
How I share: A tour of my personal linking behavior
May 12, 2009
Things you may have noticed about me in recent days, weeks, months, or years:
1. I don't write blog posts as often as I used to.
2. I share links all over the place, and I have for a long time now.
3. I have a new job that involves a lot of thinking about best practices for journalists who link to content they don't produce themselves.
With those three things as givens, what follows is an exploration of how I share links. If I ramble off on some tangent, feel free to jump in and stop me. [Sidenote: You can't jump in. Is there a WordPress plugin for paragraph-by-paragraph commenting yet?]
Let's start with a list of links to all the places I share lists of links, and a brief explanation of what sort of links I share there:
PhotoPlus Event: Elliott Erwitt and Alec Soth\n\nElliott Erwitt and Alec Soth, two great photographers widely separated by their vision, style, and generations--but sharing a sense of irony, self-effacing wit, and a photo agency (Magnum)-took the stage at New York's Javits Center last night to talk to a packed audience about their work and careers.\n\nPrompted by the moderator Harald Johnson and a projection of some of his most iconic images, Erwitt spoke first, offering a brief, matter-of-fact accounting of his career and work, which he peppered with one-liners.\n\nErwitt is a keen observer of people and dogs, and the absurd things they do. He also has a sharp comic sense of visual timing and juxtaposition. All of that was on display in his slideshow. Describing one image of a dog in jumping straight upwards, Erwitt said, "People ask, Why is he jumping?' It's because I barked. I bark at dogs, they jump."