Photography has come a long way from the heliograph to the digital photograph. Throughout the history of photography there has always been a popular demand for a faster and more precise way to create the image; dating back to 1837 when the first ever Daguerreotype made its appearance in France. The Daguerreotype required only 3-30 minutes of exposure time to create an extremely detailed representation of nature. Along with the need of accuracy, came the need for making multiple copies of the same image. With this new need came the collodian, which could not only create an exact replica of the world, but could also create multiple copies of that replica. In the pursuit of extreme precision and multiplicity we have arrived at the era of digital photography. The first ever-recorded attempt to build a digital camera came in 1975 by Kodak.
Roland Barthes believed that there were two components to understanding the characteristics of photography, one being the studium and the other being the punctum. The studium being what is recognized right away and defined by broad cultural meaning and the punctum being what pierces the studium and evokes an unpredictable personal response. Michael Fried believed that digital photography removed any possibility for an experience of punctum. In Michael Fried’s 2005 essay Barthes Punctum, Fried defends the idea that punctum can only exist without intent from the creator. He insists that in digital photography its maker puts the contents of the photograph there, therefore removing any chance of experiencing punctum. In response, James Elkin believed that nothing in a digital photograph threatened the punctum. In this essay, I will argue that digital photography does not impair the possibilit...
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... the part of the photographer and is characterized by the perception of the spectator. However, it is important not to neglect that the perception of the spectator is not independent of the spectrum (subject). It is not the photograph as a whole, which pierces a person, it is the certain “partial image”. Whether this partial image is created digitally or prepared via analog photography, the spectator’s mind does not make the distinction in respects to punctum. When I see an subject that animates me, such as my grandfather, I do not pick and choose which image of my grandfather moves me (digital or analog), it is the concept of my grandfather which allows me to experience punctum. Therefore, digital photography does not eliminate the possibility of undergoing punctum because the process behind recognizing these concepts is not directly involved with the medium used.
Camera lucida: Reflections on photograph (R. Howard, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang. Original work published 1980. Bleckner, R. (1992).
2 Gustavon, Todd. Camera: A History of Photography from daguerreotype to Digital. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2009
Prior to the invention of the daguerreotype, the Camera Obscura was the main optical instrument that was used to project images onto paper. The Camera Obscura was a device in the shape of a box that allowed light, which was being reflected from the images that the user was intending to capture, to enter through an opening at one end of the box to form an image on a surface and an artist would then trace the image to form the most accurate impression of an image at that peri...
In this work of art, Walter Benjamin discusses a shift in opinion and its affects in the awakening of the advent of photography as well as film in the twentieth century. He writes of the sense changes within humanity’s entire manner of existence. He gives importance to the way we see the visual work of art. The insightful piece of writing provides a general history of alterations in art in the modern age. Walter Benjamin’s main and central claim is that our human sensory perspective is not intrinsic or natural in any
This trend also found roots in the emergence of photographic technology, originally developed in the early 1800’s and advanced continuously until the present. During this time, artists and photographers suddenly found that they could much more easily captur...
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
According to Paolo Cherchi Usai: “Moving image preservation will be redefined as the science of gradual loss and the art of coping with the consequences, very much like a physician who has accepted the inevitability of death even while he fights for the patient’s life” (Death 24x Second, Laura Mulvey, p17). Furthermore, due to the improving of technology, there is always something been replace by another. Such as analogue camera has been replaced by digital camera, telephone has been replaced by smartphone, and television has been replaced by computer. “… the digital, as an abstract information system, made a break with analogue imagery, finally sweeping away the relation with reality, which had, by and large, dominated the photographic tradition…” (Death 24x a Second, Laura Mulvey, p18). But fortunately, photography didn’t been replace by film, that is maybe due to a reason of photography has always had its own complex engagement with time and movement which is different with film (Lecture note,
From the creation of art to its modern understanding, artists have strived to perform and perfect a photo realistic painting with the use of complex lines, blend of colors, and captivating subjects. This is not the case anymore due to the invention of the camera in 1827, since it will always be the ultimate form of realism. Due to this, artists had the opportunities to branch away from the classical formation of realism, and venture into new forms such as what is known today as modern art. In the examination of two well known artists, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock, we can see that the artist doesn’t only intend for the painting to be just a painting, but more of a form of telling a scene through challenging thoughts, and expressing of the artists emotion in their creation.
This book is a note written by Roland Barthes to record the dialectical way he thought about the eidos(form, essence, type, species) of Photographs. Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist in his lifetime, but surprisingly he was not a photographer. As Barthes had a belief that art works consists with signs and structures, he had investigated semiotics and structuralism. However, through Camera Lucida, he realized the limitation of structuralism and the impression to analyze Photography with only semiotics and structuralism. Barthes concludes with talking about unclassifiable aspects of Photography. I could sense the direction Barthes wanted to go through the first chapter ‘Specialty of the Photograph’. He tried to define something by phenomenology
A picture is more than just a piece of time captured within a light-sensitive emulsion, it is an experience one has whose story is told through an enchanting image. I photograph the world in the ways I see it. Every curious angle, vibrant color, and abnormal subject makes me think, and want to spark someone else’s thought process. The photographs in this work were not chosen by me, but by the reactions each image received when looked at. If a photo was merely glanced at or given a casual compliment, then I didn’t feel it was strong enough a work, but if one was to stop somebody, and be studied in curiosity, or question, then the picture was right to be chosen.
DAGUERREOTYPE Daguerre made photography practical. A well exposed Daguerreotype was possibly the most beautiful photograph. A daguerreotype showed brilliance (sliver surface) and detail. (Burchfield) The definition of daguerreotype is” the spontaneous reproduction of images received in the camera obscura; a chemical and physical process which allowed natures to reproduce herself.”
As seen in paintings of battle scenes and portraits of wealthy Renaissance aristocracy, people have always strived to preserve and document their existence. The creation of photography was merely the logical continuum of human nature’s innate desire to preserve the past, as well as a necessary reaction to a world in a stage of dramatic and irreversible change. It is not a coincidence that photography arose in major industrial cities towards the end of the nineteenth century.
In The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan proposes the idea that humans see extensions of ourselves in inanimate objects. “The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act- the way we perceive the world,” (McLuhan 41). Our identities and awareness are invested in inanimate objects on a daily basis and it can cause us to transform how we see ourselves, others, and the world. We can be more receptive to icons than to realistic and detailed drawings because of something McCloud calls amplification through simplification. “When we abstract an image through cartooning, we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details. By stripping down an image to its essential “meaning” an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t. (McCloud 30). While we may see others’ faces in great detail, our general awareness of our own faces when we are not looking at reflections of ourselves is simple and abstracted, similar to cartoons. Thus, when we see cartoons, we can identify with them because they are extensions of ourselves in media. McCloud says, “The cartoon is a vacuum into which our identity and awareness are pulled...an empty shell that we inhabit which enables us to travel in another realm. We don’t just observe the cartoon, we become it!” (McCloud 36). The reader identification that occurs is one of the primary
In Sontag’s On Photography, she claims photography limits our understanding of the world. Though Sontag acknowledges “photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures”, she believes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses.” She argues photographs offer merely “a semblance of knowledge” on the real world.
Photography has created an outlet for the masses to story tell. It has a way of speaking without words like most art forms and is a manner of expression in itself. To eradicate photography from humans would be equivalent to taking away a limb from humankind. Our society has grown an immense amount of dependency on it. Photography has become almost a daily menial task such as brushing your teeth; where we must take pictures of the things we deem important or equally unimportant, even more so with the invention of social media outlets such as Instagram and Snapchat, where photography is the main source of communication between people who use them. Susan Sontag offers the basis of what taking pictures can undertake in both our daily lives and moments that are not part of our daily lives, such as travel. Traveling to places where one is not accustomed can flare pent up anxiety. A way to subdue that anxiety could be through taking pictures, since it’s the only factor that we have total control over in a space where we don’t have much, or, any control of our surrounding environment. On the other hand, taking photos can also be a tool of power in the same sense as it allows for it to be a defense against anxiety. With the camera in our hands, we have the power to decide who, what, where, when, and why we take a picture. This in turn also gives the person who took the picture power over those who later analyze the photos, letting them decide the meaning of the photo individually, despite the intended or true meaning.