Is it mostly: a ‘mirror’? a scientific instrument? an objective recorder? Or an interpreter? A processor? A commentator? Was Delaroche right to declare “Painting is dead”? Was Caffin correct in asserting the camera as “substituting a soulless eye for the artist’s individual vision”? French word for lens – ‘objectif’
F.F. Statin, 1860: “Photography is never imaginative, and is never in danger of arranging its records by the light of a preconceived theory” Roland Barthes: “the primary photographic image is nothing but a faithful copy of the object” Key issue for him: photograph as certifier – validating existence of referent Photography as: Set of mechanical instruments Provider of scientific evidence
Linked to rise of positivist philosophy Values: empirical, observation, verifiable facts Development of scientific knowledge: Muybridge, proof of how horses gallop Duchenne de Boulogne: illustrations of electro-physiological analysis of human expression – linked to disciplines of phsyiognomy + phrenology Broad social + scientific context: Scientific understanding + control of individual human body Link to repressive social forces: Documentation, classification, division, control
1843: European police – criminality research with photos Insanity Slavery: Louis Agassiz So – deep links to 19 th C. trends: rise in observation, record keeping, colonial project – conquest, classification; civilised + savage
Photographer – enactor of many choices: What to photograph – include/exclude What composition How to utilise light sources Length of exposure Depth of exposure: sharp /blurred focus Types of film + chemicals To crop developed image or not?
The Pictorialists E.g. Henry Peach Robinson ( ) Studied art Started work as a bookseller Strongly influenced by paintings of J.W.Turner + the Pre-Raphaelites Used combination printing - layering multiple negatives
She Never Told Her Love 1858
Poem by Tennyson Arthurian legend: Lady trapped in tower, looks at world through mirror, if she looks directly - cursed. Sees Lancelot, turns + looks.
Composite image Shows young woman dying of consumption (TB) Controversial
Given camera as gift when she was 48 "I longed to arrest all the beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.” Also influenced by Pre-Raphaelites Two main strands in work: Allegorical images Close, intimate portraits - often soft focus – create intimacy, emotionality
The Rosebud Garden of Girls, June 1868
Madonna and Children 1867
Ophelia Study 1867
‘Sadness’ Ellen Terry, actress, 16 years old
Miss Isabella Bateman