PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS ORIGINS Recent decades have seen a flourishing interest in and speculation about the origins of photography. Spurred by rediscoveries of “first” photographs and proclamations of photography’s death in the digital age, scholars have been rethinking who and what invented the medium. Photography and Its Origins reflects on this interest in photography’s beginnings by reframing it in critical and specifically historiographical terms. How and why do we write about the origins of the medium? Whom or what do we rely on to con- struct those narratives? What’s at stake in choosing to tell stories of photography’s genesis in one way or another? And what kind of work can those stories do? Edited by Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón, this collection of 16 original essays, illustrated with 32 color images, showcases prominent and emerg- ing voices in the field of photography studies. Their research cuts across disciplines and methodologies, shedding new light on old questions about histories and their writing. Photography and Its Origins will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars in art history, visual and media studies, and the history of science and technology. Tanya Sheehan is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at Colby College, where she teaches American art history and the history of photography. She is the author of Doctored: The Medicine of Photography in Nineteenth-Century America (2011) and editor of Photography, History, Difference (2014). Andrés Mario Zervigón is Associate Professor of the History of Photography in the Art History Department at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is author of John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage (2012). This page intentionally left blank PHOTOGRAPHY AND ITS ORIGINS Edited by Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón for selection and editorial matter; individual contributions the contributors The right of Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón to be identified as authors of the editorial material and individual authors for their contribution has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Photography and its origins / edited by Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. I. Sheehan, Tanya, 1976- editor. II. Zervigón, Andrés Mario, editor. TR15.P479 2015 770—dc23 2014022345 ISBN: 978-0-415-72289-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-72290-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-74009-6 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK CONTENTS List of figures viii Acknowledgments xi About the contributors xii Introduction 1 Tanya Sheehan and Andrés Mario Zervigón PART I Rethinking first photograph(er)s 13 1 A sensational story: Helmut Gernsheim and “the world’s first photograph” 15 Jessica S. McDonald 2 What’s wrong with Daguerre? 29 Hans Rooseboom 3 Omphaloskeptical? On Daguerre, smoke drawing, finger painting, and photography 41 Stephen C. Pinson 4 The past through the looking glass 53 Dan Estabrook vi Contents PART II Multiplying beginnings 65 5 Origins without end 67 Geoffrey Batchen 6 Notes towards new accounts of photography’s invention 82 Douglas R. Nickel 7 Against photographic exceptionalism 94 Stephen Bann 8 Sacred stories: photography’s indigenous origins 104 Heather A. Shannon 9 Seeing ourselves as others see us: Frederick Douglass’s reflections on daguerreotypy and racial difference 118 Marcy J. Dinius PART III Writing (trans)national histories 129 10 “An American sun shines brighter,” or, photography was (not) invented in the United States 131 François Brunet 11 The Bertoloni Album: rethinking photography’s national identity 145 Beth Saunders 12 Photography and its Chinese origins 157 Yi Gu 13 Looking into the past and present: the origins of photography in Africa 171 Jürg Schneider Contents vii PART IV Tracing scientific origins 183 14 Self-reflections: the nature of Sir Humphry Davy’s photographic “failures” 185 Jordan Bear 15 Natural/mechanical: keywords in the conception of early photography 195 Laura Saltz 16 A note on the science of photography: reconsidering the invention story 208 Kelley Wilder Selected bibliography 222 Index 232 FIGURES 1.1 Helmut Gernsheim, 1952, graphite on paper. Reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826 or 1827, heliograph. Courtesy of the Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 18 1.2 P. B. Watt, Kodak Research Laboratory, 1952, gelatin silver print. Reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826 or 1827, heliograph. Courtesy of the Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 18 1.3 Helmut Gernsheim, after Kodak Research Laboratory reproduction, 1952, gelatin silver print with applied watercolor. Reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826 or 1827, heliograph. Courtesy of the Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 19 1.4 Jack Ross, Ellen Rosenbery, and Anthony Peres, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2002, digital image. Reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826 or 1827, heliograph. Courtesy of the Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 25 3.1 William Henry Fox Talbot, The Head of Christ from a Painting on Glass, 1839, iodide-fixed photogenic drawing negative. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. 45 3.2 Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Ruined Cloister, ca. 1827 (variant b), dessin-fumée. Private collection. Courtesy of Hans P. Kraus, Jr., New York. 48 Figures ix 3.3 Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Rocky Coastline, ca. 1850, painting on glass. Collection of Michael S. Sachs, Westport, Connecticut. Courtesy of Michael S. Sachs. 50 4.1 Dan Estabrook, Untitled Twins, 1992, toned gelatin silver print, mounted on card. 9″ × 7″ overall. © Dan Estabrook. 55 4.2 Dan Estabrook, First Photograph, 1999, pencil on calotype negative. 4½″ × 3½″. © Dan Estabrook. 59 4.3 Dan Estabrook, Failure Spectrum, 2000, failed calotype negatives, mounted on paper. 11″ × 35″ overall. © Dan Estabrook. 60 4.4 Dan Estabrook, Little Devils, no. 1, 2001, pencil on waxed calotype negative and salt print (diptych). 4″ × 3″ each. © Dan Estabrook. 61 4.5 Dan Estabrook, Noose (Drawn), 2001, pencil on waxed calotype negative and salt print (diptych). 10″ × 8″ each. © Dan Estabrook. 62 5.1 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Cheval avec son conducteur, July–August 1825, heliographic gravure. Collection of the Bibliotèque Nationale de France, Paris. 75 5.2 The Magazine of Science 1, no. 4 (April 27, 1839), cover. 77 5.3 Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Still Life, 1837, as reproduced in Beaumont Newhall, Photography 1839–1937, Plate 3.“Photographed for the Museum by A. Dumas-Satigny from the original in Société française de photographie, Paris.” © 1937 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 78 7.1 Jules Caron, François Arago, steel engraving after portrait by Ary Scheffer (1842) for Timon (Cormenin), Livre des orateurs (11th edition, 1842). 8″ × 5″. Private collection. 95 7.2 Robert Jefferson Bingham, panoramic photograph detailing the left section of Paul Delaroche’s study for Hémicycle des Beaux-Arts (c. 1841; repainted and signed 1853), albumen print, 1858, 3½″ × 7½″. Private collection. 100 8.1 E. O. Beaman, “A Moquis House [in Oraibi],” 1872, albumen print on stereocard mount, published by Charles Roscoe Savage, Salt Lake City, Utah. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, SPC00222500. 107 8.2 Wood engraving after John K. Hillers, “Terraced Houses in Oraibi.” Reproduced in J. W. Powell’s “The Ancient Provence of Tusayan.” Courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University. 109 8.3 Wood engravings after Cosmos Mindeleff, “A Moki Kiva” and “The Middle Court at Mashongnovi.” Reproduced in Mindeleff’s “An Indian Snake-Dance.” Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC. 112 9.1 Unknown photographer, Portrait of Frederick Douglass, ca. 1848, daguerreotype. Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania. 121 x Figures 10.1 Facsimile of a letter from Robert Taft to Houghton Mifflin, Co., November 19, 1937. Robert Taft papers, Photography Correspondence, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas. 132 10.2 Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Cottonwood Lake, Utah (Wahsatch), 1869–1875, albumen print from collodion negative mounted on card with War Department/Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel imprint. Library of Congress, Department of Prints and Photographs. 139 10.3 Artotype copy of the earliest sunlight picture of a human face (Miss Dorothy Catherine Draper). Robert Taft papers, Photography Correspondence, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas. 141 11.1 William Henry Fox Talbot and Tassinari, Album di disegni fotogenici, leaf 47 verso (44a and 44b), 1839–40, photogenic 11 drawings. 28.5 × 22 cm (11¼″ × 8 /16 ″). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1936 (36.37). Copy Photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 150 11.2 G. Forino, lithograph, 1839, after a daguerreotype by Gaetano Fazzini, reproduced in Cesare Malpica, “Il Dagherrotipo,” Poliorama pittoresco Anno 4, no.