DOCSLIB.ORG

The Soft-Focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Soft-Focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism THE SOFT-FOCUS LENS AND ANGLO-AMERICAN PICTORIALISM William Russell Young, III A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 2008 Full metadata for this item is available in the St Andrews Digital Research Repository at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/505 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License The Soft-Focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism William Russell Young, III B.S.B.A., M.B.A., M.A. Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy April 30, 2007 Declarations (i) I, William Russell Young, III, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 90,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has been written by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. April 30, 2007 ______________________________ William Russell Young, III (ii) I was admitted as a research student in January, 2001, and as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 2001 and 2007. April 30, 2007 _______________________________ William Russell Young, III (iii) I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis I application for that degree. April 30, 2007 ________________________________ Thomas Normand, Ph.D. i Acknowledgements The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge various forms and degrees of contribution from the following individuals and institutions, without which this thesis would be diminished in quality. I sincerely apologize for any inadvertent omissions. Scholars, M. Susan Barger, PhD, Robert Bretz, William Crawford, Roy Flukinger, Pamela Roberts, Richard Rudisill, PhD, Peter Stubbs, Paul Van Walree, Mike Ware, PhD.; Archivists and Librarians, George Eastman House, Becky Simmons, Mike Yates, Todd Gustavson, David Wooters, Janice Madhu; Ohio University Archives staff; Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Barbara Brown, Eric Beggs; Perry-Castaneda Library, University of Texas; National Library of Scotland;, Marion Center Newhall Library, College of Santa Fe, Allison Colborne; New Mexico State Library, Susanne Caro; Whistler Centre, Glasgow University, Nigel Thorpe, PhD; Photographic Archives, State of New Mexico, Arthur Olivas (retired); Photographers, Patrick Alt, John Barnier, Ed Dams, Prof. Phil Davis,† Peter & Aase Goldsmith, Konrad Gotz,† Roy Hungerford, ARPS, Terry King, FRPS, Kerik Kouklis, Charles Lewis, David Lewis, Charlie Manion †, Sean McKenna, Robert Nugent, Mark Osterman, Charles Palmer, MD, James Pitts, Eric Renner, Ted Rice, III, Roy Robertson, FRPS, Robert Shlaer, PhD, Al Starkweather, Sr., Donald Stewart, PhD, ARPS; Photographic Equipment Dealers, Jim Andrachi (Midwest Photographic Exchange), Nick Argyros, Seth Broder (Cameraeccentric), Chris Davies, Charles Duckworth, Fred Newman & Dennis Kibbe, (The View Camera Store), Jay Tepper; Camera Designers, Kevin Finney, Jim Galvin†, Kurt Mottweiler; Book Dealers, Leo’s Art Books, Fred & Elizabeth Pajerski Booksellers, Photo-Eye Books; Others, Barbara Robertson, Albert Starkweather, Jr., Dr. Dwight Thibodeaux, and my enduring gratitude to Tom Normand, Ph.D. ii Abstract The history, practice and aesthetic of the soft focus lens in photography is elucidated and developed from its earliest statements of need to the current time with a particular emphasis on its role in the development of the Pictorialist movement. Using William Crawford’s concept of photographic ‘syntax,’ the use of the soft focus lens is explored as an example of how technology shapes style. A detailed study of the soft focus lenses from the earliest forms to the present is presented, enumerating the core properties of pinhole, early experimental and commercial soft focus lenses. This was researched via published texts in period journals, advertising, private correspondence, interviews, and the lenses themselves. The author conducted a wide range of in-studio experiments with both period and contemporary soft focus lenses to evaluate their character and distinct features, as well as to validate source material. Nodal points of this history and development are explored in the critical debate between the diffuse and sharp photographic image, beginning with the competition between the calotype and daguerreotype. The role of George Davison’s The Old Farmstead is presented as well as the invention of the first modern soft focus lens, the Dallmeyer-Bergheim, and its function in the development of the popular Pictorialist lens, the Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromatic. The trajectory of the soft focus lens is plotted against the Pictorialist movement, noting the correlation betwixt them, and the modern renaissance of soft focus lenses and the diffuse aesthetic. This thesis presents and unique history of photography modeled around the determining character of technology and the interdependency of syntax, style and art. iii Illustrations 1.1 D. W. Wynfield Field Talfourd 1.2 Cutaway diagram of the Petzval design 1.3 Cutaway diagram of the Dallmeyer Rapid Rectilinear design 1.4 Illustration of increased coverage by the cone of light… 1.5 Julia Margaret Cameron Magdalene Brookfield 1.6 Julia Margaret Cameron The Twilight Hour 2.1 Two staid American cabinet cards 2.2 Celine Laguarde Profile Sanguine gum bichromate portrait 3.1 Henry Herbert La Thangue An Autumn Morning 3.2 Sir George Clausen Hoeing Turnips 3.3 Frank Meadow Sutcliffe Fetching in the Line 4.1 Configuration of the Dallmeyer Rapid Landscape design 4.2 Dallmeyer-Bergheim lens, final type design 4.3 Cutaway diagram of the original Dallmeyer-Bergheim design 4.4 Direct scan of F. Holland Day’s letter to Frederick Evans 4.5 Alvin Langdon Coburn Henry Smith 4.6 Grubb Aplanat design of 1857 4.7 Kodak Soft Focus Lens circa 1950 4.8 Circa 1900 Landscape Lens 4.9 Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromatic Series I No. 3 4.10 The first Pinkham & Smith advertisement 5.1 Positive lenses 5.2 Spherical Aberration 5.3 Image of a point source when spherical aberration is present 5.4 Illustration of spherical aberration showing the band of focus 5.5 Chromatic aberration showing differing focus by color 5.6 Longitudinal chromatic aberration 5.7 Two reflections of the same light source… 5.8 An elaborate and undoubtedly highly efficient rectangular… 5.9 Gundlach Achromatic Meniscus 6 inch f/6 5.10 Fujinon SF 250 mm. f/5.6 5.11 Graphic demonstration of the distinction between the circle… 5.12 A set of Waterhouse stops 5.13 pinpoint light sources photographed slightly out of focus 5.14 Alvin Langdon Coburn Notre Dame 5.15 Gertrude Kasebier The Lesson or The Picture Book 5.16 Alfred Stieglitz Hedwig Stieglitz 5.17 Edouard Boubat no title 5.18 Heinrich Kühn untitled autochrome iv 6.1 Spectral sensitivity comparisons of films 6.2 Kodak Portrait Lens cemented achromat 6.3 Veritar (and Verito) diagram 6.4 Tina Modotti Edward Weston 6.5 Diagram of the earliest version of the Dallmeyer-Bergheim lens 6.6 Cutaway diagram of the Adjustable Landscape lens of Pulligny & Puyo 6.7 Engraved scale of focus correction on an Objectif Anachromatique 6.8 Busch Perscheid symmetric soft focus lens 6.9 Perforated diaphragm from an Imagon lens 6.10 Illustration of function of the Imagon perforated diaphragm 6.11 Cutaway diagram of the Imagon lens 6.12 An early advertisement for the monorail camera devised by Kühn 6.13 Dr. Adalbert Defner Portrait of Heinrich Kühn 6.14 An 8x10 Burke & James Rembrandt Master Pictorialist portrait camera 6.15 Russ Young Glen Aultman 6.16 Two large format cameras showing the rapid evolution 6.17 Heinrich Kühn untitled portrait of Alfred Stieglitz 6.18 Silhouette of Alfred Stieglitz holding a Graflex camera 6.19 Folmer & Schwing focal plane shutter 6.20 Agfa-Ansco 5x7 view camera 6.21 John Paul Edwards untitled 6.22 John Paul Edwards untitled detail 6.23 Ernest Knee untitled portrait of Edward Weston 6.24 Ansel Adams portraits with wide and normal lenses 6.25 4x5 ground glass image 6.26 Diagrammatic explanation of focusing the Imagon 6.27 Diagrammatic explanation of the soft focus lens and focus 6.28 The spectral sensitivity of ordinary film (“P”) and the human eye 6.29 Dallmeyer Soft Focus Six Inch lens 6.30 George H. Seeley The Burning of Rome 6.31 Ansel Adams Lodgepole Pines 6.32 Margrethe Mather (?) untitled Edward Weston with Graf Variable 6.33 E. H. Weston untitled portrait 6.34 Edward Henry Weston Toxophilus 6.35 F. Holland Day The Storm God 6.36 A 1902 risquély worded advertisement for printing paper 7.1 Alvin Langdon Coburn Weir’s Close 7.2 Alvin Langdon Coburn Clouds in the Grand Canyon 7.3 E. H. Weston View from Mt. Wilson 7.4 J. P. Edwards Portrait of an Artist 7.5 Illustration from California the Beautiful 7.6 A page from The Old Spanish Missions of California 7.7 Imogen Cunningham Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston 7.8 William E. Dassonville Boat Rail and Reflections v 7.9 Ansel Adams Eagle Dance, San Ildefonso Pueblo New Mexico 7.10 William Mortensen Johan the Mad 7.11 Four representatives of the numerous photographic magazines 7.12 Hugo Henneberg Pommeranian Motif 7.13 Hugo Henneberg Row of Poplars 7.14 Modern ‘flou-net’ manufactured by Bronica 7.15 Shadows produced by the pattern of an Eastman Diffusion Disk 7.16 1928 Leica advertisement for the ‘camera of the future” 7.17 Frank R.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Friedlander Dog's Best Friend PR March 2019
    Andrew Smith Gallery Arizona, LLC. Masterpieces of Photography LEE FRIEDLANDER SHOW TITLE: Dog’s Best Friend Dates: April 27 - June 15, 2019 Artist’s Reception: DATE/TIME: Saturday April 27, 2019 2-4 p.m. “I think dogs are happy because people feed them fancy food, treat them nicely, pedicure and wash them, take them into their homes.” Lee Friedlander Andrew Smith Gallery, in its new location at 439 N. 6th Ave., Suite 179, Tucson, Arizona 85705, opens an exhibit by the eminent American photographer Lee Friedlander. The exhibit, Dog’s Best Friend, contains 18 prints of dogs and their owners, one of Friedlander’s ongoing “pet projects.” Lee and Maria Friedlander will attend the opening on Saturday, April 27, 2019 from 2 to 4 p.m., where the public is invited to visit with America’s most celebrated photographer and view “the dogs.” The exhibit continues through June 15, 2019. Lee Friedlander is one of America’s legendary photographers. Now in his eighties, he still photographs and makes his own prints in the darkroom as he has been doing for 60 years. In the 1950s he began documenting what he called “the American social landscape,” making pictures that showed how the camera sees reality (different from how the eye sees). In his layered compositions, what are normally understood to be separate objects; buildings, window displays, people, cars, etc., are perpetually interacting with reflective, opaque and transparent surfaces that distort, fragment and bring about surprising, often humorous conjunctions. Friedlander has been photographing virtually non-stop these many decades, expanding the vocabulary of such traditional artistic themes as family, nudes, gardens, trees, self-portraits, landscapes, cityscapes, laborers, artists, jazz musicians, cars, graffiti, statues, parks, advertising signs, and animals.
    [Show full text]
  • The Street—Design for a Poster
    National Gallery of Art NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ONLINE EDITIONS Alfred Stieglitz Key Set Alfred Stieglitz (editor/publisher) after Various Artists Alfred Stieglitz American, 1864 - 1946 The Street—Design for a Poster 1900/1901, printed 1903 photogravure image: 17.6 × 13.2 cm (6 15/16 × 5 3/16 in.) Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1949.3.1270.34 Key Set Number 266 Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art KEY SET ENTRY Related Key Set Photographs The Street—Design for a Poster 1 © National Gallery of Art, Washington National Gallery of Art NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ONLINE EDITIONS Alfred Stieglitz Key Set Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz The Street, Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue—30th Street 1900/1901, printed 1903/1904 1900/1901, printed 1929/1937 photogravure gelatin silver print Key Set Number 267 Key Set Number 268 same negative same negative Remarks The date is based on stylistic similarities to Spring Showers—The Street Cleaner (Key Set number 269) and Spring Showers—The Coach (Camera Notes 5:3 [January 1902], pl. A). This photograph was made at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street with a Bausch & Lomb Extra Rapid Universal lens, and won a grand prize of $300 in the 1903 “Bausch & Lomb Quarter-Century Competition”(see Camera Work 5 [January 1904], 53; and The American Amateur Photographer 16 [February 1904], 92). Lifetime Exhibitions A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime: 1903, Hamburg (no. 424, as The Street, photogravure) 1903, San Francisco (no. 34a, as The Street—Winter) 1904, Washington (no.
    [Show full text]
  • Lalique-Haviland-Burty Famille Des Arts, Famille D'artistes
    276 Nicole M ARITCH -HAVILAND , Catherine de L ÉOBARDY Lalique-Haviland-Burty Famille des arts, famille d’artistes 1 ALIQUE -H AVILAND -B URTY est un fascinant livre de photos , un conte pour grandes personnes, et en même temps un document capital, avec la caution de deux conser - Lvateurs en chef: du musée d’Orsay et du musée des Arts décoratifs. Pour moi, le livre de l’année 2009. Je suis un juge partial, ayant rencontré pour la pre - mière fois Suzanne Lalique à l’étage Rachel sous des cordes à linge d’où pendaient des collections multicolores de gants et de chausses fraîchement teints. Elle régnait encore , à soixante-dix ans passés, sur tous les costumes de la Comédie-Française. «Donner sa robe à sa doublure, vous n’y songez pas! C’est une blonde, la robe est jaune». Elle disait aussi: «Ici, on peut faire n’importe quoi, mais pas n’importe comment». Je l’ai revue au 40 cours Albert 1 er , dans le bel immeuble construit par son père, l’illustre René Lalique, bijoutier et maître-verrier: magasin d’exposition, atelier d’art, et maison de famille superposés sur cinq étages. Elle confiait aux Robert Margerit aurait aimé «Amis de Jean Giraudoux», pour être exposées à Bellac, les maquettes des décors qu’elle avait dessinées et elle- même découpées pour la Maison de Molière, maquettes qui sont aujourd’hui au Palais-Royal, parmi les joyaux de la bibliothèque-musée. Giraudoux avait été adopté comme elle au foyer des Morand, elle était un peu sa jeune sœur.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Darwin: a Companion
    CHARLES DARWIN: A COMPANION Charles Darwin aged 59. Reproduction of a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, original 13 x 10 inches, taken at Dumbola Lodge, Freshwater, Isle of Wight in July 1869. The original print is signed and authenticated by Mrs Cameron and also signed by Darwin. It bears Colnaghi's blind embossed registration. [page 3] CHARLES DARWIN A Companion by R. B. FREEMAN Department of Zoology University College London DAWSON [page 4] First published in 1978 © R. B. Freeman 1978 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the publisher: Wm Dawson & Sons Ltd, Cannon House Folkestone, Kent, England Archon Books, The Shoe String Press, Inc 995 Sherman Avenue, Hamden, Connecticut 06514 USA British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Freeman, Richard Broke. Charles Darwin. 1. Darwin, Charles – Dictionaries, indexes, etc. 575′. 0092′4 QH31. D2 ISBN 0–7129–0901–X Archon ISBN 0–208–01739–9 LC 78–40928 Filmset in 11/12 pt Bembo Printed and bound in Great Britain by W & J Mackay Limited, Chatham [page 5] CONTENTS List of Illustrations 6 Introduction 7 Acknowledgements 10 Abbreviations 11 Text 17–309 [page 6] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Charles Darwin aged 59 Frontispiece From a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron Skeleton Pedigree of Charles Robert Darwin 66 Pedigree to show Charles Robert Darwin's Relationship to his Wife Emma 67 Wedgwood Pedigree of Robert Darwin's Children and Grandchildren 68 Arms and Crest of Robert Waring Darwin 69 Research Notes on Insectivorous Plants 1860 90 Charles Darwin's Full Signature 91 [page 7] INTRODUCTION THIS Companion is about Charles Darwin the man: it is not about evolution by natural selection, nor is it about any other of his theoretical or experimental work.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamilton Easter Fiel
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Artist Resources – Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)
    Artist Resources – Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946) Alfred Stieglitz Collection and Archive, Art Institute of Chicago The Key Set Stieglitz Collection, National Gallery of Art Stieglitz at The Getty Stieglitz and Camera Work collection, Princeton University Art Museum Explore The National Gallery’s timeline of all known Stieglitz exhibitions, spanning from 1888 to 1946. View archival documents from MoMA’s 1947 exhibition, which comprised two floors and paired Stieglitz’s photography with his private art collection. The following year, MoMA introduced Photo-Secession (American Photography 1902-1910), organized by surviving co-founder Edward Steichen and featuring photography from the the journal Camera Work. The 1999 PBS American Master’s documentary, Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye, charts the photographer’s immense influence and innovation, featuring intimate interviews with his widow, the painter Georgia O’Keefe, museum curators, and scholars. “What is of greatest importance is to hold a moment, to record something so completely that those who see it will relive an equivalent of what has been expressed,“ Stieglitz reflects in recorded audio of his writing, which is threaded throughout the film. Stieglitz, 1934 Photographer: Imogen Cunningham Smithsonian Magazine profiled Stieglitz in 2002 in honor of The National Gallery’s retrospective. Stieglitz was the subject of the NGA’s first exhibition dedicated exclusively to photography, in 1958. In 2011, The Metropolitan Museum of Art debuted the first large-scale exhibition of Stieglitz’s personal collection, acquired by the museum in 1949. Over 200 works display the photographer’s influence with his contemporaries and successive generations, including, among others, works by: Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Vasily Kandinsky, and Francis Picabia.
    [Show full text]
  • Julia Margaret Cameron's Photographs As Paintings
    University Libraries Lance and Elena Calvert Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards Award for Undergraduate Research 2018 Julia Margaret Cameron's Photographs as Paintings Winnie Wu [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/award Part of the Art Practice Commons, Photography Commons, and the Theory and Criticism Commons Repository Citation Wu, W. (2018). Julia Margaret Cameron's Photographs as Paintings. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/award/34 This Research Paper is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Research Paper in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Research Paper has been accepted for inclusion in Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. JULIA MARGARET CAMERON’S PHOTOGRAPHS AS PAINTINGS Winnie Wu ART 475: History of Photography November 30th, 2017 !1 Julia Margaret Cameron did not have a camera until she was forty-eight, given to her by her daughter and son-in-law.1 She did not have mechanical expertise, scientific knowledge, or practical experience in the arts. She was a wife of a philosopher and a mother of seven children.2 Through her husband’s society however, she was in contact with some of the preeminent Victorian thinkers and artists.
    [Show full text]
  • Ansel Adams by Ross Loeser February 2010
    Ansel Adams By Ross Loeser February 2010 Ansel Adams is one of the most fascinating people of the 20th Century… a photography pioneer whose art captured the imagination of millions of ordinary people. Most of the information in this paper is from his autobiography – written in the last five years of his life. I found the book a joy to read. Adams (1902-1984) was born in San Francisco and lived most of his life in that area. For his last 22 years he lived in Carmel Highlands. Some key formative events in his early life were: In 1916, when he was 14, he influenced his family to go on vacation in Yosemite after reading the book, In the Heart of the Sierras by J.M. Hutchens. During that trip, he received his first camera – a Kodak Box Brownie. He returned to Yosemite every year of his life thereafter.1 He was hired as a “darkroom monkey” by a neighbor who operated a photo finishing business in 1917, which enabled him to learn about making photographic prints. As he grew up, one major focus was music – the piano. “By 1923 I was a budding professional pianist…”2 On a bright spring Yosemite day in 1927, Adams made a photograph that was to “change my understanding of the medium.” The picture was of Half Dome, and titled “Monolith, The Face of Half Dome.” The full story is included later in this paper, but, in a nutshell, he captured how he felt about the scene, not how it actually appeared (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain Is a Company Registered COVER IMAGE: in England and Wales No
    FREE GALLERY ENTRY The Royal Photographic Society 2020 EXHIBITIONS EVENTS SCREENINGS WORKSHOPS 337 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR – MARCH JANUARY Extended until 26 January FREE EXHIBITION ADMISSION Sugar Paper Theories Jack Latham Using the most controversial murder investigation in Icelandic history, Jack Latham explores the fundamental relationship between the medium of photography and truth. The Guðmundur and Geirfinnur case has become the biggest and most controversial murder investigation in Icelandic history. For the project, Sugar Paper Theories, British Photographer, Jack Latham, immersed himself in all aspects of the case, from meeting key protagonists to locating and photographing key sites of the investigation. Latham’s project brings together original photographs with a range of archival and documentary materials to explore the fundamental relationship between the medium of photography and truth. From police files to conspiracy theories, forensic science to the notion of Memory Distrust Syndrome, Sugar Paper Theories plays on issues of certainty and uncertainty, the unreliability of memory, and the power of suggestion. Jack Latham is a Bristol based photographer. He is the author of several photobooks; A Pink Flamingo (2015), Sugar Paper Theories (2016) and Parliament of Owls (2019). His work has been exhibited internationally including solo shows at Reykjavik Museum of Photography and TJ Boulting Gallery, London. Latham’s projects have received multiple awards including the Bar-Tur Photobook award (2015), Image Vevey – Heidi.News Prize (2019) and most IMAGE: recently, BJP International Photography Award (2019). © JACK LATHAM Sighting #2 Sugar Paper rps.org/SPT Theories 2015 15 February – 22 March FREE EXHIBITION ADMISSION International Photography Exhibition 162 The International Photography Exhibition (IPE) is selected from an annual international open-call to photographers and image-makers.
    [Show full text]
  • Transforming Practices
    Transforming Practices: Imogen Cunningham’s Botanical Studies of the 1920s Caroline Marsh Spring Semester 2014 Dr. Juliet Bellow, Art History University Honors in Art History Imogen Cunningham worked for decades as a professional photographer, creating predominantly portraits and botanical studies. In 1932, she joined the influential Group f.64, a group of West Coast photographers who worked to pioneer the concept of “Straight Photography,” a movement that emphasized the use of sharp focus and high contrast. Members of Group f.64 included Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, whose works have since overshadowed other photographers in the group. Cunningham has been marginalized in histories of Group f.64, and in the history of photography in general, despite evidence of her development of many important photographic practices during her lifetime. This paper builds on scholarship about Group f.64, using biographical information and analysis of her photographs, to argue that Cunningham influenced more of the ideas in the group than has been recognized, especially in her focus on the simplification of form and the creation of compelling compositions. Focusing on her botanical studies, I show that many of the ideas of f.64 existed in her oeuvre before the formal creation of the group. Analysis of her participation in the group reveals her contribution to developments in art photography in that period, and shows that her gender played a key role in historical accounts that downplay her significant contributions to f.64. Marsh 2 Imogen Cunningham became well known in her lifetime as an independent and energetic photographer from the West Coast, whose personality defined her more than the photographs she created or her contribution to the developing straight photography movement in California.
    [Show full text]
  • FULL PROGRAM A-4 Printable Format
    A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO: OUR SPONSORS INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS New York Public Library for the Performing Arts New York Public Library, Barbara Goldsmith ConservaIon Lab The James B. Duke House of The InsItute of Fine Arts, New York University The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Photograph ConservaIon Museum of Modern Art, The David Booth ConservaIon Department Laumont Photographics Alison Rossiter, ArIst Adam Fuss, ArIst ORGANIZING COMMITTEES Heather Brown, AIC Photographic Materials Group Secretary/Treasurer TaIana Cole AIC, Photographic Materials Group Program Chair Diana Diaz, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Coordinator Jessica Keister, NYC Local Planning Team Coordinator Barbara Lemmen, AIC Photographic Materials Group Chair Saori Kawasumi Lewis, AIC Photographic Materials Group Secretary/Treasurer Ruth Seyler, AIC MeeIngs & Advocacy Director Barbara Brown, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Susie Clark, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Lee Ann Daffner, NYC Local Planning Team EsIbaliz Guzman, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Marc Harnly, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Greg Hill, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator MarIn Jürgens, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Natasha Kung, NYC Local Planning Team Krista Lough, NYC Local Planning Team Mark Strange, ICOM-CC Photographic Materials Working Group Assistant Coordinator Elsa Thyss, NYC Local Planning Team TABLE OF CONTENTS Program of Talks in Summary . 1 Speakers, Authors, & Abstracts Wednesday, Feb. 20th . 3 Thursday, Feb. 21st . 13 Friday, Feb. 22nd . 24 Session Chairs . 30 Workshops . 30 Tours Tuesday, Feb. 19th . 32 Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 20th and 21st .
    [Show full text]
  • Before Zen: the Nothing of American Dada
    Before Zen The Nothing of American Dada Jacquelynn Baas One of the challenges confronting our modern era has been how to re- solve the subject-object dichotomy proposed by Descartes and refined by Newton—the belief that reality consists of matter and motion, and that all questions can be answered by means of the scientific method of objective observation and measurement. This egocentric perspective has been cast into doubt by evidence from quantum mechanics that matter and motion are interdependent forms of energy and that the observer is always in an experiential relationship with the observed.1 To understand ourselves as in- terconnected beings who experience time and space rather than being sub- ject to them takes a radical shift of perspective, and artists have been at the leading edge of this exploration. From Marcel Duchamp and Dada to John Cage and Fluxus, to William T. Wiley and his West Coast colleagues, to the recent international explosion of participatory artwork, artists have been trying to get us to change how we see. Nor should it be surprising that in our global era Asian perspectives regarding the nature of reality have been a crucial factor in effecting this shift.2 The 2009 Guggenheim exhibition The Third Mind emphasized the im- portance of Asian philosophical and spiritual texts in the development of American modernism.3 Zen Buddhism especially was of great interest to artists and writers in the United States following World War II. The histo- ries of modernism traced by the exhibition reflected the well-documented influence of Zen, but did not include another, earlier link—that of Daoism and American Dada.
    [Show full text]