Photography and Frames: A Historical Perspective

By William B. Adair

Knowing frame history can help a discerning framer develop a keener instinct about how to frame a photograph in a way that harmonizes with the image

n 1835, Parisian Soon, other photo- artist-chemist graphic inventions ILouis Daguerre appeared, such as invented and popular- Frederick Scott Archer’s ized the first commer- “Ambrotypes” in the cial use of photograph- 1850s. This was a positive ic images transferred to photograph on glass made glass with a three- by a variant of the wet dimensional effect. plate collodion process. They were called Like a print on paper, it “Daguerreotypes” and, was viewed by reflected although sometimes light. Similar to the framed, they were typi- daguerreotype and prints cally marketed with produced much later by a protective folding cases Polaroid camera, each was that imitated frames. unique. During the 1860s These cases were com- the hand painted tintype plete with gilt spandrels was also widely used. It and often had plush was similar to a photo- velvet embossed covers graph but fabricated on held together with a lit- thin, black-lacquered iron tle clasp, much like a Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), National Museum of American History with a tin alloy. locket or jewelry case. Collection. Louis Philippe-style frame, faux rosewood and compo, c. 1840. Daguerre was the inventor of the photograph. Daguerreotype frames were Many other remark- The protective cases were often the same styles used for miniature portraits and landscape paintings. able photographic process- The fragile glass photograph plates needed to be protected from damage made of leather with gild- while still being in the latest style. es were developed to satis- ed embellishments or, fy the growing demand in alternately, the protective boxes were manufactured as the early years of the new medium. In 1842, Sir John “Union Cases” and were cast in thermoplastic resin. Herschel invented the “cyanotype.” Another process, As photography grew rapidly during the 1800s, the called the “Woodburytype,” developed by Walter B. photo frame evolved in crucial ways. It was an era in Woodbury in 1864, was made by a photochemical process which photography first began to become integrated into that produced slightly embossed sepia tone prints consid- a wide range of human activities, thus becoming an ered by some experts as the most beautiful process ever influence on the culture at large. invented. Photogravures were another more common

20 PFM February 2015 Unknown subject, private collection. Butterfly style frame, compo over wood, oil gilded, c 1870. Albumen prints were one of the most com- Venetian-style plastic frame, c.1920, unknown sitters. This frame was mon forms in the photographic business and often came marketed made in France for the mass market. It imitates expensive and fragile with elaborate decorative mats that matched the frame, the wallpa- hand-made glass frames produced in Murano in the eighteenth cen- per, and—in this case—the moustache of the sitter that resembles a tury. There is a long history of thermoplastic frames starting with butterfly wing. Daguerrotypes when they were used to create protective union cases. The plastic frame here was painted on the reverse of the embossed translucent surface to create the whimsical color scheme for this photograph of a charming French family. Steichen photograph sold for $2.9 million. Curators, collectors, and artists are keenly aware of process as used by Edward S. Curtis, the classic photog- frames surrounding paintings, but today’s frames for pho- rapher of the American West and the vanishing American tographs are often placed in white mats with a simple Indian. black cap mouldings or metal section frames. This wasn’t Perhaps the most common high quality product of always the case, and there is a rich and varied legacy of the era was albumen prints. These were often framed photo frames waiting to be discovered and appreciated. with whimsical poetic designs, a process in which finely Perhaps the most exhaustive book on the subject is divided silver and gold were dispersed in a matrix of egg Forgotten Marriage: The Painted Tintype and the white on paper. Such prints are by far the largest category Decorative Frame, 1860-1910, by Stanley B. Burns, MD. in nineteenth-century photographic collections. Albumen Burns’ book provided the first comprehensive look at paper was the most widely used photographic printing North American photos, representing the transition material from 1855 until 1888, when Kodak introduced between the painted portrait and studio portraiture, with the flexible roll film. an emphasis on their frames and mats that were part of their success as a marketable commodity. Photography’s Changing Role More creative artists, such as Alvin Landon Coburn Photos first served as documentation for events, places, and Edward Curtis, used the photogravure process as well and portraits. They also functioned as a crucial instruc- as sepia toning, carbon printing, platinum printing, or tive aid. By the early twentieth century, they evolved into gum bichromate processing with some creative treatment the realm of fine art. In some cases, ordinary photos that made each print unique. Photographic crayon por- intended as factual records are now sometimes appreciat- traits were also popular and were mass produced and ed for their aesthetic qualities as much as those con- framed like paintings. sciously created as fine art. Recently, an early Edward All this changed around the turn of the century. A PFM February 2015 21 “Gossip Katwyck,” carbon print by Alfred Stieglitz, 1894. Private Collection. Fumed Arts and Crafts style frame, recently sold at auction for $110,000, with its original frame fashioned from quarter-sawn oak that had originally been “fumed” with ammonium hydroxide to create a luminous and iridescent effect akin to the shimmering wing of a but- terfly under magnification. group of photographers led by Alfred Stieglitz in the early 1900s began to treat photo frames with more “Guarding Terra Igcognita,” Platinum Silver Print by Joan Rosenstein, Private Collection. O’Keeffe style frame. This frame is an exact replica attention. His seminal publication for photographers, of Georgia O’Keeffe’s moulding that she often used on her paintings. Camera Work (1903-1917), dedicated its first issue to The glass mat for Rosenstein’s mysterious and compelling platinum silver photo is palladium leaf on the verso of the glass (eglomise). The proper framing aesthetics for photographs. Stieglitz’s frame was painted with acrylic stain and fabricated from thin yet strong highly figured ash wood. The moulding design is delicate and New York framer, George F. Of, must have been thrilled. impractical, as the rabbet is only 1/8” and prone to breakage. Both were keenly aware that a frame could make or break a fine art photo, yet there were no set rules to Fredrick Holland Day was the first artist to advocate that guide them. So they relied on their instincts for frame photography should be considered a fine art. He con- selections. sciously followed Whistler’s framing aesthetic to prove his They based their aesthetic on a reduction in orna- point. mentation. Art Nouveau blended into Art Deco or The goal was to carefully balance the photo with the streamlined modern. Essentially, photos were treated the frame so that it wouldn’t overpower the art. The correct same way that fine paintings were being framed at the proportions, colors, shapes, textures, and luminosity of a time. This streamlined, restrained design had already frame would always show the work to its best advantage. been practiced by established contemporary artists such In the past, the fundamental concept of selecting a prop- as Whistler 20 years earlier. By the turn of the century, er frame had always been considered the final step of the Whistler’s frames were simple by comparison to others artistic process, and so it should now be when framing and were often toned and painted to blend with the sub- photographs. tle tonalist color schemes used in his paintings. Around this time, the Photo-Secession movement Later in his career, Whistler further simplified his began to promote photography as a fine art in general frames by omitting painted decoration, yet the moulding and photographic pictorialism in particular. It held the always had a dramatic series of three interlocking profiles then-controversial viewpoint that what was significant of classical reeding, setting the trend for the modernist about a photograph was not what was in front of the aesthetic in the twentieth century. This goal of achieving camera but the manipulation of the image by the pho- a harmonic relationship of the frame with painting tographer to achieve his or her subjective vision. The offered a means for an artist to set him or herself apart. movement helped raise standards and awareness of art The approach also allowed control over how work would photography. The group was formed in 1902 after be presented to qualified patrons who understood the Stieglitz was asked by the National Arts Club to put importance of the right frame for a painting. Bostonian together an exhibition of the best in contemporary 22 PFM February 2015 “Signal Fire to the “Midshipman,” James Mountain God,” Franklin Adair, crafted 1909, by Edward S. by author’s father in Curtis. Bat Wing California, c. 1935. frame, orotone Leather Arts and Crafts Roman gilding (also frame. The Arts and called burnished Crafts movement was bronze), and compo. fundamental in promot- An orotone (“oro” is ing artisanship in many gold in Spanish) is media. This frame is a created by printing a prime example of the positive image on a kind of homemade piece of glass that frames that were pro- has been pre-coated duced in the depres- with a silver gelatin sion era in America. emulsion. After expo- sure and develop- ment, the glass plate is painted with isoamyl acetate and bronze powder to yield a gold-toned image. Alternatively, the developed glass plate can be gold-leafed by hand using 23k gold leaf. Being printed on glass, orotone images are extremely fragile and often require spe- cialized frames to prevent breakage. Stieglitz, tangentially, was also involved in the evolu- American photography. tion of twentieth century frame design in that his wife, In naming the group, Stieglitz is thought to have Georgia O’Keeffe, also developed a frame that was to been influenced by the 1898 Munich Secession become the precursor for the metal section frame. Exhibition. Stieglitz corresponded frequently with Fritz Matthies-Masuren, who wrote an essay in the catalog for Artist Created Frames the Munich exhibition, and he was captivated by the John Marin, an American Modernist artist who showed thought of photographers defining their own art form. at Stieglitz’s gallery, was an original thinker who created In 1899 he wrote, “In Munich, the art-centre of frames that were not derivative of any other style but Germany, the 'Secessionists', a body of artists comprising were linked to the formal elements of his paintings: color, the most advanced and gifted men of their times, who movement, and shapes. He stated in several letters to a (as the name indicates have broken away from the nar- friend, “The making of the frames took more time than row rules of custom and tradition) have admitted the the painting of the pictures—and since the frames are claims of the pictorial photograph to be judged on its being spoken of—therefore the frames must sell the pic- merits as a work of art independently, and without con- tures...a frame is the world around your picture that you sidering the fact that it has been produced through the want. medium of the camera.” “The thing is to place planes of flatness next to an Proponents of Pictorialism, which was the underly- object, then nail that object with drawing. What occurs ing concept of the Photo-Secession, argued that photog- next to an object is of vital importance. Therefore what raphy needed to emulate the painting and etching of the occurs next to a picture (what is called a frame) becomes time. Pictorialists believed that, just as a painting is dis- of vital importance. Never go back of the canvas—in tinctive because of the artist’s manipulation of the mate- other words never build back, build up. When these rials to achieve an effect, so should the photographer also objects take on sufficiency—they drag their backgrounds alter or manipulate the photographic image. Among the along with them. The background is the home of the methods were soft focus; special filters and lens coatings; object—where it lives. The background must take on the and burning, dodging, and/or cropping in the darkroom feel of its locality—so that the objects live in an intended to edit the content of the image. The frame continued to environment.” In other words, artistically created photos be an intrinsic part of the artistic effect as the frame was needed to be framed with this style of moulding if they hand finished to match the manipulated artistic image of were ever to be considered to be part of the elevated the photo. realm of fine art.

PFM February 2015 23 Beyond Modernism various options, however, select a gold frame, as genuine The relationship of a frame to a photo not only reflects the water gilding agrees with every photo. form and style of the period but also how a photographer With the study of frames, understanding what you see attempted to orchestrate the perception of the viewer to see can be a difficult task, especially when the materials and the world as organized by his or her vision, not just part of techniques used in making them are arcane. Fabrication an endless sea of visual chaos. When the frame helps a techniques can provide important clues about the history photographer achieve that goal, the artist's vision could be and origins of a frame, and interpreting this physical evi- more fully realized. As Frank Zappa once quipped, “The dence is the first step in knowing history of frames. most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: Obtaining this insight will help a discerning framer develop literally; for other arts: figuratively—because, without this a keener instinct about how to frame a photograph in a humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops way that harmonizes with the image and helps it communi- and The Real World begins.” cate the photographer’s vision of their world. n In general, ornaments on photo frames should be pro- portionate to the frame. Nor should a photo frame have William B. Adair received his B.F.A. in Studio Art too many ornaments or that it is too plain. Keeping it sim- from the University of Maryland in 1972. For the ple will never do any harm, while the reverse may kill the next 10 years he worked for the Smithsonian effect you are after. The frame for a photo, although subor- Institution’s National Portrait Gallery as a muse- um conservator specializing in the treatment of dinate to the photo itself, is a very important part of the picture frames. In 1982 he formed Gold Leaf final effect, inasmuch as the right frame may increase Studios to make frames and conserve gilded antiques. His clients impact of a photo, while one badly selected may almost have included the U.S. Department of State and the National destroy it. As a general rule, the predominant colors in a Park Service. He is the founder of the International Institute for Frame Study, a non-profit archive dedicated to collecting and photo should be taken as a guide when selecting mats and disseminating information on the history of frames. He can be frames. Whenever you are unable to decide between the reached at [email protected].

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