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The Soft-Focus Lens and Anglo-American Pictorialism

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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.
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