PhotoHistory XIV – Speakers & Topic Outlines Alphabetical by Speaker Presented by The Photographic Historical Society at George Eastman House, Rochester NY October 17, 2009 Bennett, Terry. (London, England) – PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA 1842-1860 . Terry Bennett is an authority on early photography in China, Japan and Korea. He has researched and collected in the field for over twenty-five years. He has lectured in Britain, France, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai. His books include: Caught in Time: Great Photographic Archives, Japan (1995, with Sir Hugh Cortazzi), Early Japanese Images (1996), Korea: Caught in Time (1997), Photography in Japan 1853-1912 (2006), Old Japanese Photographs: Collectors’ Data Guide (2006) and History of Photography in China 1842-1860 (2009). He is currently working on a study of photography in China during the 1860s and 1870s, and plans to publish a book in 2011. [email protected] In researching for his recently published book, History of Photography in China 1842-1860 , Bennett came across an immense amount of interesting new material on the subject – in some cases answering questions that had puzzled researchers for many years. In this talk, the author will share with you some of these findings and also outline his research methodologies. He will also be answering questions such as: When was the earliest photography in China? Was photography invented in China? Where was Felix Beato born and where and when did he die? Who was Milton M. Miller? Was the American artist, George West, the first professional photographer in China? Bogdan, Robert C. (Orwell, Vermont) – THE PEOPLE’S PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTO POSTCARDS, 1905-1935. Bob Bogdan is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University where he was the director of the interdisciplinary social science doctoral program. He used photographs extensively in his teaching and research. The author of three books that focus on photo postcards (Exposing the Wilderness, Adirondack Vernacular, and Real Photo Postcard Guide) and one, Freak Show, that used photographs as a main source of information, Bob is an avid collector of photo postcards and photographs related to disability. [email protected] Photographs printed on photo postcard stock were wildly popular in the United States from approximately 1905 to 1935. People of all social ranks bought them. Although many were taken by snap shot amateurs, most were taken by local town photographers. They shot all aspects of American community life producing a rich vernacular record. Many of these photographers were common people with an uncommon talent. Their work is important for its documentary contribution and because they produced images that were both technically and esthetically exceptional. Even though photo postcards were ubiquitous, a vast untapped visual archive, the format has been neglected by photo historians. This richly illustrated PowerPoint presentation will explore the contribution of photo postcards to American photography. It will trace the history of the technical development of the format and its rise to prominence. The photographers who produced photo postcards will be covered. The images will be discussed within their historical context highlighting crucial changes that were occurring during their popularity as well as the changes that were occurring in the occupation of photography. Photo postcards have become highly collectible. Bob will outline the various collecting categories using wonderful illustrations. Broad, Jerome (Pepper) E. (Pequea, PA ) – TRADESMEN, CRAFTSMEN, AND LABORERS IN OCCUPATIONAL TINTYPES. Collecting occupational tintypes, ferrotypes, and street cameras, for the past 25 years has been an avocation not an occupation. Those who posed for occupational images of themselves chose to show off themselves and their work. [email protected] From the most mundane to the highly acclaimed, each person represented in these tintypes takes us back through time. People wanted to be remembered by the work that they did. These images represent who these people were and the tools that they used to do their work. We will travel back to a simpler place and time where your job defined who you were. Join me as we observe these individuals at their work and play. Champlin, Michael A. (Fairport, NY) – REDISCOVERING THE BEAUTY OF KODACHROME Mike as an editor for KBTV at Kodak, produced the documentary ”Colorama: The Story Behind the Pictures”, spearheaded the restoration of the 1921 film “A Movie Trip Through Film Land”, edited countless celebrity video tributes for George Eastman House, and owns a video production company which just made the transition to high definition. In 1913, JG Capstaff, an Eastman Kodak filter maker, produced a working color film process almost two years before Technicolor was established. Ultimately, the process was discarded, but some of the subjects that Capstaff captured have significance even today. One work in particular, “The Flute of Krishna” (1926) is the earliest record of Martha Graham’s choreography. The film has gained some notoriety with its re-release as part of the “More Treasures for American Film Archives” DVD collection compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation. New evidence suggests that this print, as well as many other (original) Kodachrome prints after 1922, may have been incorrectly printed. The accepted dye combination of green and red produced images that looked stenciled and cartoonish. Recently discovered files from the Kodak Research Labs indicate that after 1922, Capstaff may have rethought theses colors and began experiments using cyan and magenta. Combined with originating on panchromatic film, the results, when properly printed, reproduce almost full, natural color. Andrew Davidhazy (Honeoye Falls, NY) – THE VANISHING 16 MM HIGH SPEED CAMERAS. I came to RIT as a freshman Photo Science student in 1961 and later worked for Dr. Kenneth CD Hickman in his Distillation Research laboratory for several years as a technical photographer before embarking on a teaching career in the School of Photographic Arts and Science. Currently I am a professor and chair of the Imaging and Photographic Technology department there. I have been active in the field of high speed photography and applied technical photography, especially with improvised approaches and equipment, and these are my major areas of contribution to the department. I hand-built various rotating film panoramic and peripheral cameras and built several improvised scanning cameras and enlargers. With the former I made one continuous photograph of the entire length of East Avenue in Rochester and with the latter I made enlargements that exceed 100 continuous feet in length. I am not a collector but it seems that my lab has become the repository for several of these historic cameras as organizations that own them start to discontinue their film operations and donate obsolete items to my lab. You can peruse over 100 of the articles that I’ve prepared on these topics on my website. I am a fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology and the International Society for Optical Engineering. My website is at: http://people.rit.edu/andpph and my email address is [email protected] . The presentation will start with a brief overview of motion picture technology. This will be followed by basic theory of on- screen time manipulation possibilities afforded by the development of cameras with increasing framing rate capability. Basic operation of film advance mechanisms in intermittent film motion cameras such as the Bolex will be described and analyzed. Factors limiting intermittent operation at high framing rates will be discussed and solutions incorporated in the highest framing rate intermittent (and pin registered) cameras, such as the Locam and Photosonics 1PL will be explained and demonstrated. Fricke, Rolf D. (Rochester, NY) - CELEBRATING A PIONEER - HONORING EATON LOTHROP. Rolf Fricke, a retired Kodak Director of Marketing Communications, has been collecting specific cameras and ephemera with a human interest background for approximately 45 years. Eaton S. Lothrop Jr. (1930 - 2008) was a meticulous camera collector (circa 5000 cameras of many categories, including countless single-use cameras ); an image collector (9000 images, including tintypes, cartes-de-visite, and others) ; a scholarly researcher and author (" Time Exposure " column for Popular Photography magazine for 18 years) ; founding member of this Society in 1966 (the very first of its kind anywhere ); speaker at several of our PhotoHistory Symposia ; initiator and publisher of "The Photographic Collectors' Newsletter" in February of 1968 (also the very first of its kind anywhere), which was this society's house organ for a time. Above all Eaton was an extremely good-natured human being, always helpful and positive, with never an unkind word about others. Gustavson, Todd. (Rochester, NY, USA) – THE CAMERA BOOK . Gustavson, who began working in the technology collection at George Eastman House in 1988, has been collection curator since 1998. He has curated or co-curated ten exhibitions for the museum, including the critically acclaimed traveling exhibition The Brownie at 100 . Prior to coming to the Eastman House, he served as a staff photographer at Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. Gustavson received his B.F.A. in Photography from Louisiana Tech University in 1980. Gustavson will briefly describe the process of authoring Camera: The History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital , a recently released book drawn from the George Eastman House collections. 2 Isenburg, Matthew R. , (Hadlyme, CT) – THE MANY FACES OF DAGUERRE. Matthew R. Isenburg has been collecting photography since the late 1960s and by any measure has one of the definitive collections of early photography in the United States. His collection tells the story of photography from the beginning of the daguerreian era through the wet plate era. He is one of the two founders of The Daguerreian Society. [email protected] Daguerre’s image was used on everything from cigar bands to cigarette cards, from coin medals to trade cards, some very accurate and some with extreme artistic liberty.