David A. Goldfarb
Moderator
I had some time to spend after my conference here in San Francisco and have been spending the day at SF MOMA and wanted to recommend the current exhibit of 19th-century scientific photographs, which closes Jan 4. I don't think I would have come just for this show based on the title, if my hotel weren't just around the corner, but it's a real eye opener. We're so used to associating 19th-century processes with pictorialism, portraiture, romantic landscapes, and such, and the handmade artifacts of wetplate and handcoating seem at odds with the precision of science, so it's really amazing to see things like Talbot's photomicrographs printed as calotypes and salt prints, or 19th century astrodaguerreotypes. There's a good collection of Muybridge's motion studies, early X-rays, electrophotographs, as well as some Spiritualist photographs, attempts to photograph thoughts and dreams, and such. There's a stunning Carelton Watkins photograph of a solar eclipse.
Seeing all these prints together really shows what a revolutionary thing albumen printing was, because the glossy surface could reveal sharp detail in a photograph of the proboscis of a fly or the surface of the moon. It certainly has me thinking about some new albumen subjects.
Info at--
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/332
Seeing all these prints together really shows what a revolutionary thing albumen printing was, because the glossy surface could reveal sharp detail in a photograph of the proboscis of a fly or the surface of the moon. It certainly has me thinking about some new albumen subjects.
Info at--
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/332