History of photography

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

Hi all,

Stumbled upon this page, discussing the History of Photography. Now there are probably tons of it, but I liked this as it puts the invention of photography in the wider context of arts' history. Also well illustrated with photos. It is a long read though, covering 12 chapters... I only just scratched the surface starting to read it:

http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography1.html

It seems part of a much bigger and interesting site, covering the "History" of "all" art forms:

http://www.all-art.org

I have no idea who is behind it, there is no "About" on these pages, but it must have been quite a monumental task compiling all this.

By the way, I compiled some PDF files of the "History of Photography" pages, to keep as a reference. If any one is interested, send me a PM with your e-mail address, and I will e-mail them. Please note you will need to be able to receive some 23 MB in your mailbox though...

Marco

AgX · Aug 25, 2010

Thanks Marco,

I just glanced through it. It is very comprehensive, and yet confusing, as I did not know where to find a certain chapter referred to in the text.

And, concerning us old farts here: it employs the new monitor aspect ratio. Which means I had to reduce the page scale and still to re-place the page content each turn of a page to keep everything readable.

Looking at the early colour section I miss the colour separation technique, as they put emphasize on Autochrome, but yet found a lot of colour images I did not know yet.

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

AgX said:
Thanks Marco,

I just glanced through it. It is very comprehensive, and yet confusing, as I did not know where to find a certain chapter referred to in the text.

Chapter references are on all chapter pages at the top, directly below the sepia toned image of the woman.

I now also realize that the authors name of these pages is listed there: Naomi Rosenblum.

AgX said:
And, concerning us old farts here at: it employs the new monitor aspect ratio. Which means I had to reduce the page scale and still to re-place the page content each turn of a page to keep everything readable.

No, that is just bad web page formatting... one of the reasons I compiled the PDFs I wrote about in my first page. If you have some space left in your e-mail box, I can send them to you for easier reading.

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

AgX said:
Looking at the early colour section I miss the colour separation technique, as they put emphasize on Autochrome, but yet found a lot of colour images I did not know yet.

Well, the texts seems more the work of an art historian, than a technical photography specialist... so there may be small errors in the described techniques or processes. Still, I find it an interesting read.

AgX · Aug 25, 2010

Maybe I came over quite negative. No, this IS interesting reading.

(My positive comment was mainly hiding in the "comprehensive"...)

IloveTLRs · Aug 25, 2010

Marco B said:
I have no idea who is behind it, there is no "About" on these pages, ...

From a WHOIS inquiry and some quick Googling, I found this: http://www.aboutus.org/All-Art.org

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

IloveTLRs said:
From a WHOIS inquiry and some quick Googling, I found this: http://www.aboutus.org/All-Art.org

Thanks, I also already realized the author of the photography related section IS actually mentioned. Her name is included on the first sepia toned image of the reclining woman visible on each chapter page: Naomi Rosenblum.

Marco

jp80874 · Aug 25, 2010

Marco B said:
Naomi Rosenblum.

Marco

She is the author of a popular text used in the History of Photography course I took a couple of years ago. That book competes with the more traditional text by of the same name by Beaumont Newhall. The first is thought to have better quality picture reproduction, the later better quality and in depth commentary. Reading both gives you the best of both worlds.

http://www.amazon.com/World-History-Photography-3rd/dp/0789203294

John Powers

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

Well, this seems her website:

Dead Link Removed

I am beginning to wonder though, what her relationship with the All Art website is, if any, if there is a copyrighted printed book by Abbeville Press too:

http://www.abbeville.com/bookpage.asp?ISBN=9780789209467

Well, considering the original book is a staggering 695 pages, I guess the webpages can not be more than a excerpt from the book...

Marco

Bob Carnie · Aug 25, 2010

Thanks once again Marco , I enjoy your threads.

Vaughn · Aug 25, 2010

I introduced my boys to a little photo history last night. I have a copy of Mark Klett's One City/Two Visions. It has Muybridge's 360 degree panorama sequence of San Francisco on one side (it is an accordian style book) taken in 1878 with large glass plate negs, and then Mark's rephotographing of the same on the other, taken in 1990. The book lays out about ten feet long or so. It was fun. A little history never hurts!

Vaughn

Q.G. · Aug 25, 2010

Marco B said:
By the way, I compiled some PDF files of the "History of Photography" pages, to keep as a reference. If any one is interested, send me a PM with your e-mail address, and I will e-mail them. Please note you will need to be able to receive some 23 MB in your mailbox though...

Please also note that you would be violating copyright by doing so.

Marco B · Aug 25, 2010

Q.G. said:
Please also note that you would be violating copyright by doing so.

Well, yes, as you saw that was before I noticed these texts seem to have been extracted (maybe with permission, who knows?) from a published book...

Anyway, I think most APUG'ers can source the website or buy the seemingly far more comprehensive published book as a replacement for my proposition... still an interesting read.

Q.G. · Aug 25, 2010

Marco B said:
Well, yes, as you saw that was before I noticed these texts seem to have been extracted (maybe with permission, who knows?) from a published book...

Even if not, your PDFs are extracted from a published internetsite.
You just can't collect stuff at random and redistribute it. As a creator, photographer, you really should know that!

Marco B said:
Anyway, I think most APUG'ers can source the website or buy the seemingly far more comprehensive published book as a replacement for my proposition... still an interesting read.

Indeed.
And there's nothing wrong with providing the link.

Marco B · Aug 26, 2010

Well, not surprisingly, it turns out my local library had a copy of the 1997 edition of the book...

So now I have something to look forward too for the coming weeks!

I really like Naomi Rosenblum's writing style. Rich and eloquent, but very readable. As expected, there is quite a bit more info in the original publication, not surprising considering it is quite a bible at 695 pages. Still, it is quite compact in the light of its page number. Anyway, enough to read... :munch:

One nice anecdote from the book I missed in the web pages, was a section about stereo photography in chapter one, where a mister Oliver Wendell Holmes is described who, at the dawn of the new stereoscopic photography in the 1850's seems to have suggested:

"that in the future the image would become more important than the object itself and would in fact make the object disposable"

which I feel is both a highly prophetic and ludicrous statement at the same time... :confused:

Marco

Q.G. · Aug 26, 2010

Marco B said:
One nice anecdote from the book I missed in the web pages, was a section about stereo photography in chapter one, where a mister Oliver Wendell Holmes is described who, at the dawn of the new stereoscopic photography in the 1850's seems to have suggested:

"that in the future the image would become more important than the object itself and would in fact make the object disposable"

which I feel is both a highly prophetic and ludicrous statement at the same time... :confused:

About two years ago, Marco, a leading Dutch newspaper ran an article (on the front page, no less) about a guy from a company who believed (and had the newspaper write down and publish) that he thought the internet would make knowledge and know how redundant. We wouldn't need any of it, because we could look up all we needed on the internet.

Absolutely ludicrous. But, i fear, also prophetic...

History of photography

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