Symposium on the History of Photography

Sean

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This was passed on to me and I thought some here might find it of interest. If this has already been mentioned I'll remove it. Thanks

 

medform-norm

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Ooh, I like this one:
"Wm. B. Becker, Detroit, MI
Director of The American Museum of Photography, www.photographymuseum.com
Grand Illusion: The Story of Spirit Photography Reveals, for the first time, historic secret methods for photographing ghosts."

We have ourselves a few books on the subject, including one which tries to debunk the spirit photography by telling how it was done. I'd really like to know what new historic secrets will be unveiled.

Darn, sounds like a good symposium for the likes of us. Wish I could afford to go....
(although I may skip the Kodak speaker about the history of digital cameras - didn't know they are history).
 
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roy

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It should be an informative and interesting event.
 

mfobrien

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Maybe I'll meet some of you fellow APUGers in Rochester. I'll be there on Friday afternoon, so long as (a) Buffalo is not still snowed in and (b) the border guards decide that yes, I can return to my own country.
 

Photo Engineer

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I will try to be there one of the days. I have their brochure sitting next to me as I type. I have gotten several invitations to this thing. Later in October, IIRC, they are having their annual meeting/bbq on one of the lakes hereabouts. I believe that Andrew Davidhazy is the host for that.

Anyone interested, is free to PM or e-mail me to get information or set up a meeting. The Double Tree Inn is fantastic. Yer gonna luv it!!!!! A bit of tropical paradise in Rachacha.

PE
 

Photographica

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Report: PhotoHistory XIII Symposium

I had intended to write up my comments on the PhotoHistory Symposium immediately upon returning from Rochester. Unfortunately, I paid the penalty of taking a couple of days off work this week and am now just getting to it.


One thing that struck me was the interest in using Government patent archives for supporting data in the presentations.

Michael Pritchard detailed his research into the "Ingenious, Novel and Strange" history of photography with the exhibition of more than 20 British patents dating between 1839 and 1900. He also described his database of more than 3900 patents from that period and walked through everyone of his classifications. I was taking notes and managed to get 24 categories. Did anybody else get more? ;-)

Ralph London tag teamed with Rick Soloway in taking us on a trip through Walter Dorwin Teague's tenure with Eastman Kodak. While the historical perspective can only be described as awesome, I was more impressed by the method that they put Teague's Kodak career together. In addition to researching the usual (and not so usual) photo history archives they went to the US patent database. Researching the evolution of technologies through the older Utility Patent collection is a daunting but doable task. What Ralph and Rick (with the help of many others) did was to look into the Design Patent database. Combining historical notes with signatures on the design patents, they managed to reconstruct a good part of Teague's direct and indirect influence on Kodak's contribution to the Art Deco era. While I took copious notes during this presentation I'll stop here. Their work will soon be published in an up coming issue of the Canadiana. I'll leave it up to you all to get a copy for the rest of the story.

Gordon Brown surprised me by starting his presentation on the history of digital cameras with a reference to George Eastman's first patent. But, he transitioned it smoothly in taking us on a trip through "Photography BC & AD -- Before Computers and After Digital".
... Oh, before anyone asks... that patent was # 226,503

Grant Romer gave a wonderful perspective of the story behind Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson's development of the Wolcott Camera. As a bonus, Grant shared his enthusiasm for history and provided some insight into researching the past. I don't know if Grant's research will be published. But, if it is, I want to make sure I get a copy.

Again with the patent information: Wolcott and Johnson have the first US patent in the field of photography as we know it -- May, 8 1840. (Somebody check me on that. My notes were a little smudged there.)

I road on a rollercoaster of emotions as Jim McKeown shared his perspective on "Collecting Cameras: the State of the Market." While Jim amazed us with the principles of "String Theory" and the "Theory of Relativity", he broke down a very complex camera market into three rough segments consisting of: the market anchor ($1 -- $100),
the mid-range cameras $1000 to $20,000),
and the high-end market ($30,000 --> above).
What I liked best was his explanation of each segment's relationship to each other. As I thought about, it made sense to me. Jim further explained that the movement of one segment will pull other segments up or down for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, he left us with confirming news that the mid-range market is in a slump and indicators for a rise are unclear at best. That wasn't welcomed information for those of us considering selling anything in the next few years -- buyers rejoice. At the trade show, I managed to get a few moments with Jim to get more details. He told me that while he only presented three segments in the presentation, the market was made up of many, many segments, each strung together in different ways and providing relevant effects to each other. I encouraged Jim to publish his presentation explaining that it had real value. While the absolute numbers presented in Jim's charts and graphs could be debated, I feel there is some sound analysis in the data's relative effects.

There were many more fine presentations at PhotoHistory XIII. I wish that I could give them all justice in this report... you just had to be there.

The whole symposium was a fine testament to the hard work of The Photographic Historical Society. Jack and Sharon Bloemendall, Frank Calandra, Marian Early, and Tim Fuss head a list of many heroic efforts put forth to make my weekend in Rochester everything I had hoped it would be.

My wife, Twinkle, and I both enjoyed meeting everyone in attendance and look forward to PhotoHistory XIV.

Bill Riley


This report will be published simultaneously on the IDCC mailing list and apug.org discussion forum.
 
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