Introduction to the History of Photography

Peter Henry Emerson  b. 1856 Sagua la Grande, Cuba, d. 1936 Great Britain 
 Born in Cuba and raised there and in the United States before moving to England as a teenager, physician and scientist Peter Henry Emerson took up photography at age twenty-six. Often described as a difficult zealot, he vocally championed a naturalistic approach to imagemaking. He favored rural subjects presented in a simple, direct manner. Emerson's influential 1889 book Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art outlined his thesis that photography's ability to record nature truthfully was its most expressive one. He argued that the photograph should imitate nature rather than alter it. 

Emerson was a passionate lecturer and writer about photography, never mincing words and thus earning as many foes as supporters. He was an early and tireless champion of photography as a fine art, and he became the unofficial godfather of the Photo-Secessionist movement, founded by Alfred Stieglitz in 1902. ...

Alexander Gardner The home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg (1863)   Alexander Gardner   Dead Confederate sharpshooter at the foot of Round Top.  Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863.         Alexander Gardner. Richmond, Virginia. "Ruins of Gallego Mills." April 1865 The Lincoln Conspirators, 1865 Alexander Gardner, Lincoln 1865

  Mathew Brady upon his return from the First Battle of Bull Run, wearing a saber given to him for defense by New York Fire Zouaves. Date 22 July 1861 unknown author in Mathew Brady's studio source: Wikipedia American Civil War Photographs source: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/ Abraham Lincoln link: Mathew Brady Portraits Mathew Brady : Photographs of the Civil War   source: YouTube Smithsonian Magazine

" Originally trained as a painter, engraver, and illustrator, Charles Marville ( b. 1816 Paris, d. 1879) became known as a landscape and architecture photographer. He traveled to Italy, Germany, and Algeria and used both paper and glass plate negatives. In the late 1850s the city of Paris commissioned Marville to document the ancient quarters of the city before encroaching urban modernization changed them forever. He photographed renovations and new construction, including the new Paris Opéra. Marville was also commissioned by the Musée du Louvre to make reproductions of artworks in their collection. He was named official photographer of Paris in 1862. " source: GETTY Edu   Charles Marville rue de Constantine, Paris, 1865   Charles Marville Paris 13e Arrondisment c. 1865 Charles Marville rue de la Ferronnerie, Paris c. 1865   Charles Marville Hotel de Ville 1871 after the combats of the Commune of Paris   Charles Marville Ingres in his d...

Progress of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854 Philip Henry Delamotte (British, 1820–1889); Henry Negretti (British, born Italy, 1818–1879) Albumen silver prints Source: Philip Henry Delamotte: Progress of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham (52.639) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

" The photographic career of Roger Fenton (1819-1869) lasted only eleven years, but during that time he became the most famous photographer in Britain. Part of the second generation of photographers who came to maturity in the 1850s—only a decade after the process was invented—Fenton strove to elevate the new medium to the status of a fine art and to establish it as a respected profession. He was the first official photographer to the British Museum and one of the founders of the Photographic Society, later named the Royal Photographic Society, an organization he hoped would help establish the medium's importance in modern life."   source: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/fenton/index.shtm    Roger Fenton Self-Portrait, February 1852 Albumen silver print from glass negative The Metropolitan Museum of Art source: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/fenton/exhibition.shtm     Roger Fenton, Seated Odalisque, 1858   Roger Fenton, D...

  Roman Arch at Orange], 1851 Édouard Baldus (French, born Prussia, 1813–1889) Salted paper print from paper negative 35.3 x 26.2 cm   "In 1851, the Commission des Monuments Historiques, an agency of the French government, selected five photographers to make photographic surveys of the nation's architectural patrimony. These Missions Héliographiques, as they were called, were intended to aid the Paris-based commission in determining the nature and urgency of the preservation and restoration of work required at historic sites throughout France. The French rail network was still in its infancy and many of the commissioners had never visited the monuments in their care; photography promised a record of such sites that would be produced more quickly and accurately than the architectural drawings on which they had previously relied. " Malcolm Daniel Department of Photographs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Source: Mission Héliographique, 1851 | Thematic Essay | Heilb...

  Gustave Le Gray Self portrait, c. 1852 "Though he was trained as a painter, Gustave Le Gray made his mark in the emerging medium of photography. An experimenter and technical innovator, Le Gray pioneered the use of the paper negative in France and developed a waxed-paper negative that produced sharper-focus prints. In 1851 he began to use collodion on glass negatives, which further increased the clarity of his images. He became one of the first five photographers, along with Édouard-Denis Baldus and Hippolyte Bayard, to work for the missions héliographiques, a government-sponsored commission to document the state of repair of important French monuments and buildings. Le Gray is credited with teaching photography to many important French photographers in the 1850s. In 1851 he became a founding member of the Société Héliographique, the first photographic organization in the world, and later joined the Société Française de Photographie. In 1860 Le Gray started to tour the Med...

  Engraving of the first photograph of the Pathenon. Taken by Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière in 1839. Published in Excursions daguériennes by Noël Paymal Lerebours in 1841   source: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Parthenon_1839.jpg   Niagara. Chute Du Fer a Cheval   from Excursions daguerriennes: vues et monuments les plus remarquables du globe,  published by Lerebours, Nöel-Marie-Paymal  1840 engraving from daguerreotype 26.0 x 73.5 cm.  source: Daguerreotypomania GEH "The Excursions Daguerriennes, représentant les vues et les monuments les plus remarquables du globe, [Daguerreian Travels, representing the most remarkable views and monuments in the world] was published in Paris by Noël-Marie Paymal Lerebours between 1841 and 1864. The volumes were sold by subscription and in the end contained more than one hundred views of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East shot between 1839 and 1844. Pattinson's view of t...

  Cincinnati Waterfront Panorama Daguerreotype, taken by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter in 1848 click on the image to enlarge  sources: http://codex99.com/photography/5.html  http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~rmessing/cincinnatti/     A zoom illustrating the extraordinary level of detail in a daguerreotype This is plate 4 of the Cincinnati Waterfront Panorama Daguerreotype consisting of 8 plates, taken by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter in 1848. The plate, property of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton Counties, was imaged in tiles using a stereomicroscope (Zeiss StereoDiscovery.V12) at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film, Kay Whitmore Conservation Center, in Rochester, NY source:  YouTube   links: http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/main/rb.asp#daguerreotype http://www.tedxcincy.com/2010/09/30/fontayne-porter-panorama-part-2-by-patricia-van-skaik/    Porter, William S...