Introduction to the History of Photography

Walter Benjamin, c. 1938 photo by Gisèle Freund The mimetic relationship that photography establishes with painting, drawing and printmaking , the attempt to "elevate" photography to the dignity and the cultural status of the established art forms of tradition, correspond to the initial phase of emergence of both a new technology of the image and a new visual practice. Photography relationship with the established system of the arts was indeed from the beginning a source of cultural anxiety and insecurity. Anxiety that we can understand as the manifestation of an obscure intuition that the invention of photography brought about radical changes not just in image production and in our uses of images, but also changes in our understanding of images, and consequently, in our understanding of ourselves. The total impact of this new form of vision in the system of the visual arts and in the larger field and forms of the visual culture of the modern world would be fully recogn...

Robert Demachy, Speed 1904, gum-bichromate print Robert Demachy, Severity 1904, gum-bichromate print Robert Demachy, Behind the scenes, c. 1897, gum-bichromate print

Still Life with Fruit], 1860 Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869) Albumen silver print from glass negative; 13 7/8 x 16 15/16 in. (35.2 x 43.1 cm) source: http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/rfen/ho_2005.100.15.htm Stillleben mit Hortensien, Holler, Forellengeranien (1854) by Adolphe Braun Study of Leaves on a Background of Floral Lace, 1864 Charles-Hippolyte Aubry (French, 1811–1877) Albumen silver print from glass negative; 18 3/8 x 14 1/2 in. (46.7 x 36.7 cm) source: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/infp/ho_2004.106.htm

L.M. Melender and brother, The Haunted Lane , c.1880.  albumen stereograph,  Library of Congress, Washington D C

Fading Away, 1858 Henry Peach Robinson, Carolling, 1890. Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington. When the Day's Work is Done , 1877 The Lady of Shalott by Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901). 1861. Albumen print from two negatives, 12 x 10 in. (30.4 x 50.8 cm.). Unsigned. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas (ace. no.964:057:068) Helmut Gernscheim Collection. Ophellia by Sir John Everett Millais, 1852

The Artist introduces the Volunteer, c.1853 Infant Photography Gives the Painter an Additional Brush London, about 1856 Albumen print 2 3/8 x 2 13/16 in. source: Getty The Two Ways of Life, 1857 Thomas Couture (1815-1879)Romans during the Decadence1847 Oil on canvasH. 472; W. 772 cm Paris, Musée d'Orsay   Hard Times (two versions), 1860   source: GEH

According to B. Newhall (1), the technique known as combination printing evolved as a response to the problem of overexposure of the sky in landscape photography due to the sensitivity to the blue rays of the spectrum in the silver iodide emulsions used in the mid 19th century. The solution was the use of two different negatives with different exposure times of the same landscape to be combined in one print. Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884) The Great Wave, Sète, 1857 Albumen silver print from glass negative; 33.7 x 41.4 cm (13 1/4 x 16 5/16 in.) source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Le_Gray-The_Great_Wave.jpg (1) B. Newhall - History of Photography, 1997 (5th revised edition) p. 73-74