History of Photography
History of Photography
History of Photography
UNIT -1
1. CAMERA OBSCURA
3. THOMAS WEDGWOOD
UNIT -2
(1828 TO 1860)
2. DAGUERREOTYPE PROCESS
3. CALOTYPE PROCESS
5. CHARLES NEGRE
6. GUSTAVE LE GRAY
7. ROGER FENTON
UNIT-3
2. INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHERS
6. ESTABLISHMENTS AT HYDERABAD
7. PERUMAL
9. O.C EDWARDS
UNIT-5
5. PABLO BARTHOLOMEW
6. DAYANITA SINGH
7. SOONI TARAPOREVALA
CAMERA OBSCURA
Camera obscura a chamber or room, also referred to as pinhole image, is
the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at
the other side of a screen (or for instance a wall) is projected through a
small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right
and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening. The surroundings
of the projected image have to be relatively dark for the image to be clear;
so many historical camera obscura experiments were performed in dark
rooms. If a tiny hole is made in the screen or window blind of a darkened
room, an inverted image of the scene outside the window is shown on the
wall opposite.
The camera obscura or dark room, which is thought to have been
invented by Battista della Porta (1538-1615) and is described in 1558 in
his Magia Naturalis, had, in theory, been known to man for hundreds of
years. Indeed, the Chinese wrote about it as early as the fourth century
BCE. Apart from the Chinese, however, the camera obscura was
described by, among others, Alhazan (956-1038), an Arabian scholar, by
the scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon in 1267, and - as might be
expected - by Leonardo da Vinci, who gave an accurate account of it in
the 15th century.
The term "camera obscura" also refers to constructions
or devices that make use of the principle within a box, tent or room.
Camera obscura with a lens in the opening have been used since the
second half of the 16th century and became popular as an aid for drawing
and painting. The camera obscura box was developed further into the
photographic camera in the first half of the 19th century when camera
obscura boxes were used to expose light-sensitive materials to the
projected image.
Rays of light travel in straight lines and change when they are reflected
and partly absorbed by an object, retaining information about the colour
and brightness of the surface of that object. Light objects reflect rays of
light in all directions. A small enough opening in a screen only lets
through rays that travel directly from different points in the scene on the
other side and together form an image of that scene when they are
reflected on a surface into the eye of an observer. The human eye itself
works much like a camera obscura with an opening a biconvex lens and a
surface where the image is formed.
A camera obscura device consists of a box, tent or room with a small hole
in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and
strikes a surface inside, where the scene is reproduced, inverted (thus
upside-down) and reversed (left to right), but with colour and perspective
preserved. The image can be projected onto paper, and can then be
traced to produce a highly accurate representation. In order to produce a
reasonably clear projected image, the aperture has to be about 1/100th
the distance to the screen, or less. Many camera obscura use a lens
rather than a pinhole (as in a pinhole camera) because it allows a larger
aperture, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus. As the
pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image
becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole, however, the sharpness
worsens, due to diffraction. Using mirrors, as in an 18th-century overhead
version, it is possible to project a right-side-up image. Up to the mid-17th
century the camera obscura was usually a room in a house, but by about
1650 smaller, portable versions had appeared.
By the beginning of the 19th century, there were three sorts of cameras
obscura: the first was the above mentioned darkened room which often
had, as an added refinement, a lens and a mirror arranged to produce an
image of the scene outside onto a table in the room, another version was
a sort of portable tent with the lens and mirror at the top, which produced
the image onto a horizontal surface, usually - once again - a table inside
the tent, and the last was a portable, although rather cumbersome
box camera obscura, which reflected the image onto translucent paper,
that is paper made translucent by soaking it in white oil.
These portable cameras obscura were used by Old Masters in the 17th,
18th and 19th centuries to help them draw in perspective, and were, of
course, later an essential aid to the inventors of photography who
modified the camera obscura by reducing its size, and by incorporating
bellows, lenses, and diaphragms turned it into the camera.
Some ancient sightings of gods and spirits, especially in temple worship,
are thought to possibly have been conjured up by means of camera
obscura projections.
The earliest extant written record of the camera obscura is to be found in
the writings of Mozi (circa 470 BCE-circa 391 BCE), a Han Chinese
philosopher and the founder of Mohist School of Logic. Mizi correctly
asserted that the camera obscura image is flipped upside down because
light travels in straight lines from its source. His disciples developed this
into a physics theory of optics.
JOHANN HEINRICH SCHULZE
Johann Heinrich Schulze (12 May 1687 –10 October 1744) was
a German professor and polymath from Colbitz in the Duchy of
Magdeburg.
Schulze is best known for his discovery that the darkening in sunlight of
various substances mixed with silver nitrate is due to the light, not the
heat as other experimenters believed, and for using the phenomenon to
temporarily capture shadows.
Thomas Wedgwood was born in Etruria, Staffordshire, now part of the city
of Stoke-on-Trent in England. Wedgwood never married and had no
children. In imperfect health as a child and a chronic invalid as an adult,
he died in the county of Dorset at the age of 34.
He is the first person known to have thought of creating permanent
pictures by capturing camera images on material coated with a light-
sensitive chemical. His practical experiments yielded only shadow image
photogram that were not light-fast, but his conceptual breakthrough and
partial success has led some historians to call him "the first
photographer".
Thomas Wedgwood reported his experiments in recording images on
paper or leather sensitized with silver nitrate. He could record silhouettes
of objects placed on the paper, but he was not able to make them
permanent. Sir Humphry Davy published a paper in the Journal of the
Royal Institution, London, in June 1802, on the experiments of his friend
Wedgwood; this was the first account of an attempt to produce
photographs. Wedgewood’s main object was to fix the images of the
camera obscura on silver nitrate, but he failed to do so ‘in any moderate
time’ – without stating what he considered moderate. Wedgewood and
Davy both succeeded in making copies of leaves, insects’ wings and the
then fashionable paintings on glass, by simply laying them on oaoer or
white leather sensitized with silver nitrate, or silver chloride which Davy
found more light-sensitive. Davy also made photomicrographs. However
the pictures were unfixed and could only be viewed by candlelight,
otherwise they darkened all over. It is astonishing that such a
distinguished scientist as Humphry Davy, who referred to Scheele’s
experiments, failed to notice his statement that ammonia dissolves the
silver chloride unaffected by light, and could therefore have been used to
fix the image.
It was left to later experimenters to complete the invention of photography
of Thomas Wedgewood laid the foundation, but he has the honour of
being the first to demonstrate the possibility of photography – a great step
forward from Schulze.
In 1813, eight years after Wedgewood’s death, Nicphore niepce, now
living in retirement at his country estate Gras near Chalon-sur-Saône,
revived his earlier ambition through his interest in lithography which
began to become popular in France that year.
Wedgwood was born into a long line of pottery manufacturers, grew up
and was educated at Etruria and was instilled from his youth with a love
for art. He also spent much of his short life associating with painters,
sculptors, and poets, to whom he was able to be a patron after he
inherited his father's wealth in 1795.
As a young adult, Wedgwood became interested in the best method of
educating children, and spent time studying infants. From his
observations, he concluded that most of the information that young brains
absorbed came through the eyes, and were thus related to light and
images.
Wedgwood is the first person reliably documented to have used light-
sensitive chemicals to capture silhouette images on durable media such
as paper, and the first known to have attempted to photograph the image
formed in a camera obscura.
The date of his first experiments in photography is unknown, but he is
believed to have indirectly advised James Watt (1736–1819) on the
practical details prior to 1800. In a letter that has been variously dated to
1790, 1791 and 1799, Watt wrote to Josiah Wedgwood.
Nevertheless, the paper of 1802 and Wedgwood's work directly
influenced other chemists and scientists delving into the craft of
photography, since subsequent research has shown it was actually quite
widely known about and was mentioned in chemistry textbooks as early
as 1803. David Brewster, later a close friend of photography pioneer
Henry Fox Talbot, published an account of the paper in the Edinburgh
Magazine (Dec 1802). The paper was translated into French, and also
printed in Germany in 1811. J. B. Reade's work in 1839 was directly
influenced by reading of Wedgwood's more rapid results when using
leather. Reade tried treating paper with a tanning agent used in making
leather and found that after sensitization the paper darkened more rapidly
when exposed. Reade's discovery was communicated to Talbot by a
friend, as was later proven in a court case over patents.
Wedgwood was unable to "fix" his pictures to make them immune to the
further effects of light. Unless kept in complete darkness, they would
slowly but surely darken all over, eventually destroying the image.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce
Nicéphore Niépce (born Joseph Niépce; 7 March 1765 – 5 July 1833)
was a French inventor, now usually credited as the inventor of
photography and a pioneer in that field. Niépce developed heliography, a
technique he used to create the world's oldest surviving product of a
photographic process: a print made from a photoengraved printing plate
in 1825.In 1826 or 1827, he used a primitive camera to produce the
oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. Among Niépce's other
inventions was the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion
engine, which he conceived, created, and developed with his older
brother Claude.
The earliest camera was the camera obscura, which was adapted to
making a permanent image by Joseph Nicéphore Niepce and Louis-
Jacques-Mandé Daguerre of France in the 1820s and 1830s. Many
improvements followed in the 19th century, notably flexible film,
developed and printed outside the camera. In the 20th century a variety of
cameras was developed for many different purposes, including aerial
photography, document copying, and scientific research.
Letters to his sister-in-law around 1816 indicate that Niépce had managed
to capture small camera images on paper coated with silver chloride,
making him apparently the first to have any success at all in such an
attempt, but the results were negatives, dark where they should be light
and vice versa, and he could find no way to stop them from darkening all
over when brought into the light for viewing.
Niépce turned his attention to other substances that were affected by
light, eventually concentrating on Bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring
asphalt that had been used for various purposes since ancient times. In
Niépce's time, it was used by artists as an acid-resistant coating on
copper plates for making etchings. The artist scratched a drawing through
the coating, then bathed the plate in acid to etch the exposed areas, then
removed the coating with a solvent and used the plate to print ink copies
of the drawing onto paper. What interested Niépce was the fact that the
bitumen coating became less soluble after it had been left exposed to
light.
Niépce dissolved bitumen in lavender oil, a solvent often used in
varnishes, and thinly coated it onto a lithographic stone or a sheet of
metal or glass. After the coating had dried, a test subject, typically an
engraving printed on paper, was laid over the surface in close contact and
the two were put out in direct sunlight. After sufficient exposure, the
solvent could be used to rinse away only the unhardened bitumen that
had been shielded from light by lines or dark areas in the test subject.
The parts of the surface thus laid bare could then be etched with acid, or
the remaining bitumen could serve as the water-repellent material in
lithographic printing.
Niépce called his process heliography, which literally means "sun
drawing". In 1822, he used it to create what is believed to have been the
world's first permanent photographic image, a contact-exposed copy of
an engraving of Pope Pius VII, but it was later destroyed when Niépce
attempted to make prints from it. The earliest surviving photographic
artifacts by Niépce, made in 1825, are copies of a 17th-century engraving
of a man with a horse and of what may be an etching or engraving of a
woman with a spinning wheel. They are simply sheets of plain paper
printed with ink in a printing press, like ordinary etchings, engravings, or
lithographs, but the plates used to print them were created
photographically by Niépce's process rather than by laborious and inexact
hand-engraving or drawing on lithographic stones. They are, in essence,
the oldest photocopies. One example of the print of the man with a horse
and two examples of the print of the woman with the spinning wheel are
known to have survived. The former is in the collection of the
Bibliothèquenationale de France in Paris and the latter two are in a
private collection in the United States.
Daguerre was at first an Inland Revenue officer and then a scene painter
for the opera. In 1822 at Paris he opened the Diorama, an exhibition of
pictorial views, with various effects induced by changes in the lighting. A
similar establishment that he opened in Regent’s Park, London, was
destroyed by fire in 1839. Niépce, who since 1814 had been attempting to
obtain permanent pictures by the action of sunlight, learned in 1826 of
Daguerre’s efforts in the same field. The two became partners in the
development of Niépce’s heliographic process from 1829 until the death
of Niépce in 1833. Daguerre continued his experiments, and it was he
who discovered that exposing an iodized silver plate in a camera would
result in a lasting image if the latent image on the plate was developed by
exposure to fumes of mercury and then fixed (made permanent) by a
solution of common salt. On January 9, 1839, a full description of his
daguerreotype process was announced at a meeting of the Academy of
Sciences by the eminent astronomer and physicist François Arago.
Daguerre was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1839
Daguerre and the heir of Niépce were assigned annuities of 6,000 francs
and 4,000 francs, respectively, in return for their photographic process.
While Daguerre’s works exhibited in the art shows never had any big
success, the sets he realized from 1817 to 1822 for shows at the the
Ambigu Comique or the Opera brought him unanimous praise from critics
and public. He displayed original creativity with his light effects, creating
moon rises or moving suns that remained in people’s memories. He then
carried the art of stage setting to a fully-fledged show, associating himself
with another Prevost student, Charles Marie Bouton (1781-1853) to
create a show by the name of Diorama.
In 1824, Daguerre was elected Knight of the Legion of Honour. He had
learnt how to use a camera obscura with Prevost, who used it to prepare
his huge trompe-l’œil canvases. the optician that supplied Daguerre was
Vincent Chevalier, who was also Nicéphore Niépce’s supplier. As a
matter of fact, Daguerre got Niépce’s address from Chevalier.
Daguerre’s Dioram
Besides, Daguerre was developing his lighting talents, acquired during his
years as a set designer at the Opera and the Ambigu, to change the
mood of a same scene. This created such an illusion of reality that the
Diorama became a huge success. Later on, the two partners adapted to
these huge sets the principle of showing the optical views either with front
or back lighting. In this case the scene watched with a dim lighting,
whence a night effect that could be accentuated by painting to the back of
the view a decor with the purpose of masking some parts of the image
creating new shadows corresponding to night. Going from one to the
other lighting, the same scene would progressively change from day to
night.
The Diorama was very impressive to its viewers. The room was 12
meters in diameter, and could be occupied by three hundred and fifty
people. Rotating, the room was placed in front of an opening that was 7.5
meters wide and 6.5 meters high — a sort of a proscenium, the sides of
which flared out up to the famous painting, painted on both faces, and
which measured 14 meters in height and 22 meters in width. Then the
show would start. After the painting big frames with glass panels
permitted back lighting or transparence lighting, other frames from the
flies gave overhead and front lighting. Displaying in front of these frames
translucid panels of different color and motioned by ropes, the general or
local tone of the tableau could be changed, producing on the whole
tableau or parts of it some effects ranging from thick fog to bright sunlight.
The show lasted about fifteen minutes, after which the room rotated again
and progressively was turned in front of a position similar to the first one
set into the room circumference. A new tableau was offered to the
spectators and fifteen minutes of animation by light works could start.
In the 19th century, the collodion used to coat glass plates was made
from gun cotton, a commercially available product, which was ordinary
cotton that had been soaked in nitric and sulfuric acid, and then dried.
The photographer next dissolved the gun cotton in a mixture of alcohol
and ether to which potassium iodide had been added. The resultant
collodion was a syrupy mixture that could be easily poured onto clean
glass plates as the first step in the production of negatives.
In the wet collodion process, collodion was poured from a beaker with
one hand onto a perfectly cleaned glass plate, which was continuously
and steadily tilted with the other hand to quickly distribute an even
coating. The plate was of whatever size the finished print was to be, from
a quarter plate measuring 4 by 5 inches to a mammoth plate measuring
18 by 21 inches. When the collodion had set but not dried (in a matter of
seconds), the plate was sensitized by bathing it in a solution of silver
nitrate, which combined with the potassium iodide in the collodion to
produce light-sensitive silver iodide. After being placed in a holder, the
plate was then placed in a camera for exposure while still wet—hence,
the identification of the process as “wet.” After exposure, the plate was
immediately developed in a solution of pyrogallic and acetic acids; a later
refinement oFthe process used ferrous sulfate as a developer.
Nègre first went to Paris in 1839 to study painting in the studio of Paul
Delaroche. His fellow students there included Roger Fenton, Gustave Le
Gray, and Henri Le Secq. After studying with Delaroche, Nègre
apprenticed briefly with Michel-Martin Drolling and then with Jean-
Auguste-Dominique Ingres, with whom he stayed for a few years
beginning about 1843. Nègre was a talented and respected painter and
regularly participated in the Paris Salon des Beaux-Arts exhibitions in the
1840s and ’50s. Having been encouraged by Delaroche to experiment
with photography, Nègre began working with daguerreotypes (the first
successful form of photography, made on a copper plate), photographing
landscapes as early as 1844. By the late 1840s he had begun to
make calotypes, which, in contrast to daguerreotypes, were made from
lightweight paper negatives, had a shorter exposure time, and could be
endlessly reproduced, whereas the daguerreotype could produce only
one image. His early photographs were made to be used as aids to his
painting, and he often retouched them with pencil or ink to achieve a
desired effect.
Chimney-Sweeps Walking
Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray was born August 30, 1820 and died July
30, 1884.Gustave Le Gray was the central figure in French photography
of the 1850s—an artist of the first order, a teacher, and the author of
several widely distributed instructional manuals. Born the only child of a
haberdasher in 1820 in the outskirts of Paris, Le Gray studied painting in
the studio of Paul Delaroche, and made his first daguerreotypes by at
least 1847. His real contributions—artistically and technically—however,
came in the realm of paper photography, in which he first experimented in
1848. The first of his four treatises, published in 1850, boldly—and
correctly—asserted that “the entire future of photography is on paper.” In
that volume, Le Gray outlined a variation of William Henry Fox Talbot’s
process calling for the paper negatives to be waxed prior to sensitization,
thereby yielding a crisper image.
In the 1852 edition of his treatise, Le Gray wrote: “It is my deepest wish
that photography, instead of falling within the domain of industry, of
commerce, will be included among the arts. That is its sole, true place,
and it is in that direction that I shall always endeavour to guide it. It is up
to the men devoted to its advancement to set this idea firmly in their
minds.” To that end, he established a studio, gave instruction in
photography (fifty of Le Gray’s students are known, including major
figures such as Charles Nègre, Henri Le Secq, Émile Pécarrère, Olympe
Aguado, Nadar, Adrien Tournachon, and Maxime Du Camp), and
provided printing services for negatives by other photographers.
Flush with success and armed with 100,000 francs capital from the
marquis de Briges, he established “Gustave Le Gray et Cie” in the fall of
1855 and opened a lavishly furnished portrait studio at 35 boulevard des
Capucines (a site that would later become the studio of Nadar and the
location of the first Impressionist exhibition). L’Illustration, in April 1856,
described the opulence intended to match the tastes and aspirations of
Le Gray’s clientele: “From the center of the foyer, whose walls are lined
with Cordoba leather … rises a double staircase with spiral balusters,
draped with red velvet and fringe, leading to the glassed-in studio and a
chemistry laboratory. In the salon, lighted by a large bay window
overlooking the boulevard, is a carved oak armoire in the Louis XIII style
… Opposite over the mantelpiece, is a Louis-XIV-style mirror … [and]
various ptgs arranged on the rich crimson velvet hanging that serves as
backdrop … Lastly on a Venetian table of richly carved and gilded wood,
in mingled confusion with Flemish plates of embossed copper and
Chinese vases, are highly successful test proofs of the eminent
personages who have passed before M. Le Gray’s lens … However, the
principal merit of the establishment is the incomparable skill of the artist
….”
Gallery:
Architecture and landscapes
Central portal of the Church of Saint- Train station with train and coal depot,
Jacques, Aubeterre, France (1851). digitally restored
Cloudy Sky - Mediterranean Sea Bateaux quittant le port du Havre
(1855/1856)
Gallery:
William Henry Fox Talbot (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) was
a British scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented
the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic
processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on
photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic
engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a
controversial patent which affected the early development of commercial
photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who
contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He
published The Pencil of Nature(1844–46), which was illustrated with
original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives, and made some
important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York. He was
elected to the Royal Society in 1831 for his work on the integral calculus,
and researched in optics, electricity and other subjects such
as etymology and ancient history.
Constance Talbot (née Mundy, 30 January 1811 – 9 September 1880)
was from 1832 the wife of William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the key
players in the development of photography in the 1830s and 1840s. She
herself briefly experimented with the process as early as 1839 and has
been credited as the first woman ever to take a photograph – a hazy
image of a short verse by the Irish poet Thomas Moore.
Constance Fox Talbot, circa 1840,
photograph by William Henry Fox Talbot
Talbot was the only child of William Davenport Talbot, of Lacock Abbey,
near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and of Lady Elizabeth Fox Strangways,
daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester. His governess was Agnes
Porter who had also educated his mother. Talbot was educated
at Rottingdean, Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where
he was awarded the Porson Prize in Classics in 1820, and graduated as
twelfth wrangler in 1821. From 1822 to 1872, he communicated papers to
the Royal Society, many of them on mathematical subjects. At an early
period, he began optical researches, which later bore fruit in connection
with photography. To the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1826 he
contributed a paper on "Some Experiments on Coloured Flame"; to
the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1827 a paper on "Monochromatic
Light"; and to the Philosophical Magazine papers on chemical subjects,
including one on "Chemical Changes of Colour.”
At the same time as Frenchmen Niepce and Daguerre were
experimenting with early techniques of image capture, William Henry Fox
Talbot, was researching the same field, but via a different route. And
although Daguerre was the first to announce his process to the world, it
was Talbot’s invention that was to form the basis of all photography up
until the introduction of electronic imaging.
Latticed window at Lacock Abbey, August 1835. A positive from what
may be the oldest existing camera negative.
Mathew Brady, also called Mathew B. Brady, born c. 1823, near Lake
George, New York, U.S.—died January 15, 1896, New York, well-known
19th-century American photographer who was celebrated for his portraits
of politicians and his photographs of the American Civil War.
Brady was born to Irish immigrant parents and moved to New York at the
age of 17. By the time he was 23, he owned his own portrait studio and
was exhibiting his daguerreotypes of famous Americans. In 1849, he
opened a studio in Washington; it was a profitable time for portrait studios
and the small portrait prints, known as cartes de visites, were extremely
popular.
Mathew Brady is often referred to as the father of photojournalism and is
most well-known for his documentation of the Civil War. His photographs,
and those he commissioned, had a tremendous impact on society at the
time of the war, and continue to do so today. He and his employees
photographed thousands of images including battlefields, camp life, and
portraits of some of the most famous citizens of his time including
Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.
Brady was born in Warren County, New York in the early 1820’s to Irish
immigrants, Andrew and Julia Brady. Little is known about his early life,
but historians believe that during a trip to the Albany area, in search of a
cure for an eye inflammation, he met portrait painter William Page. It is
also believed that through William Page, Brady met Samuel F.B. Morse.
Morse, a professor of art, painting, and design at New York University
and the inventor of the telegraph likely tutored Brady in the newly
developed technology of daguerreotype, the process of creating a mirror
image on a silver-surfaced copper plate.
After moving to New York City, Brady began manufacturing cases for
daguerreotypes, jewelry, and painted miniature portraits. He worked to
build his skill and his reputation, opening, "The Daguerreian Miniature
Gallery" on Broadway in 1844. Well known and accomplished in his
profession, Brady won the highest award at the American Institute’s
annual fair in 1844, 1845, 1846, 1849, and 1857, during which time he
also began photographing well known Americans such as Edgar Allan
Poe and James Fenimore Cooper.
Scan of a photo-plate
titled Agnew by Brady.
In preparing his suit against his brother, Nadar explained why he was a
master of this subtle intuitive art. “What can [not] be learned … is the
moral intelligence of your subject; it’s the swift tact that puts you in
communion with the model, makes you size him up, grasp his habits and
ideas in accordance with his character, and allows you to render, not an
indifferent plastic reproduction that could be made by the lowliest
laboratory worker, commonplace and accidental, but the resemblance
that is most familiar and most favourable, the intimate resemblance. It’s
the psychological side of photography—the word doesn’t seem overly
ambitious to me.”
Meanwhile, Adrien blustered and faltered. When Nadar won the last
appeal in June 1859, his younger brother was no longer even the
semblance of a threat. Always unstable, but now demoralized and
bankrupt as well, Adrien lived on Nadar’s charity and in his shadow for
the rest of his fruitless life.
In 1860, Nadar moved from his cozy garden apartment and studio to a
huge atelier in the building his friends Gustave Le Gray and the Bisson
brothers had just vacated at 35 Boulevard des Capucines. The rent was
astronomical and the lavish reconstruction ruinous, but Nadar’s
expenditures bought the triumph of his name—a gigantic signature
scrawled on the glass facade of his palace and in the consciousness of
the public.
Julia Margaret was born on 11 June 1815, died 26 January 1879. She
was an English photographer known for her portraits of eminent people of
the day and for her romantic pictures which, despite their technical
imperfections, stands the fest of time.
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a
Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and art gallery and
museum curator. American photographer who achieved distinction in a
remarkably broad range of roles. In his youth he was perhaps the most
talented and inventive photographer among those working to win public
acceptance of photography as a fine art. He went on to gain fame as a
commercial photographer in the 1920s and ’30s, when he created stylish
and convincing portraits of artists and celebrities. He was also a
prominent curator, organizing the hugely influential “Family of Man”
exhibition in 1955.Born in Luxembourg, Steichen and his parents
immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. They settled
in the small city of Hancock, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where
Steichen’s father worked in the copper mines. When his father was
incapacitated by poor health the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
where the artist’s mother supported the family as a milliner. Beginning at
age 15, Steichen served a four-year apprenticeship in a lithographic firm.
During the 1890s he independently studied both painting and
photography, applying himself equally, it would seem, to their commercial
and fine-art possibilities, as he understood them.
The obvious way to persuade the public that photography was a fine art
was to produce photographs that emulated the mood, manner, or attitude
of the paintings and prints that the public confidently held to be works of
art. Young Steichen pursued this strategy, known as Pictorialism, with
abandon. Utilizing his training as a painter, in his early photographs he
frequently used the gum-bichromate process in conjunction with platinum
or iron-based emulsions, which allowed him a very high degree of control
over the image and tended to produce pictures with a superficial
resemblance to mezzotints, wash drawings, and other traditional media.
Steichen’s photographs were first exhibited in the Second Philadelphia
Photographic Salon in 1899, and from that point he became a regular
exhibitor, and soon a star, in the shows of photography’s fine-arts
movement.
In 1900, before making the first of many extended trips to Europe,
Steichen met Alfred Stieglitz, who bought three of the young man’s
photographs at the not inconsiderable price of five dollars each. It was the
beginning of a close and mutually rewarding relationship that would last
until 1917. In 1902 Stieglitz invited Steichen to join him and other
photographers, including Clarence H. White and Gertrude Käsebier, in
founding the Photo-Secession, an organization dedicated to promoting
photography as a fine art.
Steichen became closely involved with many of Stieglitz’s endeavours
during the next 15 years. In 1905 Stieglitz opened his first gallery,
originally called the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession but better
known as 291, named after its address at 291 Fifth Avenue. Steichen
served as the gallery’s French connection. Using the contacts he had
made in Europe—many of whom he had memorably photographed—he
became principally responsible for arranging the exhibitions of French
Modernist art that were held at 291, including the work of Auguste Rodin
(drawings) in 1908, Henri Matisse in 1908, and Paul Cézanne in 1910.
Such shows were often the first presentations in America of the work of
these artists. Concurrently, during the 14-year existence of Stieglitz’s
Photo-Secessionist magazine, Camera Work, it reproduced more pictures
by Steichen—68—than by any other photographer. (Stieglitz himself was
second with 51.
Chamorro girls from Guam, photographed by Steichen in 1945.
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18,
1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in
France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist
movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major
works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He
was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion and
portrait photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with
photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself.
During his career as an artist, Man Ray allowed few details of his early life
or family background to be known to the public. He even refused to
acknowledge that he ever had a name other than Man Ray.
Rayograph, 1924
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an
American photographer and environmentalist. His black and white
landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite
National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters,
books, and the internet.
Adams and Fred Archer developed the Zone System as a way to
determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The
resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. He primarily
used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure
sharpness in his images. Adams founded the photography group known
as Group f/64, along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and
Edward Weston.
In 1927, Adams produced his first portfolio in his new style Parmelian
Prints of the High Sierras, which included his famous image Monolith, the
Face of Half Dome, taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates
and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion,
he had only one plate left and he "visualized" the effect of the blackened
sky before risking the last shot. He later said, "I had been able to realize a
desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt
to me and how it must appear in the finished print". In April 1927, he
wrote, "My photographs have now reached a stage when they are worthy
of the world's critical examination. I have suddenly come upon a new
style which I believe will place my work equal to anything of its kind."
Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured and he became more
established. In the course of his 60-year career, the 1930s were a
particularly productive and experimental time. He expanded his works,
focusing on detailed close-ups as well as large forms from mountains to
factories. His first book Taos Pueblo was published in 1930 with text by
writer Mary Hunter Austin. In New Mexico, he was introduced to notables
from Stieglitz's circle, including painter Georgia O'Keeffe, artist John
Marin, and photographer Paul Strand. Adams's talkative, high-spirited
nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him a hit within his
circle of artist friends. Strand especially proved influential, sharing secrets
of his technique with Adams, and finally convincing Adams to pursue
photography with all his talent and energy. One of Strand's suggestions
which Adams adopted was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values.
Gallery:
HENRI CARTIER BRESSON
Sir john Herschel portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron. Cartes de visite of Queen Victoria taken
by John Jabez Edwin Mayall
Early Travel Photography
Travel photography is a genre of photography that may involve
documentation of areas of landscape, people, culture, customs & history.
A travel photo is an image that expresses the feeling of a time & a place.
Portraits of a land its people, culture in its nature state & has no
geographical limitations. Travel photography dates back to 1850’s early
practitioners include Francis Bedford, Maxime Du Camp, Solomon
Nunes, Francis Frith & James Ricatton.
The oldest image produced by a camera was taken in 1875 by Joseph
Nicephore niece which was a street scene in France. This picture is the
oldest picture captured by a camera Obscura.
In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process which
became standard Photographic process until in 1880.This process
reduced the exposure time only to 2 seconds compared to daguerre type
& Calotype however it did not help many travel photographers. In the
1860 the standard photography outfit was the large size camera, tripod,
glass plate, plate holders & tent like portable dark room, chemicals, tanks,
water containers. Photographers carted these equipments around the
world. With invention of printing press photography became
commercialized & as the demand to tourism increased. However this new
era of photographers was not accepted by Purists (straight
photographers) who debated that commercialization has spoiled the craft
In 1910 France printed 123 million postcards & world main system
processed around 7 billion the same year. By the end of 19 th century
tourism could take their own pictures.
In 1888 George Eastman founded the Kodak Company invented a
camera with role film since then photography has become a mass
medium. In the second half of the 19th century the rapid development &
increased recognition of photography along with fascination in other
country mark the beginning of a mass communication of the “Global
visual culture”.
In 1864 Samuel Bourne an English photographer in Simla made a 10
week tour with six coolies to carry his equipment & shoot the beautiful
Himalayas. He made 3 exposures of Himalayas pass at the altitude of
18,600 feet the greatest altitude at which the photographers were taken
by the Wet Collodion process. 1000s of fine photographs he made known
the beauty of India to the European public for the 1st time.
In America an outstanding work was produced by San Francisco’s
Carleton E Watkins (1829-1916) whose beautiful 21*64 inches of
Yosemite Valley made a considerable site in Paris International Exhibition
in 1867.One of the most famous photographers of America William Henry
Jackson between 1870 & 1877 he accompanied 8 government geological
surveys & had a canyon & lake named after him.
Herbert Ponting as official photographers to Captain Scotts & second &
last South Pole expedition (1910-1912) brought back a super record of
expedition of an Antarctica landscape. Catering to the European &
American tourists & travel photographers document historical monuments
& archeological sites.
Technological development helped these photographers to produce
related large no. of images that satisfied the burgeoning tourism trade &
the thirstfy images of the orient. The term traditional used to refer to the
Middle East south Asia as the techniques of photography became
cumbersome equipment became more practical.
Photographers began to sell their photographs onsite to tourist who
collected them as souvenirs during the travels. These unique
photographs have documentary values to study architectural study in
which they produced. Since the 19th century travel photography also
provided a single historical record documenting culture, customs that
have been radically developed due to modernization.
Motion in photography
The desire to record the action existed right from the early days of
photography but remained in general unfulfilled until the introduction of
stereoscopic camera in1856.
In 1863 Hippolyte Macaire of Le Havre showed Daguerre types of a
trotting horses & a moving carriage, a walking man & seascapes with
waves & steamships with smoke coming out of the funnel. For this novel
objects Macaire could command as much as 100 francs each. Some of
his sea views were bought by the marine painter Eugene Isabey.
Action photographs made it possible to record & study movement of
animals scientifically. Best known in the field are serial of pictures of
Edward Muybridge. Edward Muybridge, the first man to think of a photo-
finish in the horse racing. His investigation of locomotion of animals
originated in 1872 with a controversy about led movements of a trotting
horse. His serial photos of horses taken for a ex-governor Leland
Stanford of California in 1878 & 1879 with a row of 12 to 24 small
cameras demonstrated for the first time movements too fast for the eye to
perceive & expressed the absurdity of the conventional “rocking horse”
attitude of galloping horses legs in painting. At first the consecutive
positions of the legs were criticized as ludicrous & impossible, but when
Muybridge synthesized the movement by projections on the screen even
sceptics had to admit the truth.
To counter such criticism Muybridge gave lectures on animal locomotion
throughout U.S & Europe. These lectures were illustrated with
zoopraxiscope a lantern he developed that he projected images from
rapid successions on the screen printed on to a rotating disc producing
the illusion of moving pictures.
Between 1883 to1885 he carried out an investigation on animal & human
locomotion in all forms under the auspices of the University of
Pennsylvania using up to 36 cameras with clockwork shutters & gelatin
dry plates which he was naturally able to secure better results. His
monumental work ‘animal locomotion 1887’ contained 781 plates &
remains to this day the most comprehensive publication of its kind.
Muybridge’s photo graphic’s analysis led Prof.Etienne-Jules Marey of
Paris who had also investigating animal movement to abandon his
method of chronography in favor of chronophotopraphy. In contrast to
Muybridge’s battery of cameras Marey used only one, with a disk shutter
& recorded the consecutive phases of movements on a single plate, to
give the impression that one observer would following the movement
would obtain. For the flight of birds Marey in 1882 devised the
photographic gun. In 1890 Marey used the new collodion roll film in a
cine-camera of his own invention, & 2 years later a projector, but his
pioneer work in cinematography was overshadowed by the better
apparatus of the Lumiere brothers.
The freezing of rapidly moving objects for a fraction of a second by the
sudden flash of a electric spark in a darkened room was demonstrated by
Sir Charles Wheatstone five years before the introduction to photography.
Talbot applied photography to record this phenomenon in 1851, when he
photographed a rapidly revolving wheel with a page of the times attached
to it, & obtained a clear image, the duration of the spark being 1/100000
of a second. With this demonstration before the Royal Institution Talbot
laid the foundation of high-speed photography.
Ernst Mach, a Professor at Prague University & Dr P.Salcher, a professor
at the Naval College at Pola in1887 succeeded by the electronic spark
method in photographing bullets with a velocity of 765 miles per hour.
From 1933 onwards Edgerton & Germeshausen extended multiple flash
photography to the motion study of games: a tennis player, a baton
thrower, a diver & a golfer whose amusing parrot-like patterns
movements was obtained with 100 flashes per second.
EDWARD MUYBRIDGE
Muybridge spent much of his later years giving public lectures and
demonstrations of his photography and early motion picture sequences,
travelling back to England and Europe to publicise his work. He also
edited and published compilations of his work, which greatly influenced
visual artists and the developing fields of scientific and industrial
photography. He returned to his native England permanently in 1894, and
in 1904, the Kingston Museum, containing a collection of his equipment,
was opened in his hometown.
His 1941 photo of Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, brought
him prominence. The photo was taken on December 30, 1941 in the
chamber of the Speaker of the House of Commons in the Canadian
Parliament in Ottawa after Churchill delivered a speech on World War II
to the Canadian members of the parliament. It was arranged by Canadian
Prime Minister Mackenzie King. Churchill is particularly noted for his
posture and facial expression, which have been compared to the wartime
feelings that prevailed in the UK: persistence in the face of an all-
conquering enemy. The photo, which according to The Economist is the
"most reproduced portrait in the history of photography", has been
described as one of the "most iconic portraits ever shot". USC Fisher
Museum of Art described it as a "defiant and scowling portrait became an
instant icon of Britain’s stand against fascism." It appeared on the cover
of the May 21, 1945 issue of Life, which bought it for $100. It now hangs
on the wall of the Speaker’s chamber. Following the dissemination of the
photo, Karsh became an internationally known photographer.
IRVING PENN
Irving Penn was born June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009 was an
American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits,
and still life’s. Penn's career included work at Vogue magazine, and
independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and
Clinique. His work has been exhibited internationally and continues to
inform the art of photography.
Penn was born to a Russian Jewish family on June 16, 1917 in
Plainfield, New Jersey, to Harry Penn and Sonia Greenberg. Penn's
younger brother, Arthur Penn, was born in 1922 and would go on to
become a film director and producer. Penn attended the Philadelphia
Museum School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) from
1934 to 1938, where he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and
industrial arts under Alexey Brodovitch. While still a student, Penn
worked under Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar which published several
of Penn's drawings.
Penn worked for two years as a freelance designer and making his first
amateur photographs before taking Brodovitch's position as the art
director at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1940. Penn remained at Saks Fifth
Avenue for a year before leaving to spend a year painting and taking
photographs in Mexico and across the US. When Penn returned to
New York, Alexander Liberman offered him a position as an associate
in the Vogue magazine Art Department. Penn worked on layout for the
magazine before Liberman asked him to try photography.
Best known for his fashion photography, Penn's repertoire also
includes portraits of creative greats; ethnographic photographs from
around the world; Modernist still lifes of food, bones, bottles, metal, and
found objects; and photographic travel essays.
Penn was among the first photographers to pose subjects against a
simple grey or white backdrop and he effectively used this simplicity.
Expanding his austere studio surroundings, Penn constructed a set of
upright angled backdrops, to form a stark, acute corner. Subjects
photographed with this technique included Martha Graham, Marcel
Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, W. H. Auden, and Igor
Stravinsky.
Penn's still life compositions are sparse and highly organized,
assemblages of food or objects that articulate the abstract interplay of
line and volume. Penn's photographs are composed with a great
attention to detail, which continues into his craft of developing and
making prints of his photographs. Penn experimented with many
printing techniques, including prints made on aluminum sheets coated
with a platinum emulsion rendering the image with a warmth that
untoned silver prints lacked. His black and white prints are notable for
their deep contrast, giving them a clean, crisp look.
While steeped in the Modernist tradition, Penn also ventured beyond
creative boundaries. The exhibition Earthly Bodies consisted of series
of posed nudes whose physical shapes range from thin to plump; while
the photographs were taken in 1949 and 1950, they were not exhibited
until 1980.
HELMUT NEWTON
Portrait of Eva Herzigova at the Cannes Film Festival by Helmut Newton (1996).
UNIT-4
Importance of Photography before Independence
Indian in this feature refers to the Indian subcontinent, which is dominated
in area by modern India, but also includes the nations of Pakistan, Nepal,
Bhutan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. Partly because of the extent of this
area, but largely because of its geo-political importance in the Victorian
era, many photographers came to the subcontinent during this period, as
well as the many indigenous photographers. This is the first of several
features to look at some of them & their work.
Athough the Portuguese were the first European nation to begin direct
trading with India following the first successful voyage around the south of
Africa in 1498 by Vasco d agama, they were soon followed by the Dutch,
French & British.
In the mid of 18th century the British East India Company with its private
army under Robert Clive had decisively beaten both the Dutch & the
French & taken power in several states. Arthur Wellesley to completed
the takeover in later battles. By the 19th century, the rule of John
Company virtually covered the sub-continent, with the Indian rulers
subservient to company commercial interests while often still nominally in
power.
The so- called Indian Mutiny of 1857-58 showed the British government
that the Company could no longer be trusted to run such vast area. The
uprising was accompanied by terrible troops. The British government now
realized it needs to rule India directly, setting up the India Office to do so
n 1858, with Queen Victoria being installed as Empress of India in 1877.
Much photography of India in the early years of the medium was
inextricably tied to the colonial regime. Photographers who went to the
region were mainly from Britain & many went as employees of either
‘John Company’ or the British government. Some photographed as
amateurs, while others were actually employed to photograph, especially
to record Archaeological Survey of India, established in1861 & still in
existence.
Another aspect of colonialism was religious evangelism, with missionaries
coming from Britain to bring Christianity to this land which already had its
own religions deeply embedded in its culture. A number of missionaries
were keen & sometimes very competent amateur photographers.
Few westerners in India were not a part of the colonial presence, & it was
the westerners who formed the major market for photography in India, as
although they were a small minority of the population, they were largely
those with the money to buy photographs. Many bought photographs to
paste in albums, so as to make a visual record of their times in India,
which they would take back to the home country to the end of their tour of
duty.
O.C. EDWARDS
Maj. Gen. Maharaja Sir Sawai Man Singh II GCSI GCIE (b. Sawai Mor
Mukut Singh; 21 August 1912 – 24 June 1970) was the last ruling
Maharaja of Jaipur State belonging to Kachwaha clan of Rajputs. He
ruled the princely state between 1922 and 1949, when the state acceded
unto the Dominion of India. Thereafter, he held office as Rajpramukh of
Rajasthan between 1949 and 1956. In later life, he served as
Ambassador of India to Spain. He was also a notable sportsman and
celebrated polo player.
Sawai Man Singh II, was born Mor Mukut Singh, the second son of
Thakur Sawai Singh of Isarda by his wife Sugan Kunwar, a lady from
Kotla village in Uttar Pradesh. His father was a nobleman belonging to the
Kachwaha clan of Rajputs. Mor Mukut grew up in the dusty, walled
township of Isarda, a chief Thikana of the Rajawat sub-clan which lies
between the towns of Sawai Madhopur and Jaipur in present-day
Rajasthan. His family was connected to the ruling house of Jaipur and
Kotah (where his father's sister was married). The then-Maharaja of
Jaipur, Sawai Madho Singh II, had been born the son of a former Thakur
of Isarda and had been adopted into the ruling family of Jaipur. After
giving him up for adoption, Madho Singh's actual father had in turn lacked
for an heir. He adopted the son of a distant kinsman and was succeeded
by that lad as Thakur of Isarda. That lad was Sawai Singh, father of Mor
Mukut Singh. In this manner, Mor Mukut could be reckoned near kin to
Maharaja Madho Singh II of Jaipur.
After being adopted to become Maharaja of Jaipur, Madho Singh II had
numerous (no less than 65) children by various concubines, but the highly
superstitious Maharaja was warned by a sage against having legitimate
heirs and thus took great care not to impregnate his five wives. On 24
March 1921, Madho Singh II adopted Mor Mukut to be his son and heir.
The boy was given the name "Man Singh" upon his adoption. Madho
Singh II died on 7 September 1922 and was succeeded by Man Singh as
Maharaja of Jaipur and head of the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs. The new
Maharaja was ten years old.
Upon obtaining his ruling powers, Man Singh embarked on a programme
of modernisation, creating infrastructure and founding numerous public
institutions that would later result in Jaipur being selected the capital of
Rajasthan. At the time of India's Independence in 1947, the maharaja
acceded Jaipur to the Dominion of India and in March 1949 he merged
the princely state with the new state of Rajasthan, surrendering his
sovereignty and accepting the appointment of Rajpramukh of that state
until the office was abolished when the Indian states were further re-
organised in 1956. Although the Indian princes had relinquished their
ruling powers, they remained entitled to their titles, privy purses and other
privileges until the adoption of the 26th amendment to the Constitution of
India on 28 December 1971. Accordingly, Sir Man Singh II remained
Maharaja of Jaipur until his death.
Man Singh II was married three times, and his three wives lived in the
same household together, as per Indian custom. His first two marriages
were to suitable brides chosen from the royal family of Jodhpur, whose
Rajput heritage and social ranking were similar to his own. The senior
Maharani, known within the palace as 'First her Highness,' was Marudhar
Kunwar, sister of Sumer Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur. She was about
twelve years older than him and bore him two children, first a daughter,
Prem Kumari and then his eldest son and heir, Bhawani Singh. His
second wife was Maharani Kishore Kanwar, niece of his first wife and
daughter of Maharaja Sumer Singh of Jodhpur. She was five years
younger than him and bore him two sons. In 1940, Man Singh II married
for the third and last time. His bride was the legendary beauty, Gayatri
Devi of Cooch Behar, daughter of Maharaja Jitendra Narayanof Cooch
Behar and Maharani Indira Devi, a princess of Baroda. She stands out
among the Maharanis of Jaipur for having become a public figure and a
celebrity of sorts, initially for being a fashion-conscious beauty and later
for becoming a politician and parliamentarian. She bore him one son and
survived him by thirty-nine years, dying in 2009.
LALA DEEN DAYAL
Lala Deen Dayal 1844-1905 also known as Raja Deen Dayal) was an
Indian photographer. His career began in the mid-1870s as a
commissioned photographer; eventually he set up studios in Indore,
Mumbai and Hyderbad. He became the court photographer to the sixth
Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahbub Ali Khan, Asif Jah VI, who awarded him the
title Musawwir Jung Raja Bahadur, and he was appointed as the
photographer to the Viceroy of India in 1885.He received the Royal
Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1897. Deen Dayal was born in Sardhana,
Uttar Pradesh, near Meerut in a family of jewellers. He received technical
training at Thompson College of Civil Engineering at Roorkee (now IIT
Roorkee) in 1866 as an engineer in lower subbordinate class.
In 1866, Deen Dayal entered government service as head estimator and
draughtsman in the Department of Works Secretariat Office in Indore.
Meanwhile, he took up photography. His first patron in Indore was
Maharaja Tukoji Rao II of Indore state, who in turn introduced him to Sir
Henry Daly, agent to the Governor General for Central India (1871–1881)
and the founder of Daly College, who encouraged his work, along with the
Maharaja himself who encouraged him to set up his studio in Indore.
Soon he was getting commissions from Maharajas and the British Raj.
The following year he was commissioned to photograph the governor
general's tour of Central India. In 1868, Deen Dayal founded his studio –
Lala Deen Dayal & Sons – and was subsequently commissioned to
photograph temples and palaces of India. He established studios in
Secunderabad, Bombay, and Indore in the 1870s.
In 1875–76, Deen Dayal photographed the Royal Tour of the Prince and
Princess of Wales. In the early 1880s he travelled with Sir Lepel Griffin
through Bundelkhand, photographing the ancient architecture of the
region. Griffin commissioned him to do archaeological photographs: The
result was a portfolio of 86 photographs, known as "Famous Monuments
of Central India".
The next year he retired from government service and concentrated on
his career as a professional photographer. Deen Dayal became the court
photographer to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad in 1885. Soon afterward
he moved from Indore to Hyderabad. In the same year he was appointed
as the photographer to the Viceroy of India. In time, the Nizam of
Hyderabad conferred the honorary title of Raja upon him. It was at this
time that Dayal created the firm Raja Deen Dayal & Sons in Hyderabad.
Deen Dayal was appointed photographer to Queen Victoria in 1887.In
1905–1906, Raja Deen Dayal accompanied the Royal Tour of the Prince
and Princess of Wales.
T.N.A PERUMAL
Benu Sen (26 May 1932 – 17 May 2011) was an Indian photographer
from Kolkata, India. He was the second son among seven children of
Manindranath and Provabati Sengupta.
If life is a collage of fleeting moments, Benu Sen’s camera has trapped
them in myriad tones and hues. Be it his monochromes with alluring play
of light and shade, or his poignant candid shots – Benu Sen has proved
his métier in varied domains of photography.
Mr. Benu Sen (1932) served as Secretary General, Federation of Indian
Photography and President of Photographic Association of Dum Dum
was the living legend in the field of International Pictorial Photography.
His contribution both as individual artist and as a promoter for the
development of Indian Photography is perhaps exceeds that of any Indian
Photographer.
Trained to be a ground engineer, Benu Sen’s alliance with the viewfinder
happened by a sheer play of chance. It was August 15, 1954, when Sen
accompanied a camera-lugging friend to an Independence Day
celebration. The device sparked off his curiosity and he was keen to have
a look at the new equipment with his friend, who however turned down
the request on the ground that his tampering might damage the camera.
That came as a blow to his pride which took him the very next day to a
junk market in Kolkata – to look for lenses, tin and other scrap materials
to assemble his very own camera. The success of this attempt triggered a
spurt of diverse experimentation in camera mechanics and darkroom
techniques. Not surprisingly, engineering took a backseat.
He was the 3rd man in the world to have received the rare honour of
‘Master of Photography’ (M.F.I.A.P.) from the Federation International
de L’Art Photographique, a body under the recognition of UNESCO.
He was conferred the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of
Great Britain (F.R.P.S.) in 1975, EFIAP in 1960, ESFIAP in 1972 and
number Honorary fellowships like Hon F.J.I.A.P. (Japan), F.N.P.A.S.
(Sri Lanka),
Hon. F.P.B.S. (Bangladesh), Hon. F.P.A.D (India),Hon. F.C.O.S
(Romania), Hon. P.A.B, Hon. S.O.P etc. for his contribution to pictorial
photography.
.
DR. G. THOMAS
His 1997 released coffee table book, titled FACES, contained profles of
45 film personalities beginning with DurgaKhote, one of India's first ladies
of the Indian screen and ending with Aishwarya Rai, the former Miss
World and today Bollywood's leading actress. In 1992, he wrote his first
screenplay, for the film, 'Bekhudi', which launched actress Kajol's career
and his second, 'Anjaam' presented, Madhuri Dixit with a challenging role.
In 2000, he held his first ever photo-exhibition in Pune which showcased,
twenty years of his photography work. Exhibitions of Rajadhyaksha's
work have been held in Pune, Goa and Kolhapur with all attracting large
crowds. Further exhibitions of his work in San Francisco, London,
Birmingham and Dubai, have all been well attended as well.
PRABUDDHA DAS GUPTA
This article examines the impact of the invention on one of the most
traditional of visual media – the art of painting. The article is confined
broadly to Western painting in the period from the announcement of the
invention in 1839 up until round the end of the nineteenth century. It is a
companion to The ‘New’ Time in Painting, which examines the impact that
changing concepts of time had on painting, particularly in the 20th
century. Some of the concepts are of course similar and some duplication
has been preserved to enable each article to be self-contained.
Identifying that an influence exists, and evaluating its significance, is
essentially a counterfactual exercise, with all the pitfalls that this entails.
As photography and painting were both developing contemporaneously,
care must be taken to distinguish causation and mere coincidence or
parallelism. This is particularly so, given that many photographs
themselves mimicked painting styles. To establish that an influence
exists, therefore, it is not sufficient to demonstrate mere similarity. A
similar result can be coincidental, or arise from two or more quite different
causes. Similarity can also result from the obvious consideration that the
subject matter of both a photograph and a painting may simply be the
same. For example, the fact that a photograph and a painting of a person
each show the person in a characteristic pose proves little, if anything. In
fact, it would be more surprising if both portraits were not similar.
Some of the ambiguities and uncertainties that surrounded painting’s
early relationship with photography are well reflected in the scarcity of any
nineteenth century paintings featuring photography, even incidentally.
This absence may reflect antagonism, denial, or simply disinterest on the
part of painters. Similarly, it was unusual for pre-photographic painters to
depict the camera obscura.
FIP was created in 1952 with the relentless effort of Dr. G. Thomas, Mr.
B.K.Mukherjee, Mr.S.H.H.Razavi, Mr. O.C.Edwards and Mr.
G.Arunachalam.
The clubs who joined initially were: The Camera Society of Delhi, The
Mysore Photographic Society, The Palanpur Camera Club, The
Photographic Association of Bengal, The Photographic Society of
Bangalore, The Photographic Society of Orissa, The Pictorial
Photographers of India, The South Calcutta Camera Club, The U.P.
Amateur Photo. Association, Niharika and Kanpur Camera Club.
Today there are over 1500 members at FIP and more and more people
are joining. FIP organizes workshops & photo contests, publishes journal
and awards distinctions. This is the only national body of Federation
Internationale de l'ArtPhotographique (FIAP).
“FIP was created in 1952 with the relentless effort of Dr. G. Thomas, Mr.
B.K.Mukherjee, Mr.S.H.H.Razavi, Mr. O.C.Edwards and Mr.
G.Arunachalam.”
The Clubs at formative stage
The clubs who joined initially were: The Camera Society of Delhi, The
Mysore Photographic Society, The Palanpur Camera Club, The
Photographic Association of Bengal, The Photographic Society of
Bangalore, The Photographic Society of Orissa, The Pictorial
Photographers of India, The South Calcutta Camera Club, The U.P.
Amateur Photo. Association, Niharika and Kanpur Camera Club.
Today there are over 1500 members at FIP and more and more people
are joining. FIP organizes workshops & photo contests, publishes journal
and awards distinctions. This is the only national body of Federation
International de l'Art Photographique.
India International photographic council
India International photographic council is a well-known non-profitable
photographic organization in India running by legend veteran
photographers the country. IIPC is the only photographic organization in
eastern hemisphere.
There are number of phenomenal photo-artists around the world
associates with it. One can get in touch, can share queries & discuss
problems with master photographers in monthly meetings.
✓ Achievements of IIPC:
● IIPC is the first in eastern hemisphere to award international
coveted worldwide honors & distinctions.
● IIPC is the first to start photographic workshops in India.
● IIPC is the to start photo fairs in the country.
● IIPC is the first to honor truly grates if the world photography by
celebrating their birth centenaries.
● IIPC is the first to celebrate centenary of pictorial photography
worldwide.
● IIPC is the first to celebrate world photography day.
✓ Membership Benefits:
A special exhibition and picture book was created on India and Mexico in
year 2002 in which his work was published along with two renowned
photographers Graciela Iturbide (Mexico) and Sebastiao Salagado
(France). His works have been published in major books done by
Magnum Photos including Exhibitions.
Born and brought up in India, for him India is his whole world. Probably
the only photographer who prefers to photograph his homeland and
people as he feels it is his responsibility and a challenge to go on and
explore the ethos and power of an ancient civilization of his own country
than dabble in all kinds of travel abroad. This has, probably, given him
and his work an edge over any body photographing India. He believes
‘Over the centuries’, so much has melded into India, that its not really one
country, its not one culture. It is crowded with crosscurrents of many
religions, beliefs, cultures and their practices that may appear
incongruous. But India keeps alive the inner spirit of her own civilization
with all its contradictions. Here, several centuries have learnt to live side
by side at the same time. And a good photograph is lasting witness to that
as photo history of our times. Being a multi-lingual, multi- cultured and
multi- religious society, the images must speak these complexities
through a multi- layered experience.
He was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year in 1984 for his now
iconic image of a half-buried child victim of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Bartholomew had his first photography lessons at home, in his father’s
darkroom. “When we went to our summerhouse, I would be with him in
the darkroom, looking at the images emerging in the developing tray. That
was pure magic. He didn’t teach me anything specific about photography.
What I took from him was the need to be a more sophisticated man—a
Renaissance man, like him—whom I’m not,” said Bartholomew in an
interview with photography website, Invisible Photographer Asia. During
his teenage years, he started photographing his family and friends and
life on the streets, including the worlds of the marginalised rag pickers,
sex workers, beggars, and eunuchs. He first exhibited photographs from
this body of work at Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi, in 1979, and at the
Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay, in 1980.In July 2007, Outside In: A Tale of
Three Cities, a retrospective revisiting of the same archive of photographs
from his teenage diary, shot in Bombay, Delhi, and Calcutta, was shown
at Rencontres d’Arles.In 2008, the show travelled to the National
Museum, New Delhi , the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai , Bodhi
Art, New York, and in 2009, to Bodhi Berlin. The display of the series at
Chobimela VII in Dhaka in January 2013 marked its 12th showing.
He has held a number of fellowships, including one from the Asian
Cultural Council, New York (1987), to photograph Indian immigrants in
the USA, and one from the Institute of Comparative Studies in Human
Culture, Norway (1995), to photograph the Naga tribes in India Between
2001 and 2003 he ran a photography workshop for emerging
photographers in India with the support of the World Press Photo
Foundation in Amsterdam. Among his photo essays are "The Chinese in
Calcutta," "The Indians in America," and "The Naga Tribes of Northeast
India".
In 1975 Bartholomew won the World Press Photo award for his series on
morphine addicts in India, and in 1984 he won the World Press Photo of
the Year for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Padma Shri Award 2014.Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2014.
Dayanita Singh