Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.co.uk)
Mon, 15 Feb 1999 21:44 +0000 (GMT)
>
> And thanks to you for the elaboration. Now for once I do wish I could
> jpeg
> -- you should SEE that Spanish babe. But I don't think "popularity" is
> the
> criterion, or John Keane's big-eyed little waifs would be the best art
> in
> America. Of course the popularity earns him a place in photo history not
> accorded by Beaumont Newhall -- to A. D. Coleman's lasting
> indignation...
> But still doesn't improve the photos. Do you know that a grad student in
> the 1970s did a study of 19th-century photo press. Of the 10
> most-frequently mentioned names, only 1 is known today. And, as a lover
> of
> early photo press, I am willing to declare: small loss, by & large. I
> assume that's why Camera Work cut such a wide swathe. The existing media
> were pretty bad esthetically.
>
>Judy
Of course Camera Work was so good that Steiglitz couldn't even give it
away - I think there were only about 50 subscribers at the end, and many,
many copies were junked, though they would be worth a fortune today. Of
course the quality of the publication was not the only issue.
Judy and I seem to be in absolute agreement about Mortensen though!
> The
>Rejlander opus, dated 1857, was printed from about 30 negatives, and was
>hailed as a masterpiece by no less than Queen Victoria herself.
Hal
Not only that but she bought a copy (as did many others, and they weren't
cheap), and if you get to visit the Windsors at home you can ask to see
it. Her consort, Prince Albert, was a keen follower of photography as
well. Totally unrelated, but we've just spent a few million doing up his
memorial in Hyde Park should anyone be in London.
Rejlander is also known for a second photograph which appears to be a
double exposure in camera, but most of the rest of his stuff I've seen is
pretty dreary genre stuff. The real master of the combination print was
Henry Peach Robinson, who produced at least one a year for many years. One
of the better known is 'Fading Away' in which a distraught father stares
out of the window, his back to camera, while his daughter, dying from
consumption is comforted by her mother... More or less the plot of most
operas of the time of course. Robinson also wrote the most influential
photographic manual of the times (and is also known for the arguments he
had with the photographer P H Emerson.) His use of combination printing
was partly on aesthetic grounds, but also technical, as it would often
have been impossible to light the scenes for a single exposure.
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows and elsewhere:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~ds8s
Family Pictures, German Indications, London demonstrations &
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:06:50