Stop-motion photography as practiced by Edweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey and others is the topic of class session number eight. These scientific experiments ultimately led to the development of motion pictures by Edison.
Slides for this class session
Handout for this class session
Library Resource – Connections video
One of the great characters in the history of the medium, Alfred Stieglitz was also one of the most influential photographers and promoters of photography of the 20th century. In this class, we look at Stieglitz and the group of photographers and other artists he gathered around him. We also try [...]
A slightly shorter class session, as we cover two smaller topics: 1) the ideas surrounding stereoscopic photography and 2) the way 19th century photographers handled photographing standard subjects; once you take away subject, what other choices do photographers have to make?
Slides for this class session
Handout for this class session
Slate.com article on [...]
The interactive relationship that painting and photography have had for 170 years is the topic of this class session. We attempt to look at how painting influenced photography and vice-versa. We also look briefly at how what photographs “look like” influence our understanding of what they are.
Slides from this class session
Handout [...]
Travel photography in the 19th century is the focus of class session number 5. We look at how the advent of wet-plate collodion technology spurred the advance of travel and landscape photography, with a special emphasis on photography of the American west.
Slides from this class session
Handout from this class session
The 4th class meeting starts a more conceptual approach to the medium’s history. We look at 19th, 20th and some 21st century portraits and see if we can draw some conclusions about what makes a good portrait photograph. We also see if we can draw some parallels with the words and [...]
In this second part of a two-part survey, we continue our fast trip through the history of photography, attempting to get a handle on who did what, when they did it and how it happened. We start in around 1880 and finish up in the 1990s.
Slides for this class session
Handouts for this [...]
Class session #2 is the first part of a two-part overview of the history of photography; a sort of “condensed” history in order to get a sense of the medium’s “who, what, when and where.” This week, we cover from 1800 B.C. to 1888 A.D. Part two will follow next week.
Slides for [...]
In this first class meeting for the spring, 2010 semester, we spend the first 90 minutes or so going over class mechanics & course technology enhancements, including explanation of this podcast and other internet resources. The last hour is spent looking at some of the problems that the photo historian faces, [...]
In the 15th and final class session for the fall, 2009 term, we examine both documentary and conceptual photography, looking at the motivation and rationale behind each avenue of image making. We also try to tie up the ideas of the course with some concluding remarks.
Slides for this class session
Handouts for this class session
The middle of the 20th century was a time of tremendous change in all areas of the world and especially in the world of photography. This class session looks at the changes that photography experienced during the atomic age through an examination of the cultural, political and artistic climate of the time.
Slides for this class [...]
During his 29-year tenure as Director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the great curator and photographer John Szarkowski (1925 to 2007) changed the way the world saw photography.
This short class session introduces Szarkowski’s work and was followed by a short film about him.
Slides for this class session
Handout [...]
We trace the trajectory of the manipulated image in this session entitled, “The Past is Prologue – The Manipulative Impulse and the Digital Age.” We also try to see if we can figure out where our digital photographic age is taking us and whether we want to go there. Sorry to say that again, there [...]
Is anatomy destiny? This class session looks at women’s photography by examining the work of various female photographers as well as by looking at the bigger issue of whether the photographer’s gender changes the images that are made. Due to a technical glitch, this episode is a re-post of the fall, 2007 class session.
Slides for [...]
This week, we examine photographers using large cameras and those using small cameras and try to examine the importance of the choice of tools to the photographer. Does the tool drive the idea, or the idea drive the tool?
Slides for this class session
Handout for this class session
A slightly shorter class session, as we cover two smaller topics: 1) the ideas surrounding stereoscopic photography and 2) the way 19th century photographers handled photographing standard subjects; once you take away subject, what other choices do photographers have to make?
Slides for this class session
Handout for this class session
Slate.com article on Plagiarsm
The Rephotographic Survey
The interactive relationship that painting and photography have had for 170 years is the topic of this class session. We attempt to look at how painting influenced photography and vice-versa. We also look briefly at how what photographs “look like” influence our understanding of what they are.
Slides from this class session
Handout from this class session
Field Trip! The Photo History class visits the The Mary L. and Leigh B. Block Photography Study Room at the Art Institute of Chicago, giving us the opportunity to see original images from the history of the medium.
The Art Institute of Chicago:
The AIC Photography Department
The AIC Photo Study Room
The 5th and final Photo History Intersession commemorates the anniversary of the death of 19th century photographer Charles Dodgeson. Dodgeson, better known by his writing pen name of Lewis Carroll, was an important and interesting photographer as well as an author.
Alice Liddell – Photograph by Charles Dodgeson aka Lewis Carroll (left) and Julia Margaret Cameron [...]
The 4th Photo History Intersession looks at two rather dramatically opposed technical applications of photography: The first X-Ray image, made by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1896 and the first auroral (northern lights) photograph made by Martin Brendel in 1892.
(left) First X-Ray image by Wilhelm Röntgen – 1896 & (right) First auroral (northern lights) photograph by [...]
In the third History of Photography Intersession, we look at some interesting events from January first, as we commemorate the birth date of photographer William Klein, the anniversary of the death of Edward Weston, some facts about George Eastman and his inventions and the birth of the Associated Press Wirephoto.
William Klein at Masters of Photography
William [...]
In the first of a few “intersession” podcasts between the fall and spring semesters, we commemorate the birth date of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith (1918) and the anniversary of the death of photographer Bill Brandt (1983).
W. Eugene Smith at Masters of Photography
Bill Brandt at Masters of Photography
We bring the summer school sessions to a close with a rememberance of the 100th birthday of the great photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Hyères, France, 1932″
On this date in 1926, National Geographic Magazine published color underwater photographs; a photographic first. This wasn’t the first attempt at underwater photography, however; photographers had been taking pictures below the waves since 1856.
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Wayne Levin [...]
Alexander Gardner photographed the hanging of the Lincoln Conspirators on July 7, 1865. This image and a pair of Gardner’s portraits of two of the men who are about to be executed are the subjects of this Photo History Summer School session.
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Above Left: Alexander Gardner – The “cracked glass” Portrait [...]
Powerful and horrific photographs of the effects of the Battle of Gettysburg by Timothy O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner are the subject of today’s Photo History Summer School.
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Above: Timothy O’Sullivan – A Harvest of Death – July, 1863
Above: Alexander Gardner – The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, July, 1863
In this summer school session, we explore two remarkable photographers; the Vietnamese photojournalist Nick Ut whose best-known image was created on this date and the Chinese pictorial master Don Hong-Oai, who died on this date in 2004.
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Today’s summer school session is all about color.
On this date in 1904, The Parisian brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière presented their patented color photographic process, the Autochrome, to the French Academy of Sciences. The Autochrome was the first commercially feasible color photographic process; the first time photographers could reliably produce color images.
This is date is [...]
In today’s May 25th edition of Photo History Summer School, we note the birth dates of the avant garde Cech photographer Jaroslav Rossler and the oddly surrealistic American photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard as well as the anniversary of the death of the preeminant war photographer Robert Capa.
Some images by Rossler, Meatyard and Capa:
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Cornell Capa, the photojournalist and tireless advocate of humanistic photography died today, May 23, 2008. He was 90 years old. A great and committed photographer, Capa’s heartfelt images were often overshadowed by two other elements in his life. One was the photography of his brother, the pre-eminent war photographer Robert Capa. The other was the [...]
It’s summer, but photo history doesn’t rest… May 13th is the anniversary of the birth of Czech photography Jan Saudek (1935, Prague) and also the anniversary of the death (1980) of German photographer Otto Umbehr, known as Umbo. This “summer school” podcast briefly presents their work.
Some images by Jan Saudek & Umbo
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From the very beginning of the medium, photographers have wanted to portray their sense of wonder and awe in the face of the natural world through the camera’s lens, often offering up nature as the Great American Cathedral. This romantic tradition continues, but the mid-20th century saw a change in the way photographers looked at [...]
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