Ansel Adams on PBS - Channel 9

Late notice: if anyone gets Channel 9, you may want to watch this program; we didn't have time to watch it in class - Doug

American Experience - Ansel Adams
On-Air & Online Monday, March 17, 2008
9 - 10:30 pm
In this elegant, moving and lyrical portrait of the most
eloquent and quintessentially American of photographers,
producer Ric Burns seeks to explore the meaning and legacy of
Adams' life and work. At the heart of the film are the great
themes that absorbed Adams throughout his career: the beauty
and fragility of "the American earth," the inseparable bond of
man and nature, and the moral obligation the present owes to
the future. (CC, Stereo)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ansel/

Quiz Two - Review Slides (extra-credit slides are noted)

Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, 1858
Robinson used 5 negatives to make this narrative picture. The dramatic subject-matter of the image was considered far too sensitive to be treated with the realistic medium of photography.




Oscar J. Rejlander, The Two Ways of Life, 1857
Rejlander used 32 negatives to create this narrative tableau scene that contrasts the sinful versus the chaste approaches to life. The photograph caused great controversy in England when it was first shown because of Rejlander's use of nudity in photography (it was ok in painting) and the multiple picture composition. See the our text and lecture notes for further description.




Julia Margaret Cameron, "Whisper of the Muse," ca. 1865
This work is typical of Cameron's work in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite painters of the day. She struggled with photography's technical processes and finally settled on using the blurred, out-of-focus imagery (that critics deplored) as her way of expressing the "greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer. . . " Also see "Photo Book" description.




Peter H. Emerson, Coming Home From the Marshes, 1886
In his theory called Naturalism, Emerson argued that the artist should translate exactly how the eye sees, concluding that the photographer should focus on the main subject of a scene, allowing the periphery and the distance to become indistinct. He derided works of the imagination, such as those of H.P. Robinson and O.J.Rejlander as untrue and promoted photography as a "truthful" medium. See text and lecture notes.




William Henry Jackson, "Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone," ca. 1872
An important early American landscape photographer, Jackson was hired as a photographer on the Hayden Geological and Geograhic Survey of the Territories in 1870-71. He made many photographs of the Yellowstone region that helped convince the U.S. Congress to establish the area as the first National Park in 1872. He later worked for the railroads, making many dramatic photos of the railroad in the Western landscape.




Eadweard Muybridge, Mirror Lake, Yosemite, ca.1867
This is also called "Water Asleep" which was the translated Native American name for the lake. Muybridge used reflections to add atmospheric effects since it was very difficult to get detail in skies with early photo plates. Another version of Mirror Lake was taken by Muybrdge in 1872.




Edweard Muybridge, "Attitudes of Animals in Motion, Galloping Horse," 1878
See our "Photo Book" text for a good description of similar image.




Gertrude Kasebier, Blessed Art Thou Among Women, ca. 1900
Strong vertical composition in the pictorialist style; feminine and domestic subject matter, in this case portraying the mother helping the daughter to approach life directly. Kasebier was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession, organized by Stieglit,z and the first photographer featured in Camera Work, in 1903.




F.Holland Day, Ebony & Ivory, ca.1897
Look in your notes or other resources to study this for possible extra credit.
Early use of male nudity as beauty; African American model in high esteem. What connotations does the title and subject matter in the photo have?




Andres Serrano, "Piss Christ," 1987
Serrano provokes the viewer to realize juxtapose visual beauty with intellectual concept by using iconic subject matter coupled with ironic and often repulsive titles or themes. This work and other Serrano works provoked conservative backlash that resulted in the U.S. Congress curtailing budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts.




Eduard Steichen, "J.P. Morgan," 1907
Steichen made his living as a portrait photographer of the rich and famous. In this photo, he chose a photo of Morgan that symbolized his negative feelings about the subject. Steichen was a co-founder of the "291" Gallery with Alfred Stieglitz that presented much Modernist art for the first time in America. He later became the photographer for "Vogue" and "Vanity Fair" magazines, a supervisor of photography for the Navy in World War II, and the first director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.




Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keefe, ca. 1928
Look in your notes or other resources to study this for possible extra credit.




Alfred Stieglitz, Equivalents, ca. 1929
Stieglitz chose the word Equivalents as a title to a series of cloud studies. The images were equivalent to a state of mind or stiuation for which there are no words. He chose clouds to show art and expression could be made using subject matter that was available to anyone.




Paul Strand, 1916
Look in your notes or other resources to study this for possible extra credit.




Paul Strand, The White Fence, 1916
Among other things, this photograph couples together the abstract and the real in its treatment of composition and space. It has often been called the first Modernist photograph. Why? Strand's images were admired and promoted by Stieglitz who published them in the final issue of "Camerwork."




Tina Modotti, Workers Parade, 1926
A melding of a modernist composition with concern for the humanistic elements of portraying the Mexican revolutionary culture - here she was able to take form and give it content. Modotti continued to make photographs that furthered the cause of the Mexican worker and poor.




Edward Weston, "Pepper #30," 1930
Weston's photo shows the modernist influence of emphasis on form, on the pure elements of photography such as light and detail. He also used the word "Quintessence," which was discussed in lecture or you can look up in the context of his work.




Edward Weston, "Nude," 1936
Weston established himself as both a commercial portrait photographer and as a pictorialist art photographer early in his career. In the mid-1920's he became an influential proponent of the "straight" style of photography, eventually helping to establish the Group ƒ/64. His photographs of nudes were often similar in feeling to his photographs of vegetables and vice versa emphasizing formal grace over subject-matter. See other Weston entry above and the text.




Jacques Henri Lartigue, Grand Prix, 1912
This image shows the motion of the camera and the motion of the car in one frame. Explain how Lartigue's photos are important in the understanding the developments of photography in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Also see text.




Snapshot of George Eastman, Snapshot, ca. 1889
This shows George Eastman holding his new invention, the Kodak camera. Explain how this influenced the use and the appearance of photography at the time it became popular. The shape of the photo is characteristic of a "snapshot" from a Kodak. Also, what was the Kodak motto to encourage the public's use of Eastman's invention?



Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907
Look in your notes or other resources to study this for possible extra credit. This is one of Stieglitz' pivotal images.