holoz0r's Art Essays: The Introduction of Photography and the Transformation it imposed on the Art World

With the introduction of photography, significant change was initiated in the interpretation of visual representation. Photography also had great influence on the medium of painting, and was able to change the perceptions of many elements of everyday life. The capture of the ‘moment’ changed perceptions of mortality and death, time and space, and absence and presence.

In order to discuss how the introduction of photography influenced painting and changed perceptions of elements of everyday life in more depth, first a brief history of photography needs to be given.

The concept of the camera is not one which was new upon the introduction of the photographic image. Brain Coe (1967, p9) notes that in its primitive form, the camera obscura was known about since at least the 10th Century AD, in which the Arabian scholar Alhazen, documented the viewing of solar eclipses without risking damage to the eyes. Coe goes onto to quote a description of the camera obscura, as given by Leonardo Da Vinci:

‘When the images of illuminated objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room . . . you will see on the paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colours. They will be reduced in size, and upside down, owing to the intersection of rays at the aperture.’

Leonardo Da Vinci, the Photographer, by
@holoz0r and MidJourney

Willfried Baatz (1999, p11) expresses concern at Da Vinci’s techniques of documenting his findings, which meant that the concept of the camera obscura was not further developed for approximately another three hundred years, until his mirror script was decoded. However, Baatz acknowledges that scientific developments with the camera obscura did occur during this time, notably through Giovanni Battista della Porta, whom in 1553 described the operation of the camera obscura. Several years later, Daniello Barbaro noted that the replacement of the small hole with a lens would enhance the image produced. (Ibid)

It was not until 1822 until the first documented, physical photograph was produced by Niepce (Janson, H.W. & Janson, A.F., 2001, p702), whom thereafter worked with Daguerre. Together, and after some years of research the daguerreotype was launched in 1839. This was the first time in which the camera obscura, and other cameras designed by Daguerre could be used to fix the temporary image generated by the focusing of light making it somewhat permanent, and allowing the capturing of the world with intense and vibrant accuracy.

Meanwhile, Talbot was developing a photographic process of his own, which created a negative image, on paper, from which he could later produce positive images. (Coe, 1967, p24)

However, early photographic techniques required long shutter speeds, sometimes, up to ten minutes in strong sunlight. This caused movement and transitional subjects to not be captured. For example in Daguerre’s View of the Temple Boulevard, Paris, the city streets are all but empty due to the photographic medium of the time not having adequate sensitivity to capture the ongoing movement in the of people, and passing traffic of the street. In a brief description of this image, Baatz (1999, p19) states ‘The sharp outlines of the seemingly empty street belittle the presence of life.’

It is also what is absent from the street, the presence of life, which allows the viewer to focus on the detail which is captured by the photographic image. This challenged the notion of painting, which relies heavily on the skill of the artist to produce an accurate representation of their subject. Coe (1967, p17) acknowledges the famous remark of painter Paul Delaroche, whom upon seeing a Daguerreotype claimed: ‘From today, painting is dead!’

Roland Barthes (1981, p4), in a discussion on photography; makes relevant the idea of uniqueness despite the infinite reproducibility of the photograph. A single statement summarizes this:

‘What the photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.’

The ability of the photograph to capture time, and moments, which will never once again occur, ‘immortalizes’ them. This makes them immune to the passage of time, as a representation which will remain the same, despite the infinite reproducibility of the photographic image; it is what it represents which can never be reproduced. This paradoxical argument is briefly discussed by Walter Benjamin, in his text The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) in a discussion on the ‘aura’ of objects and of the image. He ponders as to whether this aura is stripped from the object itself, and ‘placed’ in the photographic representation, or whether it is reproduced mechanically.

In the case of portraiture which was created through the mechanical means of photography, it is this transcendence which allows the one being represented to gain a type of immortality. Barthes (1981, p90), reflects upon this:

‘. . . the Photograph – my Photograph – is without culture: when it is painful, nothing in it can transform grief into mourning. And if dialectic is that thought which masters the corruptible and converts the negation of death into the power to work, then the photographic is undialectical: it is a denatured theater where death cannot “be contemplated,” reflected and interiorized; or again: the dead theater of Death, the foreclosure of the Tragic, excludes all purification, all catharsis.’

Barthes argument, when combined with Benjamin’s theory of the aura, reinforces the transcendence, and as in Barthes’ above statement, ‘the negation of death’, achieved through the photographic image raises confusion as to whether it is purely the physical likeness of the portrait sitter captured by the camera, and fixed to a surface semi-permanently, or whether it is also their ‘aura’, their very being, which is captured by the photographic medium.

The other trouble which is raised by this argument is Barthes referring to the photograph as ‘his’ photograph, one which lacks a culture, a context for anyone but himself. He also goes on to discuss the relative impermanence of the photographic image, and its potentially disposable nature (Barthes, 1981 p94): ‘ . . . this photograph which yellows, fades and will someday be thrown out,’ defeats the argument that the photographic image can completely transcend death, as death is permanent, unlike the photographic image which is transient, and vulnerable to damage.

This enables the representation to have a life of its own, as an object with Benjamin’s ‘aura’ is able to influence, and create a unique history as an object of representation. Benjamin’s argument that Art cannot be reproduced for this reason, the history of the object itself, is countered at this point by the non-art object, which even though is a mechanically reproduced representation is itself able to develop a history and unique nature of its own. For instance, two copies of a photograph placed in different physical conditions, viewed by different people will develop unique histories and will be affected by both the space and time they inhabit in different ways.

It was not until a much later time, and a great increase in the sensitivity of the photographic medium, when the introduction of ‘action’ photography was able to change once more people’s notions of perception, for this was the first time in the history of photography, when the passing ‘moment’ could truly be captured instantaneously. The moment forever captured in time in a static photographic image changed perceptions of movement throughout space.

This concept is now often referred to as the ‘snapshot’, a term with which Sir John Herschel is usually accredited with creating. (Coe 1967, p45) This was in The Photographic News of 11 May 1860, in which he stated with fascination and wonder at possibly capturing the moment so quickly:

‘ . . . the possibility of taking a photograph, as it were, by a snap-shot – of securing a picture in a tenth of a second of time.’

Coe (1976, p46) acknowledges the work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge whom initiated photographic ‘research’ into the movement of the horse, using an array of cameras in order to capture the movement at high shutter speeds – as high as one thousandth of a second. When these images were published, Coe explains that Muybridge’s work:

‘. . . his sequence of pictures upset all previously held ideas of the representation of movement.’

Muybridge did not only work with the images of the horse, but also with other animals, such as dogs, birds in flight, and also many studies of human movement through out space. His work also enabled the discovery and development of techniques which enabled cameras which could capture movement to be developed, creating the first cinematic, moving images. (Ibid)

Another photographer whom worked in a similar style to Muybridge, as cited by Baatz (1991, p64) was Etienne-Jules Marey whom created a series of images on motion, the example given by Baatz is of a man dismounting a bicycle. The capturing of movement in this way, by documenting the passage of time by the taking of photographs at regular intervals is known as Chronophotography.

Chronophotography, and the work of photographers and many other artists whom took up this practice of simply documenting the movement of things through time and space managed to generate much insight into the very nature of being. Despite some of these images almost being scientific in terms of the detail they recorded – movement of individual muscles, the movement of gears, chains and what not – all of them provided insight into how something gets from one point in space to the next, and what transitions it goes through.

Despite these Chronophotographs documenting movement, they captured sterile images which did not document speed. Baatz (1991, p65) goes on to acknowledge this by citing an image by Jacques-Henri Lartigue Grand Prink of the Automobile Club of France. In this image, a great sense of movement is created due to a blurring of the spectators of the car race, and also by a slight distortion in the shape of the wheel of the car represented within the image.

This ‘pausing’ of time and motion in the photographic image created many dilemmas. Despite the event having occurred and instantaneously having been recorded, it also created a prison for the representation – the race car would never make it out of frame, the spectators and roadway forced to constantly watch the vehicle and its imprisonment in time.

Another example of this ‘imprisonment’ which the photographic image creates is cited by Baatz (1991, p95) in the work of fashion photographer Martin Munkacsi in which a woman attempts to leap over a puddle. This moment; forever captured in time by the still image

‘. . . lent his models a dynamic pose, and his pictures became a metaphor for the energy of the cosmopolitan life’

This type of Photography no doubt continues to have an influence on contemporary culture, and with the photographic image being far more widespread than what it was in the past, we are constantly exposed to images, each one requesting our attention, offering to show an imprisoned representation of a particular thing, or occurrence at a certain time, or place.

It is also the infinite variability of the photographic image, and the ability to manipulate or change the image which is some cause for concern. In theory, if all occurrences were documented photographically, there would be an infinite number of angles, locations and ways in which the world can be documented.

This perception enables photography to show us what the eye cannot generally see – small details, frozen movement, or perhaps the pained expression of an athlete, having just lost a race for which they may have trained for many years. It is the capture of the moment, and the imprisoning of this moment which makes the photographic image one which remains powerful and moving.

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