Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography major - How did the earliest artistic photography come into being?
How did the earliest artistic photography come into being?
In order to promote photography from "mechanical recording means" to the field of art, Talbot and painters made their first attempt.
First, the initial attempt
In most of the photos of early pioneers, it seems difficult to feel the meaning of art. The indoor objects piled up at random, the trees in the courtyard with no aesthetic feeling, and the simple houses are just the reappearance of real life, which proves that photography has the ability of accurate realism. Therefore, the pioneers of photography called the images taken by cameras "sunshine paintings" or "natural handprints", and the photos were just specimens collected from the wild.
This mediocre record was quickly broken by Talbot. From the summer solstice of 1844 to the spring of 1846, Talbot published The Brush of Nature in serial form. In this famous book, there are 24 photos: a corner of Queen's College in Oxford University, Lin Yin Avenue in Paris, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire and the Black Tower in Westminster Abbey, as well as glass, statues, apples, pineapples and other still lives on the table.
Although the contents of these photos are a bit messy, we can still see the photographer's deliberate arrangement. In some photos, Talbot has begun to use the suggestibility of images to emphasize the key points of photos to attract people's attention. The sixth photo in the book, The Open Door, is the most typical example.
In this photo, a half-open door was photographed, with a broom beside it, harness and lights hanging on the wall. Together, these things are filled with a mysterious atmosphere of the ancient countryside. Talbot himself commented like this:
This is an early obscene photo, and some friends who like it are willing to comment.
For us, the Dutch school of painting has enough authority in taking familiar things as subjects. A painter's eyes are often attracted by what is common to ordinary people. A ray of sunshine, a shadow cast on the path he walked, a withered oak tree or a mossy stone will cause him a series of thoughts, emotions and unique imagination.
Talbot's comments explain how photos should create a picture. He believes that the existence of every simple element in the photo must be carefully arranged to arouse people's "unique imagination."
The open door is a scene waiting for people to appear. Lanterns are waiting for darkness, brooms are waiting for users, and doors are waiting for entrants. These meaningful details make people have rich associations. As a result, artistic imagination came into being, and photography is no longer just a copy of material reality.
Talbot once said:
The record of the camera is unreserved. But what can we learn from their findings without guidance or some kind of emphasis?
The Open Door makes a useful attempt to this end.
Second, photo photography.
Photo photography is a school in the history of early photography.
After the publication of Photography in Daguerre, some painters and scientists were the first to take up photography. Among them, a group of portrait painters began to operate photo studios and engage in portrait photography. However, in most people's minds, photography is still not included in orthodox works of art, but at best it is only an auxiliary means of painting.
At that time, there was a magazine that criticized photography like this:
In these photos, we can only expect the description of naturalism. The creative intention is not satisfied, and the imagination is destroyed by the mechanical record of reality.
As a result, some photographers began to explore how to make photography enter the ranks of "art" and achieve the same aesthetic, emotional and self-expression effects as painting. They believe that to improve the artistry of photography, we must imitate painting. They imitated the popular "pre-Raphael" paintings at that time, selected themes from the Bible or literary works, and took pictures at the mercy of the stage. Then, they combined multiple photos into a work by stitching and overprinting.
One genre formed by these photographers is "photo photography", and the representative figures are Rayland and Robinson.
(A) Relander and his "two lifestyles"
Oscar Gustavrejlander (1813 ~1875), a British photographer, was born in Sweden and was educated in Rome in his youth. He used to be a painter. /kloc-after he settled in Britain in the middle of the 0/9th century, he turned to photography. Like many painters at that time, Relander thought that the only way to improve the artistry of photography was to imitate painting.
1855, Relander took the work "The Play", which is a staged lyric photo taken at the mercy of the studio. In the photo, an old man and a child are playing together, and the picture is very poetic. Before shooting. Relander chose two suitable models to play the elderly and children, and trained and rehearsed them, so that they could keep still and make proper expressions during the long exposure. In the foreground of the photo, Relander also arranged some books and a fake dog to enhance the artistry of the picture. This highly regarded photo at that time was called "art photo".
Shortly thereafter, Relander began to study a complex mosaic technique, trying to take a meaningful photo similar to the pre-Raphael painting style, among which Two Lifestyles is the masterpiece. This portrait, a medieval oil painting, was spliced by Rayland with more than 30 negatives. In this photo, Relander conceived a moral scene: an ancient philosopher led two young people on the road to life. One of the young people is religious, hardworking and kind, and has respectable virtues. As soon as another young man left the sage, he rushed to the world of enjoyment and became addicted to gambling, alcoholism, lewdness and other bad habits, so that he lost his mind, endangered himself and died. There are dozens of characters in the picture, and each character has an ideological significance around the central theme. On the left side of the screen are gamblers, prostitutes, lazy people, drunkards and other figures symbolizing evil; On the right are carpenters, textile workers, scholars and other positive figures; In the center of the picture is a naked woman who is repenting, indicating that there is hope as long as she repents.
To shoot such a big scene on film, you need a big studio and many models. Relander avoided these difficulties and adopted the method of group shooting. He first took pictures of the characters in groups, and then took pictures of the scenery and props. Finally, more than 30 negatives were printed in blocks on a piece of photo paper. The production process is very complicated. It took Relander six weeks to get a 40×48 cm photo.
1857, "Two Lifestyles" was exhibited in the "Art Treasures Exhibition" held in Manchester (19 century, one of the most important exhibitions in Britain). This photo was praised by Queen Victoria of England and called "the most spectacular scene and the best photo". The queen bought this photo at a high price as an art treasure collection of the British royal family.
(B) Robinson's highlights photography
Another representative figure of photo photography is Henry Peachbinson (1830 ~1901) in Britain. He is also a photographer-to-painter.
From 65438 to 0857, Robinson opened a professional portrait studio in London. Influenced by Rayland, he began to learn complex overprinting techniques and tried to make edited photos. 1858, he completed the artistic photo "As I Lay Dying", which is a work composed of five negatives. The picture shows the image of a dying girl-she is half lying in front of the window, and the outside world is full of joy and spring. The girl is surrounded by her family, and they are all sad about her death. This girl and her family are very similar to the characters in the novel, giving people a strong sense of story.
"Dying" won the first prize with its powerful storyline and perfect composition after it was exhibited in 1858 Crystal Palace. At the same time, it also caused a heated debate. The focus of the debate is whether this subject is too emotional to be suitable for photography. It is precisely because of this debate that Robinson suddenly became famous and became the object of emulation by many photographers.
After that, Robinson took many such artistic photos and created his own unique photo making method. Like Ryland, Robinson's photos are made of different negatives. However, he cut out different photos, pasted them on a background photo, modified the seams, and then re-made and printed them. This method is called "Robinson Photography" because it combines wonderful parts into a photo through editing.
Robinson became the founder of high-light photography, and all subsequent high-light photography originated from his method.
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