Who is the father of artistic photography?

Oscar gustave rejlander, the Father of Artistic Photography (oscar gustave rejlander 18 13- 1875)

A young man born in Sweden, who originally studied painting, fell madly in love with photography and finally became an important figure in the high-art photography school in the history of photography. He is the legendary oscar gustave rejlander (18 13- 1875) and is called "the father of artistic photography".

Relander loved art when he was young. In his early years, he studied painting and engaged in portrait sketching at the Rome Art Institute. At that time, exquisite and realistic painting style prevailed, and photography was called elegant academic school. Of course, not many people are willing to turn their attention to this indispensable art form now.

An opportunity, 185 1 year, 38-year-old Relander left a deep impression on people with his photos of Daguerre in a large-scale photography exhibition held in Hyde Park. After that, through his own efforts, he went to Britain to receive photography education, opened his own portrait studio, and officially started the creation of portraits and close-ups.

Relander is good at cutting and pasting photos and stacking multiple negatives. At that time, he was trying to overcome the technical difficulties caused by the slow wet printing process of collodion, but later his stacking technology became his own style. People or things in a photo were finally combined by one exposure. This technique is very complicated now, but it was an effective way to create new works at that time. Therefore, after his first Zhang Hecheng photo was exhibited in 1855, this method began to be accepted by others in photography. 1856 was elected as a member of the Photography Society of London.

1857, Relander's most representative work Two Roads of Life was born. This work borrows the theme of fable and tells a story about enlightenment: a father raised two sons all his life. In the center of the photo is the old father. The son on the right walked in the moral society of religion and knowledge under the correct education, while the other son on the left chose laziness and degeneration, and finally ended the rest of his life. At that time, technically, the process was particularly complicated; In a sense, it is rare to describe two people's lives and express the significance of education with a picture of 16*30 inches. It is precisely because of this work that photography gained an equal position with oil painting and sculpture for the first time in that era, and was recognized as art, thus establishing Relander's important position in the history of photography. "Two Roads of Life" has been printed several times, one of which was bought by Queen Victoria at a high price and is now in the george eastman International Photography Museum.

We can't use the technology of cutting and pasting photos and superimposing multiple negatives yet. Advanced technology and convenient digital printing machine have replaced the complicated procedures in darkroom. However, the creation with themes, being good at quoting classics from surrounding things and historical culture, is still very enlightening to our creation. I often think that photography is a tool to express human thoughts. Like other art forms such as writing, music and dance, the only difference is the expression of language.

Looking at Relander's date of birth, I can't help but admire such a pioneer who explored and worked hard for photography more than 0/00 years ago. However, this is understandable, because the source of all strength comes from the love of photography, which is a heartfelt love.