What does Peter Henry Emerson do?

PeterHenryEmerson, whose father is American and his mother is British, was born in Cuba. Emerson spent his teenage years in the northeastern United States. He held his first solo photography exhibition in 1868, became a celebrity in photography in 1885, and published a collection of artistic essays "naturalistic photography" in 1889, throwing the first blockbuster at the painting photography represented by Robinson, hence the name naturalistic photography.

Emerson is an English writer and photographer. His photography is an early example of popularizing the art form of photography. He is famous for taking pictures of natural background, and there is a dispute with the photography community about the purpose and significance of photography.

From 20 19 to 12, in the "Commemorating Photography 180th Anniversary" organized by the International Film Art Union, the French Comay Municipal Government and the Daguerre Foundation, Peter Henriesen was selected as one of the180 people with photographic background.

Chinese name: Peter Henry Emerson.

Mbth: PeterHenryEmerson

Nationality: UK

Place of birth: N 'Crusi da, Cuba

Date of birth:1May 85613rd.

Date of death: 1936 May 12.

Occupation: writer, photographer

Graduate school: Clare College, Cambridge.

Representative works: naturalistic photography

Main achievements: Photography was born in 180, 180.

Personal profile

Peter Henry Emerson was born on May 3rd, 856 in LaPalmaEstate, a sugarcane plantation near Crusi, Cuba. His father is Henry Zekyll Emerson and his English mother is Jane. He spent his early years at his father's residence in Cuba. During the American Civil War, he lived in Wilmington, Delaware for a while, but after his father died, he moved to England on 1869. He studies in Cranley Middle School, where he is a famous scholar and athlete. Subsequently, he studied at King's College, University of London, then transferred to Clare College, Cambridge University on 1879, and obtained his medical degree on 1885.

Emerson is witty, well-educated and rich, and can clearly express many of his views. 188 1 year, he married EdithAmyAinsworth, wrote his first book on his honeymoon, and finally gave birth to five children.

Peter Henry Emerson died at the age of 80 on May 65438, 0936.

Aesthetic ideology

Naturalistic photography attacks painting photography as fragmented photography for exhibition, which has nothing to do with living natural realism. The "fragmentation" here refers to the "collection" of paintings and photographs like Robinson and others. Therefore, naturalistic photographers advocate returning to nature to seek inspiration, advocating photographers to pay attention to their feelings about nature, explore themes in the actual natural environment, and express beautiful images in a realistic way. Emerson believes that nature is the starting point and end point of art, and only the art that is closest to nature and most similar to nature is the highest art. He said that no art can reflect nature more accurately, meticulously and faithfully than photography. "Emotionally and psychologically, the effect of photographic works lies in the unadorned lens scenes recorded by photosensitive materials." It can be seen that this artistic concept is a kind of reaction to painting, which urges people to liberate photography from the shackles of academic school and promote the full play of their own characteristics.

Emerson's aesthetic essence is his focus visual theory. He believes that people's visual boundaries are not clear. People look at a scene, except for the central part, the rest are rather vague. In order to achieve the visual effect of people when shooting, he proposed that the focus should not be accurate without distorting the main structure, and the photos taken should have blurred parts.

Emerson's own understanding of whether photography is art is from affirmation to negation. In the book "Naturalistic Photography" published by 1889, he publicly proposed for the first time that photography is an independent art, a combination of art and science, and photography art should be expressed by using techniques and skills without destroying the natural state of the subject.

Due to the evolution of the times, some photographers in naturalistic photography have greatly exaggerated Emerson's focus vision theory, which is radical to the extent of softening focus, blurring focus or even having no focus. Their behavior angered Emerson. 189 1 year, Emerson published a black-framed pamphlet, Death of Naturalistic Photography, which formally abandoned his naturalistic photography view. He said: "Although photography sometimes gives people a sense of beauty, its limitations are also very obvious. People can't distinguish the artist's personality according to it, which is the biggest defect of photography. " "I used to think that all the levels in the process of photography could be controlled at will, but it turned out to be impossible. Therefore, I can only regret to admit that photography is a' very limited art' and a' lowest art'. " After that, he gave up photography and lived a lonely life as a writer.

Photography career

Emerson bought his first camera at 188 1 and used it as a tool for a bird-watching trip with his friend ATEvans. 1885 Participated in the establishment of London Camera Club. 1886 was elected as a member of the board of directors of the photographic society, giving up his career as a surgeon and becoming a photographer and writer. Besides being particularly interested in nature, he is also interested in billiards, boating and meteorology.

Initially influenced by French naturalistic painting, Emerson advocated similar "naturalistic" photography, taking clear photos and recording rural life as clearly as possible. 1886, he published the first photo album named Life and Scenery in Norfolk Street, which included 40 platinum edition paintings. These illustrations are inspired by these ideas. However, it wasn't long before he began to focus on everything clearly and was dissatisfied with it, because his indiscriminate emphasis on all objects was different from the way human eyes looked at the world.

Then, Emerson carried out soft focus experiments, but he was not satisfied with the results, so it was difficult to accurately reproduce the depth and atmosphere, which he thought was necessary to accurately capture nature. Despite his doubts, he took many photos of the scenery and rural life in East Anglia and published seven new books on photography in the next ten years. In the last two volumes, English Lagoon (1893) and Swamp Leaves (1895), Emerson personally printed these photos with gravure printing technology after poor contact with commercial printers.

Since 1895 published Leaves of the Marsh (generally considered as his best work), Emerson has stopped publishing any photos, although he continues to write and publish books, including novels and various topics about genealogy and billiards. 1924 began to write the history of artistic photography, and completed the manuscript before his death in Cornwall in May 1936.

Emerson's photography collection Life and Scenery in Norfolk focuses on the life and scenery of people in Norfolk County, a scenic spot in southeast England. He photographed all the common scenery there, proving that these themes can also become works of art.

1979 was elected to the International Photography Hall of Fame.

Disagreement with photography agencies

Emerson struggled with British photography agencies on many issues all his life. From 65438 to 0889, he published a controversial and influential book, Art begets Nature Photography, in which he expounded his artistic philosophy and simple photography. This book was described by a writer as "a bombshell dropped at a tea party" because it replaced fictional photography with authentic photos. This is a direct attack on the popular tradition, which combines many photos to produce an image created by OGReijlander and HenryPeachRobinson in the1850s. Some photos of Robinson are made up of twenty or more individual photos. In this way, images can be made, especially those that could not be produced in low indoor light in the early days, and highly realistic images can also be made, usually imitating fable paintings. Emerson condemned this technology as wrong, and claimed that photography should be regarded as an independent genre, rather than trying to imitate other art forms.

All Emerson's own photos are taken at one time without retouching, which is another way to manipulate him strongly, called "the process of turning good, bad or indifferent photos into bad pictures or paintings."

Emerson also believes that photos should truly reproduce what the eyes see. Following the contemporary optical theory, his photos focus on a clear area, while the rest are not clear. He tried his best to pursue the debate about the nature of viewing and its performance in photography, so that the photography organization felt uncomfortable.

Emerson's other passionate belief is that photography is an art, not a mechanical reproduction. The debate on this point followed, but Emerson found that his defense of photography as art failed, and he had to allow photography to be a form of mechanical reproduction. The photos created by Robinson School may be "mechanical", but Emerson's photos are still considered as artistic, because they are not the true reproduction of the scene, but because of his single-plane sharpness theory. When Emerson lost the controversy about the nature of photography, he did not disclose his photography, but continued to take photos.

Naturalism photography

1899 Photographer Peter Henry Emerson published a paper entitled "Naturalistic Photography" in view of the weakness of painting creation, criticizing painting photography as fragmented photography, and advocating photographers to return to nature and seek creative inspiration. He believes that nature is the starting point and end point of art, and only the art that is closest to and most like nature is the highest art. He said that no art reflects nature more accurately, meticulously and faithfully than photography. "Emotionally and psychologically, the effect of photography hobby lies in the unadorned lens scenes recorded by photosensitive materials." Another master of this school, A·L· Pacho, put it more clearly: "Art should be left to artists. As far as our photography is concerned, there is nothing to rely on art, and we must engage in independent creation. "

It can be seen that this artistic concept is a reaction to painting, which urges people to liberate photography from the shackles of academic school and promote the full play of their own characteristics.

The creative themes of this school are mostly natural scenery and social life.

Because naturalistic photography is satisfied with describing the surface truth of reality and the "absolute" truth of details, it ignores the excavation of the essence of reality and the refinement of surface objects. In short, it does not pay attention to the typicality of artistic creation and artistic image. So it is essentially the vulgarization of realism. Sometimes it leads to a distortion of reality.

The famous photographers in this school are Dwieson (1856- 1930), Wilkinson (1857- 192 1) and Sutcliffe (1859-/kloc).

The naturalistic photography concept had a wide influence on the later development of photography, and its focused visual theory became the main theoretical basis of impressionist photography, while its essential spirit became the basis of the concepts of "direct photography" and "pure photography".

The defect of naturalistic photography is that it is satisfied with describing the surface truth of nature and the "absolute" truth of details, thus ignoring the excavation of the essence of reality and the refinement of surface objects, that is, not paying attention to the typicality of artistic creation and artistic image.

Personal photography concept

PeterHearyEmerson's main points in his book Naturalistic Photography are:

Photography is an independent art and a combination of art and science.

Photography can be realized by directly recording natural themes in the natural environment through framing, composition, lighting and selective focusing.

Focus vision theory, that is, the middle part of human vision is clear, while the edge part is fuzzy. In order to realize the visual reproduction of human eyes, the focus does not need to be completely accurate, and the focus can be blurred and changed appropriately without destroying the structure and image of the subject.

publish

PaulRay from the hospital: photos of students' life (1882, released privately)

Life and Scenery in Norfolk Mountain (1886)

Life photos of Tian Ye and Fen (1887)

Compleat anglers, or "the entertainment of meditators". As a river, fish pond, fish word and fishery, it was photographed in intaglio by Isaac Walton and Emerson (1888).

Norfolk pastoral poetry (1888)

East Anglia Life Picture (1888)

Nature Photography for Art Students (1889)

Tide field (1890)

On a British lagoon (1893)

Birds, Wild Animals and Fish in Norfolk (1895)

Swamp leaves (1895)

Guerrilla leader Caó ba. The True Romantic History of the Cuban Uprising (1897)

British Emerson family, genealogy history from 65438 to the end of 2007 (1898).

Proposed amendments to amateur billiards rules (1908)