Category: coursenotes

from lectures and presentations I’ve taught

Lyons: Photographers on Photography

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The contents of this compilation of photographer’s writings, listed in chronologic order. Nathan Lyons indexed them by author. I used to teach them as opposing, or alternating views, providing a handout of the index rearranged by year published.

1892 PARADOXES OF ART, SCIENCE, AND PHOTOGRAPHY — HENRY P. ROBINSON
1897 THE HAND CAMERA—ITS PRESENT IMPORTANCE — ALFRED STIEGLITZ
1899 SCIENCE AND ART — PETER H. EMERSON
1907 ON THE STRAIGHT PRINT — ROBERT DEMACHY
1911 THE RELATION OF TIME TO ART — ALVIN LANGDON COBURN
1916 THE FUTURE OF PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY — ALVIN LANGDON COBURN
1917 PHOTOGRAPHY — PAUL STRAND
1922 PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE NEW GOD — PAUL STRAND
1923 THE ART MOTIVE IN PHOTOGRAPHY — PAUL STRAND
1923 HOW I CAME TO PHOTOGRAPH CLOUDS — ALFRED STIEGLITZ
1923 LIGHT-A MEDIUM OF PLASTIC EXPRESSION — LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY
1930 PHOTOGRAPHY—NOT PICTORIAL — EDWARD WESTON
1932 A CONTEMPORARY MEANS TO CREATIVE EXPRESSION — EDWARD WESTON
1934- THE AGE OF LIGHT — MAN RAY
1935 CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY — FRANCIS BRUGUIERE
1936 FROM PIGMENT TO LIGHT — LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY
1940 DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY — DOROTHEA LANGE
1940 WHAT IS GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY? — ANSEL ADAMS
1942 ALFRED STIEGLITZ: FOUR HAPPENINGS
1943 SEEING PHOTOGRAPHICALLY — EDWARD WESTON
1944- A PERSONAL CREDO — ANSEL ADAMS
1945 THE DRAMA OF OBJECTS — AARON SISKIND
1946 AN ADVENTURE IN PHOTOGRAPHY — HARRY CALLAHAN
1948 INTRODUCTION TO PORTFOLIO ONE — ANSEL ADAMS
1948 PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNALISM — W. EUGENE SMITH
1951 IT HAS TO WALK ALONE — BERENICE ABBOTT
1951 PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE CROSSROADS — BERENICE ABBOTT
1951 FIFTY YEARS OF DOCUMENTARY — ARTHUR SIEGEL
1952 PHOTOGRAPHING THE FAMILIAR — DOROTHEA LANGE
1952 INTRODUCTION TO THE DECISIVE MOMENT — HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
1952 THE CAMERA MIND AND EYE — MINOR WHITE
1954 EUGENE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY — W. EUGENE SMITH
1956 CREDO — AARON SISKIND
1958 A STATEMENT — ROBERT FRANK
1958 THE WORLD’S 10 GREATEST PHOTOGRAPHERS — W. EUGENE SMITH
1960 ON PHOTOGRAPHY — EDWARD STEICHEN
1961 PHOTOGRAPHY IN OUR TIME –HENRY HOLMES SMITH
1962 SPACE AND TIME — WYNN BULLOCK
1963 EQUIVALENCE: THE PERENNIAL TREND — MINOR WHITE

Lyons1966

Photography: Introductory Readings [1970]

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from my teaching notes for Experimental Studios during the 70’s [73-82]

–PICTORIALISM VS. EARLY MODERNISM: Henry Peach Robinson, O.G. Rejlander, P.H. Emerson, Stieglitz, and Steichen. [Art Photography: Another Aspect,” by Naomi Rosenblum]
–PURISM. PAUL STRAND, PRECISIONISM AND ED WESTON AND F/64 GROUP. [“Art Photography: Another Aspect,” by Naomi Rosenblum, in xerox packet, “Alfred Stieglitz and Pictorial Photography,” by Jonathan Green and “Conspicuous by his absence” by A.D. Coleman.]

–THREE TYPES OF MODERNISMS. Franz Roh & Moholy-Nagy, Rodchenko, Heartfield, German photography in 1920s. [“Art, Photography, and Modernism,” by Naomi Rosenblum.]

–SUBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY I. Photography in Post-WWII Europe and its ramifications for American photography. The theories of Dr. Otto Steinert and his categories of photo- graphic praxis. Early precursors: Herbert Bayer, Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray. The ideology of subjective photography: formalists vs. socially aware. The New Brutalism in England: Nigel Henderson [“On the Creative Possibilities of Photography” by Otto Steinert and “A Separate Reality: Subjective Photography” by James Hugunin.]

–SUBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY II. The importance of the publication Aperture and Minor White’s theories of “reading” photographs. Discussion of the work of Fred Sommer, Aaron Siskind, Henry Holmes-Smith, Harry Callahan. The development of the notion of the “equivalent.” [“Equivalence: The Perennial Trend” by Minor White, and two short essays by Aaron Siskind and in Xerox of American Photography by Jonathan Green, chapter three and four.]

–Robert Frank’s The Americans. comparison of three different readings of Frank’s book: Jonathan Green’s, John Brumfield’s and Jno Cook’s critique of Brumfield. [American Photography by Jonathan Green, chapter five and “Robert Frank and Photography,” by Jno Cook and “Some Reflections on Time and Change in the Work of Robert Frank,” by Shelly Rice.]

–THE NEW DOCUMENT. The theories of John Szarkowski: The Photographer’s Eye, Mirrors & Windows, and Peter Galassi’s Before Photography. Szarkowski’s synthesis of Steichen’s documentarianism and Minor White’s expressionism. [American Photography by Jonathan Green, chapter six, seven and excerpt from “The Rhetoric of the Pose” by Henry Sayre, and “Figments from the Real World: Garry Winogrand,” by Frank Joseph.]