Category: Theory

Overview of Positions towards photography

Posted on Posted in book shelf, coursenotes, Criticism, Theory

after notes on John L. Ward

PUBLICATIONS

Book: The Criticism of Photography as Art: The Photographs of Jerry Uelsmann, 1970.

Periodicals: “Historical Survey of Approaches to Criticism,” Photo Communique, May/Jun-Sept/Oct 1979.

BIBLIOGRAPHY of criticism he referenced:

1.Pictorialism 
a.Esthetics 
Anderson, P. L. Pictorial Photography, Its Principles and Practice. 
Philadelphia, 1917. 
"Monsieur Demachy and English Photographic Art." Remarks by A.M., Robert Demachy, C. B. Shaw, F. H. Evans, F. M. Sutcliffe. Camera Work 18 (April, 1907), 41-49. 
Robinson, Henry Peach. Pictorial Effect in Photography. London, 1896. 
Tilney, F. C. “What Pictorialism Is." The Photo-Miniature 16 (January, 1924}: 565. 

b.Criticism 
Caffin, Charles H. Photography as a Fine Art. New York, 1901. 
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Gertrude Kessebier." The Photographic Times 32 (May, 1900): 195-99. 
"Rudolph Eickemeyer, Jr." The Photographic Times 32 (April, 1900): 161-66. 
Johnston, J. Dudley. "The Art of Alexander Keighley, Hon FRPS." The American Annual of Photography 1949 63: 7-22. 

2.Purism 
a.Esthetics 
Craven, Thomas. "Art and the Camera." Nation 118 (April 16, 1924): 456-57. 
Eastlake, Lady Elizabeth. "Photography." London Quarterly Review (American edition) 101 (1857): 241-55. 
Gernsheim, Helmut. New Photo Vision. London, 1942. 
Pennell, Joseph. "Is Photography among the Fine Arts?"' Contemporary Review 72 (1897), 824-36. 
Weston, Edward. "Techniques of Photographic Art." Encyclopedia Britannica 17 (1957): 801-2. 

b.Criticism 
Agee, James. "A Way of Seeing." Introductory essay in: Helen Levitt, A Way of Seeing. New York, 1965. 
Greenberg, Clement. "The Camera's Glass Eye.' Nation 162 (March 9, 1946): 294-96. 
Tillim, Sidney. "Walker Evans: Photography as Representation." Art Forum 7 (March, 1967): 14-18. 

3.Intentionalism 
a.Esthetics 
"Ask These 20 Questions Whenever You Study a Picture." Popular Photography 42 (March, 1958), 60-61. 
Chappell, Walter, and Minor White. ''Some Methods for Experiencing Photographs.”’Aperture 5, no. 4 (1957): ]56-71. 
Hattersley, Ralph. "Notions on The Criticism of Visual Photography." Aperture 10, no. 3 (1963): 91---114. 
Kraszna"Krausz, A. "Criticism of Photographs." The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. New York, 1960, pp. 281-82. 
b.Criticism 
"Editors Read Eleven Pictures." Popular Photography 42 (March, 1958): 70-82. 
Gutman, Judith Mara, Lewis W. Hine and the American Social Conscience. New York, 1967. 
Perrin, Stephen C. "Editorial." The Boston Review of Photography 3 (November, 1967): 9-10. 

4.Reading 
a.Methodology 
White Minor. “What Is Meant by ‘Reading' Photographs." Aperture 5, no. 2 (19.57): 48-50. 
b.Readings 
Durrell,James, Jr. "Application of a Formal Method for Reading 'Pictorial' Photographs." Aperture 6, no. 2 (1958): 84-86. 
"The Experience of Photographs, 5 Photographs by Aaron Siskind, 5 Readings by: Kurt Safranski, Henry Holmes Smith, Myron Martin, Walter Chappell, Sam Tung \Vu." Aperture 5, no. 3 (1957): 112-28. 
"An Experiment in 'Reading' Photographs: A Consolidation of Readings by Students at the Rochester Institute of Technology." Aperture 5, no. 2 (1957): 51-75. 
Smith, Henry Holmes. "Image, Obscurity and Interpretation." Aperture 5, no. 4 (19,57): 136-47. 


5.Archetypal Analysis; 
Parker, William E. "Uelsmann's Unitary Reality." Aperture 13, no. 3 (1967): unpaginated.

Using the View Camera

Posted on Posted in exs notebook, Getting Stuff, the camera, Theory, uncategory

Learning means adjusting to what you don’t know. Changing questions into your answers. I am going to start you off with a set of reference materials, along with some cautions.

Google isn’t always your best friend. A goog search will take you to a forum dedicated to “large format,” seemingly full of knowledgeable, capable photographers. Beware: you probably don’t know enough to be able to pick between and among their suggestions.

My suggested references for your self-study:

The best general reference is the original Kodak Publication, or the updated. Get them both, if you can.

  • Camera technique for Professional Photographers, Kodak Publication No. O-18
  • Large-Format Photography, Eastman Kodak Compan Publication O-18e. ISBN 0-87985-771-4

The other texts provide a general vantage point, which assumes you are a student in trade school intending to become a commercial photographer… Or, specifics about the two main camera systems that ruled the commercial studio of 1965-1995. Linhof, and Sinar.

  • The Large Format: Handbook of the Sinar System Koch, Carl
  • Linhof Practice Linhof Precision Camera Works

View Camera Technique, Leslie Stroebel is a standard text from RIT and similar colleges. It powered many courses during the explosion of photography at colleges. Not the fine art schools that smelled of paint and plaster, but almost everywhere else. The contents provide a topic guide, even if you don’t get the book. As said before, I don’t recommend it for this century’s photographer. (I also avoid any Ansel Adams book.)

  • — Characteristics
  • — focusing and movements
  • — lenses
  • — bellows
  • — films & filters
  • — exposure & meters
  • — control of density
  • — view camera types
  • — evolution of the view camera
  • — applications of view camera

My course outline went something like this:

  • the Lens
  • — covering power
  • — image distortions/alterations
  • lens for
  • — wide angle effect
  • — small object/ close focus 
  • — portraiture
  • — compression/ seperation
  • the Location
  • the Procedure
  • — camera adjustments
  • — swing back
  • — tilt lens
  • — rise and falling front
  • Vertical lines
  • Horizontal lines
  • Depth of field
  • — all about shape rather than texture… focus over feature

View Cameras / new 2016