Maria's presentation

History of the Zine

"Although originating in fantasy/science-fiction fandom, fanzines eventually spread to other areas of aficionado interest, particularly music and comic books, and the term "fanzine" came to denote fan publications in those fields as well. As the practice of fanzines spread to other fan communities, the new publications inherited the qualities from the original fantasy/science-fiction fanzines, eventually passing those qualities on to what would become known as zines.
"The evolution from fanzine to zine was not a simple one-step process however. For once outside the exclusive domain of fantasy/science-fiction fandom, fanzines became imbued with the spirit of other independent publishing ventures such as the underground press of the 1960s, mail art magazines, and Amateur Press Associations (APAs—which also played a large part in fantasy/science-fiction fandom). Consequently, the fanzines produced outside of fantasy/science-fiction fandom became much less fan publications, and much more of a mongrel breed of publication all their own.
"The term "zine" was finally adopted because, although these idiosyncratic publications resembled fanzines, the traditional definition of fanzine did not seem to apply. What is John Marr, publisher of Murder Can Be Fun, a fan of anyway? Murder? Crime? Death? One can certainly have an active interest in those subjects, but could one be truthfully described as a fan of those subjects? Probably not, and the evolution from fanzine to zine saw the elimination of the fan.
"The shift from fanzine to zine also dismissed the hierarchy of producer and consumer that lies implicit in the fanzine's very name. There was no longer a quiet differentiation between fanzines and prozines. It's difficult to imagine Jim and Debbie Goad of ANSWER Me! or Jeff Koyen of Crank doing their zines for apprentice work and merely aspiring to someday break into commercial publishing as was the case with so many of the writers of the early fantasy/science-fiction fanzines.
"Even the zines especially devoted to a certain interest are much less reverent to their subject. The zine Maximumrocknroll can serve as a mere catalog of this month's latest punk rock releases, but it primarily serves as a discussion forum for all aspects of "punk." Indeed, many issues devote considerable column inches to what being a "punk" means in society, coming closer to being a symposium rather than a shopping mall. The readers and writers of these zines view themselves more as an egalitarian community rather than a community which contains a hierarchy of producers and consumers, with many of the consumers aspiring to get to the top end of the hierarchy and become producers themselves.
"However, the term "fanzine" is still used in fantasy/science-fiction fandom, and some members of that community regard the current generation of zines as nothing more than upstarts which will fade away soon, returning the term "fanzine" to its original uncorrupted meaning of denoting fantasy/science-fiction fan publications. In his article, "Zines (or, Fear and Loathing in the World of Amateur Press)," Peter Maranci writes:

"I might also interject here that the entire zine 'revolution' of the last few years is somehow mildly amusing to those in the science-fiction and role-playing field. Zines on those subjects have been published for the last 50 years or more. It seems likely that the sex/music/goth/whatever zine fad is just that, a fad; in time, it will go ion between SF/RPG [Science-Fiction/Role-Playing Games] and the new breed of zines."

"Maranci views the zines of today as just extensions of the older fanzines to other areas of interest, and a flip through the pages of many self-produced underground publications would support his claim. This explains why the terms "fanzine" and "zine" are often used interchangeably, although I argue that there is a difference between the two types of publications. The difference is not as wide a gulf as between zines and magazines, but it is considerable.
"Fanzines, not just those devoted to fantasy/science-fiction literature, but in all areas of interest, are still, paradoxically, products created by consumers. They draw their most significant inspiration from the products of others. The line between fanzine and zine blurs at times because they are so closely related, and many self-published periodicals such as Maximumrocknroll are mixtures of both. The telling difference between the two types of publications is that ultimately fanzines rest upon a hierarchy of producer and consumer that zines transcend. The best zines, whatever their subject, do not inhabit a ready-made world; they create one unto themselves.

---

"Other Ancestors

"Ironically, although zines can be seen physically to descend from fanzines, in spirit they also hearken back to other, older self-publishing ventures of independent spirit and vitality such as American broadsides from Revolutionary days, Russian Samizdat material, Dada and other avant garde art and social movements' magazines and manifestoes, and beat poetry chapbooks.
"Although it's fairly certain that most zine publishers were readers of fanzines or other zines before they started their own zines, it's uncertain how familiar, except by hearsay, most zine publishers are with these older publications. Nevertheless, many zine publishers have claimed affinity with these older publications, and apparently, like a whisper down the corridors of history, these works, just by the fact that they once existed, serve as both inspiration and influence to many of today's zines."

http://www.zinebook.com/resource/wright1.html

costing and distributing Zines

"Money is a consideration for almost everyone doing zines. With your zine do you expect to: (A) lose money; (B) break even; or, (C) make a little money? If you expect to make a little money, well, think again. If you expect to lose money, good for you. I lose money on most of my projects. But I consider the non-financial rewards to be more than worth it. (What are they, you ask? Well, mail, other zines, positive feedback, new friends, stuff like that...) And if you want to break even, well, you've got a really good chance!

"You need to figure out a balance between your cost and your price -- you don't want to charge too much, but you don't want to go totally broke either. Your cost will obviously depend on the number of pages in your zine. Your price should be as low as you can afford, and will depend on your distribution. Keep in mind that $1 is a standard zine price -- if you're charging $3 (even if that's your cost), a lot of people simply won't risk $3 on something they've never seen before. Keep your zine small and keep the price low.
For example, a typical half-size zine, at 20 pages (5 double-sided xeroxes) will cost you 65¢ at Kinko's (if you find a cheaper place, use it!!) If you charge $1 for it, you'll make a little money when you sell it in person, break even if you sell it in a store, and lose a little bit when you mail it. It should come out about even. If your zine's a little bigger, you might want to put $1 on the cover, and charge $1 + postage by mail. Like I said, sell it for as little as you possibly can -- and when pricing it you should also take into consideration how many you plan on doing. Losing 25¢ each on 50 copies is a few day's lunch money. But 25¢ each on hundreds of copies could break you for sure.

"There are several ways to get a zine out into the world, including: giving out/selling copies yourself (at shows or school or whatever); doing mailorder yourself; having other mailorder/distribution places handle copies; and, selling it in stores.
Distributing it yourself involves two possibilities, doing it in person or through the mail. In person you have the most options, you can sell it or give it away, and even sell it to some people and give it to others. Doing mailorder yourself is the most popular approach by far -- you need to figure out a price that will include postage and then get exposure for your zine through ads and reviews. (You can either charge the cover price, or add extra for shipping. A lot of zines will make it on one 32-cent stamp, others need 55-cents postage. Take a copy, or a blank one of the same weight, down to the post office and find out.)
There are a few distributors of zines, but very few of them are carrying new zines anymore, and they're generally difficult to deal with. Until you've been doing zines for a while, it's not even worth worrying about them. When you think you're ready, you can find out from other zines who distributes them, and send sample copies and wholesale info to those distributors.
Selling directly to stores (or more likely, putting on consignment) is also an option. Any store that you or a friend can get to (on a regular basis) is a good place to try and put copies on consigment. You may have to negotiate the amount with each store individually, but you should get 60-75% of the cover price. Don't take less than 50%, ever. You'll have to make up a consigment slip and have it signed by someone with authority, unless they have one already. Usually you set a time limit on the consignment, and at the end of that time, they have to give you money for all the copies they don't have and give you back whatever's left. But you can work this out depending on your relationship with the store.
There's lots of combinations of this depending on what you can afford and how into it you are. You could give it away locally in stores or at shows, but charge for it by mail. Or only do it by mail. Do whatever you feel comfortable with. "

http://www.houseoffun.com/action/zines/diy.html

tsk1 - research for

Beginnings

Photography started with a camera and the basic idea has been around since about the 5th Century B.C. For centuries these were just ideas until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura sometime in the 11th Century. Even then, the camera did not actually record images, they simply projected them onto another surface. The images were also upside down. The first camera obscuras used a pinhole in a tent to project an image from outside the tent into the darkened area. It took until the 17th Century for camera obscuras to be made small enough to be portable and basic lenses to be added.

Permanent Images

Photography as we know it today began in the late 1830s in France when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.

• Daguerreotype
  This experiment led to collaboration between Niépce and Louis Daguerre that resulted in the creation of the Daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes were the forerunners to our modern film. A copper plate was coated with silver and exposed to iodine vapor before it was exposed to light. To create the image on the plate, the earlier Daguerreotypes had to be exposed to light for up to 15 minutes. The Daguerreotype was very popular until it was replaced in the late 1850s by emulsion plates.
  
  
• Emulsion Plates
  Emulsion plates, or wet plates, were less expensive than Daguerreotypes and took only two or three seconds of exposure time. This made them much more suited to portrait photography, which was the most common photography at the time. These wet plates used an emulsion process called the Collodion process, rather than a simple coating on the image plate. Two of these emulsion plates were ambrotype and tintype. Ambrotypes used a glass plate instead of the copper plate of the Daguerreotypes. Tintypes used a tin plate. While these plates were much more sensitive to light, they had to be developed quickly. It was during this time that bellows were added to cameras to help with focusing.
  
  
• Dry Plates
  In the 1870s, photography took another huge leap forward. Richard Maddox improved on a previous invention to make dry gelatine plates that were nearly equal with wet plates for speed and quality. These dry plates could be stored rather than made as needed. This allowed photographers much more freedom in taking photographs. Cameras were also able to be smaller so that they could be hand-held. As exposure times decreased, the first camera with a mechanical shutter was developed.

"Cameras for Everyone

"Photography was only for professionals or the very rich until George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880s. Eastman created a flexible roll film that did not require the constant changing of solid plates. This allowed him to develop a self-contained box camera that held 100 exposures of film. This camera had a small single lens with no focusing adjustment. The consumer would take pictures and then send the camera back to the factory to for the film to be developed, much like our disposable cameras today. This was the first camera inexpensive enough for the average person to afford. The film was still large in comparison to today's 35mm film. It took until the late 1940s for 35mm film to become cheap enough for most people to afford.

"The Horrors of War

"Around 1930, Henri-Cartier Bresson and other photographers began to use small 35mm cameras to capture images of life as it occurred rather than staged portrait shots. When World War II started in 1939, many photojournalists adopted this style. The posed portraits of World War I soldiers gave way to graphic images of war and its aftermath. These images, such as Joel Rosenthal's photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima brought the reality of war across the ocean and helped galvanize the American people like never before. This style of capturing decisive moments shaped the face of photography forever.

"Instant Images

"At the same time 35mm cameras were becoming popular, Polaroid introduced the Model 95. Model 95 used a secret chemical process to develop film inside the camera in less than a minute. This new camera was fairly expensive but the novelty of instant images caught the public's attention. By the mid 1960s, Polaroid had many models on the market and the price had dropped so that even more people could afford it.

"Image Control

"While the French introduced the permanent image, the Japanese brought easy control of their images to the photographer. In the 1950s Asahi, which later became Pentax, introduced the Asahiflex and Nikon introduced its Nikon F camera. These were both SLR-type cameras and the Nikon F allowed for interchangeable lenses and other accessories. For the next 30 years SLR-type cameras remained the camera of choice and many improvements were introduced to both the cameras and the film itself.

"Smart Cameras

"In the late 1970s and early 1980s compact cameras that were capable of making image control decisions on their own were introduced. These "point and shoot" cameras calculated shutter speed, aperture, and focus; leaving photographers free to concentrate on composition. While these cameras became immensely popular with casual photographers, professionals and serious amateurs continued to prefer to make their own adjustments to image control.

"The Digital Age

In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous manufacturers worked on cameras that stored images electronically. The first of these were point and shoot cameras that used digital media instead of film. By 1991, Kodak had produced the first digital camera advanced enough to be used successfully by professionals. Other manufacturers quickly followed and today Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and other manufacturers all offer advanced digital SLR cameras. Even the most basic point and shoot camera now takes higher quality images than Niépce’s pewter plate."

http://photography.about.com/od/historyofphotography/a/photohistory.htm

"Photography was the perfect solution to art in the time of the enlightenment; scientific, reasonablewithout unnecessary flourishes. However the invention of photography changed the value of art - it could no longer be stated that art made after the invention of photography was only valuable as a snapshot of that time period; for that was the job of the camera. In a sense art was given a higher value as it portrayed a personal perception connected with historical events and philosophy."

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_the_invention_of_photography_impact_the_art_world_in_general

http://www.artrev.com/blog/blogentry.asp?bid=156

"When photography was invented and became public in 1839, painting was the domain of artists and artisans serving a variety of needs. Many of the artist's functions were practical and served a range of social duties, celebrating and building the prestige of eminent sitters, spreading information on the physical appearance of the world, its landscape, its wonders, its cities and architecture, commemorating events of local interest or of great historical importance, and providing images which implemented the psychological grip of religions and the hierarchies and structure of society.
Painting also became the domain for the free expression of the imagination. The Romantic tradition re-enforced the concept of painting as Art, freed from illustrative duties, serving the highest purposes of the human spirit. Nonetheless, whatever its purpose, practical or expressive, and however personalized or formalized the end product, artistic depiction was always founded on the convention of illustrating elements recognizable from the visible world. Even wildly imaginative visions or ideas were expressed through identifiable symbols. Piranesi's fantasies were constructed in stone, Blake's angels had wings of feathers. Sketching from life was the only and inevitable induction of the artist, painting from nature the only code. Ideas were developed visually through the assemblage of facts.
Perhaps the greatest contribution which the new technique of photography could make to painting was to liberate Art from its ties to realism, to factuality. There was, ultimately, no need for the artist's pencil or brush to labour intensively to depict and record people, occasions or things which the photographer could document through his lens with practical ease and speed. Art was freed on its path to abstraction. The journey was not so swift, however, nor the goal so immediately evident. The French painter Paul Delaroche is credited with having claimed, on learning of the invention of photography, that "from today painting is dead". His immediate anxieties were greatly exaggerated. Painting flourished through the 19th century within a largely traditional set of conventions and moved on in the first half of the 20th century to the ambitious challenges of abstraction, pure form and colour, leaving to photographers the task of making visual records.

"PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE SERVICE OF PAINTING
Photography may have threatened the livelihood of certain artisan painters, the minor portraitists whose role was eclipsed by the new photographic portrait studios, the topographers or architectural artists whose painstaking work could now be done within a brief exposure of a photographic plate. Many artists, however, recognized photography as an invaluable aid, using the camera directly as a speedy sketching device or using published or commissioned images as visual reference and inspiration. There developed a steady trade in photographs made as artist's studies, études pour artistes. Studies of the human figure, such as those made by Oscar Gustav Rejlander in London, Auguste Belloc, Bruno Braquehais, or Felix Jacques-Antoine Moulin in Paris, served the needs of artists and voyeurs. The detailed analysis of which the camera was capable, recording, for example, the structure of trees, the minute configurations of leaves or stems, served the mid-century artist's obsession with realism. British philosopher John Ruskin encouraged the minute observation of nature by artists. The camera facilitated this function.
Photography could also serve artists by revealing details too fleeting to record with the eye. An oft-quoted example is the recording by Eadweard Muybridge, through instantaneous sequential photographs, of the precise stages of human and animal locomotion. He confirmed that at one stage in the pace of a horse's gallop all four hooves are off the ground. Ironically, it was the greatest fantasists who pursued the most exacting verisimilitude. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's cinematic dream vistas of ancient Rome, for instance, depended for their effect on a photographic exactness in the detail of marble, flower, or fabric. They are an early repudiation of the notion that the camera cannot lie. Their photographic level of veracity is a cunning deceit.
The group of 19th-century artists whose relationship with photography is perhaps most ambiguous is the Impressionists. Their approach to painting was diametrically opposed to the high "photographic" realism of the Academy. They rejected the pursuit of fine detail such as could be recorded unselectively on light-sensitive plates. Their way of looking was concerned rather with the way in which the eye and intellect perceive things rather than the dispassionate way in which the camera records. Yet at the very basis of their approach was the analysis of the effects of light on their subject matter. The Impressionist intuition was an echo of the structured investigations of photo-scientists, both groups sharing an interest in chromatic analysis and in the qualities of light as it defines form"

PAPER!!

What You Will Need:

• Blender
• Rolling Pin
• Flat workspace
• Kitchen sink with stopper, or large plastic tub
• Kitchen Towels, or rags
• Paper Blotters
• Deckle (make your own, or buy one at a craft store)
• nylon screen
• sponge
• leaves, moss, glitter, or other decorations
• Paper - you can use old envelopes, papers, newspapers, stamps (but avoid glossy paper, like magazines)
• Microwave or hair dryer, if desired

Step 1

Assemble your deckle by fitting the larger frame over the screened side of the smaller frame.

Step 2

Fill your sink or tub with warm water (so it feels nice to touch--not too hot, not too cold). The water should be about three inches deep.

Step 3

Now, it is time to make your paper pulp. Tear your paper into squares (about 1"). Combine water with the paper in your blender. It should be about 2:1, two parts water to 1 part paper. Blend until the pulp is soft. You might see some chunks, but not any big ones.

Step 4

You are ready to pour your pulp. Place your deckle and screen in the sink (or tub), so the water is about 1" below the top of the deckle. Hold the deckle down under the water with one hand. With your free hand, pour the pulp into the deckle. Swish the deckle around.

Step 5

Lift the deckle straight up, draining the visible water. You want to keep the pulp even, so avoid tilting the deckle as you lift it. Once the visible water has drained, tilt the deckle. Wait for the water to stop draining.

Step 6

Place the deckle on a flat surface. Remove the top half of the deckle. There will be a layer of wet fiber (pulp) on the screen.

Step 7

Now, you need to sponge the pulp. Place your loose screen over the pulp. Use a moist sponge to evenly press over the pulp. Squeeze the sponge out into the sink, and repeat. You want to draw as much moisture out of the pulp as you can. Fold a kitchen towel, or rag, in half, then turn the pulp (with screen and deckle) over onto the towel. Use the sponge on the deckle screen to remove excess water. Squeeze out sponge and repeat.

Remove the deckle, leaving the pulp pressed against the loose screen. You can peel the pulp off of the deckle if it sticks.

Step 8

It is time to couch (pronounced koo-ch) the paper pulp. Flip the screen and pulp onto a piece of blotter paper. The pulp should be sandwiched between the screen and the blotter. Use a rolling pin to roll over the pulp sandwich. The pulp will transfer from the screen to the blotter. This method is called couching (kooching). Couch the paper again, onto a dry blotter. If your paper pulp is still really wet, couch again.

Step 9

Carefully lift one corner of the pulp sheet, slowly peeling it off of the blotter. It is time to let the paper dry. You can let it air dry (which takes 1-3 days depending on humidity), heat it in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes, or use a blow dryer on the paper.

Don't be surprised if your paper curls. To flatten it, stick it under some heavy books overnight.

http://stacienaczelnik.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-Paper---An-Illustrated-Step-by-Step-Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ-WvatTicQ&feature=related

history of photography

roger fenton

steve.raynor@leedscitycollege.ac.uk

• 5th-4th Centuries B.C.
  Chinese and Greek philosophers describe the basic principles of optics and the camera.
• 1664-1666
  Isaac Newton discovers that white light is composed of different colors.
• 1727
  Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light.
• 1794
  First Panorama opens, the forerunner of the movie house invented by Robert Barker.
• 1814
  Joseph Niepce achieves first photographic image with camera obscura - however, the image required eight hours of light exposure and later faded.
• 1837
  Louis Daguerre's first daguerreotype - the first image that was fixed and did not fade and needed under thirty minutes of light exposure.
• 1840
  First American patent issued in photography to Alexander Wolcott for his camera.
• 1841
  William Henry Talbot patents the Calotype process - the first negative-positive process making possible the first multiple copies.
• 1843
  First advertisement with a photograph made in Philadelphia.
• 1851
  Frederick Scott Archer invented the Collodion process - images required only two or three seconds of light exposure.
• 1859
  Panoramic camera patented - the Sutton.
• 1861
  Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope viewer.
• 1865
  Photographs and photographic negatives are added to protected works under copyright.
• 1871
  Richard Leach Maddox invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process - negatives no longer had to be developed immediately.
• 1880
  Eastman Dry Plate Company founded.
• 1884
  George Eastman invents flexible, paper-based photographic film.
• 1888
  Eastman patents Kodak roll-film camera.
• 1898
  Reverend Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
• 1900
  First mass-marketed camera—the Brownie.
• 1913/1914
  First 35mm still camera developed.
• 1927
  General Electric invents the modern flash bulb.
• 1932
  First light meter with photoelectric cell introduced.
• 1935
  Eastman Kodak markets Kodachrome film.
• 1941
  Eastman Kodak introduces Kodacolor negative film.
• 1942
  Chester Carlson receives patent for electric photography (xerography).
• 1948
  Edwin Land markets the Polaroid camera.
• 1954
  Eastman Kodak introduces high speed Tri-X film.
• 1960
  EG&G develops extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.
• 1963
  Polaroid introduces instant color film.
• 1968
  Photograph of the Earth from the moon.
• 1973
  Polaroid introduces one-step instant photography with the SX-70 camera.
• 1977
  George Eastman and Edwin Land inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• 1978
  Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.
• 1980
  Sony demonstrates first consumer camcorder.
• 1984
  Canon demonstrates first digital electronic still camera.
• 1985
  Pixar introduces digital imaging processor.
• 1990
  Eastman Kodak announces Photo CD as a digital image storage medium.

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Photography.htm

Camera Obscura, 16th century

Table-Top Camera Obscura, 17-18th centuries

We owe the name "Photography" to Sir John Herschel, who first used the term in 1839, the year the photographic process became public. The word is derived from the Greek words for light and writing. The innovations which would lead to the development of photography existed long before the first photograph. The camera obscura (Latin,literally translating to "dark room") had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing. It was discovered that if a room was completely darkened, with a single hole in one wall, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall. A person inside of the room could then trace this image, which was upside-down (similating the way that images actually enter our eyes). The earliest record of the uses of a camera obscura can be found in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who may have used it as an aid to understanding perspective. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a table-top model was developed. By adding a focused lens and a mirror, it was possible for a person outside of the box to trace the image which was reflected through it.

Nicephore Niepce, World's First Photograph 1827

Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, Paris Boulevard 1839

It was a French man, Nicephore Niepce (pronounced Nee-ps) who produced the first photograph in June/July 1827. By using chemicals on a metal plate, placed inside of a camera obscura, he was able to record an obscure image of the view outside of his window. He called his process "heliography" (after the Greek "of the sun"). The image is difficult to decipher, but there is a building on the left, a tree, and a barn immediately in front. The exposure lasted eight hours, so the sun had time to move from east to west, appearing to shine on both sides of the building. Another problem is that he had difficulty "fixing" the image so that it would not continue to darken when exposed to light.
Daguerre (pronounced Dagair) is the most famous of several people who invented more successful and commercially applicable forms of photography. He regularly used a camera obscura as an aid to painting in perspective, and this had led him to seek to freeze the image. In 1826 he learned of the work of Niepce, and in January of 1829 signed up a partnership with him. The partnership was a short one since Niepce died in 1833, but Daguerre continued to experiment. He was able to reduce the exposure time to thirty minutes, and in 1837 he discovered a chemical process which would permanently to fix the image. This new process he called a Daguerreotype. Drawbacks at this time included the fact that the length of the exposure time ruled out portraiture; the image was laterally reversed (as one sees oneself in a mirror); and that the image was very fragile. Another drawback was that it was a "once only" system (since it was fixed to metal). Soon, exposure times were reduced to a matter of seconds, and portraiture became a commercially viable purpose for the new technology. It would be up to George Eastman to introduce flexible film in 1884, allowing multiple images to be produced on light-sensitized paper. Four years later he introduced the box camera, and photography could now reach a much greater number of people. With his slogan "You press the button, we do the rest" he brought photography to the masses.

Early Daguerrotypes

Daguerrotype of Couple Holding Daguerrotype (Unknown Artist) 1850

Kneeling Woman, daguerrotype 1850 Courtesy: American Museum of Photography. http://www.photographymuseum.com

Couple Holding a Daguerrotype is one of my favorite historical photographs because of its unique commentary on the value of photographs as a record of the real world. There is a sadness apparent in the couple's faces which tell me that the persons in the photograph are either deceased or separated from a long distance. Daguerre's invention made it possible for anyone of moderate means to have a portrait created, and photographers profitted from traveling to towns across the United States. In addition, any large town had dozens of photographic studios available for people to travel to.
Most people embraced this new technology with great enthusiasm. A few religious zealots, however, claimed that it was the work of the devil. Many artists who had trained for years in the techniques of portrait painting were also to find it a threat to their livelihood. Some painters dubbed the new invention "the foe-to-graphic art." A number of artists turned to photography for their livelihood, while others cashed in on the fact that the images were in monochrome, and began coloring them in. Some painters also used photography to assist them in painting (some of these artists were Gauguin, Cezanne, Courbet, Lautrec, Delacroix and Degas). Photography would eventually change the purpose of painting from one which focused on outward facts of reality to more emphasis on personal vision.

Matthew Brady, Abraham Lincoln

Emily Dickinson at 17 (Unknown Artist) 1847

Julia Margaret Cameron, Echo 1868

Anyone who was famous after 1839 had their likeness captured for future generations. Abraham Lincoln credited the success of his presidential election to two things: his widely known speech (the Gettysburgh Address) and his photograph, which was widely distributed. In addition to Lincoln's portrait, Matthew Brady is also famous for his images of Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allen Poe. Julia Margaret Cameron was also well known for her photographs of famous men (Charles Darwin among them) as well as for her images of "fair women", She preferred a soft-focus effect, which have a poetic, haunting quality.

Civil War Field Camera

Timothy O'Sullivan, Harvest of Death (Gettysburgh)

In addition to portraits of famous men, Matthew Brady is known for his portraits of Civil War generals and for his images of vast fields littered with the corpses in the aftermath of battle. This was the first time that the destruction of war was captured on film, and would change the way we look at war forever. Brady is sometimes thought of as the century's most important photographer and the man who invented photojournalism. He also took credit for hundreds of photographs which were done by his employees, the most famous of these artists was Timothy O'Sullivan, who is believed to have moved corpses to attain more successful compositions.

Stereo Photographs

Stereograph (unknown artist)

One way that a photograph differs from the way that we perceive things in reality is that our eyes see in stereoscopic vision, whereas a photograph flattens all sense of three-dimensional depth. To compensate for this difference, the stereograph was invented. A camera would take 2 simultaneous images, and the developed image could be viewed by a stereoscope, which converged the 2 images into one 3-dimensional image. Viewing these images continued to be a very popular past-time until the invention of television

http://robinurton.com/history/photography.htm

Camera Obscuras' (Greek - dark room) - rooms with only one pin hole of light - were very likely used in art to make incredibly accurate drawings and paintings. The pin-hole of light works because light travels in straight lines - this means that the image, although it has perfect perspective and shadows etc, it is upside down. In the

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera



http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/camera_a_chapter.html

tasks 2, 7,8 - Vincent Van Gogh

 Van Gogh was greatly influenced by Paul Gauguin, a friend who lived with him in his 'Studio in the South' (what he hoped would become a artist commune). Only a year after meeting and even less since moving south, Van Gogh had an attack of insanity/epilepsy and was admitted (a second time) to a hospital. In the last three years of his life, he produced his best work - his most vivid, most strange and bright.

 Starry night was painted during Van Goghs second stay in hospital and was painted from memory, as opposed to his normal technique of painting from life; usually striving for realism, this was a major change of direction for him - even tho he stay with it. Painting from memory allowed the painting to be less realistic, to be more emotion based. The painting is incredibly popular, because/and so many people feel they can relate to the swirling patterns.

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starryindex.html

"Legacy

Van Gogh's renown steadily increased after his death, and his revolutionary approach to painting had a strong influence on the next generation of artists. The Fauves and the German Expressionists adopted both Van Gogh's use of color and gestural style, and later Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock and de Kooning made use of Van Gogh's experimental technique of sweeping, expressive brush strokes. He demonstrated that painting was not merely a study of the visible world, but also an expression of the artist's emotional response to his surroundings. His life of mental illness and instability created an image of a tortured soul who later captured the imagination of the world. His art and life have also inspired numerous films, as well as classical and popular music. Van Gogh painted 900 paintings and made 1,100 drawings and sketches, while only selling one of them in his career. Sharply contrasting his lifetime of poverty, Van Gogh's paintings have now sold for tens of millions of dollars and are some of the most rare and sought after acquisitions in the art market." http://www.theartstory.org/artist-van-gogh-vincent.htm

"Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to ultimately leave Arles. Van Gogh pursued him with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his own ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.
 In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting."http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/overview.html

His work was fanciful and escapist. His original plan to bring people joy through his work has been realised since his death in the late 1800s. His bright colours and slightly impressionist style earned is work the respect it originally deserved.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-van-gogh-vincent.htm
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/

A Pair of Shoes was painted in 1888. Much of Van Gogh's work was created in these last few years of his life.
The shoes may represent a need of money and funding for life. They are central, keeping your attention with them, he's making the ordinary interesting. The simplicity of the painting makes it all the more interesting, wondering why Van Gogh decided to paint the shoes. His distinctive style of painting with lines is clearly visible, adding extra depth to the piece that would not necessarily be there if it were painted exactly hows the shoes and floor really were. The paving/tiling suggests the shoes are either in a kitchen or outside - possibly not allowed into the rest of the house and muddying the floor. They look like workers shoes - from the field or other dirty workplace.