Photography

PhotographyUsing a broad range of captious, satirical, and photographic texts, assess the cultural reception of photography in the mid ordinal century. To answer this enquiry fully, there must be a shed light on knowledge of the assimilation/society which birthed photography. The mid nineteenth century was a time of bang-up technological advancement (most prominently industrial technologies) that bought with it epoch-making cultural and neighborly change. It is well known that photography was both embraced, hardly also regarded with some scepticism as to its overall purpose and utility in the proto(prenominal) prudish era. Julia F Munro (2009 pg.167) statesIt is now astray accepted that photography wasnt truly discovered until 1839, as it was then that Daguerre and play tricks Talbot made their discoveries of premature photographic processes, the daguerreotype and calotype respectively, and shared them with the world. Goldberg (1991) agrees that it was much earlier whe n mass began to realise a need and take interest in apply light as a way of taking pictures, preserving a outcome accurately and automatically. Goldberg (1991 pg.10) goes on to state that desire was abroad to catch character in a net. Indeed as early as the of late eighteenth century, devices such as the camera obscura (optical device used in the first place to aid drawing) and camera lucida (a piece of technology which allowed cheatists the ability to precisely insert contours of landscape) were rife, and captured the eye of professional and amateur fraudists alike. Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), sometimes referred to as the Grandfather of Photography, was one of many people searching for an answer to the countermand that existed before the conception of photography, and was most interested in its ability to point nature accurately, and pursued his development of the calotype photographic process mainly as a result of his poor ability as an artist. Talbot states is his ma nual The pencil of Nature (1844) that his photography should be thought of as photogenic drawing. Talbots soonest photograph, Latticed Window although real poor quality and taken during his early experiments utilising an adapted the camera obscura, highlights his intentions as a keen scientist and mathematician to take mechanically accurate pictures. It is merely an accurate demoing, a latticed window on a bright day, it serves very little artistic purpose, and is mainly a triumph of technical accuracy. Photography came to serve a much necessitate purpose, one that had been recognised much earlier that its first conception. Although Daguerre/Fox Talbots Victorian audience were generally a receptive and pull up stakesing one, indeed progress to to embrace a new and exciting technology, nevertheless they also occupied in much critical debate regarding the cultural, ethical and social impaction regarding the emergence of photography. Wells (2004 p.12) states that hailed as a gr eat technological invention, photography immediately became the subject of debates concerning its aesthetic post and social uses , Henisch (1994 pg.2) agrees stating intense controversies raged concerning its status and role. The debates related to art or technology is one still fought today, and ones which grow can obviously be found in the very early years of photography. The famous quote by Paul Delaroche (1797-1859) upon first seeing a daguerreotype photograph, from this day painting is dead, whilst an overt exaggeration, highlights a genuine veneration felt by artists (especially portrait) during infantile years of photography. The daguerreotypeAlthough accepted for its ability to record mechanically accurate images that are free of discrimination, photographys status as an art form was much less certain, and fiercely contested. Can photography be considered artistic? Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), a French Poet artist, was a well known and very vocal critic of early phot ographyIf photography is allowed to deputize for art, it will not be long before it has ended or corrupted art altogether (Baudelaire 1859 pg.297)Baudelaire suggest photography simply should not and could not supplant more traditional artistic methods. Its ability asTo answer this question fully, there must be a clear knowledge of the cultivation/society which birthed photography. The mid nineteenth century was a time of great technological advancement (most prominently industrial technologies) that bought with it significant cultural and social change. Whilst these advancements were the cause of change, Well (2004) states a society will also point and put time into developing new technologies in order to suffice satisfy previously unseen social needs. Wells (2004 pg. 12) summarises, photography was a consequence, and not a cause of culture. It was not a cause of change, but an answer to an unforeseen social need brought about by the loyal evolving, and ever changing modern met ropolitan lifestyle. BibliographyWELLZ, L. 2004. Photography A critical introduction. Oxford Routledge.CLARKE, G. 1997. The Photograph. Oxford Oxford University Press.BAUDELAIRE, C. 1859. The Salon of 1859. Unknown.BRIGGS, A. 1998. A Victorian Portrait. London Cassell Publishers Limited.GOLDBERG, V. 1991. The Power of Photography How photographs changed our lives. naked York Abbeville Publishing Group.GREEN-LEWIS, J. 1996. Framing the Victorians. New York Cornell University Press.HEINZ, K. 1994. The Photographic Experience 1839-1914. pappa Pennsylvania State University Press.MARIEN, M. 1997. Photography and its Critics. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. MUNRO, J. F. July 2009 The Optical Stranger Photographic anxieties in British periodical literature of the 1840s and 1850s. Journal of early popular visual culture 7(2) pp167-183.