124 research outputs found
The soft-focus lens and Anglo-American pictorialism
No full textElectronic version excludes illustrations for which permission has not been granted by the rights holderThe history, practice and aesthetic of the soft focus lens in photography is elucidated and developed from its earliest statements of need to the current time with a particular emphasis on its role in the development of the Pictorialist movement. Using William Crawford's concept of photographic 'syntax', the use of the soft focus lens is explored as an example of how technology shapes style.
A detailed study of the soft focus lenses from the earliest forms to the present is presented, enumerating the core properties of pinhole, early experimental and commercial soft focus lenses. This was researched via published texts in period journals, advertising, private correspondence, interviews, and the lenses themselves. The author conducted a wide range of in-studio experiments with both period and contemporary soft focus lenses to evaluate their character and distinct features, as well as to validate source material.
Nodal points of this history and development are explored in the critical debate between the diffuse and sharp photographic image, beginning with the competition between the calotype and daguerreotype. The role of George Davison's The Old Farmstead is presented as well as the invention of the first modern soft focus lens, the Dallmeyer-Bergheim, and its function in the development of the popular Pictorialist lens, the Pinkham & Smith Semi-Achromatic. The trajectory of the soft focus lens is plotted against the Pictorialist movement, noting the correlation betwixt them, and the modern renaissance of soft focus lenses and the diffuse aesthetic.
This thesis presents a unique history of photography modeled around the determining character of technology and the interdependency of syntax, style and art
Inventory for a Reverse Journey. Photographic Image and Found Object - An investigation of travel and material transformation as a paradigm of artist's practice: Ed Ruscha, Douglas Huebler, Bas jan Ader, Jimmie Durham, Gustav Metzger, Kurt Schwitters & Cian Quayle.
No full textInventory for Reverse Journey is the title of a collection of photographic artefacts and found objects, which I have collected over the last twenty years. The title refers to one specific type of artist's journey, which is applicable to the `chronotope' of my archive, as a `metaphorical journey in space and time' (Bakhtin 1981, p. 81). The `city',`provincial town', `road', `threshold' and `interior' are recurrent motifs, which Bakhtin fused together to describe the historical evolution of the novel in relation to its different genres. Bakhtin's motifs are expanded as the basis of an evolutionary nomenclature of the artist's-journey, as a form of spatial mapping and identity formation. Alongside other sources from literature (Alain Robbe-Grillet), cinema (Michelangelo Antonioni), psychoanalysis (Kierkegaard) and critical theory (Walter Benjamin) I have developed a theoretical framework, which initially originated in an empirical process, that is reflected in the antecedents of this project. The research process, as a journey itself, has concretised this approach within a systems-based practice. This is mirrored in the work of the artists under investigation, as their differences and similarities are highlighted within a broad contextual analysis. Accordingly the tone of the writing shifts its register at different points in the thesis.
My journey is just one example of several paradigmatic formations of `travel' as a strategy, which investigates the work of six different artists, as a voluntary or involuntary form of exile. A deskilled use of the photographic image is examined in the work of Ed Ruscha, Douglas Huebler and Bas jan Ader in the spatial mapping of their chosen locations. The work of these artists manifests travel, as a strategy, in a benign form of regional and expatriate exile. The investigation shifts its focus from the New World to Europe, where the work of Jimmie Durham, Gustav Metzger and Kurt Schwitters is analysed in relation to their transformation of found objects and materials, and their relationship with a former 'home'. Their position registers different degrees of the `impossibility of return' to a point of origin, which exists in the mind rather than as a physical location. The transience of their work, and use of disparate materials, is counterbalanced by their physical presence in the work. Conversely Ader, Huebler and Ruscha are linked by a scale of decreasing visibility, as they are sublimated within their work in the formation of, what is now construed as, a unique photographic presence. The starting point for which is a return to the formative years of conceptualism in the 1960's, which set the scene for Durham and Metzger from the 1970's onwards. The spectre of Schwitters practice of forming (Formung) and unforming (Entformung) is significant for my analysis of the dematerialisation of the art-work and artist, by processes of series and repetition, distance and proximity, movement and stasis. Although `travel' is a ubiquitous term, I continue to use it as a portmanteau, which carries with it the themes and `salient' features of a typology of artist's journeys. In a moment of perceived obsolescence as digital information systems engender a culture of `selective-amnesia', these thoughts have informed my work, which runs parallel to the artist case-studies, and the material transformation of the photographic image and found object
Photographic collections at National Museums Scotland – a review of the past quarter century
No full textBernhardt Miller, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1880]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Bernhardt Miller once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Terms associated with the photograph are: Miller, Bernhardt | veterans | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio
Elizabeth Harris, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1890]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Elizabeth Harris once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Ms. Harris was a member of the Ford Circle, Ladies G.A.R. Terms associated with the photograph are: Harris, Elizabeth | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio) | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-186
Julius R. Clark, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1890]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Julius R. Clark once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Terms associated with the photograph are: Clark, Julius R. | veterans | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio) | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 | military decoration
Joseph Soncrant, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1880]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Joseph Soncrant once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Terms associated with the photograph are: Soncrant, Joseph | veterans | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio) | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 | military decoration
Philip Loop, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1880]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Philip Loop once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Terms associated with the photograph are: Loop, Philip | veterans | military decorations | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio
Phoebe Harsch, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1890]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Phoebe Harsch once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Ms. Harsch was a member of the Ford Circle, Ladies G.A.R. Terms associated with the photograph are: Harsch, Phoebe | military decorations | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio) | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-186
Daniel J. Bigelow, Toledo, Ohio [approximately 1890]
No full textA cabinet card portrait of Daniel J. Bigelow once displayed by the Ford Post Number 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.). The Ford Post was established in Toledo in 1867 as an organization for Union veterans of the American Civil War. Terms associated with the photograph are: Bigelow, Daniel J. | Grand Army of the Republic. Ford Post No.14 (Toledo, Ohio) | United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 | military decorations | veterans | Grand Army of the Republi
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