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THIRD EDITIO
NaoMi\ R osen bin ;
BEL-TIB
770. 9 Rosenblum 1997
Rosenblum, Naomi
A world history of
photography
31111021464068

A WORLD HISTORY
OF PHOTOGRAPHY
A WORLD mm-H^
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^3/ Naomi Rosenblum

THIRD EDITION

ABBEVILLE PRESS BLISHERS

NEW^ORK LONDON PARIS
• •

r
The cover illustrations are details of pictures that appear in hill and are
credited in the captions for the following plates.

TOP ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT)

William Henry Fox Talbot. Botanical Specimen, 1839. See pi. no. 21.

Sherril V. Schell. Brooklyn Bridge, n.d. See pi. no. 540.

Arthur Rothstein. Dust Stonn, Cimarron County, 1957. See pi. no. 450.

Johann Kaspar Lavater. Silhouette Machine, c. 1780. See pi. no. 29.
Gerd Volkerling. Oak Trees in Dessau, 1867. See pi. nt). 125.

SECOND ROW
Reudinger Studio. AfZ/c. Elven, 1883. See pi. no. 63.
Jean Tomn^ssond. Army Scene, c. 1914. See pi. no. 345.

THIRD ROW
Eugene Durieu. Figure Study No. 6, c. 1853. See pi. no. 242.
Mary Ellen Mark. "Tiny" in Her Halloween Costume, Seattle, 1983.
See pi. no. 689.

FOURTH ROW
Felice Beato (attributed). Woman Using Cosmetics, c. 186^. See pi. no. 533.

Eadweard Muybridge. Studies ofForeshortenirigs: Alahomct Running, 1879.

See pi. no. 291.
Dorothea Lmgc. Aligrant Alother, Niponw, California, 1936. See pi. no. 451.
Lumiere Brodiers. Lumicre Family in the Garden at La Ciotat, c. 1907-15.
See pi. no. 342.

FIFTH ROW
Susan Meiselas. Nicaragua, 1978. See pi. no. 793.
Heinrich Tonnies. Four Tonng Blachnuths, c. 1881. See pi. no. 69.

SI.MH ROW
Disderi Camera, c. 1864. See pi. no. 226.
William Rau. Produce, c. 1910. See pi. no. 347.

SE\ ENIFI ROW

Cindy Sherman. Untitled (#10), 1985. See pi. no. "43.
Unknown. "What an Exposure!" from Amateur Photographer, Sept. 23, 1887.
See pi. no. 306.
Charles Sheeler. Industiy, 1932. See pi. no. 585.

Lumiere Brothers. Untitled, c. 1907-15. See pi. no. 343.

TITLE I'AGE
Laura Gilpin. Still Life, 1912. See pi. no. 352.

Editors: Walton Raw is, with Nancy Grubb (3d ed.)

Designers: Philip Grushkin, with Barbara Balch (3d ed.)

Produaion Editors: Robin James, with Owen Dugan (3d ed.)

Picture Editors: Jain KelK, with Paula Trotto (3d ed.)

Production Adanagers: Dana Ckile, with Lou Bilka (3d ed.)

Library of Congress Catalogtngj-tn-Publuntion Data

Roscnblum, Naomi.
A world history of photography / b\ Naomi Rosenbliim. — ;rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
LSRN 0-7892-0028- (hardcoxer. ) ishn 0--892-0329-4 (pbk.)
I.Photograph\ — Hisror\'. I. Title.
TIU5.R67 1997
770'. 9 —dc20 96-36153

C>)mpilation — including selection of and images copyright © 1984, 1989,

text —
and 1997 by Abbeville Press. All rights reservedunder international copyright
conventions. No part of diis book may be reproduced or udlized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
by any information storage anci retriexal s\steni, without permission in w riting
from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Abbe\ille Publishing
Group, 22 Cordandt Street, New York, N.Y. 10007. The text of this book was set

in Galliard. Printed and hound in China.

ThirtJ edition, 1997

10 987654
Contents

PREFACE 9

I.

THE EARLY YEARS: TECHNOLOGY,

VISION, USERS 1839-1875 14

2.

A PLENITUDE OF PORTRAITS 1839-1890 38

The Galerie Contemporaine -Appearance

and Character in 19th-century Portraiture 84

3-

DOCUMENTATION: LANDSCAPE
AND ARCHITECTURE 1839-1890 94

The Western Landscape —Natural and Fabricated 144

4.
DOCUMENTATION: OBJECTS
AND EVENTS 1839-1890 154

A Short Technical History: Part I 192

A 19th-century Forerunner of Photojournalism —
The Execution of the Lincoln Conspirators 200

5.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART:

THE FIRST PHASE 1839-1890 208

6.

NEW TECHNOLOGY, NEW VISION,

NEW USERS 1875-1925 244

The Origins of Color in Camera Images 280

7.

ART PHOTOGRAPHY:
ANOTHER ASPECT 1890-1920 296

8.

DOCUMENTATION:
THE SOCIAL SCENE to 1945 340

Illuminating Injustice: The Camera and Social Issues 384

9.

ART, PHOTOGRAPHY,
AND MODERNISM 1920-1945 392
A Short Technical History: Part II 442

The Machine: Icons of the Industrial Ethos 454

10.
WORDS AND PICTURES:
PHOTOGRAPHS IN PRINT MEDIA 1920-1980 462

II.

PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1950:

THE STRAIGHT IMAGE 516

12.

PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1950:

MANIPULATIONS AND COLOR 568

A Short Technical History: Part III 624

NOTES 632

A PHOTOGRAPHY TIME LINE 645

GLOSSARY 650

BIBLIOGRAPHY 655

INDEX 671
Preface

As a way of making images, photography has flourished in photography provoked curiosity about its origins and
unprecedented fashion ever since its origins over 150 years stimulated investigations into its invention, develop-
ago. From Paris to Peking, from New York to Novgorod, ments, and the contributions of individual photogra-
from London to Lima, camera images have emerged as phers. The first histories, which began to appear soon
the least expensive and most persuasive means to record, after 1839 and became exhaustive toward the end of the
instruct, publicize, and give pleasure. Not only are pho- century, were oriented toward technological develop-
tographs the common currency of visual communication ments. They imposed a chronology on discoveries in

in the industrialized nations, they have become the para- chemistry, physics, and applied mechanics as these
digmatic democratic art form —more people than ever disciplines related (at times tenuously) to photog-
before use cameras to record familial events or to express raphy. Exemplified by Josef Maria Eder's Gesdnchte der
personal responses to real and imagined experiences. Photojjraphie {History of Photography), first published under
Because of their ubiquity, photographs (whether originals a different tide in 1891, revised several times, and issued in

or reproductions) have been paramount in transforming English in 1945, these histories were not at all concerned
our ideas about ourselves, our institutions, and our rela- with the aesthetic and social dimensions of the medium,
tionship to the natural world. That the camera has altered which they barely acknowledged.
the way we see has become accepted wisdom; that it has Soon after 1900, as the art movement in photography
confirmed that no single view of reality can be considered gained adherents, histories of the medium began to
imperishably true has also become evident. reflect the idea that camera images might be considered
Used in a multitude of ways and with varying inten- aesthetically pleasing artifacts as well as usefiil technolog-

tions, photographs have served to confLise and to clarify, to ical products. The concept that photographs serve the
lull and to energize. Interposed between people and their needs of both art and science and that, in fact, the medi-
direct experiences, they often seem to glorify appearance um owes its existence to developments in both these
over substance. They have endowed objects, ideologies, spheres of activity is basic to the best-known general his-

and personalities with seductive allure, or clothed them in tory that has appeared in the 20th century: The History of
opprobrium. They have made the extraordinary common- Photography, from 1839 to the Present, by Beaumont
place and the banal exotic. At the same time, photographs Newhall, first published as an exhibition catalog in 1937,
have enlarged parochial perspectives and have impelled rewritten in 1949, and revised in 1964 and 1982. Another
action to preserve unique natural phenomena and cher- redoubtable work The History of Photojjraphv, from the
ished cultural artifacts. On their evidence, people have Camera Obscura to the Bejfinnimi of the Modem Era, by
been convinced of the inequity of social conditions and Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, first published in 1955,
the need for reform. revised by both in 1969 and again by Helmut Gernsheim
Photography has affected the other visual arts to a as two volumes in the 1980s — also includes a discussion of
profound degree. Now accepted for itself as a visual state- the emergence of artistic photography and situates scien-
ment with its own aesthetic character, the photograph tific developments within a social framework. Besides
had an earlier role in replicating and popularizing artistic acknowledging the aesthetic nature of camera images,
expression in other media, and thus had an incalculable these works reflect the influence of the socially oriented
effect on the taste of vast numbers of people in urbanized temper of die mid-20th century in that they concede the
societies. Photography has made possible an internation- relationship of photography to social forces.

al style in architecture and interior design. It has inspired To an even more marked degree, a conception of
new ways of organizing and representing experience in photography as a socio-cultural phenomenon informs
the graphic arts and sculpture. How and why the medi- Photography and the American Scene: A Social History,

um has attained the position it occupies in contemporary 1839-1889, by Robert Taft (1938), and Photojjraphie etsociete

life are questions that this history explores. by Gisele Freund —the latter based on investigations
Throughout the 19th century, expantiing interest in begun in the 1930s but not published until 1974 in France

PREFACE
and not until 1980 in English translation. "The Work of phy, revealing an overall design without obscuring indi-
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," by Walter vidual threads.
Benjamin, which had its genesis in 1931 as a three-part To do justice to these objectives, the material in this

article entitled "Kleine Geschichte der Photographic," is book is structured in a somewhat imusual way. The chap-
a seminal early discussion of the social and aesthetic con- ters are organized chronologically around themes that
sequences of mass-produced camera images, which has have been of special significance in the history of the medi-
stimulated many later ruminations. A recent survey that um —portraiture, documentation, advertising and photo-
places photographic imagery within an aesthetic and journalism, and the camera as a medium of personal artis-

social context is Nouvelle Histoire de la photographic (1994), tic expression. This organization makes visible both the
edited by Michel Frizot. similarity of ideas and images that have recurred in widely

The obvious impress of camera images on the painting separated localities and the changes that have sometimes
styles of the 1960s, combined with the affirmation at about occurred in the work of individual photographers over the
the same time of the photographic print as an artistic com- course of time. This treatment means that the work of an
modity, may account for the appearance of histories con- individual may be discussed in more than one chapter.
cerned primarily with the effects of photography on Edward Steichen, for example, began his career around
graphic art. The Painter and the Photograph, from Delacroix 1900 as a Pictorialist, was then in charge of American aerial

to Warhol^ by Van Deren Coke (1964), and Art and documentation during World War I (and again in World
Photography^ by Aaron Scharf (1968), are two such books War II), later became a highly regarded magazine photog-
that examine the role played by the medium in develop- rapher, and finally was director of a museum department of
ments in the traditional visual arts. Within the past several photography; his contributions are examined both in the

decades, topical histories have appeared that survey the chapter on Pictorialism and in the one devoted to adver-
origins of documentation, photojournalism, and fashion tising and photojournalism. While this organization of the
photography. Monographs on historical figures and com- chapters emphasizes the subject matter and the context
pendiums that offer a selection of images fi"om the past within which photographers work, in select instances short
without being historical have enriched our knowledge of biographies, called "profiles," have been included at the
the medium. Our understanding of developments in all end of the appropriate chapter in order to underscore the
spheres —technological, aesthetic, and social —has been contribution of those whose work epitomizes a style or has

ampHfied through articles appearing in periodicals, proved a germinal force.

notably History of Photography . A scholarly journal initiated Photography is, of course, the result of scientific and
in 1977 by Professor Heinz Henisch of Pennsylvania State technical procedures as well as social and aesthetic ideas.

University and continued in England under the editorship Because large amounts of technical detail inserted into a

of Mike Weaver, History of Photography expands the hori- narrative tend to be confijsing rather than enlightening,
zons of historical research in photography. Ail these summaries outiining changes in equipment, materials, and
inquiries into specific aesthetic, scientific, and social facets processes during three separate eras have been isolated
of photography have made it possible to fill in a historical fi-om the descriptive history and placed at the end of each
outiine with concrete facts and subtie shadings. relevant period. Although not exhaustive, these short tech-
In view of this storehouse of material, my own book, nical histories are meant to complement the discussions
A World History of PPmto^raphy , is designed to distill and of social and aesthetic developments in the preceding
incorporate the exciting findings turned up by recent chapters.
scholarship in a field whose history is being discovered A great aid in the task of weaving everything
daily. It summarizes developments in photography together is the generous number of illustrations, which
throughout the world and not just in Europe and the will permit the reader to relate facts and ideas within a

Americas — areas that in the past received almost exclusive general historical structure not only to familiar images
attention. It presents the broad applications that photog- but also to lesser-known works. In addition to the pho-
raphy has had, and it articulates the relationship of the tographs interwoven throughout the text, the book
medium to urban and industrial developments, to com- includes albums of prints designed to highlight a few of
merce, to ideas of progress, and to transformations in the the many themes that photographers have found com-
visual arts. While dealing with historical context, it also pelling. They comprise outstanding examples in portrai-

examines the role of photography as a distinctive means ture, landscape, social and scientific documentation, and
of personal expression. In sum, this book is intended to photojournalism.
present a historical view that weaves together the various The study of photography is constantiy being trans-
components that have affected the course of photogra- formed by ft-esh information and insights, which recentiy

10 PREFACE
have accumulated with particular rapidity as a result of of the Center for Creative Photography; to Rachel
changes in technology and the appearance of the large Stuhlman and Becky Simmons in the Library and to
numbers of new scholarly publications and exhibitions. Therese Mulligan, Janice Mahdu, and David Wooters in

These developments have made it necessary to add new the Archive of the International Museum of Photography
information, interpretations, and images to A World atGeorge Eastman House; to Judith Keller and Weston
History of Photography . Changes have been made through- Naef and the entire staff of the Department of Photog-
out the text and captions, and the final two chapters have raphs, the J. Paul Getty Museum; to Tom Beck of the
been revised and expanded to encompass recent develop- Edward L. Bafford Photography Collection, University
ments in traditional and experimental photography. A dis- of Maryland, Baltimore County Library; to Verna Curtis
cussion of digital technology has been added to the final of the Library of Congress; to Mary Panzer of the
technical history. The bibliography has been expanded to National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; to
include books related to these topics as well as a selection Susan Kismaric of the Museum of Modern Art; to Sharon
of recent critical histories and monographs. The time line, Frost, Richard Hill, Anthony Troncale, and Julia Van
which was inserted in a previous edition to provide con- Haaft:en of the New York Public Library; to Miles Barth
textual relationships at a glance, has been updated, as has and Anna Winand of the International Center of
the glossary. Photography; to Gary Einhaus and Michael More of the
Keeping all of this material within the confines of a Eastman Kodak Company; to Ann Thomas of the
one-volume history has been especially challenging National Gallery of Canada; and to Sarah Greenough of
because of the current burgeoning of traditional photo- the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for
graphic activity and the emergence of electronic image- expediting my researches.
making capabilities throughout the world. In addition, I am Mark Albert, Jaroslav Andel,
indebted also to
new and valuable scholarship about the medium has been Felicity Ashbee, Ellen Beam, Margaret Betts, A. D.

exceptionally abundant. It is my hope that the additions Coleman, Franca Donda, Karen Eisenstadt, Mary Engel,
and changes in this revised edition will bring the reader Helen Gee, George Gilbert, Arthur T. Gill, Andy
up-to-date, fill insome lacunae, and inspire further inves- Grundberg, Jon Goodman, Scott Hyde, Rune Hassner,
tigation of the means by which photographs have come Edwynn Houk, Ann Kennedy, Hildegarde Kron,
to play such a central role in our lives. Alexander Lavrientiev, Barbara Michaels, Arthur Oilman,
Eugene Prakapas, Sandra Phillips, William Robinson,
Howard Read, Olga Suslova, David Travis, and Stephen
Acknowledgments
White for information and leads to photographs and col-

That this work is so well provided with visual images lections. In particular, I thank those who helped with the
is owed to my publisher, Robert E. Abrams, whose per- materialon China: Judith Luk and H. Kuan Lau in New
sonal interest in producing a generously illustrated histo- York, and Elsie Fairfax Cholmeley, Zang Suicheng, and
ry of photography is hereby gratefiilly acknowledged. In Lin Shaozhong of the Chinese Photographers Associ-
all respects, my association with Abbeville Press has been ation in China. My French connections, Madeleine Fidell-

pleasurable; I am indebted to my first editor, Walton Beaufort and Thomas Gunther, were especially efficient

Rawls, and to the editor of the third edition, Nancy with regard to photographs in French collections. My
Grubb, for their unfailing kindness and respect for my assistant, Georgeen Comerford, brought her orderly nature
ideas; to the book's designer, Philip Grushkin, for his sen- to the problem of providing a visual record of hundreds
sitivity and meticulousness in dealing with text and of images.
image; to Jain Kelly (ably succeeded on the third edition The support of Professor Milton W. Brown, formerly
by Paula Trotto), whose grace and dexterity in pursuing executive officer of the Art History Program at the
pictures for reproduction turned an involved chore into a Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and
pleasant undertaking. of Martica Sawin, formerly chair of the Liberal Studies
In writing this survey, I had the help of many individ- Department of Parsons School of Design, where I was
uals who collected information, corrected misapprehen- teaching during the genesis and writing of most of this
sions, pointed out omissions, and suggested sources for book, was invaluable.
pictures. I thank them all. In particular, I am gratefial to I could not have embarked on this project without the
Gail Buckland, Cornell Capa, Alan Fern, William I. support of my family. I am gratefijl for the enthusiasm of
Homer, Anne Hoy, William Johnson, Estelle Jussim, and my daughters, Nina and Lisa, and deeply appreciative for
Larry Schaaf for helpful suggestions regarding portions of the constant and loving understanding offered by my
the text. My thanks also to Terence Pitts and Amy Rule husband, Walter.

PREFACE II
About the Illustrations metal plate or paper to enhance the image. The col-
Few readers mistake the reproduction of a painting oration that became possible with the manipulative
for the original work, but with illustrations of pho- processes that flowered around the turn of the century
tographs the distinctions between the two sometimes will also, in general, have to be seen in the mind's eye.
become clouded and the viewer assumes that the original However, in order to provide the reader with some
print and its image in printer's ink are interchangeable. It indication of the variety and richness of coloration in
is important to realize that in the photographic medium photography, an album of images entitled "The Origins
(as in other forms of visual expression), size, coloration, of Color" has been included as one of a group of special
and surface appearance may be significant aspects of the sections. In it are reproduced the actual colors found in

photographic statement, and that these attributes are hand-tinted daguerreotypes, paper prints, carbon prints,
affected by being translated from their original form into and bichromate prints as well as in several of the earliest

a mechanical reproduction. color-process prints.

The question of size can be especially confiising. In addition to distinctive colors, photographic prints
Positive prints of varying sizes can be obtained by making sometimes display significant differences in surface appear-

enlargements from glass plates or negatives of a specific ance and texture, the result of using different processes and
dimension, and the size of the images may change again printing on different papers; these, too, do not translate

when the work is transferred to gravure or a lithographic easily in reproduction. In all cases, the reader should keep
reproduction. This is especially true in the era since the in mind that in addition to the variety of theme and the
invention of the 35mm camera, since negatives made with broad range of aesthetic treatment visible in the illustra-

this apparatus were meant to be enlarged rather than tions, photographs may exhibit a distinctiveness of color
printed in their original size. As a consequence, for mod- and texture that can be appreciated only in the original.

ern viewers the exact size of an original negative, even in Because photographs are fragile and for a long time
works produced before the advent of 35mm cameras, has were thought not to be important enough to merit spe-
assumed a less significant role. Photographic prints also cial handling, some images selected for illustration con-
are easily cropped —by either photographer or user—and tain extraneous marks caused by the deterioration of the
the print may represent only a portion of the original neg- emulsion on the negative. In other cases, scratches and
ative. Furthermore, the images in this book have been discoloration on the metal daguerreotype plates or cracks
found in hundreds of archives, libraries, museums, and and tears in the paper on which the print was made also
private collections, some of which were unable to provide are visible. No effort has been made to doctor such works
information about original size. In view of the reasons so that they look new or to add pieces of the image that
outlined above, and in the interest of consistency, the might be missing in the original photograph. Care has
dimensions of both negative and positive images have been taken, whenever possible, to reproduce the entire
been omitted in the captions. image even when the edges of a print are damaged.
A more significant problem in reproducing pho-
tographs concerns the coloration of the image. With the
About the Captions
exception of the color plates, in which the colored dyes
of the original print or transparency have been translated Caption information is structured as follows: name of
with reasonable accuracy into pigmented ink, all the the photographer, where known; tide of the work, with
images have been printed here as duotones, in the same foreign titles other than place names translated into
two colors of ink. It is obvious that the silver and gold English; medium in terms of the positive print from
tonalities of the metal daguerreotype plates have not which the reproduction was made; and the owner of the
been duplicated and must be imagined by the viewer; print. In the case of 19th-century paper prints, the term
this is true also for many of the monochromatic prints on calvtype has been used to denote all prints on salted paper,

paper included in the book. From the inception of pho- whether made from paper negatives produced by Talbot's
tography, paper prints were produced in a range of col- calotype process or a \'ariation thereof Salt print is used
ors that include the reddish-orange tones of salt prints, when the negative medium is not known. Dimensions of
the siennas and brown-blacks of carbon prints, the mul- the original negatives are not given, but carte-de-visite and
berry and yellow-brown hues of albumen prints, and the stereograph formats are indicated. When two credits are

warm silvery tones of platinum paper. In numerous given at the end of a caption, the first is the owner of the
instances, colored pigments were added by hand to work, the second is the source of the reproduction.

12 PREFACE
A WORLD HISTORY
OF PHOTOGRAPHY
 I.

THE EARLY YEARS

TECHNOLOGY,
VISION, USERS
1839-187S

What is the secret of the invention? What is the substance endowed with
such astonishin£f sensibility to the rays ofli0ht, that it not only

penetrates itself with them, but preserves their impression; performs at once

the function of the eye and the optic nerve — the material instrument of

sensation and sensation itself?

— ^^Photo£[enic Drawin£i," 1839^

14 THE EARLY YEARS

IN THE YEAR 1839, two remarkable processes thatwould means remained in use until well into the 19th century.

revolutionize our perceptions of reality were announced Realistic depiction in the visual arts was stimulated and
separately in London and Paris; both represented responses assisted also by the climate of scientific inquiry that had
to the challenge of permanently capturing the fleeting emerged in the i6th century and was supported by the
images reflected into the camera obscura. The two systems middle class during the Enlightenment and the Industrial
involved the application of long-recognized optical and Revolution of the late iSth century. Investigations into

chemical principles, but aside from this they were only plant and animal life on the part of anatomists, botanists,
superficially related.The outcome of one process was a and physiologists resulted in a body of knowledge con-
unique, unduplicatable, laterally reversed monochrome pic- cerning the internal structure as well as superficial appear-
ture on a metal plate that was called a daguerreotype after ance of living things, improving artists' capacity to portray
one of its inventors, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (pi. organisms credibly. As physical scientists explored aspects
no. i) (see Profile) The other system produced an image on
. of heat, light, and the solar spectrum, painters became
paper that was also monochromatic and tonally as well as increasingly aware of the visual effects of weather condi-
laterally reversed — a negative. When placed in contact with
another chemically treated surface and exposed to sunlight,
the negative image was transferred in reverse, resulting in a

picture with normal spatial and tonal values. The result of

this procedure was called photogenic drawing and evolved
into the calotype, or Talbotype, named after its inventor,
William Henry Fox Talbot (pi. no. 2) (see Profile). For
reasons to be examined later in the chapter, Talbot's nega-
tive-positive process initially was less popular than
Daguerre's unique picture on metal, but it was Talbot's
system that provided the basis for all substantive develop-
ments in photography.
By the time it was announced in 1839, Western industri-
alized society was ready for photography. The camera's
images appeared and remained viable because they filled

cultural and sociological needs that were not being met by

pictures created by hand. The photograph was the ultimate
response to a social and cultural appetite for a more ac-

curate and real-looking representation of reality, a need

that had its origins in the Renaissance. When the idealized
representations of the spiritual universe that inspired the
medieval mind no longer served the purposes of increas-
ingly secular societies, their places were taken by paintings
and graphic works that portrayed actuality with greater
verisimilitude. To render buildings, topography, and fig-

vires accurately and in correct proportion, and to suggest

objects and figures in spatial relationships as seen by the
eye rather than the mind, 15th-century painters devised a
1. Jean Baptiste Sabatier-blot. Portrait cf Louis Jacques
system of perspective drawyig as well as an optical device Mande Daguerre, 1844. Daguerreotype. Intemational
called the camera obscura that projected distant scenes onto Museum of Photography at George Eastman House,
a flat surface (see A Short Technical History, Part I) —both Rochester, N.Y.

THE EARLY YEARS 15

 artists rejected the old historical themes for new subjects
dealing with mundane events in contemporarv life. In
addition to renouncing traditional subject matter, they also
sought new ways to depict figures in natural and lifelike

poses, to capture ephemeral facial and gestural expression,

and to represent effects of actual conditions of illumina-
tion —information that the camera image was able to record
for them soonafter the middle of the century.

Another circumstance that prepared the way for pho-

tography's acceptance was the change in art patronage and
the emergence of a large new audience for pictorial images.
As the church and noble families diminished in power and
influence, their place as patrons of the arts was taken bv the
growing middle class. Less schooled in aesthetic matters
than the aristocrats, this group preferred immediatelv com-
prehensible images of a variety of di\'erting subjects. To
supply the popular demand for such works, engravings
and (after 1820) lithographs portraying anecdotal scenes,
landscapes, familiar structures, and exotic monuments were
published as illustrations in inexpensive periodicals and
made available in portfolios and individuallv without texts.
When the photograph arrixed on the scene, it slipped
comfortably into place, both literallv and figurativclv,

2. Antoine Claudet. Portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot,

among these graphic images designed to satisf\' middle-
c. 1844. Daguerreotype. Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock, England. class cravings for instructive and entertaining pictures.
Though the birth of photography was accompanied by
incertimde about scientific and technical matters and was
plagued by political and social rix'alries between the French
tions, sunlight and moonlight, atmosphere, and, even- and the British, the new pictorial tcchnolog)' appealed

tually, the nature of color itself. enormously to the public imagination from the first. As
This evolution toward naturalism in representation can photographs increasingly came to depict the same kinds of
be seen clearly in artists' treatment of landscape. Consid- imagery' as engravings and lithographs, thev superseded
ered a necessary but not very important element in the the handmade product because the\' were more accurate in

painting of religious and classical themes in the i6th and the transcription of detail and less expensive to produce
17th centuries, landscape had become valued for itself by and therefore to purchase. The eagerness with which pho-
the beginning of the 19th. This interest derived initially tography was accepted and the recognition of its impor-
from a romantic view of the wonders of the universe and tance in providing factual information insured unremitting
became more scientific as painters began to regard clouds, efforts during the remainder of the centurx' to improve its

trees, rocks, and topography as worthy of close study, as procedures and expand its functions.
exemplified in a pencil drawing of tree growth bv Daguerre
himself f/>/. no. 3) . When the English landscapist John Con-
The Da0uerreotype
stable observed that "Painting is a science and should be
pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature,"^ he voiced The in\ention of the daguerreot\'pe was rexealed in an
a respect for truth that brought into conjunction the aims announcement published in January', 1839, in the official

of art and science and helped prepare the wav for photog- bulletin of the French Academy of Sciences, after Daguerre
raphy. For if nature was to be studied dispassionately, if it had succeeded in interesting several scientist-politicians,

was to be presented truthfiilly, what better means than the among them Francois Arago, in the new process of making
accurate .md disinterested "eye" of the camera? pictures. Arago was an eminent astronomer, concerned
The aims of graphic art and the need for photography with the scientific aspects of light, who also was a member
converged in yet another respect in the 19th centur\'. In of the French Chamber of Deputies. As spokesman for an
accord with the charge of French Realist painter Gustave enlightened group convinced that researches in physics
Courbet that it was necessary "to be of one's time," manv and chemistry' were steppingstones to national economic

16 THE EARLY YEARS

supremacy, Arago engineered the purchase by France of obscura permanent. Daguerre's fascination with this prob-
the process that Daguerrc had perfected on his own after lem, and with the effects of light in general, is under-
the death of his original partner, Joseph Nicephore Niepce standable in view of his activities as a painter of stage sets
(pi. no. 4) (see A Shan Technical History, Part I) . Then on and illusionistic scenery for The Diorama, a popular visual
August 19, 1839, with the inventor at his side, Arago pre- entertainment in Paris. Evolved from the panorama, a

sented the invention to a joint meeting of the Academies of painted scene surrounding the viewers. The
circular

Sciences and of Fine Arts (pi. no. s) ; the process was later Diorama contrived to suggest three-dimensionality and
demonstrated to gatherings of artists, intellectuals, and atmospheric effects through the action of light on a series
politicians at weekly meetings at the Consen>atoire desArts of realistically painted flat scrims. The everyday world was
et Metiers. effectively transcended as the public, seated in a darkened
The marvel being unveiled was the result of years of room, focused on a painted scene that genuinely appeared
experimentation that had begun in the 1820s' when Niepce to be animated by storms and simsets.
had endeavored to produce an image by exposing to light In promoting The Diorama into one of Europe's most
a treated metal plate that he subsequently hoped to etch popular entertainments, Daguerre had shown himself to
and print on a press. He succeeded in making an image of be a shrewd entrepreneur, able to gauge public taste and
a dovecote (pi. no. 6) in an exposure that took more than balance technical, fmancial, and artistic considerations, and
eight hours, which accounts for the strange disposition of he continued this role with respect to the new invention.
shadows on this now barely discernible first extant photo- He understood, as his partner Niepce had not, that its
graph. When his researches into heliography, as he called progress and acceptance would be influenced as much by
it, reached a standstill, he formed a partnership with the promotional skill as by intrinsic merit. After the death of
painter Daguerre, who, independently, had become obses- Niepce in 183?, Daguerre continued working on the tech-
sed with the idea of making the image seen in the camera nical problems of creating images with light, finally achiev-

ing a practicable process that he offered to sell in 1838, first

for a lump sum and then by subscription. When these

attempts failed, he altered his course to a more politically

inspired one, a move that culminated in the acquisition of

the process by the French government* and led to the

painter's presence beside Arago at the gathering of notables

in the Palace of the Institute in August, 1839.

In an electric atmosphere, Arago outlined Daguerre's

methods of obtaining pictures (basically, by "exposing" a
silver-coated copper plate sensitized in iodine vapor and
"developing" its latent image by ftiming in mercury vapor),
enumerated potential uses, and prophetically emphasized
unforeseen developments to be expected. The making of
inexpensive portraits was one possibility keenly desired,
but in 1839 the length of time required to obtain a daguer-
reotype image ranged from five to 60 minutes, depending
on the coloring of the subject and the strength of the
light — a factor making it impossible to capture true human
appearance, expression, or movement. For instance, in one
of two views from window of the Boulevard du Tem-
his

ple (pi. no. 7) that in 1838, the only human

Daguerre made
visible is the immobile figure of a man with a foot rest-
ing on a pump, all other figures having departed the scene
too quickly to have left an imprint during the relatively

long exposure. Therefore, efforts to make the process prac-

ticable for portraiture were undertaken immediatelv (see

Chapter 2)

Shortly after the public announcement, Daguerre pub-

\. Louis Jacques Mand6 Daguerre. Woodland Scene,
n.d. Pencil on paper. International Museum of lished a manual on daguerreotyping, which proved to
Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, N.Y. many of his readers that the process was more easily

THE EARLY YEARS 17

written about than executed. Nevertheless, despite the teurs who were intrigued by daguerreotyping was Baron
additional difficulty of transporting unwieldly cameras and Jean Baptiste Louis Gros, who made the first daguerreo-
equipment to suitable locales —not to mention the expendi- type images of the Parthenon while on a diplomatic mission
ture of considerable time and money —the process immedi- to Greece in 1840. After returning to Paris, he was fasci-
ately attracted devotees among the well-to-do, who rushed nated by his realization that, unlike hand-drawn pictures,
to purchase newly invented cameras, plates, chemicals, and camera images on close inspection yielded minute details

especially the manual —about 9,000 of which were sold of which the observer may not have been aware when the
within the first three months. Interest was so keen that exposure was made; far remoxed from the Acropolis, he
within two years a variety of cameras, in addition to the found that he could identify sculptural elements from the
model designed by Daguerre and produced bv Alphonse Parthenon by examining his daguerreot\'pes with a magni-
Giroux in Paris, were manufactured in France, Germany, fying glass. The surpassing claritv of detail, which in fact
Austria, and the United States. Several knowledgeable still is the daguerreotype's most appealing feature, led Gros
opticians quickly designed achromatic (non-distorting) to concentrate on interior views and landscapes whose
lenses for the new cameras, including the Chevalier broth- special distinction lies in their exquisite attention to details

ers in Paris and Andrew Ross in London, all of whom had (pi. no. 9).

been providing optical glass for a wide range of other At the August meeting of the Academies, Arago had
needs, as well as the Austrian scientist Josef Max Petzval, announced that the new process would be donated to
a newcomer. Focusing on monuments and scenery, daguer- the world —the seemingly generous gift of the government

reotype enthusiasts were soon to be seen in such numbers of Louis Philippe, the Citizen King. However, it soon
in Paris, the countryside, and abroad that by December, became apparent that before British subjects could use the

1839, the French press already characterized the phenom- process they would have to purchase a franchise from
enon as a craze or ''df^uerreotypomanie'' (pi. no. 8) Daguerre's agent. Much has been written about the chau-
One of the more accomplished of the gendemen ama- vinism of Daguerre and the French in making this stipula-
tion, but it should be seen in the context of the unrelenting
competition between the French and British ruling-classes
for scientific and economic supremacy. The licensing pro-
vision reflected, also, an awareness among the French that
across the Channel the eminent scientist Talbot had come
up with another method of producing pictures by the

interaction of light and chemicals.

Regularly scheduled demonstrations of Daguerre's
process and an exhibition of his plates took place in Lon-
don in October, 1839, at the Adelaide Gallen' and the
Royal Institution, the two forums devoted to popularizing
new discoveries in science. Daguerre's manual, which had
appeared in translation in September (one of 40 versions
published within the first year), was in great demand, but
other than portraitists, whose activities will be discussed in

the next chapter, few individuals in England and Scodand

clamored to make daguerreotypes for amusement. Talbot,
aware since January of Daguerre's invention from reports
in the French and British press and from correspondence,
visited the exhibition at the Adelaide Galler)' and pur-
chased the equipment necessary for making daguerreo-
types; however, even though he praised it as a "splendid"

discover)', he does not appear to have tried out the process.

Reaction to the daguerreotype in German-speaking
was both official and affirmative, with decided interest
cities

expressed by the ruling monarchs of Austria and Prussia.'

Returning from a visit to Paris in April, 1839, Louis Sachse,
4. LfeoNARD-pRANgois Berger. Portrait ofJoseph
Nicephore Niepce, 1854. Oil on Canvas. Musee Nicephore owner of a lithographic firm, arranged for French cameras,
Niepce, Ville de Chalon-sur-Saonc, France. plates, and dagucrreotx'pe images to be sent to Berlin by

18 THE EARLY YEARS

5. Unknown. Joint Meeting of the Academies of Sciences and
Fine Arts in the Institute of France, Paris^ August 19, 1839.
Engraving. Gemsheim Collection, Humanities Research
Center, University of Texas, Austin.

6. Joseph Nic^phore Ni^pce. View from His Window

at Le Gras, c. 1827. Heliograph. Gemsheim Collection,
Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin.

THE EARXY YEARS : : 19

7. Louis Jacques Mand£ Daguerre. Boulevard du Temple, Paris, c. 1838.

Daguerreotype. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich.

mid-year; a few months later, views taken with locall\' ized. But by the 1830s this kind of scene already had begun
constructed apparatus also were being shown. However, to appeal to artists, and it is possible that the documentary
even though urban scenes in a number of cities were camera image, exemplified by this work, hastened the
recorded quite early, among them an 1851 view of Berlin by renunciation of romantic themes and bra\aira treatment of
Wilhelm Haltfter (pi. no. 10) , daguerreotvping for personal topographical scenes in the graphic arts.

enjoyment was less prevalent in Central Europe because One of the earliest Europeans to embrace and extend
the bourgeoisie were neither as affluent nor as industrially the possibilities of the daguerreotvpe was the Swiss en-
advanced as their French counterparts. As in all countries, graver Johann Baptist Isenring who, between 1840 and
German interest in the daguerreotype centered on expecta- 1843, exhibited plates of native scenery, colored bv hand, in

tions for a simple way to make portraits. Augsburg, Munich, Stuttgart, and Vienna. He also was
Avid interest in the new picture-making process, a among the first to publish aquatint views (pi. no. 12) based
description of which had appeared in scientific journals on daguerreotypes, signaling the form in which the unique
following the January announcement in Paris, motivated image would begin to reach a larger public. His subject
Anton Martin, librarian of the Vienna Polytechnic Insti- matter, too, anticipated the attraction that Continental
tute, to attempt daguerreotv'pc images in the summer of landscape was to ha\'e for a great many photographers
1839, even before Daguerre had fiilly disclosed his pro- working between 1850 and 1880, many of whom continued
cedures or had his plates exhibited in Vienna that fall. the tradition begun in the late i8th century of publishing
Winter Landscape (pi. no. 11) , a view made two years later by landscape views.
Martin, is mimdane in subject matter and ardessly organ- Curiosity about the new picture processes was pro-

20 THE EARLY YEARS

 8. Theodore
Maurisset. La
Daguerreotypomanie,
December, 1839-

Lithograph. Gemsheim
Collection, Humanities
"^'^'^^^^_ Research Center,
University of Texas,
Austin.

9. Jean Baptiste Louis

Gros. Bridtje and Boats
on the Thames^ 1851.

DaguerreoDi'pe.
Bibliotheque Nationalc,
Paris.

THE EARLY YEARS 21

 lO. WiLHELM HaLFFTER.
Statue of Frederick the Great,
Berlin, May 31, 185 1.

Daguerreotype.
Agfa-Gevaert Foto-Historama,
Cologne, Germany.

II. Anton Martin. Winter

Landscape, Vienna, c. 1841.
Daguerreotv'pe. Museum fur
Kun.st und Gewerbe, Hamburg.

22 : : THE EARLY YEARS

nounced among scientists, artists, and travelers in Ital)'. In American daguerreotypists. The sparkling North Ameri-
addition to translations of French manuals, which started can light, envied by fog-enshrouded Londoners, was said
to appear in 1840, visitors from the north brought along to have been partly responsible, but social and cultural fac-
their own equipment for both the daguerreotype and Tal- tors undoubtedly were more significant. Considered a mir-
bot's negative-positive process. Among the early Italian ror of reality, the crisp, realistic detail of the daguerreo-
daguerreotypists, Lorenzo Suscipj was commissioned to type accorded with the taste of a society that distrusted
make views of the Roman ruins for English philologist handmade art as hinting of luxuriousness and was enam-
Alexander John Ellis. Indeed, the presence of classical ruins ored of almost everything related to practical science. With
and the interesting mix of French, British, German, and its mixture of mechanical tinkering and chemical cookery,
American nationals living and traveling in Rome and the daguerreotype posed an appealing challenge to a popu-
Florence during mid-century gave Italian photography in lace that was upwardly and spatially mobile despite periods
all processes a unique character in that the rapid com- of economic depression. As a means of livelihood, it com-
mercialization of scenic views and genre subjeas became bined easily with other manual occupations such as case-
possible. For example, within ten years of the introduction or watchmaking, and those who wished to follow a west-
of photography, camera images had taken the place of the em star were to fmd it a practicable occupation while on
etchings, engravings, and lithographs of ruins that tourists the move.
traditionally had purchased. Some Americans had higher aspirations for the daguer-
As one moved farther east and north from Paris, da- reotype. As an image produced bv light, it appeared in

guerreotyping activity became less common. News of the their minds to conjoin the Emersonian concept of the
discovery, reprinted from the January notices in the French "divine hand of nature" with the practicality of scientific

press, reached Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Serbia in positivism. Some hoped that the new medium might help
February, 1839, and Denmark, Estonia, Finland, and Po- define the unique aspects of American history and experi-
land during the summer, with the result that a number of ence as expressed in the faces of the citizenry. Others
scientific papers on the process began to appear in these believed that because it was a picture made by machine it
localities. In Russia experimentation succeeded in produc- would avoid too great artifice and, at the same time, would

ing a less expensive method of obtaining images on copper not demonstrate the obvious provinciality of outlook and
and brass rather than silver, and by 1845 a Russian daguer- training that often characterized native graphic art at mid-
reotypist felt confident enough to exhibit landscape views century.

of the Caucasus Mountains in a Paris show. Nevertheless, The daguerreotype reached America after it had been
early photography in all these distant realms reflected the seen and praised by Samuel F. B. Morse (pi no. 13), a skill-
absence of a large and stable middle class. Only in the fial painter who also invented the electro-magnetic tele-

three primary industrial powers —England, France, and graph. His enthusiastic advocacy in letters to his brother in
the United States —was this group able to sustain the the spring of 1839 helped spur interest in the first manuals
investment of time and energy necessary to develop the and descriptions that arrived in New York late in September
medium technically and in terms of significant use. by packet ship from England. By early October, details

were Morse and others to

available in the press, enabling

attempt daguerreotyping, but although he worked with

The Da£fuerreotype in America
esteemed scientist John William Draper and taught others,
As had been the case with other technologies originat- including Mathcw Brady, few images produced by Morse
ing in Europe, Americans not only embraced the daguer- himself have survived.
reotype, but quickly proceeded to turn it to commercial Another faaor that contributed to the rapid improve-
advantage. The view that "the soft finish and delicate defini- ment of the daguerreotype in the United States was the
tion of a Daguerreotype has never yet been equalled by any arrival in November, 1839, of the French agent Francois

other style of picture produced by actinic agency,"* which Gouraud, with franchises for the sale of equipment. His
appeared in the photographic magazine Humphrey's Jour- demonstrations, along with exhibitions of Daguerre's
nal in 1859, was only one expression of an opinion held images, evoked interest in the many cities where they were
especially by the first generation of American photogra- held, even though Americans did not consider it necessary
phers. Daguerreotyping remained the process of choice for to purchase rights or use authorized equipment in order to
20 years —long beyond the time that Europeans had turned make daguerreot)'pes. As in Europe, technical progress
to the more flexible negative-positive technology. The rea- was associated with portraiture, but improvement also was
sons for this loyalty are not entirely clear, but a contribut- apparent in images of historical and contemporary monu-
ing factor must have been the excellent quality attained by ments and structures. Owing to the primitive nature of his

THE EARLY YEARS 23