HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY FINAL EXAM – Flashcards

This style of photography was influenced by painting, and how artists thought animals moved (walked, ran, etc.) Muybridge and the types of photos he would take made him think of himself more as a scientist than photographer. Before these photos, animals moved so fast that no one knew how movement really worked. Muybridge would set up cameras around a track so that when a horse ran by, the cameras would be set off and he could capture how the horse moved. Painters were influenced heavily by how he could now capture movement that their paintings improved immensely.
“Philosophical Toys” “Kinetoscope” “Entertainment Parlor” “Cinematographe”

Rontgen created the x-ray. He chose the letter “x” to stand for the unknown. This opened up a huge discovery for photography. He realized that if he pointed and shot the camera, subjects would appear as glowing, but not the calcium in our bones. Made the invisible, visible, but at this time no one knew how dangerous x-rays could be. This photo technique was widely used for war-profound medical effects. When people started to get sick and die from these x-rays, no one understood how something that was invisible could have such harsh effects on ones health.
“The New Sight” ” The Occult” “The Fourth Dimension”

Influenced and portrays geometric shapes. Imogen Cunningham was deeply influenced by Steiglitz and the way that he captured his photos. Cunningham focused on revealing small details of his subjects that we normally would not pay attention to, like how each ridge of the plant is emphasized and brought to our attention. Although this entire picture tends to look somewhat green, it is all grey tones so it appears as an all black and white photo.

Tina Modotti tends to turn her lens to show social content, she was overtly interested in social issues. And she really worked to form a relationship with her subjects and the other f.64 photographers. Her style of photography has a distinct artistic feel and possessed artistic qualities. This photo also had some geometry in its symmetry. There are very distinct parallel lines going in both directions of the photo. This really draws attention to the actual workers in the photo and you can see the powerful emotions and years of work in their expressions.

Weston possessed a quality and a level of skill that allowed him to turn everything he photographed sensuous, even a toilet like in this photo. He photographed this toilet and somehow made it possess qualities like being soft, curving, shiny texture and porcelain-like.
“Ready Made”

There are no hands or feet shown in this photograph. That leaves the audience up to interpretation on whether or not this is an actual nude human, or just geometric shapes formed by random objects.

This photo depicts a struggling family during the great depression. Lange was said to have turned around from driving away from taking pictures because she could feel something pulling her back. She worked for the FSA at the time

The subjects in this photograph appear to be a family. The family is rushing to the house for shelter through this dust storm, but the photographer had time to stop and take the picture. There is a certain eery effect to the entire photo because of the dust covering everything in sight. You can see just how much dust has been swept up by the foot of house that is covered at the bottom. The subjects and the house itself are weirdly clear, even though they are in the middle of a dust storm. There is a feeling of desperation in this photo by the emotions you can see being portrayed by the children. The youngest and smallest child is in the back running for safety and the parents aren’t even looking back or helping. The kids have to know that this is it, they’re covering their own faces.

This portrays a sense of blurring between documentation and art. Walker Evans is a powerful photographer because of his ability to portray his photos as stark, and giving us a bare and raw truth to his subjects. This was photographed during his break from the FSA, he had somewhat freed himself from the pull of the FSA. Evans was particularly popular because of his drive to strip away any excess details that are not important to the overall message of the image.
“FSA”: Farm Security Administration

During this time in photography, photographers had to risk their lives everyday for getting the perfect picture. Robert Capa and Ed Regan were examples of documentarians and photojournalists. This photo is blurry and unfocused, but that just adds to the overall theme of urgency in this photo.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a United States Navy hospital corpsman raising a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War IIl. The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and quite possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.[2] Three Marines depicted in the photograph, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Michael Strank, were killed in action over the next few days. The three surviving flag-raisers were Marines Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, and Navy hospital corpsman John Bradley. The latter three became celebrities after their identifications in the photograph.

Roman Vishniac escaped nazi holding and became very well known for being a popular photographer amongst Jews. We know that this boy that is photographed is Jewish because of his traditional Jewish symbol of earlocks. This was during the time of intense prosecution of Jews. This little boy is smiling because he has yet to know what is going on all around him, we as the viewers however do know what is going to most likely happen to him. This can be referenced to as the “moment before catastrophe”, and this image because a brand photo during the wake of the war.

Eisenstaedt was a German born American photographer. He was alongside those that were apart of the straight photo movement. This is a very popular and familiar style of taking pictures that people don’t even recognize it as a style, they just think it’s normal. This was a shared kiss between a war veteran and a nurse after he returned from the war. All of the people in the background of this photo really set the overall theme for this photo. There is an overall emotion and it is joyous. Not one person looks sad or distressed in this photo.

A dazed child. Dressed in a traditional headdress thought to maybe protect from radiation. This was apart of “The Family of Man” exhibit but unlike all of the surrounding pictures that were labeled with the artist name, country origin, etc. the only explanation this had next to it was “Nagasaki”.

His artistic vision is shaped by him experiencing the World War II when he was a teenager. The ubiquitous beer bottle, photographed in Nagasaki’s Museum of Remembrance, has been mutated beyond recognition by the atomic blast, becoming nakedly organic in its deformation. Foregoing a purely documentary approach, Tōmatsu records history in metaphorical terms. His hallucinatory image highlights the magnetic power of an object that witnessed an event so momentous that it can only be imagined.

The Family of Man was an ambitious[1] photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen, the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) Department of Photography. It was first shown in 1955 from January 24 to May 8 at the New York MOMA, then toured the world for eight years, making stops in thirty-seven countries on six continents. More than 9 million people viewed the exhibit.
According to Steichen, the exhibition represented the “culmination of his career.”
The physical collection is archived and displayed at Clervaux Castle in Luxembourg (Edward Steichen’s home country; he was born there in 1879 in Bivange). It was first presented there in 1994 after restoration of the prints.

In this piece, each photograph can stand alone but they all work together as well. These photos could suggest advanced photoshop skills, or illusions created by photographer and subject. One of the first photos that showed off such details in the subjects. This piece shows influence from The Harvest of Death, this might be a reflection of portraying death. All of these photos were taken at a mental institution and it is very clear that all of the subjects are staged. It is hard to determine whether or not this is an example of documentation photography or photo journalism.

This artist became very well known outside of Mexico because of this piece, but the traditions portrayed in this photo lose their authentication. The subject is surrounded by cactuses as if to be framed in this piece. Because this subject is sleeping, she seems to be disconnected from the camera. All factors of this photo really frame the subjects Mexican identity. There is a harsh contrast from the pubic hair up against the white garments.

During this time, the camera became the site of revolution. The power of photography started to overpower news reports and it quickly became another day to document major things. There is a very apparent contrast between black and white. The punctum of this photograph is the newspaper in the bottom corner reading “SHOT DEAD”. Because of the chaos going on in this photograph the viewer has a hard time differentiating political turmoil from what is actually happening.

This photo is very opaque and deliberately blurry. This is taken in a snapshot aesthetic, it makes an image feel like its being taken quickly. This photo depicts an African American subject wearing a formal dress. The subject is standing in the little light shown, but she is walking towards the darkness. Her walking towards the darkness could suggest the darkness of the unknown and the uncertainty of her culture in society. The billboard in the background is a car driving away from her. As if pulling her along with it, or leaving her where she is. “Style star of an all star” suggesting that she is the star now, but that won’t necessarily be her future.

“Wegee” could come from rhyming with Squeegie, or could be a play off the word Ouija. Wegee always was at the right place at the right time so Ouija would make sense in the sense that he could predict the future when in actuality he had a police scanner in his car. There are twelve people running in this shot. Some are running away, some are turned toward the dead body and looking at it. Some look unfazed by the body but some look in horror. With the title being “Their First Murder” this suggests that they will see more murders in their lifetime.

Winogrand won a grant from the Guggenheim to get paid to travel and take pictures. This specific photo depicts a group of people that are seemed to gather around this man with no legs on the sidewalk. They seem to be war veterans by the hats they are wearing. Some are looking up, but none are looking at this man on the ground. They all seem to not want to look at the man. They are all somewhat gathered around him but none seem to be wanting to help him or pay him any attention.

Half man-half woman. One leg is depicted to be shaved and the other is not. Also he is seen wearing one men shoe on his right foot and a woman’s high heel on his left foot. That clearly creates a division between genders. Full face of makeup also shows that his transition is coming full face woman. Only one earring on his left ear is depicted. This photo resembles self truth and “coming out”.

Frank was fascinated by American Lunch Counters, especially how strangers would sit next to each other while eating. This was something very different from what Europeans would do There were more than seven hundred and sixty rolls of film to develop: an impressive tally, even to snap-happy profligates of the digital age. Then there were contact sheets to print and mark up; from those, he made a thousand work prints, which were tacked to the walls of his apartment on Third Avenue, near Tenth Street, or laid flat on the floor for closer inspection, before being whittled down to a hundred.

“The Americans” by Robert Frank is one of the most influential photo books published of all-time. It has inspired countless numbers of photographers across all genres, especially appealing to documentary and street photographers. During the era that Frank published “The Americans”, documentary photography was seen to be as something transparent and not to be influenced by the thoughts, emotions, or viewpoint of the photographer. A quote from the book on “Looking In: The Americans”: When Robert Frank worked on the Americans, consider it from his viewpoint. He was Swiss-born, and he saw America from an outsider perspective. Although his work was a labor of love, he clearly showed the ugly parts of American society, which included mass consumerism, racism, and the divide between the rich and poor.

This image of an enormous, almost transparent Stars and Stripes hanging above people walking unconcernedly nearby is one of 83 images in Mr. Frank’s seminal work, ”The Americans.” When the book was published in the United States in 1959 it rubbed many people the wrong way. The casually unsharp and generally not upbeat pictures seemed to scorn the sunny America promoted in the pages of Life magazine.

This photo clearly depicts how two identical people can still be depicted so differently. These identical twins are clearly represented as a whole but also as individuals. The remarks that both of them depict are very diverse. The left one is frowning while the right one has a smile on her face. The white wall behind them brings out the “weirdness” that is shown through this photo. Symmetry is seen through this and yet in detail something is deliberately slightly off. They are shoulder to shoulder with their feet cut off and can be sen as a “two headed monster”. There are subtle differences- 3 arms are depicted. Created after the Shining but not a reflection from the Shining. Blurring them together- the play on the black and white to merge them in but also to pull them apart from the white background.

The distinct use of black and white helps show more truth and actual human being out of this photo. The King and Queen do not depict any kind of emotion and are depicted wearing formal clothing along with a tiara and crown along with their capes. The pair are shown wearing very old fashioned type of formal clothing. This moment captured appears to be very strange and the audience doesn’t know how exactly how to take it. It is some sort of adult prom that may be at an assisted living area.

This was a project about accepting one another. This man is shown looking very confident which was huge for this time, seeing how specific lifestyles people chose to live by were not accepted. Arbus takes the “freaks” and portrays them as “normal”. This also confronts us as viewers and confronts our boundaries as to what “normal” is to us.

This photo was used for the cover of Ebony magazine in May 1965. It was a strong turning point in photojournalism. This photograph overtook the transformation of news and television. It is clearly standing tall and strong against racism. The protestors and extremely revolutionary. This photo is depicted in black and white to emphasize that it is just black and white- nothing to hide, extremely truthful. The rule of thirds is used with their feet in unison, their body language, and the buildings in the foreground. The photo depicts a very empowering statement, and it’s an imposing picture. People are risking their lives for this statement. Looks as if it is parallel. The mud covered shoes shows the treacherous battle that these protestors endured in order to get their point across. On the actual cover of Ebony Magazine this photo is depicted reversed and flipped and color was added. Ultimately the image is completely altered. It is obviously advocating equal rights- the camera being the tool to advocate this. “50,000 March on Montgomery”-caption for the magazine. The statement from magazine was for African American Rights. This was also a five day march and protest for equal rights and to ultimately end racism.

Charles Moore depicts in this photo bodily harm to make a statement to society. The protestors risked their lives for peace and unity. The firefighters power washing people to make them stop their protesting shows how politcally incorrect and inhumane even ‘heroes’ can be. The pressure of the water is shown coming off the mens backs. It is extreme chaos and shows the violence in the war. This non violent protest was met with violence. It is extremely symbolic when firefighters who are supposed to protect the people are the ones causing this harm to non violent protestors.

In this photo it is so clear that Paul Filo was using the camera as a tool.J ohn Paul Filo (born August 21, 1948) took the 1970 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a 14-year-old runaway girl, Mary Ann Vecchio, screaming while kneeling over the dead body of 20-year-old Jeffrey Miller, one of the victims of the Kent State shootings. At the time, Filo was both a photojournalism student at Kent State University, and staffer of a satellite paper for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

You can physically see the distress and horror in these children’s faces. June 8, 1972, an Associated Press photographer, Nick Ut, was shooting photos outside of Trang Bang village, South Vietnam, when South Vietnamese planes accidentally dropped napalm bombs on Trang Bang, which had been occupied by North Vietnamese troops.

Robert Rauschenberg: Combines takes a rare and comprehensive look at the three-dimensional works that Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) terms combines. The exhibition, which will include approximately 65 objects created between 1954 and 1964, is the first to focus exclusively on this significant body of work.: “Robert Rauschenberg: Combines looks at this legendary American master at a particular moment in his career – a moment that signaled a revolution in the history of American art. All subsequent artists who have toyed with or rejected narrative, questioned the notion that art had to present a window onto a more orderly world than our own, or added a new sensitivity toward the grid in modern art, may trace their inspiration to Mr. Rauschenberg’s combines.”

This is not a photograph, yet it looks amazingly like one. It is an acrylic painting. It is so detailed that there is even light reflecting off of the glass in the painting. This is painting about capturing the world “mechanically”. yet there are subtle differences from actual life in the reflections in the windows. The reflection is supposed to come off as more bright than the real world. This is a good example of what photography is versus painting.

This is an example of photorealism. The artist never once touched his actual hands to this canvas, only left traces of what a brush could do. The light reflects off of his glasses and there is even smoke coming out of his cigarette. His individual hairs were painted on. Looks like a photo at first but you can slowly pick out the paint like qualities. He took this photo of himself and then decided to paint it. This face is not symmetrical, but that just adds to the realistic qualities.

Smithson purposefully creates work that is too big to fit into exhibits. He creates art by manipulating nature in different ways. This is a much smaller scale than he is used to. He simply put the mirrors up, took the picture, and then took them down. He used 10 mirrors and this was the 10th time he did this specific project. The camera was used as a reflective surface as well. The only thing being displaces is the light. It would usually hit and reflect off of the leaves but now it’s reflecting off of the mirrors. This would be the only time the light would hit these mirrors in this way.

A book that contained literal pictures of different swimming pools and a piece of broken glass. This shows how different the same thing can be. He was interested in only shooting “neutral material”. This could be an example of minimalism. They are simply photographs, there is no deeper meaning. There are no people in any of the pictures, just a collection of facts.

There was actually a trampoline in the street to catch Yves Klein, but the photographer knew and was familiar with photoshop, and he photoshopped it out. There was also a circle of people all around the street to make sure once Yves landed on the trampoline, he didn’t fly off of that as well. This is an example of surrealism.

He depicts himself shirtless, with raised arms and open palms, spewing an arc of water out of his pursed lips, in imitation of the nude statues customarily found in decorative fountains. Thus the artist and the work of art become one and the same. During the period in which he made this work, Nauman used the statement “The true artist is an amazing luminous fountain” in a number of text-based works

Untitled”(Aparición), from 1991, was made during a time when Felix Gonzalez-Torres created his most seminal and historic imagery, and one of the most important aspects of this particular work is its significant and essential relationship to the many bodies of Gonzalez-Torres’ work that use the sky and sea as metaphors for transience, time and travel. The imagery of this work relates directly to other significant and important works which feature the sky or birds in flight such as “Untitled” (1992/1993, Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).

Adrian Piper’s art, the subject of this 35-year retrospective, is not pretty. It is abrasive, didactic and aesthetically blunt. But Ms. Piper, 52, is not interested in providing pleasure. She wants to make people behave better. Combining Minimalism, Conceptualism and Performance Art, and using tools ranging from pencil to audio-video installation, she has worked since about 1970 to force viewers into an unbearable awareness of their personal complicity in what she views as a pervasively racist, xenophobic and unjust system.

Monument: Children of Dijon (1986) is a photographic installation with distorted enlargements of photographs of children displayed in an arrangement covering the walls of a Medieval stone chapel in Paris. The use of altar-like compositions and the dramatic use of lighting to create a halo around each photo adds to the spiritual dimension of the work and creates a calm, almost contemplative mood of mystery in this installation. However the suggestions of death and suffering create the paradox of the beauty of the work and the stark enigma of its meaning.

Photomontage. Very similar to a composite image. A composite is a photo with layered photos almost photoshopped, but a photomontage is more of a series of photos. So still multiple photos just not layered on top of each other. Rosler manipulates photos and makes it very obvious. This woman was not holding a baby with a very worried look on her face while in a million dollar home. She somewhat victimizes the subjects in her photos. She doesn’t take either of her photoshopped images, she just takes them from other people and puts them together as her own.

We never see a person photographed in this series, just the aftermath of humans. We see trash and broken fences and empty streets. This was photographed in the poverty stricken streets. There is a reoccurring theme of not showing a single person. This is documenting poverty neighborhoods without actually victimizing people. This reveals to us that the artist is manipulative to our perception and how we look at this social class. The empty glasses could be a euphemism for being drunk. Photos that make us search for the meaning without words.