Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Photographic Technologies 1

How does the democratization of portraiture impact an understanding of personal value and identity?

How has the reproduction of images influenced the availability of knowledge about the world?

The invention of photography in the nineteenth century would forever change the way in which we view, experience, and understand the world around us. This Portfolio Guide of photographs features a sampling of works from the Addison’s collection offering varied perspectives and discussion points on the implications of the evolving uses and applications of this continually advancing technology. Educators are encouraged to use this Guide and the expanded Portfolio Image List as a starting point, a place from which to dig deeper, ask questions, and make new connections for class plans and projects.

For online use, click the images in this guide to access digital images in the Addison’s online database.

S E L E C T E D T H E M A T I C A P P R O A C H E SImpact of Early Photography — How did photographs solidify one’s presence in the world?Advancing Technology and Accessibility — How did diminishing exposure times impact acccessibility?Photography and the Dissemination of Information — How did the mobility of photography transform its applications?Capturing Motion — How has motion photography impacted our understanding of phenomena and perception? Contemporary Perspectives — How does the evolution of photographic processes influence the dissemination of information via the media?The Chemistry of Photography — What can we learn about the importance of chemistry through comparing photographic technologies over time?

Photographic Technologies

This Portfolio Guide contains selected artworks and ideas to connect the Addison’s collection with classroom themes, disciplines, and curricula.

Digital images of works from this Guide can be downloaded from the Addison’s website for use in classrooms. Visits to explore works in the Addison’s Museum Learning Center can be arranged as a complement to the viewing of current exhibitions.

www.addisongallery.org

Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Photographic Technologies 2

The Impact of Early PhotographyHow does the democratization of portraiture impact an understanding of one’s value and identity?

What are the implications of the ability to produce multiple prints?

Before the invention of photography, only the upper classes could afford to have their portraits painted. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre‘s introduction of the daguerreotype in 1839 led to more affordable visual representation and documentation across class and gender. Working class families, such as this family from Lawrence, Massachusetts (A), could sit for a daguerreotypist for several minutes to have their presence in the world solidified on a polished silver surface. Sometimes accented with watercolors, daguerreotypes were often packaged behind glass and kept in a protective case as precious objects (B).

In 1841, Henry Fox Talbot created the first negative from which multiple positive prints could be made. Called at first the calotype, Greek for “beautiful picture,” and later the talbotype or salted paper print, these were printed on a larger scale. Hand tinting (D) was used to heighten realism and to approximate the status of painted portraits. While exposure times of several minutes required stiff and stoic poses, attempts were sometimes made to picture limited interaction and activity (C).

A anonymous, Benjamin Whitney Gleason III Family, Taken in Lawrence, Mass., before 1849, 11 3/8 x 12 7/8 x 2 1/4 in., daguerreotype in frame, gift of Patricia Fuller in memory of her father, 2008.101

B Charles Henry Williamson (1826–1874) Family Portrait, c. 1850, 3 5/8 x 2 5/8 in. each, two hand tinted daguerreotypes in metal, leather, and glass case, museum purchase, 1978.99

C George C. Gilchrest (1812–1888), Untitled, circa 1855, 13 5/16 x 10 7/16 in., salt print, museum purchase, 1985.80

D George C. Gilchrest (1812–1888), #8 - Oval Portrait of Young Woman in Green Dress, c. 1855, 13 1/4 x 10 1/2 in., hand tinted salt print, museum purchase, 1985.55

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Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Photographic Technologies 3

Advancing Technology and AccessibilityHow did advancing technology and diminishing exposure times impact the availability of portraiture?

How did expanding applications influence the market for photography, and vice versa?

By the 1850s, faster and cheaper technologies were arising. Utilizing the simpler and faster collodion wet-plate technology invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851, the unique positive glass ambrotypes (E) patented in the United States in 1854 by James Ambrose Cutting further widened the scope of those who could afford to have their images made.

Unlike the fragile ambrotypes, which were housed in protective cases similar to those used for daguerreotypes, tintypes popularized in 1856 realized the desire to share mementos of oneself with friends and family, as portraits made in the studio (F) and outside the confines of the studio (G) could easily be made in multiples and sent by mail. The technology of tintypes decreased both the price of portraiture and the required skill level for photographers while widening the market and demand for the emerging medium of photography. This extension of inexpensive representation to all classes further redefined previous connections between portraiture, self-representation, and social status.

E Frederick Gutekunst (1831–1917) Unknown Young Man, New York City, circa 1856, 2 5/8 x 2 1/8 in., ambrotype in leather, metal, velvet, and glass case, museum purchase, 1981.55

F anonymous, Portrait of a Man (Unknown), circa 1870, 10 x 7 in., tintype, museum purchase, 1987.547

G anonymous, Untitled Portrait of Family in Front of House, n.d., 6 5/8 x 8 3/4 in., tintype, gift of Adam D. Weinberg in honor of Allison Kemmerer, 2004.1.254 E

F G

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Photography and the Dissemination of InformationHow did the reproduction of images influence the availability of knowledge about the world?

How does the impact of photography change once it leaves the confines of the studio?

In the 1850s the albumen print led to the first commercially viable method of producing a photographic print on paper and was made from a collodion wet-plate glass negative. Cartes-de-visite, small albumen prints mounted on boards the size of calling cards, transformed the singular, intimate photograph into collectables, such as the portrait of an athlete (H), which could be accumulated into albums.

Stereographs (I) paired photographs taken with a twin-lens camera to create a three-dimensional effect when viewed through a stereoscope (J). These served as parlor entertainment that also provided images and information about the world beyond daily experience, as methods of carting portable darkrooms via wagon and mule brought photographers out of their studios. Civil War photographers, such as Timothy O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner, utilized this technology to satiate the public’s thirst for images from the front (K). Other photographers, including Carleton Watkins, made defining and enticing images of the western frontier despite the limitations of the location and terrain (L).

H anonymous, Won by Mr. Gus Grab Amateur. Championship of New York, 1881, 6 1/2 x 4 1/4 in., carte-de-visite, gift of Adam D. Weinberg in honor of Allison Kemmerer, 2004.1.82

I anonymous, The Glorious Yosemite Valley, from Glacier Point, Calif., n.d., two albumen prints mounted on studio card, museum purchase, 1997.126

J A reproduction of an Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. stereoscope, from Wikimedia Commons,

http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Holmes_stereoscope.jpg

K Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840– 1882) A Harvest of Death, Battle-field of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from the bound album Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War, Volume I, July, 1863, 6 7/8 x 8 13/16 in., albumen print mounted on wove paper, museum purchase, Collection Care and Enhancement Fund, 1989.84.36

L Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916), Distant View of the Domes, Yosemite, Calif., c. 1880, 15 3/8 x 20 in., mammoth-plate albumen print, museum purchase, 1983.21

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Capturing MotionHow did the ability to see imperceptible motion impact people’s understanding of the world?

How did motion photography challenge ideas about “truth?”

As shutter speeds began to outpace human vision, photography proved to be more truthful than the human eye. In 1872, Eadweard Muybridge set up cameras along a racetrack so that a horse heading down the track snapped a string releasing the shutters one by one. Muybridge’s series of animal and human Motion Studies, useful for race horse owners, athletes, doctors, scientists, and artists alike, were initially printed as albumen prints (M) then later as more easily reproducible collotypes (O). Unlike albumen prints which are photographic prints developed in the darkroom, collotypes were made with a printing press and therefore more easily reproducible. Muybridge’s frame-by-frame method of stopping - and then reanimating motion - also became the inspiration for the invention of film.

Harold Edgerton, a scientist working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed a stroboscopic flash in the 1950s to produce a brilliant burst of light, freezing infinitesimal moments of time on film from which were produced as gelatin silver prints (Q) and the richly saturated dye transfer prints (R).

M-P by Eadweard J. Muybridge (1830 -1904)

M Plate 38. Horses, Running, Hattie H., from bound volume of 186 plates The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, 6 1/4 x 8 13/16 in., albumen print mounted on paper, partial gift of The Beinecke Foundation, Inc., 1987.21.44

N Plate C. Camera and Shutter (Front View), from bound volume of 186 plates The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, 5 7/16 x 9 1/8 in., albumen print mounted on paper, partial gift of The Beinecke Foundation, Inc., 1987.21.3

O Plate 169. Jumping; over boy’s back (leap-frog), from portfolio of 781 plates Animal Locomotion, 1887, Volume VII, Males & Females Draped & Misc. Subjects, 1885, 9 5/8 x 12 1/8 in., collotype on paper, gift of the Edwin J. Beinecke Trust, 1984.6.480

P Plate D. Camera Shed, from bound volume of 186 plates The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, 4 15/16 x 9 1/8 in., albumen print mounted on paper, partial gift of The Beinecke Foundation, Inc., 1987.21.4

Q-R by Harold Edgerton (1903- 1990) Q Moving Skip Rope, neg. 1952, 9 x 10

11/16 in., gelatin silver print, gift of The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, 1996.61

R Milk Drop Coronet, from series Harold Edgerton: Ten Dye Transfer Photographs, neg. 1957, print 1984-1990, dye transfer print, gift of The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, 1996.58.2

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Addison Gallery of American Art M U S E U M L E A R N I N G C E N T E R Portfolio Guide: Photographic Technologies 6

Contemporary PerspectivesHow did the development of faster and more mobile technology revolutionize the uses of photography?

How does the evolution of photographic processes impact the dissemination of media images?

In the early twentieth century, the shorter exposure time and longer shelf-life of roll film mobilized photographers, now unburdened by darkrooms and chemicals, to be to where national events were occurring or spontaneously unfolding. Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother (S) and Stanley Forman’s Soiling of Old Glory (V) are images whose immediate newspaper reproduction led to public outrage and activism, and which have since become unwitting icons of their times. Russell Lee‘s chromogenic print of a family hard hit by the Great Depression (U) demonstrates the rich new possibilities of social documentary photography by using color roll film, first introduced for commercial use by Kodak in 1935.

Digital technology, developed in the 1970s and made available to consumers in the 1990s, revolutionized the accessibility and spread of images via computers and the internet. Sage Sohier’s inkjet print of a Revolutionary War re-enactor is an exploration of the visual documentation of historical events through contemporary photographic processes.

S Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, negative 1936, print c. 1950, gelatin silver print, museum purchase, 2005.8

T Look in her eyes! Article from: Midweek pictorial, 1936 Oct. 17, p. 23., reproduction of photograph by Dorothea Lange, Resettlement Administration, Library of Congress

U Russell Lee (1903-1986), Jack Whitney and His Family, Homesteader, Pietown, New Mexico, 1940, 10 x 13 in., chromogenic print, museum purchase, 1983.27

V Stanley Forman (b. 1945), Soiling of Old Glory, Boston City Hall, 1976, 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in., gelatin silver print, museum purchase, 1987.347

W Front page of Boston Herald American, 1976 April 6, reproduction of photograph by Stanley Forman, courtesy of the Boston Herald

X Sage Sohier (b.1954), British Redcoat Re-enactor, Battle of Concord and Lexington, Lexington, MA, from series Perfectible Worlds, part of The PRC Portfolio, 2002, printed 2008, 17 x 21 in., pigmented inkjet print on Harman gloss fiber based paper, museum purchase, 2008.118.16

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*Note:Digitalimageisnotcurrentlyavailable.

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The Chemistry of Photographyc.1839-1870s The daguerreotype is created on a silver-coated copper plate buffed to a mirror sheen, then exposed to iodine fumes to form a light-sensitive coating of silver iodide. After exposure, the plate is treated with fumes of heated mercury to render the image visible and washed in a hyposulfite of soda solution to make the image permanent. When the finished plate is held at an angle reflecting something dark, the lighter areas are formed by the gray-white deposit of silver-mercury amalgam, while the shadows and darker areas are formed by the polished silver surface itself. Color accents were sometimes painted onto the image.

c.1841-1850s The calotype, talbotype, or salted paper print is printed from a paper negative created as silver iodide decomposes with exposure to light and excess silver iodide is washed away with an application of gallo-nitrate. Potassium bromide is then used to stabilize the image. Prints are made by applying salt to paper, which is coated with a silver nitrate solution and then exposed to light in contact with the paper negative. Images were often hand tinted to situate photographs at the status level of painted portraits.

c.1851-1880 The collodion wet-plate negative is created on a sheet of glass hand-coated with a thin film of collodion, composed of guncotton dissolved in ether, and sensitized with silver nitrate. The plates are exposed in a camera immediately after being sensitized, and then developed in chemical baths shortly after exposure.

c.1854-1860s An ambrotype is an underexposed collodion negative in which the image appears as a positive when viewed against a dark background. A glass plate is coated with a thin layer of collodion and rendered light sensitive with a silver nitrate solution. After exposure, the plate is developed, fixed, and varnished, and appears as a positive as the silver reflects some light while the areas without silver appear black.

c.1856-20th Century Tintypes are non-reflective, one-of-a-kind photographs on a sheet of iron coated with a dark enamel. Like ambrotypes, tintypes rely on the principle that underexposed collodion negatives appear as positive images when viewed against a dark background.

c.1850-1890s The albumen print is made by coating a sheet of paper with the albumen found in egg whites, which gives the paper a glossy, smooth surface. The albumenized paper is sensitized with a solution of silver nitrate, then placed in contact with a collodion wet-plate negative and exposed to the sun to produce a print.

Introduced 1870s A gelatin silver print is produced as light shining through roll film, a plastic film negative coated with light-sensitive silver salts, strikes paper coated with a gelatin emulsion also containing light-sensitive silver salts. The paper is placed in a chemical developing solution of alkali and metol or hydroquinone mixed with water, then a stop bath of a glacial acetic acid and water, and finally a fixing solution of thiosulfate to remove any undeveloped silver halide.

Introduced 1935 A chromogenic print , also called a Type-C or C-print, is made on photographic paper that has three silver emulsion layers sensitized to the primary colors of light. During developing, dye couplers bond with the exposed silver halides and the silver is bleached away, leaving a full-color positive image.

Introduced 1946 A dye transfer print is created by printing three color separation negatives onto a single sheet of light-sensitive paper.

Introduced 1991 Digital cameras record images through an image sensor, rather than on plates or negatives. Photosensitive diodes on the surface of the image sensor convert light passing through the lens into electrical impulses which are measured and converted into a digital number. The final image is composed of a series of square picture elements, or pixels, each with its own numerical value. Images are “developed” either through a digital printer (such as an inkjet) or using a digital enlarger that exposes light-sensitive paper.

Daguerreotype:page2

Saltedpaperprint:page2

Ambrotype:page3

Tintype:page3

Albumenprint:page4

Chromogenicprint:page6

Gelatinsilverprint:page6

Digitalprint:page6

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Curriculum Connections and ResourcesS U G G E S T E D C L A S S R O O M C O N N E C T I O N S

Arranging a Visit to the Museum Learning CenterAt least two weeks in advance or preferably more, contact:

Jamie Kaplowitz (978) 749-4037 jkaplowitz@andover.edu

to schedule your visit and discuss possible themes, applicable portfolios of works, and related activities.

History/Social Studies • images and the media• social documentation• propaganda• social status and

representation• photojournalism, technology,

and historic events

English• narrative • intention and format

• historical narratives• representation and personal

and cultural identity• composition

Art• history of photography• representation• portraiture• landscapes• documentation• social documentation

Science• media technology• photographic technology and

chemical reactions• the physics of light and

motion• analog and digital

technology• perception

C O N N E C T I O N S T O A D D I T I O N A L T H E M A T I C P O R T F O L I O SPortraits/Self-portraitsAmerican IdentityThe American West/Manifest DestinyRepresenting the LandImages and the MediaThe American Civil WarThe Great DepressionDocumentation vs. ArtRepresentation and RealityThe Power of Photography

T E A C H E R A N D S T U D E N T R E S O U R C E SGeorge Eastman House. K-12 Resources. http://www.eastmanhouse.org/education/k-12/resources.php. Digitized access to the International Museum of Photography and Film’s Discovery Kits, with lesson plans and downloadable slide shows of photographs documenting various technologies and moments in history.

Goldberg, Vicki. The Power of Photography: How Photographs Changed Our Lives. New York: Abbeville Publishing Group, 1991. An exploration of the enduring impact of iconic photographs.

Gustavson, Todd. Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, 2009. Traces the technological development of the camera and its impact.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographic Division. Popular Photographic Print Processes. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/589_intro.html. Descriptions and examples of photographic processes represented in the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, fosters understanding of the history, function, and production techniques.

PBS. American Photography: A Century of Images. http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/ A companion to the PBS film, this website explores the implications of photography on American history and culture and includes multiple teacher guides.

Addison Gallery of American Art Phillips Academy, Andover, MA Education Department

Rebecca HayesCurator of Education

Jamie KaplowitzEducation Associate and Museum Learning Specialist

Christine JeeEducation Associate for School and Community Collaborations

www.addisongallery.org