Class lectures with Jeff Curto from College of DuPage
In the 15th and final class session for the spring, 2009 term, we examine both documentary and conceptual photography, looking at the motivation and rationale behind each avenue of image making. We also try to tie up the ideas of the course with some concluding remarks.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:52:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9233)The middle of the 20th century was a time of tremendous change in all areas of the world and especially in the world of photography. This class session looks at the changes that photography experienced during the atomic age through an examination of the cultural, political and artistic climate of the time.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:27:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6008)We trace the trajectory of the manipulated image in this session entitled, “The Past is Prologue - The Manipulative Impulse and the Digital Age.” We also try to see if we can figure out where our digital photographic age is taking us and whether we want to go there.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [2:11:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7100)During his 29-year tenure as Director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the great curator and photographer John Szarkowski (1925 to 2007) changed the way the world saw photography.
This short class session introduces Szarkowski’s work and was followed by a short film about him.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [29:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6202)Is anatomy destiny? This class session looks at women’s photography by examining the work of various female photographers as well as by looking at the bigger issue of whether the photographer’s gender changes the images that are made.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:22:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6056)This week, we examine photographers using large cameras and those using small cameras and try to examine the importance of the choice of tools to the photographer. Does the tool drive the idea, or the idea drive the tool?
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:23:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8102)Field Trip! The Photo History class visits the The Mary L. and Leigh B. Block Photography Study Room at the Art Institute of Chicago, giving us the opportunity to see original images from the history of the medium.
The Art Institute of Chicago:
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [46:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5746)One of the great characters in the history of the medium, Alfred Stieglitz was also one of the most influential photographers and promoters of photography of the 20th century. In this class, we look at Stieglitz and the group of photographers and other artists he gathered around him. We also try to examine why what Stieglitz did and what he said were often two different things.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:34:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6991)Stop-motion photography as practiced by Edweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey and others is the topic of class session number eight. These scientific experiments ultimately led to the development of motion pictures by Edison.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [54:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6167)A slightly shorter class session, as we cover two smaller topics: 1) the ideas surrounding stereoscopic photography and 2) the way 19th century photographers handled photographing standard subjects; once you take away subject, what other choices do photographers have to make?
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:18:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7735)The interactive relationship that painting and photography have had for 170 years is the topic of this class session. We attempt to look at how painting influenced photography and vice-versa. We also look briefly at how what photographs “look like” influence our understanding of what they are.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:46:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9057)Travel photography in the 19th century is the focus of class session number 5. We look at how the advent of wet-plate collodion technology spurred the advance of travel and landscape photography, with a special emphasis on photography of the American west.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [1:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9086)The 4th class meeting starts a more conceptual approach to the medium’s history. We look at 19th, 20th and some 21st century portraits and see if we can draw some conclusions about what makes a good portrait photograph. We also see if we can draw some parallels with the words and ideas of the Transcendentalist thinkers and writers Emerson and Thoreau and see if they can help us illuminate what portraiture means.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [2:10:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9739)In this second part of a two-part survey, we continue our fast trip through the history of photography, attempting to get a handle on who did what, when they did it and how it happened. We start in around 1880 and finish up in the 1990s.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [2:01:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10601)Class session #2 is the first part of a two-part overview of the history of photography; a sort of “condensed” history in order to get a sense of the medium’s “who, what, when and where.” This week, we cover from 1800 B.C. to 1888 A.D. Part two will follow next week.
For more information about the podcast, visit this blog page.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [2:01:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10865)I am very pleased to announce that I will be leading a workshop to Tuscany this May.
Enjoy a photographic journey where you will experience many aspects of Tuscany’s remarkable culture, landscape and hill towns and work towards a personal photographic response to the Tuscan sense of place.
Working from our base at the beautiful Casa Cornacchi, located near Bucine, ideally situated in the Chianti area halfway between Siena and Arezzo, we will fan out across the Tuscan landscape and explore hill towns, markets, vineyards and the remarkable architecture of the region. By immersing ourselves in the culture, we will get to know the people, food and wine of the region. I will push you to go beyond the picturesque and help you discover your own response to the texture, rhythm and spirit of Tuscany.
This workshop is limited to a maximum of 12 participants in order to ensure the best level of personal instructional attention. This is an intermediate-level photographic experience; participants should have at least three years experience making photographs, have a basic understanding of photographic processes and technology and should be comfortable using a digital SLR camera in manual mode.
In this first class meeting for the spring, 2009 semester, we spend the first 90 minutes or so going over class mechanics & course technology enhancements, including explanation of this podcast and other internet resources. The last hour is spent looking at some of the problems that the photo historian faces, with an eye towards setting our course and exploring what sorts of issues we’ll face as the semester sails along.
For more information about the podcast, visit this blog page.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [2:13:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10961)The 5th and final Photo History Intersession commemorates the anniversary of the death of 19th century photographer Charles Dodgeson. Dodgeson, better known by his writing pen name of Lewis Carroll, was an important and interesting photographer as well as an author.
Alice Liddell - Photograph by Charles Dodgeson aka Lewis Carroll (left) and Julia Margaret Cameron (right)
Click images for larger views
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5736)The 4th Photo History Intersession looks at two rather dramatically opposed technical applications of photography: The first X-Ray image, made by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1896 and the first auroral (northern lights) photograph made by Martin Brendel in 1892.
(left) First X-Ray image by Wilhelm Röntgen - 1896 & (right) First auroral (northern lights) photograph by Martin Brendel (1892)
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [6:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7210)In the third History of Photography Intersession, we look at some interesting events from January first, as we commemorate the birth date of photographer William Klein, the anniversary of the death of Edward Weston, some facts about George Eastman and his inventions and the birth of the Associated Press Wirephoto.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [8:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6308)The second “intersession” history of photography podcast commemorates the anniversary of the death of French photographer Robert Demachy, who was active around the turn of the 20th century, as photography was trying to find its artistic self.
In the first of a few “intersession” podcasts between the fall and spring semesters, we commemorate the birth date of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith (1918) and the anniversary of the death of photographer Bill Brandt (1983).
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [5:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7504)We bring the summer school sessions to a close with a rememberance of the 100th birthday of the great photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, “Hyères, France, 1932″
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [4:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9057)On this date in 1926, National Geographic Magazine published color underwater photographs; a photographic first. This wasn’t the first attempt at underwater photography, however; photographers had been taking pictures below the waves since 1856.
Links:
Alexander Gardner photographed the hanging of the Lincoln Conspirators on July 7, 1865. This image and a pair of Gardner’s portraits of two of the men who are about to be executed are the subjects of this Photo History Summer School session.
Click on images for larger views:
Above Left: Alexander Gardner - The “cracked glass” Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, February 1865
Above Center: Alexander Gardner - Portrait of Lincoln Conspirator David Herold
Above Right: Alexander Gardner - Portrait of Lincoln Conspirator Lewis Payne (AKA Lewis Powell - his original name)
Above: Alexander Gardner - The Hanging of the Lincoln Conspirators, July 7, 1863
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10996)Powerful and horrific photographs of the effects of the Battle of Gettysburg by Timothy O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner are the subject of today’s Photo History Summer School.
Click Images for a larger view
Above: Timothy O’Sullivan - A Harvest of Death - July, 1863
Above: Alexander Gardner - The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, July, 1863
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9623)In this summer school session, we explore two remarkable photographers; the Vietnamese photojournalist Nick Ut whose best-known image was created on this date and the Chinese pictorial master Don Hong-Oai, who died on this date in 2004.
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [5:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (12290)Links for this session:
Today’s summer school session is all about color.
On this date in 1904, The Parisian brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière presented their patented color photographic process, the Autochrome, to the French Academy of Sciences. The Autochrome was the first commercially feasible color photographic process; the first time photographers could reliably produce color images.
This is date is also the birthday of one of the great color photographers of the 20th century, Pete Turner. Turner, born in 1934 in Albany, New York, has had a long history of using color as subject. His photographs contain raw, punchy often startling color and have been like that since long before it was fashionable to do so.
Some Autochrome and Pete Turner images:
To play podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [6:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (13049)Some links for this session
In today’s May 25th edition of Photo History Summer School, we note the birth dates of the avant garde Cech photographer Jaroslav Rossler and the oddly surrealistic American photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard as well as the anniversary of the death of the preeminant war photographer Robert Capa.
To view podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [6:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (11000)Some images by Rossler, Meatyard and Capa:
Cornell Capa, the photojournalist and tireless advocate of humanistic photography died today, May 23, 2008. He was 90 years old. A great and committed photographer, Capa’s heartfelt images were often overshadowed by two other elements in his life. One was the photography of his brother, the pre-eminent war photographer Robert Capa. The other was the founding and early management of the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York, considered by many to be one of the most important photographic resources in the world.
Portrait of Cornell Capa by Bill Jay
Photographs (below) by Cornell Capa - click to enlarge
To view podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [4:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (10817)It’s summer, but photo history doesn’t rest… May 13th is the anniversary of the birth of Czech photography Jan Saudek (1935, Prague) and also the anniversary of the death (1980) of German photographer Otto Umbehr, known as Umbo. This “summer school” podcast briefly presents their work.
To view podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [5:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (13193)Some images by Jan Saudek & Umbo
Websites for this podcast:
From the very beginning of the medium, photographers have wanted to portray their sense of wonder and awe in the face of the natural world through the camera’s lens, often offering up nature as the Great American Cathedral. This romantic tradition continues, but the mid-20th century saw a change in the way photographers looked at the world around them; a change that altered the face of photography. By looking at photographs from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, we’ll explore the ways photographers have recorded and interpreted nature with the camera.
To view podcast larger, click "download" and play in QuickTime Player [56:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (17855)
