Brandon Wathen
Ms. Jarmoszko December 14th, 2016 Photography has been a continually changing area of invention and innovation since the inception of heliography by Niépce in 1825. While now we may take these inventions for granted and simple work, it took quite a lot to get to where we are today and to make a camera fit in to an iPhone; easily accesible at the tap of a screen. What was once meant specifically for professionals or those with extravagent amounts of money has become a simple tool anyone can use! Even now, it is unlikely that cameras will remain the way that we see them now, and I'd personally say that the evolution of photography is far from over. Photography originally began as heliography, which was a form of long exposure that casted an image on to a polished silver plate soaked in bitumen and water. The process took up to eight hours and relied on light to burn the image in to the original concoction on the plate which would be then rinsed with white petroleum and oil of lavender. The process of heliography was very lengthy, and didn't exemplify very good results, consideirng the fact that the image did wear away over time and can only really be viewed at an angle. While the process is effective and fades, it does last though considering Niépce's first heliograph still exists and is somewhat visible. After the Heliograph though came the Daguerreotype camera which was invented by Louis Daguerre who was a partner of Niépce's. He figured that he could also figure out how to make picture taking a lot simple. The Daguerreotype process is that an image is burned on to a silver plated copper plate
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A Career in Digital Visual Arts
In terms of a visual/digital arts career I would enjoy, I personally think that I would enjoy working with photography the most because of the doors that it opens to travel and exposure to different people and places within the world. I’m not typically interested in how much my work pays, considering the fact that if you love your job, it shouldn’t matter the pay. In photography, I know that I can express myself freely and can figure new ways to stylize my work and the things that I find interesting as an artist. While money is no object to me, the salary for a photographer is $31,000 a year, and that’s enough money to hang your hat on. No education is necessarily required other than a high school diploma, although you can go to school for it if you’re interested and catching a job with a company; otherwise you can just be freelance. I would personally like to be freelance because I like the idea of working on my own schedule and photograph the things that I like in comparison to what my boss would want or anything to that degree. I mostly find interest in the fact that photography can open doors to other worlds, especially the Orient which I have a profound love for and would love to capture the essence of places like Thailand, China, Korea, and Japan. I like the fact that I’d be able to capture pictures of things that the rest of the world may never see. However, I would also enjoy taking photos of abandoned places because people actually really enjoy that! I would make my money by selling prints of my photos. Citation: “Education Requirements for a Photographer.” Study.com, Study.com, study.com/education_requirements_for_a_photographer.html. “Photographers :: Job Requirements.” Photographers :: Job Requirements, www.myplan.com/careers/photographers/requirements-27-4021.00.html. Salary.com, Site built by: “Photographer Salaries.” Photographer Salaries by Education, Experience, Location and More - Salary.com, ZipRecruiter, www1.salary.com/Photographer-Salary.html. Brandon Wathen
Ms. Jarmoszko Creative Photography I October 5th Essay II Niépce, Daguerre, and Talbot: Inventing Modern Photography The process of taking a picture has not always been as simple as pointing a camera and clicking a button, like the way it is today. In fact, the ease of capturing a moment through the lens of a camera is something modern people seem to take for granted, considering it’s only a quick click on an iPhone or a simple tap of a screen, and the fact we can capture images and video in definitions better than that of the human eye! But rather we acknowledge it or not, the creation of photography and the ability to capture a moment forever rather in digital format, or on a polaroid was a very difficult process and took many years to perfect and hone. Photography has been an ever changing art form for almost 200 years and will continue to be an ever changing asset to society for many years to come. The very first ever photograph was captured by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 at his family estate in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, Le Gras 1. Originally meant to be an alternative to lithography, which Niépce claimed he wasn’t very good at because it required you to draw 2, the heliograph captured images on a polished pewter plate covered with an asphalt derivative of petroleum, Bitumen of Judea. The resulting image ends up becoming visible after you expose the plate for several hours and then rinse it with a mixture of white petroleum and lavender 2. While to us, the photo looks grainy and almost unrecognizable with only several architectural elements of La Gras being visible when printed this heliograph photo was the birth of modern photography, and the beginning of an art form where capturing images no longer took pen and pencil. While completely unrecognized during his lifetime, due to the development of newer and more efficient technologies created by Niécpe’s fellow scientist, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Niécpe’s work was the fundamental basis for photography, with the original photograph being the oldest remaining photograph still in existence. Though heliography is a practically useless application now due to the inventions of inventors like Daguerre, Niécpe inspired generators afterword to develop new forms of photography and photograph taking so as to revolutionize a stagnant art the same way he had. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was a colleague to Niécpe and was also interested in capturing an image through the lens, and actually worked with Niécpe up until his death in 1833 before moving to Diorama, his studio/laboratory in Paris, France. While Daguerre and Niécpe were unable to find an efficient manner for taking photos that looked good and didn’t require long hours of exposure and a difficult printing process during Niécpe’s life, that didn’t perturb Daguerre from continuing his expedition into creating an efficient form of photography; and in 1838 that’s exactly what he had done. The daguerreotype was the brainchild of Daguerre (even considering the object bares his name) and completely sent Niécpe’s heliograph to the back of the line in groundbreaking discoveries. With the ability to create a unique and individual image each time printed on a silver plated sheet of copper that had been sensitized with iodine vapors and exposed in a box camera then developed in mercury fumes before being stabilized in salt water or “hypo” as Daguerre had called it, the daguerreotype was a whole new creation that revolutionized photography forever, and not only the the daguerreotype is attributed to having taken the first candid photo of a human being 3. This quick and simple photographic medium opened up a world of creation and exploration that couldn’t easily be opened with Niécpe’s design. Daguerre is also known for having developed a microscopic and a telescopic version of his daguerreotype which were destroyed in 1839 after Diorama burned to the ground, taking a large percentage of his creations, his laboratory, with it 3. Daguerre’s contributions to photography opened the door to the usage of the invention as a creative medium that many people could use and understand without going through a long complicated process like with that of the heliograph. Next in the line of innovative photographers is William Henry Fox Talbot who was a creative force to be reckoned with back in his time. Having explored topics such as Egyptology, philosophy, philology, astronomy, and botany, and published four books and upwards of twenty-seven scholarly articles, Talbot was basically a prodigy at just about everything, and with that, it was only natural that he would create something as interesting as the paper-printing camera. Having become tired and frustrated with working with a camera obscura, a device which projected images onto paper for the easy transfer of image to paper, Talbot decided that there had to be a way to print an image directly onto paper. After several attempts, he managed to create a device that could project an image onto paper by coating a sheet of writing paper in salt and a silver nitrate which is then darkened by the sun 4. Printing pictures on paper allowed for a cheaper and less costly manner of taking photo taking in comparison to Daguerre’s silver plated copper sheets that were needed with the daguerreotype camera. Niépce, Daguerre, and Talbot were the founding fathers of modern photography, and opened a door to a brand new creative medium that has later developed and become something we use in our daily lives. Were it not for them, our iPhones and professional cameras would be a thing of near myth, and the science of picture taking may never have developed. We have come a long way from images printed on silver and pewter, and some form of writing paper, and we should learn to appreciate the art form we have been gifted. Bibliography
Brandon Wathen
Ms. Jarmoszko Creative Photography 1 September 9th Essay “Tank Man” In relation to historic events, photography has the ability to capture the most fragile or groundbreaking moments possible as they happen or have happened in the world around us. Photography has a certain way to essentially pull the essence of the moment straight from the air and give that same aura a new vigor behind a title, glass, and frame while at the same time maintaining the message, the essentials to understand the impact the image holds and the gravity behind what isn’t explained by word or action. Photographic history relates to historic points in time by capturing a point in time one will never see again. This correlation between history and photography is a prominent and important bridge between the two fields, something that binds them together. By merely taking a photograph, you are capturing a moment in our modernity; our daily lives which will someday become obscured in the flow of time just like our ancestors before us. To capture these moments in vivid, unmoving images captures the time and the life that cannot be brought to life by word alone, and thus gives massive insight into what is that historical point in time. Were it not for the initiative of photographers, many historic moments may’ve been lost forever in the sands of time. Through this association we learn about the past visually and learnedly in comparison to other time periods in which history was recorded purely by pen and paper. A prime example of an image that captures a point in time and the gravity is the picture “Tank Man” captured by photographer Jeff Widener in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China on June 5th, 1989. (Kuo, 1) Envision the setting: It’s a summer day in Beijing, and the pro-democratic protests have been going on since the day before. Thousands of college students gathered together to protest the inhumane treatment of the Chinese people and their detestment of Chinese censorship laws that have cut off the people's right to see what their world has to offer. The military has begun to encroach on the Square and is planning to make the crowds desist whether they choose to or not. In a Communist country in China, this shouldn’t be a surprise, considering free speech isn’t technically allowed. But in the face of the fear, a man stood tall and unmoved. Unknown by all sources, unknown by all news outlets, a mysterious man stopped in front of a line of tanks that approached the square. In the face of overwhelming fear, “Tank man” as he has become to be known, stopped a group of tanks dead in their tracks. The actions of “Tank Man” are significant because in communism, sticking up for yourself is basically strictly forbidden. Communism is the political ideology in which the workers exist to support their nation unanimously and work together for a common good in comparison for individual advancement like in capitalist America. In communist nations, voting is typically expressly prohibited or is used only in a rigged for to make succession seem somewhat by the peoples doing; although by the almost absolutely ridiculous winning margins, it’s hardly believable that these elections are at all fair. Deviating from communist rhetoric was also expressly looked down upon, and was often punishable by times in labor camps or simply execution. The fact that tank man was able to push the fear of what may happen to him to the side, rather it be from vigor or simply drunken rabble-rousing, is astounding. The tank man didn’t falter or run either whenever the soldiers pulled him away from the scene are presumptively killed him. Tank man was a hero for the Chinese people and remains a symbol of solidarity and dissidence to this day in the face of the commie regime. Even till this day, rebel forums exist all over the Chinese web and exist only to destroy the communist propaganda that riddles their internet and their main tool is the photo of tank man. Tank man is a very evident example of what photography can do to capture a historic moment and bring it to life in a way that simply recounting the event couldn’t. Were it not for the photo of this man, the history of Tiananmen Square may have been forever lost in the wave of Chinese censorship the blocks it out till this day. By capturing the moment, the people here in America, in Europe, and the rest of the world, could see the struggle and the harm that was being done to the Chinese and the dangers they faced in an attempt to gain their freedom. While the Chinese still aren’t free, but while this image still exist. Anti-Communist factions will still exist and the world will be forever closer to freedom. Citation
3. Saul, Heather. "Tiananmen Square: What Happened to Tank Man?" The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 4 June 2014. Web. 21 Sept. 2016. |
Brandon DylanThese are my essays I've written for my Creative Photography class! Feel free to take a look and read a little. Archives
December 2016
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