goyablog

Google Books is great and I fully endorse the PDFing of the entire universe of printed matter made digitally searchable. It was because Google has scanned dozens of old photographic journals in the public domain that I have stumbled upon the most fascinating glimpse of 19th-century photographic culture, professional and amateur. There is a palpable excitement in the proceedings of these journals that range from ads and reviews of lenses and cameras to serious essays on the state of the art and science of photography. Discussions of the latest techniques and reports of field tests lead into prognostications of future developments. I can read just about any random article and find in completely engaging. I’m currently reading through the 1860 (vol. III) issue of the London publication “The Photographic News: A Weekly Record of the Progress of Photography” established for “the dissemination of photographic knowledge, and the advancement of photographic science. Every new process, every improvement in apparatus, every new fact in science, chemical or otherwise, bearing even remotely upon the interests of Photography, has been brought before the public at the earliest available moment. We have sought to carry out, as far as possible, the objects of a weekly publication, by furnishing our readers, not with a mere narrative of the past, but with a stirring and faithful record of the immediate present — of the sayings and doings of the photographic world week by week, at home as well as abroad.”
It’s amusing to read about the latest advances being touted as the ultimate in photography. But beyond amusement, there is a serious study to be done of the various circles of photographic culture in American and European cities. The entrepreneurial streak through the American examples is evident. There are tons of materials for it at one’s fingertips. Too bad that doing such a study will not get me promoted in my putative field.

In my pursuit of funky old lenses I frequently need to try to research them (= google them) and lately I’ve discovered the advantages and pleasures of Google’s Scan Everything in the World Project. When there isn’t any useful discussion on Photo.net or the Large Format Photography about obscure lenses, I often get hits on old photography journals form the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Absolutely fascinating reading. Whether it’s the reviews of new lenses or cameras on the market or reader’s letters to the Editor testifying about the performance of this or that lens, there’s a sense of fresh discovery, that this photography thing is still being discovered on a daily basis among professionals and amateurs alike. With ready access to a boatload of such material from American and British journals, I’m seriously thinking about doing a kind of social history of early photography. I don’t think, however, that would help me with promotions at my day job, so I might have to keep it to short essays on particular topics.

One such topic worth exploring is the democratization of photography. For this, we turn to Eastman Kodak mass-marketing, their Brownie box camera, the introduction of rollfilm and enlargers. It’s a fairly well-know story that the conjunction of these things that de-mystified and de-professionalized photography during the first decades of the twentieth century. A good deal has already been written about this, but a succinct essay might be a good idea. Perhaps I’ll do it some day.

Another more specific topic that I’m interested in, which is closely related to the massification of photography, is the idea and practice of the snap-shot. The OED teaches us that term was originally used in the early 19th century in hunting to refer to a shot done without careful aim. The first recorded use in photography seems to be in an article entitled “Instantaneous Photography” written by J.F. W. Herschel published in The Photographic News on 11 May 1860: “I take for granted nothing more than, 1st, what photography has already realised, or we may be sure it will realise within some very limited lapse of time from the present date — viz. the possibility of taking a photograph, as it were, by a snap-shot — of securing a picture in a tenth of a second of time…” The entire article is here:

This is the start of my pursuit of the spread of the idea and practice of the “snap-shot.” Herschel merely envisions it here. I suspect that within that short time he mentions the practice was widespread, probably by the 1880s or 1890s. By that time the technological conditions were fulfilled; what remained was the will to do it, to take shots (with expensive film and processing required) “without careful aim.” I’m also suspecting that it was Mr. Eastman who actively promoted the snap-shot to the non-professional masses of photographers he aimed to cultivate….