11-2 photography - tool of commerce, vehicle for art(1) (1)

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Photography:

Tool for Commerce, Vehicle for Art

Wednesday November 2, 2011


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Friday September 30th TEST FORMAT

Part I:4 Slide IDs

2 points each for 8 points total

Part II:8 Short Questions

1 point each for a possible total of 8 points

Part III:

3 short essays

2 points each for a total of 6 points


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Focus on these Study Objectives for Part III: (two will be selected)

1. What was the purpose of Peales museum? In what ways was that purpose

expressed?

2. Which platforms (or which media) played significant roles in the lives and minds of

19th-century Philadelphians? What were they? What was their impact?

3. By the end of the 1830s, Philadelphias identity had been redefined yet

again. What happened, and what was the role of the citys creative community?

4. Specifically, how did artists like Clay and Lippard break from tradition?

5. How did Laurel Hill Cemetery and Fairmount Park manifest themselves in creative

expression?

6. "Eakins, like Whitman, sees beauty in everything. Why is this statement valuablefor us as it relates to the art of Eakins?

7. Explain what Michael D. Harris means when he discusses Tanners art as counter-

hegemonic. Would that term also apply to Eakins art?

And, for the third essay question, choose one:8. The idea for Philadelphias City Hall evolved with a sense of itself unique to time

and place. What were these forces and how were they resolved?

Or

9. William H. Rau's photographic series of the Pennsylvania Railroad had a particular

mission. How did Rau manipulate reality and photography to achieve thatmission?


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This week, exploring architecture and photography, wereconsidering some of the work of Frank Furness, John McArthur,

John Moran and William Rau. Here are our study objectives. (Both

will appear on the test this Friday. You'll have your choice as to

which one of the two to write up.)

1. The idea for Philadelphias City Hall evolved with a sense of

itself unique to time and place. What were these forces and how

were they resolved?

2. William H. Rau's photographic series of the Pennsylvania

Railroad had a particular mission. How did Rau manipulate realityand photography to achieve that mission?

Study Objectives for the Week


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A capitalist society requires a culture based on

images. It needs to furnish vast amounts ofentertainment in order to stimulate buying and

anesthetize the injuries of class, race, and sex. And

it needs to gather unlimited amounts of

information, the better to exploit natural

resources, increase productivity, keep order, makewar, give jobs to bureaucrats. The cameras twin

capacities, to subjectivize reality and to objectify it,

ideally serve these needs and strengthen them.

-Susan Sontag,

On Photography (1977)


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thousands of

works by 322

photographers

from the US andthe world

Photographic Hall at the Centennial Exhibition


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M.A. Roots daguerreotype

case in Photography Hall at the

Centennial Exhibition, 1876

M.A. Root and the beginnings

of photographys reflexivity


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. M.A. Roots daguerreotype case

Photography Hall at the Centennial Exhibition, 1876


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.


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John Moran, photographer and

Thomas Moran, painter

On the Wissahickon, 1864 and 1870

.

John Moran writes in 1865:

The Relation of Photography to

the Fine Arts.


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Great Central Sanitary Fair,

1864

PaintingsPhotography


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John Moran (1831-1903)

Thoughts on Nature, Art and Photography(1875): Art in all its forms is the form of

thought, and the photographic work which rises to this plane is the expression of the

photographer. Nature in some sort becomes plastic to his touch, and he moulds her to

his judgment, this he does by selection rather than construction; this happy selection

comes from the power to see the beautiful, and results from a highly trained taste.


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John Morans

naturalistic

photography:

He wanted viewers to

connect with the

subject but more, he

wanted to capture the

soul of nature and

have an emotional

response.

Nature becomes

plastic to his touch,

and he moulds her

to his judgment.
http://wiggle.sourceforge.net/samples/KarumaiBridge.html


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Art or Documentation?

John Moran, Nos. 44 and 46 N. Water Street, 1868

On the Wissahickon, 1864

?


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John Moran

Nos. 44 and 46 N. Water Street, 1868

Frederick DeBourg Richards,

William Penns Mansion, 1854

Art or Documentation?


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John Moran

Slate Roof House, 2ndabove Walnut

Frederick DeBourg Richards,

William Penns Mansion, 1854


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603 Penn St., 1868

Birthplace of Benj. West, 1869

Kingsessing School House


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John Moran, House in Mickles Court, 1869.


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John Moran, House in Mickles Court, 1869 Robert Newell,Ancient building, first industrial

society, Arch above Second, 1875

Photographic Intent

Photographic Intent


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Terminal,

Alfred Steiglitz,

1892.

The Swimming Hole,Thomas Eakins, 1883.

The Pennsylvania

Limited,

William H. Rau, ca.

1892

Photographic Intent

The Head Cook, Gilliams & Stratton, ca. 1910

Terminal by Alfred Steiglitz 1892


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Galleries of the Photo-Secession, NYC (above)

Walton Hotel, Philadelphia (below)

Terminal, by Alfred Steiglitz, 1892.

The Pennsylvania Limited, William H. Rau, ca. 1892


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Third story of the

family studio at

930 Girard Street

home to William

Rau and LouiseBell after their

marriage in

1877.

Rau remained in

partnership with his

brother until 1880.


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Edward L. Wilson

William Rau and Louise Bell Rau

Rau and Wilson knew how photographers


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Henry Cammas, 1859-1860

Maxime Du Camp, 1850

Francis Frith in Egypt,

1856-1860

Rau and Wilson knew how photographers

established reputations and built careers

William Bell,

Perched Rock, Rocker Creek, Arizona, 1872


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I am working for fame

and name and feel sure

that I will have both as I

am straining every nerve

to make this the mostremarkable expedition in

this line that has every

been contemplated.

-William H. Rau

In a letter to Louise Bell

Rau, January 8, 1882.

The Wilson Lectures


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The Wilson Lectures

At the Academy of

Music

in 1885:

From the Dead Sea To Damascus

The Taking of Petra

Ramses and Aboo Simbel

The Sinai Peninsula


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William H. Raus

office and studio,

Corner of Juniper and

Chestnut Sts.


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1890s: Rau moves his studio to 238 South Camac Street

Rau documents both the Pennsylvania
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=238+south+camac&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=238+S+Camac+St,+Philadelphia,+Pennsylvania+19107&ll=39.947285,-75.16169&spn=0.007978,0.01929&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=39.947285,-75.16169&panoid=oWlhiOn-SUcMTE


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Rau documents both the Pennsylvania

Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad

Soft Coal Hollow Greenwich Point


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Soft Coal Hollow, Greenwich Point

Hopper cars in this South

Philadelphia holding yard handled

300 cars of coal daily

Quadruple Track Tanks atMonmouth Junction, NJ

Track tanks enabled trains to

maintain speeds of 40-50 mph

while taking on water.


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Pennsylvania Limited, on Susquehanna Bridge, at Rockville. PRRs premier, east-west train:

baggage/club car; dining car; 3 Pullman cars and an observation car.

The surf bathing [in Atlantic City] is superb

and safe, the facilities for boating and sailing

are practically unlimited, and the fishing in the

inlets or the deep sea is matchless.


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Pennsylvania Limited on the Horseshoe Curve

Observation End on Penna. Limited, on the

Horseshoe Curve

PRRs moving first-class hotel on the east slope of the Allegheny Mountains.


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A capitalist society requires a culture

based on images. It needs to furnish vast

amounts of entertainment in order tostimulate buying and anesthetize the

injuries of class, race, and sex. And it

needs to gather unlimited amounts of

information, the better to exploit natural

resources, increase productivity, keeporder, make war, give jobs to

bureaucrats. The cameras twin

capacities, to subjectivize reality and to

objectify it, ideally serve these needs

and strengthen them.

-Susan Sontag, On Photography

11-2 photography - tool of commerce, vehicle for art(1) (1)

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