1. In the beginning…
competing technologies [cf. VHS vs Beta]
early public fascinations with photography
everyone could now have their own personal visual
history

2. Pre-photography
Niepce, View from His Window at Le Gras,
1826-27
Portable camera obscura,
late17th century

3. The daguerreotype [1837-39]
both one-of-a-kind precious object and
ephemeral image
capable of incredible detail
long exposure times: one minute minimum
the death of portrait miniaturists
now everyone could have their own
personal visual history

6. The daguerreotype

10. Competing photographic systems:
the English calotype [1841]
a paper-based negative/positive system
second on the scene
– the role of nationalism: France vs England
– the restrictive patent system taken out by Henry
Fox Talbot stifling its growth outside of
England
high volume printing establishments
spreading the photographic message

12. William Henry Fox Talbot
British, London, April 1839
Photogenic drawing negative

14. "[T]he plates of this work
have been obtained by the
mere action of Light upon
sensitive paper. They have
been formed or depicted by
optical and chemical means
alone, and without the aid of
any one acquainted with the
art of drawing."
William Henry Fox Talbot
British,
Wiltshire, England,
November 4, 1839
Photogenic drawing
negative

15. "We have
sufficient
authority in the
Dutch school of
art, for taking as
subjects of
representation
scenes of daily
and familiar
occurrence. A
painter's eye will
often be arrested
where ordinary
people see
nothing
remarkable."
The Open Door, 1844
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)
Salted paper print from paper negative

16. Hill and Adamson
he First General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland; signing the Act of Seperation and Deed of
Demission - 18th May 1843 (D.O. Hill RSA).

17. Hill & Adamson
Scottish, about 1843
Salt print

19. Industrial efficiencies

20. The daguerreotype in America
[1839]
no formal art training necessary
– apprenticeship
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Holgrave in The House of
Seven Gables
– his seventh profession, no more lasting than the first six
– money, not art, technique not aesthetics: “earn his
bread by some other equally digressive means”

21. The daguerreotype in America
[continued]
the photographic ordeal
– one advertisement:
“Photography in all styles
without pain”
– somber, stern, and
unsmiling sitters
the excellence of the
American Process:
Yankee ingenuity and
industrial skill at work
– infatuation with
machinery:
electroplating, power
buffing

24. John Plumbe, Jr and the United States
Photographic Institute [1841]
the first franchise
operation: 14 galleries
nationwide
credit going to the
studio rather than the
individual
photographer
the chronicling of
ordinary faces in
relatively ordinary
activities

25. John Plumbe, Jr.
Washington, D.C., about 1846

26. Matthew Brady and the celebrity
portrait
opened Daguerrean Miniature
Gallery in NYC, 1844
pictures of both celebrity and more
common type displayed in opulent
surroundings
– everyone getting the same product
– “every man a king”
distribution of portraits to the new
picture papers
Lincoln: “portrait made me
president”

27. M.B. Brady's new photographic gallery, corner of Broadway and Tenth Street, New York,
1861

29. Southwork & Hawes
Southworth & Hawes
American, about 1852
Daguerreotypes

30. Southworth & Hawes
American, 1848
"The Greek Slave," by Hiram Powers
Daguerreotype

31. Photographic representation becoming
seen as the normal appearance of things
photographic
rendering
– detail
– geometric perspective
scientific application
the travel picture
incorporation into
western expeditions
John Whipple, The Moon [1852]

32. Southworth & Hawes
The Use of Ether for Anesthesia
1847

33. Platt Babbitt, Tourists viewing Niagara Falls from Prospect Park, ca. 1855

34. Attributed to Henry Hollister
Canadian, Niagara Falls, Canada,
1860s
Ambrotype

37. Unknown
French, 1847 – 1853
Daguerreotype, hand-colored

40. Unknown
American, 1860
Ambrotype

42. “Picture factories:” portraits for
four bits
assembly-line production with task
specialization
– complete process from start to finish in under
15 minutes
sloppy
trading in erotic art

43. Daguerreotype Saloons: the
spread to the countryside
norms of
portraiture
coming to
the
hinterland

45. Daguerreotype Saloons: the
spread to the countryside
the
post-mortem
portrait

46. Charles Durheim
Swiss, about 1852
Hand-colored daguerreotype

47. the decline of the daguerreotype
[1855]
ferrotype: the first “instant”
process
– less than a minute total
– itinerant street photographers
faster, easier, cheaper collodian
process blending the advantages of
both the daguerreotype and the
calotype
– allowing multiple prints from the
same negative