In the Frame- Starting up

New Essginment is about shooting everything we see and make some kind of documentary out of it, without any decent subject or story behind it. To do this , first its important to do following parameters. Those I will consider while doing this project.
I'm going to start with things I am going to do first, and end with things I am going to do last in this parameters.

• Choose your favourite places to see and to photograph, but without the camera, come back with your camera and photograph interesting things along the way. 
• Make a spot circul on the map of Chester, and then document everything from the circul. 
• Select specific places on a map. Once they are selected, walk along the way and take photographs 
• While walking along the journey recognise decent sense (like: smell, touch, hearing, or taste), describing what I'm photographing. Trying to use a different sense each time 
• Picking some texture , shape or subject in my location and shoot examples of it. 
• Walk for some time around my chosen places, and stop to take several pictures of what is going on around me, while I've stopped. Making sure Im doing very random turns or go somewhere unfamiliar. 
• Following pedestrians for some time but without photographing them. See where they will take me along the way. Take the pics of the views along the way. 
• To find a place that interests me , and then turn around and photograph what's on the opposite side. 
• Taking pictures in a Black and White colour for a guide of my photography prints. 
• I have to use sit or stand position for a while. It could be either park, coffe, or bench or even gym. I need to photograph what I see while I stand or seat. including pedestrianise walking by and what passes by. 

After I take some decent shots I will put some answers bellow each point, like what I have done and what's my experience. 

Before I start to do all this, Im going to research something about photographs who does the same things, and maybe get some inspiration of them, or eventually do some more research about specific artist for more detailed subject. I'm going to try to research about at least 2 photographers that are familiar with this brief, my main source going to be , "google", library books, and youtube. The last thing helps me recently quit a lot. Listening and making some notes about specific subject is much easier than read the whole article or book about one person or one thing , and take some notes out of it. While Im watching documentaries about photography I'm making some notes as I go. 

Pictorialism- Henry Peach Robinosn

Henry Peach Robinson was born in 1830 in Ludlow, England. He sadly passed away in Tumbridge in 1901. Beginning of his photography career was made from Dr. Hugh Diamonds instructions. 
Some key points about Robinosn: 

• He made combination of prints, joining multiple negatives to create a singe image. 
• He was doing pictoresque aesthetic ( Artistic was of imagination) from painting, 
• He wrote books like : "Being Hints on Compositon", Chiaroscuro fro Photographers, Pictorial Effect in Photography.
• He abandoned the book selling trade and opened a photographic studio ( he was specializing in portraits)

H. Robinson was a photographer that used Pictoriasm as his technique of creating amazing images and was specialising in combination printing ( multiple negatives joined together, creating a singe image) . Pictorialism is a photo that emphasise beauty of subject matter, tonality and composition rather than documentation of reality. This method made a camera just a tool, that the paintbrush and chisel, could be used to make an artistic statement. Therefore Robinson photographs were called aesthetic value. ( artistically ). Some presume that, he was introduced to combination printing by Oscar Reijnader, one of his friends, and very first Photographer who discovered this method. Henry Robinson used this technique for much of his career and relied on it as tool for promoting his firm belief that , in the hands of artist who understood the rules of composition and lighting , photography could aspire to and achieve the status of pictorial art. 

However Many critics felt that photography was not and could never be art because it is a mechanical process . Other argued that the camera was like the paintbrush, simply one of many tolld available for making art. When Henry Robinson outlined his methods in 1860, he was getting howls of protest from people who seemed to feel that they had been deceived. But at the time, photographers who took the letter view,  turned their cameras towards picturesque subjects, such as landscapes and ruins , applying established rules of artistic composition and lighting. In order to established photography as a recognised art form it was important for Henry to demonstrate to critics how Henry's imagination and idealisation could be expressed photographically. 

Though Robinson is particularly known for his combination printing, he also produced a number of pictorial photographs of woodland and other scenes.

The Lady of Shalott by Henry Peach Robinson.
1861. Albumen print from two negatives, 12 x 10 in. (30.4 x 50.8 cm.).
 Unsigned. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas 
Image Recourse: The Lady of Shallot

Perhaps the most famous photograph that Robinson has taken is "When Day's Work is done."  The gentleman in the picture had appeared one day for a carte-de-visite, and Robinson earmarked him for this project. He then searched for a suitable old lady. Both were photographed in his studio separately and at different times, and then assembled. 

Henry Peach Robinson

12.6 x 18 cm (image); 28.1 x 37.7 cm (paper)

When the Day's Work is Done, 1877, printed January 1890

Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 2" (1890)

The image source: When the Day's work is done

Quit often H. Robinosn was looking for costumed actors or society ladies modelled for his many bucolic scenes. It is because, since he found actual country people too awkward and dull to fit his ideal of the picturesque. The most famous picture that he have taken was "Fading Away". Shows a death of  a young girl surrounded by her family.  This photograph was taken in 1858. Albumen print from five wet collodion on glass negatives. 

Fading Away, composite photograph made from five negatives by Henry Peach Robinson, 1858; in …

George Eastman House Collection

The image source: Fading Away

For Victorian viewers, the image evoked not only the distressing reality of disease but also the romantic associations of consumption , which was combined with artistic creativity and unrequited love. Robinosn exhibited a study of Fading Away's central figure under the title " She never told her Love".

 On the other hand some viewers and critics in the same time, were disturb to see such a n intimate and morbid scene represented in a medium a realistic as photography, Victorian audience recognised that Robinosn had a photographed a model acting a part , not an actual dying girl. The contrived nature of the print (made from five separate negatives) may not been immediately apparent but the overtly theatrical nature of the composition with freezelike arrangement of figure framed by parted curtains, signalled that "Fading Away" was a staged scene. 

By Robinson's controversial way of composing his photographs, many critics or rivals were very straightfoward about his way of working in a Pictorialism. Another famous photographer Peter Emerson, called Robinson an "amature photographer" and later said in his book ( ) " This is an inane, flat, vapid piece of work, bigger and more worthless than ever. Its composition is childish and its sentiment puerile". He also said " images should never be altered after exposure" , and at the end he desired Robinon's practice of using costumed models and painted backdrops. 

Also Henry didn't leave it without making his statement:

 "Any dodge, trick and conjuration of any kind is open to the photographer's use.... It is his imperative duty to avoid the mean, the base and the ugly, and to aim to elevate his subject.... and to correct the unpicturesque....A great deal can be done and very beautiful pictures made, by a mixture of the real and the artificial in a picture." ( H. Robinson- Pictorial Effect in Photography – 1867)

And later he added: 

 “"I must warn you against a too close study of art to the exclusion of nature and the suppression of original thought.... Art rules should be a guide only to the study of nature, and not a set of fetters to confine the ideas or to depress the faculty of original interpretation in the artist, whether he be painter or photographer.... The object (of rules) is to train his mind so that he may select with ease, and, when he does select, know why one aspect of a subject is better than another."

 Yet Henry Robinson decided to it's going to be better in the future not to divulge the secrets of his craft , but leave people to enjoy the finished portraits. 

I believe that guy never stopped working and creating amazing and controversial images, even when people were criticising him he still kept his business and art photography going very well. He even kept receiving official honours and in 1892 became a founding member of the linked Ring " An association of prestigious Art photographers. He also use to write his own essays, and in 1862 Robinson was elected to serve on the Council of the Photographic Society, and continued to serve on that body until 1891. 

Reference: 

•  Robinson, H. P. (1860). On Printing Photographic Pictures from Several Negatives. British Journal of Photography, 7(115), 94.

• Britannica, Henry Peach Robinson, British Photographer, Written by: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2001), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Peach-Robinson
• Mpritchard.com, Robinson Henry Peach, Journal written by: Robert Leggat, (1999) , http://www.mpritchard.com/photohistory/history/robinson.htm
• Juliet Hacking, Foreword by David Campany (2012), Photography, The Whiole Story, London, Uk, Thames & Hudson 

Photography Lecture: What was and is Photography

Today I would like to mention and write about the topics effectively! 

I want to mention numerous topics I was introduced to at my 1st "Theory Photography" lecture, like:

• Wodgewood and Davey
• Niepce
• Daguerre
• Fox Talbot

I will write about them topics in historical order, this is because I would like to start from the very beginning and end on everything else. 

1826-1827: Joseph Niepce take what's is regarded as the earliest known photograph. View from his window at Saint -Loup-de Verennes

A Photograph of Joseph Niepce (1765 –1833)

Joseph Niepce was a French inventor of the very first photograph made in 1826 called "View from the window at Le Gras". It is the earliest surviving photograph, although there could be more photographs that were taken by others , however they haven't survived or never been discovered.  Niepce was experimenting with lithographic printmaking and then he discovered heliography. His interest to those subjects was caused by his ability to draft images by hand. While experimenting with his lithography he also had a go to play with light-sensitive varnishes and then images produced in camera, unfortunately he was unable to prevent images from fading.  After experimenting with solution of bitumen of Judea, he have realised this solution make the best effort. That solution was dated back to the ancient Egyptians but continued to be used for making lithographic engravings in the 1800's. 

Niepce has produced great piece of work with his lithographic skills and experience. In 1822 he made heliograph from an engraving of Pope Pius VII, unfortunately this piece was destroyed during an attempt to copy it some years later.  In 1826-1827 Joseph coated a pewter plate with the same solution from his previous experiments and placed the plate into a camera that was looking out from an upstairs window oh his house. The exposure was about 8 hours long (at least), but after the exposure the plate was washed with a mixture of oil lavender and white petroleum, dissolving away the parts of the bitumen that had not been hardened by light. The final result came as a permanent positive photograph on pewter. The photograph represents view of outbuildings, courtyard, trees and landscapes. Because Niépce could produce only a singular photograph with any exposure he made, the object on view is the unique original; the creator could not make duplicates of it.

The reason why the very first photograph is very difficult to read is because the chemical and physical characteristics of the heliographic process and the reflective nature of the pewter plate. Later a special enclosure have been made to create an environment that gives maximum lighting and positioning for viewing the plate. Most visitors who would like to see this photograph in real life must view the plate at an angle. Viewing from the back corners of the display case allow us to see the image most effectively!. 

Enhanced version of Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras made in 1826 or 1827.
Made with camera obscura.

One of the three earliest known photographic artifacts, created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1825. It is an ink-on-paper print, but the printing plate used to make it.

The images source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce