Photography

&
Society

W3 Lb LT
,o13oo< :7
Davd . Godine, Publishe
Boston
First published in Engish in 1980 by
David B. Goine. Publisher, Inc.
}06 Dartmouth Steet
Bston. Massacusett 02116
Eglish translation cpyright 1980 by
David B.Godine, Publisher, Inc.
All rigt reserve. Mpan of this bok may be use or reproducd
in any manner wher without written prmission except in the
of brie quottions embie in critical artice and nie.
This bok was fit published in Fran in 1974 under the ride
Photograpbi et Smtby Editions du Seuil. Orignal edition
copyright 1974 by Gise Freund. Goine wishe to acnowledge
the cllabration of BOmDnn, Yong-Hee Last. Megan Marshall,
and Andrea Perea in the Engish translation of the book.
Frontspiece: Jean Lanes, L'Oeil Perfnt de Cartier-Breson.
librar of Congres Ctloging i Publcaton Dat
Freund, Gisele
Photography soiety.
Translaton of Photographie et soctc.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Photography-Soial aspects.
2. Photogaphy -History. I. Tide.
TR147.F6513 770 78-58502
ISBN 0-87923-250-1
PHOTOGRAPHY & SOCIETY has been set in VIP Sabon by
G S Typeeners, Austn, Texas. The bok was printed and bound
by The Alpine Press, South Braintree, Massachusett. The paper is a
specal making of acd-free Mohawk Vellum. Te manuscript was
prepared for te press by Quinn Moss, wit desig and typography
by Howard I. Grana.
Contents
PA3 L1I
2
The Reltionship Betwee Art and Society
Q Precrsors of the Photographic Portrait
1Q Photography During te Jul Monrcy ( ;8jo;8q8)
The First Portrait Photograhes
1 Photography During te Second Empire (;8y~;8y)
6Q Atttudes Toward Photography
The Expansion and Artitic Decline of the
Photographic Profession
Q
3
Photoraphy a Mens of Art Reprodcton
FA3 3WL
1O Pres Photography
11 The Birt of PhotojLlm in GCny
1q1 Ameicn Med Magaine
161 Photoraphy a Politcl Tool
1} Photography and te
11 The Scndl-Mongeing Press
1Q Photography As Art
1O1 Amteu Photography
11 Conclsion
11Q Not
11] Acnowledgmet
11Q Ind
Preface
Photography is a concrete example of how artistc ex
pression and social forms contnually influence and re
shape each other. Photography ad Society is concered
with this interacton. It covers the history of photogra
phy from the announcement of irs inventon in 1839 to
the present as reflected in individual photogrphic por
traits and later in the portrait of socery as a whole of
f

d by the press.
I. The uses of photogaphy today are so varied that I
could consider only a few of irs applicatons. Fr exam
ple, I have not dealt wit the rolef hotography in
the womens press, or in advertsin. Ith rre excep
tons, however, all photogaphs publis ed in newspapers
and in magazines perform an advertsing fnction, even if
this is not immediately evident Photography and
Society I have attempted to defne this functon through
concrete examples, many taken fom my own experi
ences as a photogapher.
Te book's frst secton, which deals with nineteenth
cntury photographic history, was orignally my doctoral
thesis at the Sorbonne. When publishe forty years ago,
it was the frst thesis ever presented on the subject; no
books at the tme dealt with photography as a social
force. The thesis has been cndensed and revised to in
clude new material that has come to light.
mconclusion, it is my hope that by examining certain
aspect of the history of photography, I have illuminated
the histor of contemporar socety as well.
-GiseIe Freund
PHOTOGRAPHY SOCIETY
crntrL:ch:. Huer
The Relutionship BetlNeIl Art cd Societ),
Each moment in history has its own form of artistic ex
pression, one that reflects the political dimate, the intel
lectual concerns, and the taste of the period. Taste is not
an inexplicable whim. It is the product of well-defined
conditions that characterize the social structure at each
stage of its evolution. Thus the portraits commissioned
by the bourgeoisie who prospered under Louis XVI strive
for princely character. The taste of that period was de
termined by the class then in powe.r-the nobility .
As the bourgeoisie rose in power, becoming an impor
tant force in the French economy, prevailing tastes were
transformed. The ideal model for portraiture was no
longer princely, but bourgeois in appearance. Lace
trimmed costumes and wigs gave way to the frock coat
and top hat, the cane replaced the sword. The elegance
of a court that had found its highest expression in the
light, vigorous painting and pastels of La Tour and \'at
teau gave \\'ay to the solemn grays of David. Similarly.
the meticulous dravings of Ingres responded to the real
ist tendencies of his time and to the conservative taste
of a bourgeoisie fond of formality and conscious of its
responsibility. Each society thus develops characteristic
forms of artistic expression that are born of the needs
and traditions of the dominant social class.
A change in social structure intluences not only the
subject matter but also the techniques artists use in their
\\'ork. Troughout the nineteenth century-the age of the
machine and modern capitalism-changes occurred both
3
in the character of the hin portit and in te artstc
technique of portitur. Technologcal progess out
side m8world led to the invention of a series of pro
esse that were to have considerable bearing on future
developments in art. Lithogaphy, invented in 1798 by
Alois Senefelder and introduced to France a few years
later by Philipp de Lasteyrie (who set up a studio in
Paris), repreented an important step in the democratiza
ton of ar. But the most decisive factor in making art
accesible to everyone was the inventon of photography.
"'!hotggphy-PiaYs an cl nk in gremporary
life. There is scarcely an aspct of human activity in
which it u not used in one form or another. It has be
come indispsable to both science and industry. h pro
vides the basis for mass media-movie, television, video.
Thousarids of newspapers and magazines print millions
of photogphs daily.
Photography is now so much a part of our daily lives
that our familiarity cause us to overlook it. One of its
singular caracteristics is its acceptance in eery social
class. Photogaphs are as likely to be found in mhomes
of laborers and craftsmen as in those of goverment of
cials and industrialist., Photogrphy's enormous politi
c sigificance lies in its universal appal. It is the per
fect means of expression for a goal-oriented, mecanized,
and bureaucratc socety founded on the belief that each
person has his own place in a standarized hierarchy
of professions ..
The cameraas become an instrument of major sigif
cance to our society. It inherent ability to transcib
exteral reality gves it documentaty validity-it is, seem
ingy, both accurate and unbiased. More than any other
medium, photogrphy is able to express the values of the
dominant socal class and to interpret evets from that
class's point of view, for photography, althoug strictly
linked with nature, has only an illusory objectvitY: The
lens, te so-called impartal eye, actUally permits- evety
4 Photgphy OSc

possible distorton of reality: tbe character of tbe image

is determined by tbe photogrpher's point of view and
te demands of his patrons. Te imporance of photogra
phy does not rest primariiy in it potental as an ar
form, but ratber in its ability to shape our ideas, to in
fuence our behavior, and to defne our socety .
, m our technologcal age, when industty is always tty
ing to ceate new needs, the photogaphic industty has
expanded enormously because tbe photogaph meets
modem man's pressing need to epres his own individu
ality. Despite an ever higher standar of living, man in
Wester cvilizaton feels less and less involved wit evets
around him and is forced into an increasingly passive
role. For him, tbe photograph is an exteralizaton of his
feeling-a kind of creaton. No wonder, tben, tat tbe
number of amateur photographers grows evet day and
shows no sig of lertng up. mits special way, tbe photo
gaphic image has transformed our vision of the world.
Te Rlonshi Bee HSe 5
:V I11

,
8 Photogahy OSce
Te physionotac. in
veted by Gille-Luis
Cretien in 1786. cmbined
methos of portiture:
te silhouet and te
gaving. Te physionotIe
culd made ine-
. siveiy but acieve muc te
bMMWa painted pr
tait.
Precursors of the Photographic Portrait
The development of the photographic portrait corres
ponds to an important phase in the socal development
of Wester Europe: the rise of the middle classes when
for the frst tme, fairly large segment of the populaton
attaine politcal and economic power. To meet their re
sultng demand for goods, nearly everything had to be
produced in greater quantites. The portrait was no ex
ception: By having one's portrait done an individual of
the ascending classes could visually afrm his new social
status both to himself and to the world at large. To meet
the increased demand for portraits, the art became more
and more mechanized. The photogaphic portrait was
the final stage in this trend toward mechanization.
Around 1750 the nascent middle classes began push
ing into areas tat were formerly the sole domain of the
aristocracy. Fr centuries te privilege of aristocratic cir
cles, the portrait began to yield to democratizaton. Even
before the Frenc Revoluton the bourgeoisie had already
manifested its profound need for self-glorifcaton, a need
which provoked the development of new forms and tech
niques of portraiture. Photography, which entered the
public domain in 183
9
, owes much of its popularity and
rapid social development to the contnuing vogue of the
portrait.
During this period of transition, however, when con
stant political upheaval and new producton methods in
all industries were dissolving the remains of the feudal
system in France, the rising classes had not found a char-
9
acteristc means of artistic expression because they had
not yet formed a clear slf-image. The bourgeoisie still
modeled itself after the aristocracy, which continued to
set standards of taste even though it was no longer the
dominant economic or politcal force. The rising classes
adopted the artistic conventions favored by the nobility,
modifying them according to their own needs.
The nobility were difcult client. They demanded
technical perfecton. To suit the tastes of the day, the
painter tried to avoid all bold colors in favor of more
delicate ones. Canvas alone could not satsfy the aristoc
racy: painters experimented with any material which
might better render the ric textures of velvet or silk. The
miniature prtrait became a favorite of the nobility. It
underlined the aristocracy's delight in personal charm.
On powder bxe and pendant one could always crt
about thee tiny portrait of fieds, lovers, or faraway
member of the family.
The miniature was also one of the frst portrait forms
to be coveted by the bourgeoisie for the expression of
its new cult of individualism. m dealing wit tis new
clientele, the portrait painter fced a double task: he must
imitate te style of the court painters, and bring down
his price. 'Portrait painting in France at te time of Louis
7and Lu7Vis caracterized by a tendency to fl
sify, to idelize eac face, even that of the shopkeeper,
in order to have him resemble the exemplary human typ:
the princ.' 1 Easily adapted to it new clientele, te min
iature bcame one of m most successful minor ar.
A miniaturist could support himself by turing out thirty
to m portraits a year and selling them at moderte
prices. But even thoug it was popular among the middle
classes for a time, it still retained its aristocratic element,
and eventually, as the middle casses became more secure,
it died out.
By 1850, when the bourgeoisie had beome frmly es
tablished, the miuiature portrait had all but disappeated
10 Photogahy OSo
and photogaphy deprived the last of the miniaturists of
their livelihood. In Marseille, for example, there were no
more than four or fve miniaturists by 1850, only two
of whom enjoyed enough of a reputation to be turing
out ffy portraits a year. These artists eared just enough
to suppnrt themselves and their families. Within a few
years, there were nearly ffy photographers in town,
most of whom devoted themselves to pnrtrait photogra
phy and eared a good deal more than the best-known
miniaturists. The photographers tured out an average
of twelve hundred pictures annually. Sold at 15 gold
franc apiec, these brought a yearly total of 18,000
franc and a combined income of nearly one million.
Equally dramatic changes tok place in the large cties
in France and abroad.2 For one-tenth the price of a
painted portrait, the photographer could fursh a like
ness which satisfed te taste of the bourgeois as well as
the needs of his pocketbook.
Art forms m their orign and evoluton parallel con
tempnrary development in the social structure. The ar
tstic eforts of the era wit which we are concered
reflect the democratic ideals of the Frenc Revolution
of 1789, which demanded 'the rights of man and of the
citizen.' The revolutionary citizen who helped tke the
Bastille and who defended the right of his class at the
National Assembly reflected the same ideals in posing for
the physionotracist of Paris.
The physionotrace, which represented a major step in
the mechanization of the pnrtrait, had an interesting
predecessor. During the reig of Louis 7Wa new process
had been invented for making pnrtraits. By curting pro
fles from blac, shiny paper, the portraitst could fnish
his work in no time. Many skilled craftsmen took up this
new method and worked as itinerant artsts at festive
gathering, fom court balls to local fairs. The cut pnr
trait, named silhouette afer the fnanc minister of that
time, acieved interatonal pnpularity.
Precrsors of te Photograhi Portrat 1 1
Monsieur de Silhouette was not, as has been claimed,
the creator of the cutout that put his name into com
mon usage. The actual inventor is unknown. The word
silhouete, which include by extension all fgures seen
in shadowed profle, appeared in the middle of te eight
eenth cntury. It etymology is quite unusual. Named
Controller Generl m 1750 when France was heading to
ward bankruptcy, M d Silhouette levied, with some dif
fculry, cettain public taxes to bost goverment reve
Dues. Fr a time he W considered the savior of the
French State, but m defcit was too geat and he was
forced to delay crain paymet while suspending others
entirely. His populariry plummeted, and te public be-
12 Photogray OSocey
Silhouet e psed te first
tt to trditional prtai
tre mte ru
muc lesrme, talet, ad
mm.Te first 'm
' pomaits paved te
wyfor te physionotrae.
came spiteful. A new style of clothing appeared: narrow
coats without pleats and breeches without pockets. With
out money to store in them, what good were pockets?
Tese clothes were said to be styled m Silhoueue,
and to this day, anything as insubstantal as a shadow
is called a silhouette; in a short time, the brilliant Con
troller General had become no more than a shadow of
himself.3
The silhouette cutter remained fashionable until the
time of Bonaparte. Hawkers selling silhouettes could be
found at public balls of the Directoty and Consulate.
Artists improving on the new portrit technique embel
lished te cut shapes by retouching and engaving them
with needles. A abstract form of representation, the
silhouette portrait required no special training fom the
cutter. Fr a tme, the public flocked to silhouette cut
ters, pleased with their fast service and modest prices.
Te invention of the silhouette did not lead to a large
scale industty, but it did encourage the development of
another new technique popular in Franc between 1786
and 1830-the physionotrace.
The inventor of the new technique was Gille-Louis
Chretien. Bor in 1754, the son of a court musician at
Versailles, Chretien began in his father's profesion but,
hoping to make a better living, he soon cose to become
an engaver. His choice may have been a disappointment
at frst, for the competton was ferce, and the work de
manded much tme and care. The few portraits which he
produce at the start took too long to bring substantal
remunertion, and commissions did not come frequently
enough to cover expnse. Soon Chretien began experi
mentng wit faster ways to tur out portraits. m 1786
he successflly devised an appartus which mechanized
the technique of engraving and saved considerable time.
Te invention combined two methods of portraiture, the
silhouette and the engaving, thus creating a new art.
He named his device te physionotrce.
Precrsors of the Photograhic Portrait 13
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'4 Phtogrgh OSociety
Physionotrace portraits by
Gilles-Louis Chretien and
Quenedey, two of the best
known physionotracists.
The portraits tended to re
duce every face to a stylized,
static expression, a small
compromise for such an in
expensive and oftentimes
flattering product (clock
wise from top: Chretien,
J.p Brisson, 1792; Quene
dey, Young Woman, 1814;
Chretien, A.J.A. RuiLhiere;
Quenedey, Young Man).
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16 PbotogqbyOSoo
Te physionotrace also
pennirted a new kind of
self-portraiture. Chretien
produced these self-portrait
engravings with his phys
ionotrac from a portrait
drawn by Fouquet (1792).
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Precursors of the Photographic Portrait 3Q
of the evoluton fom miniature to physionotrace. But
consider te diference between the delicate art of te
miniature, wher the arist spends days and weeks care
fully reproducing a face, and this virtually mechanized
process of reproducton. The portraits obtained with the
physionotrce now are only of documentary value: they
generlly show the same flat, stylized, frozen expression.
In the works of the miniaturist, one C always M more
than a simple likeess between model and copy. The art
ist is fee to emphasize whatever characteristc he choos
es, and tereby C evoke the spirit of te sitter as well.
The physionotracst can reproduce fcal cnturs with
mathematcl precision, but the resulting portrait lacks
expression because it has not been executed wit an ar
tst's intuitve feeling for character.
The physionotrace can be considered the symbol of a
period of transiton between the old reme and te new.
It is te predecessor of the camer in the technical evo
luton that has led to the coin-operated portrait machines
and Plaroids of today. There will always b a sector in
te ar world which is more concered with sped and
quantty than wit art; the physionotrcst of 1790 u
not far removed from the passpor photograpber of the
twentiet cntury.
Thanks to te physionotrace, a large prtion of the
Frenc bourgeoisie gained access to prtrait. But the
procs did not necssarily capture te intrest of the
majority of te middle class, much less te lower cass.
It dos not, for example, seem to have b practcd
in the provincs. Individual labor was stll dominant
there in the executon of a portrait. It was not untl a
totally imprsonal teclmique came into use with the ad
vent of photogrphy that the portrait could be complete
ly democratzed.
Althoug the physionotrac had nothing to do with the
teclical developmet of photography, it can be argued
that it was its ideologcal predecssor.
18 Photgahy OSce
P
F
Photograhy During the July Monarchy
(I830-I848)
On I_June 1839, a group from the Chamber of Deputes
proposed that the French goverment purchase the rights
to the new invention of photography'O for public use.
Fr the frst time, photography made its appearnce in
public life. A knowledge of the politcal paries and social
groups espousing the cause of photography gves yet an
other view of the relationship between the changes in
society and the development of photography.
Nineteenth-century revolutions in France were prod
uct of social changes that accompanied the growth of
capitalism. Te liberal revolution of 1830, which de
throned the oldest branch of the 'legtmate' dynasty and
destroyed all hopes of its restoration, supported the rising
bourgeoisie and its claim to 'natural' power.
Massive economic changes took place during this peri
o. The 1830 strike among Parisian printers, precipitated
by job cutbacks due to the installaton of improved ma
chines, was only one indicaton of the dramatic changes
in French economic and social life. 11 Mechanization took
hold throughout France duting louis-Philippe'S reig:
the number of mechanical spinning wheels, for example,
grew fom 466,000 in 182.8 to 819,000 in 1851; there
were only 250 power loms in 1825, but little over twen
ty years later some 12,128 had been installed in Franc.'2
Individual cafrsmen were being replaced by machines;
France's small, labor-intensive factoties were becoming
machine-dominated industries; and French society itself
was becoming increasingly standardized.
19
Many French artisans were forcd to join the ranks
of the proletariat whic, in the early days of industriali
zation, meant a life of misery and complete politicl in
sigificance. petite bourgeoisie, or lower middle
classes, also became more numerous, but with the expan
sion of industry and cmmerce they prospered along with
the rest of the bourgeoisie, whose members were fast b
coming the pillars of the social order.
On 28 July 1831, a bourgeois Parisian proudly ex
hibited m prrait next to one of Louis-Philippe with
te following insctipton: 'There is no real diference be
twen Philipp and me: he is a ctizen- king and I am a
kingly ctizen.' This anecdote points up the new self
awareness of the bourgeoisie whose ideas and feeling
had becme profoundly democrtic."
Grocrs, haberdasher, clockmakers, hatters, drug
gsts-men 'enclosed in the little world of their shops,'
with litle means and just enough educaton to keep teir
account bo ks-these were the members of the bourgeoi
sie who were to fnd in photography a means of slf
expres ion confrming t teir new ideals and econonic
status. Their place in society would detennine the nature
and directon of photography. This group established,
fr mfrst tme, the economic base that allowe the art
of the porrit to become accessible to the masses.
Just as fashion is set by socety's higer classe before
reaching the lower, $ photogaphy was frt adopted by
thos members of te French rling class who wielded
the most pwer: industrialist, factor owners, bankers,
politcans, writers, scentst, and all tose who belonged
to the intellectual elite ofPatis. Ten photogaphy gadu
ally fltered down troug te lowr niddle casss as
tey becme more infuental.
Around 1840 Franc's toral ppulaton was 35 nillion
but only 30,000 had m rigt to vote.' The gover
ment, a consttutonal monarchy known as the July Mon
arcy, W led by Louis-Philippe, a king who liked to
20 Pbrahy OS


dress in the clothes of the bourgeoisie and carry an um
brella. Members of the two Chambers were chosen by
a small number of electors and were primarily industrial
ists and merchant.
Besides the goverment party, there were also mem
bers of te Legtmist and Republican oppositons in the
Chambers. The Legtmist party, representng the noble'
and landowners' interests, no longer eerted the over
whelming power it onc had. The Republicans, however,
were an important infuence in the political life of the
day, paricularly in the pres. Their Paris newspaper Le
National, was as respected as the venerable Joural des
debats, te organ of te party in powr. The Republican
members of the Chamber came from the bourgeois in
tellectual elte: writers, lawyers, army ofcrs, civil ser
vants, and others. Tey were, above all, patriots who
despised the Treaty of Vienna of 1815, whic was de
siged to keep France weak in the European balance of
power, and who looked bac fondly at te old Reublic
founded by the French Revolution.

Intellectuals have always had both a role to perform

in history and a special function in their own socety.
Separated by knowledge and culture, tey can under
stand teir relatve historical positon and chose their
own curse in life accoringly. They can have a more
open view of the world, a vision not available to other
groups of socety restricted by politcal and economic
status.16 In the Frenc parliament under the July Mon
archy, intellectuals mose to repreent the more humani
tarian and liberal causes of the bourgeoisie. Although
they did not consttute an entty strictly distnct fom the
bourgeoisie, they were the most forward-thinking repre
sentatve of the cnstitutonal goverment. Teir answer
to the weak contemporar politcal regme 'whim, sens
ing its own weakness, had to hide behind the crown;
was bourgeois republicanism. Because they were par of
the oppositon, this goup of intellectuals was Dot con-
PbotogriJ/ Dg te Jul Monarc 21
fned by the conservatve politc of the jte milieu (the
neoclassical concption of the Golden Mean, te happy
middle ground). They were open to new possibilites."
The libral spirit is defined by an abiding faith in the
potental of human intellectual and morl progess. Along
with tis fait in progress gos 8 efort to recge the
realites of the period in which one lives. Bcause of it
flexible politcal position, m intllectUal bourgeoisie,
which attracted the artistic elite during the Revoluton
of 1848, culd aford to b receptve to contemporary
reforms and scientfc or spirirual innovatons. It also b
came the most competent judge of the potential of new
business venrures. It is not at all surprising, then, that
22 Photography OSoe
world's frst photo
gaph, Josh Nicphore
Niq used moe
lithographic tecniques in
his frst sucsfl recoring
of nature in 1826 in tis
photongraving of his
courtyar in Caln-sur
Saone: from lef to rigt are
the Nie house. a per
tre, te bam (slanted rof),
and anoter wing of te
house. The image is faint
bmte meal plate
etced with te im was
very sy and te picture
underesd.
Franois Arago, one of te
frt public patrons of pho
tgraphy, sugeste to the
French Camber of Depu
tes that the goverment buy
Niece's invention.
these intellectuals were the first to propose that the State
acquire the rights to the new invention of photography
and introduce the inventon to the public.
The Republican party had a left-wing democratc fac
tion 18 whose leader, Franois Arago, was an extraordi
nary scientist as well as politcian. 'This scientist whom
all of Europe admires is at the same time one of the most
vigorous defenders of public freedom and the interests
of the people,' wrote one journalist of the day. 'Since
he has arrived in the Chamber of Deputies, he has op
posed all the ministries and has fought against all reac
tonary and violent measures.' 19 Arago was one of the
intellectuals most imbued with his party's pladorm of
encouraging anything that might lead to progress. Not
surprisingly, he was the first to understand the extraor
dinary role photography could play in the arts, the sc
ences, and other fields. It was Arago who most forcefully
urged the Chamber to purchase this new process for the
State. h is important to note that Arago's interest in
photography was primarily scientific-the predominant
position in the early days of photography.
All inventions are the result of experimentaton and
discovery on the one hand, and society's needs on the
other. To tese two factors, we should also add the in
ventor's genius and often just plain luck. All of these
factors contributed to Joseph Nicephore Niepce's inven
tion of 1824.2.
Born in 1765 at ChaJon-sur-Saone, Niepce was the son
of an influential lawyer whose connections extended to
many of the most important families in Burgundy. His
fnancial and social position, the cultural tradition in his
bourgeois intellectual family, and his educaton all pro
vided him with the time and background to pursue his
scentific interests. He was not unlike many other 'gentle
men-scientsts' who carried on their research in the cha
teaux and country homes of the leisured bourgeoisie,
among whom scientific experimentation was frequently
Photography During the July Monarchy )3
encouraged m Arago's tme no scec was more fash
ionable than cbemistry. A popular pastme, half experi
ment, half parlor game, involve attacbing object like
flower and leaves to pieces of paper treated with silver
salts. When the papr was exposed to sunlight, te out
line of m objects soon appeared in sharply contrastng
black and white. Howver, thes images disappeared
rpidly becaus f tchniques had not as yet been
discvered.
During this post-Revolutonary era, the most frmly
etrencbed traditons began to falter, and life itself seemed
like an eperiment. The nobles and thoe of royalist ten
dncies, who had largely ben ecluded from politcal
life and who, like Niepce, preferred to retre to their
cunty estates, now found plenty of time to devote to
their scentfc expriments. Photogaphy was already be
gnning to emerge fom their work. m 1814, lithography
reaced Franc and sugested to Niepc te last steps of
his own work. living in the isolation of his cuntry
home, Niepce was unabl to fnd the limestone necssary
for his experiments with lithogaphy. He began to use a
metal plate instead of stone and sunlight in plac of the
lithographer's cayon.
2
t
m 1826, afer many failures, Niepce fnaUy succeeded
in deloping a very primitve photographic pr
c
s.
22
Not untl several years later, however, did the painter
Daguerre perfect Niepce's tecnique. Daguerre's inven
ton of te diorama had drawn him into studie on te
efec of ligt, and with his result he W able to make
the new prcess available to everone.'] Altoug Niepce
had spnt a lifetime of mone and eergy on m photo
gaphic project, m recived no public reciton and
died impoverished on July 1833.
2
4 Daguerre, an ac
quaintance of Ne m up an agemet wit
Ne's MQ Isidor, who reve te invetion as his
only inheritance. Togther, tee I would exloit m
discve."
Egving of Niepc (1765-
1833), invetor of te fr
phothic prs
Thou minvetion even
mal reved rtion
ad goveent supr.
Niepc die impversed.
Like Niepce, who had spent years looking in vain for
fnancial backers, Daguerre was at first unsuccessful at
fnding the necessary support. Even an efort Ugo public
ended in failure, as there was no way of convincing specu
lators to risk money on an invention that stll did not
inspire much confidence. Te frst photographic print
were difcult to appreciate because the image was afxed
to a mirrored surface, which had to be held up against
the light to be seen. And, in any case, lack of initative
among contemporary businessmen was typical of the
period. Vast industrial expansion did not begn until the
second half of the century. The businessman of the 1830S
invested only in sure ventures and had little experience
in speculaton. The stock market was not yet the barom
eter of wealth into which it later evolved.
But, the former promoter of the diorama and an
ambitious and clever entrepreneur as well, Daguerre
knew how to sell a discovery successfully. He asked that
his name be featured in any publicity gven to the inven
tion. And he soon succeeded in making the inventon
a favorite subject of conversation at exhibitions and gath
erings of high society.26 Nor was it an accident that sci
entists became interested in photography during the
1830S, a period of geat scientifc progress. Fifteen years
after its invention photography was at last introduced to
the general public.
'Everything that leads to the progress of civilizaton,
to the physical and moral well-being of man, ought to
be te continuing goal of enlightened goverment. This
goverment must rise to meet the fates of the citizens
that are entrusted to it; those men who work toward
this noble end should be honorbly rewared for their
achievements.' 27 These words of Gay-Lussac, the French
physicist, were typical of the liberal's attachment to the
idea of progress. He delivered them in the Chamber of
Peers six weeks after Arago had presented his proposal
on the invention of photography to the Chamber of Dep-
Photography During te Jul Monarc 25
uties. Passed unanimously by both Chambers, the law of
fered Daguerre, now considered the inventor of the 'Da
guerreotype,' and Niepce's son Isidore, annuities of
6,000 and 4,000 gold francs respectively.28 As was often
the case at the time, the French goverment renounced its
rights to a monopoly and left the invention open to the
public. This gesture actually meant little: since the proc
ess was so simple, it would have been difcult to protect
by any patent.
On 1Q August 1Q having acquired the invention, the
French goverment made the process public during a
meeting of the Academy of Sciences29 The intellectual
elite of Paris, composed of scholars and the most impor
tant artists of the day, flled the hall. 'As early as eleven
in the moring the crowd was considerable. By three
o'clock an actual riot blocked the doors of the Academy.
All the notables of Paris were crowded into the section re
served for the public: The presence of numerous foreign
scholars at the lecture indicated the tremendous interest
the invention had created in a short period of time and
well beyond French borders.30 Arago himself presented
the details of the technique and outlined the extraordi
nary role photography was going to play in the develop
ment of the sciences to the attentive audience. 'How
archeology is going to beneft from this new process!
It would require twenty years and legions of draftsmen
to copy the millions and millions of hieroglyphics cover
ing just the outside of the great monuments of Thebes,
Memphis, Karak, etc. A single man can accomplish this
same enormous task with the daguerreotype.' ` The art
ist would discover in the new technique a valuable tool,
and art itself would be democratized by the daguerreo
typen Arago read a letter of approval from the painter
Delaroche. Astronomy would also beneft from this ne\\!
invention: 'We can hope to make photographic maps
of our satellite. In a few moments time one can achieve
one of the longest and most diffcult projects in astrono-
26 Photogrphy CSociety
Following Niepce's discm'
ery of and Daglle

re

s
.
Im
provements on pnmltlve
photographic techniques, a
Daguerreotype craze spread
throughout Europe and
America (lithograph by
T.H. Mallrisset, The D.
guerreotPo1l.nia.1840).
* 0Ct|MatOIYFONN:
my: 33 The numerous possibilities Arago presented in his
speech summed up the immense importance ofthe inven
tion. Arago's foresight was evident in his prophetic fnal
remarks: '\hen experimenters use a new tool in the
study of nature, their initial expectations always fall
short of the series of discoveries that eventually issue
from it. WIth this invention, one must particularly em
phasize the unforeseen possibilities.'
Arago's presentation was an important Parisian event,
reviewed with lively interest by all the newspapers. Dur
ing the weeks that followed, Paris was taken by a mad
spirit of experimentation. With equipment and acces
sories weighing as much as 220 pounds, Parisians set
out to search for subject matter. Dusk was greeted with
little enthusiasm: the sunset ended the day's experiments.
Photography During the July Monarchy 27
At dw,fom many a window, amateur photographers
could be seen cautously trying to capture an image of
a neigboring roof or a panorama of chimneys on the
sensitized plate. Soon cameras were routinely aimed at
monuments in most of Pris's famous squares; scientists
were successfully repeating the inventor's procedures.
Everyone was predicting the end of engraving, and the
optcans who displayed the frst cameras were besieged
by prospectve buyers. The daguerreorype was an inex
haustble subject at salons. Wwas the rage of Paris.35
As son as the photographic process was made public,
inventors came along, each claiming to have discovered
the process. mFrance, a civil servant named Bayard, and
in England, the scientist Talbot, had both discovered a
photographic process using paper: the frst with silver
iodide, the second with silver chloride. The fact that the
photographic procss was invented at the same time by
te diferent individuals strongly suggests that photog
raphy responded to the needs of the tme.
The new invention aroused the interest and curiosity
of men at all levels. Yet, the inital technical primitive-
2
8
Photography OSociety
The Daguerreotype Cam
era; painter Daguerre
(1789-1851) improved
Niepc's technique with the
use of silver rather tan
pewter plates in his cmera.
However, te development
of the flm still producd
dangerous iodized vaprs,
required long exposures,
and neede precse timing.
, -Long exposures meant ex
tend uncomfortable sit
tings (lithograph by Honore
Daumier, Position Consid
ered to be Most Comfort
able for having a Good
Daguerreotype).
ness and the extraordinary expense involved made it
temporarily available only to wealthy amateurs and sci
entists. Daguerre's invention, moreover, was very incon
venient. First of all, the light-sensitive silver plate could
be used only after its exposure to dangerous iodized
vapors.36 In addition, the plate could only be prepared
just before use and had to be developed immediately after
exposure. Finally, exposure time was often more than
half an hour. Arago indicated in his report that prepara
tions alone took thirty minutes to three-quarters of an
hour." To photograph landscapes the early photogra
phers had to transprt large tents and portable labora
tories because the chemical preparations had to be made
at the site. Taking daguerreotype portraits required Job
like resigation from patent subjects during long waits
in full sunlight. Beads of sweat dripping from the fore
heads and cheeks of the subjects left unartractive lines
on their powdered faces that inevitably showed up in the
final pictures.38 In addition to these problems, the da
guerreotype had yet another basic disadvantage: the
process resulted in only one plate, and copies could not be
made. Built by Daguerre himself, and sold by the Paris
optcian Giroux, the frst cameras were large and cum
bersome, weighing 50 kilograms (over 100 pounds), in
cluding accessories. The price, no less imposing, varied
between 300 and 400 francs, a sum vety few could aford.
Te tremendous public interest in photography as well
as the early recogition of its economic importance led
to the technical improvement of the process, and soon the
price of cameras and equipment began to drop. Improve
ments began with the optical equipment. By the end of
1
8
39, Baron Seguier was constructing a camera that
weighed no more than _I pounds and was to some ex
tent prtable. Around 1840, the opticians Chevalier,
Soleil, Leresbours, Buron, and Monrmirel developed
equipment that could be produced at much lower prices,
and by 1841 cameras were priced at 250 to 300 francs.
Photography Durig the July Monarchy 29
Plates costing three to four francs just a year before were
now selling for one to one and a half franc. Although
annual sales in Paris had reached approximately 2,000
cameras and 500,000 plates by 1846, the number of en
thusiasts was still limited by the price. Finally, the lens
designed by the German optician Voigtlander became so
competitive with French equipment that the French were
forced to lower their prices and call the cameras they sold
'the German system.' The optician Leresbours's 1842
catalog listed the price as 200 francs.39
Reduced exposure time was another result of technical
improvements. [n 1839, the year photography was intro
duced to the public, the required sitting time was ffteen
minutes in full sunlight. A year later, thirteen minutes
in the shade were sufcient. By 184 1 exposure was re
duced to I'O or three minutes; by 1842 to only twenty
to forty seconds. Finally, a year or two later, the length
of sitting was no longer a problem in achieving a photo
graphic portrait.
30 Photogrphy Society

+-

^
Named 'Daguerreotypes' in
g French law, the images
produced by Daguerre's
camera included nearlv
everything from panoamas
] portraits (opposite:
Daguerre, The Louvre,
1839; clockwise from top:
Daguerre, 'lieU' of Paris,
1839; unknown American
photographer. Three
Women; unknown photog
rapher, Family Portrait, c.
184)
Photography During the July Monarchy
3
1
The daguerreotype was a great success all over Europe,
but it was in America tat it took hold and developed
into a prosperous
business. Atthe end of r839, Daguerre
sent Franois
Gouraud to the United
States to organize
daguerreotype exhibitons and to gve lectures on the
procss. He was to promote the sales of the camera and
other accessories manufactured under Daguerre's super
vision by the Paris firm of Alphonse Giroux and Co.
Daguerre's business interet explains his haste in intro
ducing the invention abroad.
In r840 American society had not yet become rigdly
stratified, and initiative was the passport to success. Be
tween r840 and r860, the period of the daguerreotype's
greatest popularity, America was shifting from an agri
cultural to an industri
al society
as the result of numerous
technical advances: refrigertion, the invention of the
reaper, new developm
ents in mass producton, the ex
pansion of te rilroads, and other products of American
ingenuity. It was
the p
eriod of rapid
urbanization in the
East and of the gold rush and the
fantic development of
cites in the West. Proud of its Sllccess, the new country
32 Photography O
Socie
t
y
Te Dagerreot n
Aerica: Fred Co mbe's
Montgomery Street, Sn
Fancisco, t8yo.

found in photography an ideal way to preserve and pro

mote its accomplishments. Enterprising Yankees set up
photographic 'salons' in the cites and converted cov
ered wagons crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky
Mountains into daguerreotype srudios. It is estmated
that by 1850 there were already 2,000 daguerreotypists.
Just a few years later, in 1853, some 3 million photo
graphs were taken annually, while the total output be
tween 1840 and 1860 was more than 30 million photo
graphs. Daguerreotypes cost between $2.50 and $ 5 .00,
depending on their size. Americans were estmated to
have spent between $8 million and $12 million m 1850
for portraits alone, representing 95 percent of photo
graphic producton.4o mthe young American democracy
this new method of self-portrairure was perfectly suited
to the pioneer taste, a taste proud of it achievements
and eager to preserve them for posterity.
However, it was only when Daguerre's nonreproduc
ible metallic plate was replaced by the glass negatve that
the conditions necessaty for the development of the por
trait industty were fnally fulflled. The Wplate collodi
on process, using glass negatives instead of copper plates,
opened the way to mass production of photographic
portraits. At the same time, it stimulated the development
of such secondaty industries as the manufacture of cam
eras, glass plates, and chemical emulsions. Soon the paper
industry and smaller businesses were taking advantage
of the new demand for picture frames and photograph
albums. The daguerreotype thus gradually fell out of use
and a new phase in the histoty of photography began.
Photograhy Drig te Jul Morc 33

\
1
)
c
I
. ` , \ `

lchTOllrachun "J.QJ.r
: S lC ! ~ I . .1rtit-photog
rapher a:d dcrUIUUt. 'V.\
one of the tlrt responiblc
for ' rJ.i51ng Phutogr.ph \
tht' height of .\rt through
hi, POrtfJltS Launcrlith
ograph, I S65 :
The First Portrait Photogrephers
Eycry great technical discovery causes crises and catas
trophes. Old professions disappear and new ones devel
op. But i f old occupations arc threatenedl nev. ' ones sig
nify progress. The invention of photography began an
evolution which ultimately rendered obsolete the art of
the portrait as it was then practiced by painters, minia
turists, and engravers. Those who had adopted the old
trades in response to the needs of a rising hourgeoisie
rapidly lost their means of support. :lany of these art
ists became the frst photographers. Economic necessity
led the artists who had once attacked photography as an
artless tool \\-ithout a soul or spirit' I adopt the new
profession when their own trades were threatened with
extinction. Their previous experience as artists and crafts
men was partly responsible for the high quality of the
photographic industry during its early days: The uses
both commercial and artistic-these early photographers
found for the new form were to direct the development
of photographic techniques for the rest of the nineteenth
century.
Technically primitive, early portrait photography was
exceptional in its artistic qual ity. As the technique be
came more sophisti cated, the artistic qual ity of the work
declined accordingly. 'It is certainly profoundly signif
cant that these frst " artist-photographers" were most
active during those ten years which preceded the indus
trialization of photography.'
^ ^
Around 1843, four years after photography had en
tered the public domain, the frst proletarian intellectuals
appeared in Paris-the Bohemians. Many of the frst pho
tographers came fom this group of arrsts. Painters who
had failed to make a name for themselves, men of letters
who eked out a living by writing occasional articles,
miniaturists and engravers who had been deprived of a
livelihood by the new invention, were all part of the
group interested in early photography. In short, all sorts
of second-rte talents who had never made it tured to
the new medium, which seemed to promise a better way
of life.4
By the middle of the nineteenth centur, photographic
technique had ceased to be experimental and had reached
the point were photographers no longer needed any spe
cial knowledge. The necessary tools were now being
manufactured by specalized industries, and the prepara
tion of developing or fixing baths no longer required a
parricular knowledge of chemistr. Equipment of vary
ingsizes was available in the shops of numerous opticans.
A serie of easily understandable manuals on photogra
phy was published, providing an exact decription of the
necessar procedures. A photographic workshop could
be set up in France for just a few hundred fanc.
Aethetically, the photographic portrait developed in
two contary directions: one represented progress, the
other regession. m this chapter we shall examine the
portritists of the first progressive phase of photogaphic
histor, the arrist-photographers.
One of the most eminent photographers of the period
was Felix Toumachon Nadar, an illustrator, caricaturist,
writer, and aeronaut who opened a photogaphy studio
in 1853 on rue Saint-Lazare. His career was typical of
the frst group of arrist-photographers. Bor in 1820 in
Paris," he spent his earliest childhood in Lyons where his
family had lived for generatons. A member of the provin
cal intellectual bourgeoisie, his father was a bookseller,
36 Photogahy OSoe
publisher, and printer by family tradition. The family
was rich, royalist, and socially influential; there was every
sig that the sons would become good scholars. Felix
Tournachon was sent to the College Bourbon in Patis
to prepare for the university, but away from family pres
sure he studied only intermittently. He went on to study
medicine at the secondary school in Lyons at the insis
tence of his parents, who found it an honorable profes
sion. There, he worked harder at literature than anatomy.
His student life ended abruptly when his father was
forced into bankruptcy by the enormous expenses he had
incurred in publishing, among other fascos, a seven
langnage dictionary.'s
Tournachon certainly did not regret having to inter
rupt his studies, but now he had to fnd a way to ear
his living. He tured to literature, which had been his
chief interest since his school days in Patis. At eighteen
he began to wtite shor articles for the Joural et {anal
de Commerce and the Entr'acte Lyonnais under the pseu
donym Nadar. At twenty-two he returned to Paris where
the population had almost doubled to over a million'
since the time of the Revolution. Like many people drawn
from the provinces to the city, Nadar hoped to fnd both
intellectual stmulaton and the chance to rise socially.
He may have counted on establishing connectons in the
art world through his relative, the caricaturist Gavami,
who was then a regular contributor to the famous satiri
cal newspaper Ie Charivari, for which Daumier did some
of his most acclaimed work. Gavami must have encour
aged his young relative to follow in his footsteps as a
caricaturist, but since Nadar didn't have any money to
go to art school, he taught himself. Before long, his frst
caricatures began to appear in Parisian jourals. Nadar
was interested in anything relating to the arts: at the same
time that he was publishing his frst caricatures, he wrote
articles for the magazines Vogue, Ie Negotiateur, I'Au
dience, and short stories for Ie Corsaire," and he began
The First Portrait Photgraphers 3 7
to study painting. He made many friends with young art
ists who, like himself, lived on little or no money in cheap
hotels or attics in the Latin Quarter. With little thought
for tomorrow, they were seduced by the romantic sur
roundings and the free life of the artist.
Te electric light had not yet been invented; just a few
gas lanters lit the narrow, badly paved streets of the
Latin Quarter. Around 1836, the only means of public
transportation was the horse-drawn bus, and there were
only a few hundred of these in Paris. m the cafes and
small restaurants of the Lef Bank, amidst the civil ser
vants, workers, artisans, and students, Nadar met the
Bohemians of the Latn Quarter" and joined some of his
fiends (Murger, Champfleury, and Delveau among oth
ers) in the meetings of a group they had founded in
1843, which they ironically called Ie Club des Buveurs
d'eau (the Water Drinkers' Club). Te group, whose
members in general led the 'very irregular life of the
Bohemian,' 49 met to discuss art and literature.
The presence of the Bohemians in French sociery was
an interetng phenomenon, caracteristc of the period.
Although literature appeared largely unafected by eco
nomic progress, industrialization did leave its mark. The
frst changes in literature appared in newspapers and
magazines wit the expansion of advertising, inceasing
ly the most important source of revenue for the press,
and the introduction of the serialized novel in 1836. Out
of these changes grew a new industrialized literature.
Following the market principle of capitalism, when the
management of several French newspapers tripled their
readership by enlargng their format and curting their
subscripton rates in half, other papers were forced to do
the same. Tese canges transformed literature, especal
ly that found in newspapers.
Writer now had to conform to the taste of the public
in order to attrct and hold a readership. For the au
thor, paid by the word, money often became the mea-
38 Photgahy OSi

sure of his literary 'merchandise' and in many cases de

termined the quality of his literaty 'output.' 5. As a result,
the new bourgeois society presented an unexpected prob
lem for the artst. Even at royal courts, artst had main
tained a personal relationship with their patrns; their
position was simply that of craftsmen. But with the rise
of capitalism, the direct relationship between employer
and employee vanished. The 'fee' arst, working for
whatever clients he could fnd, appeared with the further
depersonalizaton of human contacts. If he did not try
to comply with the taste of te tme, he ended up either
in the poorhouse or in the morgue. 52
Thanks to education, democratized by the bourgeois
revolution, art ceased to be the special privilege of the
nobility and a few important cultured bourgeois. The
practice of art became open to all social classes and a
decisive change took place in the milieu of the French
intellectuals.
Socially speaking, the Bohemians of te I840S were
not a homogeneous group. The most successful among
them, the circle known as La Jeune Fance, were in their
late fortes while Nadar and his friends were in teir
twenties. 53 Those of the frst group who had already
achieved some prestige and fame bth as artists and
writers exercised considerble influence on French public
opinion. But the lower echelons of the Bohemians, the
real 'intellectual proletariat,' met with little success. Some
were of peasant orign or ofpring of working-class
craftsmen from the larger towns. Others, like Nadar,
came from the failed bourgeoisie.
like his friends, Nadar had tried at frst to eke out
a living selling articles and drawings, but things soon
tured out badly for him, as they had for most of his
6iends. Tere were not enough jourals to publish their
work and one could scarcely live on te commissions.
The bourgeoisie would have noting to do with the dis
reputable Bohemians, and among the Bohemians 'bour-
The Firs Portra Photgrahers 39
geois' was the ultimate insult. 55 They felt alienated from
society and their poverty did, in fact, make them social
outcasts. Their generation, by virtue of its social origins
and margnal position in society, was in direct opposition
to the bourgeois class and its artstc values. To a large
extent the young Bohemians were cut of from public
expression of their artistic talents, because the majority
of newspapers and magazines were slanted toward a
bourgeoisie that favored the an of the juste milieu.
With his paintbrush and pen, Nadar struck out against
the hated bourgeoisie.56 In 1848, he joined those intel
lectuals actively supporting the February Revolution.
Louis Blanc, one of its leaders, wa among his close
friends at the time. 57 m te years preceding the Revolu
tion, Nadar had accepted positions whim provided him
with a secure income, including work as a secretary to
Charle de Lesseps, and later, to the deputy V. Grandin,
both of whom were Republicans like himself. When the
Revolution broke out, he quit his post and left te next
day for Posnauie with his friend Faumery, hoping to take
pan in the Polish insurrecton that had been inspired by
the Fbruary Revoluton in Paris. During the voyage
through Germany, however, he had the misforune of be
ing arrested, possibly because he was suspected of being
a revolutionary, and he was imprisoned at Eisleben dur
ing the entire period of the insurrection. 58
Upon his retur to Paris, Nadar once again threw him
self into his literary work. He also published drawings
and caricatures. In 1849, he founded the Review Co
mique and contributed humorous drawings to Ie Joural
pour rire and Ie Charvar. He married at a very young
age, and because family responsibilities did not prevent
him from squandering his small earings, he was con
stantly in need of money. One day while visiting his
writer friend Chavette, Nadar complained of his financial
difculties. Chavette told him tat another friend was
trying to sell his photogaphic equipment for a few hun-
40 Photogahy OSociety
By the mid-nineteenth ce
mQ artist-photographers
were attempting to make
photography more tan a
mass production of por
traits. Nadar's portraits of
Gustave Dore (top, 1859)
and George Sand (middle,
1859) and Carat's portrait
of Charle Baudelaire (bot
tom, 1859) come from the
early perio of artistc por
trait, when many of te
client were artist and in
tellecuals.
dred franc and suggested that Nadar become a photog
rapher.59 Chavette pressed him to tr, after all, the pro
fession was ver much in vogue and promised a good
living. A bit taken aback by the proposal, Nadar resisted
at frst. Like most of his fellow Bohemians, he was preju
diced against photography: to many second-rate prac
titioners had already gven the profession a bad name.
Abandon art? Consider only money? Nadar hesitated.
But compelled by necessity, he soon decided to take on
the new profession, and in 1853, fourteen years after
photography entered the public domain, the 33-year-old
Nadar opened a photographic studio at II3 rue Saint
Lazare.
He soon became a clebrity. Every important fgure in
the arts, literature, and politics focked to his studio to
b photographed. He knew everyone in Paris. Nadar's
studio became the meeting place of the Parisian intel
lectual elite. The painter Delacroix, the engraver Doni,
the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, te writer Champ
fleury, the criric Sant-Beuve, the poet Baudelaire, the rev
olutionary Bakunin, and many other celebrities of the
period came to pose for him.60 His camera portrayed
these faces of great character with the insights of a mas
ter, for Nadar was in close sympathy with most of his
models whose friendship and artistic interests he shared.
Nor did he abandon literature or caricatures for his new
work, but contnued to contribute regularly to a number
of newspapers.
The portrait photographer's earliest clients were most
ly artists and intellectuals. Artists were willing to accept
the novelty, for they were much less bound to traditon
than the bourgeois, who regarded any technical advance
with suspicion.
One is fascinated by the images fed on Nadar's plates.
In a sense, Nadar discovered the human face with the
camera. His sitters faces lok out at you with startling,
lifelike intensity-seem almost as if they could speak. The
The First Portrait Photograhers 4 I
lens seemed to dive into the very essence of their physiog
nomy. The pose served merely to underline the expres
sion of the subject. What Nadar sought was not the ex
terior beauty of a face, but the inner spirit of a man.
Retouching, which robs the face, and turns it into a dry,
lifeless image, belong only to the later stages of his work.
Today as we admire these first photogaphic portraits,
we wonder how the frst photographers succeeded in
turing their cameras into artistic instruments. Nadar
was an arrist to the tps of his fngers; his extraordinary
taste allowed him to use the photographic process with
judgment. Above all, his aristry was the result of his
close relatonships with his models. A very personal in
terest bound him closely to their future arristic and per
sonal development. Friendships between the photogra-
42 Photogahy OSocie
Paul Nadar's portrait of his
father, 1cbToumachon
Nadar, capturd the per
sonality and spirit of its
subjet muc as his father's
ponraits once did.
pher and his models were not troubled by the question
of money. Photography had not yet become a commodi
ty; the value of the photographer's work did not depend
on cash payments. Those artists who had themselves
photographed came to his studio with good will. At this
stage in the development of the photographic process,
the success of the portrait still depended in large part
on the eforts of the model himself. 'The pwer of ex
pression, wrested from the sitter through a long expo
sure, gves [Nadar's 1 luminous and simple images their
lasting, profound charm-the charms of a well-sketched
or well-painted portrait, a verisimilitude that recent pho
tographers do not possess.'
O1
Nadar's portraits are typical of the style of the frst
phase in photographic portraiture. His photographs, like
those of some of his contemporaries-Carjat, Robinson,
Gray, and others-are works of art: and like all true
works of art, they were not produced for material rea
sons. A professional conscientiousness, an absence of
pretension, a strong intellectual and cultural background
made these early photographers the artists they were.
Looking at Nadar's and Carjat's portraits of Baudelaire,
one has to feel the same admiration and gratitude for the
photographers granted all true artists.
For Nadar, this kind of work was not without its prob
lems. Most of his friends, like himself, had little money.
As a result, Nadar made most of his frst photographs
out of friendship and received little money for his work.
He retured to jouralism for a short time, leaving his
studio, now near the Pantheon, in the hands of his broth
er. But soon he was back in the studio: !hotography
could gve the secure income he needed, t;only if he
catered to the taste of a new clientele. It is at this point
that the second period in the history of photographic
style begns. Photographers who wanted to make money
were forced to adapt their artistic standards to the taste
of a new clientele which consisted of the rich bourgeoisie]
The First Portrait Photographers 43
Nadar's return to photography led to a lawsuit against
his broter Adrien concering the name, Nadar, which
both wanted to use as their professional name. The court
decreed that Felix alone had the right to the name. The
name Nadar became so well known among the wealthy
bourgeoisie that he could charge one hundred franc per
portrait, allowing him a sufcent proft to hire a number
of assistants.
During this period, the Goard Brothers had become a
favorite topic of conversation because of their interest
in the great problem of aeronautic. All of Paris followed
their frst balloon excursion with great curiosity. Drawn
to these exploits, as he was to many new inventions,
Nadar zealously devoted himself to a new idea: he would
take aerial photographs from a balloon."2 His frst at
tempts failed because of the primitive camera he had to
use. (It was still the time of the wet-plate collodion pro
es.) m addition, he had to set up a darkroom in the
basket of his balloon in order to sensitize te plates be
fore exposure, and fnally there was the problem oflengrhy
exposure. Only in the spring of 1856 was Nadar able to
take his frst successful shots."3
His highly publicized experiments opened up a world
of new possibilities, particularly for the militaty. Nadar
took out a patent and was later named commander of a
company of aeronauts during the German siege of Paris.
He was responsible for following the enemy's movements
from a balloon floating over the St. Pierre Square (where
the Arc de Triomphe now stands) and, when possible,
for taking photographs.M
Nadar had becme so fascinated by balloning that he
decded to lear te new 8from te Goard Brothers.
The three men siged an agreement whereby they would
collaborate to improve the invention. After several flights
in ordinaty balloons, Nadar constructed an enormous
balloon with a rudder which he called Ie Geant (the
Giant). He thought he had solved the great aeronautical
44 Photogahy OSoiet
Pos piar of Nadar -
ing phoophs fm his
ballon 'Te Giant' (I863).
problem of the day: how to steer the balloon, once it
was in the air, without depending on air currents. On
4 October r863, all of Paris gathered to see him ascend
in Ie Geant.
Nadar's steering device failed and the balloon was
forced to land at Meaux. On r 8 October he tried once
again, taking his wife and some friends along for the ride.
Te balloon went all the way to Hanover, where Nadar
was forced to land so abruptly that his family and friends
barely escaped with their lives. He tried again the follow
ing September in Brussels and a year later at Lyon. The
only clear result of these attemprs was that Ie Geant cost
Nadar an immense fortune. Only after a long court bat"
tie was he able to force his partners, the Godar Brothers,
to absorb half the loss. This, however, was not enough
to strighten out his finances.os After endless attempts
Nadar still found himself debt-ridden and, witout any
oter means of improving his fnancs, retured once
again to portrait photography to rebuild his fortune.
If Nadar's career epitomizes the early success of the
arrist-photographers, then L Gray's career illustrates
their demise. Bor in Paris, Gustave Gray was the stu
dent of the painter Pere Picot, whose studio was quite
famous during the July Monarchy. Following in the fot
steps of David and Girodet, Picot had found his niche
in the painting of the period along with Alaux, Steuben,
and Vemet, among other celebtities who were working
to fnish Versailles. Nor surprisingly, LGray found none
of the stimulation he sougt in the academic painting
taugt by Picot and his crcle. Still young, but already
a father, he was continually in fnancial distress and
didn't know where to tum. Struggling with both arrstc
conflicts and money problems, he found pleasure only
in the small laboratory he set up next to his studio. Like
many contemprary painters, he performed chemistry.
experiments, investigating te make-up of basic colors.
His interest in chemistry led him to photography and
The FiTt Portrait Photograhers 45
soon he was devoting all his time to improvements in
the new process.
Like many painters of his day and encouraged by fam
ily and friends, he then abandoned painting for photogra
phy in the hopes of financial success. LGray soon found
a rich patron, the Count de Briges, who rented a studio
for him near the Paris cty line where the prosperous sec
tion of La Madeleine is now located. At the time, this
part of the cty was still sparsely inhabited; only occa
sional visitors wandered the streets or entered the few
small shops. This was before the westward expansion
of Paris when land could be bought for next to nothing.
The locaton, as it turned out, was well chosen. Almost
at the same time, two other photographic studios opened
up in the same house. On the ground floor, the Bisson
brothers opened an elegant shop where the public soon
gathered to admire their views of Switerland, among
the most popular of their beautiful photography.
Sons of a coat-of-artns painter, the Bisson Brothers
were born in Paris, te frst in 1814 and the second in
1826. The eldest, who had begun as an architect, entered
the municpal service in 1838 and became interested in
cemistr. He became a student of Dumas and Becquerel.
In addition to his photographic experiments, he invented
techniques for the brass and bronze coatng of iron and
zinc, which has since become a lucrative industrial prac
tce. Like his father, who had been his frst teacher, the
younger brother started his career by drawing and paint
ing coats of arms, but later he joined his older brother
in his experiments with photography. Like Gray, they
too found a rich backer, and around 1848 they opened
a plush studio on the flor above L Gray's. The success
of the Bissons' studio was sensational; the public was
attracted not only by its tasteful luxury but by the quality
of their photogaphs displayed in the window. Their stu
dio son became the meetng place of brilliant thinkers
and celebrated arrists. Seated on a great couch, passing
46 Photography OSodety
A self-portrait by Le Gray,
an early artist-photogra
pher whose reluctance to
prouc cmmercally ac
cetable prtraits forc
out of business.
1
photographs from hand to hand, the visitors discussed
the latest developments in photography. Writers, critics,
and artists flocked to the studio to look at the pictures.
Theophile Gautier, Louis Cormentin, Saint-Victor, Janin,
Gozlan, Mery, Preault, Delacoix, Penguilly, the Leleux,
and many other celebrated Frenchmen were among the
regulars. After leaving the Bisson Brothers, the visitors
would climb the stairs to the portraitst Le Gray's studio
to see his most recent work.
The buying power of this public, however, was as small
as its understanding and apprecation for the new art
was great. Generously Le Gray gave away his photo
graphs to favorite visitors. One can imagne how much
work went into a single print during the early days of
photography, but the high price of each portrit fright
ened the bourgeois public whose prosperity could have
guaranteed the photographers' future. The patrons of
Le Gray and the Bisson Brothers withdrew their support,
realizing that te new proces was not going to bring in
muc money. Ther lack of busines acume forced
Le Gray and te Bisson Brothers to cloe their studios.
The fnal blow came with the appearance of Disderi's
new process that allowed him to sell photographs at
one-fifth their price. Te Bissons and Le Gray had to
choose between meeting this new cmpetition by mass
producing portraits or gving up photography.
Le Gray, for whom artistic concers were always of
primary importance, refused to capitulate to the de
mands of mass production. Discouraged and embittered,
having no choice but to close his studio as quickly as
possible, he left Paris for Egypt. There he found work
as a drawing teacher and there he remained until his
death in 1868. Only a few of his photographs, including
some beautiful landscapes, remain. All of them testify
to his great ability. His unretouched portrait of Napoleon
III reveals more of the Emporer's personality than any
of the numerous contemporary painted portraits.
The First Portrait Photograhers 47

48 Photography OSodety
The Bisson Brothers and Le
Gray had to dose their stu
dio doors with the advent of
Disderi's mass-produced
portraits. Their dedication
to photography as an art
form yielded results such as
the Sissons' !'font Blanc
(opposite, top) and Le
Gray's Empress Eugenie, C.
1860 (opposite, bottom) for
as long as their sponsors-in
tis case the Emperor and
Empress-fnanced [hem.
George Combe's portrait
of David Octavius Hill,
taken toward the end of the
painter-photographer's life.
Le Gray was typical of the frst artist-photographers
whose primary concern was not the commercial side of
their art. Victimized by the industry of photography,
which expanded along with the new bourgeois classes,
they sufered the fate of many of the other artisans whose
trades were changed or ruined by burgeoning industri
alization. The frst photographers did not claim to be
artists. For the most part, they worked modestly for
themselves, their works known only to a small circle of
friends. It was the merchants of photography who had
artistic pretensions, for even as their work lost its artistic
merit, they sought to attract the buying public by calling
their \\'ares art.
Once the photographer Disderi had succeeded in sub
stantially increasing the number of his clients by mech
anizing through mass-production, Nadar adopted the
new technique and the new price_ He hired assistants to
retouch his photographs and devoted himself only to ar
ranging poses and receiving his guests. Once again he
became a rich man who could aford houses and land.
Aesthetically, however, his photographs gradually be
came less interesting, for he began to cater to his clients'
taste, which tended to favor exaggerated poses_ Only
rarely in these later photographs do we see the quali
ties that distinguished Nadar's work among the great
photographs.
David Octavius Hill also belonged to this frst genera
tion of artist-photographers. Hill began his work in 1 843,
only four years after the offcial proclamation of the in
vention in France, when photography was still in the
relatively primitive stage of the daguerreotype. With the
technical help of Robert Adamson, Hill, a painter by pro
fession, managed to achieve a beauty in his images that
remains unsurpassed. The son of a bookseller, Hill was
born in Perth, Scotland, in 1 802. He spent most of his
life in the quiet, beautiful city of Edinburgh until his
death in 1870. Although of mediocre talent, Hill was
The First Portrait Photographers 49
much admired by his countrymen for the romantic land
scapes he painted in the style of the period. In May of
1843, he took part in the Edinburgh convention that
led to the founding of the Free Church of Scotland. More
than two hundred ecclasiastics gathered in the great hall
of Tanfeld to announce their ,;thdrawal from the Pres
byterian Church and the founding of a new autonomous
church. Hill was commissioned to record the frst synod
in a monumental painting, but realizing the enormity of
the task, he decided to use photography as an aid. At
this time, the most widely used photographic process in
England was the calotype, developed by the scientist Fox
Talbot. During a trip to Italy, Talbot had used the camera
obscura as an aid in dra\ing landscapes. His subsequent
research led to the discovety of the calotype process,
which used a paper negative. These negatives could
yield multiple copies, a distinct advantage over the da
guerreotype, which was invented about the same time.
Hill used the calotype process \vith a camera similar
to Daguerre's, but his lens was so weak he was forced
to have his models pose for three to six minutes in full
sunlight. Despite subsequent improvements Hill contin
ued to use his frst lens throughout his career; he must
have preferred the soft blurred image that resulted. His
portraits for the 1 843 Synod are remarkable, expecially
because of the subj ects' sincere, intense fervor. It's as if
each fgure were projecting the best of himself through
some sort of religious trance.
Hill's enormous painting of the synod, more than fve
meters (ffteen feet) long, and depicting almost fve hun
dred people, took him over twenty years to complete.
Today the painting is largely forgotten, but the photo
graphs which served as preliminary sketches remain
among the most stirring documents in the early history
of photography.
66
The golden age of the artist-photographers came to an
end ffteen years after the announcement of iepce's in-
50 Photography OSociety
D. O. Hill used photo
graphs as preliminary
sketches for his paintings.
These pictures, including
his panoramic view of the
synod and numerous por
traits, are some of the most
compelling photographs of
the era (above: The Dis
ruption of the Church of
Scotland, 1843-1866;
opposite, top. Mrs. Rigby,
c. 1845; middle. }amU5
Nasymth, inventor, L.
1845; bottom: John
Murray, publisher, L.
1845) .
I Ll 'J |Ul| i L.| i . L H` U C
JaO V| . .` : . `. ` . 1 |d hJ
vention. The early anist-photographers \vere either re
placed by commercial photographers or they themselves
became professionals for whom proft \\'as more impor
tant than quality. Despite anempts to disguise their f
nancial motives in the shape of artistic enterprise, the
controversy persisted: is photography an art? Though
hotly debated, the questioning did little to raise the taste
of the new generation of photographers.
Technical progress in itself has never been an enemy
of art. On the contrary, art benefts from technology.
But in the case of photography, technical advances de
prived the portrait of its artistic value for over half a
century. As part of an increasingly standardized and
bureaucratized economy, man and his \\'ork became pro
gressively subservient to the machine. This trend is re
flected in the second phase of the history of photography,
a phase in which photography became as industrialized
as the society it documented.
The First Portrait Photographers j1
I
,
,
f
`
<
1
f l
Father of commercial pho
tography, Andre Adolphe
Eugene Disdtri 1 8 1,-1 890'"
made mass-produced por
traits available within ffteen
years of Nicpce'- invention.
Phutugr,zphv During the Second Empire
( r 85 I-I 870;
Around 1 850, French social and economic structure went
through serious changes that were reflected in the new
needs of the rising cbsses. Initially, apoleon Ill's poli
cies led France through a period of prosperity. He' felt
it his task I support the bourgeois .:lasses by promoting
industry and commerce. The State granted concessiom. to
the railroads', gave out subsidies, and extended credit.
New businesses sprang up everywhere; the wealth and
luxury of the bourgeoisie increased. The frst large depart
ment stores opened in Pcris-on ,\L1rche, le lo:::e.
la 8e||e]adinice. In 1 8 52. , Bon I-1arche grossed only
450,000 francs, but by 1869 its profts had risen to 2 1
million.6;
The effects of this economic policy were also evident
among the petite bourgeoisie. apoleon I ll's adminis
tration created a giant machine of civil servants. This
group provided a new clientele for portrait photography_
Having achieved fnancial security, they sought to display
their new-found prosperity and photography \vas an
ideal vehicle.
The great Industrial Exposition of 1 8 5 5 , part of the
Paris \Vorld's Fair, included a special section on photog
raphy. Here, for the frst time, the public at large was
introduced I photographic technique. The display set
the industrial development of photography in motion.
Hitherto, the photographic process had been known only
H a small group of artists and scientists. Arago's address
at the Academy of Sciences in 1 8
3
9 had been heard by
5
3
an audienc of intellectual elite. The members of the frst
photogaphic socety, mSociete be/iogaphique, founded
in 1851, were nearly all artists and scientists.6
8
Previous
ly, only the initated sat for te camer. New faces now
began appearing in te picture.
At the Expositon, the public gathered enthusiastically
around the numerous photogaphs of important and fa
mous people. Today it is hard to comprehend the impact
of seeng for the frst tme, before one's ver eyes, the
personalites one had only known and admired fom
afar. The 1855 Exposition also revealed for the frst time
a new goup of photographers who knew how to use the
camera tastefully. Most of them brought skills from their
former artistic carers that were epecally usefl to pho
togaphy. The sculptor Adam-Salomon's portait of
politicians, fnancers, and socalites attracted large
crowds, as did the work of painters like Adolphe, Bere
Bellecourt, and Louis de Lucy, the caricaturists Nadar,
Brall, Carjat, and many others. The public preferred
large-format photogaphs, some of whic were nearly
half a meter (two fet) high. These were eecuted with ex
traordinary cre, and never retouced.6
As the clientele changed, the photogaphers themselves
began to emerge from diferent socal backgounds. The
sudden arrival of Napoleon H and his self.proclama
tion as Emperor on 2 December 1852, served as an ex
ample for many. Those who had previously led fnancal
ly insecure lives found sudden wealth in stock-market
speculations. The early period of the Empire provided
golden opportunites for men with business acumen who
had nothing to lose and who knew how to proft from
qnick turs of fortune. It was a tme immensely favorable
to all businesses, and one that catered especally to the
demands of the middle class.
When a new feld opens up that promises a quick
source of income, a flock of compettors frequently en
ters the arena fom disparate backgrounds. Such new-
54 Photgaph OSo
cmers are all the more numerous in professions where
few skills are required. Because by this time it required
little tecnical knowledge, photography had become
such a feld. Commercial photogaphy attracted a mass
of failures and incompetents who, lacking the training,
could never hope to enter more prestgious ptofessions.
New technical developments in photography were to
help them in their search for commercal success.
During the years 1852 and 1853, a man appeared in
Paris who lef an indelible impression on the history of
photography. mthe very heart of Paris on the boulevar
des Italiens, a new photogrphic studio opened, owned
by a man named Disderi. Born in 18 I9 in Paris, Disderi
was the son of an Italian clothier who had come to
France in search of better business opportuniries. Ac
cording to his contemporaries, Disderi had little educa
ton, but he was certainly a man of great native intelli
gence and common sense. With his skills, he could have
succeeded in any business during the mid-century years
of prosperity, but he chose to make his fortune in photog
raphy. He was acquainted with the desiger Chandellier,
who had just inherited a large fortune from an uncle,
an old country priest, and from him Disderi was able
to borrow the funds needed to set up a large studio.
It was by chance that the particular process Disderi
developed brought about radical change. Although the
basic improvements had been in the air for some rime,
Disderi happened to be the frst photographer to sense
the needs of the moment and to find ways of fulfilling
them. Tus he imposed a new direction on photogaphy.
Disderi quickly realized two things: that photography
was available only to a small group of rich people, and
that the high cost of the large format then in vogue de
manded enormous expenditures of time and efort. Pho
tographers generally worked alone and had to charge
high prices simply because it was impossible to produce
work in sufcent quantity to make a living. Disderi un
Photograhy During te Second Emire 55
derstood that photography would never reap its proper
financal rewards until a broader clientele could be
reached and the number of portrait commissions in
creased. To achieve these goals, he had to take into
account the economic status of the masses.
It was Disderi's ingenious idea to reduce the portrait
photograph to carte-de-visite size, approximately six by
nine centimeters (2' by 4 inches). He was able to make
a single negative with a dozen identical exposures on it
for one-fifth of the usual cost. He charged 20 francs
for twelve photographs. A single print had previously
cost anywhere from 50 to 100 franc. By efecting this
change in size and price, Disderi made photography ac-
56 Photogaphy OSoce
This uncut carte-de-visite of
eight diferent poses illus
trates the principle behind
Disdhi's mass-produced
ponraits. Because he was
able to make a single nega
tive with a number of dif
ferent exposures, he could
decrease the cost per print.
Dm,Napoleon III,
IIS9
.:iiJ: J1 : JJ:1 i.:: Jt:U w:: il11:1/ :/:-
:J: t J t1: Jw: I11: .:ii Jw `J : ::iJ1:J :
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Jlt : :t:1t J1 .1: carte-de-visite Jt :t " i h I J:
.:I: t1: ::it J` t i k 11 1 :l tlJ: : 1:1 : .:w
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t1: :I/ J:1!: : 1Jt J:1. 1::tI:1t :11 J1
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t/ t J `Jl Jw t 1Jl1 wt1 t1i JJi: t/:/ :_I:1t
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.::1i :i w: :i 1 t1: wJk J` :.1t:.ti 1J.tJs
Photography During the Second Empire 57
engneers, bnilders and others.72 The 8in general would
become popularized by photogaphy. At this stage in
capitalism, whatever promote individual interet seeme
to proft the economy as a whole.
It would be difcult to etimate the millions that Dis
deri made during his years of succes; he was the kind
of self-made man who spent his money as quickly as he
eared it. His luxurious apartment, numerous county
homes, and costly stables were the talk of Paris. His fall,
however, was as sudden as his rise. He literally became
the vicim of his own invention; his new metos had
ruined the artist-photogaphers who refused to follow
Q
ut. Finally, Disderi himself couldn't compete.
Photographic studios now sprang up everywhete in
rance, especially in Paris. Photography attracted men
from all walks of life who left their professions to be
come photographers in the hope of making a fast fortune.
Fortier had been a dyer; Tripier, the son of a lawyer;
another, an ofce clerk, probably fred by his boss.73 All
that was necessary was the capital to set up a studio,
and purchase a camera and some equi pment -and capital
during these prosperous times was not difcult to obtaiu
Competition stimulated even more sophisticated tech
mC deelopment, for photogaphers now did every
thing posible to attrac a clietele. Disderi basked in
his glory and, like many of the nouveaux riches, played
the part of the aristocrat, spending more tme on land
speculations than on his profession. His reputation waned
as dissatisfied clients looked elsewhere for more consci
entious practitioners. For depite Disderi's patent, others
had begnn to make carte-de-visite photogaphs. Disderi
lost his fortune, and finding himself as poor as he had
been at the begnning of his career, was forced to gve up
his studio, sell his belongng, and leave Paris. In Biar
ritz and Monaco he tried unsuccessfully to exploit his
once-famous name to attract a new set of clients, but
it didn't work. He became a poor and insigifcant re-
58 Photogahy OSoce

sort photographer, his glory vanished, his career fnished.

He had ruined his health during the wild years of his
fame. Deaf and nearly blind, he died in a public home
in Paris.
[e economic necessity of mass manufacture had
shaped the qualiry and social importance of photogra
phy. I had become a large industry dependent on a vast
bourgeois clientele; and it had to respond to this cli
entele's taste as well as to its own economic requirement!
The artistic taste of the bourgeoisie was epitomized in
the yearly exhibitions begun by Louis-Philippe. They
were presided over by a jury made up of museum direc
tors, members of the Academy, and a few amateurs whose
tastes corresponded with those of the goverment. Re
jecting any threat to the artistic canon of the day, they
excluded all the works of the Romantic, especally Dela
croix, and landscape painting of any sryle. Louis-Philippe
considered the promotion of patriotism and respect for
his regme a major function of art. He remodeled the
galleries of Versailles with frescoes depicting the past
glories of France. His taste in art was guided by the same
middle-of-the-road philosophy (Ie juste mieu) that guid
ed him in afairs of state. He was a natural enemy of
innovation.74
Of the historical painters favored by Louis-Philippe
and the Academy, the most important are Paul Delaroche,
Ion Coiget, Robert Fleury, and Horace Veret, the
painter of bartle scenes. Their works flled every major
exhibition, providing the focal pint for public interest
as well as the major subjects for reviewers and critics.
Serious art, for the juste mieu painter, meant fnding
the truth, which amounted to flling the canvas with
minute details. Desig and color were determined by
fxed standards. Subtle hues were unacceptable and for
bright or striking efect, one simply added more color.
On te other hand, because an excess of verisimilitude
could alienate clients, the artst had to sofen coarse fea-
Photography Dring te Second Epire 59
tures and touch up unattractive faces on occasion. His
goal was to show a face the buyer would find pleasing
while avoiding at all cost anything that could disturb
the client's sense of decorum.
The aesthetic views of these portrait painters, like the
views of the people they painted, were neither realistic
nor idealistic. They rejected the ugly without seeking
ideal beauty. The better painters tried to strike a balance
between the two extremes, hoping to make evetything
pleasant. Success meant that the painter also had to be a
good stage director and costume designer in order to pro
duce a detailed and pleasing likeness. The client was
impressed by the precision of the rendering, by the clever
ness of the brushstroke, and by the trompe l' oei! efect.
But most of all, he was impressed by the subject.
Artists whose livelihoods depended on fattering bour
geois taste eventually produced paintings of lower qual
ity. 'The pretty, the commonplace, the polte are what
really please them most. The precisely drawn miniature,
the flat and dty painting in pleasant reds and greens,
the smooth sculpture, the faithful reproduction of the
smallest detail. . . .' 75 The great mass of the public that
responded to this kind of precise, juste milieu painting
was uneducated. Economic progress had indeed opened
up the possibility of education for the masses, but intel
lectual freedom did not develop as quickly as economic
freedom. The average Frenchman who wanted to own a
work of art needed guidance, whether in buying a por
trait, a bust, a medallion, a religious painting, or a tomb.
He passively accepted the ofcially recogized painters.
The livelihood of any painter consequently depended on
his willingess to submit to the guidelines of the Acade
my. The taste of the general public was thus molded by
a state institution which itself expressed the precse values
of the bourgeoisie.
It was exactly this average public that made up the
bulk of the photographer's clientele. The photographer,
60 Photogahy OSocie
P

Disderi represented the new

sol in portraiture: props
and full-length shots
reduced the subject to a
stereotype muc as the
physionotrace once did
(clockwise from top left:
The Actor, c. 1860; The
Savant, c. 1860; The
Writer, L. 1860; The Paint
C L. 1860).
who had risen along with his clients, was also uneducat
ed. He could only do what his predecessors had done,
which was to copy the accepted styles, bringing to the
art of photography only acceptable aesthetic values.
Disderi's merit as a businessman had lain not only in
his ability to meet the economic requirements of his cli
entele, but also to understand their intellectual needs.
What is most striking about Disderi's innumerable pho
tographs is the total absence of individual expression so
characteristic of Nadar's works. Members of all profes
sions and all social classes parade before the viewer's
eyes, but real personalities are almost entirely obscured,
buried beneath conventional social types. While the art
ist-photographers had generally emphasized the head in
their portraits, the new photographers photographed the
entire body. Moreover, the props included in Disderi's
portraits tended to distract the viewer from the subject
in order to suggest a type rather than an individual.
Disderi's portraits of writers and scholars invariably
show the subject standing with his left arm leaning on
a table (a vestige of the old days of uncomfortably long
exposures), a quill pen in his right hand, his eyes lost
in thought. Large tomes are piled up in carefully planned
disorder on an elegantly shaped table that looks like any
thing but an actual worktable. The sitter himself seems
to be nothing more than a prop in the studio.
The pathetic gestures of a fat man in costume, wring
ing his hands, a dagger at his feet, is enough to make
us recognize 'an Operatic Tenor.' The singer himself,
no matter how famous, is no longer of interest. It is
Disderi's model, indeed almost a caricature, of the 'Op
era Singer' that eventually becomes the public's as well.
To depict a 'Painter' all one needs is a brush and an
easel, although a heavy curtain makes a picturesque back
ground. The 'Statesman' holds a roll of parchment; his
right hand rests on a heavy balustrade whose massive
curves suggest his responsibility-laden thoughts. And so
Photography During the Second Empire 61
62 hoto_tJph\ L` 'otict\
Dideri V not alone in
using props; "OIne phntog
rapher used theIn more ef
fectivelv thJn he, while
others uch less so. Ber
tall\ skillful portrait of
Charles Paul de Kock ':op
posite) contr.lst5 with the
contrived dnd melodr.-
matie Fimg A/H.)" b
Henrv Peach Robimon
(abo\:e).
the photographer's studio became a theatrical prop room,
ready to outft any social role.
The typical props of a photographic studio in 1 86 "
consisted of a column, ; curtain. and . pedestal. Lean
ing against the pedestal. the suhject was photographed
full-length. half-length. \ bust-size. Picturesque and
symbolic props indicating the social status of the model
flled out the background. Pre\ious studio arrangements
had scarcely been so elaborate. In the early days, the
frst photographic victims had to sit under a skylight,
dripping with sweat, as they sat through minutes of im
mobility. To improve the situation the J[ttttctc was
invented. a chair with a metal brace which held the skull
steady from hehind and \\'a5 hidden from the lens. This
rather surgical-looking device prevented the picture from
being blurred during a long exposure. and with the magi
cal command, 'smile please,' the already stiff face broke
Photogr.phy DUring the Second Empire 63
into a frozen smile. With these self-conscious and pallid
smirks, the last individual trait in portrait photographs
disappeared. There was no longer any individual expres
sion; photogrphic portraits became parodies of human
faces.
The hands played an important role in mid-century
photographs. Some subjects placed their right hand across
their breast; others held it nonchalantly at their belts or
let the hand drop to their thighs. One man plays with
his watch-chain, while another plunges his rigt hand
into his waistcoat in the manner of a great parliamentary
orator. Even in the more natural poses, these fgures ap
pear inflated with pride and comically naive in their sense
of self-importance. The bourgeoisie projected their srif
digiry even in the way they wore their eyeglasses.7
New tecnologcal advances generally developed in re
sponse to contemporary socal needs. The bourgeois in
sistence on a 'pleasant, pretrfed self-image led to the
practice of retouching. All the unpleasant details which
the camera was unable to hide, freckles, an unattractive
nose, or wrinkles, could be transformed or eliminated
after the photograph was taken. The 1860s saw the ap
pearance of the frst anastigmatic lenses, capable of an
unprecedented c1ariry. But this new c1ariry only rein
forced the trend toward retouching. While the painter
could make all the accidents of nature disappear, the
camera reproduced such details minutely and exactly.
Retouching now made it possible for the photographer
to eliminate any feature a client found disagreeable.
At the Industrial Exposition of 18 5 5 the frst retouched
prints were shown in Paris. Te inventor Hampfstangl,
a photographer from Munich, caused a sensation by ex
hibiting two photographs, the orignal and a retouched
version. Retouching was to play a crucal role in the fu
ture of photography and also to hasten its downfall as
an art. The abusive use of retouching stripped photogra
phy of its most basic asset, faithful reproduction.
64 Photgahy OSocey

The following anecdote illustrates just how prevalent

retouching was: 'If someone returs his photograph and
points out to the photographer that he is sixty and not
thirty, that he has wrinkles on his forehead and folds on
his chin, as well as hollow cheeks and a flat nose that
bears no resemblance to the aquiline nose thatthe portrait
has gven him, he is certain to receive the following re
ponse: "Oh!you wanted a portraitthat looks like you. You
should have told us so. How could we have guessed!'" 77
The photographer who adopted the standards of jute
milie painting felt that the unlined faced he achieved
through retouching was more artistic.78 The ruling taste
of the period preferred the soft, well-rounded contours
of Delaroche's painting to Delacroix's tumultuous, col
orful canvases.
The photographer'S principal assistants in these days
were the retouchers and the color specialists who added
color to photographs. Colored photogaphs had become
the rage. While the photographer posed his model, he
took brief notes similar to those for a passport-skin col
oring, blue or brown eyes, chestnut-brown or black hair.
A few days later, the colored photograph, framed and
pasted on cardboard, was handed over to the client. In
this way photography soon became a substtute for the
miniature and the oil portrait.
Disderi, who had first adapted photography to the
needs of the new clientele, was also the frst theoretician
of this kind in photography. In .862, he published a
bok called L' Ar de fa photographie in which he wrote
that the photographer could, like the painter, recreate
the spectacle of nature in all its forms, and in its accidents
of perspective, light, and shadow. He defined the charac
teristic of a good photograph as follows:
1 pleasant fac!!];
2. overall clarity;
3. well-defined shadows, halfone and brilliant
light areas;
Photograhy Drig te Second Emire 65
4. natural proponions;
5. shadow detail;
6. beauty!79
This list alone shows to what extent Disderi adopted the
aesthetic ideas prevailing among the iuste milieu paint
ers, and how he translated their ideas into photographic
technique.
Following the principles of contemporaty historical
painting, exactitude in the representation of exteral
events, and therefore in the use of accessories and furni
ture, became the basic objective of the photographic por
trait. Delaroche, for twenty years the most celebrated
painter of his time, prepared each of his paintings with
great attention to accuracy. His frst sketch was followed
by a detailed watercolor. With the help of plaster or wax
dolls, he planned the grouping of fgures and the distribu
tion of light and shadow. Sometimes well-known actors
posed as the principal characters, and evety detail in their
costuming and in the arrangement of the set was chosen
for historical accuracy.
The same principles inspired contemporary photogra
phers. Disderi proposed that 'the physical attitude con
form to the age, the stature, the habits, the manners of
the individual.'

For painters like Delaroche art was

historical description; the photographer simply followed
this well-established attitude. At the 1855 Industrial
Exposition some English genre photographs on view
prompted Disderi to pose a question: 'Couldn't the pho
tographer compose genre and historical pictures with in
telligent and wellcostumed models in a large studio,
equipped ideally with all lighting efects, blinds, mirrors,
backgrounds of all sons, sets, props, and costumes?
Couldn't he search for Schefer's sentiment and Ingres's
style? Couldn't he treat history like Paul Delaroche in
his painting of La Mort du Due de Guise?'
1
But this approach to photography never caught on.
66 Photography OSociety
'Le te painter with his
brush, the truly professional
photographer knew how to
use his camera todisplay the
full imponance of the bour
geois man in his froc coat.'
:ct: photographed this
bourgeois man, Monsieur
Adolphe Thiers, a decde
before the chief executive
(of the provisional gover
ment) ordered the brutal
suppression of the I87I
Paris Commune, a group
that, incdentally, partic
pated in the early days of
documentary photography
(see page 108).

Photography During the Second Empire 67

Since the client had frst to be flattered, Disderi obsered:
'The photographer must fnd the greatest beauty that the
model is capable of projecting. It's a queston of ar, and
art searches for beauty.' It was the photographer's readi
ness to satisfy this need that tured him into a popular
man whose works filled family albums. From this tme
on, the debonair, smiling bourgeois himself appeared on
mantelpieces, pedestals, sideboards, and aparment walls,
along with photographs of his favotite statesmen, schol
ars, and actresses. Photographs were not simply memen
tos-they had become the symbol of democracy. Like the
painter with his brush, the truly professional photogra
pher knew how to U his camera to display the full im
prtance of the bourgois man in his froc coat.
68 Photogahy OSoe

&

i
Attitudes Toward Photography
Photography was the child of advances in science and the
rising classes' need for a new form of artistic expression.
From the time of its invention it became the focus of
violent controversy as to whether it was simply a techni
cal instrument capable of mechanically reproducing what
the lens saw, or whether it could be used in the expres
sion of an individual artistic sensibility. The debate, ac
companied by bitter personal attacks, was carried on in
jourals, in studios, and even in the courts. The church
joined the argument. Its early hostile position inspired
this passage from a German newspaper in 1839: 'To fix
fleeting images is not only impossible, as has been demon
strted by very serious experiments in Germany, it is a
sacrilege. God has created man in His image and no hu
man machine can capture the image of God. He would
have to betray all his Eteral Principles to allow a French
man in Paris to unleash such a diabolical invention upon
the world.'
7
The simultaneous development of industty and tech
nology, and the growth of science to meet the needs of
industrialization, required rational economic forms. This
in tum transformed the values of the bourgeoisie. A new
awareness of reality led to a hitherto unknown apprecia
tion of nature. Art pushed toward objectve representa
tion, a goal which corresponded with the essence of
photography. The petiod found its most characteristic
expression in the philosophy of positivism. A became
charged with scientific precision and the faithful repro-
duction of an objectifed reality. Taine's thoughts became
the leitmotiv for the new aesthetic: 'I want to reproduce
things as they are or as they would be even if I did not
exist.'
This new philosophical trend drew considerable atten
tion to photography. Couldn't an artist, with the help
of the new technique, achieve the objectivity he sougt?
Wasn't photography, therefore, a new form of att? In
the belief that the camera equaled the palette, enthusias
tic supporters of this viewpoint insisted that, despite the
machiner, the photographer's artistry still prevailed. In
matters relating to orignality, composition, and the
lighting of the subject, photographic artstry was ob
vious. Adverse opinion claimed that te camera was only
capable of mechanically reproducng objects and had
nothing in common with art.
Photography would certainly not have attracted the
lively interest of nineteenth-century artistic circles had
socal canges not brought about new tastes. The socal
changes resulting from the Revoluton of 1848 created
the begnning of class consciousness in the proletariat,
and with the rise of the pette bourgeoisie, a new genera
tion of artists expressed a new kind of social criticism.
Just as it was becoming established, the bourgeois life
style became the target of this critcism. Startng in 1835,
Henri Monnier tried his hand at describing bourgeois life
with an almost photographic exactitude m his Popular
Sketches. During the same period, Flaubert's Madame
Bovar exposed the hypocritical life-style of the provin
cal ptite bourgeoisie with a pitless candor that trig
gered a socal scandal.
Around 1855, public discussions focused on a new
movement in ar called realism. Ironically, the same pub
lic that marveled at the faithful photographic copies of
nature on display at the 1855 World's Fair and Indus
trial Exposition boycotted the paintng of the frst real
ists. The Salon rejected Courbet, whose paintings bore
70 Photogahy OSoce

the words, 'Without religon and ideals.' At his own ex

pense, Courbet organized an ehibition on the avenue
Montaige and mounted the world 'realism' over the en
trance to the gallery_ Te magazine Realism, which frst
appeared in 1856, was the movement's manifesto.S3
The frst realists' ideologcal positon was inseparable
from positivist aesthetics, which could in fact have been
a result of the appearance of the camera_ Rejecting imag
nation as nonobjective and prone to falsifcation because
of it subjectivity, they declared that one C only paint
what one sees. Accordingly, one's attitude toward nature
was to be totally impersonal, to the point where the art,
ist should be capable of painting ten identical canvases
in succession without hesitation or deviation. Fr these
artists who professed boundless enthusiasm for nature,
Courbet was te master, painting his subject wit the
form and clor that he felt optical realiry revealed.8 A
work of art had to present objetive content drawn im
mediately from the surrounding environment.
Everywhere the message was the same: the young art
ist must lear frm close contact with nature. Drive him
out of the dreary museums and away fom lifeless art!
Open-air pain ring was bor simultaneously with photog
raphy. Refusing to call themselves artists, these realist
painters thought of themselves as skilled crafrsmen and
nothing more. Their aesthetic equaton of visual reality
with the reality of nature was also the premise of the
photographer, for whom reality in nature was defned
only by the optcal image of nature. Te reulting pic
ture culd only reproduce what the photogapher saw.
Imagnation had little role in his work, which consisted
only in coosing the subject matter, evaluating the best
way to frame it, and selecting the patter of light and
shadow. His work ended tere, even before the shutter
clicked.
The photographer fulfled the realists' demand that
the artst disappear discreetly behind his easel. The cam-
UmTOWOTd Photgaphy 71
era defned a reality which the photographer could alter,
but never basically transform. Because of its tie to the nat
ural world, however, the lens of the camera revealed things
that no one had ever noticed before. The evetyday reali
ties of the visible world suddenly became important.
The dogmatism of the realists was undoubtedly ex
treme, but so was the hostility of the critcs and the pub
lic at large. Only much later was the movement they
pioneered recogized and valued. Curiously enough, de
spite their love of objectivity, the realists refused to con
sider photography an art. m an article published in the
Revue de Paris, Champfleury, a writer of realist novels,
stated: 'What I see enters my head, descends to my pen,
and becomes what I have seen . . . As a man is not a ma
chine he cannot capture what he sees and feels in a me-
72 Photograhy OSoce
The nude mnineeenth-cen
mQpainting and photog
raphy: realism reaches the
most obvious mediums in
the search for objetivity in
art (above: Courbet, Le
Reos; opposite: uow
photographer, Nude) .

chanical way. The novelist selects, groups, distributes.

Does the daguerreotypist go to so much trouble?'
Since photography was so closely connected with the
theories of realism and naturalism, its influence on the
arts became a topic of even more heated discussion.
Around r850, the spokesman for ofcial art began vehe
mently artacking the naturalists. In an article on the Sa
lon of r 850, the critic Delecluze declared that 'the taste
for Naturalism is dangerous to sublime art.' And yet he
observed, 'We have to admit that for the last ten years
a continually growing pressure has been exerted on the
imitative arts-photography and daguerreotypy-the
total efects of which artists are already being forced to
reckon with.' 85
Despite this revealing confession of his respect for
Attitudes Toward Photography 73
photography, Deleduze was compelled to fght the nat
uralists, for they represented social values opposed to his
respectable and conservative family background. His fa
ther, an architect and former student of David, supported
the views of the Academy and the conservative, tradition
bound bourgeoisie.
In his reviews of the Salon in the Joural des Debats,
Deleduze slipped fom his fortner standards of ideal
beauty to those of the iuste milieu. He rejected the moder
school of naturalism and whenever possible, he blamed
photogaphy for the dedine in ar. The views of the sep
tuagenarian Deleduze, whose age and background made
it impossible for him to sympathize with the radical the
ory of the naturalists, were opposed to those of the critic
Francs Wey, who was thirty-three years old. The dif
ference in the two men's positions was typical of a gen
ertional diference in critical opinion.
In his deense of photography, Du naturalime dm
rar, Frncs Wey tied to diferentiate between the true
realists and the trend-following profteers whom Dele
duze, convinced of the pericious infuence of photogra
phy, had confused with the realists. Francis Wey believed
that the new emphasis on nature rejuvenated art just
when it had reached a point of stagation. 'This force
ful return to nature gves art some fesh life . . . . More
over, the over-use of nature is considerably less danger
ous than the under-use.' He asked ironically: 'Who is
most guilty in the eyes of the Academic painters and crit
ic? Who is the revolutionary, the pitiless leveler of
moder ar? Photography.' Wey felt that, use well,
photography could help the artist to rise above the purely
mechanical copying of objects. 'What makes an artist
is never the drawing alone, nor the color, nor the fdelity
of reproduction, but divine inspiration, whose orign lies
outside of the material world. It is not the hand, but the
mind that makes a painter; the instrument only obeys.
m confronting artists with nature, photography has a
74 Photogahy OSoce

good infuence on them, because nature is an infnite

source of inspiration.'
The diferences between the attitudes of Delecluze and
Wey were not simply personal. They were symptomatc
of te geeral enrichment of art by new ideas in a broad
er-minded age. m his Philosophie de l'art and his esay
la Fontaine et ses fables, Taine had prescribed an alto
gether new direction for aestetc. 'To understand a
work of art, an artist, or a group of artists, one must
consider the intellectual climate and the customs of the
period in which they developed.' 87 'Products of the hu
man mind, like those in living nature, can only be ex
plained by their environment.'
88
fen from the positvist viewpoint, art was not simply
a matter of replicating nature. The positivist attitude
toward photogrph was proof enough. Taine continues:
'Is art always the exact imitation of nature? Must we
conclude that imitation is the goal of art? . . . Photogra
phy is the art which reproduces in lines and tones the
shape of the object to be imitated most completely and
flawlessly against a flat background. Undoubtedly, pho
tography is a useful aid for painting and is sometimes
used tastefully by cultivated and intelligent men. But after
all, it dos not aspire to be compared to painting . . . "
At the Louvre, there is a portrit by Denner, who spent
four years painting it. Nothing in the face is lef out:
the streaks on the skin, the imprceptible mottling on
the cheeks, the blackheads scattered on the nose, the
bluish coloring of the microscopic veins which curve
under the skin, the gleaming eyes which reflect nearby
objects. We are stupefed by the illusion: the head seems
to emerge from the frame; we have never seen such suc
cess or such patence. But ultmately, a large sketch by
Van Dyck is a hundred times more powerful; neither in
painting nor in the other arts is the prize gven to trompe
l' oeil.'
8
9
Photographers who tried to get rich by exploiting the
Attitudes Toward Photography 75

`
`
76 IlntoyrpI\ , 3ottct\
Antoine S.lmuel Adam-S'll
omon used lighting to stress
contours and features and
thus made his photographic
portraits morc than a mim
icking of the siner. That
he .15 able to take portrait
photography beyond the
static Jrtt-u-iiitr to an
exprcssiyc form convin-.cd
some contemporary artists
of photography\ merits
:Adam-Salomon, Cl.rc:
Ambrot:: homu:,.
vogue for portraits reinforced the bad reputation phot(
raphy \\'as earning in the art world. The small groLtv
of conscientious photographers could not always be eas
ily separated from the others. Thus the contemporary
artist's judgment of photography often seemed contra
dictory. In 1 8 5 8 the poet Lamartine condemned pho
tography as 'this chance invention which will never be
art, but only a plagiarism of nature through a lens.' He
changed his mind after seeing Adam-Salamon's beautiful
prints. Salomon's earlier experience as a sculptor had
taught him how to achieve light efects. His sense of
plasticity made his photographs especially attractive. Up
to this time, subjects had almost always been placed in
full light, which produced extremely harsh contrasts. In
his portraits, Adam-Salomon revealed the immense im
portance of the proper use of illumination. The resulting
efect instantly won Lamartine over. He wrote, 'Dis
turbed by the charlatanism of those \vho dishonor pho
tography by their countless copies, I had anathematized
the art. The photographer is the essence of photography.
Since I have admired Adam-Salamon's marvelous por
traits taken in a burst of light, I can no longer call it
a trade; it is an art. It is more than an art; it is a solar
phenomenon in which the artist collaborates \o, irh the
sun:
The arguments among nineteenth-century artists were
based on divergent aesthetic values \\'ithin the intellectual
elite. Thus the classicist Ingres condemned naturalism on
the grounds that only 'the divine art of the Romans'
counted. For Ingres, an Academician, the photographer
was as despicable as all modern artists, the desecrators
of the 'sacred temple of art.' In his eyes photography
was a manifestation of an inferal progress: 'Kow they
want to confuse industry and art. Industry! \Ve refuse
to have anything to do with it! Let it stay where it is
and not follow in the footsteps of our school of Apollo,
dedicated solely to the arts of Greece and Rome.' ` It
Attitudes Toward Photography
/
is not surprising to fnd Ingres's name among the arrists
who condemned photography, maintaining that it had
nothing to do with art.
First catering to the intellectual elite, photography next
reached out to the bourgeois middle classes. But when
commercial photographers made pictures to please an
uneducated public, even the initial supporers of photog
raphy became vehement critic.
For Baudelaire photography became a pretext for bit
terly condemning 'this class of uneducated and dull minds
that judge thing only according to their physical shapes.'
Photography was only a means of fattering the vanity of
a public that understood nothing about art and preferred
trompe l'oeil images. 'Foul society has flung itself, like
Narcssus, to gaze at its trivial image on metal. . . . The
love for obscenity, as inveterate in the natural heart of
man as self-love, did not let such a beautiful opportunity
for self-satsfaction escape.' 92 Photography gave Baude
laire a means for criticzing the decadence of mass taste.
They 'plant themselves in front of a TItan or a Raphael
one of those painters immensely popularized thtough en
graving-then leave satisfed, more than one saying: "I
know my museum.'" 93
Budelaire was an outsider, a bourgeois on the out
skirts of the bourgeoisie. Much of his life he was haunted
by pawnbrokers. He hated middle-class society, which
was as unwilling to understand him as he was incapable
of adapting to it. Considering himself an aristocrat, he
was opposed to any movement that would make art more
accessible to the masses, precsely the promise photogra
phy seemed to ofer. 'Some democratic-minded writer
must have seen a cheap means of spreading among the
people a distaste for history and painting, thereby com
mirring a double sacrilege and insultng at the same time
the divine nature of paintng and the sublime art of the
actor.' To Baudelaire photography was a form of indus
try tat had noting in common with art but was simply
78 Photogahy OSoe

(HcBudelare (t8zt-
t86;),one of photogca
phy's frst critic Bwell B
W of its frst patrons (pho
toraph by Etn e Ca<at).
an 'invention resulting from the mediocrity of modern
artists and a refuge for all unsuccessful painters.' He
interpreted the naturalist movement as a symbol of the
decadence of painting: 'In these deplorable days, a newly
developed industry has confrmed the stupidity of our
faith in it and destroyed what could remain divine in
the French spitit . . . . I believe in nature and I believe
only in nature . . . . I believe that art is and can only be
the exact copy of nature . . . . Thus an industry that would
gve us an identical copy of nature would be the absolute
art. A vengeful God has answered their prayers with
Daguerre as his messiah. And now they say: "Since pho
tography gives us all the guarantees for exactness we
wish (they believe that, the fools!), art is photography.'' ' .
Baudelaire argued that photography should retur to its
real place as a simple tool, a servant of the arts and artists.
Neither printing nor stenography, for example, had cre
ated or produced literature.
Atites Towrd Photogaphy 79
Delacroix considered photography a very valuable tool
in teaching drawing. The daguerreorype was something
to be used as a kind of translator, emphasizing the mys
teries of nature. But despite its semblance of accuracy,
photography could only reflect reality. Its precision made
a photogaph only a constricted and servile copy. In a
review of Madame Cave's article, 'Drawing without a
Teacher,' Delacroix observed that 'painting is a matter
of one spirit speaking to another spirit, not science speak
ing to scence.' Madame Cave's theory of photogaphy
tok up the old quarrel between the letter and the spirit.
She critcized artists who painted from daguerreotypes
instead of using the device as a sort of helpful diction
ary. She felt tey considered themselves much closer to
nature, when the orignal mechanical result was still ob
vious in their painting. Their despair seemed overwhelm
ing when they saw the perfection of certain efects on
the metal plate. The harder they tried to imitate it, the
more they discovered their own weakness, for their work
was only a lifeless copy of a copy that is imperfect in other
repect. m short, the artist has become a machine har
nessed to yet another machine.9s
Delacroix rejected photography as a work of art; the
essential was not exteral resemblance, but the spirit.
The portraitist must reveal more than what is visible.
'Look closely at the daguerreotype portraits. Not one
of a hundred is bearable. What is surprising and enchant
ing in a face is much more than the facal features. A ra
cine can never perceive what we can see at first glance.'
The artist must above all understand and reproduce the
spirit of a man or te object he is describing.
Dlacroix's criticism of photography was the local
result of his general philosophy of art. He tried never
theless to appreciate the qualities of photogrphy, in
which he saw more than just a new technique. Partcu
larly interested in its development, he became a member
of the first photographic socety. Nadar was one of his
80 Photgahy OSocey

close friends (the photographer was also a friend of Bau

delaire, about whom he published a book).
While most arrsts denied the arristc merits of photog
raphy, the iuste milieu painters were enchanted by the
new technique. Upon seeing the frst photographs, Dela
roche exclaimed: 'From today, painting is dead.' In 1839,
at a time when it was impossible to judge the artistic
value of the earliest daguerreotypes, he was the frst to
insist on their artistic value. m a letter to Acago, which
was read at the seminal meeting of te Academy of Sci
encs in 1839, Delaroce asserted that 'this new medium
reproduces nature not only trutfully but also artistically.
The lines are correct, the forms are eact-all is as precse
as possible. A composition as rich in tone as in efect
and an energetic fgure can be reproduced . . . . When
this technique becomes widespread, the most accurate
picture of any scene will easily be obtained in a few
moments.'97
Photography proved an ideal tool for historical paint
ers, to whom the question of exact reproduction was
vital. The iuste milieu painters were the frst to use pho
tography for their work. Among them was the painter
Yvon, a student of Delacroix, who played an important
role in setting trends during the Second Empire. Famed
for his paintings of French victories, he developed a pre
cise and conventional style. As with the other battle
painters of the period, he was geatly admired by Na
poleon Ill.
One day Yvon decided to reproduce the battle of Sol
ferino. He wanted to portray the Emperor on horseback,
surrounded by his Chief-of-Staf, but it seemed impos
sible to obtain the necessaty sitting from the Head of
State. Accompanied by the photographer Bisson, Yvon
went to the Tuileries. The Emperor psed for him. Bisson
snapped the shutter, and the resulting painting became
famous under the ttle of I'Empereur au kei. The event
had an unusual postscript. Bisson sold many copy prints
Attides Toward Photography 8 I
from his negative of the Emperor. Yvon was furious,
and the afair resulted in legal action. The painter claimed
that the photograph was the result of his initiative alone,
that he had composed the image, and that he alone could
use it for his painting. Moreover, he had paid the pho
tographer for his work and he objected to publication
of the prints. His true motive however was the fear of
seeing his own work drop in value. If the photograph
was sold in large quantities, it would become obvious
that the painter had copied it exactly. The court decid
ed in favor of the painter and forbade the sale of the
photograph.98
Many of the cries of protest that artists of the period
raised against photography were motivated by self-inter
est. ma surprisingly short time, the metal plate had com
pletely taken over portraiture. The competition with
engravers, miniaturists, and painters was becoming dan
gerous for them, at a time when the portrait was becom
ing fashionable at all levels of bourgeois society. Com
missions for portraits provided the princpal source of
income for all those artists. At the annual exhibitions, the
growing number of portraits, in comparison to land
scapes and still lifes, revealed the contemporary trend.99
As portraits multiplied, their dimensions grew smaller.
They were no longer meant to decorate enormous gal
leries of ancestors, but rather the walls of middle-class
apartments. The money-conscious and money-making
class had come to prefer photographs, which were cheap
and ofered an exact rendering of the subject. For a few
additional franc, clever photographers colored the prints
with 'all-natural' pinks and blues. The artist who made
his living painting portraits saw the number of his com
missions drop daily. Photography was responsible for his
diminishing business, and it is not surprising that the
majority of such artists, especially those of little talent,
harbored a deep resentment toward the invention that
reduced their income.
82 Photogahy OSoce

The Expansion and Artistic Decline of the

Photographic Profession
Competition and the desire to sell and buy to one's own
advantage are essential features of capitalism. Fear of
imagned competition as well as genuine aesthetic con
siderations led most painters to deny the artistic value of
photography.
Photographers, on the other hand, maintained that
photography was related to art, not industry. This self
approbaton had a psitive efect on te public, but when
fced with competition within their own camp, photog
raphers modified their positions whenever they thought
it profitable, and this led to controversy. The question
of art versus industry frequently served to camouflage
economic rivalry.
Competition increased as the photographic profession
expanded. By 1864, rwenty-five years afer te invention
of photography, rwenty-five periodicals on the subject
were being issued in six diferent countries.10 Almost
as many photographic clubs had been founded to organ
ize exhibitions, protect the interests of their members,
create businesses, and sell photographs. French photog
raphers founded a commercial organization primarily for
marketing purposes that dealt with all aspects of photog
raphy: the manufacture of cameras, accessories, chemi
cals, and other products, and notably with the founding
of publishing houses and newspaprs dealing with pho
tography. Founded in r862, it was called la Chambre
Syndicale de Photographie (The Photographic Trade
Union). With its headquarters in Paris, the organization
tried to act as the intermediary between the manufacturer
and the photographer, and between the photographer
and the public. One branch was involved in organizing
the import and export of photographic materials. As a
business, photography was making great strides.
Aside from direct portrait commissions, an important
source of revenue for the photographic studio came from
the sale of portraits of well-known fgures and actors
reproduced in the thenpopular cartedevisite format.
Illustrated newspapers did not yet exist, and large news
papers had not thought to take advantage of the photo
graphs that had so sensationally popularized the faces of
important contemporaries. The public of 1860, fnding it
particularly charming to own a picture of some well
known personage, boughtthe small photographic images.
Unfortunately, not every photographer had good con
necrions with the intellectual and political elite, and with
out this entree this kind of business was impossible. Not
every photographer, moreover, could survive on ordi
nary portraits of the bourgeoisie. Consequently, some
photographers copied popular portraits made by their
competitors, arguing that a photographic portrait was
not an orignal work of art. These encroachments led to
a famous trial and yet another debate over the eteral
question; is photography an art or an industry.
Because there were no special laws concering photog
raphy in France in 1860, the courts were left to rule on
an issue that had brought artists, artisans, and men of
letters into violent confict. Mayer and Pierson v. Bethe
der and Schwabbe, one of the most famous trials involv
ing photographers, grew out of a suit brought by one
photographic frm against another. The defendants relied
on the 'photography as non-art theory,' while the plain
tf maintained the contrary view with equal bitterness.
The court saw the matter as less cut-anddried, and the
case went through several appeals, with the fnal decision
establishing photography as art.'O'

In the course of the nineteenth century, the courts not

only ruled on the artstic merits of photogaphy but also
on a specal form of photogaphy that was begnning to
be of interest to the French goverment in its role as
arbiter of morals. The cre-deviie format was partic
ularly suitable for the circulation of certain images that
were not always in conformiry with the standards of
bourgeois decency. Some third-rate photographers, mak
ing little money from their porrits and more sensitive
to market demands than to social virtue, found a means
of building large fortunes m a short time. It was easy
enough to find entusiasts. Even respectable merchants
(and more ofen their sons) were not above keeping pho
tographs of beautiful,-scantiIy clad women mtheir breast
pockets. The business, however, Wnot witout it dan
gers; anyone caught trying to sell such photogaphs was
sentenced to a long term in prison. As early as 1850,
a law had been passed prohibiting the sale of obscene
photographs as an act ofensive to both moraliry and
tradition. Not surprisingly, the first nude photographs,
whic caused suc a scandal and which were so vigor
ously condemned by the prosecutors, seem innocent to
day. Contemprary sex shops carry an altogether dif
ferent level of obscene photograph, to which the public
has become inured.
Portrait photography made great strides in the last
decades of the nineteenth century. By 189 1 there were
more than a thousand studios in France and more than
half a million photogaphers employed. The total value
of their output had risen to nearly 30 million gold franc.
mother European countries, and especally in America,
the change was even more apparent. But the very tech
nical progress that made portrait photography so suc
cessful was precisely what would slowly kill it. One of
the esental characteristc of photography is the tech
nique of mechanical reproduction. A production meth
o became increasingly mehanized, manual labor and
Epansion of te Photgaphic Prfesion 8
5
the individual spirit that had so strongly influenced the
early years of photography gradually disappeared. Pho
tography became an increasingly impersonal trade.
Toward the end of the century, cameras were devel
oped that were even easier to operate. 'You press the but
ton, we do the rest,' was the famous Kodak slogan that
revolutionized the photographic market. Hundreds of
thousands of people who had come to depend on the
professional photographer for their portraits were now
learning to take their own pictures. Amateur photogra
phy made great ptogress, opening up a source of such
enormous proft for the photography stores that soon
they appeared in every neighborhood of every cJ. The
owners were mostly portrait photographers, who were
no longer able to make a living from portrait commis
sions. They continued to take orders, but clients soon
required professional work only for such special occa
sions as baptisms or weddings. Developing the work of
86 Photogahy OSocie
The No. 1 Koa Camera:
the callenge to profe
sional photography. Now
anyone who could aford to
buy a camera and pay for
development could take a
photo. The roll flm in the
foregound has been pulled
OUt of the box only for illus
tration.

7
Kk producd a machine
esily operated and
unsported that 'you press
te button, we do the rest'
bme a reality. Becuse
te
cmera competed with
prtrit photography, it
could have forced profes
sonal photographers to be
cme more innovative.
Istead, they conformed
more than ever to the tastes
of teiI clients, perhaps one
reson for the decline in ar
tstic photography.
Epansion of the Photographic Profession 87
amateur photographers and the sale of cameras and ac
cessories were now the only secure sources of income in
the photographic trade.
In 1 j j the anist-photographers still received 1OO
gold francs per print, but a few decades later the price
had dropped to around 2O francs. Toward the end of the
century, large depanment stores began to produce photo
graphs at even cheaper prices, and became dangerous
rivals of the professional photographer. Finally, the com
pletely automatic photo-vending machine, capable of
photographing, developing, and printing several copies
on paper in a few minutes, has deprived the professional
photographer of the considerable income he once made
from identifcation photographs. During the frst ten
years of photography, when only a few skilled specialists
could operate cameras, photography was bathed in the
mystery of the creative act. But when the technique be
came so simple that anyone could easily operate a cam
era, photography quickly lost its prestige although not
its appeal.
By 1QOOphotographic ponraiture had become a limit
ed feld. Photographers were more dependent than ever
on the taste of their clientele and obliged to work for
even less money. Both factors were responsible for the
artistic decline. During this period newly invented tech
niques using carbon, gum, oil, and bromoil printing were
adopted to make photographs look more like oil paint
ings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, and other tech
niques similar to painting. Influenced by the impression
istic style in painting, photographers usd soft-focus
imagery to add an 'artistic' touch to their prints. Ironical
ly, the soft-focus technique eliminated the most charac
teristic feature of the photographic image, its clariry.
The more the photograph looked like a substitute for
painting, the more the uneducated public found it 'artis
tic.' All sons of retouching techniques and chemical proc
esses were used to emphasize the soft-focus efect and
bolOrapbj OOctclj
A successful advertising
campaign at home and
abroad followed the inven
tion of the Kodak portable.
Reproduction processes still
had not reached the point
where photographs were
feasible for use in the adver
tisements themselves.
Te new defnition of artis
tc photography included
sh-focus imagery, charac
terisic of impressionist
painting and perhaps con
tadictory to photography's
stongest feature, clarity.
Teniques using carbon,
gum, oil, and bromoil print
ingoontributed to the popu
lar impression that photos
culd be transformed into
paintings (Puyo, Land
SCpe, 1900).
to create diferent tonalities in prints which today would
be considered nonphotographic. To heighten the decep
tion, photographs were put in massive bronze or silver
frames decorated with complicated designs.
During this period of artistic decline, there were two
amateurs in particular who would in time become giants
in the history of photography. They were the Parisian
Eugene Atget ( r857-r927) and the Berliner Heinrich
Zille ( r858-r929). Both came from modest back
grounds. Atget, the son of a provincial coach builder,
was a sailor in his youth. He went to Paris in 1879 to
enroll in the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. For a
time he worked as a touring actor and then he tried paint
ing, without any success. In 1899 he became a photogra
pher, using an inexpensive heavy-bellows camera, already
Epansion of the Photographic Profession 89
old-fashioned at the time. Carrying an enormous wooden
tripod, he scoured Paris every morning for subject mat
ter, returing in the evening to develop his 8 XIo-inch
plates in his kitchen. Above his door, he nailed a sign
'Photographs for artists.' For ffteen years, he photo
graphed the streets of Paris with their monuments and
fountains. Sometimes he photographed street peddlers
a man selling umbrellas, a beggar with his street organ.
Most of his clients were painters, but there were also
shop owners who bought his photos for their display
windows.
Atget was quite successful until the First World War,
when his business declined. By then painters had rejected
naturalism and used photographs for sketches less often.
In '920, Atget sold 2,000 plates to the Archives Na
tionales in Paris, asking ten francs per plate and copy,
but receiving only fve. As he grew older, he stopped tak
ing photographs and lived on a meager income from the
sale of his earlier photographs. Man Ray lived near Atget
in a studio on rue Campage-Premiere in Montparnasse.
He bought some of Atget's photographs in IQ2j and
a year later had three of them published in the avant
garde magazine La Revolution surrealiste. The photo
grapher might have remained anonymous without Ray's
notice, but the surrealists, headed by Andre Breton, ad
mired the images of a bygone era which Atget had record
ed so precisely. The majority of his photographs were
street scenes. Atget was not interested in porraits. They
are captivating images, detailed scenes of empty places
reminiscent of still lifes.
Until the )QQj publication of an album by the Berlin
photographer Heinriche Zille, Atget was considered the
sole father of documentary photography. We know now
that there were in fact two parents. The son of a lock
smith, Zille was nine years old when his father moved
to Berlin to take advantage of the industrial expansion
in the German capital. His parents' basement apartment,
90 Photogahy OSociety

,
,-
Nteworthy photographers
suc
as Alfred Stieglitz, 1
wmSteicen, and Anne
Brigan worked in the
genre of impressionist pho
tgraphy. Eamples (oppo
sit) include Stieglitz's The
Ste, to (top); Stei
ee's Lndscpe, The
Pol, to(middle); and
Brigan's The Pool, )tz
(bttom), all of which ap
pred in the famous Cm
era Work magazine.
Egee Atget's 'photo
gaphs for artists' were most
0Wnof empty steets (Paris,
z900).
located in a densely populated section of the city, con
sisted of only one room. When the young boy left primary
school at fourteen, his father wanted him to serve as an
assistant in a butcher shop, but the young Zille was
frightened by the bloodiness involved.
At scool, his teacher noticed his talent for drawing
and suggested he become a lithographer. 'It is a trade
where you can sit in a heated room, wearing a collar
and necktie. At four in the afternoon, you are free to
leave. After three years of apprenticeship, you are called
"sir." What more can you want?' asked his teacher.
Heinrich Zille later recounted that 'I really did not want
more. The hope of being called "sir" decided my fate.'
He perfected his drawing technique at night school, but
was largely a self-taught man who became an excellent
desiger through hard work and perseverance. He worked
as a lithographer for the Berlin Photographic Club for
many years until his drawings eventually began to be ap-
Epansion of the Photographic Profession Q1

92 Photography OSociet

Heinrich Zille and Eugene

Atget are considered the
fthers of documentary
photography. Unlike Atget,
who foused on street
senes such Passage de la
Reunion, 1910 (top) and
Hotel Lefebre, 1910/27
(bttom), ZiUe foused on
pople (opposite: Berin,
190 ), and unlike portrait
photographers, Zille con
ctated on everyday en
vironments. His was a
humorous view of the street,
one that later caracterized
photography suc as that in
Life magaine.
preciated. Ultimately he was elected a member of the
Prussian Academy of Arts.
Zille was a kind of popular Daumier. He drew his en
vironment with a great deal of humor. Around 1890,
he began to take photographs of the workers and the petit
bourgeois in their own surroundings, which he used as
models. While Atget photographed empty streets, Zille
was interested in their inhabitants. In the marketplace,
it was not the display of goods that attracted his atten
tion, but the women making their purchases. At fairs he
did not take pictures of the rides or shows, but of the
spectators. This did not stop him from also photograph
ing the backyards of unsanitaty houses, where workers
lived and where the children of the poor walked bare
foot. Forty years before Brassai, he photographed graf
fti and humorous inscriptions on shops. He never thought
of publicly showing his photographs. Moreover, no one
would have thought them of any value at a time when
only soft-focus photography was fashionable. This is the
reason Zille's previously unexhibited photographs have
only recently been discovered.
Heinrich Zille was the frst 'concerned' photographer
for whom the message his subject matter conveyed was
of most importance. He was the frst in a line of incorrupt
ible photojouralists who surfaced later, in the 1930S,
and who followed in his footsteps without knowing of
his existence. For all these photojouralists, the camera
was thought to be more important than the photogra
pher; the camera was the sensitive tool that would allow
a situation or a personality to reveal itself.
Epansion of the Photographic Profession 93
cucof photography in
an rcprcducicn .lltered the
way vurkof an were
vie'ed: a detail (auld ap
pear as expressi V c and com
plete as the whole piece.
With rhe help of photogra
phy, any artvrk had the
potential to be as many art
works as it had angles,
Qancs,or details iC!sde
Freund photograph of 7J
]olhcqucdnintt\. . 1cicc`
Photography as a Means of Art Reproduction
The debate over the artistic value of photography, dating
from the invention of the camera, seems only a limited
problem in comparison H the importance of photogra
phy as a means of art reproduction. Until photography
entered the scene, artworks had been accessible only to
an elite few. But when they could be reproduced by the
millions, art became a .. . ailable to everyone. This change
began \"lith engraving and l ithography, but only with the
invention of photography did '>'orks of art lose the mys
tique of the unique creation.
Photography has not only altered the artist's vision,
it has changed man's view of art. The quality of a photo
graph of a sculpture or a painting depends on the man
behind the camera: his ahility to frame, to light, and to
emphasize the details of his ubjea can completely change
its appearance. Reproductions in art books change ac
cording to the scale of the reproduction. An unusually
enlarged detail distorts the overall efect of the sculpture
or a painting; a miniature can seem as large as 1ichel
angelo's Iutid in Florence. In his .\!u:ec imuyinuire,
!1alraux asserts that ' reproduction has created fctitious
works of art by systematically falsifying scale and by pre
senting stamps of oriental seals and coins as if they were
columns, or amulets as if they \vere statues.'
'
If photography can misrepresent a work of art by dis
torting its dimensions, it was immensely helpful in re
moving art from its isolation. After photography the
reproduction of an artwork could be examined under
9
5
one's own lamp in the privacy of one's home, while the
orignal remained in a museum thousands of miles away.
As early as 1 860, Disderi had recogized the fnancial
possibilites of photographic reproductons. Inspired by
his good business sense, Disderi ofered to photograph
the paintng in the Louvre for the French goverment.
He tried to secure the right of reproduction for himself,
but his booming porrait business did not allow him the
tme to put his idea into practice.
Adolphe Braun was the frst in France to undertake
the photogrphic reproduction of artworks.,o3 Bor in
18Il in the small Alsatian village of Dorach, near Mul
house, Braun made desigs of flowers and fruits for Al
satan textle factories. He contacted Daguerre immedi
ately afer the public announcement of photography, for
he was quick to realize that the new technical process
could b extremely useful in reproducing desigs. The
two innovations that helped his work were the 185 I
development of the wet-plate collodion with increasingly
sensitive emulsions, and the 1860 invention of carbon
paper that assured te permanence of positive print.
Around 1862, he began metodically to reproduc
museum drawings, copying those of Holbein at Basel
first, then drawings from the Louvre, Vienna, Florence,
Milan, Venice, Dresden, and oter museums. Thanks to
te variety of pigmenrs on the crbon paper, Braun
acieved results of te highest order. He also began to
edit te Autogapbes des Maitres.
By 1867, Braun's studio, once a workshop outftted
for a few crafsmen, employed more than a hundred
workers and the production methods began to take on
an industrial character. Braun trained a group of photog
raphers to take pictures of museum collections for him.
Among te men he trained was a frmerpoliceman whom
he sent to Rome in 1868 to photograph the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. The project took six months to prepare
and two years of work. Enthusiastic, curious, and dedi-
96 Phtah OSoce
Adolphe Braun was frst
made famous by his repro
ducions of musem draw
ing, possible only with te
inventions of te wet-plate
clloion and carbon papr,
whic incesd te sensi
tivity of te photogrphic
pros and the durability of
te print. Brun and his d
sendents would later
branc out to photograph
fress and srlptures.
tus popularizin works
tat had previously b
only in museums
(Braun photoraph of
Lowerig Chrst f te
Crss).

8
4

art reroucions tat

mc Bmm bu reputation
were pree mphoto
gphs of fower mgc
mt ad degs.
H: | .
| .! :!u1L
cated, the former policeman was the delight of the Vati
can. Even the Pope, it is said, became interested in the
Alsatan's work, and visited the chapel several times a
week to prowl around the scafolding and U chat with
the photographer.,Q After the Sistine Chapel project,
Braun took pictures of the Farese Palace, the frescoes
of the Roman churches, Michelangelo's sculptures, and
Raphael's paintings, fnally turing to the museums of
London, Madrid, and Amsterdam. He had photogaphed
the great and the minor masters, amassing a collecton
of more than 500,000 negatives.
After his death in 1877, Braun's son and grandson suc
ceeded to the family business, which grew and expanded
into oter areas, especally after the invention of gelatin
silver-bromide plates in 1880. The Braun enterprise, ex
cusive distributor of all reproductions of works from te
Louvre, ofered thousands of pictures in its 5 5o-page
ctalog of 1887.
Photogahy O O Mens of HReroducon 97
The oldest process of heliogavure, done by hand,
yielded only about 60 prints a day. With rotogravure
and mechanical printing, 1,500 to 2,000 prints could be
produced in an hour. In 1920, the 180 workers of Braun
and Company produced hundreds of albums and guides
and millions of postcards in color as well as in black and
white, with the demand for color double that for mono
chrome. Begnning in 1930, the company, by now headed
by fourth-geeration Brauns, began to publish a seties
of books called les Maires (The Masters), better known
as Musee de poche (pcket museums), with texts in three
languages. Moder painters like Van Gogh, Gauguin,
98 Photahy OSce

8
I

eormous industr tat

ggfom art-reproduc
@photogaphy (more
sclly, photoollogra
@yj te manufacture
o inesive picure post
c Va te pstcr,
f vistas. museum cl
jq, and grly pictures
fnd their way into mil
@of homes (pre-I939
.
pr of Kamakura).
Bonnard, Matisse, Braque, Picasso, and others were re
produced exclusively in color plates. The first were pub
lished as introductory library editons, but these were
soon followed by the publication and distribution of high
quality facimiles that made the works of great painters
from all periods accessible to everyone. The publication
of Le Muee chez soi (the museum at home) allowed
millions who could not aford orignal works to have
their own collections at a reasonable price .
A ggantic industry based on reproductions grew up
all over Europe and America, with sales totaling many
millions of dollars. Some tasteful printers reproduced
only the best works of art, but there were many others
who simply published mediocre works that appealed to
the masses. The postcard, an ofhoot of photomechani
cal reproduction, created yet another industry. m 1865,
the German postmaster general proposed a law permit
ting the use of postcards. A similar law was passed in
France in 1872; but widespread popularity of the post
card did not really begun until around 1900. Until then,
the price of postcards had been high because the only
available reproduction processes were drypoint, engrav
ing, and lithography. With the invention of photocollog
raphy which provided for photogravure, photolithogra
phy, and phototype, the cost of the postcard was soon
within everyone's means.
Franois Borich was the frst to market the tourist
photographic postcard. He made a fortune with scenes
of his native Switerland. The turn-of-the-century produc
tion statistic were:
Germany: population 50 million, 88 million cards;
England: population 38. 5 million, 14 million cards;
Belgium: population 6.5 million, 12 million cars;
France: population 38 million, 8 million cards.
Eleven years later, m 1910, 123 million cards were esti
mated to have been printed in France alone, with 33,000
Photorahy U a Means of Ar Recn 99
workers employed in the industry. Today the worldwide
annual sale of pstcards is measured in the billions.

Undoubtedly there is a psychologcal explanation for

the postcard vogue, an interest that overtook the world
so quickly. In his magifcent book I'Age d'or de la carte
postale (The Golden Age of the Postcard),
presents a series of perceptive and amusing reflections:
r'In coosing a postcard, the purchaser identifes some
what with the artst who conceived it. Sending a post
card with the view of a landscape we are visitng is an
afrmaton of our leisure to travel and thus becomes a
symbol of our socal status. m writing personal things
that W know consciously or unconscously anyone can
read, we take on an importance that removes us from
te anonymous crowd; to some extent we become a pub
lished author. m addition, it is a kind of exhibitionism
on the part of those who love, hate, or need to cry out
their passion to the world. For centuries, men waited
for the moment they could openly say "I love you" or
"shit." The success of the postcar thus lies in the mem
ory that we wish to prolong, the dream that WC buy
for little money, and voyeurism with all its substitutes.
Even laziness, for a card is more quickly written than a
letter, and fnally, the collecting craze contributed to its
Lpopulariry: From its bgnning the postcard became a
collector's item. At the tum of the century, there were
thirty-three magazines for card collectors in France. Simi
lar magazines existed in Germany, Italy, the United
States, Japan, and elsewhere. Tourism, which continues
to grow, had an immense influence on the spread of the
postcard; advertsing had utlized it from the begnning.
mthe I960s almost a billion cards were printed in France
alone. Today most of them are printed in color.
IO Photogb OSoie

PART TWO
!
Even as early as the 1860s,
photographers used their
medium to doumenr soci
ety. Eventually, documen
tary photographers went
beyond rhe simple record
ing of public events to
portray the anguish, be
wildennem, and despair of'
those afected by war and
poverty (opposite: Erst
Haas, Homecoming Prison:
ers of War, Vienna, 1946;
above: Eugene Smith, Res
cue on Saipan, 1944).
!rcss hOlO_ru]hj
The introduction of newspaper photography was a phe
nomenon of immense importance, one that changed the
outlook of the masses. Before the frst press pictures, the
ordinary man could visualize only those events that took
place near him, on his street orin his village. Photography
opened a window, as it were. IThe faces of public person
alities became familiar and th"ings that happened all over
the globe were his to share. As the reader's outlook ex
panded, the world began to shrink.
- Visual mass media came into being with the frst peri
odical photographs. While the written word is abstract,
the photograph is a concrete reflection of the world in
which all of us live. The individual, commissioned por
trait in the reader's home in a sense gave way to the
collective press portrait. Photography became a powerful
means of propaganda and the manipulation of opinion.
Industry, fnance, goverment, the owners of the press
were abl

to fashion the world in images after their own
interests.,
The last decades of the nineteenth century mark the be
ginning of a new era. With the introduction of the elec
tric motor and the subsequent invention of faster means
of communication, industry developed by leaps and
bounds. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
in 1 876. The network of railroads around the world cov
ered over 61 8,000 miles by 1 880. Also in 1 880, a news
paper carried the frst photograph reproduced by purely
r0
3
mechanical means, a process that was to revolutionize
the way events were seen and transmitted.
Before 1880, illustrations in the press had been scarce,
consisting of handmade wood engravings. Even photo
graphs were reprinted as engravings with the notc, 'after
a photograph.' The new process was known in America
as halftone, and the frst photograph to be reproduced
in this way appeared on 4 March 1880, in the New York
Daily Herald with the caption, 'Shantytown.' The half
tone process uses a dot screen that translates the photo
graphic image into a patter of dotes on a negative, which
is then transferred to a metal plate. Both the photographic
image and the composed text can then be run through
the press at the same time.
Press photography owes its development to many dis
coveries besides the mechanization of reproduction: the
invention of dty gelatin-bromide plates that can be pre
pared in advance ( 1871) , improvements in lenses (the
frst anastigmatic lenses were made in 1884), roll flm
( 1884), and the perfection of telegraphic transmission
of photographs ( 1872).
It is only many years after a process has been invented
that all its implications can be understood.Jn England
it was not until 1904 that the Daily Mirror began illus
trating its pages solely with photographs, and only in
1919 in America did New York's Illustrated Daily News
follow suit. Halftone reproduction, discovered twenty
fve years before, had fnally caught on in newspape;0
contrast, weekly and monthly magazines that had
more time to prepare each edition were already publish
ing photographs by 1885 :ewspapers were slow to
adopt the new method be
a
se proessing usually had to
be done outside the newspaper ofces. Since deadlines
were of the utmost importance, the press could not af
ford to wait for photographs, and newspaper owners
hesitated to invest large sums of money in new machines.
A similar problem exists today in color photography.
104 Photography OSociet
The comforting portrayals
of the Crimean War by
Roger Fenton were among
the frst photographs chron
icling the battlefeld.
Fenton's piOlic-like photo
graphs revealed none of the
horror that some contem
porary pictures recrded,
mostly because Fenton was
inhibited by his sponsors
and by his bulky, fairly
primitive equipment (The
Crimean War, r855) .
Color photographs are now standard fare in magazines,
but they are almost nonexistent in newspapers, because
colorplates still have to be made in specialized printing
plants.
Ever since the invention of photography, men had been
trying to capture public events, but for many years, prim
itive photographic techniques permitted only isolated
images taken in favorable lighting conditions. The adven
tures of the English photographer Roger Fenton, a law
yer who became one of the frst war photographers, illus
trates the enormous obstacles the frst documentary
photographers faced.
Press Photograhy 105
Fenton lef England to photograph the Crimean War
in February 1 855. He took four assistants with him, as
well as three horses and a large wagon that had once
belonged to a wine merchant, which served as his bed
room and laborarory. The wagon was loaded with thirty
six large cases of equipment, plus the harnesses and food
for the horses! When he arrived at the front, Fenton dis
covered that the hot climate made his work almost im
possible. The atmosphere in his laboratory was stifling.
It was still the period of wet plates, when the emulsion
had to be spread on each glass plate just before use. But
Fenton's plates often dried up before he could insert them
in his camera. The exposures took from three to twenty
seconds in the broiling sun. After about three months of
strenuous work, he returned to London with nearly 360
106 Photograph} OSociety
The photogaphs of Mathew
Brady and his assistant
portrayed the Civil War
more realistically than the
restricted works of Fenton
and stand as some of the
frst candid (albeit some
times posed) picrures of
war. However, confusion
surrounded the crediting of
late nineteenth-century
photographs. A case in
point is Brady's Rebel Cais
son Destroyed by Federal
Shells. Fredericksburgh,
1863, which is also attrib
uted to A. J. Russell, who
worked for the goverment
during the Civil War.
f
P

Timothy O'Sullivan, one of

Brady's collaborators, pho
tographed the Union dead
with a graphic objectivity
that few contemporaries
matdted (Field Where Gen
aReynolds Fell, Gettys
brg, .863).
\.
plates. These images, showing only well-groomed soldiers
behind the fring line, gve a false impression of war.
rFenton's expedition had been fnanced on the condition
'\ that he photograph none of the horrors of war, so as
\ot to frighten the soldiers' families.'0
Unlike Fenton, Mathew Brady fnanced his war pho
tographs himself. He brought back thousands of glass
plates from the American Civil War, hoping to make
up for his expenses by selling the photographs when the
war ended. He used all of his own money, as well as
some borrowed funds to pay for supplies and the twenty
hired photographers who assisted him.
While Fenton's carefully censored photographs make
war look like a picnic, those of Brady and his collabora
tors (among them Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander
Press Photography 10
7
Gardner), convey its full horror. For the frst time cvil
ians saw the scorched earth, the burt houses, the dis
tressed families, and the unnumbered dead that had never
been revealed in war reporting. We must remember,
moreover, that Brady's photographs, which never seem
posed even when they were, were taken with equipment
not much more sophisticated than Fenton's. Unfortu
nately, the sale of these photographs did not live up to
Brady's hopes. He lost his entire fortune to his princpal
creditor, the manufacturer who had frished him with
photographic supplies. The creditor printed and pub
lished the photographs for several years, but Brady was
ruined fnancially.
lo,
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the short
lived Paris Commune of 1871, hundreds of pictures were
taken of the Communards, who willingly allowed them
selves to b photographed on the barricades. When the
Commune fell, the police used these photographs to iden-
tify the Communards, who were nearly all executed.
For the frst time in history, photography became an
informer for the police.
Also in 1870, the rwenry-one-year-old Dane, Jacob A.
Riis, landed in America. Several years later, as a jouralist
for the Ne York Tribune, he was the frst to use photog
raphy as a tool for socal criticism. His most remarkable
work was a series of articles on the New York slums,
illustrated with photographs of immigrants living in
crowded, unsanitary tenements. His frst book, How the
Other Half Lives, was published by Scribner's in 1890
and profoundly afected public opinion. Berween 1908
and 1914, the soologst Lewis W. Hine, following Riis's
example, photographed children working rwelve hours a
day in the factories and felds and documented their
miserable slum dwelling. ' ]hee photographs helped
convince Americans of the need for child-labor laws.?For
the frst time, photography was used" s=fully/as a
weapon in the fght to beltertellving conditons ofihe
108 Photography OSociety
Before photography was
even 6hy years old, its speed
and accurac were tured
against its subjects. The pic
tures of the Communards,
many of which were taken
by E. Appect, were used by
te authorities to identify
and condemn te surviving
particpants of the short
lived Paris Commune (un
known photographer, The
Commune, 1871).
" `
' \
Jacb Riis se a precdent
for picorial soal commen
tary with photos suc as
Bndits' Rost, 5912 Mul
berry Street, New York
(1888), whic depicted 'how
the other half lived.'

Press Photography 109

4
I1O Photography OSociety
Lis W. Hine's photo

phic 1Cntation of
cllbor alerted t-e-pub
bc1ote plight of the poor
'p site: Spln-ner at
Frame, 1908; above: Group
of Breaker Boys Outside the
Mme, 1909i13).

poor. The efort has continued. In the early thirties,

under the auspices of the New Deal's Farm Security Ad
ministration, Roy Sttyker headed a team of photogra
phers who were sent to document the rural regons most
afected by the Depression. More recently, in 1Qj the
French government funded a group of photographer
reporters to document the serious problems facing the
poor living on the outskirts of Paris.
Jacob A. Riis and Lewis W. Hine were amateurs who
used photography in order to give their aricles more
credibility. As soon as photographs became a regular fea
ture in periodicals, Q.r.QJessional photoreport.ts appeared
to fll the new need. Th

?
-
eaabadre

tation almost
Press Photography 111
1 1 1 Photograhy OSocie
The Fann 5ounJAdminis
tration employed photog
raphers such Walker
Evans, Dorothea Lange,
and Jack Delano to investi
gate and expose the poverty
in America's rural areas
during the Depression. Two
decades earlier, Jessie Tar
box Beals had taken similar
photographs of norther
urban life (opposite, top:
Walker Evans, Bud Field'
Family, 1936; bottom: Jes
sie Tarbox Beals, In a Ten
ement Flat, New York,
1910; right: Jack Delano,
Hands of an Old Laborer,
1936).
immediately. Since cameras were sti1l very heavy, pho
tographers were selected for physical strengrh rather than
talent. In order to take indoor photographs, they explod
ed small amounts of magnesium powder that produced
a blinding light, a cloud of acrid smoke, and a nauseating
smell. Surprised by the sudden blinding flash, subjects
were often caught in unflanering poses, with their mouths
open or their eyes blinking. The subject was of little im
pottance to these frst photoreporters, whose editors
measured te success of a photograph in terms of its
clarity and suitability for reproduction. Socal and politi
cal fgures, who were the frst to be victimized, quickly
learned to despise photographers. Reporters had difcul
ty getting them admitted to help cover stories. None of
their photographs were siged, and for almost half a
centuty the press photographer was considered inferior,
a kind of servant who took orders, but who had no initia
tive. It took a whole new generation of photographers to
lend prestige to the profession that to this day is still
viewed with suspicon and treated with contempt by
Pres Photography I13
many. As in the years just after its invention, photogra
phy continued to attract many uncultured individuals
who found it a way of earing a living that required
little training. They did not add to the prestige of photo
reporters in the eyes of those whom they sought to
photograph. m addition, a separate breed of reporter
grew up in Italy during the 1950S whose ethic actually
were suspect-the paparazzi. Their exploits only made the
profession seem more disreputable. We shall retur to
them later.
1 14 Photography OSocie
The Birth of Photojouralism in Germany
`

.
.

\ l
.
.` The task of the frst photoreporters was SImply to pro-
\
duce isolated images to illustrate a story. (I was only

when the image itself became the story that photojour

nalism was bor. A group of German photographers
were the frst to report events with a series of photo
graphs accompanied by a text that was often reduced
to mere captions. Portrait photography had its origins in
France, but photojouralism began in Germany, where
the work of the frst photoreporters truly deserving of
the name gave the profession prestge,
With the development of
lighter and les distracting
equipment, photographers
sc as Erich Salomon were
able to capture subjes of
guard, even noteworthy
subjes such as the dele
gates in his 1ophoto
graph, Conference at the
Hage (opposite), which
B taken at one a.m.
After the First World War, Germany went through a
period of serious political and economic crisis. m No
vember 1Q 18 the Kaiser's monarchy was replaced by the
Weimar Republic. The majority of German people, who
for centuries had been taught blind obedience to author
ity, did not understand the pluralistic party system on
which republican democracy is founded. To them the
new system was a sig of weakness, something that would
undermine their goverment's authority. From the start
the Social-Democrats, who headed the new Republic,
were accused of betraying their country by having siged
the Treaty of Versailles. Because its leadership was di
vided, the young democracy was weak. The left wing of
the Social-Democratic party broke of to organize the
Spartakusbund and threatened a revolution in Berlin,
The government crushed the movement with the help
of the Reichswehr, which was nothing more than the
Kaiser's old army, commanded by reactionary ofcers.
"
5
The Spartkusbund leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg, were needlessly and cruelly assassinated but
the goverment's alliance with the army against the so
cialists was a fatal error that ultimately caused its down
fall. In 1920 the goverment itself was forced to quell
a rigtist put in Berlin that te army had refused to
put down. In 1923 Hitler and Geeral Ludendorf fo
mented a putsch in Munich. Hitler was arrested and sen
tenced to a few years in prison, only to be pardoned
several months later. He used his prison term to write
Mein Kampf, soon to become the German bible. The
economic situaton was disastrous, parly because the
Treary of Versaille demanded heavier reparatons tan
Germany could pay. Moreover, in 1923, Frec trops
moved into the Rbineland, Germany's center of heavy
industry, wit the intetion of dismantling its facories.
During' tis period of infation and fnancal ruin prices
were calculated m the billions. It was not unusual to
meet pople in the streets carrying small suitcases fll
of te banknotes they could no longer ft into ordinary
wallets. Te devaluation of the mark in 1923 (one bil
lion Reicsmarks were worth one Rentenmark) afeced
those with large assets and substantial real etate as well
as the average ctizen, but for the latter it meant finan
cial ruin. Not surprisingly, ten years later te middle
classes voted en masse for Hitler.
The Wimar Republic lasted scarcely feen years, but
the librl spirit which settled in Germany during this
short priod was te catalyst for ordinary deveop
ment in the arts and letters. During the 1920S, a bril
liant crcle of writers flourished in Germany. m 1924,
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountin was published;
in 1925, Franz Kafka's The Trial appared one year after
his death. m his incomplete, postumous novel, Kafka
prophetically described the reig of terror that would
overwhelm Germany in the 1930S.
The new musicans of the twente included te com-
II6 Phth OSe

- .
posers Alban Berg and Paul Hindemith, and the conduc
tors Wilhelm Furtwangler and Bruno Walter. Albert Ein
stein received the Nobel Prize in 1921. The psychoanalytic
research of Freud and his psychoterapy became famous
throughout te world. The painters Franz Marc, Vasili
Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Kathe Kollwit, and
George Grosz dominated new movements in art. Kurt
Schwitters and Richar Huelsenbeck were foremost
among the representatves of the Dada movement in
Germany. In 1919, the architect Walter Gropius founded
the Bauhaus, whose influence rapidly etended beyond
the German borders. Through the teaching of Moholy
Nagy, the Bauhaus was to have a decsive impact on
photogrphy. We shall retur to Moholy-Nagy later.
Berlin, the capital of the young Rpublic, became the
center of German artstic and intellectual movements.
Its theater became celebrated for the plays of Bertolt
Brecht, Erst Toller, and Karl Zucmayer and for the
work of te directors Max Reinhardt and Edwin Piscator.
The silent flms of the U.FA., directed by Fritz Lang,
Est Lubitch, and other were interationally known.
FinaUy, the press, which had been strictly cnsored during
te war, was allowed total feedom under te Republic.
D1ustrated magazines began to appear in all te large
' German ctes. The two most important wre the Berliner
Illustrirte and the Muncner Illustrierte Presse. Both had
\ pres runs of nearly 2 million copie at the height of
their success and were sold for only 25 pfennig (ten cent)
a copy. It was the !nning of the golden age of modem
photojouralism.1prawings gradually disappeared from
magazines to be replaced by photogaphs of current
WVents. ,
Unlike the previous generaton of reporers, te pho
tographers working for this press were gentlemen who
could scarcely be distinguished by education, dIess, and
manner from the digitaries tey photogaphed. When
they attended the opera, a famous pres ball, or any other
The Bi of Photi""1 mL II }
occasion where formal dress was required, the new pho
tographers also appeared fashionably attired. Well-man
nered, fluent in foreig langnages, indistinguishable from
the other guests, they no longer belonged to a class of
servile employees. Tey were themselves members of the
bourgeois or aristocratic socety that had lost money and
political pwer after the war, but retained social status.
" The most clebrated of these photographers was Dr.
Erich Salomon who, as his ttle suggests, received a clas
sical education. Aware of his counttymen's respect for
titles, he insisted on being called 'Herr Doktor.' Bor
in Berlin in 1886, he came from a well-to-do family of
bankers. The large number of photographs he took and
the many subjects he covered during his brief period of
activity, between 1928 and 1933, reveal a tireless energy
and enormous talent. He studied law, was drafted in
1 914, and for several years was held prisoner by the
French. When he retured to Berlin in 1918, he found
te potwar economic situation unfavorble for seting
up a law practice. Because his family like much of te
middle class had lot a geat part of it fortune, Salomon
tie to make a living in the busines world. He joined
the advertising department of Ullstein Publishing Com
pany. One of his responsibilities was making sure that te
pasants who rented cut the walls of their houses for ad
vertising billboards abided by teir contracts. mconnec
tion wit a tral that ensued, Salomon used a camera for
te frst time in his life when he borrowed one to take
pictures that could serve as evidenc in court.
Asked how he decded to become a professional pho
tographer, Salomon wrote, 'One Sunday, I was seated
on the terrace of a restaurant along the banks of the
Spree when a violent storm broke loose. A few minutes
later, a newspaper vendor came by and described a cy
clone that had uprooted some trees and killed a woman.
So I took a taxi and found a photographer. I ofered
the pictures he had taken to the Ullstein Publishing Com-
1 1 8 Photogahy OSoce
1
g
t
P

The Ermanox, te frst

ligtweigt, compact cam
permitte photogra
gmto venture indors for
cndid pictures with te ad
dition of a new lens. The
new machine still had it
drawbacs-the shutter was
Doisy-but photographers
sc as Salomon were able
@ improvis and suceed
mtg te kind of candid
s that would revolution
pphotojouralism. So n
me 'set' photograph,
wc cught public fgures
uawares at work and at
gg,would bme te
ndemark of many news
p
a
p
rs.
pany and received roo marks for them. As I handed 90
marks to the photographer, I realized that it would have
been more worthwhile to have taken the photographs
myself. Te next day I bought my own camera.
'
V
In 1925 advertisement for a new camera began to
appear in the newspapers, illustrated with a nigt pho
tograph of Dreden:
NGMT PMCTCG8APM5 ANO INOCC8
PMCTCG8APMY WI TMCUTFIA5M
You Ctake photographs i n the theater during a per
formanc-short or instanteous exposures. With the
8mANCX camera-small, easy to handle, and not
easily seen.

2
Lightweight, compact, and equipped with an F:2 lens
which gave exceptional luminosity for the period, the
Ermanox was a great invention. Photogaphs without a
Te Birth of Photojourab i Geny 129
flash had become possible and Salomon was the first to
attempt candid indoor photography. His results were al
ways lively, because they were unposed. Modem photo
jouralism was underway. It was no longer the clarity
of the image tat counted, but the subject matter. Tak
ing interior photogaphs, however, still required a tri
pod and glass plates, sinc te existng flm was not as
sensitve. Moreover, a specal bath soluton was neces
sary to develop the plate. Finally, the depth of feld was
so limited tat distance had to be measured down to
the centimeter. To remain unnoticed, te photographer
must be neither M nor heard. Even without a flash,
the shutter release on the Ermanox was much too noisy;
the click immediately betrayed the photographer's pres
ence. Salomon had a specal shutter-release built that op
erated noiselessly, but the plates still required an expo
sure tme of nearly a full second. Sinc photographs that
sold to the papers had to be unique and up-to-the-minute,
all these obstacles must often have seemed insurmount
able; but Salomon triumphed.
m 1928, taking photographs in German court was
strictly forbidden. Salomon's frst published picture,
which appeared in the Berliner Illutrirte of 19 Febru
ary 1928 was, however, taken in court. Slightly blurred,
Salomon's single photograph of the trial appeared with
the following caption: 'A much-talked-about criminal
trial: the student Krantz in front of his judges.' Numerous
arcles had appeared before the trial using the Krantz
scndal as a ploy to attack the educational system and
to criticize postwar youth. The day after a surprise party
that three teenage boys and a sixteen-year-old grl had
attended, two of the boys' bodies were discovered. One
of the dead boys, it tured out, had had intimate rela
tions with the grl. The survivor, a seventeen-year-old
high s<hool student, was accused of having killed the
others out of jealousy. Krantz was fnally acquitted.'11
Years later, he would be known to the literary world for
120 Photoghy OS

the novels he published under the pseudonym Erst Erich

Noth.
The 'unique' photograph of the Krantz trial brought
Salomon as much money as he eared in a month at Ull
stein's. He son lef publishing to devote himself entrely
to photography. Four photographs of another murder
trial appeared later in the same magazine and caused a
sensation. Salomon had smuggled his camera into the
courtroom in a box, and his tripod in his scarf.
From then on, he took photographs wherever impor
tant events occurred. He became the ofcial photogra
pher for interational conferences and attended sessions
of the Reichstag, photographing all the important politi
cal and artistic fgres. He gained entrance everywhere.
At the siging of the Kellogg-Briand Pact in the Hague
he noted: 'I was seated at the place reserved for a Polish
minister who had not shown up.
'
JJ
Salomon quickly realized that it was more difcult to
be expelled from a place than to be admitted. Infnite
patence was necessary to b a good photoreporter. Salo
mon was enormously successful. During a long night ses
sion with German and French ministers at the second
Hague Conference, for example, he took qnite humor
ous pictures of some of the participants who had fallen
asleep. He photogaphed Lloyd George and Chamberlain
in their London ofces, and took the frst photographs
of the High Court of Justce in England. He was not con
temptuous of the public, and some of his photographs
look like Daumier
'
s caricatures. Every notable in the arts
was captured by his camera. He photographed Ricard
Strauss, Toscanini, Casals. In America, he photogrphed
Randolph Hearst at San Simeon. Back in Berlin, he pho
tographed Einstein and such writers as Thomas Mann.
In 1931, scarcely three years after he began his work,
he published an album of 102 photogrphs under the
ttle, Berhmte Zeitgenossen in Unbewachten Augen
blicken (Celebrated Contemporaries in Unguarded Mo
Te Bi of Photo;ol mGeny 121
ments). In a long preface he explained his ideas and
methods. Ecept for certain technical problems that have
since been solved, his advice is still valid today:
The work of a pres photographer who aspires to be more
than just a crafman is a cntinuous strugle for his image.
Pthe hunter is a cptive of his passion to pursue his game,
so the photogpher U obsessed by the HntgHP photograph
that he wants to obtain. It is a continual battle against prej
udics resulting fom photographers who still work with
fashes, against the administraton, the employees, the po
lice, te security guards, against por lightng and the enOf
mous problems in taking photographs of pople in motion.
Tey must be caught at the precse moment when they are
not moving. Then there is the fght against time, for every
newspapr has its deadline that must be met. Above all, a
photojouralist must have infnite patence, must never be
come flustered. He must be on top of all events and know
when and where they take place. necessar, he must USe
all sorts of tricks, even if they do not always work.
Salomon gave the following anecdote as an example:
When I arrived at the frst Hague Conference, in the summer
of ly1y,I leared that the ministers Henderson, Streemann,
Briand, Wirth, and the Blgan Freig Minister Hymans
would be meeting ever afteroon at four o'clock on the bal
cny of te Scheveningen Grand Hotel. As I culd not re
cive pnnission to take photographs of this balcony fom
the inside, I culd only photogaph thos talks frm out
side. The balcony was located ffy feet above a garage in
front of which there were only the beach and the b= There
was no house facng it. I rented a sixty-foot fre ladder L
wheels and borrowed a white shirt, a pail, and a paintbrush
from te fout delivery men to make te Dtc plic blieve
tat I was going to rpaint sme billboars. I wanted to
b raised on the ladder and, at a distanc of forty feet, to
photograph tb diplomat on tis historic balcony. To my
geat disappintment, te head of the team told me that I
had to climb parway up the ladder frst and scure it with
a rop before I could go on to the top. When it fnally
122 Photogahy OSoe
r

4
m place, the angle was so steep that I would have fallen
if I had had to W my two hands to photograph. had to
lean the ladder, but this maneuver seemed so dangerous and
attracted b much attention that even Henderson notced
it through te window. Just as I was about to climb to the
top, the head of the English press corps, followed by a secret
agent, appared and told me in no uncenain terms to remove
the ladde immediately. Uorder to avoid a scandal, 1had to
agee. Te only photogrph I culd take was of the ladder.l13
When no clever idea came to mind to help him gain
access to a conference room, Salomon photographed the
antechamber, taking funny pictures of hats and umbrel- .
las, or of a sleeping guard. Again he surprised the 'Six
Greats' of the priod, Briand, Lr Cushendun, Hermann
Muller, Scialoja, Hymans, and von Schuber, tis time
breakfasting at the Beaurivage Hotel in Geneva. Te pho
togaph appeared in September 1929 in te Belne I1-
lustTirte with the caption: 'A unique document!' At the
time, it was indeed a novelty to photograph important
people, or those considered important, in their private
moments.
Aristide Briand nicknamed Salomon 'Doctor Mephis
topheles' because of the two gay tufts of hair decorat
ing his forehead. Salomon became a celebrity whose
photographs were all siged. They were also snapped
up at high prics by various European picture magazines.
Te photographer was no longer anonymous. He had be
come a celebrity in his own right.
Publicaton of 'secret' photographs became one of the
attracrions of the illustrated press and, when that was
really impossible, carefully posed photogaphs called
'ultra-secret' were published. Under the title 'the frst
photographs ever taken in the game rooms of the Monte
Carlo Casino,' Salomon published a series of photo
grphs in April 1929, each one of which had been posed.
Under no crcumstances would the casino management
allow photographs of gambling celebrities, but it did per-
Te Bir of Photojourlim i Ge 123
mit its employee to pose when the gamerooms were
closed. Salomon's skill consisted in making these photo
grphs so vivid that they appeared to have been taken
from life. The public could not distinguish the actual
fom the imitatons. The attraction of the illustrated
magazine was in printng sensational photographs. H
necesary, one fabricated them.
Kutt Korf was the editor-in-chief of the Berliner I
[ustrirte, one of a goup of newspapers owned by UlI
stein. He had begun his career as an errand boy and owed
his rise to his unerring memory and his jouralistic in
stinct. One of the Ullstein brothers once asked him to
report, as soon as pssible, all the facts concering a
maritime disaster. Korf gave him all the details on the
spot, including the exact measurements of the sunken
boat. The astounded Ullstein started Korf on his quick
rise in the Ullstein publishing empire.
Stefan Lorant joined te Munchner Il ustrierte Presse
as the head of the Berlin ofce. In 1930 he became its
editor-in-mief. Kur Korf had inveted the 'ultra-seret'
and 'unique' photogaphs whim occasionally required a
wiliness not always consistent with the truth. Stefan Lo
rant absolutely refused to accept any posed photographs.
Up to tis point, te illustrated press had only reproduced
individual pictures. Now Lorant developed the idea of
the photostory in which a series of images would depict
one cntral subject. Photoreporting in thee stories had
to have a bgnning and an end and was defned by place,
rime, and action, just as in mclassical theater. dif
ference is tat in the theater the stage keeps the audience
aware of the fctonal nature of the acton. The reader
poring over a magazine, on the other hand, idenrfes
what he sees in te photographs as real.
Under Lorant's influence photographers began to fill
entre page of the magazine with groups of photogrphs
on a single subject. He was the frst to realize that the
public not only wants to be infomIed about famous per-
12 Photogahy OSoce

sonalite, but is also interested in subject concring

eeryday life. Several years later, this idea Wto become
a factor in the success of te American magazine Life.
From this time on, not only celebrities and historic events
were to be depicted in the illustrated magazines, but also
the life of the man in te street. Te illustrated maga
zine became a symbol of the liberal spirit of the tme.
A goup of young photographers gew up around Salo
mon, who W forry-four in 1930. They wre free-lanc
ers, indepedet photographers who often proposd
their own storie. Each of their photographs was siged,
indicating te artention tat W now beng paid to the
photographer's personaliry. Like Salomon, tey were not
only photogaphers, but also editors of ter own texts
and cptions.114 Te majoriry of tem were middle d,
had university educations and had tred to photogaphy
because of te eonomic difcnlties that GeIy facd
after the War. Some of these photogaphers were part
of the Dephot News Service'15 (Detsche Photodiest)
which worked closely with te illustrated magazines, and
paricularly with Stefan Lorant. Te Dephot News Ser
ice was a veritable treasure trove of talent, and almost
all its photographers later became famous.
Hans Baumann was one of thee photogaphers. Te
son of a banker, he was bor in 1839 in Freiburg. He
began studying art, but was drafted in 1914. After sev
eral years in the army, he found himself in the same post
war quandary tat faced so many other young men whose
families had lost their fortunes during the geat infation.
Forced to abandon his studies to make a living, he be
came an illustrator for the Berlin newspapr B. Z. am
Mitag in 1926, specializing in spotts events. When his
paper, like others, began to attach increasing importance
to photogrphs, Baumann decided to become a photog
rapher. His father had gven him a cmera at the age of
ten, and as a child, he had developed a passion for work
ing with it. As an ar student, he had used photographs
The Bir of Phot;oi m Gen 125
to aid him in his drawings."" He met Stefan Lorant
through the Dephot News Service and began working in
1929 for the Munehner II ustrierte Presse, using the pseu
donym of Felix H. Man in order to separate his new
career as free lance photographer from his previous pro
fession as illustrator. In 1929 he did the frst photostory
on nigt life under te title 'Between Midnigt and Dawn
on the Kurfiirstendamm' (Berlin's main boulevard). The
Munich magazine guaranteed him a minimum salary of
1,000 marks a month,117 under the condition that he out
line his stories beforehand. It was an extraordinary sum
for the tme, when a civil servant's salary averged around
50 marks. Between 1929 and 1933, he completed more
than 80 photostories, including stories on public swim
ming pools, factory workers, restaurant scenes, boxing
matche, the Lunapark, and many other subjects of in
terest to the general public, who recogized their con
cers and their pleasures in his photographs.
Man was one of the frst photojouralists to work
closely with Stefan Lorant in defning the modem for
mula for photoreporting
.11
8
mthe early thirtes, Lorant
sent him to Rome to do a story on Mussolini, who until
the had only been sen in pretentious poses. Man spent a
mlday with UDuee, fom seven in the morg until ten
in te evening, and took a series of photographs that
inspired a whole generation with a taste for cndid shots.
'Mussolini's ofce was enormous, flled with marble
columns and pillars like the entrance to a museum; Man
recalled. 'He treated his ministers rater badly . . . One
of them brought him a stack of papers including certain
leters marked "important." Mussolini loked at the
envelopes, and if he thought a letter might be interesting,
he read it; if it didn't interest him, he tossed it in the air
and expected the minister to run and fetm it.' The story
was a sensation and brought Man 3,000 marks.'
1
9
The German illustrated magazines of the twenties car
ried many names that are famous today: MoholyNagy
126 Photogaphy OSoce
"










MBaumann (known by
mpseudonym Fei H.
Man) photoaphed Musso
mmpicure that were
Ufrst to show the Italian
kmmhis everday rou
m(oppoite: two pages
of Man's photogaphs from
Muncner Ilutrierte
Presse, 1931; above:
Mussolini's Workroom,
1931).
of the Bauhaus; Alfred Eisenstaedt, chief photographer
for te Assocated Pres in Berlin at the time; Andre
Keresz; Martin Muncaszi; and Germaine Krull. There
were others who are not as well known today: Umbo, a
former Bauhaus student; Wolfgang Weber; Marian
Scwabik; the Gidal Brothers; and suc aristoat as
Helmut Muller von Spolinski; von Blucer; and Freiherr
von Bechmann. Each specalized in a specfc area such as
spors, the theater, or politcal event.
m 1929, the majority of photojouralists still used the
Ermanox. At the beginning of the thirties, however, Salo
mon, Man, and others began to use the Leica, a new cam
era that radically changed photojournalism. The Leica
was invented by askar Barack, who manufactured pre-
The Bith of Photoiourlim i Geny 127
csion instruments of all sorts.
120
Bor in 1879, he had
been interested in photography as a youth. He loved to
take long walks carrying his 7 ?9-inch camera, the dou
ble wooden h holders, and a tripod. Not baving a
strong constitution, Barack dreamed of a camera that
could be camed in one's pocket, an idea that obsessed
him throughout the years he worked in the optical indus
try. Finally in 191 I, he became the director of the Leitz
factory research laboratories at Wetzlar, where mmo
scop and telescopes were manufactured, and at last had
the opportuniry to realize his dream. He built a small
camera using 35mm flm, half the size of the photo
gaphic negatves then in use, and capable of multple
epoure. Years of reearc were stll necessary before
the Leit Company could manufacture the new camera.
In 1925, the Leica was fnally introduced at the Leip
zig Indusrtial Fair where it was an immediate success.
Euippd with a I:3.5'50mm lens, the Leca was already
being sold in 1930 with several intercangeable lese
that geady increased it versatliry. Te flm allowed
128 Photgrah OS
Okat Barac's inveton,
Y
te Leic cmera, was far
more versatile and allowe
many more exsures than
its prsors. It Wnot
immeiately acpte W a
Y
profesonal cmera Iy pho
tophers and cliet b
cuse of it unimpressive
.1
size, but msmaller cmera
made ttesier to binon-
spiwous and thus ot
t
difclt news stories.
f.












I
1
thirty-six exposures without reloading. The Leica revolu
tonized the work of the professional photographer.
Accustomed to working with single plates, most illus
trated press editors did not at frst allow reporters to use
the Leica. The fash technique had been improved in re
cent years and large camers yielded good large contact
print. Even a magazine like Life, founded in 1936, ini
tally disapproved of the use of the Leica. Thomas Mc
Avoy, a member of the frst team of Life photogaphers,
recounted the difculties in having the new camera ac
cepted: 'I had brought a Leica back from a European trip.
The eitor-in-chief, tg it a toy not to be taken
seriously because of it small size, forbade me to use it.
At an ofcal recepton in Washington, I defed him and
took a whole series of photogaphs in front of my be
wildered colleagues with their large cameras and flashes.
Comparing my print with theirs, the management ad
mitted that my photogtaphs were much more atmospher
ic and lively because, without the fash, had caught
the guests unaware. From then on, the Leica was appreci
ated; and all the photographers followed my example.'
J1
had a similar experience with my own frst ofcal
assigment. m 1936, Julien Cain, then director of the
Bibliotheque Natonale, asked me to photogtaph all of
the libraries in Paris for te 1937 World's Fair. When
arrived at the Natonale, the librarian saw my small
Leica and exclaimed: 'You can't be serious. Come back
with a real profesional camera.' He threw me out, but
had an idea. went to the fea market and bought an
old 8 x lo-inch wooden camera for about 50 franc (ten
dollars). Tis time the librarian was satsfed and the
camera was poitioned on a cumbersome tripo. My head
buried in a black scarf, pretended to adjust the setting,
although the camera did not have any plates. When
was left alone, quietly tok a whole series of photo
grphs of the old bokworms bent over their books with
my Leica. Adid not use the fash, worked unnotced.
The Bir of Photojourl in Ge I29
My frst victim was a distnguished old man with a long
white mustache, asleep and snoring peacefully; a monk
in his robe hunched over his work was my second, fol
lowed by others. The literary pavilion at the World's Fair
used many of my photographs, and the story on the Bib
liotheque Nationale appeared in the 463rd issue of Vu
magazine on 27 January 1937, enttled: 'A important
photostory by Vu at the Bibliotheque Nationale, the
world's leading intellectual factory.'
Production fgures show how rapidly the Leica took
over the market. m 1927, the company put out 1,000
cameras; 10,000 in 1928; 50,000 in 193 1 and 100,000
in 1933. Today it producton has reached more than a
million. Constantly improved, the Leica has made the
Leitz company famous all over the world. As a result,
the camera is copied almost everywhere. Since the Second
World War, Japanese companies in particular have be
come lively competitors of the Leica.
Funded in Wetzlar in 1848, the German Leitz com
pany is a family business now in its fourh generaton.
Leitz produces more than 6,000 hig precision instru
ments made up of 70,000 diferent parts. Technicans
are highly specialized and well paid. In 1972 the com
pany realized that manufacturing the Leica body, which
alone involved more than 700 pars, was no longer
profitable, since its retail price was no higher than the
manufacturing costs. The Leitz company became asso
cated with the Japanese company Minolta, and Leica
boies are now made inexpensivey in Japan because of
te low wag
e
and mechanized production. Let has also
worked out an agreement wit Advanced Metals K
searc Corporation in Bedfor, Massacusetts; and it
has siged a contract with the Swiss cmpany Wild/Her
burg for the manufacture of eletron micoscp
e
.
122
In 1974 te owners of te Let cmpany were forced to
dispose of 5 I percent of teir stock, thus losing contol
of the business to the Swiss finn of Schmidheini, which in
130 Photogahy OSci

DOis part of a powerful trust. Today family businesses,

howeer large, are often doomed to failure unless they
become part of mnltinational enterprises.
The new democratc spirit embodied in the German
illustrated press reached a brutal end with Hitler's rise
to power. Germany had hardly bgun its recover when
the Depression began in the United States. The New York
stock market crsh on Black Friday in October 1929
seriously afected the large American capital investments
in Germany. Unemployment in Germany during the fol-
lowing years increased so drmatcally that in 1932 near
ly six million pople were out of work. Teir poverty
was one of the decisive factors in Hitler's rise to power.
As a result of pressing economic problems, politcal life
became so radically polarized that all parties, partcularly
the Nazis and the Communists, included paramilitary
organizatons. Chancellor Bruning govered by emer
gency decrees alone, and virtually ruled without the pow
erless Parliament. On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg,
president of the Rich, asked Hitler, who had just become
chancellor, to form a new goverment. In Berlin, the S.A.
staged their famous public buring of books by the best
known writers, and Germany was plunged into a priod
of 'night and fog.' Thousands of members of the artistic
and intellectual elite went into exile. Those unable to save
themselves in tme were arrested and sent to concentra
ton camps.
r The press was muzzled. Anyone suspected of doubting
the ideas of the Thir Reich was dismissed, along with
those who could not prove that they were of pure Aryan
blood. The editors of major magazines were all replaced.
Kurt Korf fled to Austria and later U America. Stefan
,
Lornt was imprisoned. He was released a few months
later, but only after he could prove his Hungarian back
"
ground. Lorant fed to England where he founded II us
trated Weekly and later, in 1938, Picture Post, both of
whic were enormously suO ful. With his wife and
Te Birth of Photoirlism i Ge 13
two sons, Dr. Erich Salomon fled to Holland where he
had relatives. A Jew, he and one of his sons were mur
dered at Auschwitz ten years later. Almost all the mem
bers of the Dephot News Service le. Felix H. Man, an
avid democrat who happened to be abroad at the time of
Hitler's rise to power, never retured to Germany. He
became Lorant's colleague in England along with Kurt
Hubschmann, who changed his name to Hurton. Ina
Bandy worked for the magazine Vu in Paris. Alfred Eisen
staedt and Frit Goro settled in America, where tey be
came staf photographers for Life. Andrei Friedmann,
who had begun his career as a photogapher with the
Dephot News Service at seventeen, went to France where
132 Photogahy OSoce
Lucen Aiger ua Leic
he took the pseudonym Capa -a name tat would son
to catc Hitlers lazy re-
b f ded All th
sponse to te
salutes of te
ecome amous
.'23 He lOun Magum in 19
4
7

e
athlete' parade at the 1936
creators of modem photojouralism in Germany spread
Winter Olympic in Gar-
their ideas abroad, exerting a decsive influence on the
misc Partenkirchen, Ger-
d ' d d h U d
many. Tng Hitler
ustrate press In France, Eng an , an t e nite States.
would appear as a blur in , Chosen for their loyalry to the Third Reich, the new
the photo, Aiger did not
', editors of German magazines were permitted to publish
printthene
ativeun
r
ilyears
'
only photographs that were sent to them by o
fc
al or
later, many yers after Hit-
ler had driven some of Ger- i
gans
.
The most powerfl figure in the new illustrated
many's best photogaphers
: press was Heinrich Hofmann, who had been bor in 1885
fom te country.
at Furth near Darmstadt, where his family owned a pho-
. tography business. m 1908, at the age of twenry-three,
he set up his own business as a photographer in Munich.
Early in 1919, a revolutionary movement proclaiming a
Sovict republic broke out in Bavaria, but was suppressed
by the Reichswehr in a bloody battle. One of the revolu

rionary leaders was assassinated and others fled. During

these months of civil war in Munich, Heinrich Hofmann
tok many photographs that he sold to newspapers all
over the world for large sums of money. Towar the end
of 1919, when Hitler's newly founded parry was made up
of only half a dozen followers, the powerful Hearst news
papers ofered Hofmann $ 5 ,000 to obtain photographs
of Hitler. Hofmann joined the Nazi party in orer to get
these photographs. He became one of Hitler's most inti
mate friends, won his absolute confidenc, and was
allowed to photograph the FUhrer in sort of poss.
Hiter studied Hofmann's pictures to determine the most
advantageous movement and gestures for his seeches.,
When he came to power in 1933, Hitler gave Hofmann,
his early companion, the exclusive rigt to publish
photographs of him. That same year Hofmann was
named a member of the Reichstag and in 1938 he recived
the title 'Herr Professor.' A astute businessman, Hof
mann eploited his exclusive rights to the utmost by
creating a press service, forming a publishing house for
Nazi propaganda, and surrounding himself with a staf
Te Bir of Photo;oli mGey 133
of photographers who were alone authorized to take
picures of Hitler and of ofcal event. All photogaphs
for the illustrted jourals had to pass Hofmann's in
spection-even those intended for the rest of the world.
He made an immense fortune, bougt a great deal of
property, acquired a colletion of paintings, and married
his daugter to te FUhrer of the German youth move
ment, Baldur von Sirach.
When the war broke out, Hofmann organized a central
photographic bureau in Berlin where all photogrphs tak
en at the front were sent for approval. He selected only
those he deemed most appropriate for German propagan
da. His bureau was a veritable factory, processing copy
prints for the entire world press. Only he could collect
the reproduction fees.
Duringthe American occupation of Bavaria, the Ameri
can army confiscated Hofmann's archives and used them
to identify war criminals. In 1946, at the time ofthe Ger
man war trials, Hofmann was arrested and condemned
as a proven profteer of the Third Reich. He was gven
the maximum penalty of ten years at hard labor and the
loss of his entire fortune. On 25 June 1948, the decision
was reversed by another court, and his sentence was re
duced to three years in a work camp. This decision was
overtured on another technicality. The ofce ofthe direc
tor of public prosecution in Munich increased Hof
mann's sentence once more, to five years, but released
him in recogirion oftime served. Hofmann was stripped
of reprouction rights to his photographic archives for a
ten-year period and lost his title of 'Herr Professor.' Out
of his immense fortune he was allowed to keep only
5,000 marks for the support of his family. Eventually
another court ruled that his name should be struck from
the list of war criminals, on the grounds that he had
only been an instrument of Hitler's policies. m 1957,
all proceedings against him were dropped. Hofann died
at the end of that year, at the age of seventy-rwo.'24 Un-
134 Photogaphy OSocey
Heinric HoHann and his
phoographs helped Hitle
etablish an image tat te
world would not forget.
Hofann had exclusive
rights to publis picre of
Hitler and profted geatly
from that rigt troughout
the reme's exstec.
doubtedly, he was one of the Nazis who had profted
most from the Hitler regme.
In 1947, part of Hofmann's confscated archives was
transferred to the National Archives in Washington. m
the early sixties his son and heir, also named Heinrich,
who remembrs having sat on Hitler's lap as a cild of
three, won his suit to regain the reproducton rights to
his father's photographic collection. Hofann fls now
owns the negatives that news services around the world
profted from for so many years.
The liberal-spirited German magazine that flourished
under the Weimar Republic were emulated elsewhere in
Europe. The French magazine Vu was founded in 1928
by Lucien Vogel ( 1886-1954), editor, journalist, printer,
and talented designer. m 1906 he joined the art depart
ment of Femina magazine. Several years later he bcame
the director of Art et Decoration. m 1912 he founded
la Gazette du Bon Ton and Ie Jardin des Modes.
Lucien Vogel was a man of strong personality and very
orignal ideas. He was afable, with bright blue eyes that
reflected his great generosity and his resolute character.
His fashion magazines carried the imprint of his refned
Parisian taste and his liberal outlook. Starting with the
frst issue of Vu, he broke away from the use of the single
photographs that had appeared for many years in Illus
tration, one of the oldest French magazines. Vogel sur
rounded himself with frst-rate colleagnes, capable writ
ers and jouralists such as Philippe Soupault, whom he
sent to Germany, or Madeleine Jacob, who had begun
as a secretary on the editorial staf and was later sent
as spcial crresondent to Austria. Ida Treat, an Ameri
can, was his correspondent in Asia. He used the best
photographers of the perio, among them Germaine
Krull, Andre Kertesz, Laure Albin-Guillot, Muncaszi,
Lucien Aiger, Fl Harman, and Capa, whose celeb rat-
The Birt of PbotoioumaJsm i Geny 13 5
ed picture of a Spanish Republican soldier falling under
gunfre was frst published in Vu in I936.
The frst issue of Vu appeared on 28 March I 928,
with Vogel's statement of intent: 'Conceived in a new
spirit and executed by new means, Vu brings a new for
mula to France: illustrated reporting on world events .
. . . From any place where important events occur, pho
tographs, dispatches, and articles will reach Vu linking
our readership with the entire world . . . and bringing
the universality of life to the P]P . . . pages packed with
photographs translating foreign and domestic political
events into images . . . sensationally illustrated photo
stories . . . travel stories, analyses of causes ceiebres . . .
the most recent discoveries, carefully selected photo
graphs . . . .'
136 Photogaphy OSociety

Lucien Vogel attracted tal

ented photographers such
as Raben Capa, Germaine
Krull, and Andre Kertesz to
his Vu, founded in 1928
after the model of the pre
Hitler German photomag
azine. Intended as a vehicle
for eye-opening ne'-" paired
with numerous photo
graphs (oftentimes as many
as four to a page), \'u lasted
only a decade due to Vogel's
unpopular politics and his
successors' inability to
maintain the editonal and
reproduction quality of the
early \'u, 1 indications
that the magazine depended
more on its audience than
on its advertisers for sup
port (left: Capa, Death of a
Spanish Soldier, 1 9:6;
right: Gennaine Krull, Un
ttled; page 1 38: Andre Ker
tesz, Park in the Snow,
1928).
The Birth of Photojournalism in Germany 1 3 7
9
9

138 PhotoKaphy OSoet

Ande Kertez Park in te

Snow. 1928.
The first issue contained more than 60 photographs
and sold for 1. 5 franc. Starting in 193 1, Vogel producd
specal issues presenting perceptive and courageous anal
yses of world event. Views of Soviet Russia and Americ
Fights (dedicated to Roosevelt's New Deal) appeared in
193 I. The April 1932 issue on The German Enigma car
ried 438 photographs in 125 pages. For the frst time,
the French public was wared against Nazism. A special
issue on Italy, The Eleventh Yer of Fscsm, appeared
m 1933, and Examination of China in May 1934. But
the tone and subject matter of Vu (Vogel was simultane
ously editng Lu, a kind of press digest) did not please
its Swiss fnancial backers and failed to attract enough
advertsing, the fnancal backbone of magazines in a
capitalist society. He alienated the large industries that
might have bought advertising space by his undisguised
support for the Lef which, united in the Popular Front,
had just won the 1936 election. At last the appearance
of his specal issue on the Spanish Civil War in the fall
of 1936, supportng the Republican point ofview, utterly
outraged Vu's backers and Vogel was forced to resig.
The magazine continued until 1938, but its quality
dropped, and most of its readers drifted away.
When Lucien Vogel died in 1954, stricken at his desk,
Henry Luce cabled Vogel's family: 'Without Vu, Life
would never have been ceated.' The ultmate tribute was
thus paid to the man who had founded the first modem
photographically illustrated magazine in France.
Te Birth of Photo;ourlism i Geny 139
LIFE BEGINS
140 Photograhy OSoce
\\ ' "","r.' .. ,"'!.1 1- ",-. , . " . 1 ",,,,,,,,,,1 '" ..-.. Iu. - l.C'"
"-_' M" 'H ,,_ n.t .;.I. \ . ", ,.J . . ,' , =- " ,_,
,j. t.: =;,-.I I,i;=:I, ,;.I. ,,, .t ( ,
! : . ,:l :II I.. ... It.,,.I.;:u --
1,-.,,. +I '",1,- .. nti:u",,. .;. ',.'I, ,,, ,"
= . , - L,I:.... :-, I=:l-\ . J. ... .... ( l l
.: l
;. , . ". , .
: ; ,.

'Life begns': the caption

bneath tis opening photo
of the frst issue of Life mag
azine (Novembr 23. I936)
read: 'The camera records
te most vital moment in
any life: It begnning.' A
photomagazine after te
Gennan and Vu moel, Life
would suced not only be
cause of its photographs but
also becuse of advertis
ing network that spanned
te cuntr. Life continued
to survive until television
tok over the adverising
market in te late I9605.
American Mass Medi Magazines
Three years after Hitler's takeover and the subsequent
muzzling of the entire German press, a new illustrated
magazine appeared in America that would become the
most celebrated of its kind throughout the world. The
frst issue of Life magazine appeared on 23 November
I936, with an initial printing of 466,000 copies. Circula
tion reached one million a year later, and more than eight
million by I972. Its success was unique and its format
imitated almost everywhere.
Life was not the frst American magazine illustrated
entirely with photographs. In I896, the Ne York Times
had begun to publish a weekly photographic supplement,
and other newspapers had followed its example. Mid
Week Picorial, Panorama, and Parade had all appeared,
but none had Life's success.
The idea itself was not new. Its realization was the
result of many influences, the development of the cinema
being the foremost. From the begnning of te twentieth
century, flm had gone beyond the vaudeville stage and
had begun to attract millions of spectators to movie the
aters daily. Photographic images were becoming familiar
to the public and were begnning to shape its vision. The
new style in photojouralism, that began with the Ger
man illustrated magazines of the early thirties and was
taken up later by the French magazine Vu, profoundly
influenced Life's creators in their decision to illustrate
stories with groups of photographs. Photographs by Dr.
Salomon and Felix H. Man had already appeared in
American magazines and become well known. Life hired
many of the excllent photographers who fled Hitler and
cnsulted frmer contributors t the German illustated
press such as Korf and Szanfanski, both of whom had
been with the Beline Iutrirte. Finally, tcal deel
opments in photgaphy, new monorome printing and
clor prO , and te invetion of Uteleprnter for
the rapid transmission of photogaphs all played impor
tant role in the ceation of the new photogaphic maga
zine. But te most cucal factor in its sucess was its
moem adverising system.
Nearly all American magazines are entrely financed
by advertising. Their proft depend on it. The advertis
ing empire in Americ grew out of the shift from an agri
cultural to an industrial economy. A ne industries
grew, consumer gods were standardized and manufac
tured in large quantites. The expansion of highways and
railroads brougt producers and consumets cloer to
geter. Because the country is so large, there were few
natonal newspapers. Each regon has its own daily pa
prs, specalizing in local news. Weekly or monthly mag
azines, on the other hand, can be distributed throughout
the cuntry and are easily available to everyone. National
corporatons began to place their ads in magazines.
Between 1939 and 1952, te number of advertisers
grew from 936 to :,538, and the number of products
adverised jumped fom 1,659 to 4,47:. 125 Magazines
were profoundly afected. Untl the end of the nineteenth
om publishers had had complete control over the
content of teir magazines. AAmerica increasingly be
came a socety of consumers, the powerful economic in
centive of advertising forced changes in the publishers'
role. From the time adverising becme their major source
of proft, publishers were no longer interested in the reader
as reader, but in the reader as cnsumer. Periodicals
no longer simply published stotie and illustratons. They
became promoters of advertising cpy and magazines
became an integral part of the American marketing
system.126
14: Photoghy OSoce

Since advertsing rates depnded on crculaton, pub

lishers were concered with increasing their profts by
inceasing their circulaton. They sought to make their
magazines attractive to the majotiry of reader/consumers.
With the advent of television tese factors also changed;
but we shall discuss that development later.
During te sixtes, fourteen out of every 100 adverts
ing dollars invested mAmerican magazines went to Life,
which was read by approximately 40 million Americans.
Life was founded by Henry R. Luce, who had b bor
in China in 1898, the son of a Prebyterian minister.
Luce's puritanical, Calvinist education, the austeriry of
his upbringng, and his later studies at Yale all combined
to make him a staunch conservative. His ideas were re
flected in all his publicatons. From its poor beginnings
his life drastically changed in a few decades. He becme
one of Americ's press lords, a transformaton in the
purest trdition of liberal American socery during the
first third of the century.
l
2
7
Luc and m Yale classmate Britton Hadden founded
lime, Inc. in 1929. The name 'lime' oc rre to him
one evening while reading a subway ad. The young found
ers, in their twentes at the tme, realized that there was
no magazine adapted to the fast pace of contemporary
work life. Most pople had little time to kep up with
current event. Their idea was to create a magazine that
would summarize the events of the previous week. Its
beginning was modest. They had trouble fnding the
$85,00tey needed to publish ther frst issue in March
1923. Sinc te magazine did not yet have it own news
network from which to draw, stories in the frst issues
were taken fom the New York Times and rewritten ma
specal sryle. Tis was possible at the time because the
U.S. Supreme Court had recently ruled that news that
had b public for more than twenry-four hours had
entered te public domain.1
2

Time was an enormous SlCcS, and when Life ap-
Amn MsMedi Magazies 143
peared in 1936, it was organized along the same lines.
The editorial staf was divided into seventeen depart
ments: domestic news, music, books, nature, sports, sci
eoee,.fashion, feature articles, editorials, and so on. These
departments were frther subdivided: movies and the
ater, for example, were grouped under entertainment;
art and religon under culture. Eac department was
headed by an editor and a researcher, to whom other as
sistant editors and researchers reported. While all the
researchers were women, the writers wefe generally cho
sen from among young male university graduates, esp
cally from Luce's alma mater, Yale. Members of each
department submitted a weekly report in which planned
and fnished storie were listed. The storie were then
placed in the 'bank' (i.e., held in reerve), in many cases
to be published much later or perhaps not at all. The
editor-in-chief snt the most imporant featre stories to
the printer and, with these selections in mind, chose the
ret of the material for the week. I the feature news
article seemed a bit long or heavy, he loked for lighter
subject to fill the remaining space and balanc the issue.
Other departments ten got the cance to take stories out
of te 'deep freee' of their 'bank' and possibly see one
published. These decsions were often made in the fnal
hours before the magazine went to press.
The news department was responsible for assembling
news clippings that might lead to a stoty and for send
ing these on to the proper departments. The researchers
then forwarded these press clipping to the national or
interational news bureau chief who, if the subject
seemed important, immediately wired them to Life cor
repondent around the world. When information on a
paricular subject was needed, researcers used the
'morgue,' whre all press cippings and information on
many subjects were fled.12'
The head of the photography department dealt with
all Life photographers and acted as liaison between them
144 Photogahy & Sce




















l
and the editorial department. In addirion to distributing
assignments, he was responsible for planning their work
and travels and had the right to hire and fre. His posi
tion within the magazine depended on his ability to elict
the utmost from his photogrphers. He had to be a good
psychologst to be able to handle photographers, who are
often touchy or anxious about their difcult tasks. Press
photographers work under difcult and ttying circum
stances and are always pressed for time. Tey must have
iron constitutions, a good deal of courage, and qnick
reflexes to be able to adapt to all kinds of situations.
Their lives are often in danger, and many have paid for
their boldness with their lives. They deal with people
from all classes, and must know how to behave with
equal ease at a royal court or with a primitve tribe. Re
lations berween the head of Life's photography depart
ment and his photographers were not always smooth.
While they were in the feld, often struggling with dif
fculties that seemed insurmountable, he issued orers
from his ofce.
_ Perhaps the most influential head of Life's photogra
phy department was Wilson Hicks, who held the position
for thirteen years, from 1937 to 1950, during whic time
he groomed a whole generation of photographers, many
of whom becme famous. He was often unpopular with
them because of his brusque carrot-and-stick manner;
but those who worked with him had the deepest respect
for his knowledge of photojouralism and for his rich
imagnation.
130
When a stoty was to be used, the photographs were
sent to the art director for page layout and to an editor,
who had to write the text in an exact number of words.
He composed it on special yellow paper calibrated for
the exact number of letter-spaces and line that ft the
predetermined text lengrh. Reearchers checked out evety
word and marked a red spot above each as it was veri
fed. Copies of the artcle were then sent to a special of-
Aec Mass Med Magaies 145
fce where the contents were again checked by Life spe
calists: historians, doctors, psychologists, educators, and
others. In addition to staf photographers, Life also used
photographic agencies and &ee-lancers.
What made Life's geat succes possible w te enor
mous organization of lime, Inc. Te corporaton includ
ed all of Luce's enterprises and was further expanded
during the Second World War, when lme-Life Intera
tional was founded with nearly 360 ofces around the
world, stafed by 6,700 people.
Henry R. Luc began his jouralistic career in I92I as
a reporer for the Chicago News with a salary of $16 a
week. In I 967, from his ofce on the thirty-fourth floor
of New York's Rockefeller Center, Luce controlled a vast
empire of businesses and publications that fgured among
America's 500 largest industries. More than 3 million
copies of Time were printed weekly by then, and more
than 8 million copies of Life. Luce also owned SPOTts
Il ustrated and Forne, a magazine exclusively for busi
nessmen, both totaling over I3 million in crculation. In
addition he owned a book publishing department, wit
annual sales around I7 million, fve radio stations, six
television stations, paper factories, forests, and oil wells
in Texas. lme, Inc. eared more tan $I5 million an
nually, and Luce's personal yearly income was more than
$1.2
5
million. When he died suddenly in I967 at the age
of sixty-nine, he was at the height of his sucess.
III
GO see life; to see the world, to eyewitness great events;
to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the
proud; to see strange things-machines, armies, multi
tudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see
man's work-his painting, towers and discoveries, to see
things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind
walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to;
the women tat men love and many children; to see and
to take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to s
and b instructed.' With these words, Henry R. Lu
I
4
6 Photogaphy & Soce



















Like Vu, Lfe attrac some
of the world's mot tlented
and most fmous photogra
phers: Margaret Rourke
White's Fort Peck Dam,
Montna, 1936 (top) ap
pr on te front cver of
Lie's frst issue and Peter
Stacpole's Golden Gate
Brdge, c. 1935 (bottom),
appared during the frst
yer.
had introduced the frst issue of Life .'32 It was made
up of ninety-six pages, one-third devoted to advertising.
The cover photograph was by Margaret Bourke-White.
Along with Alfred Eisenstaedt, Thomas McAvoy, and
Peter Stackpole, she was part of the team of photojour
nalists employed by the magazine. Te cover photograph
showing Fort Peck Dam in Montana introduced the fea
ture stoty of the issue: nine pages on the New Deal's
work relief program at Frt Peck. Not long after, Henty
Luce became one of the New Deal's most bitter opponent
and used his magazine to fgt its policies.
A single photograph flled the frst page-a newly br
child held by an obstetrican, with the caption: 'Life be
gns,' a pun introducng the frst issue. The capton con
tinued: The camera recors the most vital moment in
life: its beginning.' Two pages on Chinese schoolchildren
in San Francsco followed, after which there were photo
graphs of Franklin Roosevelt. Four pages (three in color)
on a popular painter named Curty came after the Presi
dent, then four pages (one in color) on the 'greatest liv
ing actress; Helen Hayes, and two pages on Rockefeller
Center and it radio station. There were also fve pages
devoted to Brazil, four to movie star Robert Taylor, one
page on Saralt Berhart, and two on a new world weath
er map. One page showed a one-legged man climbing a
steep ridge i the mountains. Then there were two pages
on Russian life, followed by two pages on the black
widow spider, and fnally a section entitled 'Life goes to a
party,' which showed photographs of French aristocrats
at a garden party.
The frst issue set the tone for Life. Months of work
had gone into deciding what would please the greatest
number of readers throughout the United States, what
would awaken their curiosity and touch on their emo
tional preoccupations and dreams of success. Life want
ed to be understood by all, to be a magazine read by the
entre family, and to popularize the scences and arts.
Amercn Mass Medi Magaznes 147
It carried such features as A Look at the World' Week
and the memoirs of such celebrities as the Duke of Wind
sor. The work of geat writers, including Hemingway's
The Old Man and the Sea, as well as essays on the world's
great religons, would also be published there.
'I am a Presbyterian, a Republican and a capitalist.
I am biased in favor of God, the Republican parry and
Free Enterprise .... Hadden and I invented Time. There
fore we had a right to say what it would be. We're not
foling anybody. Our readers know where we stand.
We're telling the story to the best of our knowledge and
belief.' 133 Henry Luce's knowledge and belief corre
sponded to the ideas of the small class of imporrant cap
italists who controlled America's destiny. Luce never hid
his ideas. As he willingly admitted, Life was created frst
to make profts and then to help the political programs
which he thought best. Like his Presbyterian forebears,
he, too, wanted to educate the masses. His magazine's
success was based on thorough study of mass psycol
ogy. Man is above all interested in himself: any human
and social condition afecting his own life will move him.
When conditions are miserable, he must be gven the
hope of a better future. From such reasoning fowed the
nine pages on the New Deal program in Montana, which
promised work for a large group of poverry-stricken peo
ple. 1e pictures of children struck a sentimental chord,
while the photographs of the President symbolized the
father-protector. The lives of actresses and movie stars
showed that talent would always be rewarded; and the
Life reader was taught that science performs miracles.
The adventures of a one-legged man responded to the
need for sensation; the photographs of Brazil, to the taste
for the exotic. Finally, the garden parry photographs of
aristocrats brought the lives of the elite into everyone's
home.
The world reflected i Life was fll of light and had
only a few shadows. I was ultimately a false world, one
148 Photgahy & Sce



_

















L
ie's famous photographer
ctche Life's famous war
correspondent at a pensve
moment: Alfred E
staedts Ere Ple. te
C.l.' Favot War Re
poe (1944).
that inspired the masse with false hopes. I is equally
true, however, tat Life popularzed the arts aod scencs,
opened windows onto hidden worlds, and in irs own
special way educated the masse. It contributed to the
public's acquaintaoce with a, spending more thao $30
million on color art reproductions. Luce was a ferent
patriot, and in his magazines nationalism played a central
role. The vast majority of other magazines in America
were created wit te same point of view, but what gave
so mU credibility to Life was ir extensive use of photo
graphste average man photogaphy, which is te
exact reproducion of reality, cannot lie. Few people
realize that te meaoing of a photograph can b caoged
completely by the accompanying caption, by its juxta
position with other photographs, or by t maoner in
which people aod evenrs are photogaphed. We shall
discuss this point later.
The ppularity of new journalism based almost
usively on photographs grew out of the canges that
had taken place in the conditon of moder man aod the
tendency toward greater standarization of moder life.
A the individual became less important to society, his
need to afrm himself as an individual became greate'
For example, the enormous success of war correspondent
Ee Pyle's stories fom the front lay in the fact tat
instead of describing the lives of GIs in general, he wrote
about what happened to Bob Smith from Brownsville,
Texas, or to Jim Brown from Nashville, Tennessee. Mil
lions of readers had the moral satisfacrion of bing able
to identify the fates of their own brothers, husbaods,
or sons with tose of the GIs decribed by Pyle. Read
ers could visualize their loved ones among the mass of
aoonymous soldiers because the characters in Pyle's sto
ries were specifc people they could imagne knowing.
The success of the illustrated weeklies is based on the
same phenomenon. In addition to current events, they
present stories about orinary people whose names are
Ame Mss Mei Mgaes 1
4
9
always mentioned. As the relations among men became
more dehumanized, the jouralist tended to gve the in
dividual an artifcial importance.
Life was enormously successful and was read by the
masses. It was a family magazine that refused to pub
lish anyting shocking. But toward the end of the sixties,
Life, Look, Holida, and other general-interet maga
zine were having problems. O all the lme, Inc. proper
ties, Life had been the most proftable. Now it began
to lose money. One of the causes was inflation. The price
of everything needed to produce a magazine had risen
considerably. I 1971 it was estmated that expenses had
increased 35 percent over the previous year. The owners
of large American magazines were forced to take drastic
measures. Life shut down ofces in America and abroad,
reduced the number of its staf, and terminated the un
proftable Spanish edition. Soon the interational edition
also folded.
Previously, Life had maintained a 'blanket cverage'
policy under which the most detailed research possible
was carried out on each subjecr by as many as twenty
jouralists and photographers who were sent wherever
necessary. Here is an example of Life's methods of assur
ing complete coverage of an exclusive story:
O Monday, 5 February 1965, 65 million Americns (at
the time Life was printing around seven million cpies) were
ofered twenty-two-and-a-half page, twenty i color. on
Wmston Churchill's fneral. The stor required sventeen
photogphers, more than forty joualist and technicans,
a dozen motorcyclist, two helicpters, and one DC-S. Two
years earlier, a reearcher had dw up a highly confdetial
list of all that was to happn upon the death of Wmston
Curchill-the nature and loaton of the cremony, the
parade route, te site of the tomb, and the day of te funeral,
which had a 90 perct canc of falling on a Saturday.'A list
w prepared of private rooms i which Life photographers
could work i total secrecy. A son as Curcill feU il, the
150 Photogahy & Socie
















l
Ufe"s 'blanke cverage' of
storie suc a Wmson
Curl 's funer (pages
15>-153) Ict m
e
afoat a ppular with
radcrs. depit te cm
tton wt l. Lfe fltere
not beus it deine i
poplarty but buse the
advesers who fan
the magazine switce to
1 to rec a larger audi
ence.
rooms were rented. Life orinarily appared on Mondays,
putting te issue to b on the prvious Weneday eveing.
Spal arrngments were made to hold of prinrng the
Curchill issue until Saturday night, and to provide for dis
tibuton by air rather tan by surfac mail. There was
noting e left to do but to wait for te old lion to die.
A predicted, te burial tok plac on Saturay. Ever pho
togapher was in his place. The films were to be picked up at
fi ve pints-Wetminster HlSaint Paul's, Trafalgar Square,
a wharf on the Tame, and Blandon, where the burial tok
plac. Ffeen days earlier, rooms in three house with win
dows overloking the cemetery had been rented, and tree
photogaphers were on location forr-eight hours before te
announcement cme that photographs of te burial itelf
were forbidden. (Life did not publish thee photogaphs.)
Motorcyclists crried the fms to the airpn, where te spe
cally rented airplane was waitng. Its interor had been
trnsformed into an editng rom with typewrters and ta
bles. A cmfortable laborator was instlle in the front of
the plane, and hooked up to a specal electrical sstem. A
very large table had also be s up to display the photo
gaphs for pag layout, and light boxes were ready for e
ining te developd clor slide. Finally, there was a small
reference librar for correspondent, containing the ten vol
umes of Churchill's works.
T airplane lf N York t day bre t fral with
40 members of the editorial stf on board, among them te
six specalists who would develop the 70 rolls of color flm.
It tok te airplane sligtly more than eigt hours to cross
the 8,50 miles between London and Chicago, where the
Life printng plant was loated. Selected documents, page
layouts, and the accompanying detiled captons were pre
pared during the trip. In order t avoid the winds that culd
have cused a delay, the airplane headed north and few just
below the Arctc Circle. Page after page was prepared. When
Lake Micigan, with Chicag on it banks, appeared, the
work was finished.l3
Amc Mass Mea Magaznes IS I
THE PROCESSION MARCHES
THROUGH HISTORY HE HAD MADE
by ALAN
MOOREHEAO
H
THEN TO BLADON
The cverage cst about $250,00. 'Our readers are
frst to beneft,' wrote the publisher. 'The story has
shown that all the parts of the chain linking the event
to the reader held up. We have scored a point against
television.' Competition with television was already be
ginning to haunt Life's publishers at the beginning of
1965. Several years later, it had become a serious prob
lem, forcng them to reduce their staf considerably.
I te hope of making the magazine profitable once again
they experimented with various canges. More emphasis
was placd on the text, for example. PhotogIaphic stories
desiged for twelve-page coverage were cut in half. On
one occasion Life even stryed from its customary moral
code by pUblishing reports on the Mafa and corruption,
in order 'to please young readers.' But most readers pro
tested vigorously, and this kind of yellow journalism was
abandoned.
The crisis seems incomprehensible in view of Life's ex
trordinary success wit the public. At its peak, there
were close to 8.6 million subscibers, a number never
achieed by any other illustrated magazine. Too many
subscibers, however, are not an asset, especally in in
flatonar tmes. Postal expenses inceased 170 percent in
fve years, while advertising cntracs, negotiated for
relatively long periods of time and providing sustained
revenues, were fozen. Advertisers, moreover, had lost
confdenc.
In 1966, Life had sold 3,30 pages of advertising for
cose to 170 million dollars. Two years later it sold only
2,761 pages for about $ 1 54 million, refecing a loss of
sixteen percent. I 1969, te decit gew to $10 ntillion,
and losses conrinued in te following years.IlS O 3I
October 1970, the Ne York Times reported that Tme,
Inc. had sold eleven local radio and television stations for
$80.1 nillion. The report pointed out that the sellers,
surprisingly enoug, were getting rid of proftable busi
ness to kep others, like Life, that were losing mone.
1 54 Phot
o
ahy & Se
The managers of Tme, Ic had not lost hope that the
magazine would onc again show a profit.136
I 1970 a four-color full-pag ad in Life cost $64,00
and reaced a readership of 40 million. For the same
amount of money, an advertiser culd buy one minute of
television time on one of te most popular progrms, for
example Laugh-In, reacing 50 million viewers.
O 9 December 1972, a font-page headline in the
Interational Herald Tribune read, 'Life magazine dead
at 36.' Tme Inc. had fnally decided to terminate publica
tion, much to the surprise of the enrre world press. Ever
newspaper, television, and radio station reported the end
of the most imprtant illustrated weekly. The last issue
came out on 28 Decmber 1972. The deat of Life sig
naled the end of a whole period of photojouralism. At
the New York Stock Exchange, the sudden rise of TIme
Inc. stock indicated that the large American publishing
conglomerate had regained the confdence of investors
by ridding itself of Life's defcts.
Since it begnnings in the 1940s, television had made
immense progress, becoming a formidable rival to maga
zines. In 1949, there were 69 stations in America; by
1970, more than 80. The French newspaper Le Monde
recently published statistics indicting that every Frenc
man between the ags of two and sixty-fve will spend
eigt years of his life in font of a television set. The image
on the small screen, however fleeting, does communicate
te news, often at the very moment that eents ocur.
Life, on te other hand, appeared ouly onc a week,
flling out news and political events already known to
millions of television viewers. The only magazines un
afected by this crisis were the higIly specalized ones like
those financed by drug companies and read by doctors.
Women's magazine, porogphy, and magazines cater
ing to regonal intrst are among the few independent
magazines tat can hold their readerships today. Speal
ized magazines which provide depth cverage sufered
Amcn Mass Meda Magazes 155
les competition from television. The lme Inc. managers
accordingly decded to consider several possible maga
zines spealizing in the areas of health, vacations, food,
flm, money, and children. The frst of these magazines,
Mone, appeared in October 1972.
In April 1972, when te managers of lme Inc., Hed
ley Donovan and Andrew Heiskell, announced the new
monthly magazine to the press, they pointed out that
most people did not know how to manage their finances.
In his statement to the stockholders, Donovan declared
that 'Mone will not make you rich, no magazine of
conscence can promise that. But a reading of successive
issues should help the reader to gain a greater measure
of control over his prsonal fnances . . . . Mone will be
gn with a minimum national crculation of 225,000
copies, mostly in prepaid subscriptions . . . . '
1
37
Using the same format as Time, Money appeared con
taining 104 pages, 48 of which were devoted to advertis
ing. Readers in the United States had been accustomed to
low prices for magazines. 'Departing fom traditional
consumer magazine economic, we are asking our read
ers to pay a substantial share of the magazine's costs,'
the stockholders were told. They hopd this would allow
them a cenain financial independence fom advertsing.
In the early seventes, inflaton began to reach Europe,
where illustrated magazines were hit har for the same
reasons as those in America. In Europe, too, television
had becme a threat despite the restrictions on T ad
vertising in France and in other countries where televi
sion is a natonalized industry. In 1956 Paris-Match, the
largest French illustrted magazine, was printing 1.8 mil
lion copies. In 1967, its crculation had dropped to
1,382,00, and in April 1972, it prnting was no more
than 810,722. 138
For many years, Pari-Match, Le Figaro, Tel" Set
Jours, Mare-Clir, Parent, and radio Luxembourg all
belonged to the textile magate Jean Prouvost. He sug-
156 Photogaphy & So
,1
gested a change i formula to help save Paris-Match,
whose goal had always been to imitate Life. During this
crisis Prouvost tured once again to America, and invited
the graphic desiger of the immensely successful New
York Magazine (founded in 1968) to come to his aid.
The size of Paris-Match was slightly reduced; photo
graphs now filled no more than 50 percent of the maga
zine, and the text was expanded to include new sections
written expressly for the French. Aricles were written
on tecnical and scientifc innovations that would afect
French life. The pages devoted to Patis gossip were also
increased. Paris-Match began to cover such sensational
stories as the scandal involving the publication of nude
photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, or the his
tory of Playboy. Its price was rised but according to the
editors, the sale of these frst revamped issues also in
creased. The former Life team, however, was skeptical.
They, too, had tried in vain to save their magazine by
introducng new formats. The success of an illustrated
magazine remained problematic becuse the public had
lost interest not only in this kind of magazine but in
the press in generl. As the pace of life quickens, the
time for reading diminishes. According to ofcial statis
tic, 85 percent of the French population keeps up with
the news through goverment radio and television broad
casts, or through radio programming fom oude
France, which is also regulated by the govermendlhe
mass media, while claiming to be objective, in reality
are managed by people who are constantly censored or
forced to censor themselves. News broadcasts on nation
al television or radio networks are bound to manipulate
public opinion in the name of those in power. _
The professional photojouralist was deeply afected
by the changes in the illustrated press. In order to remain
in the feld, the photojouralist had to find other markets.
Some of the photogrphers who had worked for the large
American magazines were able to find work with trade
Amercn Mass Med Magaznes 157
jourals published by industrial giants. Corporate pub
licatons had previously been rather tiresome repors
mainly flled with fgures, but in rect years their make
up and contents had been cangng radically. Today they
are interetng magazines produced with considerable
care and expense, carrying articles by well-known writers
and jouralists. Photographic coverage is assiged to im
portant and well-paid photographers. Most of these pub
lications are gven away upon requet, while others are
house organs especally written for tousands of compa
ny employees. The goal of these magazines, to publicize
the company's products, is often disguised in artcles and
photostories that appear to have no direct relatonship
to the cmpany. mM, for instanc, is never mentioned in
it magazine Think. In Europe, many similar magazines
are published by large cncers-' Electricite de Frace,
Credit Fncie, or those published by the drug industry.
Oer photographers have been recycled into jobs wit
publishing house that need photographs to illustate
ther bok. A few photographers have tured to tele
vision and specalize in documentaries, but selling these
flms is difcult uestey deal with ecptionally up-to
date subject. A new market for photographic archives
has ben created by the numerous encyclopdias tat
have been published all over the world in the last few
years. Their publishers had the clever idea of slling
encyclopedias in weekly installment at newsstands, at
the same price as wekly magazines. At the end of the
year, the publisher provide a binding for the volumes.
Thee encyclopedias are highly marketable because tey
ofer quantities of color photographs at a reasonable
pric. (Interational copublication cnsiderably rduces
production costs.) The text is written in a psudoscen
tific style, easily understood by everyone. Tese encyclo
pedias are sucessfl primarily because tey manag to
gve the reader the impression that he is achieving a better
158 Photoghy & Soie
,I



understanding of our world and te increasingly cmplex
technologcal environment in which we live.
I the last few years, astute socal observers have no
ticed a change that seems promising for the photojour
nals, assuming that television was one of the essental
elements in the deat of Life magazine in 1972. While it
seems probable tat many moters use T as a baby
sitter, and that it has become a daily companion for the
older generation, the generation in between may b tur
ing its back on the tube. A young man who works for the
post ofce in Frnc bitterly complained, 'I grew up in a
small village where people gathered every nigt to sing or
tell storie. Now every family is cosed of in its house,
watching T. My generation ses this as te destruction
of human relations.' Te trend c b seen not only in
France, but in oter cuntries as well, te u.s. included.
Marketing analyses have found tat altOUgh people c
get quic information fom television, they want not only
more time to look at images, but want to kep them as
well. Another factor in tis evolution is the tremendous
interest in photography as an art.
For these reasons among others, the publishers of Life
have reissued the magazine as of October 1978. They
have raised its price considerably to avoid complete d
pendence upon the advertsers who previously aban
doned the magazine for television, and they will publish
it monthly; but television is no longer the overwhelming
competitor of the illustrated magazine.
Aec Mass Medi Magaze 159
ADOLF- DER OBERMENSCH
.1













CMLUCHT GOLO UWO REOET BLECM


Photography in its many
forms proved to be viable
politicl tools, not only to
propagandize but also to
express public outrage, en
courage national conf
denc, and ridicle public
fgures. John Hereld's
photomontae left little to
te imagnation in his por
trayal of Hitler's biologcl
needs. However, cntri
vance were not always
necessary to make a com
ment-simple photographs
taken out of context or
pitioned in a calclated
way could likewise afe
the eormous magazine
reading audienc.
Photogaphy a a Politicl Tool
The current demand for press photographs has led fee
lance photographers to join photographic agences that
serve as intermediaries between the photographer and
the press. One of the first such agences was set up in
America by George Grantham Bain (1865-1944). Bain
began as a magazine writer who also photographed his
own stories. He soon realized that publishers almost
always held onto his prints, but discarded his articles
when they received others on the same subject. At the
time sending photographs alone to the press was still an
unknown service. Sensing the business potential, Bain
founded several agencies in 1898, including the Montauk
Photo Concer. He hired professional photographers,
among them, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952),
one of America's first female photographers to make a
name for herself. She was the only woman delegate at the
Third Interational Photographic Convention in Paris in
1900. With Alfred Stieglit, she represented America.'39
The ever-increasing demand for photographs led to a
proliferation of press agencies all over the world. They
hired photographers or signed contracts with free-lance
photographers. Most agences took a 50 percent cut,
sometimes more, claiming that they had to share their
profits with other agencies around the world. The pho
tographer, who had taken all the material risks, had no
way of controlling the sale of his photographs. It was
for this reason that Robert Capa and a fe colleagues
founded the Magum Agency in 1947.
For the photographers of the Magum Agency, to
which I also belonged between I947 and I954, photog
rphy was not only a way of making money but a means
of expresing their own feelings and ideas about con
temporar problems. Capa, for example, refused pub
licaton of an important photostor entitled World
Youth, which had been the result of an expensive Mag
num efor on a worldwide scale. The publisher who
orignally accepted the idea wanted to impose canges
that would have altered te spirit of the artcle. I was
fnally published six monts later in Holida, which
agreed to reproduce it exactly as it had been conceived.
Few photojouralists, however, are able to impose
their own points of view. I takes very lirtle on the part
of an editor to gve photographs a meaning diametrically
opposed to the photographer's intenton. I experienced
this problem fom the outset of my career. Before the
Second World War, share trading at te Paris Stoc Ex
change still took plac outdors, under te arcade. One
day I tok a series of photogrphs tere, using a certain
stockbroker as my princpal taret. Sometimes smiling,
sometimes distressed, he was always mopping the sweat
from his round face and urgng te crowd with sweeping
gestures. I sent these photographs to severl European
magazines with the harmless title, 'Snapshots ofthe Paris
Stock Excange.' Sometime later, I received clipping
fom a Belgan newspaper whic, to my surprise, had
printed my photogrphs with a headline reading: 'Rise
in the Paris Stock Exchange: stocs reac fabulous
prices.' Thanks to some clever captons, my innocent
little story took on the air of a financial event. My
astonishment bordered on shock when I discovered the
same photogrphs sometime later in a German news
paper with yet another caption: 'Panic at the Paris Stock
Excange: fortunes collapse, thousands are tuined.' My
photogaphs illustrated perfectly the stockbroker's de
spair and the speculator's panic as stock value dropped.
I62 Photograhy & Soce





Te two publications had used my photographs in oppo
site ways, each according to its own purpose. Te objec
tivity of a photograph is only an illusion. The captons
that provide the commentary can change the meaning
entirely.
140
In December 1956, under the headline 'Informaton or
Propagnda?' the weekly I'Epress published a double
series of identical photographs taken during the Hun
garian rebellion. The pictures are identicl, but their
orer had been canged and the captions had been modi
fied by the editor. The idea was to show how various
goverment-run television stations could have used the
same pictures to gve absolutely contradictory but ap-
parently trthful versions of the same eveut.
U
For example:
Under a photograph showing a Russian tank in a
street:
First caption: 'In contempt of the people's right to self
determination, the Soviet govermet has sent armored
divisions to Budapest to suppress the uprising.'
Second caption: 'The Hungarian people have asked
the Soviet for help. Russian tanks have been sent to pro
tect the workers and to restore order.'
Under a photograph of Janos Kadar:
First caption: 'Under the protecton of Soviet tanks,
the Stalinist Janos Kadar has formed a new goverment
and etablished a reig of police terror.'
Second caption: 'Thanks to the drastic measures taken
by the new goverment, formed by Janos Kadar and
unanimously supported by the populace, the rebllion
has been put down.'
Under a photograph of two young Hungarians:
First caption: 'Despite the blody repression by Soviet
troops, Hungarian youth contnues to fght, shouting,
"Death rather than slaver.'"
Photogahy as a Politicl Tol 163
Second caption: 'Despite goverment appeals, fanatic
counterrevolutionarie have refused to lay down their
arms and have continued their hopeless stugle.'
I September 1967, during the Biafran War, the West
German magazine Ste published an investigative piece
enttled 'The Mercenaries and Their Paradise.' The art
de was illustrted with photographs taken mostly in the
Bukavu regon by the photographer Paul Ribeau. A week
later, the Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique repro
duced excerpt from this artde along with one of the
photographs showing the tortured bodies of two Mri
cans hanging by their arms from a tree. Within the week,
the same photographs had dunge captions. The Ger
man readers had read: 'Soldiers of the Congolese Na
tional Army took these Katanga policemen prisoner and
hung them from trees, leaving them to stare to death.
Scramme's white mercenaries saved their lives.' Readers
of Jeune Afrique, a weekly with a considerable Mrican
readership, read the caption: 'Soldiers of the Congolese
National Army, prisoners of the mercenarie.'
On 4 October 1967, Le Monde published a letter to
the editor siged by Paul Ribeau entitled: 'The Truth
about a Controversial Photograph':
The men hangng fom te tree are neither Congolee sol
diers nor Katanga plicemen. As the photograph clearly
shows, one of the two is i cvilian clothes-light pants and
a dark shin. I this country where mercenaries, Katnga
plicemen, and Mobutu's plicemen 3re aU sensitive to the
pretige of the unionn, fghters do not wear cvilian clothes.
In fact the two men were cvilians who had committed the
cime of working a servants to te mercnaries. They had
heen cptured by the Congolee Natonal Anny who treted
them a tritors, torured them and hung them still alive from
the branches of a palm tree. They were feby mercnaries
who had unexpctedly retured to the area. I should add that
it is extremely rre for the Congolee National Anny to be
satisfed wit simply torturing it enemies. Torture usually
164 Photograhy & Soe
>,












I
I

I.
precedes the cutting up of te parts of the body with a
macette whic, in rm. is sometime followed by a cannibal
festival. While this is not frequent, human bones have been
found near Bukavu, right next to a wod fre. I have photo
graphs showing what remains of men, women, and children
executed by the Congolee National Anny. Unfortunately,
human life is ceap in the Congo today. I would like t point
out that I am not the autor of the captions attaced to my
photographic esays as they recntly appared in various
French, English, American, German, and Italian publica
tons. I was surprised to read i Jeune Afrque the esay
fom the Gennan magazine Ste ....
Calculated juxtaposition is another way of changng
the meaning of photographs. In 1936, Life published a
photostory I had done on the distressd areas of England.
These highly industialized regons had been the cnters
of prosperous industies during te last century, but they
were hard hit by World War I and te great eonomic
crisis that followed. Most of thee industries dated fom
the nineteenth century and used antiquated methos.
They were unable to meet competition from modem
factories, and found it more expedient to abandon rater
than to moderze te old fcories. Th owners left the
regon but te population remained to sufer. I 1936,
there were more than two million unemployed in
England.
When I arrived in Newcastle-upon-T yne, the entire
ciry was unemployed. The naval shipyans, with their
buildings almost in ruins, looked as thouglt they had gone
throug a war. Among te tangled and rusry rails, rank
weeds and a few fowers were growing wild. I felt as if
I were visiring a cemetery. I took photographs of miser
able men in rags, weakened and reduced to inactiviry for
years, who lived on subsidies which barely kept them and
their families from starving to death. At Witton Park, in
Bishop Auckland's diocese, I photographed families with
more than eigltt people living in one room. The women
Photogahy as a Politicl Tool 165
with ravaged faces did not have the money to pay their
rent or feed their families. 'What will become of our
children?' they kept asking me in depair.
During the same period the Simpson scandal broke
out. King Edward was in love with an American divor
cee. All the newspapers raged against him. English moral
ity, still imbued wit strict Victorian standards, could
not accept Mrs. Simpson as queen.
America was deeply ofended by British public opinion.
Life published my photographs under the innocuous
heading: 'This I What Englishmen Mean by the De
pressed Areas.' Right next to my pictures of poverty
stricken people they had inserted a full-page photograph
of Queen Maty in a lace dress and covered with jewels.
With a four-strand pearl choker around her neck, she was
holding one of her grandsons on her lap and was flanked
by the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, who
were entrancing in their immaculate dresses. The brutal
contrast made any caption pointless. Mrs. Simpson was
avenged in the eyes of liberal America.
Here is another example which shows how a photo
story can be subtly tured into advertising. In Canada,
military service is not obligatory. To encourage young
men and women to enlist, the Canadian army launched
a sizable billboar adverising campaig during the
1950S. Its goal was to identify military service with tour
ism: 'Enlist and See the World.' Weekend Magazine, a
Sunday supplement for a chain of Canadian newspapers
with a circulaton in the millions, rushed one of its best
journalists to Europe to write the article. I was assiged
to take the photogaphs. As soon as we arrived at Zwei
brucken, Gertany, where the Royal Canadian Air Force
base was located, the jouralist advised me to concentrate
on the young women's barracks. 'Study them carefully
and choose the one who best represents the ideal young
Canadian woman: a typical girl parents can recognize as
their own daughter, and brothers as their sister.'
166 Photogaphy & Soce
A case study in calrulated
juxtaposition of photo
graphs: Lie's coverage of
the deresed areas of E
gland shared te sme page
spread a te bejeweled
Queen Mother in an artice
whic was orignally i
tended to doument the
economic crisis sufered by
post-war Britain but whic
ultimately sred to citice
the British for their failure
to acct an American di
vorcea ther quen
(photogaphs by Gisele
Freund).
'
!







.
.

.

"

--"--
-----_.. -
. l II
l
".11"._
Photograhy a a Politicl Tool 167
The young woman who seemed to ft these require
ments best was named Sonia Nichols. She was unassum
ing, smiling, photogenic. She had blond hair and blue
eyes and she became the heroine of the article which ap
peared several weeks later under the title 'Airwomen
Overseas.' The story told how twenty-year-old Sonia,
bor in Berick, Novia Scotia, had never had the op
portunity to leave her native town before joining the
R.C.A.F. Since joining the army, she had seen a good part
of her own country and had traveled through Germany,
Paris, and Switzerland. Before the end of her tour of duty,
she would undoubtedly visit Italy and Scandinavia. At
the base, she leared foreign languages, mingled with the
local people, went with friends to see the countryside
and other points of interest. She partcipated in sports
in a ultramoder gymnasium and swam in a beautiful
pool. Sonia's life had become altogether excting and full
of experiences that she would never have otherwise had.
My photographs, which took up several pages of the
text, showed Sonia holding the baby of her new German
friends, swimming in a pool, playing basketball, walking
in the country, and studying peasant life. All these photo
graphs were in black and white, except for one of Sonia
talking with a young soldier. The caption read simply:
'With A.C.I. Peter Colliver, Streetville, Ontario, who is
pulling a Saber Jet onto the runway.' The photograph
clearly suggested the possibility of meeting other young
people in the army and prompted all sorts of sentimental
daydreaming. Judgng from my photographs, taken ac
cording to the directions of the Canadian jouralist, life
in the army was a real picic. I had not neglected to
photogaph Sonia at her secretary's dek, but te pub
lisher had left out those picture. The fll-color cover
photograph showed a smiling Sonia in uniform saluting
against a blue sky. Sonia became the celebrity of te week
in Canada. She received numerous letters, including sev
eral marriage proposals. Canadian army enlistments in-
168 Photography & Society
Anoter means of manipu
lation: the elecic choice of
photographs to illustrate an
evet. 'The cmera angle de
tennines wheher a person
appars likeable. repulsive,
or ridiculous,' as Duncan's
critic demonstted in his
coic of Nixon iI1ustra
rions.


,
,
,I
!
.'












creased. This photostory was what Daniel J. Borstin
would call a pseudo-event, and Sonia was a pseudo
celebriry entirely fabricated for a particular cause.
tOt
A political fgure can easily b ridiculed by an unat
tractive photograph. The most intelligent man can ap
pear idiotic if he is photographed with his mouth wide
open or with his eyes squinting. Here is just one example
among thousands:
In October 1969, the New York Times Book Revew
published a long article on David Douglas Duncan's Self
portrait U.S.A., a book containing more than three hun
dred photographs taken during the 1968 Republican and
Democratic Conventions. The review was illustrated with
four of the book's least flattering photographs of Richard
M. Nixon, the Republican Party candidate. Taken out of
context, these images made Nixon appear stupid and
unattractive. The critic's commentary was as follows:
'There are perhaps a dozen Richard Nixons here who
to the best of my knowledge have never been encountered
before. (It's a small world and an improbable one: Navy
Lieutenant Nixon and Marine Lieutenant Duncan met in
the Solomon Islands a few wars back and became fast
friends. Thus it came to pass that Duncan, and Duncan
alone, was gven the run of the Nixon penthouse at Miami
Beach. Historians may lear as much by consulting these
Nixon pictures as by studying tons of correspondence
:
14
2
What the reviewer failed to mention was that the four
photographs printed with his artcle were counterbal
anced in the book by other flattering photographs of
Nixon. The camera angle determines whether a person
appears likable, repulsive, or ridiculous. A photograph
of General de Gaulle, for example, taken from above,
lengthens h nose, but taken fom below, his chin is en
larged and his forehead broadened. The use of the photo
graphic image thus becomes an ethical problem because it
can be used deliberately to falsify.
In June 1966, Paris-Match, with a circulation of more
Photograhy as a Politicl Tool 169
than 1.2 million copies, published an eight-page artcle
called 'With te Nazis in 1966.' Everyone at the time
expected that the etreme rightist German National
Democratic Parry would do very well in the provincal
elections scheduled to take place a month later. Twenry
years had passed since World War II, but the French,
still traumatized by the Nazi atrocities, felt threatened
by the parry that played on nostalgia for the Third Reich.
As te subject was ver topical, the Paris-Match edirors
considered the story important enough to feature on the
cover.
The picture story began with a fll-page color photo
graph of a young man wearing a swastika armband
around his white shirt, who was raising a toast to three
other young men. An immense Nazi flag hung on the wall
in the background. The caption read, 'German Nazis
with Tr Reich relics, drinking beer and singng Horst
Wessel Lied in chorus.' Pictures of Bavarian villagers and
their mayor followed; captions explained that they were
former Nazis, although nothing in the photographs sug
gested it. The story ended with some photographs of the
new parry's founder and a sensational two-page spread
in black and white showing young men i SS uniform.
The caption read: 'At the home of Peter Breuer, a ctizen
of Munich, who owns a collecton of 400 SS and SA
uniforms. A geat entusiast of the Third Reic, he salutes
the bust of Hitler.' A few days later, the English Daily
Epress (more than 4 million copies) printed the frst of
these sensatonal photogphs, and in the U.S.S.R. the
same photograph was shown on television, reaching IOO
million viewers.
But the photographs were frauds. One of the Paris
Match editors had rented costumes from a dealer by the
name of Breuer and had convinced some young Germans
to pse as a joke. The group of men raising their beer
glasses were fremen from a Bavarian village who had
170 Photograph & Soe
been gven a barrel of beer by the French editor and told
to drink to Franco-German friendship. The German gov
ernment protested through its press, publishing many
articles denouncing te hoax in detail. But Par-Match
never retracted te article, and millions of Frenc, Eng
lish, and Russians who had se the photogrphs b
lieved them to b genuine.
I the summer of 1975, another afair took place
which also caused a stir. During a strike at the Chaus
son factory in Paris, several Frenc newspapers published
front-page photographs of men leading dogs with the
caption 'Policemen inside a factory wit dog trained
to attack te strikers.' Later it was leaed that the pho
tographs were taken at the guard's etrance to the Paris
Far.
The meaning of a photograph can also be distorted by
using a paintbrush or a pair of scssors. A few examples
of falsifcation through retouching and cropping were
published in the magazine Photo in June 1970. In one
photograph, Alexander Dubcek, who had fallen into dis
favor following Czec 'normalizaton,' had been removed
from the otignal negative so tat he was no longer shown
beside President Svoboda receiving the salutes of the
crowd. Only the fagstones, whic did not ft together
properly, and the diferent position of a building bore
witness to the decpton. With drawings, the magazine
showed how te photogaph had been faked.
During the two world wars, both the German press
and te Allied press were flled with doctored photo
graphs. As a rule, only carefully cosen, encouraging
photographs were published. The censors on both sides
suppressed photogrphs showing anything that might
hurt the war efort, such as camoufaged factories, fortfi
cations, artillery site. They also avoided showing pho
tographs of the destruction and sufering caused by their
own armies in enemy countries. John Morris, a Life pho-
Photgahy a a Polticl Tool 171
tographic editor in London during the last war, wrote
in an article published in Harer' Magazine in Septem
ber 1972:
Te faces of the severely wounded and the dead were taboo.
so the 'next of kin' would not be ofende . . . Finally, and
this is crucial to a understanding of the fonnulation of pub
lic opinion at long range, the photographer did not show
his side being ghastly. I recall the candor of the British cen
sor through whom I atempted to pass some pictres of the
charel of air-raid victims in Berlin. 'Ver intereting,' he
said. 'You may have them ilier the war.'
The statement did not reflect the censor's personal feel
ings, but it was part of a carefully planned efort to
prevent the publication of photographs capable of
awakening the public's conscience and making the war
unpopular.
The indoctrination of the photographers themselves
was so great that, convinced they were fghting for a just
cause, they censored themselves and did not photograph
scenes that appeared unfavorable to the countries they
represented: 'The standard operating procedure estab
lished during WII was to show our side fghting clean
ly-bombs away in the brilliant sunshine of daring day
light raids. We could show a certain amount of sufering
from their wanton attacks, but never so much as to lead
to despair.
'Photographically, their side lived by similar rules.
You will never fnd a picrure of Hitler inspecting dIe gas
ovens of a concentration camp. And the Japanese were
not shown picrures of dIe men dIey maimed at Pearl
Harbor; dIey saw dIe spectacle of their victory from dIe
air. Just as we gave our people the beautiful mushroom
cloud over Hiroshima.'143
This state of mind changes only when a war becomes
openly unpopular. John Morris asserts that the change
was frst noticeable toward the end of the war in Korea
where photographers witnessed a double tragedy: the
172 Photogaphy & Socie
A photography began to
exhibit its potential to re
veal more and more, it was
manipulated to show les
and less. War-time photog
raphy is a perfec example:
pictures of cheering cowds,
such as Werer Biscofs
Cildre of Hiroshima
Cheering their Soveregn
(1
95
1), were used to boost
national confdence at a
time when sufering at home
treatened the nation's mo
rale.
frst was that of American GIs who had to fght in a war
they did not understand; the second that of a people tom
asunder by war in their homeland.14 The conflict reached
its height with the Viemam War, which caused such
serious divisions in American public opinion.
The photographic press and television played an im
portant role in awakening the public conscence, but only
to a certain extent. There is no ofcial censorship in the
United States; but during the two world wars photogra
phers censored themselves because they believed it was
necessary to support the cause. As years went by, how
ever, and as the destruction in Vietnam by American
bombers became so horrifying, press photographers on
locarion were overwhelmed. Non-American photogra
phers, who had even less reason to believe in the war,
were the frst to denounce it. Their heartbreaking photo
graphs showing the misery of te cvilian population and
te sufering of the GIs awakened the American con
scence to the arrociry of the war.
Photography as a Politicl Tool 173
Te history of Robrt Dois
neau's controversial photo
graph demonstrate the
problems of a photograph's
captions and cntext. De
sribd by a number of
diferent (and usually in
acurate) cptions, a photo
could be used contrary to
te photographer's inte
tons and te subjet's
wishe. T phoph
was used t porray intem
prnc in one case, prosti
tution in another-te court
held both the magazine and
Doisneau's aget ren
sible for te photograph's
abuse; Doisneu was ex
Olsed as an 'innocent artist.'
Photogaphy and the Lw
In addition to the continual problem of finding work,
press photographers are perpetually forced to defend
their rights. Reproduction rights to a photograph are
protected by law, but these rights var from country to
country and there is no interational copyright law that
ofers automatic protecton all over the world. The In
teratonal Copyright Convention, to which sixty-two
countries have subscribed since 1971 (the Soviet Union
since February 1973), does not attempt to rule on te
basic rights of photographers. It simply guarantees a
photographer's rights in accorance with te laws of te
country where his picture is published.
I France, the law of I I March 1957 includes photo
graphs among creative works and protects them for ffty
years after the photographer's death. This copyright term
was later extended by eight years (the duration ofthe two
Q
rld wars).
In America, photographers cannot claim exclusive
n ts to their photographs unless eac print carries the
copyright notc: followed by the name of the author
and the year the picture was takehUntil recently, the
copyright term was twenty-eight years, begnning with
publicaton and renewable by te author or his heirs for
an additional twenty-eight. In September 1976, a new
law was passed. Copyright protection for those works
created afer 1 January 1978 would cover the lifetime
of the creator plus fifty years. Fr works published be
fore that date, the orignal renewable period was in
creased from twenty-eigt to forry-seven years.
175
I West Germany the law is diferent. A photograph,
whether published or not, is automatically protected fom
the moment it was taken for a period of twenty-fve
years, after which time it falls into te public domain.
I it is published at any time during this twenty-fve-year
perio it is protecte for anoter twenty-fve years from
the date of publication.
In Russia, the decree of 21 Fbruaty 197
3
guarantees
the author's rights throughout his lifetime and for twenty
fve years afer his death. However, goverment legsla
ton in any of the federal republics can shorten the dura
ton of the author's rights to photographic works to ten
years from the date of publication if a photograph is con
sidered publicly usefl or culturally intereting. In other
words, ten years after the first publicaton, photographs
c be used without any payment to the author.
The present situaton is chaotic. Even in countries where
the photographer's rights are clearly defned by law, these
right are continually igored. I France, for example,
photogaphs are protected by law against all reproduc
tion defects or abuses such as unauthorized duplication
or resale. I addition, the law expressly provides in Ar
tcle 6 that the author shall enjoy the right to demand
the use of his name. But many newspapers systematiclly
fail to print names along with photographs not taken by
'house photographers.' Some ofer double pay for un
siged photographs, which can be reused easily. I is not
vanity, however, that leads a photographer to insist that
his name be mentioned. The omission opns the door to
all sorts of copyright infringementsproduction tec
niques today have become so sophisncated that copies
can be made of anyting. When the photographer's name
is omitted, the users of the photograph feel no obligation
to pay for the author's rights despite the fact that the
fee-lance photographer's chief source of revenue is the
sale of reproduction rights of his pictures:
Many good jouralists, publishers,
1i
advertsing
176 Photogahy & Soce











*
i



people consider the photographer's contributon to their
publication negligble in spite of the growing use of pho
tography to attract te public. The publishers' contempt
for photography can be explained psychologcally. Pho
tographs have lost their prestige as countless amateurs
have begun t snap shutters daily, even though in most
cases there is an enormous diferenc in quality between
amateur and professional photography.
Judicial interpretatons of the copyright laws have
caused frther problems. For example, te question has
arisen as to whether the photographic reproduction of a
painting is a creative work. I one case, a photographer
published a reproduction of a masterwork with the per
mission of the owner, who had bought it at aucton.
The reprouction rights were paid to the photographer,
but the painter's heirs objected on the grounds that they
alone had the rights to the photograph, even though the
picture itself no longer belonged to tem. The court de
cded i their favor, drawing a distinction between re
production rigts and reproducton costs.
A frther problem: certain agences sell photogaphs
uer their own name and collect royalties, although the
photographs may have fallen into the public domain
many years before. Under t law, the agencies in this
case have rights only to the reproduction costs and an
additional proft margn. A long as publishers, igorant
of the law, agree to pay royaltes for photographs in the
public domain, unscrupulous agences will proft from
tem . .
legal charges have been brought by those who
have ben photographed unawares in the streets or- in
such public places as restaurants or theaters. The law
indeed protects one's right to privacy, but in France pub
lic fgures, including statesmen and well-known artists,
cannot refuse to have teir pictures published. Who,
then, is to decide on the importance of a person? Ob
viously the judge must gve his own interpretation of the
Photogahy a .he Lw 177
law. The photojouralist's work is singularly complicat
ed by these difcult legal problems.
The photogrpher Robert Doisneau saw one of his
photographs used in a diferent context from his inten
tion. For him, Parisians had always been the most fasci
natng of subjects. He loved to wander the streets and
stop at cafes. One day, in a small cafe on the rue de
Seine where he was accustomed to meeting his fiends,
he notced a delightful young woman at the bar drinking
a glass of wine. She was seated next to a middle-aged
gentleman who was looking at her with a smile that was
both amused and greedy. Doisneau asked and received
permission to photograph them. The photograph ap
peared in the magazine Ie Point, in an issue devoted to
cafes illustrated with Doisneau's photogrphs." 5 He
handed this photograph, among others, to his agency.
All sorts of publicatons call on agences when they
need pictures to illustrate an article. Sometme later,
Doisneau's photograph appeared in a small magazine
published by the temperance league to illustrate an article
on the evils of alcohol. The gentleman i the photogaph,
who was a drawing instructor, was not pleased. 'I shall
be taken for a boozer; he complained to the apologetic
photographer who had no control over how his photo
graphs were used. Things went from bad to worse when
the same photograph appeared in a scandal sheet which
had reproduced it from Ie Point without the permission
of either the agency or the photogapher. The caption
accompanying the photograph read: 'Prostitution in the
Champs-Elysees.' This time the drawing teacher was f
rious and sued the magazine, the agency, and the photog
rapher. The court fined the scandal magazine a large sum
of money for fraud, and the agency, which had not re
leased the photograph, was also found guilty. But the
court acquitted the photographer, ruling that he was an
'innocent artist.
The stoty has an epilogue. A well-meaning jouralist
178 Photogahy & Soet
who was the Paris correspondent for a newspaper in the
south of France published an article recounting the story.
He vehemendy accused the photographer of hiding be
hind curtains to take scandalous shots." Doisneau dos
not work this way, but te paparazi do.
Numerous errors are made daily by the press and pub
lishing houses when they chose photographs for stories
they were never intended to illustrate. A German pub
lisher once asked me for a color photograph of an Indian
for the cover of one of his books, without specifing the
rype of Indian. I sent him a picre of a very beautiful
Mexican woman. Imagine my astonishment at later see
ing tis photograph on te cver of a book on India,
although I had clearly indicated to the publisher that
she was a native Mexican.
Te following are just a few examples of te many suits
betwee photographers and publishers:
A large color photogph of General de Gaulle, publishe
in Par-Match, had bee copied by a desiger, reproduced
as gold souvenirs and sold i large numbr. The desiger
admitted t cpying, and a penalty was amicably paid to the
photographer.
Rntly, a photogpher saw a television program on a
cildren's bok, the first page of which crried a paintng
made from a photograph he had taken. Authorizaton was
reuired from the photographer for both te paintng and
it cpies. This afair, to, was amicbly settled.
A infuental weekly once purposely neglected to print the
name of the photographer under his pictUre illustratng an
imprant artcle. O 7 April 1967, a small claims court in
Paris found against the weekly and rled that placng the
name of the photographer among te names of oter photog
raphers and agence at the end of the artcle did not con
stitute proper idetfcaton of the photographer for ec
picture.
A famous proucr bad used some photoreporters' prints i
one of his fm without ther permission and witout men-
Photogahy a the Lw 179
tioning the photogphets' names. I a judgent tendered
on 13 Dmber 1968, te cour ordered the producr to
pay a larg sum of money in damages and interest. Te
ruling pinted out that photographetS, like autots, had te
right to regition for their work, and that ter names
had to ether appar on te photogph or b listed in the
credit.
I another case, te court ruled that the use of aerial photo
gaphs a posters without mentioning te sourc or the name
of the photogpher was an attack on the integity of his
work and the respect due his name.
A photogpher fed a complaint against a newspapr that
used his photogphs witout his name and reold them to
oter publications without autorzaton and witout men
ton of his name. I a decsion on 17 May 1969, a Pars
court fined the newspaper, ruling that the newspaper had
infringed not only upn the photogrpher's fnancal right,
but also upon his moral rights, making it difcult for him
to require that his name be mentioned on oter reprouc
tions of his photogrphs.
In all these cases, the court decded in favor of the
photographers; hut there are countless cases of fraudu
lent reproducton that are never spotted and never tried.
The photojouralist must continually be on the alert in
order to prevent infingements of his rights.
180 Photoga & Soce
,






The Scndl-Mongeing Press
The growing popularity of scandal magazine in Italy
during the ffties led to a new breed of photogaphers
called the paparazzi. Fellini showed them at work in La
Dolce Vita, which criticzed an idle and degenerate seg
ment of Roman society. To pry into pople's private lives,
the paarazzi use telephoto lenses, which were prfected
during the last war to spy on the enemy. The German
army used the telephoto lens to flm the Eglish coast.
Further improvements were made through space scence.
Scandal sheets exst in all capitalist countries. They
are known as te 'rainbow press' in Germany, where
they are all the rge. I socalist countries, these maga
zines ar considered immoral and cannot be publishe.
France Dimancbe, lei-Paris, or Noir e Blanc are a few
of the Frenc scandal sheers that carry love stories and
gossip. Photographs are essental for documentaton, and
such magazines pay dearly for them. The subjecs of most
of these arcle are members of the jet set: movie actreses
suc a Liz Taylor, Brigtte Bardot, and Zsa Zsa Gabor;
playbys; ric businesmen; and even princesses and
queens suc a Sorya, Margaret, Farah Dibh, or Princ
Rainier's wife, Grace Kelly. The paparazzi plant them
selves in front of the stars' homes day and night, and
near the hotels and fashionable night clubs where they
have the best chanc of surprising their victms. These
periodicals feed millions of readers, mostly women, with
stories about the love afairs and intimate lives of famous
and rich pople, allowing them to dream of escaping the
181
mediocrity of their own evetday eistence. Scandal
sheets also serve as an outlet for the reader's frustration
with life's problems and her envy of those with better
luck, for while readers want to daydream about the lives
of clebrites, they also want to be privy to every bit of
otographers who specialize in this kind of reporting
ken take their photographs with the consent of their
subjects. When a photographer is well known in this set,
he is often apprised of an event, a meetng, or the ap
pearance of a celebrity in a partCUI r lace by the per
sons themselves or by their press agen Suits leading to
trial are rare. The actor Samy Frey, e then husband of
Brigtte Bardot, sued lei-Paris for libel as the result of a
serie of articles and photographs that had been taken
against his will. The article accused him of 'destroying'
Bardot.'47 I 1971, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis pressed
charges against the photographer Ronald E. Galella. He
was forced to appear in court, where she hoped to put
an end to the pursuit to which she and her children were
contnually subjected. I a deposition gven to the judge,
John F Kennedy, Jr., then eleven years of age, declared
that Galella 'dashed at me, jumped in my path, discarged
flashbulbs in my face.' Caroline, then fourteen years old,
claimed that 'I do not feel safe when he is near.' Galella,
for his part, sued Jackie Kennedy and her three secret
service agents for $ I. 3 million for preventng him fom
making a living. 'I don't want to bother them; he told the
judge. 'I try to photograph celebritie as they are-in spon
taneous unrehearsed moods. This is what I call my papa
raz i approach.' 148 The judge decded that in the future
Galella had to stay more than 150 feet fom Mrs. Onassis
and her children.
I 1972, Jackie Kennedy Onassis was once more a vic
tm of the paparazi. P/ayen, an Italian erotic magazine,
ran foureen nude photographs of her i one issue that
sold 750,000 copies in twenty-four hours. Depite al
182 Photogaphy & Soe












te precautions taken to prevet the paparazzi fom
approaching Scorpios-an enormous island where the
Onassise lived proteced by armed guards and a fotilla
of motorboats-photogphers in skin-diving outts,
using telephoto lenses, had suceded in surprising Jackie
sunbating in the nude. 'What a beautifl body! What a
pretty woman,' exclaimed Madame Tattilo, the editor of
Plymen, after she had dede to print te pictures.
Jackie did not even make an attempt to sue tis time.
Te photogaphs were eventually printed in scandal
magazines aU over the word (ecpt in Plyboy, which
refused them!). Eve magazines like Paris-Matc, whic
do not cnsider themselves scandal sheets, profted from
the ocasion. Magazines today are fUe wit pretty nude
young wome, but to fnd the former wife of the tagcally
slain American president among tem was eough to
shock many and cause a scandal.
Under the guise of naturisme, a nudist health move
ment, all sorts of magazines flled with nudes were sold
in the thirries. Every newsstand carried them, although
vendors never displayed them openly. (In France, te pho
togaphic reproduction of a nude body is punishable by
law, if a judge considers it indecent.) Wit the gadual
lifng of sexual taboos in te ffte, however, pro
graphic magazines sprang up everywhere. Playboy, te
most famous of all, was founded in Americ by Hugh
Hefer, the twenry.seven-year-old son of a preacher. Te
frst issue was undated when it appeared in December
1953, beause Hefer had borrowed $Il,OOO to cver
publicarion cost, and had to wait until the frst issue was
sold out bfore being able to produce the second.
Ioo
Hef
ner introduced te 'Playmate,' a photograph of an enrire
ly naked young woman. The frst of tese bauties was
Marilyn Monro. Monroe was Hefer's prototype of te
Playmate; her expansive cure inspired his choic of all
those who followed. In 1971, A. C. Spectorsky, the
editor-in-chief of Plyboy, declared tat i all t nude
The S1-Mongeg Press r83
grls published during the eighteen years of Playboy's
estenc could b rolled into one, she would weigh 11'
tons and have a bust of 7,242 inches.'so
By the end of 1972, Playboy had attracted 6.5 million
male readers. Its great success came from playing on sexu
al conquest and socal advancement, the two biggest aspi
ratons of the American middle-class male. By following
Plyboy's advice on dress, for instance, one was assured
of socal success. From the outset, Playboy suggested that
its readers' warrobes include at least seven to ten shirts,
'assuming you wear a clean shirt every day, a practce
we recommend.'
Again, in the fall of 197 I, readers leared
that in fashion 'leather is still king.'
151
Sexual problems are treated in the ' Plyboy Form,'
a secton devoted to an exchange of ideas and advice be
tween readers and editors based on Playboy 'philosophy.'
The exchange is not unlike its counterpart in women's
magazine.
What kind of man reads Playboy? According to a re
cent survey, 50 percent of its readers are less than thirty
fve years old, with an annual income of more than
$ I 5,000, among whom 64 percnt are married. The
rypical reader is a man who is bored with his domestic
life and who has no specal interests. Above all, the mag
azine's attraction lies in te dispariry between its de
scription of life and the lives of its readers, for the life
decibed by Playboy is etirely imagnary. Plyboy'
adverrising is reealing. For the most part, it shows
young, handsome, e1egndy dressed young men, photo
graphed near powerful cars or yachts, generally reciv
ing admiring glances from pretty grls.
Yes, the world says Yes to Benson & Hedges Gold.
Have you already said Yes?
This cigarette advertisement is illustrated with a color
photogaph of a foppish young man in font of a chess
184 Photogahy & Sodety
)





,





set (symbl of intelligence) loking at an ope package
of cgarettes he is holding in his hands. A young grl,
leaning on his shoulder, follows his gaze. In January
1973 Playboy carried an ad for a stereo fearuring the
intertwined bodies of a young man and woman. The
woman's ample chest is well displayed.
Plyboy's primary attraction is it talk about sex and
the abundant illustrations tereof. The issue of January
1973 contained 260 page, 78 of advertising. Among te
illustrations, there were 41 pictures of nude; 1 2 draw
ings and porographic cartoons; 7 pages of Charles
Bragg's erotic drawings illustrating the Apocalypse; nude
photogaphs from the flm The Sene of Life, 'with an
abundance of flesh and fantasy; accoring to the editors;
and fnally the famous erotic comic strips. The 41 nude
photographs included all the monthly Playmates of the
previous year. Under eac picture of these naked young
grls, there were pictures of them in their 'civvie' with
a listng of their names, their jobs, and their hope for
the future. Fr example: Ellen Micaels, Miss Marc
1972, had received a degee in art from Queensborough
College and had temporarily stopped her work, but
planned to contnue toward her B.A.: 'I'll probably end
up teaching; she explained, 'but right now I'm encour
aged by my progress in modeling here i New York City.'
Miss August, Linda Summers, left work in her stepfather's
health-food store for a new career as an escow ofcer
in Chula Vista, Califoria. All the Playmates in Playboy
seem to come from respectable fmilies who supposedly
find noting odd about their daughters appearing nude
for the delight of millions of men.
A true measure of Plyboy's respectability lies in the
numbr of famous contributng writers and jouralist,
who include Vladimir Nabokov, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alber
to Morvia, John Kenneth Galbraith, and others. Even
the Roman Catholic ChurclJ uses Playboy to proselytize.
Father Joseph Lup of Pikesville, Maryland, a member of
The Scdl-Mongeng Press 185
Hugh Hefner capitalized on
the lifting of sexual taboos
in America in the 1 '; OS to
illustrau hi llagazie with
photographs of scantily dad
\vomcn. He is shown here
,urrounded by some of the
bunny family \'hich bc.:ame
his trdemak and the basis
of his multi-million dollar
empire.
the Order of the Holy Trinitv, took out a full-page ad in
T 971 at a cost of S 1 0,000 to recruit young priests 'con
scious of their social duty.' The efect was 'fantastic and
totally unpredicted.'
Only twenty years ago, the average American would
han been profoundly shocked bv a magazine like PL,y
boy. In today's 'plastic society; Hugh Hefner, along with
\Xtalt Disney, is considered one of the 't"o great puritan
entrepreneurs of culture in the twentieth century,' 152 and
Playboy is ranked high among other WASP-style maga
zines. 'How has Hefner managed to rank next to Disney?'
asked the very serious Protestant magazine Christian
Century in dismay.15J Hugh Hefner took over 'those
things that the puritan had ahays imagined joy to be,
yet had repressed, and embraced them as healthy and
valuable, and advertised them as freedom and self
expression.' In the past, you could feel guilty for just
having sex; today, thanks to Hefner, you feel guilty if
you don't. Disney and Hefer represent a closed and
guiltless \\orld, controlled by a mechanical and simplistic
imagination. 154
Playboy Inc has founded many businesses, clubs, ho
tels, and a publishing house. The corporation has invest
ed in a record company. fnanced flms, and launched
European editions of the magazine. Other magazines
copying its formula have already appeared. England's
Penthouse has been printing an American edition since
1 97T ; Italy has Playmen; and France Lui. In 1971,
eighteen years after the appearance of Playboy, Hefner
ofered one million shares of stock at $24 each, keeping
seven million shares for himself. Wtth a fortune estimated
at around $ I 64 million,ls5 Hefner is today among the
half-dozen American multimillionaires who o\ve their
success only to themselves.
In the mid-seventies, however, Playboy Inc.'s profts
registered a loss of almost 50 percent, the frst loss since
Playboy was founded. In an article printed by Time in
The Sc,dJI-.\fongering Press 1 87
August 1 975, it was noted that the men's magazine had
had to reduce its subscription base, which reached its
peak at 7 million in 1 972, to 5.8 million. This represents
the largest loss of subscribers ever registered in all of
magazine history. The decline is explained not only by
the economic crisis, but also, ironically by the success of
the sexual revolution for which Playboy fought so hard.
Once extremely provocative, Playboy seems curiously
old-fashioned today, in comparison with its competitors.
In 1 946 there was much publicity about the stoty of
an American soldier who had killed a prostitute in Paris
after spending a night with her. Psychiatrists claimed that
the young American, brought up in his country's puri
tanical tradition. had killed the woman to free himself
from his feelings of guilt. A few years later, Hefner's
genius sensed the end of sexual taboos in America. Pho
tography struck him as the perfect means of manipul at
ing and satisfying the erotic desires of his contemporaries,
while at the same time projecting himself as the great
moralizer of his day.
The liberation from sexual taboos has not taken on the
same explosive form in France that it has in the Anglo
Saxon and Nordic countries, dominated for centuries by
repressive Protestantism. The French have a reputation
as lovers, and sex has never been considered sinful in
France. On the other hand, bourgeois morality is strictly
defended by French law. The public display of a photo
graph showing a nude backside can cost dearly as the pop
singer Michel Polnaref found out.
In 1 972 Polnaref was scheduled to gi\'e a concert at
the Olympia, the largest music hall in Paris. \''ith his
publicity agent, he dreamed up a photographic poster of
himself \ .. . ith sunglasses, \\earing a \\'oman's broad
brimmed hat and a lace shirt descending to just about
his nude buttocks. Six thousand of these posters were
plastered on the walls of Paris. Half of Paris laughed
".;hile the other half was indignant. Henri Lariviere, a
188 Phutogr.phy 0 Society
The uneven acceptance of
sexual freedom is high
lighted by photographs. In
America, bare-chesred bun
nies have appeared in large
centerfold photographs
since 19 ' " while in France
the picnire of a man's ex
posed derriere caused a
ruckus in 1972. I the pic
ture had been drawn rather
than photographed, there
might have been less opposi
tion, but since it appeared in
a country where a photo
graphed nude could be
deemed indecent by the
court and punishable by
law, the artist, his agent.
and his record company
were fned for the poster.

!
j
I
\
I
j
1
" I
professional poster-hanger, undoubtedly outraged by the
singer's backside, had it covered with a white square,
imitating the French television sigal which wars par
ents that flms have been judged harmful for youngsters.
Polnaref was brought before a judge and accused of
exhibiting an obscene poster. The following excerpt from
the dialogne between the judge and the singer is worthy
of Courteline, the French comic writer of the early twen
tieth century.
JUDGE:
So you wanted to score a publicity hit and
shock te bon bourgeois?
POLNAREFF:
Not at all. It was simply a joke. I just want
ed to make people laug. There's too much
moroeness [a word used by former Premier
Jacques Chahan-Delmas to descrihe the
current atmosphere in France] in this
country.
JUDGE: I sum you're out to provide a remedy for
everything that has gone wrong in France.
POLNAREFF: Why not? The image of my country
shouldn't b limited to the fountains of
Versailles and Camembert cheee.
JUDGE: Do you think of yourself as an historical
monument?
POLNAREFF: France's glorie are not only in the past.
JUDGE: Your poster is indecent.
POLNAREFF: I didn't think so.
JUDGE: Tat's because you can't see yourself.
After two weeks of delibration, the judge fned te singer
60,000 franc (10 frncs for eac poster), the record cm
pany 60,000 franc, and his press agent, who had sup
ported the scheme with 30,00 franc, a sum total of
150,000 franc ($30,000) for having posted a completely
190 Photogahy & Sce

r
nude rear end on the walls of Paris. Today, this poster
has become a cllector's item.
What scandalized the judge and many Parisians was
the fact that it was a photogaph. A drwing would have
undoubtedly gotten by more easily, but the basic realism
of the photograph (the singer's buttocs were much whit
er than his tanned legs) had made this advetising mes
sage too aggressive.
The Sdl-Mogeg Press 191
.
Claims that photography is
art are made for a number of
diferent techniques, from
the simple, early compo
sitions of Stieglitz to te
photocollages of John
Heartfeld, from the use of
photographic processes
without a cmera to the
unedited recording of some
thing which could be con
sidered artistic i itself,
suc as Brassai's picture of
grafti (1945).
Photography as Art
Today, there are tens of thousands of professional pho
tographers, some of whose works are of outstanding doc
umentary value, artistic quality, and imagnation. Two
major groups have emerged from among these photogra
phers: the 'concered' photographers, for whom photog
raphy is a way of expressing their involvement with socIal
issues; and those who have chosen photography as a
medium of personal artistic expression. In both cases,
they can be creators or simple craftsmen, but all are de
scendants of those who, after its half-century of staga
tion, had revitalized the prestige of the photographic
medium. These predecessors were intimately involved in
the artistic and political movements of the twenties.
The tremendous upheaval in Europe and America fol
lowing the First World War gave birth to many often
contradictory movements that influenced artistic trends
of the period. In America, writers such as Dreiser, Sin
clair, Hemingway, and Steinbeck, pushed toward an
aggressive, almost documentary realism that would re
flect their personal crises in confronting the brutaliry of
American life. They were often reproached for their
'photographic' sryle. In Russia, the flms of Eisenstein
and Pudovkine were charting a new course for the art of
the cnema. Russian writers of the twenties described
Soviet life and glorifed the revolutionary epic. For the
frst time, enormously enlarged photographs were dis
tributed to fx the leaders' images in the minds of the
people forever. In France, the surrealist movement linked
19
3
real facts of daily life to unconscous motives. Man Ray
made photographs witout a camera using te primitive
technique of assembling objects on a piece of sensitized
paper and ten exposing tem to light. Rediscovering
the pross by chance, be named these photograms after
himself, calling them rayographs. Infuenced by surrealist
theory, he thought of them as a kind of automatic
writing, the result of the chance placement of object." o
Severl years earlier, Christian Chad had been experi
menting with the same technique in Germany.
When photographs began to appear in newspapers at
the beginning ofthe century, people clipped them out and
pasted them in albums. In this purely mechanical juxta
position of images, the photograph's meaning was not
canged. Later, the Dadaists of the twenties made col
lages by assembling pieces of clipped photographs and
drawing. They used photographic images out of context
as a way of attacking conventional art. In photomon
tage, on the other hand, the photograph retains all of
irs sigificance. The form was created by John Heart
feld, who was bor in Germany in 1891. During the
Frst World War he was an avowed pacfst who, in pro
test of ofcal propaganda against the Eglish, decded
to Anglicze his name by changing it from Helmut Herz
feld to John Heartfeld. He became a fiend of George
Grosz, the painter whose aggressive drawings critczed
bourgeois society. Together they ceated collages, first
against the war and then against the Weimar Republic
whic had crushed the November Revoluton of 1 918.
After 1920, Heartfeld used photography exclusively to
unmask the reactonar carcter of the ruling class. He
began making photomontages and called himself a mon
teur, partly to sugget his editorial fnction, parly after
the German mecanic and electricans who wore clothes
called Monteuranzuge. Using carefully chosen photo
graphs, without cangng the sigificance of any, he jux
taposed them on a single backing to create a new collec-
194 Photogahy & Socie
Man Ray (1880-1974) c
ated phophs (or what
hecallerayogphs) by ra
nipnlatnglight, obje, and
ligt-snsitive papr. H
cnction of the cmera
les prs 'automatic
writng" -cntasted with
I. 6 Moboly-Nagy's ap
proac of calrlate exper
iet (sepage I96-I97),
althoug both used t
same materials (M Ray,
Rogah, 19")'

I
I'

,
,
John Heareld u pho
togphy in an uncnven
tional way to make pliticl
cmmentarie. The cnstt
uet photographs of his
phoomontage retained in
dividual sigifcnc while
sugeting iroie and criti
cs by ter juxtaposition
(John Hertfeld, Untl
rotogravre, I 9 3 6).
tive meaning for the whole. John Hearteld joined the
rank of the extreme left, and his photomontag ap
peared in the illustrated communist weekly A.I.Z., on
book covers from the Berlin publishing house of Malik,
and on posters around the cuntry. Their impact lies in
the simplicty of their compsition, which makes his
ideas accessible to everyone. In his hands, photogaphy
became a frmidable weapon in the class struggle.'57
Lzo Moholy-Nagy, the great photogaphic theoret
can, was the first to undestand the new ceative possibil
ities photography had opened up. I his 1925 Bauhaus
publicaton, Painting, Photography, Flm, he prophesied
the future of photography and contemporry art.'5. More
than tirty years before his tme he dened artstic move
ments that only bgan to develop in te second half of the
twentieth century. His early ideas on the role of photog
raphy, based on practical expetience, were later confrmed
by the philosopher Walter Benjamin in his sigifcant
say, 'The Work of A during the Ae of Technical R
prouction; '59 and his Short History of Photograhy.
Bor in Hungary in 1895, Moholy-Nazy studied law,
but soon left schol to devote himself entirely to paint
ing. He joined the Hungatian avant-garde artistc move
ment Ma ('Today'), whose goals were similar to the
French esprit nouveau ('New Spirit') through whic L
Corbusier and Oenfant explored the interdependence
of painting, sculpture, and modem industrial technology.
In 1920 Moholy arrived in Berlin and joined the Dada
movement. I was during this priod that, unfamiliar
with the work of Chad or Man Ray, he too created pho
tograms without a camer. Fr Man Ray, they were sort
of automatic writing, as I've noted; but for Moholy the
composition of photograms was a carefully tought-out
process, with eac efect calculated and nothing left to
chance. He aimed at specfc forms and tonalities, moving
fom white to black, while touching upon the entire spec
trum of intermediary grys. I 1922 h first exhibition
Photography a Ar 195
of abstract paintings and photograms was held in Der
Strm, the avant-garde gallery in Berlin. Walter Gropius,
the founder of the Bauhaus, visited the exhibition and
invited Moholy to teach at his state school in Weimar.
Moholy accepted and in the spring of 1923 he joined
an illustrious teaching staf that included Paul Klee, Jo
hannes Inen, and Oskar Schlemmer. His ideas became
pan of the Bauhaus spirit and ultimately had a decisive
influence on modem art.
Moholy was a painter, sculptor, flm maker, and pho
tographer with a particular interest in the prollems of
light and color. He made experimental flms, the most
famous of whic is sigifcantly titled Light-play, black
white-gray. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, he
emigrated to Amsterdam, then to London, where he con
tinued his experiments with color flm and produced
posters and documentary flms. He also began to experi
ment with Plexglas i his three-dimensional painting,
which he called 'space modulators.' From 1937 on, as
director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, he had a con
siderable influence on the American artistic scene. He
constructed mobiles and other kinetic sculptures and
continued ro spend a large part of his time on light ex
periments. He died of leukemia in Chicago at the age of
ffty-one in 1946.
After a century of debate over the artistic value of
photography, Moholy put the question in its proper per
spective. 'The old quarrel between anists and photogra
, phers concering whether photography is an an is a false
problem. It is not a question of replacing painting with
photography, but of clarifying the relations between pho
tography and contemporary painting, and showing that
the development of technology out of the industrial rev
olution has materially contributed to the rise of new
forms of optic creation.
'
160
Until MohoIy's tme, inter
pretations of photography had been influenced by aes
thetic and philosophical ideas relating to painting. Now
I96 Photography & Society
Mohaly-Nagy eperi
mented with camerales
photography at the same
time a but indepndently of
Man Ray. There was no
ing automatic abut
Moholy-Nagy's light plays,
which were crelly calcu
lated to reprouce te many
gradatons of light and
shadow possible with three
dimensional object (abve:
Self-portrait photogram,
profle, 1922; oppoite:
Photogram, 1922).
,i


it was tme to recogize the special laws of photography.
Light in itself must be considered a creator of forms,
and photography and fl must be judged from this new
point of view. Photography opens up new perspectives.
I c feeze fleeting ligt and shadow on a piece of paper,
even without the use of intervening equipment. It can
reveal the beauty of te negative image.
I his 1938 book Ne Vision, Moholy explained his
theoty of light gadaton and his discovety of new angles
and perspective which corresponded to modem machine
technology. Photography is subjet to its own laws, in
dependent of te opinions of ar critic. These laws will
be the only valid measurement of its future value. What
is important is our participation in new experiences of
space. Thanks to photogaphy, mankind has acquired
the power to view his surroundings with new eyes. A
photograph's value cannot be measured fom an aesthetic
point of view alone; it must also be judged by the human
and socal intensity of its visual repreentation. The pho
tograph is not simply a means of discovering reality, be
cause nature seen through the camera is diferent from
nature seen with the human eye. The camera infuences
our way of seeing and creates a 'new vision.'
16
1
Moholy's ideas have greatly influenced socal teorists,
notably Marshall Mcluhan, as well as two genertions
of photographers, many of whom do not even know his
name. Just as Freud's discoveries have molded our habit
of judgng certain human reacrions-the idea of a 'Freudi
an sip' seems natural to us today-so te ideas ofMoholy
Nagy have become inseparable fom our way of seeing.
To his cntemporries in 1925 his 'new vision' seemed
a utopia, but toay we are familiar with his vocabulaty
and ideas as they have been realized in contemporaty art.
Photogaphy's place among the graphic ars is no long
er in dispute. Moholy has rightfully shown that it has
it own aesthetic. Its artistc decine toward the end of
the last centuty resulted from an error of judgent on
198 Photoga & Sce
the part of those photographetS who wanted to imitate
painting.
Today tere are movements in painting that use tec
nical processes borrowed from photography. It is no
longer a matter of sticking a photogaph in the middle
of a painting, as the cubists and surrealists had done,
but one of painting with the eyes of a camer. It is not
surprising then that the public which crowds into the
exhibitions of the photorealists takes them for copies
of photographs. (This school has little do to wit those
concptual artists who also use photographs as a means
of expresion, but with very diferent tecniques and
intentions.)
PaintetS have used photographs as documents since
the camera was invented, but for the first time we see
paintetS plagatizing the photogaph. It might even be
assered that, thanks to this .school of paintng which b
gan with the photo realists, photography itself has found
greater prominence.
A certain distance in tme is always needed to pick
out the superior talents among the multtude of artists
in each generation. I took at least thirty yeats for the
great photographetS of the twenties and thires to gain
recogition as the mastetS of visual exploration they were.
Thanks to their talent, photography has been revived as
a valid means of artistic expression. Some had back
grounds in photojouralism, others in a movement called
'The New Objectivity,' but each had a diferent way of
interpretng the environment, colored by their own ex
periences. The majorty of them, living i a Europe whic
was tom apar by sa crimes, te Spanish Civil War,
and the Second World War, found their subjects in the
street. Fr the Americns, who had sufered in their own
way during the Depresion, a more introspectve vision
seemed more valid.
Today we realize that this generation gave us the pi
oneetS of modem photography. Lte in the sixtes, a new
Photogahy a Ar 199
generation of photographers began searching for a dif
ferent means of photographic expression. They experi
mented with sequences and the juxtaposition of images
in an efort to evoke personal memories and extremely
intimate views of the problems of contemporary socety.
The photograph will always remain a document, but the
interests of this 'New Wave' point out photography's
vitality.
Despite the myriad masterpieces of the past centuries,
contemporary painters remain undaunted, and rightfully
dream of creating new forms. Similarly, thousands of
professional photographers aspire to new direcions. To
day photography is entering the museums with the ap
proval of those whose profession it is to preserve art.
On their walls, photography has recaptured the artstic
aura that it once possesed. By contrast, crtainly what
most gives photography its specal relevance today is that
it continues to provide a means of expression for mil
lions of amateurs.
20 Photogahy & Sce
Amater Photography
Amateur photography has been in existence since the
invention of the cmera, but it was only in 1888, with
George Eastman's introduction of te first Koak, that
amateurism made headway. Priced at $25, the Kodak
was loade with a roll of 10 eosure. Once the flm
was exposed, the unopened camera was to b sent to the
Rocester factory, where te flm was developed and
printed, the camera reloaded and t lot retured to te
sender, all for $10.'6 Many amateur models have
appeared both in America and Europe sinc then. During
the last few years, cmeras and flm have undergone revo
lutionary imprvement, but Kodak was the frst to ex
ploit the mass-market potential.
Several decades ago trveling was the privilege of the
well-to-do. Today, thanks to leisure time, paid vacatons,
and improved methods of transportation, millions of
people travel eac year. For the afuent society, auto
mobile and airplanes are no longer a luxury.
In 1972, many millions of tourists traveled around
the world, invading famous capitals, exotic sites, beach
es, forests, and mountains. T wenty countries in twenty
days,' advertised a large tourist agency selling package
tours. Like migating birds, tourists travel in groups.
During te summer months they are everwhere, sprint
ing around historical monuments while long lines of
buses wait for them. Modem tourists speak in many lan
guages and do not know each other, but they all have
in common the cmeras hangng from teir necs.
201
Everything is preplan ned on organized tours. The bus
stops at places chosen ahead of time, spots where photo
graphs should be taken, such as Notre-Dame in Paris,
the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and the pyramids in
Egypt. The next day will bring other monuments, other
sites, other countries. The tourists have just enough time
to get out of the bus and snap the shutter. They
b

come passive objects transported from place to place. If

the human mind has limitations and cannot absorb so
many new impressions in so short a time without confus
ing them, no matter. Once home, the photographs will
202 Photography & Societ
Certainly no amateur,
Henri Cartier-Bresson
cleverly linked amateur
photography to tourism in
this picture. Tourists, like
many amateur photog
raphers, used the camera
primarily to capture and
preserve memories rather
than for artistic or com
mercal purposes.
be developed and the visits will be remembered. There
is no need to look-the camera sees for you.
Today the photographic industry flourishes for legions
of amateurs. Its rate of development is among the fast
est in the world. According to the ' 974/75 Wolfman
Report on the photographic industry, American amateurs
took over 6 billion pictures that year, 87 percent in color.
In 1974, total world revenues for the industry were esti
mated at $5.7 billion. Americans make up 42 percent of
the world market, and each American family spent $, 5
on photographic products for the year. Among seventeen
leisure activities, photography ranked fourth, after listen
ing to the stereo, fshing, and camping.
In France, there were 10.3 million cameras in use in
1974. That means close to one out of every two French
adults is a photographer. Photography has become a
popular hobby today. We can predict that this infatua
tion Vrith the camera will grow in years to come, and by
1980 an estimated 300 million tourists will be traveling
around the world taking pictures. Large companies in the
photographic industry are expanding their research to
satisfy the growing demand which will, of course, lead
to higher profts.
During the last decade, in fact, technology has made
spectacular progress. In '963 Kodak brought out their
new 'lnstamatic' line of cameras. The majority of ama
teurs, for whom photography is little more than a means
of keeping pictorial souvenirs of family members, friends,
and travels, enthusiastically adopted these inexpensive,
easy-to-operate cameras. Between 1963 and 1972, close
to 60 million Instamatie were sold throughout the world.
Amateurs prefer them to the more sophisticated and ex
pensive German and Japanese models. In 1971 only one
million Japanese cameras were sold in the United States,
a fgure representing just 10 percent of the total sale
in America. German cameras are more expensive and sell
even less readily.
Amater Photography 203
In 1972 Kodak took another gant step by introducing
a new line of Instamatics small enough to carry in one's
pocket like a wallet or a packag of cigarettes. Calling
it 'a revolutionary change,' Time magazine declared:
'The era of pocket photography is here . . . . '63 The model
will meet the new needs of those amateurs who travel
more and more with less and less baggage.'
The pocket camera is nothing new. Minox, another
pocket camera, has been manufactured in Germany for
many years. But the tny flm used in the Minox was
incapable of producing frst-class prints. Above all, there
was no color flm available for the reduced size. Kodak
researchers developed a flm for the pocket camera that
could produce as good a color print as any made from
larger format flm. In 1974, 87 prcent of the flm bought
by amateurs was for color impressions. Within the fore
seeable fture, color may replace black-and-white flm
entrely.
Color flm for amateurs is a recent development. In the
mid-1930S Kodak introduced Kodacrome and Aga Ag
facolor. Few amateurs used either because the flm, in
addition to being much more expensive than black and
white, generally produced slides requiring the use of a
projector. Color reproductions on paper were tremen
dously expensive. With few exceptions, professionals in
Europe did not use color eiter because most magazines
were not yet equipped for color printing. It was only
after World War II, toward the end of the forties, that
European magazines began to print color pages regular
ly, thereby stimulating the public's interest in color pho
tography. In 1949 in America, and in 1952 in France,
Kodak introduced Kodacolor, a color negative flm from
which good prints could be made inexpensively. From
then on, color photography took of.
The pocket Instamatic weighs only 3 ounces. Because
its flm is 30 percent smaller than that used in ordinary
Instamatics, it requires 30 percent les manufacturing
204 Phoogaphy & Soie
t

>
>
>
>
>


material. By selling the new flm for the same price, Kodak
dears a proft of an additional 30 percent on each roll
sold. Wonderful business! The New York Stock Ex
change's response, the barometer of American industrial
enterprises, was volatile. During the frst months of 1972,
following the announcement of the pocket camera, East
man Kodak shares rose 41. 5 points to $113- 5-
In 1972 Kodak was the sole manufacturer of the new
machines for developing and making prnts fom the
pocket camera. The new projectors for amateurs who
preferred to make color slides from their Instamatic neg
atives were also made by Kodak. In 1974, Kodak could
declare a net proft of $629,519,000 afrer taxes. Despite
inflation, operating costs, the shortage of cerain materi
als, the energy crisis, the cmpany's product etjoy re
markable success. One of the company's ambitions is to
open up the Chinese market. Perhaps te time is not far
of whet! 800 million Chinese will b brandishing pock
et Instamatic instead of the Litte Red Book. Koak,
the largest manufacturer of flm in the United States,
derive 80 percnt of it profts from the sale of flm,
but it is not the only colossus of the photogaphic in
dustry. Polaroid is another American gant.
Three months afrer Kodak's heavily advertised an
nouncement of its new pocket Instamatic, Polaroid cre
ated a sensation by introducing its own pocket camer,
the SX-70. Larger and heavier than the Instamatic, the
SX-70 is nevertheless capable of developing and produc
ing a fnished print in just a few seconds. This miraculous
camera was invented by the scientist Edwin Robert Land.
Bor in Bridgeport, Connecricut, in 1909, Land studied
physics and orignally made a name for himself during
a colloquium at Harard in 1933, where he presented a
new theory based on his experiments in light polariza
tion. His scientifc work, induding penetrating studies
on color, is higly valued and has eared him honorary
degres from eleven universities and countless distnc-
Amte, Photgahy 205
tions from all over the world. His researc experiments
in light polarization with new materials led to the con
strction of a new camera to which he gave the name
Polaroid. As to how Land conceived of constructing such
a camera, in an arcle dated 26 June 1972, Tie maga
zine gave this explanation: 'While vacationing in Santa
Fe with his family in 19
4
3, Land had his three-year-old
daugter Jennifer pose for some pictUIes. The child asked
how long it would be before she could see them. Land,
who had been interested in photography since childhood,
immediately began wondering how photos might be de
veloped and printed right inside the camer. He now
claims jokingly that by the time he and Jennifer retured
from their walk, he had solved all the problems "except
forthe ones tat it has taken from 1943 to 1972 to solve.'"
I 1947 Land demonstrated his invention before a
group of incredulous scentists. The first Polaroid was
put on sale in America the following year. Weighing four
and-a-half pounds and priced at $90, the new camera
printed sepia pictures. Te princple involved placng an
eposed negative in contact with a sensitized paper and
then passing the two sheets together throug a pair of
rollers. The sheets emerged from the camera in a few
minutes. Nothing remained but to separate the papers
and spread a small amount of liquid on the fnished
print to fx it.
I 1950, Land added an automatic device for setting
exposure time, and in 1963 he ofered color flm. The
latest of the Polatoid cameras, the SX-70, is based on
an entirely new process. Land invested hundreds of mil
lions of dollars in the project and built new factories for
mass producing the new camera. Its novelty lies in the
automatc development of the image right under the pho
tographer's eyes without leaving any waste. (For our af
fluent socety with its agonizing waste disposal problems,
this was an important consideration.) The latest Polaroid
achievement was made public in 1978. It is a camera
206 Photogaphy & Sce



t
l
t
I
l
that does not even have to b forsed. To detennine te
distance of obj ects fom the camera, it use a system of
ultrsonic sound. The company is ranked among the fast
est growing industries in the United State. Polaroid stock
purchased i 1938 for $1,00 would b worh $3.6
million today. '6
At present, Kodak and Polaroid, the t rival gants
of the American photographic industry, jointly face even
more dangerous competiton from Japanee camera
manufacturers. Since the end of the Second World War,
Japan has devoted itself wholeheartedly to the photo
gaphic and motion picture markets. I less than ffe n
years, the Japanee have succe ed in becoming the
world's largest manufacturers in these areas, just as tey
have excelled in the manufacure of electron microscopes,
sewing machines, and motorcycles. I 1972 there were
over a hundred Japanese companie specalizing in the
production of camers and equipment. Between 1966
and 1970, camera production alone had risn from 3.3
to 5.8 million. Firy-six percent of total production is
exported, mostly to Nort Americ, followed by Europe.
Supported by fnds from large Japanee frms and with
the help of computers, thousands of techuical specalists
are devoted to perfecting complicate zoom and auto
matic focusing lenses. In order to remain cmpettve in
their pricng, they are obliged constantly to improve teir
products. The Japanee compauie, like those in America
and Europe, are mergng, creating enormous industrial
complexe as the larger frms absorb the smaller. A labor
has becme increasingly expensive, manufacturers have
begun to set up new factories abroad where labor is less
expensive, for example in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Japanse compauies are still ofering unbeatable prices
at present, but the specter of Chinese competition is al
ready loming on the horizon. Just as the Japanese start
e out i te photogaphic industry by copying German
camers, the Chinee are now copying Japanese cameras.
Amer Photgaphy 207
I 1972, Seagull, a Cinese manufacturer, developed an
exact copy of the Minolta SRT-101 that sold at a price
that undercut all competition_
Japanese amateur photogrphers are legon_ Unlike
Wester amateurs, they buy the most sophisticated cam
eras because tey are cheap in Japan, within everyone's
price range_ Eleven Japanese periodicals are devoted to
photography, and 10,000 photographers grduate each
year fom Japanese scools.
l
s
Camers constructed with the help of electronic equip
ment are becoming inceasingly sophisticated inside. Yet,
even a child can quickly lear to use them, since all set
ting are automatcally self-regulating. From the techni
cal point of view, no one can ruin a picture. This explains
in part the tremendous public interest in photography.
The growing monotony of everyday life is another factor.
Lives have become regimented, dominated by a techno
structure that allows les and les initiatve. In the days
of the craftman, a man could still fnd satsfaction in
expresing his personality and his hopes in his work. To
day he is reduced to little more than a cog in one wheel
of an increasingly mecanized socety. Photogrphy has
attracted so many enthusiasts in part because it gves
them the illusion of being ceatve. Numerous amateur
clubs and photography magazines exist all over the world.
lime-Life recently published a series of lavishly illustrat
ed books on photographic subjects, whic was translated
into several languages and sold throughout te world by
the millions .Finally, the massive advertising campaigs by
the photographic industry have contibuted signifcantly
to the increased number of amateur photographers.
America is the most advanced tecnologcal socety in
the world. It was in America, toward the end of the
ffties, that a movement began which made headway
among the more sophisticated amateur photogrphers.
They began to buy up the most complex cameras, the
Leica, Nikon F, even Hasselblad and Linhof. GIs retur-
208 Photogahy & Se






I
ing from Vietam brought back inexpensive Japanese
cameras. Attic, garages, and bathrooms were refur
bished as darkrooms and flled with expensive equip
ment. Galleries devoted entirely to photography have
opened i all important American cties. I 1977 there
were forty-eight galleries in New York alone that or
ganized exhibitons or sold photogrphs to the public.
Until recently, collectors have been eclusively interested
in the works of nineteenth-century photographers. Now
a growing number of cllecors are also drawn t con
temporary photographs. Artworks are selling at such
high price that young people in pattcular do not have
the means to purchase them. The pric of a photograph,
on the other hand, is rarely more than an original lito
graph. Columns on photography have begun to appear
i most important newspapers, and te New York Times
publishe an entire page on photogaphic ehibits and
galleries every Sunday. Sinc the sprng of 1975, citcsm
on photogrphic ehibitions has appeared i te Times
art column, thereby publicly conscating photogaphy's
place among the gaphic arts. Bside the secalized
magazines tat appear every mont, artice on photog
raphy and it importance as an ar appear in such maga
zine as te New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, and te New
York Review of Books. Even the very srious Wall Street
Jourl, which deals with fnac, carries some articles on
photogaphy. Moreover, speculation in photographs has
cught on with fnancal advisors, who ecurage teir
client to buy photogaphs as investment.
In 1975, there were more than 400 photographic ex
hibitons across the country. Public sales of photographic
collectons are held at the prestigous Parke-Beret Gal
lery in New York, te Hotel Drouot and the Palais Gal
liera in Paris, at Sotheby's and Ctistie's in London, and
at the important auctons in Cologne, Germany. As with
sales of paintng and rare books, catalogs are prepared.
I 197 l one sale brought receipts of more than $ 3 mil-
Amter Photograhy 209
lion. At a sale in February 1975 where twentieth-century
photographs were being sold for the frst time, Alfred
Stieglitz's photogravure 'The Steerage; which he con
sidered his best picture, sold for $4,500. His magazine
Camea Work ( 1903 -19I7) , in ffty volume (incom
plete), went for $24,000. The photographs of Man Ray,
Ansel Adams, Brassai, Walker Evans, and Margaret
Bourke-White were among those that sold for high prices,
sometimes more than $ I ,000 for an original print.
Important photographic collections exist in many
American museums. At the Museum of Modem Art in
New York, a department devoted to photographic his
tory organizes exhibitions of contemporary work. Other
American museums have followed their example. The
Interational Museum of Photography in Rochester,
housed in the large private mansion previously owned
by George Eastman, is devoted solely to photography.
In the fall of ' 974, all the newspapers carried long arti
cles on Corell Capa's Interational Center of Photogra
phy (I.c.P.), the frst museum in New York City devoted
entirely to photography. Since the beginning of the seven
ties, annual symposiums have taken place in the United
States and Europe for curators, critics, and photographic
specialists to study methods of collecting and classifying
photographs as well as many other issues concering the
medium.
The importance accorded to photography in the United
States is reflected in the schools. Today an estimated
80,000 students study the subject in 675 schools, col
leges, and other institutions, 177 university programs
among them. It is a feld in which diplomas range from
simple certifcates to the highest university degrees. In
'97' New York University ofered the frst doctoral de
gree in photography.
Other signs of photography's public success are the
hundreds of books published each year and the popularity
of photographic posters. A few publishers specialize in
210 Photography & Societ




Following the lead of John
Szarkowski, director of the
Photography Depanment
of the Museum of Moder
An, the directors of many
museums began to recog
nize photography as an an
form wonhy of special at
tention. The George East
man House's Interational
Museum of Photography
has one of the richest early
photographic collections in
existence.
limited edition portfolios of lavishly displayed original
prints, most including some dozen photographs, with
prices varying from a few hundred to six thousand dol
lars. These limited editions generally consist of thirty to
sixty siged and numbered prints.
More than ten years after the photography boom start
ed in America, European interest is beginning to extend
beyond a limited group of professionals. As in America,
the growing number of amateur photographers has trig
gered the change. Specialized galleries have opened in
Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London, Milan, Basel, and Amster
dam. Publishers who had been hostile to the idea of pho
tographic books because of previous disappointments
are changing their minds. Gallety collections devoted en
tirely to photography are beginning to appear. In 1978,
Amater Photography 211
the French goverment established a National Founda
tion in Lyons to promote the photographic medium as
a fne art. Since the late sixties European museums have
been exhibiting photography regularly.
The Photokina is the most important fair in the pho
tographic industry. Begun in '950, it is held every other
year in Cologe, Germany. In September 1978 it reached
ggantic proportions. 'Arriving by car, train, bus, charter
plane, the visitors were so numerous that it was impos
sible to fnd hotel accommodations in Cologe without
reservations made months in advance. Thousands of visi
tors had to sleep in neighboring cities while others camped
in trucks along the Rhine. What a- success!' wrote a cor
respondent for a French newspaper who felt lost in the
immensity of the exhibition. With so many countries rep-
2 I 2 Photography & Socie
Fonner direcor and curator
of George Eastman House's
photography collection,
Beaumont Newhall (left) is
shown here reviewing pho
tographs with professional
photographer Yosef Karsh
(right) at George Eastman
House.
I
J
!
resented, it was a Tower of Babel. He continued, 'Pho
tography and flm making no longer remain the domain
of artists and professionals. Everything is so easy that the
consumer quickly uses up dozens of feet of flm without
realizing it. It is an expensive habit, very profitable for
the manufacturers.' In former years, many exhibitors
had unfortunate experiences. Their stands were stormed
by crowds of amateur enthusiasts who came just to look,
and who scared of serious buyers. The Photokina's or
ganization had to be changed. Since 1974 cultural events
and the many exhibitions of photographs have taken
place outside the commercial fairgrounds, attracting
many thousands more visitors than the industrial exhibi
tions themselves.
AmteT Photogaphy 2 I 3
Photography and socety:
Marc Riboud's camera re
corded a panoramic sea of
faces that even D. O. Hill
would not have envisioned.
Both understood, however,
the camera's potential to
document and at times in
fluence the soial, political,
and cultural environment in
whic they lived.
Conclusion
During the Renaissance it was said of a cultivated per
son that he had 'a good nose.' Today we say that he has
'vision; for sight is now the sense most often called upon.
A picture is easy to understand and accessible to every
one. Its most special characteristic is its immediate emo
tional efect. It leaves little time for reflection or for the
reasoning a conversation or the reading of a book re
quires. This immediacy is both its strength and its danger.
Tanks to photography, the number of images the aver
age individual confronts has been multiplied a million
fold. The world is no longer evoked. It is directly rep
resented_
The Vietnam War was sadly symbolized by a photo
graph of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a small grl of nine, severely
bured by a napalm attack, fleeing with other children on
a South Vietnamese road. It was printed all over the
world, elicting horror and hatred for war in a fashion
infnitely more powerful than dozens of pages written on
the subject would have been. lbe photograph's efect
was so immediate that it was reproduced in the 29
December 1972 issue of Life among the most memorable
photographs of the year. To cushion the emotional shock,
Life printed a color portrait of the little Vietamese grl
smiling along with it, with the explanation that Kim Phuc
had been in a Saigon hospital for ffteen weeks receiving
skin transplants and physical therapy. 'But the war was
not done yet wit the little grl,' reported Life. 'Incredibly.
South Vietnamese planes struck again in November, this
215
time demolishing Kim Phuc's home . . . [the napalm
attack was also the result of an error on the army's part].
Kim Phuc retured again to her home, whic has now
been partially rebuilt. Her scars are healed, and she is
going to school again. Her memories lie hidden behind an
easy, ceerful smile.' Despit te reassuring photograph,
the picrure of Phan Thi Kim Phuc tearing of her buring
clothes and runuing naked on the road will remain for
ever engraved in the memories of all who have seen it.
c: hotogrphy's tremendous power of persuasion in ad
dressing the emotions is conscously exploited by tose
who use it as a means of manipulatonn his book Con
fesions of an Adverising Man, DaviOglvy, one of the
bet-known adversing men in America, recommends
that his colleages suggest the use of photography to their
clients in selling their products because it 'represents
reality, whereas drawing represent fantasy, which is less
believable.' Ye we have seen many examples of the ways
in which photogphs can be altered and manipulated, to
carry the opposite meaning of the orignal intention.
Millions of amateurs, both cnsumers and producers of
photography, who imagne they have captured reality by
snapping the shutter and rediscovering it in their nega
tves, do not doubt the truth of the photograph. For them,
the photograph is irrefutable evidence.
I is this false belief in the objectvity of the image
that gves the photograph its enormous power and ex
plains its widespread use in advertising. The advertsing
industry has hired the 'depth boys' to explore human
reactions to ads. Psychologst are aware that the uncn
scious is flled with symbolic images that have a profound
influence on behaviour. A few years ago, some media
executves sought to exploit this faculty with 'subliminal'
advertsing. Images fashed at a thirteth of a second, not
cnsciously seen by the viewer, were inserted in movies
to sell products. This diabolical form of adverising has
since been outlawed as an immoral violaton of human
2I 6 Photogahy & Soe
right. If it takes only a thitrieth of a second to infuence
a man's will, it is easy to undertand the strength of te
image and its drwing power as a seller of both goods and
ideas.
Not only the so-called liberl capitalist countries but
also te dicatorships, both lef- and right-wing, have
exploited photogaphy's persuasive power. The photo
graph of the ce of state carred over the crowds in
parades and demonstrations, or decorating state ofces,
is for some te symbol of te father and for oters the
Orwellian 'Big Brother.' It inspires love or hate, cn
fdence or fear. Its intrinsic value is based on its power to
arouse one's emotions.
Nineteen-sevenry-six marked t sesquicntennial of
photography. In this bok, I have tried to trace its his
tory. Photography began modesdy as a means of self
representation but very quickly became an all-powerful
industry that has penetrated every aspect of socety. As
a means of reproducrion, photography has democratized
art by making it available to everyone; but at the same
time, it has canged our view of art. Used to exteralize
a creatve urge, it is not always a simple copy of nature.
Otherwise 'good' photographs would not be so rare.
Among the millions of pictures published every day in
periodicals and in books, only a few go beyond simple
representation. Photography has helped man discover
the world from diferent angle. It has condensed space
without it, we would never have seen the surfac of the
moon. It has democratized man's knowledge, bringng
people closer together. But it has also played a danger
ous role as an instrument of manipulation used to create
needs, to sell goods, and t mold minds.
The inventon of photography marks the starting point
of the mass media, which play an all-powerful role today
as means of communication. Without photography there
would never have ben movies or television. Sitting in
front of the 'tube' daily has becme a drug without which
Conduson 217
millions of people could not exist. Althoug the frst in
ventor of photogrphy, Nicephore Niepce, tried desper
ately to have his invention recogized, his efors were
in vain and he died in misery. Few people know his name
today. But photography, which he discovered, has be
come the most common language of our cvilizaton.
2 8 Photoghy & Soce
Note
I. Wlhe Wa, Di lmst de POi, Lepz, I ', p. 57
2. Vidl, 'Meoiredla sencdu 15 nmbre 1868 dela se
.. tir d Mrle' Bul de / soi e frmte depoto
grapi. 1871, pp. 37. 38, 40.
3. Cf. Re Henneuin, E. Queedey, portraiste a physiono
trac, Troye, 1926.
4. Cf. Cromer, 'Le s du physonotac,' BuUeti de l socrte
arciolgique. historique e artistique, 'L Vie Ppier,' 26th
yer, Oobr 1925-
5. Cf. Cabinet d estampe de la Biblioteue nationaie, Pris.
6. Cf. Gonard's adertisment in Jol de Pa, 28 July 1788.
7. Cf. Queedey's advertisemet i Jourl d Pari, 21 July 1788.
8. 0. Vivare, Le pbysionotTac.
9 Cf. Jol de Paris, 2I July 1788.
10. Cf. Moniter univerel, 16 June 1839-
1 I. Jean Jaure, Histore socialiste, 'L ree de Louis-Philippe.'
1. Cf. E. Leasser, Histoie de cll es ovriee e de l'idustrie
e France, Paris, 193.
13 Jean Jaures, o. c.
14. Cf. E Levasser, Histoiredu comerce de laface, Paris, 1911.
15. C. Kr Marx, L IS Brumaire de Louis Bonaparte.
16. 0. Kr Mn e ldelogie und Utopie, Bnn: F. Cohe,
1929
17. Cf. Kr Marx, o. c.
18. Cf. Sesion o 1839 (Nouvelle Legslative), Paris, 1839.
19. Cf. Biblograhie poltique e pariemetire de deutes (Guide
de electeurs) by oe of te editors of Le Mesage, Prs 1839,
P 145
20. Cf. Vicor Fouque, 'Niqc, la verte sur I'invention de la photo-
grphie,' Chalon-sur-Saone, 1867.
21. Ibid.
22. Letter from Nepc to Lematre, 23 Oober 1828.
23. C. Arthur Cevalier, Etde sur Ia vie e les traa scientiques
de Carles Chevlier, Pris, 1862.
2. O 8 Dmbr 1827, Niq had alredy te unscsfully
to publicze his inventon in a see t te London Royal S
ce.
2I9
25. C. Isidore Niepce, Histoirede la decouverte imropreet nom-
mee daguerreote, Pris, 1841.
.
26. <There is muc talk about Daguerre's invention. Noting is more
amusing tan te eplanations of tis wonder proposed by our
scentists of te salon. Daguerre should b ressure tat his
sewl not b stlen . . . . 1his disovery is trly worthy of
great admiration, but we do not understand anyting about it.
It has ben overeplained to us.' Lettres prisiennes, 12 January
1839, by te vicmte de Launais. Oevre comletes of Mme
Emile de Girardn, vol. I, pp. 289-190.
17. Gay-Lussac, Rapport de la samcedu 30 juillet de / oambredes
Pairs Historique et descrtion de procedes d daguerreotype et
d doraa, cncng Daguerre's Pris, r839.
18. C. Moniter universel, 16 June 1839.
19. Cf. Cmptes redus ds sence de l'ACdemie des science, sec
od semeste. 1839.
Anoter example o state spr of new and usful inventions
is the subsidies granted to the railroads. Thes were in te hands
o a fw members of te fnancal aristoracy. The Cambers
voted for te autorization to build te railroads. incuding te
lengt of te cncsion. te dividends to be paid. a the stte
subsidie. h should not be forgotte tt te rereettive of
te fnancal arstocacy had a decsive infuec in the Cambers
and tat it was in teir interet to re tee project (parle
metr debates, 182. ..-47).
;0. TheAcdemy<justreveteapproaloftemodistnguished
and hoor Eis scetist, mot notbly Hersl, Roinsn,
Frs, Wts Brsane.' Comte red de se d tAC
Jie de sc, 15 June 18;9.
31. Compte rendus des sence de l'Acdeie des scece. 19 Au
gust 1839, vol. IX, pp. 257-66.
;1. "We shall son sebeutiful print tat were onc found only
in te living roms of ric amateurs, decrate eve te most
humble residec o te worker and te pt; L Reve
fat;e, 1839.
33. Cf. Compteredusdssence de I'Acdiie des scece, 1839.
34. Ibid.
35. C. Le Feilleton d sieck, 1839; Ie Feilleton national, 1839;
I Gazette de Fance, 1839; and similar publictions.
36. C. Daguerre, Historique et descrtion de pe d dguer
retype et d diora. Paris, 1839:
37. C. Compte re des seances de fAcdeie des sciece, sec
ond semetr, I839'
38. "The photogeic image, a delightul as the are, leave something
to b desire, eeally te pmi".' E. Fcud, Physoloie
d l'idustrie fan(ise, Pris, 1844. p. 179.
39 Gaudin and Lb. Dees perfectionnemets aportes a
dguereote, Pr. 1841..
40. Ricard Rudisll. Mirror Image. te Influece of te Daguerreo-
HO Photograhy & S
tye on Americn Socey, Albuquerque, N.M.: University of
New Meic Pres, 1972.
41. C. Walter Bjamin, 'Pete histire de la phothie' in
Poee e reolto, eitions Dno, P, 1971, publise for
te frst tme in Learisce Welt, nos. 38-40, Brlin, 193I.
42. Ibid.
43. 'Any deass or classless persn was setting himself up as a
photgrapher: te ofc clerk who had cme in late o collec
ton day, te cfeehous tor who had lot his voic, te cn
cerge who fanced bimseH an arist-tey alclled temslves
artistc! Pinters and sulptors who had not md it foe to
photography . . . . Nadar, Quand feis pbotograhe. p. 195
44. 'I was br at te begnning o tat age o innocnc whe a
cbinet ministr stle no more tan 10,00fc . . At te
tme whe it was cnsidered distse among te lower mid
dle class to have teir cildre in mourg for the duc de Brr,
1 was among tose in mouing.' Ibid., p. 278-84.
45. Cf. Pierre I.rousse, Grad dconna;,e d XIX" siecle, Pris:
Administraton du gand dictonnaire uoiverse 1866-90.
46. C. E. Lasseur, Histoire d cmmerce d l Fance, 'L bour
geoisie au pouvoir' Paris: A. Ros u. 19II-I2.
47. Around 1845, te princpal writer of la Boeme cllaborated
on Ie Corsa;re-Satn. Under te ledership o Arene Houssye,
this literary newspaper becme an oposition paper, bot fmous
and ofte attacke.
48. 'The trut is tat untl 1848 or of ce w usually loted in the
co c where we arrive wit hearty apit at nine o'doc
in t morg, not t leave until midnigt.' Cmpfery, SOI
ver e portra d jenes. Pris: E Dt. 1872. p. 122.
49. C. Hitore d Murger, por serv;, a rbistoire d la vaie Bo
hee par trois bver d e, Paris: Nadar, Llioux, Nl, 1862.
'Bohee is a word pular in 1840. In te language of te day,
it was synonymous wit artst or student, pleasure-sekng, joy
o, unmindful of tomorrow, lazy, and rowdy.' Gabriel Guil
lemot, L Bhee, Pris, 1868, pp. 7-8.
50. 'Industial literature has sucede in silencng cticsm and in
Opying an almost unrntadicor psition as if it eisted
alone . . . A a relt, most newsapers, eve those who would
willingly b classie as puritnicl, have spawned an array of
violations and a purely mercary management who foments lit
erar quarrels and relly lives of tem.' Sainte-Buve, Revue des
d mo, 1 July 1839, 'De la Iitterature industielle,' p.
678, 68I.
51. 'Money, money, it is impossible t clculate how muc it is te
nere-cter and go o taay's literature: te efecs of its twist
ing and trg c b detee een in te most minute details.
I a cever writer oc sionally indulge in an empty, overblown,
edles style wit sudde burst of imprtant neloisms or sc
etfc expresions take fom Go knows where, it is becuse he
Notes 221
leared early how to build up his phrasing, to triple and quad
ruple it (pro nmmis) while gving to it te least amount of
thought pssible: Sainte-Buve, Ree des dx montes, 1843,
<Sur la situation en litterture; p. 14.
52. <La Boheme is a phase of artistic lif, it is te prefac to the Acde
my, te hospital or te morgue: d. Histoire de Murger.
53. Teophile Gautier, Camille Roger, Gerard de Nerval, Ourliac,
Celestin Nanteuil, etc. blonged to <Ia Jenne Frnc:
54. Murger was the son of a cncerge-tailor; Campfeury, te son
of a sry at te Lyon town hall; Barbara, the son of a moet
music salesman; Bouvin, te son of a rral plicman; Delveau,
te son of a tnner in te Pris suburb of Saint-Marcl; and
Courbet, te son of a pt.
55. <It is very dferent among arists: the wr bourgeois isno longer
a name, mening or qualiction. It is an insult, and te most
vulgar to b hear in the artist's srudio. A ar srdent wuld
prfer a thousnd tme over to b clled a scundrel of t
worst sor than to be called a burgeis.' Henri Monnier, Phy
siologie d brgeois, Pris, 1842, p. 9.
56. C. Nadar, Pierrot miistre, pantomime, 1847.
57. Told by Nadae's son to te author.
58. Cf. Biographi nh"ol d contans under tbe geeral
eitorship of Erest Glasser, 1878.
59. Told by Nadar's son to te autor.
60. <Whe I concved of the idea of te Nadar panteon cntaining
a tousand portraits in four conseutive page-men o letters,
dramatists, painters. sulptors and musicans-I was on intimate
tenns wit aU te illustrious me of te prio: Nadar, Quand
j'etais photographe, pp. 24[-42.
61. Walter Bejamin, <Ptite histire de la photographie.'
62. Nadar was als te frst to think o photographing with artifcal
light. In 1860, he w tus able to photograph te ctacmbs
of Pris.
63. <From the frst days of te following spring in 1856, I obtained
o frst try a dozen picure and a negative of te Bois de Bouloe
with a piee of the Arc de T riomphe, views of te Teres, Bati
golle, Montmarre.' Nadar, op. ci.
64. <Here tey infate a tied-up ballon and I se Nadar running
around in a naval ofcr's cp and a militar rainct.' Jorl
des Goncourt, Sarurday, 19 November 1870, vol. V.
65. CI. N_d_r, The Giant Blo, Lodon' W. S. Jonsn C.,
1863.
66. Tis text o D. O. Hill was publishe by te author in te maga
zine Vee, N. 516, edited by E. Terade, Pris, 1939.
67. O. Eest Laviss, Histoire de Face, Bostn & New York:
D. C. Heat & C., 1923.
68. T club included among its members te scentist de Labore.
Frdinand de lasteyrie, te baron 5uier, Bquerel, t paint
ers Delacoix, Beranger, the writer Theophile Gautier, and so on.
222 Photography & Societ
69 '7. Any clored prntorthoseprintsin whic manual retoucing
has ocrre will als b ecude from te ehibition.' Bulletin
de la sociite fran(Jise de pbotgrapbie, 25 January 19I8
70. 'Everyone kows how I sd ly beme popular by inveting
the crte-de-visite whic I had patente in I854.' Dser, L'Art
de la pbotgraphie, Pris, publised by te autor in 1862,
P 146.
7 I. Dseri, Reseigneents photograph;que inisensbles i taus,
1855, p. 146.
72. Dser, L'An de f pbotograbie, pp. 150, 152, 154.
73. d. Nadar, Quad j'i photograh
74. 'Alanx paint wdl and drws wdl. Moreover, he is not expesive
and is a clorst.' Statemet by Lois-Philippe quotd by Thea
phile Silvetre, Les Artites {at;, Pris: Chareter, I878,
P
4
75. C. Leon Rsetal, D romntismea realisme. essai sr reo
lto d f penture e Face de r830 I I848, Prs, 1914.
76. Victor Fue, Ce qu'on voi d le re d Pais, Pris:
A. Delahays, I858.
77. Ar lictwark, Die Amateurpbotograpbie, HaDe, 1894.
78. 'The burgeis are espeally frightee by te moel's shadows
in whic tey only see what darkes and saddes te face . . . .
No half tnts, but a uniformly white fe tint wit sade of
pink around te cheeks!' Fourel, o. cit., p. 390.
79. Disderi, L'Art de la pbotographie.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Cf. Leiziger Anzeger, 1839.
83. Cf. Courbet, Le Relisme, ctalo of te exhibition and sale of
thirty-eght paintngs and four drawings from te work of
G. Cout.
84. 'A citicl, analyticl, syntetic and humanitarian painter, Cour
b is an expresion of te time. His work parallels Auguste
Comte's positivist philosphy and Vacerot's pitivist meta
physic whic claim that human law or justic is inheret to t
sel . . .' P.-j. Prudhon, Du princie de l'art et de s destinatim
sociie, Pris, 1865, p. 287.
85. Dleu Filleton from Le Joural des debats, 21 Marc
IS5!.
86. Francs Wey, D naturalisme dans l'art; de son princie et
de se consequences; i propos d'un article de M. DeJeclze ds
"L Lmiee,' 6 April IS
S!
.
87. Taine, Philosophie de fart, p. 7.
88. Ibid., p. 10.
89. Id, p. '3-"4.
90. A. de Lamanine, Crs familia de liuerature, vol. VI , xxx
VIt entretien, Leoold Rert, Paris, 1859, p. 43.
91. C. Ingres, Reonse a rapport sur !'ecole imperile des Beux
Art, Paris, IS63.
Notes 223
92. C. Bauddaire, Salo T859. lepublicmodeeetlphotograhie.
9}. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. Ddacoi, Ree de de mondes, 15 September 1850, 21St
yer, vol. Vl , p. 1 144.
96. Ibid.
97. Cmptes redus d sence de l'Acdemie de scences, 19 Au
gust 1839, vol.
I, pp. 257-266.
98. C. Jorl de l'indstrie photograhique, organ o the trde-
Wlion cmmitte on photography, January 1880.
99. Cf. Revue de de monde, 1 April 184I.
10. C. Le Moniter d l photographie, no. 2, I Marc 1864.
10I. C. Receil general de loi et de arre, I Otobr 1863.
102. Andre Malraux had asked m to photograph a Meicn srlp
ture of te goddes of com for his book Le Musee imaginire
d la scltre montle. ] photphe fm dfret angles
and in canging light cnditions, whic made the same srlpture
apper t b seral diferent srlpture. ] dd tis to prve to
him tat his idea cncering a work of art cangng acrding
to photoaphy was altoeher crret. Malraux cose one of
tes reroducions for his bok, but his coic was cnditione
by his own tste and his peron of tis srlpture. The rero
ducion of an anwork depnds on te prcption not oly of the
photographer but of te viewer as wdl.
103. Un siecl de technique, Pris: Braun and Co.
104. Ibid.
105. Ado Kyrou, L'Aged'orde f creptle, Pris: Andre Balland,
1966.
106. Rr photoraphs of te Crimean War, 1855.
'0. Paul Vanderbilt, Gu to te Specc Collectios of Print a
Photorahs i te Ubra o Conges, Waon, D.C.,
Lbrar of Congres
, 1955
.
pp. 19-
1
.
1. Told t the autor by her fater.
109. Cf. Vu, Novembr 1935.
110. MUnchner Illustrierte Prt5e, no. 9. 1925.
I I I. C. Wilhelm Carle, Weltnscaung u Prese, Leipzig: Hirsc
fld, '9} I.
I I 2. C. Eric Salomon, Bemnte Zeitgeossen i Unbewachte A-
geblcke, I. Stutgart: Engelhoms Nach. I93I.
I I
3
. Ibid.
114. Told to the autor by Marian Scwabik.
I 15. Toay. the founder of the Dehot Sric is over 80 yers old and
live in Londo. where he forme a pres servic after te Send
World War. His ofc. situate on the send story o a house in
te busines district of London. is flled wit a jumble of photo
graphs and papers. reembling what te Dephot Srvice must
have loked like in te tirtie. Whe ] arrived in London t
interview him, I fond an old gentleman wit a sharp lok who
refused to gve me the smallest bit of information. O te con-
22. Photography & Society
tr, he had me sig a paper stpulating tat his name would not
be merionedin t bo. But] did havethe right to reecro rm
as the 'sc of te Dehor Seric. The 'serery' playe a
cucal role in tebistor o photojolism. Under his infuec
and t to h g as a jolist, the photgraphers blog
ing to this srvice ddned moem photojourlism. Althoug te
Sric was fc b A M, te 'seetary; as cleer as
he was in t out a rertage. was not a ver go busi
nesman. Some o h bst photaphe had t sig cntract
dr wit te picur me in orer to b paid. It was te
'seary' who gve R Capa h frst canc, who, like s
many oters euted b the 'sry,' later bme famous.
1 16. Told to te autr b Flix H. Man.
1 17. Told to the autor by Flix H. Man.
II8. Muncner Illtriete, 1929-1933.
11 9. Interiew w Felix H. Man in The New York Times, 14 May
1971.
] 20. Kleie LeiC-Croik. De Entwidung dec L und de la-
systms. Erst Lt GmbH Wetlar, n 92-1091c.
121. Told to te author b Thomas McAvoy. te Life photographer.
122. The magazine Phot, n. 59. Pr, 1972.
12}. a. Gisele Freund. The Worl in My Caera. N York: Dial
Pres, 1974.
12.. Munziger-Arci. Lieferng 9158, I Marc 1958.
125. Cf. Theodore Peerson, Magazine in te Twntieth Ctr,
Urbana, 01.: The University of Dlinois Pres. 1956.
1 16. Ibid.
17. Cf. Gibbs, Wolct. Tie. Frtune. Life,HerLuc,E.B. Wite
and Katherne White, editors, N York: Cowar McCann,
1941
128. Ibid.
129. Cf. Jenne Prkns Hr. Sc Is Life, New York: Thomas Y.
CwD Co., 1956.
I }O. During my 6rsttrip to New York in 1948, Hids recve me with
h fet on te table and his fac hidde behind a newspaper.
He tok h time acnowledgng my presec and st me to te
61e t bring back all of my published reorage. Humiliate.
I decde not to rur, which did not stop Ufe frm publishing
my oter stories. Seals, Infnity, August 1969.
1 3 1 . a. John Kobler, Luu. Hi Time. Lie a Fe, New York:
Doubleday, 1968.
132. Ibid.
133. a. Kobler, o. c.
134 Life, no. 5, vol. 58, Fbruary 1965.
135. Pul Wle <Running Lf to Right' in New York Magazie,
April 1970.
1}6. Acrding t Televionlao Age, 16 November 1970, lime,
Ic, sld it rdio and television sttions in order t invest in
videossete.
Notes 225
137. A press release from Time, Inc., by Hedley Donovan and Andrew
Heskell, 20 April 1 972.
138. L Monde, December 3'4, 1972.
139. Pul Vanderbilt, Guide to the Specic Colleaions of Print and
Photograhs i the Lirary o Congress. Minute of Le Congres
Intetional de photographie, Gautier-Villars, Paris, 19<0.
140. a. GiseIe Frend, The World i My Cmea.
141. Ibid.
142. The New York Times Book Review, ; October 1969, p. 7.
143. Cf. john Morris, 'This we remembr. Have photographers
brougt home te reality?' Harper's Magazine, September 1972.
144. Ibid.
14;. L Point: BislTot, vol. LVl , Pris: Souillac, Lot, 1960. Art and
literar reiew.
146. Told to te autor by Robrt Doiseau.
147. L'Eres, ; July 1 962.
148. Time, 2; Otober 1971, p. 38.
149. Newsweek, 2 Mr 1970.
I ;0. Quoted by Richard Tod, Gathering Bunnysde, The Atlantic
Montl, januar 1972.
151 . Ibid.
152. Cf. PeterScrag, The Decline of the Wasp, Nw York: Simon and
Scuster, 1971.
153 The Cristn Centry, 19 january 1972.
154. O. Scrag, op. cit.
I
SS.
Time, 27 Septembr 1971.
I ;6. M Ray, Autobiograhy, Prs: Lafont, 1964.
1;7. John Hearteld, Photmontagen, Ausstellungskatalog der
Deutchen Akademie der KUnste, Brlin, 1969.
1;8. a. Moholy-Nagy, Painting, Photography, Flm. A Bauhaus
bok, London: Lund Humphries, 1969. Translation of the orig
nal appered in 1925 a volume 8 of te Bauhaus publictions.
159. Walter Bejamin, 'Petite histoire de la photraphie.'
160. Cf. Moholy-Nagy, o. c.
16I. Ricard Kotelanet, ed., Mooly-Nag, New York: Pree,
1970. This volume cntains artices by Moholy-Nagy and artices
about him by diferent authors.
162. George Estman, 'A Brief Biography of te Founder o Easnnan
Koak Company: in fmage,}orl of Photograhy a Moton
Picres of te Inteional Musem of Photograhy a Gerge
Estman House, 26 june 1972.
163. C. Tie, J6 June 1972.
164. Ibid.
165. C. Photograhie novelle, Marc 1972.
226 Photograhy & Sce
Acknowledgent
All te phoogphs and iUusations i tis bo k apper cu of
te Inteatonal Museum of Photogaphy at Ger Eastman Hos.
Rocester New York, ect those provide by the following
collecons agede, and individuals:
Luce Aiger: p. 132.
Arcive Photographique, Cais Natonale d Monumet
Historique, Paris: pp. 41 (top), 45-
Bayer Staatsbibliothek, Munich: p. 126.
Bibliotheque Natonale, Paris: pp. 31 (bottom left), 9I.
Brassai: p. 192.
Collecton Siror. Paris: p. lOS.
Diee Foto 1St Figentum, Munic: p. 92.
Robrt Doisneau: p. 174.
Gisle Freund: pp. 8, 12, IS (top, middle leh & right), 17 (left), 23. 46,
49, 51. 52,60, 61.67, 73.94, 95, 167-
The Gemsbeim Collection, Humanities Research Center, University of
Texas at Austin: p. 22.
John Heeld, p. 160.
Je Lane: fontspiece.
Library of Congres, Washington, D.C.: pp. Io6, 1I3'
Magum: p. 169; MagumlBischof: p. 2; Magnum/Carter-Breson:
p. 202; Magum/Haas: p. 102; MagumlRiboud: p. 214;
Magumlalomon: p. 114.
Musum of the City of New York: p. 112 (bottom).
Natonal Arme Forc Museu Smithsonian Insttuton. Washing
ton, D.C.: p. 105.
Photo Keystone: pp. 134. 186.
Sipa-Prcs p. 189.
Socete Franse de Photographie, Paris: p. 89.
S.P.A.D.E.M., p. 194.
Peter Stackpole: p. 147 (bottom).
Time, Inc.: pp. 140, 147 (top), 149, 152.
H. Roer Viollet: pp. 30, 72.
Elle Kuper photoreserched all the material provided by George
Et Hose.
u8 Photography & Si
Index
Adams, Ansl, 210
Adam-Salomon, Antoine Sam-
uel, 54. 77
Adamson, Roben, 49
Aiger, Lucien, 133. 135
Albin-Guillot, Laure, 135
Appert. E., r08
Arago, Franis, 23-27. 81
L' Ar de I photographi (Ds
deri), 65-66
Alget, Eugene, 89-90. 91, 93
Bain, George Granth 161
Bandy, I, 132
Baac, Oke, 127-28
Baudelaire, Carle, 40, 43.
78-79. 81
Bauhaus, 117. 196
Baumann, Hn. See Man,
Fdix H.
Bayard, Hippolyte, 28
Bals, Jesie Tarbx, 1 13
Bmann, Freilerr von, 127
Berliner Illustrirt. 117. no,
123. Il.
4
, 142
Srtall (Vicomt d'Amoux),
54. 63
Berlhmte Zetgenossen in Un
bewachten Agenblicken
(Salomon), IlI-13
Biscof, Werer, 173
Bisson Brothers, 46-47. 49.
h-8:
Blucer, von, 127
Brich, Frais, 99
Burke-White, Margaret, 147.
110
Brady, Mathew, 106. 107-8
Brasai, 193. 210
BraWl, Adolph, 96-99
Brigan. Anne, 91
Cloty, 50
Cmerales photogaphy, 194-
'96
Cmea obswra. 50
Cameras, 28-29. 86-87. II3,
119-20, 127-30, 201,
203-9
Ca Work. 91, 210
Cameron. Julia Margaret. 43
Capa, Crell. 210
Cpa. Robert, 132-33. 135-
36. 137, 161-62
Crbn pape, u of. 96
Carja, Etienne, 40. 43. 54. 79
Cart-de-vsite. 56-57. 84-85
Crter-Brs . H 203
Cve, M. 80
C. Cristan. 194
Chamhre Syndicle d Pho-
tograhie, 8J -84
Ce GilleLuis. 9. 13-
'
7
<ul . Wnn 1 50-5 I
G War (An). 106.
107-8
Cl oio prs 33. 96
Cmb, Georg 49
Cmur. See P Cm-
mune
Co mb. Fre. 32
Coyrigt, '75-78
Cb Gustve, 70-71, 72
Cm War, 104. 106
C
rp n
o
f
ph
os
,
'
7
'
Da '
9
4
DarL jaue
M 2
-26, 28, 29, 31.
J2
Dager
e
, 26-29. 31.
32-33
Daumie, H. 29. 35
Da Eu 80
D ja, I I J
Da Pu, 26, 59, 65-
66. 81
Ddeuze, Enjen, 73-74
Detce Pbotoen. Se
Do Ne Sc
Deho N Se 125. 132
Do

2
4
D Anre Adophe Eu
ge
49. 53. 55-59. 61.
65-68, 96
Dnu Robrt. 175, 178-
79
D Nturalisme dn ran
(We), 74-75
Dc David Douglas, 168,
,69
Et, George, 201, 210.
See also K
Eedt. Ae 127, 132,
147, 149
Ermanox cr II9-21, 127
Evan, Walker. II3, 210
Exure t 29-30, 106.
206
Farm Srity Administraon,
III. 113
Feton, R,
104. 105-7
Film, 86. 104, 128-29. 204-6
FraPrus an War, 108
Freund, Gisee, 95, 129-30,
162-68
Friemann, Ad. See Cpa,
Rbe
GaleUa, Rd E, IS2
Gere Ea Hous, 211,
2I2. See also Inttionl
Museum of Potoap
h
Gidal Brothers, I 27
Giroux. Alpone, 29, 32
Ga Broth"" 44-45
Gonord (physioot), 16-
'7
Goro, Frit, ] 3 2
Gouraud, Fra, 32
Gropius, Walter, I I7. 196
Ha, Est, 103
Hadd Britton, 143
Halfone urouction, ]04
Hannan, Fix, 135
Herst npaprs, 133
Heareld, Jhn, ,6" '94-95
Hfr, Hug, 183, IS7, 188
Hei
om
vure, 98
Herzdd. Hdmut. See Hert
feld, John
Hc, Wdson, '45
Hi
l
l, David Ovius, 49-50,
5'
He, Leis W., 108, I I I
Hder, Ado, [31-]35, 161
Hof Henric, 133 -3 5
How the Ote Half Lives
(Ri l, '08
Hubn , Kurt, See Hut
ton, Kurt
Hutton, Kurt, 132
11ustTated Weekly. 131
Impresioism, 88-89, 91
Industrial Eto of [855,
53 -54, 64. 66
Ine, Jen A Dmi
nique, 3, 77-78
Instmaic cm 203 -5
230 Photograhy & Sociey
Intetionl Cte of Pho
togaphy, 210
Interonl Museum of Pho
togaphy, 210
Johnston, Fr Bnjamin,
,6,
Just milieu painting, 59-60,
65, 81
Karsh, Yo, 212
Kertez, Andre, I 27, I 35, I 3 7
, 86, 87, 88, 201, 203-
5, 207
Koren War, 172
Korf , Kurt, 124. 131, 142
Krull, Ge, 127, 135, [37
Kyrou, Ao, ]00
Lmartne, Alphonse Me
Louis de, 77
Land, Edwin Robert, 205-6
Lange, Drothe, I I 3
Lasterie, Pilipp de, 4
L Gray, Gustave, 43. 45-49
Lc camea, 127-29. 130,
'
H
Lt factor, 128. 130-31
, 30, 64, 104, 128, 207
Life, 129, 132
. 139. 141-55
,
165-66, 215-16
l
lt
om
p
h, 4,
'
LoIaDt, Stan, ]24-26. 131
Le, Henry R, ] 3 9, 143,
146-49
McAvoy, Thomas, 129. 147
Magum A, 133, 161-62
Malraux, Ae 95
Man, Fdix H., 125-26. 127.
129. 132, 141
Maus T.-H., 27
Miniature, 10-11, 14, 17-18
Minolt 130, 28
Mx c, 204
Mohoy-Nag. L6,
1 17,
126, 194, 195-98
Mone, 156
Montuk Poto Cn. 161
Morris, John. 171-73
Munri, ntn, I27, 135
Munchner IlIustrierte Presse,
117, 124. 126
Musee imaginlire (Malraux),
95
Museum of Moem A, 210
Mussolini, Bito, 126, 129
Nadar, Felix Toumacon, 35,
36-45. 49, H, 80
Nadar, Pu, 42
Napoleo Il 47, 57, 81-82
Nam, 73-75, 77
Netve, 33, 50, 56, 128, 206
Nhl, Bumont. 212
New Vision (Mohoy-Nag).
'98
Niie, Isidore, 24. 26
Niie, Joph Nicphore, 22,
23-2.
Nixon, Rcr M., 168, 169
Oglvy, Dvd, 216
O., Jacuelin Ko y,
182-83
O'Sullivan, Timothy, 107
Painting, Photography, Film
(Moholy-Nagl, '95
Pntoaph, 14
Paparazi. 181-83
Paper. ue of, 28, 96
Pr Cmue. 66, 108
Paris-Match. 156-57. 169-71
P World's Fr of 1855. 53.
See also Industril Epoi
tion of 1855
Photo. 171
Photo 195-96
Phooaphy, cameales, 194.
[96
Potokina. 212-I 3
Phoomontge, 161, 194-95
Physioouac, 9, 13-18
Picture Post, 131
Pae, photoaphic, 22, 28,
29-30, 104-6, 120
Plyboy, r83-88
Plaid, 205-7
Plnref
. Micel, ISS-91
Ptcrd, 9S, 100
Prouvost, Jen, 156-57
Puyo, Emile Joacim Constant,
89
Pyle. Erie, 149
Quenedey, Edmund
(physionotacist), 14-17
R
ay. Man, 90
. 194. 210
R
ay
o
raph,

9
.
Rlism, 70-74
Realism, 71
Rocn, 42.
64-65
. SS,
".
Revolution surrealiste, 90
Ribeu, Pu, 164-65
Riboud, Marc, 2 5
Riis, Jacb A, lOS
Robinson. Henry Pec, 43, 63
R
ussell, A. J., 106
Somon, Ec, lIS, IIS-2.,
132, 141
Swbik M I17
Slf-po U.SA. (D,
.69
Sdde. Alois, -
Silhoet , II -1
3
Smith, W. E 103
Societe hetiogahiqe. S4
Soft-fos, 50, 88-89
Spolinski, Hdmu Ml e vn
"
7
Stdpole, Pt, 147
Stcen, Ewr, 91
Stelit, A 91, 161,210
Styke, Roy, 1 1 1
Surre
. 9
,
193-94
SX-
7
0 c 20S
, 206
Szaransk. 142
Szarkowski, John, 21 I
Tan, Hippolyte Adolphe, 70,
75
Tab Wl a Hn Fx, 18,
5
Tr. 143
TuI,
1
4
3
-
56
Tomo Fe. See Nadar,
Fe Tomo
U Ph Cmn,
lIS-I" 12.
4
Um 117
ViWa, 1
73,
uS-16
VoL '35-39
Vu, qo, 131, 135-39, 1
41
Web, W 117
Wey, F
r 7-75
Wod W U '7'
Yvn A 8I-S2
Ine 23'