Photography: Tool for Commerce, Vehicle for Art

Wednesday November 2, 2011

Friday September 30th TEST FORMAT Part I: 4 Slide IDs 2 points each for 8 points total

Part II: 8 Short Questions 1 point each for a possible total of 8 points
Part III: 3 short essays 2 points each for a total of 6 points

1.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Focus on these Study Objectives for Part III: (two will be selected) What was the purpose of Peales museum? In what ways was that purpose expressed? Which platforms (or which media) played significant roles in the lives and minds of 19th-century Philadelphians? What were they? What was their impact? By the end of the 1830s, Philadelphias identity had been redefined yet again. What happened, and what was the role of the citys creative community? Specifically, how did artists like Clay and Lippard break from tradition? How did Laurel Hill Cemetery and Fairmount Park manifest themselves in creative expression? "Eakins, like Whitman, sees beauty in everything. Why is this statement valuable for us as it relates to the art of Eakins? Explain what Michael D. Harris means when he discusses Tanners art as counterhegemonic. Would that term also apply to Eakins art? And, for the third essay question, choose one: The idea for Philadelphias City Hall evolved with a sense of itself unique to time and place. What were these forces and how were they resolved? Or William H. Rau's photographic series of the Pennsylvania Railroad had a particular mission. How did Rau manipulate reality and photography to achieve that mission?

8.

9.

Study Objectives for the Week

This week, exploring architecture and photography, were considering some of the work of Frank Furness, John McArthur, John Moran and William Rau. Here are our study objectives. (Both will appear on the test this Friday. You'll have your choice as to which one of the two to write up.) 1. The idea for Philadelphias City Hall evolved with a sense of itself unique to time and place. What were these forces and how were they resolved? 2. William H. Rau's photographic series of the Pennsylvania Railroad had a particular mission. How did Rau manipulate reality and photography to achieve that mission?

A capitalist society requires a culture based on images. It needs to furnish vast amounts of entertainment in order to stimulate buying and anesthetize the injuries of class, race, and sex. And it needs to gather unlimited amounts of information, the better to exploit natural resources, increase productivity, keep order, make war, give jobs to bureaucrats. The cameras twin capacities, to subjectivize reality and to objectify it, ideally serve these needs and strengthen them.
-Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977)

Photographic Hall at the Centennial Exhibition

thousands of works by 322 photographers from the US and the world

M.A. Root and the beginnings of photographys reflexivity

M.A. Roots daguerreotype case in Photography Hall at the Centennial Exhibition, 1876

M.A. Roots daguerreotype case Photography Hall at the Centennial Exhibition, 1876

John Moran writes in 1865: The Relation of Photography to the Fine Arts.

John Moran, photographer and Thomas Moran, painter On the Wissahickon, 1864 and 1870

Great Central Sanitary Fair, 1864

Paintings

Photography

John Moran (1831-1903) Thoughts on Nature, Art and Photography (1875): Art in all its forms is the form of thought, and the photographic work which rises to this plane is the expression of the photographer. Nature in some sort becomes plastic to his touch, and he moulds her to his judgment, this he does by selection rather than construction; this happy selection comes from the power to see the beautiful, and results from a highly trained taste.

John Morans naturalistic photography: He wanted viewers to connect with the subject but more, he wanted to capture the soul of nature and have an emotional response.

Nature becomes plastic to his touch, and he moulds her to his judgment.

Art or Documentation?

On the Wissahickon, 1864 John Moran, Nos. 44 and 46 N. Water Street, 1868

Art or Documentation?

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

Frederick DeBourg Richards, William Penns Mansion, 1854

John Moran Slate Roof House, 2nd above Walnut Frederick DeBourg Richards, William Penns Mansion, 1854

Birthplace of Benj. West, 1869

603 Penn St., 1868 Kingsessing School House

Robert Newell, Ancient building, first industrial society, Arch above Second [1875]

John Moran, House in Mickles Court, 1869.

Photographic Intent

John Moran, House in Mickles Court, 1869

Robert Newell, Ancient building, first industrial society, Arch above Second, 1875

Photographic Intent The Pennsylvania Limited, William H. Rau, ca. 1892 Terminal, Alfred Steiglitz, 1892. The Head Cook, Gilliams & Stratton, ca. 1910 The Swimming Hole, Thomas Eakins, 1883.

Terminal, by Alfred Steiglitz, 1892.

Galleries of the Photo-Secession, NYC (above) Walton Hotel, Philadelphia (below)

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

Third story of the family studio at 930 Girard Street home to William Rau and Louise Bell after their marriage in 1877.

Rau remained in partnership with his brother until 1880.

Edward L. Wilson William Rau and Louise Bell Rau

Rau and Wilson knew how photographers established reputations and built careers

William Bell, Perched Rock, Rocker Creek, Arizona, 1872

Maxime Du Camp, 1850 Henry Cammas, 1859-1860

Francis Frith in Egypt, 1856-1860

I am working for fame and name and feel sure that I will have both as I am straining every nerve to make this the most remarkable expedition in this line that has every been contemplated. -William H. Rau In a letter to Louise Bell Rau, January 8, 1882.

The Wilson Lectures At the Academy of Music in 1885:

From the Dead Sea To Damascus

The Taking of Petra

Ramses and Aboo Simbel The Sinai Peninsula

William H. Raus office and studio, Corner of Juniper and Chestnut Sts.

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

Rau documents both the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Lehigh Valley Railroad

Soft Coal Hollow, Greenwich Point Hopper cars in this South Philadelphia holding yard handled 300 cars of coal daily

Quadruple Track Tanks at Monmouth Junction, NJ Track tanks enabled trains to maintain speeds of 40-50 mph while taking on water.

Pennsylvania Limited, on Susquehanna Bridge, at Rockville. PRRs premier, east-west train: baggage/club car; dining car; 3 Pullman cars and an observation car.

The surf bathing [in Atlantic City] is superb and safe, the facilities for boating and sailing are practically unlimited, and the fishing in the inlets or the deep sea is matchless.

Pennsylvania Limited on the Horseshoe Curve

Observation End on Penna. Limited, on the Horseshoe Curve

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

A capitalist society requires a culture based on images. It needs to furnish vast amounts of entertainment in order to stimulate buying and anesthetize the injuries of class, race, and sex. And it needs to gather unlimited amounts of information, the better to exploit natural resources, increase productivity, keep order, make war, give jobs to bureaucrats. The cameras twin capacities, to subjectivize reality and to objectify it, ideally serve these needs and strengthen them.
-Susan Sontag, On Photography