Archive for the ‘nineteenth century’ Category
Close Quarters
Thomas Annan is best known for documenting slum conditions in Glasgow at the end of the nineteenth century. His photographs of the “closes” of the old city show the growing population, displaced from living on the land and recruited into factory work, squeezed into a new urban landscape. The buildings are literally close and Annan [...]
In: architecture, documentary, nineteenth century, photography, street life · Tagged with: Glasgow, Thomas Annan
Women of the Year
2010 marks the 90th anniversary of the passing of women’s suffrage and it’s a good year to commemorate two remarkable women: Susan B. Anthony, founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, and her portraitist for this image, photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. Two more energetic examples of women’s potential would be hard to find. Anthony held [...]
In: nineteenth century, portraiture · Tagged with: Frances Benjamin Johnston, Susan B. Anthony
Opening Doors
Browsing photograph archives in search of an image for this week, this early print struck me. Or rather, its 1840 caption struck me: “The Footman. The earliest photograph of a human figure on paper by William Henry Fox Talbot.” Though Fox Talbot is known for his pioneer photographs of his home, Lacock Abbey, and solar [...]
In: gaze, nineteenth century, photography, portraiture, servants · Tagged with: Roland Barthes, William Henry Fox Talbot
Ladies and Gentlemen
This image is part of a new and novel exhibition of Victorian Photocollage at the Art institute of Chicago this fall. It’s an example of the kind of constructed photographs that upper-middle-class and aristocratic women in England made and kept in scrapbooks to show friends. The collages are amazingly creative, with fanciful backgrounds in watercolors [...]
In: nineteenth century · Tagged with: photocollage
Magic Hands
A show of Richard Avedon’s photographs opens today at the International Center for Photography. In its honor I went looking for some of his work to comment on, but I didn’t want it to be too obvious, like one of the best known fashion images or celebrity portraits. So here you go: Avedon himself in [...]
In: contemporary, nineteenth century, photography, portraiture · Tagged with: Julia Margaret Cameron, Richard Avedon