Happy 224th Birthday, Daguerre!

Matthew Van Loan, [Unidentified Boy in Front of Painted Backdrop of US Capitol], 1841

Southworth & Hawes, [Unidentified Woman], ca. 1845-50

Unidentified Photographer (French), [Two Unidentified Children], ca. 1850

Unidentified Photographer, [Gold Miners], ca. 1850

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Clergyman in Casket], ca. 1850

Unidentified Photographer, [Know-Nothing Party Rally for Daniel Ullman, Seneca Falls, New York], 1854

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) was a scientist and artist who, along with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), is credited with creating a process to make permanent photographs. We celebrate the birthday of one of photography’s founding fathers with a selection of unique daguerreotypes from the collection.

Paulette Goddard

Martin Munkacsi, [Paulette Goddard and dog, Hollywood], 1937

Paulette Goddard (1910–1990) was an American film and theater actress. A former child model, she was cast in several Broadway productions such as Ziegfeld Girl. Goddard and was a major star of the Paramount Studios and was married to several notable men including Charlie Chaplin and Burges Meredith. Goddard and Chaplin met in 1943 when she was looking to invest in a film that would later be named Modern Times. Following its success, Chaplin planned other roles for Goddard, including his 1940 film The Great Dictator. The couple split soon after.

Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail.

The later half of her life was spent as a socialite in New York. Goddard was also known to be friends with the likes of Andy Warhol.

Stephen K. Schuster, ICP-Bard MFA 2012

The Science of Sports

Dr. Harold Eugene Edgerton (American, 1903–1990) was given the 1987 ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement. Edgerton revolutionized photography in the 1930’s with his incorporation of strobe lights into the medium (an effect which essentially allowed split-second motion to be captured). What was once invisible to the human eye became visible, and for the first time in history cause and effect could be documented to the fullest extent. In sports, this meant the contortions of the human body through movement and the transferal of energy to a specific object (primarily at the moment of impact). So, as we watch live television broadcasts of sporting events, we should (re)consider what we are witnessing and what, indeed, is actually taking place.

Harold Edgerton, Driving the Golf Ball, 1935

Harold Edgerton, Charles Hare Serves, 1938

Harold Edgerton, Back Dive, 1954

Gjon Mili, Dr. Harold E. Edgerton taking stroboscopic picture of Joe Maniaci, ace running back of the Chicago Bears, kicking a football, ca. 1939

An American Girl in Italy Turns 60

Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, 1951 (© 1952, 1980 Ruth Orkin)

Ruth Orkin, [Contact Sheet from American Girl in Italy], 1951

It’s the 60th anniversary of Ruth Orkin’s photograph American Girl in Italy. To celebrate the anniversary there is an exhibition at the Stephen Bulger Gallery, in Toronto, Canada…
The photograph, of a much appreciated Jinx Allen (Ninalee Craig), near the Piazza della Repubblica, in Florence was made on a hot morning on August 22, 1951…

(Two recent articles from two Canadian newspapers, can be read here and here…)

The Ruth Orkin Photo Archive is here: http://www.orkinphoto.com/

Shadows and Graves, New York City

Rudy Burckhardt, Flatiron Building, 1948

Rudy Burckhardt, Astor Place, 1948

Rudy Burckhardt, Singer Building, New York, 1948

Rudy Burckhardt (American, born Switzerland, 1914–1999), known for his city and urban photography, captured a series of aerial views of New York in 1948. These images look vaguely familiar but they are eerie reminders of a landscape which, for all intents, is constantly shifting and adapting to its inhabitants. Where some images are shadows of our past, outlining familiar shapes and streets, others are ghostly windows into an unfamiliar cityscape (demolished, remolded, and forgotten in time). These images, and subsequent ones formed in both our minds and on film, act as constant reminders of a city that will always live up to its self-proclaimed newness.

In Top Hats–In Trouble

Weegee, [Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber using their top hats to hide their faces, New York], January 27, 1942

This image was shot by Weegee and published in the New York Daily News with the headline “In Top Hats–In Trouble” on January 27, 1942. These two men, Charles Sodokoff and Arthur Webber, are referred to in the Daily News as boys, although one is 28 and the other 32. They were apparently very drunk, and arrested for sliding down the banisters at Astor Bar. When a police officer arrived, the two men assaulted the cop.

Weegee worked as a press photographer, and was known for capturing unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death.

Daniel Temkin, ICP-Bard MFA 2012

A Few Blue Notes

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Girl], ca. 1909

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Woman Sitting on Fallen Tree in Forest], ca. 1909

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Girl on Horseback], ca. 1909

Cyanotypes found favor among amateur photographers of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for several reasons. The materials to produce cyanotypes were easily accessible and relatively inexpensive. The process was invented in 1842 by the English scientist John Herschel. Herschel had originally developed cyanotypes as a way to duplicate documents like notes or diagrams. He had discovered an iron salt solution that, when applied to a surface and exposed to ultraviolet light, would produce a deep blue hue. After treating a surface with the iron salt solution, Herschel could then place a negative on top, expose it to ultraviolet light, and create a reversed duplicate of the image.

In 1843, the botanist Anna Atkins took Herschel’s discovery and used it to create a series of cyanotype photograms for her book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Atkins produced the photograms through contact printing by placing objects directly onto chemically treated paper and then exposing them it in the sun, creating a silhouette of the object. The book propelled the cyanotype into the realm of photography by providing greater exposure of the medium. The process soon became popular with amateur photographers after commercial papers such as blue print paper (including these postcard-sized papers) were mass produced.

Unidentified Photographer, [Unidentified Man and Woman and Church], ca. 1909