Fotografía: Light, Science, and the History of Photography

by James William Moore

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Fotographía: Light, Science, and the History of Photography traces the evolution of photography from its scientific origins to its role in today's digital and networked world. Combining historical context, visual analysis, and cultural interpretation, the text examines how photography has shaped—and been shaped by—art, science, technology, politics, journalism, identity, and everyday life.

Description from LibreTexts.

Publisher
Gavilan College
Subjects
Humanities
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, as LibreTexts states it. Non-commercial use only.
Who can read
Teens profiles and older, judged from its title and subjects

Contents

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  1. Front Matter
  2. Fotografía: Light, Science, and the History of Photography
  3. InfoPage
  4. Table of Contents
  5. Licensing
  6. 1: Front Cover
  7. 2: Preface
  8. 2.1: Why This Book was Written
  9. 2.2: About the Author
  10. 2.3: How to Use this Book
  11. 2.4: Acknowledgements
  12. 3: Introduction
  13. 4: BPE (Before Photography Era)
  14. 4.1: Advancing Toward Photography
  15. 4.1.1: The Early Philosophers and Thinkers
  16. 4.1.2: Renaissance optics and linear perspective
  17. 4.1.3: The rise of lens-making
  18. 4.1.4: The Enlightenment and mass visual culture
  19. 4.1.5: Proto-cameras and projection entertainment
  20. 4.1.6: Visual realism and pre-photographic technologies
  21. 4.2: The Chemical Action of Light
  22. 4.2.1: Alchemy to Chemistry- Silver Salts and Sensitivity
  23. 4.2.2: Schulze, Wedgwood, and the Race to Fix the Image
  24. 4.2.3: Theoretical Predictions in Fiction and Science
  25. 5: The Invention of Photography
  26. 5.1: Photography's Chemical Reaction
  27. 5.1.1: Heliograph
  28. 5.1.2: The Daguerreotype Era
  29. 5.1.3: The Calotype and Paper Photography
  30. 5.1.4: The Fix and Cyanotype
  31. 5.1.5: The Wet Plate Revolution
  32. 5.1.6: The Albumen Print- The Photograph Goes Mass Market
  33. 5.2: Global Contributions and Overlooked Innovators
  34. 5.2.1: Elizabeth Fulhame
  35. 5.2.2: Antoine Hercule Romuald Florence
  36. 5.2.3: Hippolyte Bayard
  37. 5.2.4: Mungo Ponton
  38. 5.2.5: Anna Atkins
  39. 5.2.6: Analysis- British Algae
  40. 6: Photography's Expansion- Art, Science, and Society
  41. 6.1: From Science to Beyond
  42. 6.1.1: Photography's Expanding Role
  43. 6.1.2: The Democratic Turn
  44. 6.2: The Democratization of Photography
  45. 6.2.1: The Rise of the Portrait Studio
  46. 6.2.2: Access for the Middle Class and Entrepreneurs
  47. 6.2.3: Photographic Authenticity and Social Status
  48. 6.2.4: The Draw of Death- Post Mortem Photography in the Victorian Era
  49. 6.2.5: INSET- Protecting the Precious Image
  50. 6.2.6: Case Study- Frederick Douglass and the Power of the Photographic Portrait
  51. 6.3: The Collodion Revolution
  52. 6.3.1: Overview of the Process
  53. 6.3.2: Technical Advantages and Accessibility
  54. 6.3.3: Portable Darkrooms and the Traveling Photographer
  55. 6.3.4: From One-of-a-Kind to Mass Reproducibility
  56. 6.3.5: The Global Impact
  57. 6.4: War Photography - Witnessing Conflict
  58. 6.4.1: The Crimean War
  59. 6.4.2: The US Civil War
  60. 6.4.3: Gardner's "Photographic Sketch Book of War"
  61. 6.4.4: Impact on Public Perception and National Memory
  62. 6.4.5: The Ethics and Politics of War Photography
  63. 7: The Artistic Eye- Photography and Cultural Vision
  64. 7.1: Photography and The Arts
  65. 7.1.1: The Tension Between Art and Mechanical Reproduction
  66. 7.1.2: Early Artistic Uses of the Medium
  67. 7.1.3: Photography Adopts Realism- A Reciprocal Influence
  68. 7.1.3.1: CASE STUDY- Gustave Le Gray - The Sublime is Real
  69. 7.1.3.2: CASE STUDY- Charles Nègre - The Art of Everyday Labor
  70. 7.1.3.3: CASE STUDY- David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson - The Human Portrait
  71. 7.1.4: Photography as Allegory
  72. 7.1.4.1: Oscar Gustave Rejlander and the Composite Image
  73. 7.1.4.2: Henry Peach Robinson and the Pictorial Tableau
  74. 7.1.4.3: Julia Margaret Cameron and the Poetic Portrait
  75. 7.2: Beyond the Studio- Genre, Landscape, and Literary Subject
  76. 7.2.1: Genre Photography
  77. 7.2.2: Nadar- Photography of Character and Modern Life
  78. 7.2.3: INSET- The Picturesque and the Sublime in Photographic Landscape
  79. 7.2.4: Carleton Watkins — Landscape, Vision, and the American Sublime
  80. 7.2.5: Lewis Carroll — The Literary Subject and the Photographic Imagination
  81. 7.3: Photography as Social Mirror
  82. 7.3.1: Visual Documentation of Class, Race, and Labor
  83. 7.3.2: Social Reform and Documentary Photography
  84. 7.3.3: Photographic Evidence and Objectivity Debates
  85. 7.4: Women Behind the Lens
  86. 7.4.1: Opportunities Created by Accessibility
  87. 7.4.2: Women Photographers in the 19th Century
  88. 7.4.3: Lady Clementina Hawarden- The Intimate Lens of the Victorian Home
  89. 8: A Global Medium- Photography and Empire
  90. 8.1: Global Reach and Cultural Influence
  91. 8.1.1: Expansion of Photography Across the World
  92. 8.1.2: Colonial Photography and Visual Power Dynamics
  93. 8.1.3: Photographic Exchange Between Cultures
  94. 8.2: A Medium Takes Root
  95. 8.2.1: Tool of Empowerment and Surveillance
  96. 8.2.2: Foundation for the Visual Century to Come
  97. 8.2.3: The Transition Toward Modernism
  98. 9: Modernity and Photography
  99. 9.1: What is Modernity?
  100. 9.2: Timeline and Movements
  101. 9.3: Modernity and Photography
  102. 9.3.1: Pictorialism - Photography as Fine Art
  103. 9.3.2: Photo Secession - A movement of Legitimacy
  104. 9.3.3: Straight Photography - Embracing the Machine
  105. 9.4: Modernity and the Camera
  106. 9.5: Photography as Mass Culture
  107. 9.6: The Photo Booth and The Mass Production of Self
  108. 9.7: Artistic Responses to Mass Culture
  109. 9.8: Conclusion
  110. 10: The Great War and Photography's Role
  111. 10.1: The Prehistory of War Photography (1850s-1914)- Templates WII Inherits
  112. 10.2: Why WWI Matters in Photographic History
  113. 10.3: The Camera Goes to War- New Roles and New Visual Problems
  114. 10.4: Technologies of Seeing- Battlefield Optics and the Limits of the Lens
  115. 10.5: Reconnaissance Photography and the Birth of Modern Photo-Intelligence
  116. 10.6: Official Photographers, Embedded Access, and the Managed Image
  117. 10.7: Censorship, Propaganda, and the Battle Over Belief
  118. 10.8: Soldier Photography and the Vernacular War Archive
  119. 10.9: The Home Front- Mass Media, Fundraising, and Public Emotion
  120. 10.10: Injury, Atrocity, and the Medical Camera
  121. 10.11: Aftermath- Memory, Ruins, and the Visual Template for the 20th Century
  122. 11: Between Wars
  123. 11.1: Art Movements between Wars
  124. 11.2: Dada and Photography- Anti-Art in an Age of Machines
  125. 11.2.1: Case Study- Hannah Höch
  126. 11.3: The Machines Age and the Modernist Eye
  127. 11.3.1: Case Study- Lásló Maholy-Nagy
  128. 11.3.2: Case Study- Albert Renger-Patzsch
  129. 11.3.3: Case Study- Margaret Bourke-White
  130. 11.4: New Vision (Neues Sehen/Neues Sachlichkeit)
  131. 11.4.1: Case Study- August Sander
  132. 11.5: Surrealism and the Unconscious Image
  133. 11.5.1: Case Study- Man Ray
  134. 11.5.2: Case Study- Claude Cahun
  135. 11.5.3: Case Study- Brassaï
  136. 11.6: Documentary Authority and Social Typologies
  137. 11.6.1: August Sanders and Social Typologies
  138. 11.6.2: Other Typological Projects
  139. 11.6.3: Case Study- Karl Blossfeldt
  140. 11.6.4: Case Study- Lewis Hine
  141. 11.7: Photography Between Avant-Garde Experiment and Mass Communication
  142. 11.8: The Rise of Photojournalism
  143. 11.9: Photography Between Art and Politics
  144. 11.10: Photography as the Visual Language of the Modern Era
  145. 11.11: Conclusion
  146. 12: Photography in War and Aftermath
  147. 12.1: Introduction
  148. 12.2: The First Fully Photographed Global Conflict
  149. 12.3: Photography as a Military Tool- Reconnaissance, Documentation, and Progaganda
  150. 12.4: The Photographer as Witness
  151. 12.5: Case Study- Tony Vacarro and the Soldier's View of WWII
  152. 12.6: Case Study- Margaret Bourke-White and the Wartime Witness in Mass Media
  153. 12.7: Lee Miller- From Surrealism to War Correspondence
  154. 12.8: The Rise of the Photo Essay
  155. 12.9: Magazines as Mass Visual Platforms
  156. 12.10: Photography, Truth and Atrocity
  157. 12.11: Aftermath- Photography and Collective Memory
  158. 12.12: Legacy and Influence
  159. 12.13: Chapter Summary- Conclusion
  160. 13: Modernism Consolidated
  161. 13.1: Photography in the Postwar World
  162. 13.2: The Legacy of Prewar Modernism
  163. 13.3: Regional Case Studies in Postwar Modernism
  164. 13.4: Bauhaus Afterlives- A Postwar Visual Grammar
  165. 13.5: Group ƒ/64 and the Ascendancy of Formal Modernism
  166. 13.6: Formal Modernism in the United States Context
  167. 13.7: The Rise of Street Photography
  168. 13.8: The Decisive Moment
  169. 13.9: Robert Frank and "The Americans"
  170. 13.10: Expanding Modernism- Photography Beyond the United States
  171. 13.11: Global Modernism and Divergent Paths
  172. 13.12: Toward Postmodernism
  173. 13.13: Modernism Reconsidered
  174. 14: Questioning Photography- The 60s and 70s
  175. 14.1: Photography in a Time of Doubt
  176. 14.2: Historical and Cultural Context
  177. 14.3: From Modernist Purity to Conceptual Inquiry
  178. 14.4: Photography and the Question of Truth
  179. 14.5: Diane Arbus and the Unsettling Portrait
  180. 14.6: The Rise of Conceptual Photography
  181. 14.7: Performance, the Body, and the Camera
  182. 14.8: Feminist Interventions- Photography, Representation, and Power
  183. 14.9: Appropriation and Rephotography
  184. 14.10: New Documentary and Social Critique
  185. 14.10.1: Case Study- The New Topographics- Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape
  186. 14.10.2: CASE STUDY- William Eggleston and the Arrival of Serious Color
  187. 14.11: Identity, Representation, and Self-Fashioning
  188. 14.12: Photography in the Expanded Field
  189. 14.13: Theoretical Frameworks and Critical Writing
  190. 14.14: Legacy and Transition
  191. 14.15: Photography after Certainty
  192. 15: Postmodernism and the Image Question- The 80s and 90s
  193. 15.1: From Certainty to Questioning
  194. 15.2: Defining Post-Modernism in Photography
  195. 15.3: Appropriation and the Death of Originality
  196. 15.3.1: Case Study- Sherry Levine
  197. 15.3.2: Case Study- Richard Prince
  198. 15.3.3: Case Study- Louise Lawler
  199. 15.3.4: Case Study- Cindy Sherman
  200. 15.3.5: Case Study Yasumasa Morimura
  201. 15.4: The Staged Image and Constructed Realities
  202. 15.4.1: Case Study- Jeff Wall, Large-Scale Tableaux and the “Near Documentary”
  203. 15.4.2: Case Study- Gregory Crewdson, Suburban Anxiety and Cinematic Lighting
  204. 15.4.3: Case Study- Sandy Skoglund, Surreal Installations for the Camera
  205. 15.4.4: Case Study- Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Ambiguity between Candid and Staged
  206. 15.4.5: Case Study- Wang Qingsong, Large-Scale Staged Scenes and the Spectacle of Social Transformation
  207. 15.4.6: Case Study- Yinka Shonibare, Staged Tableaux as Postcolonial Performance
  208. 15.4.7: From Constructed Scenes to Constructed Selves
  209. 15.5: Identity, Representation, and the Politics of the Image
  210. 15.5.1: Case Study- Carrie Mae Weems, History, Race, and the Personal as Political
  211. 15.5.2: Case Study- Lorna Simpson, Text, Image, and the Fragmentation of Identity
  212. 15.5.3: Case Study- Nan Goldin, Intimacy, Community, and Lived Experience
  213. 15.5.4: Case Study- Shirin Neshat (Iran/US), Gender, Power, and Diaspora—The Image as Confrontation and Testimony
  214. 15.5.5: From Identity to the Saturated Image
  215. 15.6: Photography and Theory - Reading Images Critically
  216. 15.6.1: Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra, and the Photograph without an Original
  217. 15.6.2: High and Low- The Collapse of Cultural Boundaries
  218. 15.6.3: A Reading Toolkit- Representation and Spectatorship
  219. 15.6.4: Key Theoretical Lenses- Accessible Anchors
  220. 15.6.4.1: Stuart Hall — Representation and How Meaning Is Produced, Circulated, and Contested
  221. 15.6.4.2: bell hooks — The Oppositional Gaze, Power Dynamics in Looking and Being Looked At
  222. 15.6.4.3: Susan Sontag — Image Saturation, Witnessing, Voyeurism, and How Repeated Exposure Shapes Viewer Response
  223. 15.7: The Culture Wars - The First Amendment, Censorship, and Photography Oh my!
  224. 15.7.1: Case Study- Robert Mapplethorpe, The Perfect Moment, and the Censorship of Photographic Form
  225. 15.7.2: Case Study- Andres Serrano, Immersion (Piss Christ), and the Politics of Blasphemy
  226. 15.8: Institutional Critique and the Art World
  227. 15.9: Technology, Media Saturation, and the Late Analog Era
  228. 15.10: Global Perspectives and Expanding Narratives
  229. 15.10.1: Regional Case Study- Latin America — Memory, Dictatorship Aftermath, and the Image as Evidence/Problem
  230. 15.10.2: Regional Case Study- Africa — Studio Portraiture, Self-Fashioning, and Modern Identity
  231. 15.10.3: Regional Case Study- Asia — Appropriation, Spectacle, and Accelerated Modernization
  232. 15.10.4: Regional Case Study- Middle East / Diaspora — Gender, Power, Censorship, and Displacement
  233. 15.11: The Legacy of Postmodern Photography
  234. 16: The Digital Turn
  235. 16.1: From Analog to Digital - Continuity and Disruption
  236. 16.2: The Origins of Digital Imaging
  237. 16.3: The Digital Camera Emerges
  238. 16.4: Pixels, Code, and the Loss of the Physical Negative
  239. 16.5: Truth, Manipulation, and the Crisis of Photographic Credibility
  240. 16.6: The Photographer as Post-Producer
  241. 16.7: The Image in Circulation - Speed, Screens, and Social Media
  242. 16.8: The Cellphone and the Ubiquitous Camera
  243. 16.9: Digital Aesthetics and New Visual Languages
  244. 16.10: Archiving, Memory, and Digital Fragility
  245. 16.11: Toward Post-Digital Photography
  246. 16.12: Conclusion
  247. 17: Photography in the 21st Century
  248. 17.1: Photography after the Digital Turn
  249. 17.2: The Camera in the Hand- Smartphone Photography and Everyday Image Culture
  250. 17.2.1: Case Study- Richard Koci Hernandez — iPhone Street Photography and Mobile Visual Culture
  251. 17.2.2: Case Study- Amalia Ulman — Instagram Performance and Constructed Identity
  252. 17.2.3: Case Study- Cindy Sherman’s Instagram Work — Postmodern Self-Fashioning and App-Based Persona
  253. 17.3: Images That Move- Social Media, Protest, and Political Visibility
  254. 17.3.1: Case Study- Ruddy Roye — Instagram-Based Documentary and Black Life in America
  255. 17.3.2: Case Study- Sheila Pree Bright — Protest, Identity, and Civic Visibility
  256. 17.4: Beyond the Frame- Installation, Archive, Performance, and the Photographic Object
  257. 17.5: Slow Light- The Return of Photographic Materiality
  258. 17.6: The Archive After the Cloud- Memory, Loss, and Photographic Survival
  259. 17.7: Performing the Self- Portraiture, Identity, and Visibility
  260. 17.7.1: Case Study- Catherine Opie — Portraiture, Queer Visibility, and the Right to Be Seen
  261. 17.7.2: Case Study- Pixy Liao — Gender Roles, Intimacy, and Playful Reversal
  262. 17.7.3: Case Study- Tyler Mitchell — Black Joy, Fashion, and the Portrait as Possibility
  263. 17.7.4: Case Study- Susan Harding — Portraiture, Beauty Standards, and Reclaiming the Gaze
  264. 17.8: After the Sublime- Landscape, Climate, and Environmental Witness
  265. 17.9: Who Is Looking Now? Surveillance, Data, and Machine Vision
  266. 17.9.1: Case Study- Trevor Paglen — Surveillance, Military Secrecy, and AI Datasets
  267. 17.9.2: Case Study- Hito Steyerl — Image Circulation, Digital Power, and the Poor Image
  268. 17.9.3: Case Study- Felix Quintana — Google Street View, Cyanotype, and Reclaiming Machine-Made Images
  269. 17.10: No Single Center- Contemporary Photography as a Global Field
  270. 17.11: Photography After Photography?
  271. Back Matter
  272. Index
  273. Glossary
  274. Detailed Licensing
  275. Detailed Licensing