Revolutions in

Communication
Media History from
Gutenberg
to the Digital Age

Slides based on the Bloomsbury book by Bill Kovarik

Chapter 4 Photography
Web site & textbook
http://www.revolutionsincommunication.com

Textbook:

1st edition – 2011 2nd edition – 2016

Joseph Niepce - first photo 1826
 Louis
Daguerre

A Daguerrotype of
Edgar Allen Poe
‘Elevating photography to art’
Honoré Daumier lithograph
c. 1862.

Note the many photo

studios on the streets of
Paris below.

Nadar (Gaspard-Félix
Tournachon) was a
photographer and ballonist.

The reason he is “elevating

photography to art” is
because at the time only
“art” could be copyrighted.
Making fun of photograpy
Artists & writers worried about
images

Honoré Daumier
saw photography as
a lazy way to produce
art.
 Bisson
brothers,185
0s

Beginnings
of outdoor &
environment
al
photography
Roger Fenton’s Crimean War
outfit
On or off? Which came first?
On or off? Which came first?
Brady studio, Broadway NYC
This Brady
photo was
widely
distributed
during
Lincoln’s
1860
presidential
campaign
Brady with Burnside, portrait
Brady – Antietam 1862
Three prisoners after Gettysburg
Oscar
Wilde
copyright
controversy
This photo was widely
reproduced without
permission, giving rise to
the Burrow-Giles case
that put photography
under copyright protection
in 1884.
George
Eastman

Kodak Co.

Celluloid film
camera,
1880s
Eugene
Atget
1898
Paris
Edward
Curtis
1908
Pictorialis
m

Edward
Steichen

Flatiron
1905
Joseph
Stieglitz –
Steerage
Straight photography
Paul Strand – Wall Street 1915
Social
reform

Jacob Riis
1890s
Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine

Powerhouse
mechanic

1920
Sebastiao Salgado
Sebastiao Salgado
Walker
Evans
Dorothea Lange
Gordon
Parks

Hired by the FSA in

1942, took this picture
on his first day on the
job of Ella Watson.
War photography: Capa
Robert
Capa
D-Day – Capa
Robert Capa
Margaret Bourke White
W. Eugene
Smith
Joe Rosenthal
WEEGEE

Arthur Fellig (1898

1968) was a tough
New York news
photographer
Peter Liebing, 1961, Berlin
Malcolm Browne, 1963, photo of Thich Quang Duc
Eddie Adams, Vietnam, 1968
John Filo, Kent State, 1970
Nick Ut, Vietnam, 1972
Tiananmen Square, 1989
Earthrise
- NASA
Photo by astronaut
William Anders of
Apollo 8 on
Christmas Eve,
1968.
 Ansel
Adams
Relocation camp
1942. While it has
the characteristic
Ansel Adams
mountain scene in
the background, the
photo is a protest
over the treatment
of Japanese
Americans in World
War II.
W. Eugene Smith, Minamata,
1972
 W.
Eugene
Smith

"The Walk
to Paradise
Garden”

1942
Robert
Mapplethorpe
(1946 – 1989)
 Annie
Liebowitz
Kevin Carter, 1993, Sudan
 Digital photography
• Kodak’s prototypes
developed in 1970s
• Professionals began
using digital processing
and imaging in the 1980s
• Late 1990s, early 2000s
new consumer digital
cameras arrive, and
some are Kodak
Kodak experimental
• But the market did not
digital camera 1975:
generate the same level
0.01 megapixels
of profits, and Kodak
went bankrupt in 2012
Review: People
 Louis Daguerre, Joseph Niepce,
Matthew Brady, Roger Fenton,
Edward Steichen, Joseph Steiglitz,
Paul Strand, George Eastman, Jacob
Riis, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange,
Sebastio Salgado, Henry Luce,
Gordon Parks, Robert Capa, Joe
Rosenthal, Ansel Adams, Jacques
Cousteau
Review: Issues
 Invention by Daguerre, copyright and
photography, celluloid film, flash
photography for indoors, Pictorialist
movement, Straight photography
movement, Farm Services
Administration, photo magazines, war
photography, digital photos, ethical
issues, future of photography.
Next: Chapter 5
Cinema