Yates poem 'The Second Coming'

Queanbeyan Photos

HEROS and HEROS

J & D at Qbn

Garema Place, 18 Aug 09

Skin Holes

Vanity Fair Exhibition

 Q1: HOW DOES THE SUBJECTS’ BODY LANGUAGE ETC INFLUENCE WHAT WE READ OF THEIR PERSONALITY?

 Sergei Eisenstein 1930

Photographer: Barre

 This photo was taken in Paris just prior to the Russian film director Eisenstein’s departure to America where he worked also as a film director.  He looks like a larger than life character, but in this photo, as he looks straight into the camera, I feel that we are looking into his soul & that he is fed up. To me it certainly doesn’t look as if he is optimistic about his future in America.

Helen Mirrin 1995

Photographer: Snowdon

Taken while Mirrin is applying make-up for a stage show, she is looking quite business like. There is no deep emotion in the photo –this is just part of her daily routine. It does not appear to be a staged photo, though I’m sure it is. Perhaps she is reciting some of her lines.

 

Q2: COMPARE THE PHOTOGRAPHIC STRATIGUES (LIGHTING ETC) IN THE 2 ERAS.

 The lighting in the 1930 Barre photo does not seem too old fashioned. He has used several sources of lighting. Eisenstein is lit from the left mainly, but there is also a secondary light on his right hand and perhaps fill-in reflector lighting on his face. It looks as if he is in a theatre setting backstage. This is a real life setting for his line of work  – it is not especially illuminated to highlight it. The black and white photograph is not huge in keeping with the technology available at that time.

 In Lord Snowden’s photograph, it appears that the lighting comes from the stage lights around the mirror although most of the light shines on the right side of her fact (in the mirror). The whole of the dressing room is quite brightly lit so there is a lot of detail of what is behind her (stage clothes) & her make-up in front of her. Snowdon has made sure that everything in the photo is reasonably neutral in colour except Mirrin herself and this directs the observer to look at her. The 3^rd image – a mirror image of the mirror image comes from another mirror at right angles to the other mirrors. It is a large very colourful image very akin to most portraits in Vanity Fair in the 1990s. 

 Q3: HOW DOES THE PHOTOGRAPHER CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY?

Barre has taken the photo in what looks like the backstage of a theatre or film studio. Eisenstein being a film director fits into this scene very comfortably.  Snowden likewise has photographed Mirrin in her place of work – the theatre. Certainly Snowdon’s choice of lighting reflects the natural dressing room lighting. The double reflection adds to thoughts about Mirrin playing a number of different characters as an actor.

Q4: IS PORTRAITURE OF ‘CELEBRITIES’ TRUTHFUL IN ANY WAY, OR IS IT JUST PORTRAYING THE ‘CHARACHER’ OR ‘MASK’ THEY INHABIT?

Celebrities want the public to notice them. They are actors. So the characters that the portray is part of the who they are. They dress up (or undress) to be photographed and so to be noticed. They throw their bodies into all sorts of positions to get photographed in order to startle the public in ‘Look at me’ clothes & positions etc.

So I think that these portraits are not 100% truthful, but they are partially truthful.

 

 

 

 

The Collodion Process

The Collodion Process

Up until 1851, when Frederick Scott Archer, an English engraver and sculptor, introduced the Collodion Process, photographs lacked definition and were very grainy. In most photographic processes they also lacked the ability to produce multiple copies. In 1847 the albumin in egg whites was the best available method of binding the silver salts – often to glass in order to make a ‘negative’. In 1851, Archer started using ‘collodion’, which was nitrocellulose (guncotton) dissolved in either ether or alcohol. Collodian is a clear liquid-gel, used from the mid 1800s until at lease the 1980s as a medical liquid bandage.

In photography, this was used by painting the collodion/silver salt on glass (as a support). This had several advantages such as graininess was decreased; clarity was increased; and if the collodion/silver salt mixture was used wet, the exposure time was decreased. However this wet method required a portable darkroom (pulled by a horse of course!) if photographs were taken away from the studio. The dry collodion/silver salt coating on glass had very little light sensitivity so was rarely used as exposure times were too long. The size of the paper prints were still restricted by the size of the glass plate.

This process was used until approximately 1890.

 

REFERENCES

Leggat, Robert; ‘The Collodion Method’, 2001 http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/collodio.htm

Davenport, Alma; ‘The History of photography, an Overview’ p19

Rosenblum, Naomi; ‘History of Photograohy’ 3^rd Ed pp 32-34

PHOTO: http://expositions.bnf.fr/legray/images/3/025.jpg

Olympe Aguado, Self Portrait with His Brother Onésipe, 1853, collodion print, 250 x178 mm, (© Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la photographie)

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