Unit 2 Flashcards
What invention is associated with the year 1877?
the phonograph
The phonograph was one of the first devices to record and reproduce sound.
Which invention was developed in 1897?
the electric light bulb
The electric light bulb revolutionized indoor lighting and extended productive hours.
What significant weapon was invented in 1882?
the recoil operated machine gun
This type of machine gun utilized the recoil from firing to cycle the weapon.
What year was the Kodak camera introduced?
1888
The Kodak camera popularized photography by making it accessible to the general public.
What automotive milestone occurred in 1893?
the Ford car
The Ford car marked the beginning of the automotive industry as we know it today.
What innovation related to photography was developed in 1885?
coated photographic paper
Coated photographic paper allowed for better image quality in photography.
Which major discoveries and inventions occurred in 1895? (List at least three)
- Freud publishes his studies on hysteria
- X-rays discovered
- Radio telegraph invented
- Lumiere brothers invent the movie camera
These advancements significantly impacted medicine, communication, and entertainment.
What technological breakthrough in sound recording occurred in 1903?
the magnetic recording of sound
Magnetic recording was pivotal for the development of audio technology.
What was the first voice radio transmission, and when did it occur?
1903
This marked the beginning of radio communication as a medium.
What significant achievement did the Wright brothers accomplish in 1903?
made their first powered flight
This event is considered a landmark in the history of aviation.
In what year did Einstein formulate his theory of relativity?
1905
Einstein’s theory of relativity fundamentally changed the understanding of time, space, and gravity.
The formulation of Einstein’s theory of relativity ushered in which major era?
the nuclear age
This theory laid the groundwork for advancements in nuclear physics.
What contributed to the popularity of postcards?
Changes in postal regulations and the invention of the halftone printing process.
What was a common use for postcards?
They were collected and sent to friends and family.
How many postcards were sent between 1907 and 1908?
More than 667 million postcards were sent.
What were popular subjects for postcards?
Tourist spots, news events, images of non-Western peoples, erotic images, American farms, factories & cities, natural wonders, and cowboys.
What is Naturalistic Photography?
Naturalistic Photography is a style that emphasizes capturing images as they are seen in nature, focusing on selective focus and realism.
Who wrote Naturalistic Photography?
Naturalistic Photography was written by Peter Henry Emerson.
What idea did Emerson reject in Naturalistic Photography?
Emerson rejected the idea of art as primarily a means of personal and emotional expression.
How did Emerson view works of imagination?
Emerson derided works of imagination as untrue.
What did Emerson believe a photograph should do?
Emerson believed a photograph should echo what the human eye sees in nature.
What did Emerson’s pictures emphasize in his book?
Emerson’s pictures for his book, Life and Landscape of the Norfolk Broads, emphasized the unchanged relationship of people to the land.
What did Emerson later publish regarding his theory?
Emerson later published a pamphlet titled ‘The Death of Naturalistic Photography,’ rejecting his own theory.
Why did Emerson reject his own theory?
Emerson thought his theory limited the individuality of the artist.
What was the goal of the Pictorialism movement?
To elevate photography to the status of art object and raise aesthetic experience to a paramount life goal.
What do Pictorialists believe about the camera?
They believe that the camera could engage the feelings and senses.
Which writer influenced the Pictorialism movement?
Emerson’s writings.
What is a key characteristic of Pictorialism regarding industrialization?
There is a disdain for industrialization and mass-produced goods.
What type of photography is associated with Pictorialism?
Impressionistic photography, which renders a personal response to a subject.
What is the Gum-Bichromate Process?
A process favored by Pictorialists that allowed pigment to be added to a print.
What were popular subjects in Pictorialist photography?
Agrarian life, simplicity, fog & shadows, women & nudes.
What are some stylistic features of Pictorialism?
Tonal complexity, soft-focus (fuzzygraph), evocative & expressive style, and a distaste for distracting details.
What type of paper was commonly used for Pictorialist prints?
Textured paper.
How were negatives and prints treated in Pictorialism?
They were handworked.
What is the Photo-Secession?
An organization created by Alfred Steiglitz in 1902 to advance photography as applied to pictorial expression.
What was the purpose of the Photo-Secession?
To draw together Americans interested in art and to hold exhibitions not limited to the productions of the Photo-Secession or American work.
What is Camera Work?
A periodical on photography published by Steiglitz from 1903 to 1917.
What was Gallery 291?
A gallery founded by Steiglitz that regularly showed work of Pictorialist photographers and modern art, including Picasso.
What was the Armory Show?
A significant exhibition held in Gallery 291 featuring 1300 pieces of modern European art.
What did Steiglitz’s series of cloud studies represent?
His belief that the ordinary world abounded with evocative symbols.
What was a popular theme of Pictorialist art regarding women?
Association of women with nature and domesticity.
What was the general acceptance of women in photography during the Pictorialist Movement?
There was a general acceptance of women practicing photography at this time (i.e. the Kodak Girl).
Why were women believed to be better at portraiture in the Pictorialist Movement?
Women were believed to have a more intuitive understanding of the sitter’s personality and a wider range of emotional response than men.
How did Anne Brigman portray women in her photography?
Anne Brigman often portrayed women as spirits or souls of trees, rocks, water, and photography itself.
Who was Gertrude Kasebier?
One of the most successful American portrait photographers of the early 20th Century.
What themes did Gertrude Kasebier often focus on in her work?
Her work often focused on mother and child relationships and implicit storytelling.
What significant exhibitions featured Gertrude Kasebier’s work?
Her work was featured in the first exhibition of the Photo-Secession and in the first issue of Camera Work.
What is the title of one of Gertrude Kasebier’s notable portraits?
Gertrude Kasebier, Portrait - Miss N. (Evelyn Nesbitt), 1902.
What company began manufacturing the Kodak camera in 1888?
The Eastman Dry Plate Company.
Who was the Kodak camera intended for?
Casual use by middle-class consumers.
What was the fixed focus feature of the No. 1 Kodak?
It came loaded with a roll of film (paper coated in light-sensitive emulsion) for 100 exposures.
What happened after all exposures were made with the No. 1 Kodak?
The camera would be sent back to the company to process, make prints, and reload film.
What was the diameter of the circular prints produced by the No. 1 Kodak?
2.5 inches.
What impact did the Kodak camera have on photography?
“Snapshots” were mostly personal pictures, reducing the number of professional portrait photographers.
How did the Kodak camera change the perception of photography?
It deepened the association between informality and photographic truth.
What is an example of an early Kodak print?
Photographer Unknown, Untitled, 1888, Early Kodak Print.
Who is Jacob Riis?
Jacob Riis was an immigrant from Denmark who arrived in 1870 and worked as a police reporter in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, focusing on the slums.
How did Jacob Riis present his photographs?
He often presented his photographs as Lantern slide shows to middle-class audiences.
What is the title of Jacob Riis’s work?
“Flashes from the Slums: Pictures Taken in Dark Places by the Lightning Process”
What technique did Jacob Riis use to illuminate his subjects?
He used magnesium flash powder to illuminate subjects.
What effect did the magnesium flash powder have on Riis’s photographs?
It created an intense white light that captured the shock on subjects’ faces, registering as candid and objective.
What quality did Riis’s photographs resemble?
His photographs resembled the spontaneity of snapshots.
Did Jacob Riis’s images raise ethical questions?
Yes, they prompted questions about whether the images were intrusive and if they lacked sympathy.
Who was Lewis Hine?
Lewis Hine was a photographer who taught at New York’s Ethical Culture School.
What was the purpose of Lewis Hine’s photographs of immigrants?
He aimed for students to have the same regard for contemporary immigrants as they have for the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock.
What organization did Lewis Hine freelance for?
He freelanced for the National Child Labor Committee (N.C.L.C.).
What was the goal of the National Child Labor Committee?
The N.C.L.C. attempted to reform child labor by urging legislation to control hiring practices.
How did Lewis Hine gain access to facilities for his work?
He often assumed a false identity.
What is a ‘photo story’?
A ‘photo story’ is a narrative composed of pictures and words for publication.
Who is Eadweard Muybridge?
Eadweard Muybridge is known for his series of images that explored the movement of horses.
What question did Muybridge’s images answer?
They answered the question: do all four legs of the horse leave the ground when the horse runs?
What method did Muybridge use to capture the images?
He lined a raceway with 15-foot-wide sheeting and used 12 cameras.
How did the cameras capture the horse’s movement?
As the horse rushed past, its hooves tripped cotton threads, triggering the shutters of the cameras.
What was the significance of Muybridge’s cameras?
The cameras could see what the human eye could not.
What was the primary goal of Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion?
To create a visual dictionary of human and animal locomotion for artists.
How many images did Muybridge produce in two years?
10,000 images depicting movement.
What technique did Muybridge use to construct new sequences?
He would take single images from different sequences, re-photograph them, and print them to give the illusion of movement.
Were Muybridge’s constructions scientifically verifiable?
No, they may not be verifiably scientific for the analysis of locomotion.
What did Muybridge’s cinematic montages provide?
A new way of seeing movement.
Who invented the gun camera?
Etienne-Jules Marey invented the gun camera, which was based off of the rotating bullet chamber of a revolver.
What did the gun camera produce?
The device produced a sequence of separate images on one disk.
What is chronography?
Chronography is a system developed by Marey that allowed for sequential motion, suggestive of flowing or uninterrupted movement.
What device did Muybridge invent in 1879?
Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope, a device that combined the magic lantern and the zoetrope (projection).
What is the kinetoscope and who invented it?
The kinetoscope, invented by Thomas Edison, illuminated a 50ft piece of film in front of a magnifying glass at 40 frames per second - ‘peep show.’
Who invented the film projector and in what year?
The Lumiere brothers invented the film projector in 1895.
What was the Spanish-American War?
A conflict that occurred in Cuba between Spain and the United States from April 1898 to August 1898.
Why is the Spanish-American War referred to as the first ‘living-room’ war?
It was called the first ‘living-room’ war due to the amount of newspaper and photographic coverage.
What fueled the conflict in the Spanish-American War?
Inflammatory newspaper articles about atrocities committed in Cuba by Spain and the coverage of the U.S. Maine battleship sinking.
Who was James ‘Jimmy’ Hare?
A well-known war photographer particularly recognized for his coverage of the Spanish-American War.
How did the press influence public opinion during World War I?
During WWI, the press practiced self-censorship and did not seek to undermine government pronouncements.
What measures were taken regarding photographs and news stories during WWI?
Photographs and news stories were censored by the military to protect clandestine operations and keep morale high on the home front.
What was prohibited in terms of imagery during WWI?
Brittain prohibited making images of corpses or scenes of conflict.
What was the relationship between soldiers’ experiences and public awareness during WWI?
There was a gulf between the experience of soldiers and public awareness.
What restrictions were placed on photographers during WWI?
Photographers were eventually banned from the Western Front.
What initiative did the military experiment with regarding photography?
The military experimented with having official photographers.
How did soldiers document their experiences during WWI?
Many soldiers had their own cameras and documented their experience.
Who was Lt. John Warwick Brooke?
Lt. John Warwick Brooke was a British Army Photographer known for rare images from WWI showing actual combat.
What notable event did Lt. John Warwick Brooke capture in 1917?
He captured an officer leading the 9th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) over the top under the cover of a creeping barrage, near Arras, France.
What is photojournalism?
Photojournalism is the practice of conveying news through photographs.
What was the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung known for?
It pioneered the photo-essay.
What type of newspaper is the Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung?
It is a left-wing paper that fostered humanitarian causes and critiqued capitalism.
Who founded the Illustrierter Beobachter?
It was founded by the Nazi party.
When was Life Magazine founded?
Life Magazine was founded in 1936.
What influenced Life Magazine?
It was influenced by photo-essays.
When was Picture Post founded?
Picture Post was founded in 1938 in Britain.
What type of content did Picture Post feature?
It was influenced by photo-essays.
What is the Daily Mirror?
It is a London women’s magazine.
What is the New York Daily News known for?
It is a tabloid newspaper known for sensational news.
What was the significance of the January 13, 1928 cover of the Daily News?
It featured the headline ‘Tom Howard, Dead!’ regarding the execution of Ruth Snyder.
What were common photo formats in the late 19th century?
Mass-manufactured images like carte-de-visite and stereographs were common in homes.
How were images selected in the early 20th century?
Images were selected by photo editors and advertising designers, circulated for a short period, and then replaced by new images.
What significant camera was introduced in 1924?
The Leica 35mm Film camera was introduced.
What replaced magnesium flash powder in 1925?
Magnesium flash powder was replaced by a safer flashbulb.
What is a tabloid?
A compact journal with sensational photos and little text.
What is rotogravure?
A printing process that allowed photographs and text to be intermingled.
When did image transmission systems become inexpensive?
They became inexpensive with the founding of the Associated Press Wirephoto division in 1935.
What are evergreen features?
Non-time linked single-topic photo series about a person, place, or event.
Who is Erich Salomon?
A photographer known for his work at the Hague Conference in 1930.
What is Constructivism?
A period from 1913 - 1920s during which Russian avant-garde artists rejected traditional easel painting and ‘art for art’s sake’ in favor of utilitarian designs intended for mass production.
What influence did Constructivism have?
It influenced Lissitzky and the Russian avant-garde, though not all Russian avant-garde artists were strictly Constructivists.
What was the impact of the Russian Revolution (1917) on art?
It placed revolutionary socialists in power who held utopian ideas driven by technology.
Who is El Lissitzky?
A politically committed artist who renounced self-expression and easel painting, advocating for the use of technology to create a new society.
What are characteristics of the Russian avant-garde style?
Geometric forms, non-realistic intersecting planes, odd camera angles, close-ups, and multiple exposures.
How did the Russian avant-garde style challenge traditional art?
It flattened the one-point-linear perspective of Renaissance painting intended for morally bankrupt wealthy elites and obstructed traditional habits of seeing.
What is the title of El Lissitzky’s work from 1920?
The Constructor
What did Gustav Klutsis want to achieve with his art?
He wanted to construct iconic representations for a new mass audience.
Who did Gustav Klutsis want his images to be understood by?
He desired for his images to be understood by the illiterate as well as the educated.
What is photomontage?
A technique popular with experimental artists and photographers after World War I, where images from sources like advertising and newspapers were cut and reassembled to form composite images. Sometimes drawing or paint was applied.
What could the final photomontage picture be prepared for?
The final picture might be photographed or prepared for mechanical reproduction.
What is the title of the work by Gustav Klutsis mentioned?
Elect Entire Country, 1920.
