Newsletter for Collectors - Vol 12.4

August 10, 2018

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Welcome

Welcome to another Luminous-Lint Newsletter.

Thanks for your support

To all Luminous-Lint subscribers and contributors I'd like to say thanks for your support. All the best, Alan

A Visual History of Backgrounds and Foregrounds in Photography

Studio backgrounds and foregrounds create the fabricated reality in which photographers ply their trade. As props they were purchased from photo supply companies such as John Haworth Company (Philadelphia), Robey-French Co. (Boston, Mass.), Lafayette W. Seavey (New York) and many others. The more artistically inclined photographers painted their own or hired somebody with a paint brush to do it for them. These works of the imagination cover the range from fine artworks through to the absolutely terrible.

David Knights-Whittome, Knights-Whittome, posed in the studio 'painting' his backdrops, n.d., Print, from glass negative (?), Sutton Local Studies & Archives Centre, Sutton Central Library, Knights-Whittome Collection, nd ref22172A
LL/66590
For the last month or so I've been exloring examples of backgrounds on my Facebook page and I thought I would share some examples in this Newsletter. On Luminous-Lint there are thousands of examples from around the world and my thanks to all the collectors who have provided these.

Incongruous backgrounds

As nineteenth century photographers purchased, or painted, backgrounds they included the fashionable motifs of the day - interiors with curtains, columns, plinths and pedestals and staircases. At times these backgrounds with distinctly European and North American themes were used in other regions of the world with incongruous results as in the Australian aboriginal group with a Courret Hermanos backmark shown in front of the background of a drawing room, anthropological portraits of the Ainu by Bronislaw Pilsudski within a domestic setting or an even more incongruous grouping of four Chinese prisoners in cangues in a similar setting.

Unidentified photographer, Chinese Prisoners in Cangues, 1880 (ca), Albumen print, 8.5 in (21.59 cm) x 10.75 in (27.31 cm), Antiq-Photo, Courtesy of Anthony Davis (3jc571)
LL/14979
In the Studio Portrait of Plains Indian, shown below, we have this incongruity encapsulated in a visual form. It is a striking portrait but at the same time it is a man out of place robbed of his own cultural setting and placed into the fabricated reality of a dominant, and oppressive, cultural force.

Unidentified photographer, Studio Portrait of Plains Indian, 1860 (ca), Albumen silver print, from glass negative, 20.6 x 15.9 cm (8 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005, Accession Number: 2005.100.632
LL/54748

Backgrounds showing specific locations

Iconic locations such as Niagara Falls (USA / Canada), the US Capitol, Washington DC, Tiananmen Square (Bejing, China), the Forth Bridge (Scotland), Mt. Fuji (Japan), The Pyramids (Egypt), the Eiffel Tower (Paris, France) and the Umayyad Mosque (Damascus, Syria) were all painted onto backgrounds to provide a spurious reality.

Felix Bonfils, Arcade of the Umayyad Mosque; praying, 1870 (ca), Albumen print, hand-coloured, Weltmuseum Wien, Nr.7214, Fotosammlung
LL/84605
We see a similar use, but with a novel twist, in the contemporary series Bad City Dreams of Arthur Crestani. He visited real estate offices and conventions in Gurgaon in India and collected brochures showing new construction. Blowing some of the images up onto flex he made large panels and then visited the construction sites where these buildings were in the process of being built. Then using local people posed in front of the background both the fiction and the reality can be seen in a single composition. Truth is evidently a fungible commodity in real estate.

Arthur Crestani, Untitled (Gurgaon, India), [Bad City Dreams], 2017, March, Colour photograph, Provided by the artist - Arthur Crestani
LL/84247
If you have examples of backgrounds or foregrounds showing known locations I'd be most interested in seeing them.

Comic foregrounds

Foregrounds placed in front of the sitter where the head is visible above the scene or through a hole or window seem to have their origins with the 1874 US patent of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Coolidge (1844-1934), better known by all lovers of kitsch for his dogs playing poker, came up with the novel idea of painted comic foregrounds for photographers.

C.M. Coolidge, US patent No. 149,724, C.M. Coolidge, Processes of Taking Photographic Pictures, 1874, 14 April (patent issued), Patent
LL/50318
"Head-through-the-Hole" and comic foregrounds have become a standard part of the holiday experience and are found worldwide. I've not checked yet but presumably there are ones in the Arctic where you can pose beside a painted polar bear.

Unidentified photographer (Bulgaria), Studio portrait of a four men in a plane, 1930s (ca), Gelatin silver print, 5.5 x 7 cm, Private collection of John Toohey
LL/47451
I've not been able to locate the earliest dated photograph showing a comic background so if you have dated examples from the 1870s, or earlier, I would be most interested.

Unidentified photographer, Arcade portrait of a man with a foreground depicting a snake charmer and dancer (Colonial Exposition, Paris. 1931), 1931, Gelatin silver print, Private collection of Christopher Steiner
LL/84542

The immense variety of backgrounds

Backgrounds can assist in attributing photographs to specific studios, they give us insights into the cultural framework the photographers were working in, they show trends in how landscapes were shown, they provide humorous juxatapositions.

Carlos Relvas, A selection of photographic backgrounds, 1870-1875 (ca), Photograph, House - Studio - Carlos Relvas, inventory number: 00040-001-017
LL/84291

Some reading material on Backgrounds...

On Luminous-Lint there is a comprehensive overview of Backgrounds, Foregrounds, Props and Fabricated Realities. It seems odd that there is no monograph addressing this important topic yet from a global perspective.

Hopefully this will encourage one of you to write a book and if you'd like to collaborate on one let me know.

For those interested in exploring this topic further here are some of the key publications.

1859, 23 December, ‘Backgrounds - How to Paint and Arrange Them‘, The Photographic News, vol. 3, no. 68, p. 183

1859, 25 November, ‘Backgrounds - How to Paint and Arrange Them‘, The Photographic News, vol. 3, no. 64, pp. 133-134

1859, 30 December, ‘Backgrounds - How to Paint and Arrange Them‘, The Photographic News, vol. 3, no. 69, p. 196

1860, 20 January, ‘Backgrounds - How to Paint and Arrange Them‘, The Photographic News, vol. 3, no. 72, p. 235

Emdur, Alyse, 2013, Prison Landscapes, (London: Four Corners Books) isbn-10: 0956192866 isbn-13: 978-0956192868

Linderman, Jim, 2013, Argentina Tintamarresque! Comic Foreground Novelty Photographs from Argentina, (Blurb (Self-published, print-on-demand) - Dull Tool Dim Bulb Book)

Murray, Joan, 2009/2010, ‘Backgrounds in Daguerreotypes: A Project For Us All. Daguerreotypes from the Collection of Joan Murray‘, The Daguerreian Annual, pp. 75-139

n.a., 2003, March/April, ‘Photographer's Backdrops: A Photo Survey‘, Military Images, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 6-25

Neal, Avon, 1997, March-April, ‘Folk art fantasies: photographer's backdrops‘, Afterimage

Neal, Avon & Parker, Ann, 1982, Los Ambulantes: The Itinerant Photographers of Guatemala, (MIT Press)

Pritikin, Renny & Berticevich, George C., 1998, Photo Backdrops: The George C. Berticevich Collection, (San Francisco, California: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts) [This catalogue covers an exhibition of the same name held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (June 13 - August 16, 1998)]

Taber, I.W. & Boyd, T.H., 1875, 23 November (publication), Improvement in Photographic Backgrounds, (United States Patent Office) [Patent No. 170204; Filing date: 17 June 1874]

Waters, Dennis, 2011, ‘Backgrounds in Daguerreotypes: Part II - Remembering Joan Waters‘, The Daguerreian Annual, pp. 104-113

Wyman, James B., 1997, March-April, ‘From The Background to the Foreground: The Photo Backdrop and Cultural Expression - photo exhibit‘, Afterimage [This exhibition was created by the Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, New York)]

So who has been involved in Luminous-Lint to date?

Given the scale of Luminous-Lint it is difficult to remember all the names of those who have helped in ways both large and small. Having said that one should always try so I‘ve added an "Acknowledgements" page to get the ball rolling. As you go through it you will get a sense of the truly international scope of this project.

My gratitude to you all for subscribing to, and supporting, Luminous-Lint.

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Getting around

Stereographs Project

Library

Video feeds, audio feeds, and enhanced media documents

Welcome

Thanks for your support

A Visual History of Backgrounds and Foregrounds in Photography

Incongruous backgrounds

Backgrounds showing specific locations

Comic foregrounds

The immense variety of backgrounds

Some reading material on Backgrounds...

So who has been involved in Luminous-Lint to date?

Free Trial of Luminous-Lint

Educational subscriptions

Recently updated Themes

Getting around

PhotographersConnectionsDirectory

Stereographs Project

Library

Video feeds, audio feeds, and enhanced media documents

Welcome

Thanks for your support

A Visual History of Backgrounds and Foregrounds in Photography

Incongruous backgrounds

Backgrounds showing specific locations

Comic foregrounds

The immense variety of backgrounds

Some reading material on Backgrounds...

So who has been involved in Luminous-Lint to date?

Free Trial of Luminous-Lint

Educational subscriptions

Recently updated Themes