| May 15, 2011 | Visual Indexes | | | | Seemingly things have been quiet on Luminous-Lint over the last month but that is an illusion as regular visitors will have noticed. I‘ve been pondering how images can be linked together into meaningful groups. Using fixed tags is not sufficiently flexible and so I‘ve come up with
a rather more fluid system of Visual Indexes that will change and allow photographs to be connected to each other using geography, photographic processes or any other visual or conceptual linkage we come up with in the future.
The examples below show how this becomes a useful research tool that we can build on by using images from the over 2,000 organisations and private collections on Luminous-Lint.
EXAMPLE: Spirals
Visual similarities and patterns throughout the history of photography can be explored in novel ways and there are many surprises to be found.
EXAMPLE: The Forum Romanum - Rome
In the auction catalogue for the upcoming Bassenge auction there is in Lot 4027 a photograph by Tommaso Cuccioni showing the Forum Romanum and the notes mention that the trees on the Via Sacra were planted in 1855. Using Visual Indexes we can see sequences of photographs that show the growth of the trees and this will assist in refining the dates photographs were taken.
EXAMPLE: Visual indexes by technique
There are many ways of exploring including key Techniques and common ones include...
EXAMPLE: Textiles and photography
These examples of photographs with fabric each take us to clusters of photographs related to textiles.
EXAMPLE: Portraits of photographers
On Luminous-lint there are large numbers of portraits of photographers, including 116 for Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre alone, Visual Indexes bring these portraits together for the first time.
EXAMPLE: Visual indexes by geography
Here you can explore photographs taken at specific locations. The benefit of this approach is that you can see multiple photographs of the same location revealing different stylistic approaches.
Using these you can go down to the level of cities and in some cases individual buildings.
EXAMPLE: Visual connections
Here any photograph is a starting point for a visual Odyssey for those with better vision than sheep-stroking Polyphemus.
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| | Apr 4, 2011 | With photographs context is important | | | |
Frequently an image requires a visual context to assist in understanding. To do this sequences of images and their variants need to be linked together and this is just starting, Try a few of these examples to better understand what is happening. Enjoy.
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| | Apr 3, 2011 | Portraits of photographers | | | |
For the last six or seven years I've been collecting portraits of photographers as I come across them and today I've tweaked the software so you can see them. Whenever you bring up a portrait on a photographer you'll see the other portraits available for study. This will save us all research time - Enjoy.
If you have any portraits of photographers to share for the benefit of all let me know - alan@luminous-lint.com
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| | Mar 27, 2011 | Newsletter 5.02 - March 27, 2011 has been emailed | | | | Luminous-Lint Newsletter 5.02 - March 27, 2011 has been emailed to all those on our mailing list and you can subscribe to these free newsletters if you haven't already done so.
Past issues of the newsletter are in the library on the Luminous-Lint website. Best, Alan
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| | Mar 26, 2011 | Jerusalem | | | |
Edward L. Wilson "A Drop from the Desert", The Photographic Times and American Photographer, Vol.XII, June, 1882, No.138 - New Series, No.18, , p.197
A hundred topics come up in my mind when I look over the magazines which awaited my arrival at Jerusalem and Beyrout, I find photographers everywhere, and even in that old city of Damascus photographs are made largely and sold in many of the bazaars amid antiques and draperies and gorgeous apparel. The very first thing I saw after emerging from the subterranean arch which leads you into the center of the "Great Court" of the magnificent ruins at Baalbec was a photographer's temporary tent, well stained by developer and hypo., and outside the enthusiastic disciple of our art wrestling with some visitors whom he was trying to persuade to have a group made with the six remaining giant columns of the Temple of Jupiter, or of Baal (as you like), i serving as a background. Jupiter ! What a commentary upon the growth of civilization this was. Baal himself would have become an amateur photographer could he have seen how lovely the rich columns of his temple looked inverted on my ground glass, and reduced through a breach in the wall (whose stones are nearly seventy feet long) from sixty-five feet to two inches and a half in height, and all their glories thrown in. I found the amateur photographer with priestly robes bringing Mount Sinai down to his requirements, and the German professor gathering fragments with his camera where Moses watched the Amalekites while Israel drove them away from the water supply which they required for purposes not entirely photographic. In the Holy City, too, I found Mr. Bergheim, the well-known banker, to be a talented and loving amateur photographer, while Rev. Mr. Phillips, the able missionary at Damascus, was about to join our ranks and include photography as one of the industries which he will in the future teach his native pupils.
Related exhibitions on Luminous-Lint:
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
Exhibition: Jerusalem
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| | Mar 25, 2011 | Mexican-American War (1846-1848) | | | |
A selection of what are considered to be the earliest photographs covering a war. If anybody has earlier examples I would be most interested.
Related exhibitions on Luminous-Lint:
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
Exhibition: Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
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| | Mar 22, 2011 | Online exhibitions on Snapshot, Vernacular and Real Photo Postcards | | | | Luminous-Lint online exhibitions on Snapshots, Vernacular, Identity Cards, Mug Shots, Photobooths and Real Photo Postcards now include:
Thanks to all the people and organisations who have assisted with these.
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| | Mar 21, 2011 | Snapshot Photography | | | |
To My Sweetheart's Kodak.
Oh Kodak, are you void of sense.
That you so stoically take
The pressure of her fingers fair.
Which all my nerves would wildly shake?
Ah ! don't you see her wealth of hair;
Her eyes so softly, brightly blue
Now bent, with tender interest
,
O Kodak Camera, on you?
And can't you feel the lively thrill
Of pleasure in her lovely face
When you work well? 0 Camera,
I'd like, just once, to have your place!
Such pictures as I'd take for her,
Such glorious views of east and west,
Like magic they should come, her smile
Would pay me well to do my best.
You don't appreciate your luck,
O Camera, with glassy eye.
Which, staring ever straight ahead.
Sees not the charming maid close by.
If I were you — but never mind,
You're not her lover that is clear.
While I — I love the very ground
That only serves to bring her near.
But still, I scarcely envy you.
Although from me you steal her smiles.
You're deaf, and dumb, and blind to all
Her beauty rare, her winning wiles.
And saddest, worst of all your lot,
Ah ! this I could not bear and live!
To feel that I belong to her.
And then,— to take a negative.
—M. A. B. Evans, in Outing for Jan., 1890
The Vassar Miscellany, Vol.XIX, Number 4, January, 1890.
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
Exhibition: Snapshot photography
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| | Mar 19, 2011 | Lucien Aigner: Photo/Story | | | |
The Suitcase Story
After a successful photojournalism career in Europe, Lucien Aigner left Paris for New York City in 1938 with his wife and their first son. In order to bring a baby carriage, Aigner left behind a suitcase filled with approximately 50,000 negatives, comprising his entire European career. According to the memoirs of Lucien and his two siblings, Betty and Etienne, the “suitcase story” has a number of variations. During World War II, the suitcase passed through many hands, and was hidden in multiple locations until it briefly resurfaced after the war. Aigner’s brother obtained a U.S. visa, moved from Paris to New York, and returned the suitcase to him in 1950. Aigner stored it out of sight in his darkroom for two decades, but around 1970, he rediscovered his “lost” negatives. It is not clear whether he forgot about the suitcase or did not believe the old work was worth revisiting. Thinking the contents might be of some value, Aigner took samples to a few major institutions for evaluation, and this resulted in a number of print purchases and exhibitions. He spent the rest of his years printing, exhibiting, and placing a small portion of his work in several museum collections. The recovery of Aigner’s European career was an event of great relevance: “all of a sudden the realization hit me that there in that suitcase, locked up, was my life.” He rediscovered not only his own work, but also a remarkable historical record of public figures, major events and the everyday lives of European and American citizens during the first half of the twentieth century. When Aigner passed away in 1999 at age 97, his family inherited his life’s work. The Lucien Aigner Estate archive contains, among other items, thousands of negatives and photographs (vintage and printed during the artist’s lifetime); contact sheets; published and unpublished writings (in English, French, and Hungarian) including his memoirs and articles on photography, radio and theater scripts; photographic and film equipment; magazine and newspaper clippings; and the many typewritten photo stories and captions that Aigner wrote to accompany his photographs. This exhibition only begins to reveal the contents of the archive.
"While I have a great respect for the photographic medium, I feel that pictures are not enough to say what needs saying. I have always been suspicious of the cliché about one picture being worth a thousand words."
Lucien Aigner
"Pictures produce impact, writing adds meaning. Pictures without words are often ambiguous; words without pictures, lame."
Lucien Aigner
This online exhibition includes thirty seven photographs from the seventy four included in the exhibition Lucien Aigner Photo|Story, January 29-April 24, 2011, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA.
Courtesy of the Lucien Aigner Estate. With special thanks to guest curator Jennifer Uhrhane.
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
Exhibition: Lucien Aigner: Photo/Story
More about this photographer
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| | Mar 18, 2011 | Carte de visite - Uncut sheets | | | |
If you have any examples of uncut carte de visite sheets I'd be grateful if you would share them.
I'm also seeking out examples of carte de visite and cabinet card advertising.
Many thanks, Alan
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
Exhibition: Carte de visite: Uncut sheets
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