Until the invention of cameras,
images were created through paintings, drawings and writing. In the case of the
latter, an image could be created through its bare minimal descriptive details
but nonetheless, its visualisation would not go beyond the reader’s imagination[1],
and interpretation of text would vary from person to person. Image making
didn’t necessarily need the subject to stand in front of its creator to be
made. Its details can be modified to any extent once the artist is subjected to
translate his experience into the boundaries of his own interpretation and
techniques of making[2].
Photography is one of the most exact mediums to depict the visual reality of an
object, a scene or a person. As precise as a painting or a drawing can be, a
photograph is not only an image or an interpretation of the real, “but a
material vestige of its subject that is directly stenciled off the real”[3],
“like a footprint or a death mask”[4].
Though as unclear as the definition of realism might be[5], it is to be understood that its most idealistic meaning is how it depicts the real without moral grounds[6]. In other words, it implies “a concern with accurate and objective representation”[7] with no idealization towards the approach of the subject matter. Whether there is an opening for interpretation of an emotional or sentimental level, with a need to portray the issues and problems of contemporary life[8] is debatable[9]. By all means, in a visual aspect, photography can be classified as a realist medium since it reproduces exactly what is shown before the camera.
Though as unclear as the definition of realism might be[5], it is to be understood that its most idealistic meaning is how it depicts the real without moral grounds[6]. In other words, it implies “a concern with accurate and objective representation”[7] with no idealization towards the approach of the subject matter. Whether there is an opening for interpretation of an emotional or sentimental level, with a need to portray the issues and problems of contemporary life[8] is debatable[9]. By all means, in a visual aspect, photography can be classified as a realist medium since it reproduces exactly what is shown before the camera.
The ‘real’ shall be
understood as its simplest term: the image is produced solely with what is
before it, portraying only what is seen, and “representing the world as it is”[11].
There will be no study as to how a realist image shall portray a view of
society, unless needed for understanding of the present day society.
Photography
became a cheaper resource for family portraits after its invention, and soon it
started to appeal to the masses. In contrast to commissioned portraits,
photography was available for the great majority of the people. Since its
invention in 1839, almost every one has been photographed[12]. A picture can be used not only to understand
the physical appearance of a relative, but also to create systems of
information of any given subject.[13] These can either be snapshots sequenced
chronologically for personal enjoyment as well as to understand astronomy,
microbiology, geology, police work, art history, etc.[14] Photography then had a role to help experience
and define nature and culture, as it was a material that introduced “new
methods of observation and classification”[15].
 |
| William Henry Fox Talbot, "Leaves of Orchidea" (1839). Photogenic Drawing Negative. 17.2 x 20.9 cm |
Through Fox
Talbot’s “photogenic drawings”, a chemical method of understanding of a shadow
of an object was developed. It was a big leap to science as it understood the
object in its full natural size[16]. The Literary
Gazette commented on the book Pencil
of Nature, as it was “nature itself” - a “valuable [material] for botanical
science”[17].
“Photography’s ability to change the
time period in which observations are made—slowing it down, speeding it up,
freezing it, and making multiples of the same moment from different angles—gave
scientists a new observational tool. Scientists could direct their observations
away from real time and towards photographic time. Not only could they observe
at different speeds, but they could also preserve their observations for later
use and comparison.” [18]
Biology and the exact sciences were not the only fields to benefit from the creation of photography. Anthropology and Sociology's establishment as disciplines of modern science only occurred after the developments of image making with a machine [19]. In the case of
anthropological sciences, pictures were produced with a concern to “visually
mapping the body in order to produce objective, comparative data in debates
about racial difference and human origins”[20].
 |
| Joseph Thomas Zealy, "Slave Daguerrotypes" (1850). |
In
the 1850’s, the Swiss-born scientist Louis Agassiz commissioned fifteen
daguerreotype plates of front and side views of seven southern slaves[21] to the studio photographer
Joseph Thomas Zealy. The study was based in South Carolina and had as an aim to
discuss his theories of polygenesis[22] of African slaves. Agassiz asked for “photographs to be taken of a number of slaves in the
hope of revealing distinct anatomical features that would prove his thesis”[23].
The pictures were taken in Zealy’s efficiently equipped studio. He used adequate lighting to enhance all features, just as he would with a society lady of the day[24]. Both women and men pose topless before the lenses so their physical structure is perceived (shown in figure 3). As uncomfortable as the situation might be for them, “their attitudes are detatched, unemotional, and workmenlike”[25].
The pictures were taken in Zealy’s efficiently equipped studio. He used adequate lighting to enhance all features, just as he would with a society lady of the day[24]. Both women and men pose topless before the lenses so their physical structure is perceived (shown in figure 3). As uncomfortable as the situation might be for them, “their attitudes are detatched, unemotional, and workmenlike”[25].
Without regard to
Agassiz’s conclusion, Zealy took the pictures under proper conditions and
delivered it with an appropriate quality. The images were used with the
finality of discussing racial differences as a matter of understanding human
origins and anthropological matters[26].
By framing exactly what is seen, without creating a scenario for the shot, documentation of the visual world is done with precision. The understanding of the real was exponentially developed by creation of photography.
Photography eased the representation of the visual ‘real’ by being a cheaper and more accessible resource. The fast production of an image allowed people to record something more than once, and several of many things. Time passing was measured as changes of that same object occurred. Comparison between specimens and people was becoming more and more specific. And innumerous catalogues of images were formed for resources of any field. Camera-based image making has accelerated the world of research and production and created new ways of comprehending reality through disciplines of arts and science.
By framing exactly what is seen, without creating a scenario for the shot, documentation of the visual world is done with precision. The understanding of the real was exponentially developed by creation of photography.
Photography eased the representation of the visual ‘real’ by being a cheaper and more accessible resource. The fast production of an image allowed people to record something more than once, and several of many things. Time passing was measured as changes of that same object occurred. Comparison between specimens and people was becoming more and more specific. And innumerous catalogues of images were formed for resources of any field. Camera-based image making has accelerated the world of research and production and created new ways of comprehending reality through disciplines of arts and science.
[1] As a comparison to a more recent example,
the work “One and Three Chairs” (1965) by Joseph Kosuth could be used. A
picture of a chair, a chair, and a dictionary definition of a chair are shown
one beside the other. The question behind it is whether the viewer interprets
all three elements as chairs or only the physical chair could be the only valid
representation. In this case, the physical chair would be the only to give the
proper experience of using a chair: the image would only show its visual
appearance, while the dictionary definition would describe it.
MARTINS,
Maria H. P. “Filosofando” 2009. [Book] Portuguese. Moderna. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
[2] Edward
Lucie-Smith, The Invented Eye - Masterpieces of Photography, 1839-1914
(New York: Paddington Press LTD - Two Continents Publishing Group, 1975).
[3] Susan Sontag,
On Photography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Pam Morris, Realism,
Kindle Edition, The New Critical Idiom (London: Routledge, 2003), http://www.amazon.com/Realism-New-Critical-Idiom-Morris/dp/0415229391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389112208&sr=1-1&keywords=the+new+critical+idiom+realism.
[6] Peter Childs,
Modernism, 2nd ed., The New Critical Idiom (Routledge, 2007).
[7] MacBook Dictionary Software Application.
Definition of the word “Realism”
[8] Ibid.
[9] Terry
Eagleton, “Pork Chops and Pineapples | Mimesis: The Representation of Reality
in Western Literature by Erich Auerbach,” London Review of Books,
October 23, 2003.
[10] Lígia Ferro, “Ao encontro da sociologia visual,” Revista da
Faculdade de Letras: Sociologia (2005): 373–398.
[11] Eagleton, “Pork Chops and Pineapples | Mimesis: The Representation of
Reality in Western Literature by Erich Auerbach.”
[12] Kostas
Theologou, “The Value of Memory for Society,” Intellectum (2008),
http://www.intellectum.org/articles/issues/intellectum3/en/ITL03p053069_Value%20of%20Memory%20for%20Society_Kostas%20Theologou.pdf.
[13] Sontag, On
Photography.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Anthony
Burnett-Brown, Specimens and Marvels: The Work of William Henry Fox Talbot
and the Invention of Photography, First Edition (New York: Aperture, 2000).
[16] Talbot, Pencil of Nature.
[17] Burnett-Brown, Specimens and Marvels: The Work of William Henry Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography.
[18] Kelley Wilder, “Science and Photography,” Grove Art Online | Oxford Art Online (2013), http://www.oxfordartonline.com.arts.idm.oclc.org/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2229436?q=science+and+photography&search=quick&source=oao_gao&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit.
[19] Ferro, “Ao encontro da sociologia visual.”
[20] Elizabeth Edwards, “Anthropology and Photography,” Grove Art Online | Oxford Art Online (February 11, 2013), http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2229130.
[21] Brian Wallis, “Black Bodies, White Science: Louis Agassiz’s Slave Daguerrotypes,” American Art 9, no. 2, The University of Chicago Press | Smithsonian American Art Museum (1995): 38–61.
[22] “Polygenesis” noun [ mass noun ]1 Biology the hypothetical origination of a race or species from a number of independent stocks. 2 the hypothetical origination of language or of a surname from a number of independent sources in different places at different times. MacBook Dictionary Software Application. Definition of the word “Polygenesis”
[23] Jim Harrison, “Focusing on the Face,” Harvard Magazine, December 2000, http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/11/focusing-on-the-face.html.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Wallis, “Black Bodies, White Science: Louis Agassiz’s Slave Daguerrotypes.”
[26] Sebastião Salgado is a contemporary photographer who could be compared to this specific event and example. He travelled the world to poorly explored lands to take pictures of members of different world-wide spread tribes and animals. These had as finality the simple understanding of different features and customs of people from different origins. In contrast to Louis Agassiz’s study, this was a search of the unbiased and with no racial prejudice.
