Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
There are some iconic photos taken through history that turned out to be staged or altered. The example that first comes to mind for me is Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, which was both.
In this video, Vox brings another example of a historic image that was most likely staged. It’s Roger Fenton’s Valley of the Shadow of Death taken in 1855 during the Crimean War. Two versions of the image caused a lot of questions and controversy, and film director Errol Morris was determined to figure it out.
“Watch the Birdie” – that’s what my parents told me, to make sure I look into the camera before they took a photo of me. I guess lots of you guys remember this saying. With the renovation of a 140-year-old historic brass birdie, I show you the origin of this phrase.
I may be naive and a hopeless romantic, but I firmly believe that love conquers all. In their photo book Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s, Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell prove me right. They have collected a series of photos of male couples from back in the day when it was still illegal to engage in same-sex relationships. They prove that love is stronger than the law, and in case you stopped believing in love, these could make you change your mind.
For anybody working in the photography or video industries today, it’s difficult to escape from the behemoth that is Adobe. Whether you use their software or not, they’re still everywhere you look and if you don’t use their software yourself, you still often have to deal with people that do, and wanting to know how they can make their workflow fit with yours.
But how did Adobe’s rise to fame happen? Where did it all begin? And why was one of is founders kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom to the tune of $600,000? This video from ColdFusion takes a look at Adobe’s history and some of the controversy along its journey.
Recently, we’ve seen a bunch of upscaled and colorized historic footage: from 1911 New York to 1972 Apollo 16 Lunar Rover ride. Even videos as old as the iconic 1896 The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station are possible to upscale to 4K and get a splash of color. While many of us find them inspiring and exciting, historians don’t seem to share the opinion. In fact, they argue that the whole process is “nonsense” and they’d like YouTubers to stop doing it.
Before Instagram, selfie sticks, disposable cameras, Polaroids, and box brownies, there were carte de visites – small photographic albumen prints, mounted on card, which were wildly popular during the Victorian era.
Also known as CdV, carte de visites followed the early pioneering photographic techniques such as daguerreotype and ambrotype, which were expensive and difficult to reproduce. Cartes de visites were born from calling cards, which bore the owner’s name and usually an emblem, and were presented to the host during a social visit. Homes often had a tray near the door for collecting calling cards.
In Wuppertal, Germany in 1902 the “flying train” was about to open. Of course, the train didn’t really fly, it is suspended from above. construction of the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn began in 1898 but it didn’t begin to open until in 1901. It’s actually still in operation today, despite having shut down briefly after damage during World War II.
This video was shot during 1902 and shows an incredibly high level of detail and quality, even by relatively recent standards. According to the Museum of Modern Art, the film was shot on Biograph 68mm film stock, which offers up a huge frame for capturing a lot of detail.
Photographer Drew Gardner recreates portraits of some of the most famous historic figures, but not with just anyone. He photographs their direct descendants and recreates the iconic portraits to the finest details. One of the latest recreations he made was done with Shannon LaNier, a news anchor, an author, and the sixth great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson.
I don’t remember the first time I became aware of my family photo album, but from a very young age I always found looking at those photos a time absorbing, and totally enthralling pastime. I would sit for long periods of time staring at those familiar faces, and all those captured moments of times gone by, and lose myself in a world of wonder.
‘’Mum, who’s this little girl here?’’, ‘’Who’s that army man?’’, ‘’Where’s this?’’ I would ask, pointing at faded black and white images displayed proudly in the behemoth album that sat on my lap, squashing me into the armchair.
A while back, I had another roundtable discussion at the Film Photographers Association. This time the subject was Still Life Photography. It is a genre we all take for granted and include in it a great variety of photographs. I would like to explore the origins of still life in painting, how it came to photography, and eventually expanded in coverage and scope. Mind you, I do not intend to limit anyone’s vision but to make the reader a bit more aware of the origins of still life. And, by no means, is it the last word on the subject.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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