Gilles, Photo. - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Gilles, Photo.
Monde. Heure exacte de ses principales villes lorsqu'il est midi juste a Paris
n.d.

CDV
Private collection of Thomas Weynants

J. Geiser -Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

J. Geiser
Portrait of a smiling young black boy [Tête de jeune garçon noir souriant]
1870 (ca)

CDV
Private collection of Michel Mégnin

Multiple explosures - further examples requested for the online exhibition

We are progressing on the "Multiple Exposures" online exhibition for Luminous-Lint and I thought I'd share some examples that have arrived in the last few days as each is a fascinating part of the history of photography and may not be well known.



Southworth & Hawes
Seated Gentleman, with Brattle Street Church seen through window (Edward Everett ?)
n.d.

Daguerreotype, whole plate, double exposure
Collection Matthew R. Isenburg

The first image is a whole plate Daguerreotype Seated Gentleman, with Brattle Street Church seen through window (Edward Everett ?) by Southworth & Hawes which has been provided by Matt Isenburg (President of the Daguerreian Society). Seemingly the only way this Daguerreotype could have been created on the plate was by double exposure - the first part being focused on the seated gentleman and then removing the curtain and refocusing on the church through the window. This important photograph is reproduced in American Daguerreotypes from the Matthew R. Isenburg Collection Exhibition and Catalogue prepared by Richard S. Field and Robin Jaffee Frank. Introduction by Matthew R. Isenburg. Essay by Alan Trachtenberg (Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, Connecticut, 10 November 1989 - 3 January 1990) plate 121, p. 103, 115. It is also included in Robert A. Sobieszek & Odette M. Appel The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes (Dover, 1980), p. 94.



Mike Robinson
Valentine
2006

Daguerreotype, double exposure
Provided by the artist - Mike Robinson

On rare occasions contemporary Daguerreotypists have a taken double exposures. In the example Valentine (2006) by Mike Robinson (Century Darkroom - www.centurydarkroom.com), a specialist in taking Daguerreotypes and their conservation, he captures a rose within a jar on the positive metal plate.



Mark Osterman
Two-headed Boy
[Amnesia Curiosa]
2006 (ca)

Salt print from a collodion negative
Provided by the artist - Mark Osterman

Mark Osterman (Process Historian - George Eastman House International Museum of Photography) must have experimented with almost all, if not all, of the early photographic processes and this salt print from a collodion negative was taken for the vaudeville act Amnesia Curiosa created and performed by Geoffrey Sobelle and Trey Lyford and directed by Andrew Dawson.



A.N. Hardy (Boston)
Portrait of a sitting gent with a ghostly figure
n.d.

Carte de visite, double exposure
Private collection of Andrea Cesari

The final image is a carte de visite (CDV), kindly provided by Andrea Cesari, that shows a portrait of a sitting gent with a ghostly figure. For an excellent volume on this type of photography buy The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult by Clement Cheroux, Pierre Apraxine, Andreas Fischer, Denis Canguilhem and Sophie Schmit (Yale University Press, 2004). This is a remarkable and fascinating book.

FINALLY: An online exhibition on "Multiple Exposures" is in preparation and I'd welcome intriguing examples from all periods and regions using any photographic process. Thanks to Matt Isenburg, Mike Robinson, Mark Osterman, Andrea Cesari and all those who have provided examples so far. Best, Alan.

Charles Leinack - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Charles Leinack
Black boy being blessed by a priest [Garçon noir béni par un prêtre]
1860 (ca)

CDV
Private collection of Michel Mégnin

Charles Reutlinger - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Charles Reutlinger
Portrait of a lady
n.d.

CDV
Private collection of Andrea Cesari

Maggie Taylor - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Maggie Taylor
Small home
2001

Inkjet print
15 x 15 in

Provided by the artist - Maggie Taylor

Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Manuel Álvarez Bravo
The Lovers of the False Moon
1972-1974

Gelatin silver print
Asociación Manuel Álvarez Bravo AC
© Asociación Manuel Alvarez Bravo AC

"I have always been interested in art, and I lived under the illusion (very widespread at the time) that photography was the simplest form of artistic expression. When I recall my experiments in other artistic disciplines in those years, I realize that I have finally found my path." (Manuel Álvarez Bravo)

Manuel Álvarez Bravo is the most well known of Latin American artist photographers with a body of work that extended from the 1920s until the 1990s. In 2005 the Asociación Manuel Álvarez Bravo AC was founded by his family to catalog his negatives and prints, preserve them, exhibit his work and to move towards opening a museum. The association which controls rights and permissions can be contacted at:

Asociación Manuel Alvarez Bravo AC
Espíritu Santo 76 Barrio del Niño Jesús Del. Coyoacán CP 04330 México DF
Phone: 56 58 46 45
Mail: info@manuelalvarezbravo.org
manuelalvarezbravo.org

I'd like to thank Aurelia Alvarez Urbajtel, the Asociación Manuel Álvarez Bravo AC and Gery Cichowlas for their assistance with this exhibition.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Jefferson Hayman - Luminous-LInt Photograph of the Day

Jefferson Hayman
Still Life
2004

Gelatin silver print
5 x 6 in

Provided by the artist - Jefferson Hayman

Jennifer Shaw: Hurricane Story

Jennifer Shaw
We left in the dark of night
[Hurricane Story]
2007

Archival pigment print
15 x 15 in / 30 x 30 in

Provided by the artist - Jennifer Shaw

A new exhibition has just been added to Luminous-Lint that contains a family narrative of childbirth during a traumatic time. The introduction Jennifer Shaw, the photographer and mother, has kindly written provides the context:

"I was nine months pregnant and due in less than a week when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf. In the early hours of August 28, 2005 my husband and I loaded up our small truck with two cats, two dogs, two crates full of negatives, all our important papers and a few changes of clothes. We evacuated to a motel in southern Alabama and tried not to watch the news. Monday, August 29 brought the convergence of two major life changing events; the destruction of New Orleans and the birth of our son. It was two long months and 6000 miles on the road before we were able to return home.

Hurricane Story is a depiction of our family’s evacuation experience - the birth, the travels and the return. These photographs represent various elements of our ordeal. The project began as a cathartic way to process some of the lingering anger and anxiety over that bittersweet journey. It grew into a narrative series of self-portraits in toys that illustrate my experiences and emotional state during our time in exile."

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Robert Polidori - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Robert Polidori
R.D.C. Corp central, 1er Antichambre, Portrait of Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine Habsbourg, by Jean Baptiste Charptier
[Versailles]
2007

Fujicolor Crystal Archive print mounted to Dibond
60 x 50 in

Edwynn Houk Gallery
Courtesy of Robert Polidori, Edwynn Houk Gallery

Barnaby Hall - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Barnaby Hall
Lovely backs
1988

Silver bromide print, toned
8 x 10 in

Provided by the artist - Barnaby Hall

To see an exhibition of book covers using photographs by Barnaby Hall on Luminous-Lint:

Boys and girls - Photos d’identité - in colonial French Algeria

Charles Leinack
Black boy being blessed by a priest [Garçon noir béni par un prêtre]
1860 (ca)

CDV
Private collection of Michel Mégnin

Over the last few weeks I've been in contact with French collector and researcher Michel Mégnin in Toulouse as this online exhibition for Luminous-Lint has come together. The biographies of each of the photographers had to be updated or added in and we needed to get the backs of carte de visites where possible to illustrate them. We swapped texts backwards and forwards to create an introduction to explain the context.

The introduction begins with a quotation from the French orientalist painter and writer Eugène Fromentin from his book Un été dans le Sahara (1857):

"To go further that he should be allowed inside the Arab life seems to me a misunderstanding curiosity. We must look at this people from the distance where they are used to being shown: closed to men, far from women and never in bedroom or mesquita."

Thanks to Michel for his enthusiasm in pushing forward this exhibition.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

19th century advertising for photographers or using photographs

Gilles, Photo.
Monde. Heure exacte de ses principales villes lorsqu'il est midi juste a Paris
n.d.

CDV
Private collection of Thomas Weynants
Shows the clocks of A. Bertrand of Namur in Belgium. We are looking for further information on the purpose of this CDV.

Recently on the Yahoo Photohistory list Thomas Weynants (of the fascinating Media Archaeology website - http://www.visual-media.eu) put up a request for information relating to two unusual carte de visites he has showing clocks and if you can provide any information send it through. You can see an image of one of them above.

This brings me to a more general point - I'm bringing together examples for online exhibitions on Luminous-Lint relating to photographs used in nineteenth century advertising for people, products and services. This is still rudimentary but in the exhibition link below you'll see the kinds of material I'm interested in. This exhibition shows how photographers promoted themselves but I'm interested in advertising more generally and the stranger and odder the better. I'm particularly interested in CDVs and Cabinet Cards showing products.


Examples of 19th century photographic advertising:

Philippe Pottier - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Philippe Pottier
Ève Curie, Paris
1939 (ca)

Private collection of Jan Weijers (Servatius)

Solarization in photography - examples?

Josef Ehm
Solarized Nude
1946

Gelatin silver print
17.5 x 12.5 cm (7 x 5 )

Galerie Johannes Faber

At this point you will be thinking - "Will Alan ever stop?" and the answer is probably not. The 'Sabattier effect' (named after the French scientist Armand Sabattier who discovered it in 1862) results in an image that is part negative and part positive and is created by exposing the print to light part way through the darkroom development process. Solarization, the more commonly used term for this effect, was "re-discovered" by Man Ray and Lee Miller and was the kind of technique that appealed immediately to Dadaists and Surrealists.

I'm planning an online exhibition to be added to Luminous-Lint and would welcome examples and suggestions. If you happen to be an authority on Solarization so much the better and I'd welcome your advice. alan@luminous-lint.com

Multiple exposures in photography - examples?

Anon.
[Line Docea et son mari]
1940 (ca)

Gelatin silver print
54 x 90 mm / 2.15 x 3.55 in

Un Livre Une Image
Courtesy of Emmanuelle Michaud (0107EM)

I'm in the midst of planning an exhibition of multiple exposures through the history of photography for Luminous-Lint and I'm seeking examples and suggestions from all periods and regions. If you have CDVs and Cabinet cards in your collection please send them through. This exhibition is not limited to the most famous photographers - I'm also interested in snapshots, real photo postcards and vernacular images. alan@luminous-lint.com

Keith Spencer - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Keith Spencer
Lady from Senegal
n.d.

Bromoil print
19 x 28 cm

The Bromoil Circle of Great Britain
© The artist

Luminous-Lint Newsletter 2.10 - July 20, 2008 has been sent

Luminous-Lint Newsletter 2.10 (July 20, 2008) for Collectors and Connoisseurs of Fine Photography 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.

Helen James - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Helen James
Winter
n.d.

Bromoil print
15 x 22 cm

The Bromoil Circle of Great Britain
© The artist

Rena Small - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Rena Small
Ross Bleckner, NYC
[Artist's Hands]
1987

Gelatin silver print
Provided by the artist - Rena Small
© Rena Small 2008

Following the online exhibition Portraits: Parts of body: Hands that went up on Luminous-Lint in June 2008 I was contacted by Rena Small about a series of photographs that she has been taking for over twenty years of the hands of artists.

As Rena relates in her introduction:

"...their hands move unconsciously while we talk shop about their work, ideas, passions from their heart and I listen, respond as the elements of performance art are activated in the art making process too. My role is to simply stop them when I observe the gestures that are crucial for some unknown reasons. That is the art of it for me, those unknown moments of reason."

With grateful thanks to Rena and all the artists who have participated in this project since 1984 and for their permission to include their thoughts and reflections.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Stereo images: Storage and display

Anon.
Untitled studio image of a lady with a Holmes-Bates style scope
n.d.

Stereocard, detail
Jefferson Stereoptics
Courtesy of John Saddy (Auction, Tue, Dec 12, 2006 & Thu, Dec 14, 2006, # 06-4, Lot 70)

There are so many online exhibitions on Luminous-Lint that it is difficult to select favorites but I've noticed how consistently popular this one is and I thought I'd share it with you all again. Here we can see the different ways of storing, displaying and viewing stereo images along with contemporary photographs of the diverse systems in use. So many people have given permission to include images on Luminous-Lint that at times they don't get the full credit they deserve in improving our understanding and at the same time affording us such pleasure - so here is to all of you.

If people are interested we can consider creating online reference catalogs of the different viewers - Holmes-Bates, Brewster, table top stereoscopes, Graphoscopes etc. Get in touch if this is an idea that appeals. alan@luminous-lint.com

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Don Jim - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Don Jim
Angel
[Urban Artifax]
1978 (ca, taken) 2007 (print)

Cibachrome print. from original transparency
8 x 10 in

Private collection of Margo Jim - Estate of Don Jim

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

H.C. Anderson - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

H.C. Anderson
Aunt Hattie Anderson's Children With a Television
1960s

Gelatin silver print
14 x 11 in. (356 x 279 mm)

Charles Schwartz Ltd

Anne Arden McDonald - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Anne Arden McDonald
Self portrait with an egg
[Self portraits]
1992

Gelatin silver print
5 x 5 in

Provided by the artist - Anne Arden McDonald
Courtesy of the artist

There is an online exhibition of her work on Luminous-Lint.

Alexander Rodchenko - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Alexander Rodchenko
Book cover for Alexander Rodchenko "Pro Eto. Ei i Mne -- About This. To Her and to Me. Text by Vladimir Mayakovsky" (Moscow and Petrograd: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvo, 1923)
1923

Book cover
Christie's - New York
Christies - NY (Sale 2110: Lot 8 - April 10, 2008 - Fine Photobooks from an Important Private Collection)

Over 400 online exhibitions on photo-history now running on Luminous-Lint

Harry Lapow
Wedding on the beach, Coney Island [Included in the Family of Man exhibition]
1952

Gelatin silver print
11 x 12 in (appro x )

Harry Lapow / Marcelle Lapow Toor
© Harry Lapow Estate - courtesy of Marcelle Lapow Toor

The following note was supplied by Tom Antoniello (October, 24 2006)

"The woman in the middle is my grandmother. Every year on the "Feast of the Blessed Mother" Aug 15th. My grandmother "Queen of Coney Island" would participate in a celebration. Those who came donated money, which was sent to an orphanage in Italy. Her name was Antonetta DelCore. She took over the leading role in the celebration on Aug 15,1946 . Every year, for 27 years, on Aug 15th she would participate in this celebration and send money to orphanages in Italy.

As far as I know there was no other queen after her and the celebration no longer a tradition."

In March 2006 I added the first exhibition to Luminous-Lint on Harry Lapow: Coney Island and New York using photographs kindly provided by his daughter, this was followed by one on Autochromes: Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud and from these tentative beginnings the content on this website has grown. I just noticed that there are now over 400 online exhibitions on this website and this is quite a milestone - the exhibitions cover a vast range from the history of photography and have been provided by photographers, estates, private collectors, museums, local historical societies, publishers, galleries and a host of others. Over the years better indexes have been created and the content is slowly being linked into the available texts on photo-history. It is far from perfect but we've achieved an amazing amount in less than 30 months.

So many thanks to all of you for participating and sharing your collections and knowledge.

Now let's see what we can do in the next 30 months.....

Alan

Abstract: Distortions - New exhibition on Luminous-Lint

André Kertész
Distortion #48
[Distortion]
1933

Gelatin silver print
9 5/8 x 7 11/16

Silverstein Photography

A new exhibition on distortions has just been added to Luminous-Lint.

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

distort
–verb (used with object)

1. to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed.
2. to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent: to distort the facts.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.



The online exhibition is a part of the larger series of exhibitions on diverse forms of abstraction:

Abstract: Abstraction of the Real
Abstract: Viewpoint: Above
Abstract: Viewpoint: Below

Leopoldo Alinari - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Leopoldo Alinari
Pisa, Battistero Nr. 88
1852 (ca)

Salt print
34.0 x 26.1

Private collection of Marco C. Antonetto

Still life: Eggs - New exhibition on Luminous-Lint

Jefferson Hayman
Still Life
2004

Gelatin silver print
5 x 6 in

Provided by the artist - Jefferson Hayman

A new online exhibition, curated by Alan Griffiths, has been added to Luminous-Lint showing how eggs have been incorporated into photographs.

“When you start with a portrait and try to find pure form by abstracting more and more, you must end up with an egg.”
Pablo Picasso
(Spanish Artist, 1881-1973)

Many thanks to all the museums, galleries, dealers and collectors who are supplying images for this exhibition.

With special thanks to:

William Coupon, Jefferson Hayman, Beth Hinrichs, T.O. Immisch (Stiftung Moritzburg), Jens Knigge, Mikhail Kudish, Anne Arden McDonald, Vik Muniz, Burton Pritzker, Ron Reeder, Franziska Schmidt (Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH), Vivienne Silver-Brody, David Spahr, Dick Swift, Maggie Taylor and Jerry N. Uelsmann

for additional photographs, information leads and advice.

If you can assist in locating images of eggs by Aenne Biermann, Hans Finsler, Walter Peterhans or other notable photographers not included in this exhibition I would be most appreciative. This exhibition will evolve as other intriguing examples appear and I'm particularly seeking 19th century examples.

Alan Griffiths
alan@luminous-lint.com

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Kusakabe Kimbei - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Kusakabe Kimbei
Man with tattoes
1889 (ca)

Albumen print, tinted
7 3/4x9 3/4 in (19.8x25.7 cm)

Swann Galleries - New York
Courtesy of Swann Galleries (Auction, May 15, 2008, #2146, Lot 280)

There is an online exhibition of other 19th century photographs of Japan on Luminous-lint.

Art Green - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Art Green
WWII press photo. "Battle Stations" shows the body of a gunner slumped over his wrecked shipboard station
n.d.

Gelatin silver print
9 ¼ x 7 ¼ in

Be-Hold
Courtesy of Larry Gottheim (Auction: March 13, 2008, 51, part 2 / lot 99)

Kamil Vojnar: Flying Blind - Exhibition available on Luminous-Lint

Kamil Vojnar
Free Fall
[Flying Blind]
2006

Mixed Media on canvas
20 x 20 in

Verve Gallery of Photography

"I am trying to explore corners of our souls, where emotions reside. Emotions as reactions to the world outside and conflicting emotions of our most private worlds within. Because don't we cry from immense sadness, but from happiness as well? " (Kamil Vojnar)

Thanks to Kamil Vojnar and the Verve Gallery of Photography for their assistance with this exhibition.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.

Bisson frères - Luminous-Lint Photograph of the Day

Bisson frères
Chapiteaux romans
1854-1857 (ca)

Varnished salt or albumen print from paper negative on original mount
28.4 x 25 cm

Galerie Daniel Blau

Exhibition of Rena Small: Artist's Hands available on Luminous-Lint

Rena Small
Mildred Howard, San Francisco, CA
[Artist's Hands]
1999

Gelatin silver print
Provided by the artist - Rena Small
© Rena Small 2008

Following the online exhibition Portraits: Parts of body: Hands that went up on Luminous-Lint in June 2008 I was contacted by Rena Small about a series of photographs that she has been taking for over twenty years of the hands of artists.

As Rena relates in her introduction:

"...their hands move unconsciously while we talk shop about their work, ideas, passions from their heart and I listen, respond as the elements of performance art are activated in the art making process too. My role is to simply stop them when I observe the gestures that are crucial for some unknown reasons. That is the art of it for me, those unknown moments of reason."

With grateful thanks to Rena and all the artists who have participated in this project since 1984 and for their permission to include their thoughts and reflections.

There is an online exhibition of this series on Luminous-Lint.