Category Archives: History of Photography

Photographic numerology – what is the best ratio aspect for an image

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Figure 1 - Early English Pence of Aethelred the Unready. The reverse bears a cross which made it convenient to divide the coin in halfpence or quarther pence referred to as farthings. Image from Arichis uploaded to the Wikipedia and placed in the public domain.

Figure 1 – Early English Pence of Aethelred the Unready*. The reverse bears a cross which made it convenient to divide the coin in halfpence or quarther pence referred to as farthings. Image from Arichis uploaded to the Wikipedia and placed in the public domain.

The other day I had gone out to take photographs in New York City and I found myself snapping away merrily – ’tis the season for merry!  When I got home, I was curious how many photos I had taken and found that the number was 36.  One roll, I thought to myself.  In the good old days(?) 35 mm roll film used to come in 24 exposure and 36 exposure rolls.  This is like a base twelve system of some sort and smacks of either a Babylonian (twelve sixty minute hours to the half day (sunrise to sunset) or old English (12 inches to the foot, 36 inches to the yard, twelve pence to the shilling, and twenty shillings or 240 pence to the pound) conspiracy.  By the way at 36 mm x 26mm, 35 mm film wasn’t even 35 mm, which is another mystery.

Hmm, it’s all very strange and, of course, the reason that film is the way it is results from some historical vagaries.  But it is not the only numerological oddity in photography.  Why is the favorite aspect ratio today 6 x 4? 6/4 = 1.67.  What about full frame 35 mm that’s 36/26 =  1.38.  Think about the common paper sizes from when 35 mm film ruled. 8 x 10 gives us 1.25 as does 16 x 20.  11 x 14 gives us 1.27.  All of these are very similar and almost compatible with 35 mm film, just a wee bit of cropping. But 5 x 7 gives us 1.4.

There is however, something really interesting about all of this.  I try to standardize my aspect ration and only rarely go to a random freehand aspect ratio.  But I typically find that 8 x 10 doesn’t feel quite right, nor does 5 x 7.  What’s magical about 6 x 4?

The answer is, perhaps obvious.  1.67 is very close to the golden proportion or 1.6180339887.   We have discussed this before.  This proportion, as sides of a rectangle, was discovered by the ancient Greeks to be the most aesthetically pleasing.  It often occurs in nature and the Greeks and later artists used and use it widely, for instance in defining the proportions of the Parthenon.   It is also manifest in the approximation referred to as the Golden Rule of Thirds, which we have also discussed.  All of this, is food for thought on a rather cold day.  If it gets colder, I might just look into the details of the roll film sizes.

*Æthelred the Unready was king of England (978–1013 and 1014–1016).  Unready” is a mistranslation of Old English unræd (meaning bad-counsel)—a twist on his name “Æthelred”, meaning noble-counsel. A better translation would be ill-advised.

Reading the soul of Abraham Lincoln – “his eyes are full of tears and that his lips are sad with a secret sorrow?”

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Figure 1 - Andre Gardners February 5, 1865 photographic portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Image from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Figure 1 – Alexander Gardner’s February 5, 1865 photographic portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Image from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

The Opinionator Section of the New York Times has been carrying an intriguing four part commentary by Errol Morris on Lincoln and photography, “The Interminable, Everlasting Lincolns.” I was particularly struck by part three because it resonates with what we have talking about in regard to nineteenth century photographs.  Indeed, I think that it takes the subject a step further in recognizing the special quality of “the photograph” to reveal the human soul in a way that painting never will.  I know that’s a very strong statement.  But the point is that an artist can draw what (s)he wants, a photographer captures – and then Photoshops.  The last part is cynical David talking.

Morris relates a wonderful story.  It seems that in 1909 Count S. Stackelberg visited the estate of Leo Tolstory, Yasnaya Polyana, to try to convince him to write a piece about Abraham Lincoln for The New York World.  This was presumably for the centennial of Lincoln’s birth that year. (As an aside Lincoln was born on the same day as Charles Darwin – two men destined to change the world in very different ways). Tolstoy turned down the request but in doing so related a story to Stackelberg.

It seems that years before he (Tolstoy) had been traveling in the Caucasus and became the guest of a Caucasian Chief of the Circassians.  It seems the Chief wanted to hear stories of the great leaders and generals of the western world.  So Tolstoy, who just happened to be one of the world’s greatest story tellers, told him of the Czar, of Napoleon, and of  Frederick the Great. But it seems the Circassian Chief was dissatisfied. Something was missing. Count Tolstoy had failed to tell him of the greatest leader of all, a man called Lincoln.

So Tolstoy told the Chief all that he knew about Lincoln.  But still the Chief wasn’t satisfied.  Despite the Count’s great skills at story telling, he had failed to truly flesh out Lincoln.  The Chief wanted to see a photograph.  And so Tolstoy arranged for this to happen – remember late 19th century, you just don’t look that sort of thing up on your IPad.  Still Count Tolstoy knew someone in the next village whom he thought might have such a picture.  And now let me let Tolstoy tell the story in his own words (via Morris’ article):

“One of the riders agreed to accompany me to the town and get the promised picture, which I was now bound to secure at any price. I was successful in getting a large photograph from my friend, and I handed it to the man with my greetings to his associates. It was interesting to witness the gravity of his face and the trembling of his hands when he received my present. He gazed for several minutes silently, like one in a reverent prayer; his eyes filled with tears. He was deeply touched and I asked him why he became so sad. After pondering my question for a few moments he replied: ‘I am sad because I feel sorry that he had to die by the hand of a villain. Don’t you find, judging from his picture, that his eyes are full of tears and that his lips are sad with a secret sorrow?’”

Morris likes to imagine (hope) that the picture shown to the Chief was the so-called broken glass photograph that was one of the very last photographs of Abraham Lincoln.  And you can read more about this is Mr. Morris’ series.  It was taken at the studio of Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) on February 5,1865.  It is often referred to as the last photograph of Lincoln – and may, in fact, be.  The story of Lincoln’s life, his trials and tribulations, his sorrows are indeed written on his face and contained in his eyes.  Both Tolstoy’s story and Gardner’s photograph, are in a very real sense, truly privileges to hear and see.  They bring us back more than a century and they admit us to the private recesses of a man’s soul.  We are enriched by them, and such is the magic of photography.

The mass extinction of television

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Figure 1 - American family watching television in 1958. Imqage from US National Archives and posted by Dr. William J. Ball. From the Wikimedia Commons and believed to be in the public domain.

Figure 1 – American family watching television in 1958. Imqage from US National Archives and posted by Dr. William J. Ball. From the Wikimedia Commons and believed to be in the public domain.

Last Sunday my wife and I found ourselves in the “great channel flip.”  That is we flipped through 200 channels of moronic television in search of something worth watching.  Back in the dinosaur ages, we had three television channels: CBS, NBC, and ABC.  The addition of PBS was a godsend that increased our options by 33 % and at the same time enabled us to become media elitists.  I watch PBS! Glory be me!  Did anyone notice that most of the good stuff was coming out of the UK?  Hmm.  Well along came UHF (that’s ultrahigh frequency TV) and the sluice gates were supposed to be opening a whole new world for us.  It was to be a media revolution that would ultimately lead to customized and interactive TV.  Imagine that – interactive television!

What bothered me the most about Sunday was that our local NBC affiliate was carrying an infomercial.  I mean, they were able to make more money selling away all air time than they could make with a standard TV format.  Makes you wonder what this world is coming to.

The thing is that the millennials, people loosely born between 1980 and 2000, are watching far less television that us aging boomers.  While 76 % of boomers get their news and images principally from broadcast television, only 65 % of generation X does so, and this falls to a miserable 46 % for millenials.  34 %, that’s one in three millenials mostly watch on line video.

When I talk about, for instance, the Kennedy assassination our means of experiencing those images was on television.  Now not so much.  I spend most of my image transfer time online.  I don’t even read paper news media anymore.  It’s all online.

Is it sad?  Certainly not.  Broadcast TV is doing a miserable time of serving us.  In fact, they always have.  It’s just that fifty years ago they were the only game in town, save radio.  And radio, well is radio.  It lacks images.  It is telling that today, I’ll see a teaser on the television and the first thing that I do is get on the internet and look it up.

We are undergoing a major shift in the way that we process images and news.  Such shifts are akin to the major extinctions in biological evolution.   I contrast this with what I’ve referred to as transitional technologies, which bridge a gap but are short lived.  Television has been around for a long time.  Then came UHF and after that digital TV and the interenet.  UHF was a transitional technology a short lived species of television.  Television had a very long run, like for instance the trilobites of biological evolution.  The telegraph had a long run.  Film-based analogue photography had a long run.  We didn’t even know that itr was wireless until digital photography was invented. The wired telephone had a long run.  Then came analog wireless telephony – a transitional technology. Now we have digital wireless.  Will that have a long run?

A lot of times it’s hard to imagine what comes next.  That’s because technology being what it is and the singularity being so near, we usually can create whatever we can imagine.  Some of you are probably thinking: “Beam me up, Scotty.”  So i have to ask you would you like to trust you cell phone company nit to drop the call while your molecules or this electroprint are being transported across space.  I’ve seen the movie “The Fly.” We’re playing with dangerous stuff here.

So three important points here:

1. Technologies are like biological species in the stream of technological eveolution

2. Some technological species are long-lived.  It takes a mass extinction, a eureka event to wipe them out.

3. Other technologies are transitional.  They are short lived because while they recognize a technological need they don’t quite fit the bill.

And yes, friend “it’s Howdy Doody time!”

Figure 2 - Howdy Doody gets a new face, January 1949. From the Wikimedia Commons and believed to be in the public domain.

Figure 2 – Howdy Doody gets a new face, January 1949. From the Wikimedia Commons originally from NBC Photo and believed to be in the public domain.

Thanksgiving 1918

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Figure 1 - Thanksgiving 1918, two servicemen being feted by the City of New York. Image by Underwood and Underwood for the War Department, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Figure 1 – Thanksgiving 1918, two servicemen being feted by the City of New York. Image by Underwood and Underwood for the War Department, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States.  It is our great nonsectarian feast day and draws its roots from the first harvest feasts at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century.  So in celebration I thought that I would simply share with you this image from the United States National Archives showing “Thanksgiving cheer” being distributed by the City of New York to men in service, ca 1918.  The image is by Underwood and Underwood for the War Department.

November 1918 was, of course, a moment of true thanksgiving in the world, as it marked the end of the War to End all Wars.  Unfortunately we did not do so well with that resolution.  It seems such a naive phrase now.  But it does express a universal sentiment. and still it is a delightful picture.  It offers a glimpse into the lives of these two totally delighted men.

Remembering Jack Kennedy

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Figure 1 - Photo of Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, John Jr, Caroline and Peter Lawford at the funeral of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 25 November 1963, walking down some steps. From the National Archives via the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Figure 1 – Photo of Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, John Jr, Caroline and Peter Lawford at the funeral of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 25 November 1963, walking down steps of the United States Capitol. From the National Archives via the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

As most people know, today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  My original thought was just to post the image of Figure 1, and let it speak for itself.  But really there is a lot more to be said in terms of what the myriad of iconic images from that day have to say.

First, consider Friday, January 20, 1961.  It was a snow day in New York City and as a result I got to stay home to watch the inauguration on the television.  It was the first inauguration that I watched, really the birth of my political awareness.  What is significant was the view that Americans had, at that moment, that whatever we set our collective minds and spirits to we could accomplish.  Those were heady times coming out of World War II, the center of what has been called the American Century – and, of course, it represents a classic example of what others have derogatorily called “American Exceptionalism.”  I think that rather than deriding American exceptionalism we should look towards a more universal human exceptionalism. The important point is that these were enormously optimistic times in the United States, and, of course too, we were about to pay again for racial intolerance.

This optimism ended on Friday, November 22, 1963.  Really!  It just died with the presidnet. When the word came out of the loud speaker at my Junior High School – the principal simply turned on the news – the feeling of despair and lost innocence was honestly palpable.  I remember one little girl shouting out: “He deserved it!”  And I remember thinking that she really didn’t mean it.  Now five decades later I take that utterance as an awful harbinger of the depths to which our political discourse would plummet.  The level of disrespect for our current president by his domestic opponents – well, and I hate to say it – is thinly disguised racism. It is not worthy of a free people.

So then the weekend progressed.  From one in the afternoon Eastern time on Friday when the news first broke, the networks broadcast endlessly until Tuesday night.  And television was a three network show in those days – thre channels of drivel instead of two hundred. For four days there was live-from-the-scene reporting.  For the first time, there was extensive mobile on-the-spot video.  Ever seen what a 1960’s vintage television camera looked like – this was a tour de force technically.

It is hard to remember what television was before the Kennedy assassination.  This is because that moment changed it.  We demanded ever detailed on-the-spot reporting.  We wanted cameras on the battle field, covering an endless series of genocides, and even on the moon for that first footstep.

Throughout the sixties and seventies that phrase “We interrupt this program with an important news bulletin,” made your heart stop a beat and you held your breath.  Robert Kennedy’s assassination, Martin Luther King’s Assassination, Nine-eleven: everything became so real and visceral.

And as we have discussed we have become enured – really hardened. And at the same time the news media and now social media have trivialized the phrase “breaking news.” Beyonce’s baby bump (and I wish her only good thing) does not, in any context of the phrase, truly constitute “breaking news.”

Our world and what we expect from our media was changed that Friday in November.  The endless personal and raw imagery that we demand and then devoured evolved from what we saw on our little grainy black and white televisions that weekend.

 

Recording and doing useless things

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Figure 1 - Annie Edson Taylor and the barrell in which she became the first person to survive a plunge in a barrell over Niagra Falls, October 24, 1901. Image originally from the Francis J. Petrie Photograph Collection Author, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Figure 1 – Annie Edson Taylor and the barrel in which she became the first person to survive a plunge in a barrel over Niagara Falls, October 24, 1901. Image originally from the Francis J. Petrie Photograph Collection
Author, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Let’s start with Figure 1, which is a photograph of Annie Edson Taylor, who on October 24, 1901 was the first person to survive a plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel – yes the same barrel pictured.  I mean woot, woot!  What a useless, nay what a stupid thing to do!  Sorry Annie, just saying it as it is.

Swimming from Cuba to Florida, braving jelly fish and sharks – what’s with that?  At least Diana Nyad‘s feat is a personal goal and triumph.  She even swam around Manhattan Island in 1975 – yuck to that.  So today, I was reading the BBC News and came across this very nice photograph by Stephanie Mahe of Reuters showing Canadian rower Milene Paquette arriving in Lorient Harbour in France, becoming the first North American rower to row solo across the Atlantic.  One can, at least appreciate the feat, both the physical and mental challenge.   The BBC also had this picture by Andrew Milligan of PA, showing Sean Conway emerging from his four month swim along the entire length of mainland Britain from Land End to John O’Groats.

Personal challenges and great geographic challenges, why do we attempt them?  I have previously quoted the great nineteen century British explorer, Sir Richard F. Burton:

 “Starting in a hollowed log of wood — some thousand miles up a river, with an infinitesimal prospect of returning! I ask myself ‘Why?’ and the only echo is ‘damned fool!… the Devil drives’.”

Great feats, even foolish feats are all a part of the human experience.

Remembering Armistice Day

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Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 at Madison Square in NYC, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 at Madison Square in NYC, from the Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain.

Some thing that we all share with our parents and our grandparents, with all people worldwide is the wish that war will have ended forever.  So it seems fitting to share with you this historic photograph of the celebrations on Madison Square in New York City of the end of the “War to End All Wars,” taken on November 11, 1918.

You will note the Flat Iron Building in the background.  I was there about a month ago and tried to position myself exactly where Edward Steichen stood to take his wonderful image.  And I always look up at the Flat Iron building and smile remember both being there with my father and the wonderful movie “Bell Book and Candle” when Jimmy Stewart throws his hat off the roof. This picture captures the magic of the site and the magic of a New York City tickertape parade.  The trolley cars and automobile attest to when the image was taken.

Then there is the obelisk in the lower left.  This was erected in 1857 and rises over the tomb of General William Jenkins Worth, who served in both the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War.   Fort Worth, Texas was named, after him as was Worth Street in lower Manhattan. These wars were already distant memories by 1918.  But perhaps, the presence of this memorial in the picture testifies to the difficulty of establishing terue and long-lasting peace.  It is an admirable goal!

The International Herald Tribune

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For a generation of American’s traveling in Europe, news was provided by reading the International Herald Tribune.  Today it is, perhaps, less so.  When I am in Europe these days I tune in to CNN or the BBC.  Nevertheless today marks a historic day.  Today the International Herald Tribune, after 126 years in print, starting as the Paris Herald  merges with the Global Edition of the New York Times to become the International New York Times.  This is, however, only the latest incarnation of what remains an important force in the news world but ultimately has an uncertain future.

My interest was piqued yesterday by a story by Serge Schemann in the New York Times about this transition.  What caught my eye was not so much the story as an embedded slide show of historic photographs featuring the Herald.  These are: Attilio Codognato’s photograph of Andy Warhol reading the Tribune in a Venetian Café in 1977, Raymond Cauchetier’s image of Jean Seberg in Jean Luc Godard’s film “Breatless,” Romanian Soldiers reading the December 25, 1989 edition of the Tribune announcing the fall of the Ceausescu government, and Martin Luther King reading the Tribune during a break at the 1964 Nobel Prize awards in Oslo.

Mr. Schemann sums up the transformation of the International Tribune with “The DNA of a great paper is defined by evolution of the complex and intimate interplay of reader and editor, owner and technology.”  This seems to me to be true of the story of modern photography as well.