Abstract for report - non photographer pages

Still writing it up but this is what it will cover . . . comments invited



 Real or Not - Manipulation in Photography




1. Portrait touch-ups

2. Spirit or wonders photography

3. Journalism

4. Science

5. Art

6. Advertising

Fakery for money

Fakery for illumination

Unwitting Fakery

Fakery for fun



Journalism

Science photography

1. Medical

2. Astronomical

3. Nature

4. Observational, structural

5. Geological

6. Anthropological



Methods of fakery

Methods of improving trustworthiness

Why we fake

Does it matter?

Muybridges Zoopraxiscope Projector

Nadar said of himself

"

His description of himself was of "A superficial intelligence, which has touched on too many subjects to have allowed time to explore any in depth... A dare-devil, always on the lookout for currents to swim against, oblivious of public opinion, irreconcilably opposed to any sign of law and order. A jack-of-all-trades who smiles out of the corner of his mouth and snarls with the other, coarse enough to call things by their real names, and people too - never one to miss the chance to talk of rope in the house of a hanged man." It was his description of himself.

Memories du Geant, 1864

Some Astronomical Photos (and a non astronomical snowflake)

Moon Daguerrotype
1851
John Whipple

Earliest Surviving Photo of Moon
Daguerrotype
1839
John Draper













Orion Nebula
1883
Andrew Ainslie Common

Snowflake
1885
William Bentley

Some photos of and from the non west

Andamann Islanders Fishing
1870
Albumen

Woman at Toilette

Flower Seller Japan
1870
Hand Painted Albumen

Group of Samurai
1880
Kusakabe Kimbei
Hand Painted Albumen

Two Malayan Women
1860 - 1869?

Dickens says

Then, does it appear to me that in this age three things are clamorously required of Man in the miscellaneous thoroughfares of the metropolis. Firstly, that he have his boots cleaned. Secondly, that he eat a penny ice. Thirdly, that he get himself photographed. Then do I speculate, What have those seam-worn artists been who stand at the photograph doors in Greek caps, sample in hand, and mysteriously salute the public - the female public with a pressing tenderness - to come in and be 'took'? What did they do with their greasy blandishments, before the era of cheap photography?


Charles Dickens 1860

thanks Elizabeth

Wow Elizabeth they're great!  I love the Zoopraxiscope disc, wouldn't that make a great prop indeed!
(I am looking at a stack of cds in the case they come in where they all sit on a spindle, and wondering.. how to fix translucent perspex with horses drawn on it.. between 2 cds + spin it around the spindle.. hmmm.
Can't post comments as you know.. so have to post here.  I am excited by your information.. looks very good indeed. I like the uncovering of the Dickens story, that's very interesting.

Maybridge, Muggeridge,Muybridge - Edward, Eadweard (aka Helios) , He had identity issues . . .

Hi, some stuff on Muybridge.

He was a madman. Finis.

Started as a publishers agent and bookseller. Took up photography useing wet collodion (along with whole rest of world). initially landscape but did advertise himself as a portraitist.

Hired by Stanford to look at motion in horses. Invented bunch of equipment, took lots of studies that showed all hooves are off ground momentarily when horses gallop.

Hired by University of Pennsylvania to do more motion studies. Took 100,000+  photos, invented equipment. 

 A phenakistoscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge (1893) 

The zoopraxiscope is an early device for displaying motion pictures. Created by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in 1879, it may be considered the first movie projector. The zoopraxiscope projected images from rotating glass disks in rapid succession to give the impression of motion. The stop-motion images were initially painted onto the glass, as silhouettes. A second series of discs, made in 1892-94, used outline drawings printed onto the discs photographically, then colored by hand. Some of the animated images are very complex, featuring multiple combinations of sequences of animal and human movement.

Zoopraxiscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge patent model of method and apparatus for photographing objects in motion, March 4, 1879











Motion Studies

Eadweard Muybridge

Movement of the hand, drawing a circle
1887



 

 
 
Eadweard Muybridge

Head-spring, a Flying Pigeon Interfering
1885



 

 
 
Eadweard Muybridge

Descending stairs and turning around
1884-85

 
 
 
Eadweard Muybridge

Turning around in surprise and running away
1884-85

[Really?!!]

 
 

 
 
Eadweard Muybridge
Wrestling: Graeco-Roman
1884-85

Some faked photos

Of course, fakery is sometimes a way of illuminating truth . . .

I'll post some more, when I can, having trouble with maintaining a connection, on scientific photography, and of course, spirit photography as well as a synopsis of my thoughts on real photography and truth.

Above: c.1860. This portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body. Technique of Fakery: Composite Images, Drawn-in Details.


 

IN THIS PHOTO BY MATHEW BRADY, GENERAL SHERMAN IS SEEN POSING WITH HIS GENERALS. GENERAL FRANCIS P. BLAIR (FAR RIGHT) WAS ADDED TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH.

C. 1864. THIS PRINT PURPORTS TO BE OF GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT IN FRONT OF HIS TROOPS AT CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. IT IS A COMPOSITE OF THREE SEPARATE PRINTS:

Photography lost its innocence many years ago. Only a few decades after Niepce created the first photograph in 1814, photographs were already being manipulated”

- Hany Farid professor of computer science at Dartmouth College. I lead the image science group whose research focuses on topics in digital forensics, image analysis, computer vision, and human perception

With thanks to howtobearetronaut.com


From the museumofhoaxes.com

Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man - Hippolyte Bayard

 

 Technique of Fakery: False Caption, Staged Scene.


During the 1830s there was a race among inventors to be the first to perfect the photographic process. Louis Daguerre won the race (at least, he was the first to patent a process) and gained all the glory. This left some other inventors feeling bitter. Frenchman Hippolyte Bayard had independently invented a rival photographic process known as direct positive printing, and had done so as early as Daguerre, but his invention didn't earn him fame and riches. Frustrated, he created a photograph to express his feelings. It showed himself pretending to be a suicide victim. He wrote an explanatory note on the back of it:

The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life....! ... He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.

So while Bayard is not remembered as the first to invent photography, he is remembered for a different kind of first — the first to fake a photograph.

Despite his frustration at being underappreciated, Bayard continued to be a productive photographer. Two years later, in recognition of his contributions, he was given a prize of 3000 francs by the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale.

References:
Hippolyte Bayard. Wikipedia.
Lester, P. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 91-92.

Street Urchins with Chestnuts

 Technique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Movable Prop.                           

 A street urchin tosses a chestnut in the air as his bored companion looks on. It may look like a real-life scene caught by the camera, but in fact it is staged. Cameras were too slow in the 1850s to record something as quick-moving as a tossed chestnut. Therefore Oscar Rejlander (who is sometimes called the Father of Art Photography) suspended a chestnut in mid-air with a piece of fine thread in order to create the scene. The thread is barely visible if you examine a larger version of the picture.

References:
Lester, P. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 92.

A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep

Technique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Movable Prop.




Alexander Gardner and his assistants took a series of photographs showing the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. These photos were published in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, a work which proved very influential in defining the image of the Civil War for many Americans.

But in 1961 Frederic Ray, art director of the Civil War Times, noticed that two of the photographs, taken in different locations on the battlefield, appeared to show the same corpse. In one scene (top) a Confederate soldier's corpse lay on the southern slope of Devil's Den. Gardner had captioned this photo "A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep."

But in another scene (bottom) the body had moved forty yards to a rocky niche. Gardner captioned this photo "The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter." Apparently Gardner had moved the soldier's corpse to the rocky outcropping for the sake of creating a more dramatic image. He even turned the soldier's head to face the camera and leaned a gun against the rocks.

Although Gardner identified the soldier as a sharpshooter, the weapon beside him is not a sharpshooter's rifle. It was probably a prop, placed there by Gardner.

References:
Moving the Body, Hoaxipedia article.
The Case of the Moved Body, Library of Congress.
Ray. F. (Oct 1961). "The Case of the Rearranged Corpse." Civil War Times. 3(6): 19.

Dickens in America - Technique of Fakery: Drawn-in Details.


In 1867 the popular author Charles Dickens toured the United States. His tour manager signed an agreement with the New York photographers Jeremiah Gurney & Son, assuring them they would have the exclusive right to photograph Dickens during his visit. However, in December 1867 the New York Daily Tribune proudly announced it had persuaded the author to sit for a photo at the Mathew Brady studio on Broadway. The public was invited to go view the portrait (top). This prompted a protest from the Gurneys who denounced the Brady photo as a fake. Modern research indicates the Gurneys were right.

Historian Malcolm Andrews discovered that somehow the Mathew Brady studio had obtained an 1861 portrait of Dickens (middle) taken by the Watkins brothers in England. It was a portrait Dickens had never liked, privately remarking that he looked "grim and wasted" in it. But the Brady studio tidied it up, offering an early example of what was possible, even in the 1860s, with darkroom techniques.

The Brady studio thickened and combed the author's hair, smoothed his face, gave him a stylish mustache, and added a buttonhole to his lapel as well as a dress-shirt front. The result was a significantly fresher-looking Dickens. The Daily Tribune promised its readers that the portrait showed "Mr. Dickens just as he is in his readings."

In reality, Dickens looked quite different, because by 1867 he had lost much of the hair he had in 1861. The bottom photo, taken by the Gurney studio, shows what Dickens actually looked like during his American tour.


References:

• Andrews, M. (2004). "Mathew Brady's Portrait of Dickens: 'a fraud and imposition on the public'?" History of Photography. 28(4): 375-379.

I just bought these Civil War photos as a class handout

 Hello Ladies I just purchased these as part of the class engagement process. They are more aligned to your subject Alicia. I have asked the seller to send them straight away. Hopefully the class will enjoy them, and perhaps we can talk about CDV's and how they were made with the woodbury process, and that they were traded amongst families (more information about CDV's , down below on the blog)
I am also bidding on some more, and in particular a Nadar one. If I am unsuccessful in my bidding, what I might do is try to reproduce the images by printing them onto card, to add to the originals I have just purchased. This may be all that I do for the class engagement exercise, because of time restrictions by the time we hand out a pinhole camera, albumen prints, a flip book, and these photos. I want us to get a good mark for all our effort!

The Seller has advised me "They are what we call Civil War Era 1861-1864 and the stamp on the back verifies it".

Alicia, with your offer of your husband printing out colour photographs, if I format my photos to be the precise size of these cdv's do you think he could print them out for me, then, I will mount them onto card stock like these ones are mounted, just in case I can't afford to buy anymore things.

these would be fun to do as kind of stereoscopic viewers

these would be fun to do as kind of stereoscopic viewers (if only the slides were of our era!!)

trickery photo for you Elizabeth

I thought you might like this one in light of the conversations we've been having regarding the trickery in photography in that period.  A lame photo compared to what you're talking about Elizabeth, but you never know, it still alludes to trickery.  I would have purchased it for you but it wasn't an original, only a photocopy.

How they mass produced in our period

André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, former merchant, actor, and daguerreotypist, patented his invention, the carte-de-visite (visiting card) photograph, in 1854. At nine-by-six centimeters, cartes were primarily portraits, about the size of a conventional calling card and soon just as popular. Disdéri established his photographic practice with the manufacture of these tiny photographs; he divided a single glass plate negative to make ten different exposures and then printed them simultaneously. By 1862 he had expanded his operation to include a second studio in Paris, devoted entirely to equestrian portraits. Studios in London followed, and Disdéri, ever the showman and enterprising businessman, developed numerous photographic gimmicks to keep business afloat. The carte-de-visite was popular until the late 1860s, when it was replaced by the larger cabinet card format. Disdéri photographed views of the siege of Paris in 1870 and 1871, but the changed political and social climate contributed to the demise of his studio business. Following several bankruptcies, he moved to Nice in 1877 and ran a series of photography studios there. He returned to Paris in the late 1880s and died in an institution.

how they reproduced photos for publishing in our period

The term Woodburytype refers to both a photomechanical process and the print produced by this process. The process produces continuous tone images in slight relief. A chromated gelatin film is exposed under a photographic negative, which hardens in proportion to the amount of light. Then it is developed in hot water to remove all the unexposed gelatin and dried. This relief is pressed into a sheet of lead in a press with 5000 psi. This is an intaglio plate. It is used as a mold and is filled with pigmented gelatin. The gelatin layer is then pressed onto a paper support.

The Woodburytype was developed by Walter B. Woodbury in 1864, first used in a publication in 1866 and widely used for fine book illustration from about 1870 to 1900.[1] It was the only commercially successful method for producing illustration material capable of replicating the subtleties and details of a photograph. It is the only mechanical printing method ever invented which produces true middle values and does not make use of a screen or other image deconstruction method.

Nāser al-Dīn Shah - Shah of Persia - Carte de Visite Woodburytype-Print from Felix Nadar Paris

Visiting card photographs popular in our period - carte de visite CDV

The carte de visite (abbreviated CdV or CDV, and also spelled carte-de-visite or erroneously referred to as carte de ville) was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris, France by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero.[1][2] It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. The size of a carte de visite is 2⅛ × 3½ inches mounted on a card sized 2½ × 4 inches. In 1854, The format an overnight success, and the new invention was so popular it was known as "cardomania"[4] and eventually spread throughout the world.

Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards became enormously popular and were traded among friends and visitors. The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons. "Cardomania" spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America. Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors.

By the early 1870s, cartes de visite were supplanted by "cabinet cards," which were also usually albumen prints, but larger, mounted on cardboard backs measuring 4½ by 6½ inches. Cabinet cards remained popular into the early 20th century, when Kodak introduced the Brownie camera and home snapshot photography became a mass phenomenon.

1860s recipe for the preparation of positive paper

Hi Ladies, maybe we could prepare some Albumen paper to hand out for our class engagement exercise?  I've also bid on some 1860-1880's photos on ebay to hand around, I am hoping the price doesn't go to high, (as the shipping is dear enough from England).

Here is the way the albumen paper is prepared.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS, June 29, 1860, p.101

ON THE PREPARATION OF POSITIVE PAPER.

BY M. ALEO.

1. Preparation of the Albumen:--Break the eggs into a graduated measure, carefully avoiding the mixture of yolk with the whites, and when the desired quantity of albumen is obtained separate the germs and pour the whites into a glazed earthen vessel, and to every 100 parts add 5 parts of a soluble chloride (that of ammonium is best), first dissolving it in as little water as possible. The quantity of water must not exceed one-tenth of the albumen, if a very brilliant surface on the proofs is desired. Beat the whites into a froth, and, after allowing it to settle for five minutes, remove the froth with a fork into a hair sieve, or muslin strainer placed over a second vessel. This operation to be continued whole of the whites are beaten into a froth and strained.
Allow the filtered albumen to settle for twelve hours; it is then ready for use. Draw sufficient quantity off into a shallow glass or Porcelain dish, without disturbing the sediment. It is a good precaution to strain it through a piece sponge placed in the neck of a glass or porcelain funnel. When circumstances permit, it is best to allow the albumen to repose four or five days before use. It appears to clarify itself, and gives a more brilliant surface to the positive paper.
2. Preparation of the Paper:--The positive paper must be carefully selected, and experimented upon. before the preparation of a large quantity is undertaken. If it be unequally sized, it will give uneven proofs and unsatisfactory results. Even the cutting of the paper to the required size demands much care, and only one sheet should be cut at a time, with an ivory paper-knife, without pressure or creasing.
Mark the back of the paper, and place it, sheet by sheet, carefully on the albumen without allowing the liquid to flow on to the back of the paper. This operation is best performed in damp weather, for then the albumen takes to the paper more readily, without forming bubbles, and the paper also dries more slowly and evenly. The first sheet floated is almost always defective.
Some little dexterity is required in floating the paper on the albumen ; the description of which is difficult, and necessarily unsatisfactory.
The time which the paper should be allowed to float upon the albumen will vary with the thickness and sizing of the paper: two minutes and a half may be taken as the average. It must not be reversed until it lies flat on the surface of the liquid. When this ensues, take the sheet by the two most distant corners, which, before it was floated on the albumen, have been previously folded back, and raise it slowly and regularly, so that the albumen forms a continuous, even coating over the whole surface. If the paper be raised too quickly, the albumen will flow down the paper in streaks, and the surface will dry uneven. By taking the paper at the corners most distant from each other, and suspending it to drain and dry in that position, the risk of drying unevenly is avoided.
3. Hanging and Drying the Paper.--The manner of hanging and drying the paper is one of the most important points, to avoid unevenness. The following method has always been successful, without causing any embarrassment to the operator:--Take two pieces of stout whipcord, and wax them, to prevent any fragments falling on to the wet paper; and string on each pieces of thin cork, of about an inch or an inch-and-half square, with holes pierced in the centre, through which the cord can freely pass. The cords are fastened to two walls, parallel to each other, with three bars of wood placed at equal distances along the cords to keep them apart; the distance must be a little greater than the width of the albumenised paper. Through each piece of cork a black-varnished pin must be passed upwards in a slanting direction, which penetrates the corners of the paper without difficulty. Care must be taken that the paper hangs fully distended and even, for, if it becomes curved, the albumen will dry upon its surface unequally. and spoil the proofs taken upon it. According to the extent of the operations, so may these suspending appliances be inch plied; they have the advantage of taking tip but little room, and are easily removed when the operation is over. The albumen that drains from the paper en be collected in dishes or on sheets of waste paper spread on the floor.

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL. April 1, 1859. p.8

APPARATUS FOR FROTHING ALBUMEN.

To the EDITOR.
SIR,--In mechanically preparing albumen for photography the thorough and complete disintegration of every particle is indispensable.
By the ordinary fork process this is generally a long and tiresome job. I long contemplated making a machine to assist in the work, and have recently constructed a rough one, which answers completely, taking six minutes only to beat the albumen up instead of twenty-five, and producing a much better article, so much so that I think it would be impossible to make it as well by the fork.

The apparatus is simple: a suitably shaped beater is rotated amongst the albumen in a basin (slowly at first, the speed being increased as the froth rises), by means of a pair of pulleys, in the proportion of about six to one, connected by a crossed band; a speed of upwards of five hundred revolutions per minute being easily attained. The standard, carrying the pulleys and beater shaft, slants at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and may be fastened to a table or board by a clamp.
When in use the large pulley is turned by the right hand, the basin containing the albumen, &c., being held in the left, so that the beater can have the proper dip, and every bit of the froth subjected to it effectually.
The enclosed print will show you the arrangement.

double exposure ghost photos for you Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth, in lieu of what we were discussing for your photograph yesterday, here are some double exposure ghost photographs on ebay, like the idea you had for your photo..??

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Old-Photo-Antique-Bike-Double-Exposure-Ghost-1920s-/120783495754?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item1c1f41e24a
Also this book below would be great if you get it from the library

'Ghosts Caught on Film' presents an extraordinary collection of strange and unexplained photographs that offer the exciting possibility of ghosts and paranormal activity captured on film. It covers every aspect of the paranormal, from early photographs of psychics, mediums and ghostly happenings, to celebrated recent photos and the most interesting examples of the unexplained, as collected in the archive of the Society for Psychical Research. Each picture is accompanied by a description of its circumstances and the steps taken by researchers to establish that there is no 'normal' explanation for the phenomena. The incredible photographs will stimulate the interest of everyone who sees them. Whether you are a sceptic or a believer, you can't help but be drawn into the mystery

ebay props

wish we could afford some of these ebay items for our class participation exercise!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1893-LANCASTER-EXTRA-SPECIAL-HALF-PLATE-WOODEN-FOLDING-CAMERA-VG-CONDITION-CAP-/110749273769?pt=AU_Vintage_Cameras&hash=item19c92bcea9