| Newsletter for Collectors - Vol 11.3 | March 20, 2017 | | | Home • What‘s New • Photographers • Online Exhibitions
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Pondering the exhibition "Paradise of Exiles: Early Photography in Italy" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 13 March - 13 August 2017) |
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York an exhibition entitled "Paradise of Exiles: Early Photography in Italy" just opened and as an ex-archaeologist the Ancient World always fascinates me.
The sequencing of images in a real world exhibition is based upon numerous considerations including the stories being told, visual balance, visitor flow and the physical space available. The connections between photographs placed close together should be meaningful and in previous Luminous-Lint newsletters some of the different types of connections have been described.
The website for the exhibition provides the context:
Deemed a "Paradise of Exiles" by the British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Italy attracted not only 19th-century Romantics, but also many of photography's earliest practitioners, who traveled to the peninsula in order to capture its monuments and distinctive topography. At the same time, Italians adopted daguerreotypes and paper negatives as a means to represent their own cultural patrimony during a period of political upheaval.
This exhibition focuses on Italy's importance as a center of exchange and experimentation during the first three decades of photography's history—from 1839, the year of its invention, to 1871, the year Italy became a unified nation. Paradise of Exiles highlights the little-known contribution of Italian photographers to the development of the new medium through some 35 photographs and albums drawn from The Met collection, along with 11 loans, including rare daguerreotypes and photographs related to the Risorgimento, the period of modern Italian unification. I won't have the opportunity to visit the real world exhibition but I thought it might be useful to examine the list of objects to seek out some illustrative connections from the content already on Luminous-Lint.
I selected four images but any of the objects in the exhibition could have been used as long as there was an accompanying image. I've put the four photographs I selected together below.
Alan Griffiths, Four photographs included in the "Paradise of Exiles: Early Photography in Italy" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (13 March - 13 August 2017), 18 March 2017,
Composite image, Luminous-Lint, LL/73971
- Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, 1842, "Temple of Castor and Pollux, Rome", Daguerreotype, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2016.606
- Frédéric Flachéron (French, 1813–1883), 1849, "Bas Relief from the Arch of Constantine, Rome", Paper negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2005.100.863
- Pietro Dovizielli (Italian, 1804–1885), 1850s, ""Temple of Vesta", Salted paper print from paper negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2005.100.1095
- Pietro Semplicini (Italian, active 1850s–90s), 1861, "Fissore’s Plow from Tortona, Plow from Parma", Albumen silver print from collodion negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2015.582
NOTE: Click on the images to see larger versions.
Each of these photographs, like any image, can be placed into an ordering suitable for a real world exhibition but they can also be explored in multiple other ways and here I'll use some examples from Luminous-Lint to show possiblities for aficionados of photography.
Example A - Other photographs by the same photographer (Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey) |
Photograph in exhibition
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, 1842, "Temple of Castor and Pollux, Rome", Daguerreotype, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2016.606
Context on Luminous-Lint
Alan Griffiths, Screenshot of some of the daguerreotypes on Luminous-Lint taken by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey in 1842-1843, 18 March 2017, Screenshot, Luminous-Lint, LL/73973
Within the exhibition there is a remarkable daguerreotype by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and examining other plates taken in Rome, or elsewhere, by the same photographer is informative - they can be seen on Luminous-Lint here. For Luminous-Lint subscribers you can also see where the original plates currently are. Of course there are many other connections such as what other photographs were taken in 1842 or who else took photographs of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum?
In an ideal world the visitor to any photography exhibition would be able to bring the answers up on their phone but that is not available quite yet.
Example B - Other photographs using similar techniques or processes (paper and waxed paper negatives) |
Photograph in exhibition
Frédéric Flachéron (French, 1813–1883), 1849, "Bas Relief from the Arch of Constantine, Rome", Paper negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2005.100.863
Context on Luminous-Lint
Alan Griffiths, Screenshot of paper and waxed paper negatives on Luminous-Lint, 18 March 2017, Screenshot, Luminous-Lint, LL/73973
Paper and waxed paper negatives are rare survivals because of their fragility. In the exhibition there is a stunning example in the "Bas Relief from the Arch of Constantine, Rome" taken by Frédéric Flachéron (1813-1883). Flachéron was one of the members of the informal Roman Photographic School also known as the "Circolo del Caffé Greco" active from 1847 until 1855.
Some questions for the enquiring visitor might be "Where can I see other paper negatives?" or "Which photographers used paper negatives?" Luminous-Lint provides these lists and examples.
Example C - Other photographs showing the same place (Temple of Vesta, Rome) |
Photograph in exhibition
Pietro Dovizielli (Italian, 1804–1885), 1850s, ""Temple of Vesta", Salted paper print from paper negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2005.100.1095
Context on Luminous-Lint
Alan Griffiths, Screenshot of a Luminous-Lint fragment showing a painting and photographs of the Temple of Vesta in Rome, 18 March 2017, Screenshot, Luminous-Lint, LL/73973
As Rome was one of the destinations of the Grand Tour travellers craved souvenir artworks and photographs of archaeological sites just as they do today. Resident photographers, such as James Anderson or Robert Macpherson, had negatives of all the significant monuments and would make prints as required whether it was the Colosseum. the Arch of Constantine as in the Flachéron negative mentioned above or the Temple of Vesta. Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey had photographed it in 1842 the same year as he took the Temple of Castor and Pollux mentioned above.
At this point you are seeing the network of connections and the hidden relationships between these four images.
The visitor admiring the salted paper print by Pietro Dovizielli would benefit by seeing other photographs taken from almost exactly the same vantage point by a host of other photographers. Seeing these related images raises questions about inherent composition that can not answered from a single photograph.
Example D - Other photographs related to the same activity (Ploughing / Plowing) |
Photograph in exhibition
Pietro Semplicini (Italian, active 1850s–90s), 1861, "Fissore’s Plow from Tortona, Plow from Parma", Albumen silver print from collodion negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 2015.582
Context on Luminous-Lint
Alan Griffiths, Screenshot of a Luminous-Lint fragment on ploughing, 18 March 2017, Screenshot, Luminous-Lint, LL/73973
I'd not come across photographer Pietro Semplicini (Italian, active 1850s–90s) and so seeing the albumen print of "Fissore’s Plow from Tortona, Plow from Parma" was a pleasure. Perhaps there is a book on the photohistory of the plough and ploughing but I've not seen it yet.
When we look for photographs of ploughing on Luminous-Lint the Pictorialist examples of Peter Henry Emerson, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe and Hugo Henneberg come to mind. We notice however that you rarely come across Modernist photographs related to ploughing and it is the gaps within photohistory that are worthy of study.
We can offer the exhibition visitor alternative questions and widen the imagination with relevant and fresh content.
Here I've used a single exhibition to look at possibilities but the same could be done with any exhibition, book or article.
We are now at the stage when we can bring together increasingly integrated information to support the public as they visit exhibitions. There will be different levels within these datasets so they can be used by curators, photohistorians and those who just love photography offering diverse pathways to enhance scholarship, education and enjoyment. The sets of images displayed will be surprising and shown together in meaningful ways to provide previously unconsidered possibilities for rethinking parts of photohistory.
The hard work of constructing the datasets is well underway and will continue - the intriguing part now is to work out the ways we can use this information to better understand the many histories of photography.
As always I welcome collaborations to explore novel ways of approaching and explaining photohistory in all its myriad forms to diverse audiences.
Subscriptions are available to access 1200 Themes on Luminous-Lint, powerful Visual Indexes, tools to contextualize single images, reading lists, specialized indexes and some of the more detailed parts of the website. Luminous-Lint is an evolving resource where all parts are enhanced and added to every day.
Details about subscriptions
Thanks to all those subscribing to, and supporting, Luminous-Lint as it continues to improve.
If you would like to give a gift subscription to an individual, or an institution, that is simple to arrange so send me an email at alan@luminous-lint.com for details.
Your support is necessary for this unique project to flourish.
All the best, Alan |
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Mark Citret (1949, 21 March - ) was born - US, NY, Buffalo. American contemporary photographer.
Flor Garduño (1957, 21 March - ) was born - Mexico, Mexico City. Black and white photographs of Central and South America dealing with the landscapes and the rituals of the native peoples who live in these areas.
Robert Lebeck (1929, 21 March - ) was born - Germany, Berlin.
Erich Mendelsohn (1887, 21 March - 1953, 15 September) was born - Germany, Allenstein [now Poland, Warminsko-Mazurskie voivodship, Olsztyn]. German architect
Paulo Nozolino (1955, 21 March - ) was born - Portugal, Lisbon. Portuguese contemporary photographer who has traveled widely producing major work on the Arab world (1989-95) followed by a project dealing with Europe (1996-98).
Herbert G. Ponting (1870, 21 March - 1935, 7 February) was born - England, Salisbury. British photographer, photojournalist, and filmmaker. He photographed in Japan (1902-1905) and was the photographer for two of Captain R.F. Scott expeditions to Antarctica (1909, 1910-1912).
Maurice Vidal Portman (1860, 21 March - 1935, 14 February) was born - Canada, Ontario, West London. Went to the Andaman Islands in 1879 and documented the languages and history of the region. He carried out an ambitious but never completed plan to photograph the Andamanese aboriginals before their extinction due to colonial contact.
More...
James M. Hoddle (1902, 14 March - 1992, 21 March) died - US, IL, Chicago.
Nadar (1820, 6 April - 1910, 21 March) died - France, Paris. French printmaker, writer, draughtsman and photographer.
Jindrich Styrsky (1899, 11 August - 1942, 21 March) died. Czech painter, printmaker and photographer |
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