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Welcome to another Luminous-Lint Newsletter.

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To all Luminous-Lint subscribers and contributors I'd like to say thanks for your continuing support.

How subject popularity twists photohistory

Publications and exhibitions have to take in not only the available photographs but how many copies of a book can be sold or how popular an exhibition will be. This is rational as there are real costs in printing a book or setting up an exhibition but in the world of the Internet we are largely, but not entirely, free of these constraints.

Just as forms of photographs such as tintypes, stereoviews and lantern slides tend towards specialist communities as they are more difficult to exhibit so themes have been consciously or subconsciously rejected.

So let's be a little provocative and shake the branches.

Skeen & Co., 'India Rubber Trees', 1870s (ca), Albumen print, 22.1 x 28 cm, Museum für Ostasiatische / Museum of East Asian Art, P 388, LL/58380

When thinking about the natural world there are multiple books on the history of photography of trees with splendid selections. The overview volumes by Françoise Reynaud, 2011, The Tree in Photographs, (J. Paul Getty Museum) and Martin Barnes, 2019, Into the Woods: Trees in Photography, (Thames and Hudson Ltd) come immediately to mind. There are multiple books on specific forests such as the Forest of Fontainebleau by Bernard Marbot & Challe (1991), George Chantal (2007) and Kimberly Jones (2008). There are also monographs on trees photographed by Eugène Atget, Eugène Cuvelier, Lee Friedlander, Josef Sudek and Beth Moon. Luminous-Lint includes 1,400 photographs of the finest photographs taken of trees around the world so we can say that trees have been reasonably well covered in photohistory.

The curatorial choices we make reflect our own sensibilities.

Do we see trees as majestic forms or a part of science...

Photomicrographs of wood One could always delve into this topic in more detail by researching the history of photomicrographs of wood.
LL/102193	LL/36535	LL/48581

or as shattered bystanders in human conflict?

The effects of war on trees Exploding shells have devastated woodlands for centuries.
LL/72919	LL/49202	LL/97337

As I mentioned before there are lots of photographs of trees but photohistory is not so well blessed with photographs of shrubs. When did you see an exhibition on 'The Magnificent History of the Shrub' or 'The Wonder of Grasses'? Would they have crowd appeal? Do sufficient photographs exist to select from?

It is easy to do an exhibition of car photographs with their dynamism, shimmering lustre and material allure. Oddly I don't think one would do an exhibition on coaches, buses or trucks but why is that? There are also vast numbers of photographs of the wagons, carts, carriages and buggies used for land transportation in the pre-automobile era but one doesn't see exhibitions dedicated to those. Does our fast-paced world mean that we reject from photohistory a slower paced world? Individual photographs of non-motorised transport may be included in exhibitions to provide a nostalgic prop but they are rarely the subject.

Yes we can all think of exceptions but the point is how we've twisted photohistory and need to seek out the overlooked. The large gaps in photohistory raise lots of questions and require analysis. It is far easier to do an exhibition of pears and apples than one on pineapples and mangoes. Elephants and camels would both be good candidates for exhibitions of nineteenth century animal photography but leopards and hedgehogs would not. Cows and horses are but sheep and pigs aren't. The skills, biases, difficulties of photographing along with access to suitable subjects have left vast holes in photohistory and they require in-depth examination.

On Luminous-lint there are thousands of indexes that take us into under-explored themes of photohistory and I'm always interested in suggestions for obscure topics to research.

Photohistory Quests - First series completed (6 July 2020)

In my last Luminous-lint Newsletter (Vol. 14.2, May 14, 2020) I gave examples from a series of Photohistory Quests being carried out on Facebook. The first hundred Photohistory Quests (29 March - 6 July, 2020) have now been completed and have been a resounding success in highlighting rarer items in private collections around the world.

PHOTOHISTORY QUESTS:

1. Arms & Armour (29 March 2020)
2. Fruits (30 March 2020)
3. Vegetables (31 March 2020)
4. Birds (1 April 2020)
5. Clouds (2 April 2020)
6. Lightning and the damage it creates (3 April 2020)
7. Poppies (4 April 2020)
8. Butterflies and moths (5 April 2020)
9. Beds and bedrooms (6 April 2020)
10. Buddhism (7 April 2020)
11. Glaciers (8 April 2020)
12: Balloon and kite photography (9 April 2020)
13. Architectural models and drawings (10 April 2020)
14: Scotland: Rosslyn Chapel / Roslin Chapel (11 April 2020)
15. Events (12 April 2020)
16. Alcohol (13 April 2020)
17. Extinct animals (14 April 2020)
18. Ferns (15 April 2020)
19. Text and calligraphy (16 April 2020)
20. The Temple of Vesta, Rome (17 April 2020)
21. Umbrellas and parasols (18 April 2020)
22. Skulls (19 April 2020)
23. Archaeological finds (20 April 2020)
24. Insects - not butterflies or moths (21 April 2020)
25. Photomicroscopy (22 April 2020)
26. Judaism and Judaica (23 April 2020)
27. Non-architectural models (24 April 2020)
28. Domestic lighting, candlesticks, oil lamps and chandeliers (25 April 2020)
29. Stamps, wet, blind and embossed (26 April 2020)
30. Glass and crystal (27 April 2020)
31. Pottery, china, porcelain and ceramics (28 April 2020)
32. Collage and photomontage (29 April 2020)
33. Fountains (30 April 2020)
34. Iran (1 May 2020)
35. Charity (2 May 2020)
36. Italian Street Musicians - Pifferari (3 May 2020)
37. Vacant chairs (4 May 2020)
38. Landscape reflections in water (5 May 2020)
39. Paintings showing photographs and albums (6 May 2020)
40. Shop and business exteriors (7 May 2020)
41. Miners and mining (8 May 2020)
42. Construction of bridges, viaducts and aqueducts (9 May 2020)
43. Occupational portraits of women (10 May 2020)
44. Mosques (11 May 2020)
45. Roses (12 May 2020)
46. Egypt: Wall art, bas-relief, hieroglyphics and graffiti (13 May 2020)
47. Packaging photographs (14 May 2020)
48. St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome (15 May 2020)
49. Bas-relief sculpture (16 May 2020)
50. Hunters, their weapons and dogs (17 May 2020)
51. Fans (18 May 2020)
52. Central or Middle Asia (19 May 2020)
53. Counter-stamped coins, tokens and premiums for photographic studios (20 May 2020)
54. Jesus Christ (21 May 2020)
55. Water carriers (22 May 2020)
56. Anthropometry (23 May 2020)
57. Commercial catalogues for photographers (24 May 2020)
58. Singapore and the Malay Peninsula (25 May 2020)
59. Elephants (26 May 2020)
60. Lions (27 May 2020)
61. The Georgian Military Road (28 May 2020)
62. Playing cards (29 May 2020)
63. Sumo wrestling (30 May 2020)
64. The Cedars of Lebanon (31 May 2020)
65. Bread, flour based products, bakers and bakeries (1 June 2020)
66. Illustrations (not photos) showing women photographers (2 June 2020)
67. Cutlery - Knives, forks and spoons (3 June 2020)
68. Manufacturers and painters of studio backgrounds (4 June 2020)
69. The Balkans - excluding Greece (5 June 2020)
70. Patent illustrations related to photography (6 June 2020)
71. Maps and photography (7 June 2020)
72. Surveyors and cartographers (8 June 2020)
73. Peoples of the Arctic (9 June 2020)
74. Megalethoscopes and Alethoscopes (10 June 2020)
75. Work benches and darkrooms in photography studios (11 June 2020)
76. Burma (12 June 2020)
77. Cambodia (13 June 2020)
78. Vietnam (14 June 2020)
79. Armenia (15 June 2020)
80. Tableaux vivants (16 June 2020)
81. Magnesium light (17 June 2020)
82. Non-English language books and magazines with tipped-in photographs (18 June 2020)
83. Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions (19 June 2020)
84. Hand-painted landscapes and cityscapes devoid of people (20 June 2020)
85. Advertising albums (21 June 2020)
86. Tea (22 June 2020)
87. X-rays of animals (23 June 2020)
88. Bathrooms (24 June 2020)
89. Rubber trees, the collection of rubber, processing and products (25 June 2020)
90. Oil industry outside the USA (26 June 2020)
91. Eggs (27 June 2020)
92. Floods (28 June 2020)
93. Horses posing in front of painted backgrounds and painted walls (29 June 2020)
94. Airbrushing photographs (30 June 2020)
95. The internal geometry of bridges (1 July 2020)
96. Decorative ironwork (2 July 2020)
97. Cyanotypes of factories, workshops and industrial products (3 July 2020)
98. The constrained - handcuffs, leg irons, stocks and cangues (4 July 2020)
99. Cyanotypes of objects (5 July 2020)
100. Catacombs (6 July 2020)

The photographs from these quests have already been incorporated into Luminous-Lint so curators and photohistorians can get a better sense of the range of photographs available. Texts will be added to the different Fragments that are used to construct the Themes right through Luminous-Lint. The indexes have already been completed and the fresh discoveries have been merged with the photographs from institutional collections providing a more well-rounded sense of what is available.

A Second Series of Photohistory Quests has been started with the first being on "Egypt: The Sphinx (7 July 2020)" and as there is already an extensive Visual Index on the subject I'm interested in filling in gaps for excavations, aerial views, snapshots and visits by famous people.

Alan Griffiths, Part of the Visual Index for "Egypt: The Sphinx" on Luminous-Lint, 7 July 2020, Screenshot, Luminous-lint, LL/102238

FACEBOOK group: PHOTOHISTORY QUESTS

Here the photographs are not limited to a specific technique or date as I'm delving into the outer reaches of what is available in photography. My deepest appreciation to all of you who have participated in the QUESTS to date and you can see everybody who has provided images to Luminous-Lint here:

Luminous-Lint: Acknowledgements

Thanks again for all your help over the years.

Free Trial of Luminous-Lint

During COVID-19 I made Luminous-Lint was free to all from 22nd March until 31th May 2020 to allow students access to resources. A FREE TRIAL for the website is still available so send an email to alan@luminous-lint.com with your name and reasons for wanting to take a look and I'll set up a password for you.

Educational subscriptions

During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an increasing need for distance learning and this looks set to continue. Students and staff require access to visual resources on photohistory at a time when libraries are closed and books can not include the range of images necessary to understand a topic with any level of depth. Luminous-Lint continues to provide structured resources on photohistory to all. It costs $300 a year for all your staff and students to have access to the best resource there is.

It is time to ensure that your subscription to Luminous-Lint has been confirmed. Please check with whoever manages subscriptions to digital resources to ensure all is well. If you are a professor, researcher or student requiring access to Luminous-Lint please contact your Head of Department or Librarian.

If you need any assistance with curriculum planning or resources to supplement your courses send me an email.

Getting around

Stereographs Project

Library

Video feeds, audio feeds, and enhanced media documents

Welcome

Thanks for your support

How subject popularity twists photohistory

Photohistory Quests - First series completed (6 July 2020)

Free Trial of Luminous-Lint

Educational subscriptions

Recently updated Themes

Getting around

PhotographersConnectionsDirectory

Stereographs Project

Library

Video feeds, audio feeds, and enhanced media documents

Welcome

Thanks for your support

How subject popularity twists photohistory

Photohistory Quests - First series completed (6 July 2020)

Free Trial of Luminous-Lint

Educational subscriptions

Recently updated Themes