Wow. Didn't even know I appeared here until today! I did this as a voice-over in 2007 for a video installation for an exhibition of PH Emerson's work (called The Old Order and the New) which was shown in The Getty in Los Angeles and the National Media Museum in England Seems like I didn't get too much wrong & most of what I said I still agree with. PH Emerson (my great grandfather) was a complex and very interesting person and perhaps more of an artist than he believed himself to be (in view of his repudiation of photography's status as an art as expressed in The Death of Naturalistic Photography). The pictures (most of them) and his writings too both certainly stand the test of time.

Considering the tricky complexity of setting up a shot - his compositions AND seemingly candid shots are just stunning captures of rural life. Gorgeous.

Hi, Very informative and thanks for the video. I am a fan of your gr. grandfather and saw a beautiful exhibit of his work at the Getty museum here in los angleles several years ago. I wanted to say that the things you said about the huge camera are both true and not true. A sort of paradox. Photographers have been using the larger cameras since the inception of photography and indeed at this point in 2015, they have been exploring virtually every method of recording an image that came and went during photography's first 70 years. ie Wet plate collodion, tintype, argyrotypes , Daguerrian plates and a slew of other methods. All of which are cumbersome and not conducive to making images very quickly. On the same thought, it is true that this makes a "natural" photo somewhat difficult to achieve. (especially those involving people) The thing I have noticed about P.H. Emerson that is truly paradoxical though is that his technique enabled him to literally take impossible pictures for the technology of the photographic process of his day. The best example of this is the photo titled "the lotus pickers ". Given the speed of his emulsion, the depth of field of that photo and that the men were in a boat that seems to be floating there is no blur whatsoever in the photograph. Knowing these materials like I do, this photo would have required about 2-4 seconds to expose the glass plate. Even if I am wrong about this, and it was a 1 second exposure it seems impossible that the photo could be so sharp. I have pondered over this photo many many times in awe of it. The boat is sharp, the man's hands are sharp, the flowers on the water are sharp and the entire scene is free of blur. There is a hidden genius in that photograph and many of his others that literally defy the laws of photography. Also, large cameras use very long focus lenses and that means the depth of field for a long lens like f16 is very shallow compared to a hand held modern camera. I wonder, do you know who has his camera equipment? I would truly like to know how he made those incredible images.

@myfineday

8 жыл бұрын

+myfineday I wanted to say that using the large format cameras has always required the photographer to view his composition upside and under a dark cloth. This becomes second nature very quickly. The composition is created before ducking under the cloth. All parts of it are "framed" by him/her and even the edges are seen in the mind's eye. Once under the cloth the edges are found, the focus is set and locked and then you put the film holder in and take the photograph while looking at the subject in the open air. The myriad of portraits done in studios in this manner were done outside of the dark cloth. To take the photo, a lens cap was removed, or a shutter was tripped. P.H. Emerson was a fastidious photographer and printer. HIs Platinum prints are flawless and perfectly executed and they seemed to have been printed on exceptional paper for their day. ie the paper was acid free and has not turned brown or yellow over these past 100+ years. I would place him along side Samuel Bourne as a technician with the camera, but who's prints are suffering from poor quality paper. Bourne spent 11 years traveling throughout northern India making Wet plates with absolute perfection in all climates and altitudes. If those plates still exist they would probably be able to produce excellent new prints on modern papers that would last centuries.

@StephenHyde

8 жыл бұрын

+myfineday Thanks for the comments. I have only just discovered this video today. I actually agree with your remarks regarding large format cameras becoming second nature (I have used them myself), but they still require the photographer to 'make' a photograph rather than 'take' a photograph.This in no way precludes the creation of art and my comments were meant as an insight into a possible motive for the repudiation of 'photography as an art' buy Emerson. I think I was looking at some of his photographs involving people (definitely not all) which seem a touch forced and drawing a possibly wrong conclusion that he was unhappy with the outcome. In some ways I see PH Emerson as one of the first reportage photographers, keen as he was to document the passing of a way of life. On a side note, I am pretty sure he outsourced most of the printing (both platinum prints and photogravures) which went into his books, though he would have done the first run.