In 1839, something happened that
would change art forever. If you ask me,
the invention of the camera probably marks the key turning point in the history
of art. When considering in our culture
today more contemporary art forms, such as Modern Art, it's often difficult to
understand how such a style could have evolved from the long line of artistic
traditions seen in a study of Western art history. One simple answer is that photography made
painting obsolete; but that's not the full picture, is it. In 1839, when Louis J. M. Daguerre devised a
method of exposing light to a silver coated copper plate to make a photographic
image, the art world did not immediately change. Realism, though affected by the camera, was
already in progress before the invention of the Daguerrotype; however, this
landmark discovery would definitely have a most direct and primary effect on
later art movements.
It's kind of funny and sad at the
same time, but it wasn't long after the camera was invented that one of its
major functions became the production of pornography; however, this invention
carried far greater potential in areas less squalid. The importance of such a discovery seemed to
alter the historical flow of time. News
could be spread faster; images could capture scenes in more accurate ways than
art. Photography meant someone could
"live" forever. But as honest
an image as the camera could provide, much of early photographic images were
used for propaganda, very little different from art. Photographs, among other things, were used to
make careers, even political careers.
Matthew Brady was hired as Abraham
Lincoln's official photographer similar to the way in which artists had been
hired in the past as court painters.
Brady's objectives were the same as those earlier artists: to make his
subject look good. In this photograph of
President Lincoln we see similar artistic techniques to Jacques-Louis David's
portrait of Napoleon in His Study. You
will recall that, in that painting, Napoleon was made to look tall through use
of vertical line. This image does the
same. We have to look up and down across
the entire height of the picture to completely appreciate the man's full
stature. A column in the background
(placed in the same location as in David's painting) adds to this sense of
vertical loftiness. (And of course
Honest Abe was rather a bit taller than Napoleon—haha, I just had an image of
Lincoln on the basketball court with Bonaparte, making slam dunks over the
little dictator and blocking every one of his shots—hehe…okay, back to the
photograph). Also in this portrait we
see President Lincoln with a small stack of books on a table beside him, much
as David painted Bonaparte in his study with a bunch of pamphlets and
documents. Lincoln's left hand rests on
a Bible, demonstrating him to be a man of moral principles and honorable
character. You can see how even early
photography was used for propaganda purposes.
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