Reading #1

The Photobook: Between the  Novel and Film


          Photography in general seems to be society's red headed step child. From it's inception, it was the hybrid offspring of art and science, and today, even in the title of the assigned reading, it is described as something between novel and film.   Photography is "partly a surrogate method of making paintings, partly a new tool for garnering empirical knowledge, a new way of discovering the world". Even in creating photography people can't agree. Traditionally, there have been two main kinds of approaches. These consist of the technological approach, where the photographer focuses on technical developments. The second is the formalist approach, where emphasis is placed on the aesthetics.
      
         To take this conundrum one step further, would be to introduce the "Photobook". The photobook is described as a book- with or without text- where the work's primary message is carried by photographs. in less simple terms, "a photobook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ing, of a dramatic event called a book".
    
        Creating a photobook is not as simple as it seems. In some works, text and photographs complement each other, while in others they compete. It is a fine balance and finding that balance can be difficult. Every decision put into a photobook can either make it or break it. The binding of the jacket, the typography, the paper all play a vital role in the success or failure of a photobook. There are also collaged photobooks and photobooks that only contain the photographs. In the 1920's and '30's, photobooks were able to be mass produced, after the development of the halftone printing block. After this, photobooks began to be thought of as autonomous art form, where not only the imagery, but also the design and presentation of the volume made it an object itself.

        Photobooks have been produced for years, all with different means in mind. Even ones created by artists do not necessarily mean they are art or recognized by the art world.  The photobook, is fundamentally simply a means of expression and dissemination for photographers. photobooks as a whole have been the largest most crucial move in photography, even more so than showing photographs in galleries. Obviously, there is something to be said for creating a photobook. Photobooks have earned an important role within the history of photography, "between the art and mass medium, between the journeyman and the artist, between the aesthetic and the contextual".

The Pencil of Nature

          The Pencil of Nature is a classic, and very rare. William Henry Fox Talbot took his account of the discovery of photographs and created this collection of paper photographs. It is the first book illustrated with photographs and the first mass production of photographs.  The author of this journal could only find 24 copies, with 11 of them being incomplete.

        It is interesting that the first published workable photographic system was initially thought of because he couldn't draw. The idea that one of the newest forms of art was created by someone who failed at the traditional forms is comical to me. Talbot also was a part of The Talbotype Establishment, which was the first mass production photofinishing laboratory in the world.

     The specifics of how the process changed in how the image was treated is interesting. I am curious if any of these processes are done today, or if things have become even easier in the dark room.  I also found that not all copies of Talbot's book are identical. Talbotype Establishment only printed four other publications, so the company in general wouldn't be very prominent in used book stores either I don't think.
    
       The last part of the Talbot reading was much more captivating to read, and flowed with more personality. I wish I could get a hold of the full Pencil of Nature photobook. It is pretty upsetting that the images in the book might have reacted to the adhesive or pages and started to disappear or become less impressive. Overall, these readings make Photobook sound 10 times more impressive and overwhelmingly scary to make. Now I am more nervous than ever for my first photobook to be due.