Wet Plate - Fear of Asphixiation

Wet plate photography was the first widely used negative crating process. This mean, it was the first time a photograph could be produced again and again.

In this (literally) breath taking photograph by Quinn Jacobson it is possible to see a women with her head wrapped in sran wrap. She is obviously not happy with what is happening to her. Screaming and search for air she is.

I chose this photograph because I feel it illustrated the urgency of the wet plate photography. Everything has to be done in 10 minutes. Like a fish out of water, if the wet plate dries, it dies.

This picture makes me feel extremely uneasy, almost chocking as i look at it.

Autochrome

Color photographs were produces as early as 1907. The autochrome process was invented by the Lumiere brothers in France. It was produced by layering red, blue and green potato starch of a glass plate with silver emulsions. This edible sounding process produces amazing results and luckily, a great collection of these fragile artifacts remain, this being an example, kept in Belgium.
The colors autochrome produce are amazing. They have a trong haze and particular softness making them look like paintings.
In this photograph there is a young girl holding a flower and wearing a crown of flowers on her head. She looks soft and happy, her mood very much emulating the aesthetics of this particular photographic process, which was probably part of the intention of the photographer.
I very much appreciate this photograph, it has a define religious conotation, but without the popular props used to portray such a scene. The girl looks a little sad at first, but on a closer inspection, she seems to be smirking, which made me smile.

Pictorialism - Critique

Gertrude Käsebier was a strong advocate for women as photographers as it was shown in her work, with motherly figures and themes. She adopted the pictorialism current of the early 20th century, where pictures emulated paintings by their softness and themes.

In this photograph, the focus is soft, the figure of the mother is white, pure and etheral She is guiding lovingly a gender natural looking child out of door. It is also possible to see in the background a painting that seems to emulate the scene that is happening in the foreground


The second photograph os by Joyce Tenneson. Most of her photographs were taken using a 20x24 polaroid. She used a different medium, but her representations are similar is theme and aeathetics. Again, the womanly figure is the main theme, again making a visual reference to religious paintings, of the women as white, pure and motherly. The women as a kind protector can also be observed in many of her photographs, where a woman embraces a child.

3rd Critique - Pinhole Photo

I found this magnificent image that is part of a book on pinhole photography. It looks like there were more than one exposure and/or more than a hole, which is, of course, very interesting to do with the wide angle and panoramic like structure of the photograph. The second exposition of the woman in the foreground reminds us of am ancient Greek statue, looking into the distance proudly, contrary to the foremost exposition of the women, who looks very human, pensive and sad.
The intentions behind this photographs can be hard to conveit, this shoot look like it stands derectly between the voluntary and the accident, creating a complexe array of intertwining lines. As for me, this photograph appeal in its aesthetics. Half modern half ancient, this related to pinhole photography being and old(er) form of photography, the theme as well as the execution demonstrates themselves as a hole.