The Passion of Former Days: portraits

Showing posts with label portraits. Show all posts

21 October, 2014

19th Century Baseball Players "in Action"

Cards depicting professional baseball players began to be produced in the 1880s, as a sub-variety of cigarette card. Though some of these were simple head-and-shoulder portraits, there was a greater interest in images of baseball players actually playing baseball. The problem was that camera technology at the time was not quite up to the task of actually capturing action (at least, not without extremely specialized equipment like Muybridge's). The compromise was these posed studio portraits. Baseball players would pose as if throwing, catching, or batting balls suspended on wire. Most, it must be said, were not natural models.

Large numbers of these early baseball portraits are held by the Library of Congress, which has over 2,000 early baseball cards (photographs, lithographs, and half-tone), and the New York Public Library, which holds many cabinet card-mounted versions of the same photographs used for the mass-produced cigarette cards (see, for instance, this mounted print and this cigarette card). This post draws mainly from the higher quality card-mounted prints from the NYPL, but interested viewers are highly advised to check out both collections--even for a non-baseball fan like myself, they are tremendous fun.

New York Public Library

Deacon McGuire, Philadelphia Quakers, 1886-1888. Source

New York Public Library

Unidentified player. Source

New York Public Library

Jack Clements. Source

Studio Portraits with Bicycles

The other month we had a look at people and their bicycles--outdoors, riding, or posed close to a ride. This natural look, however, isn't the only one in the history of cyclist photographry. Particularly in the 19th century, people with an affection for their bicycles have used them as props in professional studio portraits as well.

State Library of Queensland

A young man in a studio with a penny-farthing, Queensland, Australia, 19th C. Source

Smithsonian Institution

Artist Elihu Vedder in the studio with his bicycle, ca. 1910. Source

State Library of New South Wales

Schoolteacher Miss Marley, Narraburra, New South Wales, Australia, ca. 1910. Source

Sincerely Yours

We're all familiar with the interest in getting the autographs of famous people on their photos... as far as I know people still do it, even in the digital age. However, how many of us have signed photos of our friends? Signing photos for friends and family used to be fairly common, especially when parting ways with people you might not see again for a while (there are lots from fellows who met in the service!). It's such a lovely personal touch.... I think I might do some for my far away friends!

"To my friend, Lou Gordon," from a fellow whose signature I can't decipher, 1920s. Source

Australian National Maritime Museum

"Yours Truly, Fred Ward," ca. 1915. Source

Australian National Maritime Museum

"All best wishes from an old friend/ Jack Kirkwood," 1917. Source

Awkward Team Photos

I love old group portraits. I love to look at the various expressions, the variety of character captured in that fraction of a second.

I'm not a sports person, but I have to admit to taking special pleasure in old team portraits, especially from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Why? Because so many of them are just so awkward. The poses are usually directed and usually strained. Most of the people clearly feel uncomfortable and don't want to be there. Some of them look away from the camera or simply glare at it. A couple usually look about to doze off. There's usually one person genuinely smiling, and/or someone trying out their "sexy" look . I don't know why you see this more in team portraits than others, but gee I enjoy it (especially when paired with the old uniforms!)

Musee McCord Museum

The Shamrock hockey team, Montreal, 1899 (hockey players just don't wear skintight shirts anymore!). Source

Library of Congress

The New York Metropolitans, 1882 (that 'lying on the floor' pose is a common one in old team portraits, and practically guarentees awkwardness). Source

Miami University Library

Women tend to be better with non-awkward facial expressions... but they sometimes get posed even more awkwardly than the men. Miami women's basketball team, 1911. Source

The Studio Backdrop, Part Two

I never tire of looking at the painted backdrops in studio portraits. It fascinates me to see the ways people wanted to be depicted. I've posted on studio backdrops before; here is another set demonstrating the variety of painted backdrops seen throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

State Library of Queensland

A young bride with a stained glass window backdrop, ca. 1927. Source

Nasjonalbiblioteket / National Library of Norway

Prince Carl (later Haakon VII) of Norway with a coastal backdrop, 1883 (the description notes this version was a rephotographed copy made in 1906, hence the date in the lower right corner). Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Two women with some kind of tropical Moorish conservatory backdrop, ca. 1856-1900 (tintype). Source

Ambrotype People

The ambrotype is something of an overlooked process-- not as stunning as the daguerreotype, not as widespread as the tintype. Though there are several variant ways of making an ambrotype, essentially it is made by applying a collodion emulsion to glass, which is then exposed in the camera. The resultant image appears negative until it is backed by something dark-- usually varnish or dark fabric, although certain kinds of tinted glass serve the same purpose without backing. The ambrotype would then be cased. This process was much cheaper than the daguerreotype (which is made on a silver plate) and so become available to a wider segment of society, although it was soon eclipsed by the much cheaper tintype, as well as the increasing popularity of paper prints. Though the ambrotype has rather gone down in history as a poor imitation of the daguerreotype, at its introduction it was in fact praised for not having the annoying mirror reflections of the daguerreotype!

Ambrotypes are especially interesting to look at in person-- sometimes you can see the texture of the backing fabric in places, sometimes you can see cracks in the varnish, sometimes interesting effects were added (I've seen an ambrotype where the image was backed in black, but the background was backed in gold paint!). Digitized, it's often hard to even see the difference between an ambrotype and a daguerreotype. My earlier posts, preceding my entry into the field of historical photographs, don't really make a distinction. Still though, the ambrotype belongs to a certain period (about 1855 to 1865) and to certain people who lived during that period--let's celebrate their day!

George Eastman House

Girl at a window with a book, ca. 1860. Source

State Library of New South Wales

A British officer, ca. 1857-1858. Source

George Eastman House

Two men holding a slate with the date-- Jan 8, 1857. Source

Composite Portraits

We all know how difficult it is to get a good group portrait-- the more people there are, the less chance there is of everyone looking nice, or even just not blinking. When you add in the desire for a nice composition, well-lit, with a variety of engaging poses, there doesn't seem much solution except photoshop.

19th century photographers agreed. Why try to get a good group portrait when you can crop together a bunch of nice portraits taken separately? So some of them--most notably Montreal photographer William Notman-- did exactly that. Notman would taken dozens of individual, studio portraits, then cut each figure out and paste them onto a painted backdrop. More paint was used to get light and shadow and contrast just right. At this point, the image would look like this, and be very large (I've been lucky enough to see examples in person; the ones with dozens or more figures are easily 3 by 6 feet). This creation would then be photographed itself, so smaller, more "photographic" images could be printed and given to all the persons involved. (The Montreal Musee McCord Museum, home to Notman's archive, has a much more detailed write-up, if you are interested).

The final results are a strange sort of hybrid, somewhere between photograph and painting, almost uncannily in their resistance of categorization. Though these images have been digitized in black-and-white, most of the photographs are albumen prints-- dark purple and cream when first printed, usually brown and yellow today, after deterioration (as can be seen in the final image).

Bute House skating party, Montreal, 1873. Source

Royal Scots D Company, Montreal, 1884. Source

Railway Engineering Department staff, 1896 (image copied 1922). Source

Stereo Daguerreotypes

As you might know, sterograph cards were a hugely popular thing in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. These cards use two photographs taken from slightly different angles to produce a single image with a 3-d appearance, when viewed through a viewer (or by someone who is good at Magic Eye). However, the concept of stereo photographs was around from the very beginning. Daguerreotypes are quite interesting to view in stereo-- they are a) very very detailed, so the 3-D effect is especially profound, and b) essentially on mirrors, so extra work is needed to get a proper view. Some places, such as the studio of Southworth and Hawes, created whole installations where daguerreotypes could be viewed in stereo. In the mid 1850s J. F. Mascher invented a special type of daguerreotype case that could be folded out into a viewer (though, speaking from experience, it still takes a bit of fiddling to get the right angle of light). These days, the 3-D stereo effect is also often hard to get due to deterioration; one side may be more tarnish or dirty than the other, ruining the effect. Still though, they look neat!

(By the way, one of the most common uses of the stereo daguerreotype was for pornography. Unfortunately I've yet to find a public collection with any of these online... but thought you'd like to know!)

Library of Congress

Portrait of an unidentified woman. Source

Harvard University, Houghton Library

Tinted portrait of an unidentified man. Source

Library of Congress

Bust of William Robert Grant. Source

"Outside" in the "Snow"

Having your photograph taken in a nineteenth century studio didn't necessarily mean you had to look like you were standing in a studio (at least, with a bit of imagination). Usually this was accomplished by backdrops, sometimes with the addition of props. Sometimes a bit of dress-up, too.

For a while Montreal photographer William Notman (whose photographs of people "tobogganing" we've already seen) went one further. Notman was well-known for his composite photographs, where the figures from hundreds of individual photographs were carefully cut out and pasted onto a painted backdrop to create a group picture, which was then re-photographed to create the final product. However, the composite model wasn't restricted to group. A figure or two from a studio portrait could also be cut out, and pasted onto the backdrop the sitter desired.

In very snowy Montreal, apparently a very snowy backdrop was popular. Sitters dressed up in their winter clothes, sometimes even with skates, snowshoes, or curling stones. Fake snow for clothing was also an option.

Musee McCord Museum

Messrs Crake, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

Mrs. Davidson, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

J. Wilson, 1876. Source

Backdrops of the Civil War

Another journey into the backdrops used by photographer's studios, this time in a certain context. During the American Civil War, ambrotype and tintype portraits of soldiers were made in great numbers by photographers who set up temporary studios at military camps (this blog has featured quite a few). While the majority of photographers just went with the plain canvas backdrop, painted backdrops were also in common use. Backdrops depicting camp scenes--usually with a prominent American flag-- were popular, along with a variety of landscapes, from the realistic to the somewhat fanciful. It is very interesting to see the kinds of scenes these young men wanted to be placed in (or the photographer though they might want to be placed it, at least).

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a landscape backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a checkered terrace backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a military camp backdrop. Source

Chocolate Tintypes

Tintypes-- the very popular late 19th century process of producing a photograph on a sheet of photo-sensitized iron-- are generally shades of grey, from greenish to warm. However, from the 1870s it was also possible to produce tintypes with wonderful brown tones, often known as "chocolate" tintypes. They're still on metal, but you'd never know from the colour alone. I think they're lovely.

These examples come from an archive in Norway, though given the context of their particular collection of origin, I believe they are actually American.

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Source

The Studio Backdrop

Studio portraits are all well and good, but isn't that blank background boring? Wouldn't it be cool if you could look like you were in a fancy house or on the beach? This, pretty much, is what people were thinking right from the start of photography (there's daguerreotypes with painted backgrounds behind the sitters). These backdrops were especially popular in studio portraits of the nineteenth century. As handheld cameras and snapshots gained in popularity the backdrop began to fall out of fashion. After the first couple decades of the twentieth century you mostly only see painted backdrops in arcade photos and photobooth shots, but some studios kept using them until the mid-century.

George Eastman House

A woman with a fancy interior backdrop, ca. 1895. Source

National Library of Ireland

Children and a toy wagon, Waterford, Ireland, 1906. Source

Library of Congress

Helen Saunders, 1914. Source

Montgomery Clift Watches Himself Onscreen

A series of photographs taken by J. R. Eyerman of actor Montgomery Clift while he watches himself onscreen. I love the concept of this series--taken on infrared film, so unobtrusive-- and Clift's range of expressions and poses in what's maybe two hours.

Taken in 1948, right at the start of Clift's movie career (though he was already a Broadway veteran). In 1949 he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his first movie, The Search. From the one shot of the screen this film looks like it might be The Heiress, released in 1949.

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

The Civil War, Tinted

I haven't had a people of the civil war post in a long time, which is a shame as the photographs are striking to look at and started me into this blog in the first place. Fortunately I got sucked into the Library of Congress's collection for a few hours today (when I should have been studying for a photo history exam, ironically), so I have rather a lot of material now to draw from! Expect more of this in the coming months.

Today's theme: hand-tinting. People were crazy about photography right away, but sad it didn't yet come in colour. So a market sprung up for the tinting of photographs with paints, aided by the fact that photography put many former painters of miniatures out of work. They tinted daguerreotypes (like this one), and when they moved on to tintypes, ambrotypes, and glass negative-paper photography, they tinted those even more. You almost always see some degree of tinting in ambrotypes and higher-end tintypes, especially the cheeks. Jewellery and buttons are also often painted with gold. (just glance through this post of civil war portraits!). However, it didn't always stop there. Parts of clothing, all the clothing, parts of the backdrop, tablecloths... all were potentially coloured. Sometimes this is a nice effect. Sometime it's.... not. (Though, granted, sometimes the different rates of deterioration in the imaging substance and the paints means the colour looks more drastic today than it did originally. Sometimes, though, it was just flat out badly done).

Portraits were done very widely in the civil war, as ambrotypes and tintypes, and there was a similar wide variety of tinting going on.

From the Library of Congress.

Library of Congress

A Confederate captain. Ambrotype. Source

Library of Congress

Union soldier with bayoneted musket. Ambrotype. Source

Library of Congress

Unidentified Confederate soldier. Ambrotype. Source

Mother's Day

We had a lovely set of mother and child photographs for UK Mother's Day; today, another set today, for mothers everywhere else.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photographs from the LIFE archive, uncaptioned and undated.

Source

Flappers and Philosophers

Women of the 1920s! (these come with varying amounts of info; I've included what there is, when there's anything).

The title, by the way, comes from the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first book of short stories. I love it.