Free Essay Sample on 19th Century: Photography

Introduction

The use of photography spread widely in the second half of the 19th Century. During this period, photography was used in creating permanent records (Wade, 1009). The records were of human experiences and cultural experiences. Also, these records were used as a visual language in the world. In 1929 in Florence, there was the First National Exhibition of the History of Science, which was important in acknowledging photography to be appealing and efficacy (Wade, 1010). In the second half of the 19th Century, photographs placed in the rooms for exhibition circulated broadly contributing to people viewing it to be of importance in showing some uniqueness in the legacy of scientific history (Tucker 112). Photography in the 19th Century gave rise to several initiatives that led to the creation of the National Museum of the History of Science, currently known as Museo Galileo (Wade, 1021). Therefore, with all these s\it is evident that photography was not only used as a tool of research in the 19th Century but also as a tool of documentation.

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Spirit Photography

Spirit photography was traced in the 19th Century. In the 1850s AND 1860s, several photographers of that moment did some experiments using effects such as double exposure and stereoscopic images (Wade, 1032). After some time, some photographers realized that the available techniques could be used in profit-making. American amateur William Mumler became the first photographer during that moment to take a photo of the spirit. This capturing of the spirit took place at the beginning of the 1860s.

This captured image by William had the features of the dead cousin. After the move by William, it did not take long then before taking of spirit photographs became popular all over (Tucker 112). However, before it became the accessible majority of the experts struggled a lot to know if William's technique was real or fake (Snyder 381). As time moved to capture of the spirit photographs was a business that is lucrative amateurs taking photos of their relatives who were being killed in the American Civil War (Kuba 112). These amateurs were very keen on having connections that were supernatural using their killed loved ones.

Glass Plate Usage

This spirit photography was achieved by having the insertion of a positively made glass plate, having the image of the lifeless (Wade, 1033). The deceased image was then in the camera that is in front of the unused glass plate that is sensitive. This technique was first used by William, who used it in capturing the images of his client (Snyder 390). The method did capture not only the client but also the image of the ghost in the glass plate put in front.

In 1891 there was one famous spirit photograph that was captured. This photograph was taken by Sybell Corbet in Combermere Abbey Library in Cheshire in England (Wade, 1025). The ghost image is of the foreground having a chair and foreground had a man's head, right arm, and a collar. This image is said to belong to that of Lord Combermere, who died in an accident and was being buried at the moment the photo was taken (Kuba 112). Therefore, all this evidence shows that 19Th-century anthropology photography was spirit photography.

During this period of the 19th Century, photography went through several changes that were extraordinary. These changes included representations of the vision. On the other hand, the phenomena and unseeable subjects transformed the perception people had on the medium. Technology began developing in the late 19th Century, making progress in gauging the unseeable and phenomena in the early decades of photography as a medium (Wade, 1034). Technology made photography incredible and appealing. Developing technology made it the unseeable and phenomena relevant and faster to gauge.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the invention of photography as a medium revolutionized communication and culture; for first-time, real-life images were easily taken and sent all over the world. Generally, in the 19th Century was understood as an art and science. Photography during that period addressed several questions like culture and the wars.

Work Cited

Kuba, Richard. "Portraits of Distant Worlds. Frobenius’ Pictorial Archive and its Legacy." (2018): 109-131. https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/2119/Global_Photographies_109-131_Kuba_Frobenius.pdf?sequence=1.

Snyder, Joel. "Visibilization and visualization." Caroline A. Jones and Peter Galison (1998). Picturing Science, Producing Art. Routledge, New York (1998): 379-399.

Tucker, Jennifer. "The social photographic eye." Keller, Brought to Light 44 (2009): 111-20.

Wade, Nicholas J. "Faces and photography in 19th-century visual science." Perception 45.9 (2016): 1008-1035. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0301006616647742.