Notes de lecture
|
|
|
|
Notes de lecture |
|
|
n° 5, nov. 1998 |
|
|
|
In 1988, on the eve of the sesquicentennial celebrations of photography, a distinguished international group of photohistorians, curators and critics gathered at Cerisy-la-Salle for a conference on "Les Multiples Inventions de la Photographie." Each of the nearly two dozen invited speakers had freely chosen his or her own topic on which to speak and the subjects covered a wide range related to the concept of invention in photography. Midway through the conference, some astute observer pointed out that not a single participant had chosen to speak on Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre! We were all stunned. It is extraordinary that although daguerreotypes are perhaps the most widely and avidly collected examples of early photography, there remains a paucity of scholarly literature on Daguerre and his invention. Perhaps some of this is due to the nature of the man himself. However amazing and influential was his invention, Daguerre and his contemporary supporters never really told a very convincing story of how his invention came to be. Precious little documentation was even hinted at in the 1840s and virtually none has come to light since. It is also striking that much of the serious scholarly literature that does exist on Daguerre and the Daguerreotype has been in the English language. Very little in French comes up to the high standard of the 1989 Paris et le daguerréotype. A fundamental work in English was Helmut and Alison Gernsheim's 1956 L.J.M. Daguerre and it remains useful to this day. In 1961 Beaumont Newhall published his Daguerreotype in America and a decade later Richard Rudisill revealed his highly inspired Mirror Image; The Influence of the Daguerreotype on American Society. In 1989, Janet E. Buerger published her French Daguerreotypes. Professor John Wood has recently been most active in bringing these studies up to date; in 1989 he edited The Daguerreotype: A Sesquicentennial Celebration; in 1991, he edited America and the Daguerreotype; and in 1995 he issued his The Scenic Daguerreotype: Romanticism and Early Photography. The first really substantial study of the mechanism of the daguerreotype was issued in 1991 by M. Susan Barger and William B. White: The Daguerreotype; Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science. There are others, of course, but even this brief list should indicate how much of the literature on the daguerreotype thus far has been by English speaking authors. It is thus of great interest that Bates and Isabel Barrett Lowry bring us a more international view in The Silver Canvas: Daguerreotype Masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum. The Getty's holdings of more than two thousand daguerreotypes is grounded in the composite effort of seven major private collectors active in earlier years. Inspired purchases since then have usefully rounded out the collection. Some of them were recently displayed in the Getty's exhibition, The Art of the Daguerreotype, and this book now makes a selection of them more widely available. Weston Naef makes the reasonable claim in his introduction that "the Museum holds an example of almost every subject that came before the cameras of the daguerrian artists; images made for experimental scientific and educational purposes; records of historic events; now-vanished objects from the built environment; and, not least, portraits of people famous for their accomplishments in the arts, literature, science, or politics of the preceding century." Eighty daguerreotypes were drawn from the Getty's pool to form the visual core of this book. Many of these have never been published before and together they form quite a visual feast. Starting with Charles Meade's 1848 portrait of Daguerre himself, the examples range from Jean-Gabriel Eynard's confident "Self-Portrait with Daguerreotype of Roman Forum" to John Jabez Edwin Mayall's breathtaking 1851 mammoth plate of the Crystal Palace in London. Some of the finest work is by daguerreotypists whose personal identity has been lost. A circa 1845 view of Pisa shows the familiar leaning tower, a mysterious "Study of Rocks" is credited to a Frenchman, and interesting but anonymous portrait examples abound. Canal locks are being built, a family sits carefully arranged in their garden (perhaps in a self-portrait, oblivious to the fact that their formality is undermined by the camera being severely tilted), the United States Capitol building is preserved as it was in 1846, troops gather in a town square, and two fully nude women intimately embrace. The reproductions were carefully done by the respected house of Gardner Lithograph and generally convey a good sense of the originals. However, a seemingly capricious choice was made to reproduce some of the images in full color and some in monochrome. Those in black and white seem generally weak in tone by comparison and the inevitable (and I am sure, unintended) result is that these seem to be accorded a lesser importance. A careful duotone (or even tritone) reproduction throughout the book might have been considered. Alternatively, one could argue that color could have been used to good effect throughout. A greatly enlarged closeup of a daguerreotype forms the frontispiece for each chapter. Since these are printed full-bleed, my initial reaction was to think that this was slipped in by a designer more comfortable with coffee table books, for it is a technique widely employed in that arena. On reflection, however, it is an appropriate choice and I must overcome my prejudice. One of the joys of the daguerreotype is in the close examination of fine details in the image. Already holding this small object in the palm of the hand, it is an almost irresistible temptation to bring it close to the eye to discover its secrets - that effect is well approximated and celebrated here at the start of each chapter. Bates and Isabel Lowry's stated - and very appropriate - goal for this book was "to reconstruct events through first-hand reports, not later interpretations." They began collecting daguerreotypes in 1972. Bates Lowry is an art historian, a historian of architecture, and a former museum director. Isabel Bates Lowry, a researcher and a photographer, has been the director of an organization devoted to American art. The Lowry's combined skills and wide contacts in the art world have served them well in this book. They should take pride in having accomplished their goal. Their twenty page Prologue, "The Origins of the Daguerreotype," is a sensitive and fresh reading of the circumstances surrounding the invention of the process. Daguerre's relationship with the ill-fated Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is briefly but well brought out through their own correspondence (now preserved in Russia). Of particular interest is the section on Daguerre's artistic training and accomplishments. Although the authors are unnecessarily harsh on the Gernsheims and on the rival inventor Talbot, this prologue is one of the strongest contributions of the whole book. In this, and throughout The Silver Canvas, extensive endnotes amplify their text and reveal a wide range of source material. Combined with the brief bibliography, these notes should provide many with a starting point for further research. The daguerreotypes are grouped under six chapters: "The World Poses for the Sun"; "Stealing from the Mirror"; "The Artificial Retina"; "An Intruder in the Realm"; "Capturing the Moment"; and "A Nation in Transition". Each chapter begins with several pages of text and includes useful in-text illustrations. The plates for that chapter follow, one plate per page, with each plate facing an extended caption, usually filling the page and sometimes with additional supporting illustration. The biographical information on the individual daguerreotypists is concise but outstanding. As an observation, not a complaint, the art historical, and particularly the architectural, interests of the authors dominate these captions more so than in the balance of the text. The effect is as if one has sat down with an enthusiastic and well-informed collector to examine one of his prize possessions. That is as it should be. Only the last chapter introduces an American bias, made manifestly worse by the Epilogue, "The Emergence of an American Identity." These seemingly gratuitous additions undermine the otherwise excellent international balance of the text and the examples. One feels the heavy hand of the marketing department in ending on this note. A useful afterwards by Michael Hargraves gives a complete listing of the daguerreotypists represented in the Getty's collection, along with their nationality, life dates, and the quantity of each holding. If I were to be allowed one complaint about this book, it would be about its brevity. The authors have brought a unique combination of insights and energy to their study and this is a field desperate for more substantial literature. I am sure that their research could have covered a text twice this length without overly stretching their facts or their interpretations. A more full bibliography would also have been useful. All this would have made for a plumper volume, but both their treatment and the subject are deserving of it. It is to be hoped that others will be inspired to build on this substantial and eminently enjoyable foundation. Larry Schaaf |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
