{"title":"流通照片:摄影史特刊","authors":"M. Pelizzari, Steffen Siegel","doi":"10.1080/03087298.2021.2020461","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Among the most astonishing documents of photography’s formative period is a short letter written by Laura Mundy on 12 December 1834. In just a few words, she thanked her cousin William Henry Fox Talbot ‘for sending me such beautiful shadows’. As the letter continues, it becomes apparent that Talbot had been sending her the first samples of his ‘Photogenic Drawings’ for several months; however, these ‘shadowy’ pictures were so sensitive to light that it was time to replace them with fresh specimens: ‘I had grieved’, remarks Laura Mundy, ‘over the gradual disappearance of those you gave me in the summer & am delighted to have these to supply their place in my book’. This letter represents not only an early testimony of Talbot’s experiments with photographic technologies; quite incidentally, it also states that he made the results of this research the subject of a postal mailing. Yet it was not Talbot who was the first to go public with the results of his photographic research. This step was taken by the Frenchman Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre when he presented the daguerreotype process. No textbook on the medium’s history would miss telling the events from Paris in 1839. However, it is less well known that Daguerre prepared small packages for a remarkably exclusive circle of addressees in the summer of that year. The Tsar of Russia, the Emperor in Vienna and the Kings of Bavaria and Belgium counted among them – but not, incidentally, the Queen of England, who refused such a gift. But it is more important to note that Daguerre, like Talbot, also made arrangements to use selected samples of his photographic process as objects of postal consignment. In this way, they were very quickly present in important cities of the European continent; and soon after they were on display, for instance in Vienna and Munich. These two anecdotes from photography’s early days may help to illustrate that photographic images were always conceived as mobile media – regardless of their specific material qualities. With photographic imagery, visual communication gained another important instrument that was especially suitable for use over great distances. And again, the often-quoted comparison with painting is also misleading, especially when we consider modes of circulation. If anything, the distribution of photographic images initially borrows from the established graphic arts. Soon, however, the pictorial practices associated with photographs will form specific forms of transmission, circulation and handling. Thus, circulation and mobility are modalities as old as photography. Yet we are still missing a history that discusses these acts of transmission as the critical framework for creating photographic meaning. Jennifer L. Roberts, in her brilliant study of early American art, has suggested a new methodological direction that places agency on the artworks rather than on their makers. In her pursuit of a new kind of spatial and cultural trajectory of art she studies ‘what happens when the works themselves serve as emissaries or 1 – Laura Mundy to William Henry Fox Talbot, 12 December 1834, document number 3017, available at http://foxtalbot. dmu.ac.uk/letters/; and see First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Photography, ed. 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As the letter continues, it becomes apparent that Talbot had been sending her the first samples of his ‘Photogenic Drawings’ for several months; however, these ‘shadowy’ pictures were so sensitive to light that it was time to replace them with fresh specimens: ‘I had grieved’, remarks Laura Mundy, ‘over the gradual disappearance of those you gave me in the summer & am delighted to have these to supply their place in my book’. This letter represents not only an early testimony of Talbot’s experiments with photographic technologies; quite incidentally, it also states that he made the results of this research the subject of a postal mailing. Yet it was not Talbot who was the first to go public with the results of his photographic research. This step was taken by the Frenchman Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre when he presented the daguerreotype process. No textbook on the medium’s history would miss telling the events from Paris in 1839. However, it is less well known that Daguerre prepared small packages for a remarkably exclusive circle of addressees in the summer of that year. The Tsar of Russia, the Emperor in Vienna and the Kings of Bavaria and Belgium counted among them – but not, incidentally, the Queen of England, who refused such a gift. But it is more important to note that Daguerre, like Talbot, also made arrangements to use selected samples of his photographic process as objects of postal consignment. In this way, they were very quickly present in important cities of the European continent; and soon after they were on display, for instance in Vienna and Munich. These two anecdotes from photography’s early days may help to illustrate that photographic images were always conceived as mobile media – regardless of their specific material qualities. With photographic imagery, visual communication gained another important instrument that was especially suitable for use over great distances. And again, the often-quoted comparison with painting is also misleading, especially when we consider modes of circulation. If anything, the distribution of photographic images initially borrows from the established graphic arts. Soon, however, the pictorial practices associated with photographs will form specific forms of transmission, circulation and handling. Thus, circulation and mobility are modalities as old as photography. Yet we are still missing a history that discusses these acts of transmission as the critical framework for creating photographic meaning. Jennifer L. Roberts, in her brilliant study of early American art, has suggested a new methodological direction that places agency on the artworks rather than on their makers. In her pursuit of a new kind of spatial and cultural trajectory of art she studies ‘what happens when the works themselves serve as emissaries or 1 – Laura Mundy to William Henry Fox Talbot, 12 December 1834, document number 3017, available at http://foxtalbot. dmu.ac.uk/letters/; and see First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Photography, ed. 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引用次数: 0
摘要
摄影形成时期最令人惊讶的文献之一是劳拉·蒙迪于1834年12月12日写的一封短信。在短短的几句话中,她感谢她的堂兄威廉·亨利·福克斯·塔尔博特“给我带来了如此美丽的阴影”。随着这封信的继续,很明显,塔尔博特几个月来一直在给她寄他的“上镜画”的第一批样本;然而,这些“模糊”的照片对光线非常敏感,是时候用新的标本代替它们了:“我很难过”,Laura Mundy说道,“你在夏天送给我的那些照片逐渐消失了,我很高兴这些照片能在我的书中占据一席之地”。这封信不仅是塔尔博特摄影技术实验的早期见证;顺便说一句,它还指出,他将这项研究的结果作为邮寄邮件的主题。然而,塔尔博特并不是第一个公开其摄影研究结果的人。这一步骤是法国人路易斯·雅克·曼德·达盖尔在介绍银版印刷工艺时采取的。没有一本关于媒体历史的教科书会错过讲述1839年巴黎发生的事件。然而,鲜为人知的是,达盖尔在当年夏天为一个非常排外的收件人圈子准备了小包裹。俄罗斯的沙皇、维也纳的皇帝、巴伐利亚和比利时的国王都在其中——但顺便说一句,英国女王拒绝了这样的礼物。但更重要的是,达盖尔和塔尔博特一样,也安排将其摄影过程中的精选样本用作邮寄物品。通过这种方式,他们很快就出现在欧洲大陆的重要城市;不久之后,它们在维也纳和慕尼黑展出。摄影早期的这两个轶事可能有助于说明,摄影图像总是被认为是移动媒体——无论其具体的材料质量如何。有了摄影图像,视觉交流获得了另一种特别适合远距离使用的重要工具。同样,经常被引用的与绘画的比较也是误导性的,尤其是当我们考虑流通模式时。如果说有什么不同的话,那就是摄影图像的分布最初借鉴了已有的平面艺术。然而,很快,与照片相关的绘画实践将形成特定的传播、传播和处理形式。因此,流通和流动与摄影一样古老。然而,我们仍然错过了一部将这些传播行为作为创造摄影意义的关键框架的历史。詹妮弗·罗伯茨(Jennifer L.Roberts)在她对早期美国艺术的杰出研究中,提出了一个新的方法论方向,将代理权放在艺术品上,而不是放在它们的制作者身上。在追求一种新的艺术空间和文化轨迹的过程中,她研究了“当作品本身充当使者时会发生什么”——1834年12月12日,Laura Mundy致William Henry Fox Talbot,文件编号3017,可在http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/letters/;参见《首次曝光:摄影之初的写作》,斯特芬·西格尔主编,洛杉矶:盖蒂2017,22。
Circulating Photographs: A Special Issue of History of Photography
Among the most astonishing documents of photography’s formative period is a short letter written by Laura Mundy on 12 December 1834. In just a few words, she thanked her cousin William Henry Fox Talbot ‘for sending me such beautiful shadows’. As the letter continues, it becomes apparent that Talbot had been sending her the first samples of his ‘Photogenic Drawings’ for several months; however, these ‘shadowy’ pictures were so sensitive to light that it was time to replace them with fresh specimens: ‘I had grieved’, remarks Laura Mundy, ‘over the gradual disappearance of those you gave me in the summer & am delighted to have these to supply their place in my book’. This letter represents not only an early testimony of Talbot’s experiments with photographic technologies; quite incidentally, it also states that he made the results of this research the subject of a postal mailing. Yet it was not Talbot who was the first to go public with the results of his photographic research. This step was taken by the Frenchman Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre when he presented the daguerreotype process. No textbook on the medium’s history would miss telling the events from Paris in 1839. However, it is less well known that Daguerre prepared small packages for a remarkably exclusive circle of addressees in the summer of that year. The Tsar of Russia, the Emperor in Vienna and the Kings of Bavaria and Belgium counted among them – but not, incidentally, the Queen of England, who refused such a gift. But it is more important to note that Daguerre, like Talbot, also made arrangements to use selected samples of his photographic process as objects of postal consignment. In this way, they were very quickly present in important cities of the European continent; and soon after they were on display, for instance in Vienna and Munich. These two anecdotes from photography’s early days may help to illustrate that photographic images were always conceived as mobile media – regardless of their specific material qualities. With photographic imagery, visual communication gained another important instrument that was especially suitable for use over great distances. And again, the often-quoted comparison with painting is also misleading, especially when we consider modes of circulation. If anything, the distribution of photographic images initially borrows from the established graphic arts. Soon, however, the pictorial practices associated with photographs will form specific forms of transmission, circulation and handling. Thus, circulation and mobility are modalities as old as photography. Yet we are still missing a history that discusses these acts of transmission as the critical framework for creating photographic meaning. Jennifer L. Roberts, in her brilliant study of early American art, has suggested a new methodological direction that places agency on the artworks rather than on their makers. In her pursuit of a new kind of spatial and cultural trajectory of art she studies ‘what happens when the works themselves serve as emissaries or 1 – Laura Mundy to William Henry Fox Talbot, 12 December 1834, document number 3017, available at http://foxtalbot. dmu.ac.uk/letters/; and see First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Photography, ed. Steffen Siegel, Los Angeles: Getty 2017, 22.
期刊介绍:
History of Photography is an international quarterly devoted to the history, practice and theory of photography. It intends to address all aspects of the medium, treating the processes, circulation, functions, and reception of photography in all its aspects, including documentary, popular and polemical work as well as fine art photography. The goal of the journal is to be inclusive and interdisciplinary in nature, welcoming all scholarly approaches, whether archival, historical, art historical, anthropological, sociological or theoretical. It is intended also to embrace world photography, ranging from Europe and the Americas to the Far East.