Favorite Photo: The Last Supper

There are a number of contemporary photographers who have captured my imagination, but few as much as Howard Schatz. He enjoys classical themes but is always playful. When looking at his work, I have never thought to myself "Oh, look. Another nude. Another black-&-white." No! He has an amazing sense of composition and dedication to constructing scenes that must have undoubtedly taken weeks. I've selected one of my favorites, The Last Supper, but you should check out his website here to view his large portfolio.

From fō-tō-gră-fē

Favorite Photo: Fading Away (1858)

Fading Away: Henry Peach Robinson (1858) - From fō-tō-gră-fē

My favorite photo of today is again from the first era of photographic art, Pictorialism. It is from 1858 and depicts a girl dying from tuberculosis. Even more amazing is that it was composed of multiple negatives. It is the most famous photo of Henry Peach Robinson, and was actually a rather pioneering endeavor.

It wasn't the very first photo to chop together multiple negatives, but it may as well have been. You can see the lines where he cut most prominently around the left side of the small table.

This provided a number of advantages. First, from the perspective of the pictorialists, it gave them immense compositional control, which allowed them to better imitate painters, which was their stated goal. Second, it also gave photographers their first taste of close-up deep focus. Film at the time was not terribly sensitive, thus necessitating wide open lenses for anything except for bright sunshine. This of course resulted in a razor-thin depth of field. By taking multiple photos at different points along the Z-axis, then stitching them together, deep focus could be faked.

Favorite Photo: Vitesse

The earliest photography was basically all portraiture. No one wanted photos of THINGS. They wanted photos of themselves, in much the same way that the wealthy kept getting portraits painted. Don't laugh! We have the MySpace shot, afterall, so I'd argue that we're worse.

But by the early 1900's, the increased portability of cameras and film started to foster a sense of artistic possibility, and photos of things, scenes, and places started to emerge. But early on, before the likes of Ansel Adams, photographers thought that their goal should be a movement away from the high-resolution, realistic photos that were being used for portrait shots.

Instead, aspiring artists needed to try to imitate painting with the camera. Photos should appear unrealistic, and instead appear impressionistic. It is in this vein that one of my absolute phavorite photos was taken. It is actually a photo, though it barely appears that way. I generally find myself drawn to this era of photography, I think, because the influence of those like the F/64 Group has been so total, that even if an image is bizarre and unrealistic, it strives for verisimilitude in itself. Focus is always sharp, exposure is always level. Really throwing these rules to the wind and trying to take photos that don't look like photos is thrilling, and especially difficult with modern equipment.

Robert Demachy: Vitesse (1903)