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Stop Motion.. History of Photography.. Book
Photography

Stop Motion

During the early years of photography, photographers had to ask their models to remain motionless, even if they used headrests for them. The slightest movement led to blurring, even with the wet collodion method. After the invention of the silver bromide gelatin compound, photographers could act instantly.

Edward Muybridge is considered the pioneer of instant photography and is of English origin. Muybridge worked in the United States, where he studied with Carlton Dutson in San Francisco before becoming his partner in 1867. In the same year, he organized an expedition to Yosemite Valley to make large-scale photographic plates on wet collodion and to make stereoscopic images as well.

Muybridge, crossing the desert on his mules loaded with a tent, glass plates, bottles of chemicals and huge (machine) rooms (the plates were 56 x 72 cm), succeeded in capturing some excellent plates of regions unknown at that time.

At the end of February 1868, after Muybridge had named himself Helios (flying machine), he offered his clients for twenty dollars a series of twenty photographs of the Yosemite region. It was well received in the press, especially with filters, but it is likely that he achieved it by printing two negatives during the clouds: for the effects of the cloudy sky, he could have obtained this effect, one negative representing the view and the other negative representing the cloudy sky.

The quality of Muybridge's work was so outstanding that he was appointed director of photographic tables for the United States government. He returned to Yosemite Valley with his large plate machine and made other very beautiful prints. The name Helios became known in Europe and he won a medal at the Vienna Exhibition.

Muybridge's interest in the search for instant photography goes back to a discussion that took place one day between the former governor of California and railroad king Leland Stanford and a friend named Mac Creelish. The latter was

(First photo)

This is a set of experiments taken in 1887 in Palo Alto by Eadweard Muybridge with his electro-photographic equipment. The main purpose of these experiments was to find out whether all four legs of a horse were raised off the ground while running. The second photo proves this in a way that does not call for debate. From this date onwards a new era of photography began. It should be noted that at the same time the American painter Thomas Eakins had devoted himself to similar research, but his work was never properly appreciated.

He refused to believe that a galloping horse could have all four legs separated from the ground by a single foot. Stanford contacted Muybridge - who was then working on the Pacific coast - and asked him to take some pictures of a galloping horse. Muybridge chose to work at the Sacramento Horse Races, using all available white cloths to make a background for his pictures.

The first day of work was not sunny, and on the second day, walking with the shutter in his hand, he obtained an important moving picture of the horse. In his third attempt he used a spring-loaded shutter made up of two small wooden plates with a 20 cm wide gap between them. They were flowing vertically in a wooden frame and Muybridge calculated that the speed was thus 1/500 of a second, but the final image was so bad that it left the door open for debate.

Five years later (during which time he left the United States, killed his wife's lover, and then returned to California) Muybridge continued his experiments and research on a farm in Palo Alto. He decided on a large program of experiments, which Stanford financed with $40,000. The equipment included 12 machines inserted into a longitudinal structure 12 meters long. Each machine was equipped with an electromagnetic shutter with a clockwork mechanism. The button was pressed by electrical contacts placed on the ring. This time the series of images proved without question that Stanford had won the bet. Muybridge then declared that photography would soon be a definitive proof of the winners of races, and indeed ten years later the first photograph was taken during a race in New Jersey.

Muybridge was not the only photographer who thought of cinema, but his improved rapid shutter and the desire to show images in rapid succession prompted him to try a moving projector. He called the projector he invented the "Zugyroscope", but in the spring of 1881 he changed this name to "Zobraxiscope". This projector consisted of a fixed viewfinder to which he added a rotating disc. This device was not suitable and therefore did not succeed commercially.

But the birth of cinema announced by Edison, Friese Green and Murray was near. From 1882 to 1893 Murray presented the chronophotograph, which he adapted from Muybridge's device, called the Zoopraxiscope, and his photographic gun. In 1895, O'Gust and Louis Lumière presented the cinematograph.

The development of instant photography meant that important events could now be captured for immediate publication in newspapers. By then, photocopying had been a major impediment. But in 1880 Frederick Ives invented the analogue print: the first analogue print of a photograph appeared on 4 March 1880 in the New York Daily Graphic. Most publishers were reluctant to change their strict column layout to publish photographs, believing that the printed text contained all the information readers needed. This was not the case with the London Daily Mirror, which published an entire issue of photographs in 1904. Surprisingly, American newspapers were left behind until 1919, while fashion magazines were turning to photography. Queen magazine published society photographs in the late 1890s, and Vogue had featured fashion photographs from 1913. Thus began the era of fashion photography and reportage photography. Professional photographers used sturdy machines that worked on plates and magnesium powder.

In the studios, silence reigned: photographers hid under black veils while models looked steadfastly into the lens. When the new century began, most people experimented with the artistic half-length portrait, flattering even flattering.

Few professional photographers used the full-color sensitive plate, preferring the plate that could be developed by observing the image's development under red light. Artificial lighting was introduced around 1920, but the importance of moving distinctive sources was not understood until several years later.

Parallel to modern art, photography began to discover other areas of expression. The Danda group, whose members included the painter and photographer Man Ray, pursued research that involved assembling photographs and newspaper clippings on colored fabrics. Man Ray, the Hungarian Moholy-Nagy, and Kurt Schwitters pushed photographic research by creating double images using X-rays and other scientific techniques to create images that were distinguished by their movement and abstraction.

In America, the 1920s were characterized by a group of amateurs, led by Alfred Stieglitz, who worked as enthusiastic photographers, especially outside the studio.

Some of their photographs were outstanding, and this group had a great impact.

The most influential photographic genre that emerged between the wars was undoubtedly the reportage photograph, sometimes called "Candid photography."

It allowed the publication of illustrated magazines in various countries, including the "Berliner Weisse Zeitung" and the "Münchner Weisse Presse", which were published in Germany in the 1920s. And Picture Post and Illustrative, which were published in Great Britain starting in 1930, especially Life magazine, the most famous magazine published in the United States, many countries followed these pioneering magazines, but only Life magazine, the largest of these magazines, was known by everyone and in the whole world.

Historical photo:

A great photographic success: Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag on the moon. A photo taken with one of the photographic machines carried by the astronauts. This unforgettable moment will remain engraved in people's memories for a long time.

Capturing the event:

One of the most famous reportage photos: the explosion of the huge airship Hindenburg in Lake Hart in 1937. This photo belongs to Sam Cherry. Photographer Jack Snyder from Record magazine in Philadelphia was so close that the heat burned his hair. This photo was probably taken on a 4 x 5 plate with the Speed ​​Graphic machine most used by journalists.

The dangerous work of a photojournalist:

The work of a war correspondent photographer is very dangerous: this photographer can be killed and has happened many times. In this picture, a young fighter wearing a gas mask on a street in Londonderry holds a Molotov cocktail in his hand, preparing to throw it.