Creating Topics For Modern City Paris Photography

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Topics: CREATING THE MODERN CITY: PARIS PHOTOGRAPHY Read: Haussmann the Demolisher and the Creation of Modern Paris Watch: (4:48) Garnier, Paris Opéra Read: Garnier, Paris Opéra Read: Baron Haussmann designer-par-excellence.html Read: Daguerre, Paris Boulevard photography Read: Early Photography: Niépce, Talbot and Muybridge Read: “Daguerre () and the Invention of Photography” from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Watch: (5:43) Early Photography: Making Daguerreotypes Watch: (6:12) The Wet Collodian Process Watch: (3:00) Deconstructing History: Eiffel Tower Look at: Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel Tower Topics: BEGINNING THE 20th CENTURY (Urban Experience, Class, Science, Anti-Urban Experience or “primitivism” [think about how problematic this word is; what does it imply?], Abstraction) Watch: (6:25) Seurat, Bathers at Asnières Watch: (6:43) Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Watch: (3:38) Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel Read: Gauguin, Oviri impressionism/a/gauguin-oviri Read: Gauguin, Spirit of the Dead Watching impressionism/a/gauguin-spirit-of-the-dead-watching Watch: (5:03) Gauguin, Nevermore Read: Gauguin, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? impressionism/a/gauguin-where-do-we-come-from-what-are-we-where-are-we-going Watch: (4:46) Hector Guimard, Cité entrance, Paris Métropolitain Watch: (8:28) Representation and abstraction: Millais's Ophelia and Newman's Vir Heroicus Sublimis Watch: (10:26) Art and context: Monet's Cliff Walk at Pourville and Malevich's White on White Read: An Introduction to Photography in the Early 20th Century introduction-to-photography-in-the-early-20th-century How has the ability to take a photograph changed from Daguerre to today (with phones)? Do you think we have become a culture of photographs? How? (300 words)

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The evolution of photography from the early 19th century to the contemporary era has profoundly transformed visual culture, shaping how society perceives and documents urban environments, historical moments, and individual experiences. This essay explores these developments within the context of Paris's transformation into a modern city, focusing on key technological innovations, artistic movements, and cultural implications.

The inception of photography, marked by the pioneering works of Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Daguerre, and William Henry Fox Talbot, revolutionized the possibilities of capturing reality. Niépce's heliographs, Daguerre's daguerreotypes, and Talbot's calotypes introduced different photographic processes, each with unique qualities and limitations yet collectively establishing the photographic medium’s potential to document the world (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline). The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839, in particular, marked a significant breakthrough—producing highly detailed images that could be reproduced and revered as artistic and documentary artifacts. The wet collodion process, developed in the 1850s, further refined image clarity and expediency, allowing for photographic documentation of urban landscapes like Paris's boulevards, notably captured by pioneers such as Louis Daguerre.

The development and dissemination of early photography coincided with Paris’s urban transformation under Baron Haussmann, who in the mid-19th century orchestrated extensive renovations of the city's infrastructure. Haussmann's modernization, involving the demolition of old neighborhoods and the creation of grand boulevards, facilitated new perspectives for photographers such as Daguerre to capture the evolving cityscape. These images not only documented the physical changes but also contributed to constructing a new visual identity for Paris as a modern metropolis. The Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889, exemplifies the synergy of technological ingenuity and artistic expression, symbolizing modern engineering and becoming a subject for photographic exploration, which helped embed it into the global visual consciousness.

Enter the 20th century, where photographic technology and artistic expression converged to reflect and critique urban life, social变化, and abstract concepts. The advent of flexible film and portable cameras democratized image-making, fostering a culture where photography became accessible to the masses. The shift from purely documentary to artistic experimentation can be observed in the works of Impressionists like Georges Seurat and Post-Impressionists like Paul Gauguin, who incorporated visual innovations into their art to explore perception, emotion, and symbolism. Seurat's pointillism, exemplified in paintings like "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte," embody a scientific approach to optics and color, paralleling photographic techniques (Seurat, 1884). Similarly, Gauguin's use of vivid colors and symbolic subjects, as seen in "Vision after the Sermon," challenged conventional representations and influenced future artistic movements by emphasizing subjective perception over realism (Gauguin, 1888).

The early 20th-century also witnessed a shift toward abstraction, with artists like Kazimir Malevich creating white-on-white compositions that challenged perceptual boundaries. Concurrently, the emergence of modernist architecture, exemplified by Hector Guimard's Paris Métropolitain entrances, integrated functional design with aesthetic principles, reflecting the era’s philosophical shifts. Photography mirrored these developments, transitioning from representational images to experimental and abstract forms, exemplified by works of Man Ray and others employing photomontage andsolarization techniques. These innovations questioned traditional notions of representation, highlighting the medium's flexibility and its role in visualizing modernist ideals.

The technological advancements in photographic processes transformed society’s relationship with images. From the cumbersome daguerreotypes to smartphones with high-resolution cameras today, the capacity to capture moments has exponentially increased. The smartphone revolution, in particular, democratized photography, making it accessible to billions worldwide and enabling instant sharing on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. This has cultivated a culture saturated with images, where visual documentation is ubiquitous and instantaneous. The perspective of a society immersed in a "culture of photographs" is evident in the prevalence of selfies, digital memes, and live streaming. Photography has shifted from a specialized art form to an essential mode of everyday communication, affecting individual identity, social relations, and cultural memory (Urry, 2013).

In conclusion, the journey of photographic technology from Niépce to smartphones reflects an ongoing democratization and diversification of visual expression. Paris’s physical and cultural transformation, along with technological innovations, has played a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of photographic practice and its societal impact. Today, we exist in an era where photographs are integral to personal identity and collective history, creating a culture that constantly constructs and reconstructs reality through images. This continued innovation underscores photography's unique capacity to shape perception and cultural memory across time.

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