When most people think about photographs from the early 20th century, “art” often isn’t what comes to mind. The image of a portrait of some very stiff looking people with thin eyebrows is more likely. There were, of course, millions of such photos produced during the first half of the 20th century, but there was also a serious movement to make photography an art form in it’s own right. From the 1880's until around 1914, most photographers making “art” were attempting to produce photographs that looked as much like a painting as possible (the Pictoralism Movement). They used soft focus, special filters, and coarse papers to remove much of the sharpness of a photograph and make it appear more like a romantic painting.
By the 1920's, a growing number of photographers were abandoning the Pictoralism Movement in favor of a new style of photography. Photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams subscribed to a new form of “straight photography”. They wanted to make a photograph a piece of art based on its own merits; a detailed capture of a moment in time. They used large format cameras and small apertures to gain as much definition and depth of field as possible. They redefined photography as an art and produced images that are as interesting today as they were 80 years ago.
This is the style of photography that I will be exploring with the Retrofocus Project.
Why not just use modern lenses for this? There’s a couple of reasons. First, lenses this old actually produce a different “look” than modern lenses. Their optical design is a relatively simple three element Anastigmat using raw, uncoated glass. Modern autofocus lenses have advanced multi-coated optics and can have more than 15 elements in their design. Because the old lenses aren’t coated, they are very low contrast and somewhat prone to flare. On the positve side they create extremely sharp images; as detailed as a modern lens in many cases. The one thing that most people find surprising about these old lenses is just how sharp they can actually be while at the same time producing a sort of low contrast “glow”. It’s an effect you have to see truly understand. Because the goal of this project is to authentically capture the look and feel of 1920s Modernist photography, it makes sense to me to use the real thing.
The other reason to use original lenses to work on this project is little more abstract. Looking through the same type of lens that these early photographic artists could have used, gives a unique quality to the whole experience. All camera settings are done manually and the entire process of taking a picture slows down. You really have to think about what you’re doing. Even though the final capture is done digitally, the rest of the process would be familiar to someone working in 1914.
Snapping the shutter is of course only one aspect of producing a piece of photographic art, although it’s probably the easiest part. The subject, first, has to be composed and lit, the negative has to be developed, and finally a print is made. In my case the “negative” is actually a digital RAW file but there is a real parallel between the two. RAW files have to be rendered before you can do anything with them just as a negative has to be developed.
Those early photographers were masters not only of composing and lighting their subjects, they were also masters in the darkroom. Developing a photo is, of course, the final and likely most challenging step in the process. Even though I will be working in a “digital darkroom”, sitting in front of a computer instead of a set of chemical tubs, the concepts in my processing would still be familiar to one of the old masters. You can still dodge and burn an image just as you could 80 years ago even if it happens in Photoshop instead of under an enlarger.
This project is mostly a labor of love and a chance for me to indulge in my interest in both photography and history. It might be a little esoteric for many people. My hope is that the resulting images will appeal to anyone who enjoys art. There is no finite time table for this project; it will continue as long as I’m able to produce something interesting.
Prints of the finished images will be available for sale in a variety of sizes, and a coffee table book of Retrofocus Art should be available by the end of 2008.
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