Revision: First Portraits
The introduction of photography came with strife when it was
first introduced into the public. The first problem was whether this art media
should be considered art or a science. The outcome of this examination was
photography can coexist in both planes. Another, area where history of
photography was contested was the industrial making of cameras. Because of the accessibility
of camera and photographs the masses had a large impact on the usage of photography.
In Walter Benjamin, “Little History Photography” he addresses these obstacles when talking about photography. How photography can be seen as an art form is with aura. What an aura offers is its uniqueness
of that moment when that photograph was taken. The photograph is cemented in
that exact moment when a photographer clicks a button. Photographs that have an
aura offers the viewer a permanent impression of a fleeting moment.
A photograph that best encapsulates the
struggles of photography as a science and, as an art form is the first
photograph of Earth from space. It satisfies William Benjamin need for art to
have an aura. It captures fleeting time a moment that will never happen again. Taken
in 1946 by United State scientists and soldiers at White Sands Missile Range 2.
The photo captures a collection of people that aren’t seen but are known to be
on Earth. It tells a story of Earth existences and the people on it at that moment.
“And once again the technical
equivalent is obvious: it consists in the absolute continuum from brightest
light to darkest shadow. Here, too, we see in operation the law that new
advances are prefigured in older techniques, for the earlier art of portrait
painting.”1 An old technique of painting light and shadow, which can be called
tenebrism that originated during the Baroque era advances photography because it
displays something familiar in art terms. However, it is the storytelling that painting,
and photographs tells the viewers. Walter Benjamin in “Little History of
Photography” he is mainly talking about the importance of the first photography
portrait where viewers can have a relationship with a person in the photograph whether
they knew them or not. The first photograph of Earth is a portrait, because of the
same feeling can be felt when looking at a person, familiarity. It is a remaindering
of the relationship each person has with Earth because without it there is no opportunity
for humanity.
Bibliography
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