>    Hello all.   Does anyone have any theoretical or methodological
>suggestions  as to analyzing or interpreting photographs?  I am working
>with a collection of 34,000  glass plate negatives, all of which came from
>one photography studio (three  photographers) that operated from 1862 to
>1968 in Leavenworth, Kansas.  The  vast majority of the photos are studio
>portraits and I would like to develop an  exhibit focusing on "the family"
>as seen through these portraits.  The  project is somewhat overwhelming
>and I am not quite sure how to approach  it.  So far, I am utilizing
>methods/theories of material culture but  am wondering what approaches
>other museum professionals,  historians, and culturists have used.     I
>am currently reading Severa's Dressed for the  Photographer to gain some
>ideas.  I am also searching  for books/articles regarding the history of
>photographic portraits and  photographic interpretation--any suggestions?
>Or does anyone know of  similar projects?   I will greatly appreciate any
>input, suggestions, or  advice.   Thank you, Rebecca J. Phipps

=================

Sept 30, 2000

Rebecca,

Perhaps the book Cheryl Maslin is thinking of is ""Sleeping Beauty -
Memorial Photography in America", 1990.  Unfortunately it's rather pricy -
ranging from $115 to $400 on www.bookfinder.com.  The subject is about what
collector's call "post-mortem" photos - those taken after a person dies.
They were commonly done in the last century since, in many cases, they were
the only photo taken in the person's lifetime (I know - poor choice of
word).  You very likely have some in your collection.  But if I read your
message correctly, I don't think this is what you are looking for.
(However, one or two post-mortems might fit in your display very nicely -
at least in the 19th century portion - as they were a common family momento
back then, and, when tastefully done, there was nothing morbid about them.)

"Wisconsin Death Trip" is a curious book.  The author intermingles some
wonderful photos of "typical" Wisconsin views, occupations and machinery,
with portraits of average and not-so-average people of the 1885 to 1900
period.  Included are probably hundreds of small newspaper news items and
fillers of the same years.  All-in-all, I imagine it gives a pretty good
look at life back then.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "material culture", but when you say "I
would like to develop an exhibit focusing on "the family" as seen through
these portraits", I read that as an exhibit that makes the people of long
ago come alive in the eyes of today's museum visitor.  As a photo collector
and historian, that's precisely what I look for in photos I buy.  In fact,
I have a few daguerreotype portraits from my collection online at
http://www.jimlyons.com./photoid.html.  These are just the start of what I
want to put online as time allows, but even these may give you some ideas.
I particularily call your attention to the girl I call "pensive lady", and
suggest you look at the enlargements of the girl.  This dag was taken about
1851 or '52, just about 150 years ago, but to me, simply because of her
expression, she's as alive as anyone today. All the other people in that
dag series, even the old grandma who was born before the Revolutionary War,
are just people from long ago.

For interpretation of the photos, I only know of one book: "Photoanalysis"
(one word), by Dr. Robert U. Akeret.  It's available on Bookfinder for
under $10.  It's a book on reading the body language of the people in the
photos, and it's quite illuminating.  Your collection probably has numerous
photos in which the feeling of the subject at the moment are apparent.  For
example, in my collection I have a cabinet photo of a father with his two
young sons.  The youngest - about five years old - is obviously afraid of
the camera and is backing away from it.  His cigar-smoking father, smiling,
is gently preventing the boy from turning and running.  Another family
photo of a century ago shows a girl of about twelve laying her head on her
younger brother's shoulder.  Another photo taken at the same time shows the
same girl laying her head on her sitting father's shoulder.  In both cases
her face is very soft and loving, and precisely what you might see today
(unlike the stiff carefully posed portraits that probably over 90% are).

For the history of portrait photos, what you want are the books written for
photo collectors.  There are all kinds of them out there, and any decent
library will have several. Especially look for the daguerreotypes of
Southworth & Hawes, who are considered to be the Rembrandts of the dag era.
Online, dial up the Daguerreian Society at http://www.daguerre.org/ and
look at the portraits they have to view and follow some of the links.

The daguerreian era was gone by the time your photographers started out in
1862, but unfortunately I don't know of any later organizations such as the
Dag Society we can turn to online.  But looking at the earlier photos -
which collector's invariably refer to as "images" - you will see how some
people are stiff and cardboard-like, while others will be animated and
alive.  If you look an enough photos, very likely some ideas will come to
you about how you'd like to display them.  (One idea I want to put on my
web site eventually: a set of photos where each succeeding photo is a
generation earlier than the last, and could well be the other's parent.
Thus one girl of 25 could well be the mother of the last girl of 25 and the
grandmother of the last girl of 25.  You can actually have photos going
back to the current 25 year-old's great-great-great-great grandmother.
Obviously you could have all sorts of variations on the same theme.)

I've got to confess I envy you having the opportunity to put together such
an exhibit.  To a collector like me it's the stuff from which dreams are
made.

-Jim




















-Jim Lyons

[log in to unmask]
http://www.jimlyons.com

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