Post #10, Comments on Print the Legend
Post #10, Comments on Print the Legend (for 7 November seminar)
I also commented on Marty's site and Dan's site .
Print the Legend challenged me to dispense with my focused concept of “history worth reading,” and try something a bit different. To her credit, Martha Sandweiss was able to keep my attention through almost all of the 340-odd pages. Her blending of an overview of the history of photography in the West and a deeper discussion on the power of photography to influence impressions provided just enough historical content to offset the overabundance of technical photographic information.
I’ll start with what I didn’t like first. I believe the discussion on the shortcomings of daguerreotypes could have been consolidate to half its length…not quite as succinct as “there were damn few of them that had much impact, they were very small, they were on metal so adding language was difficult, and they could not be easily reproduced to meet a mass market,” but close.
I could have also done with a bit less on the panoramas. Got it, they were impressive in size and duration, they benefited from narration, they were much more popular than daguerreotypes, and they were much better suited to an iconographic or mythic portrayal of the West. Good, let’s move on.
So, what did I enjoy about Print the Legend? Once the author finished the descriptions of daguerreotypes and panoramas, and worked her way through the frustrations of the early expeditions that brought along wet plate photographic equipment, I noticed the pace and the relevance of the book pick up. I really enjoyed the recounting of the narrative breakthrough of photography…easily reproduced on paper, it seemed natural to add words… and the subsequent increase in popularity and relevance for the medium.
I also enjoyed the janus-faced argument about field of view. In the case of the photo of the Golden Spike, the Chinese were kept just out of view giving the illusion of a great technological triumph achieved by the white men pictured (p. 160). On the other side of the coin, the narrative accompanying a prosaic view of a canyon that states that a silver mine is just out of sight around the bend (p. 186).
I also enjoyed the discussions of reality. As Dave noted in his blog, the comparison of the stark daguerreotype image of Henry Clay Jr.’s grave (p. 36) and the accompanying portrait’s heroic depiction of his death (p. 37) speak at once to both the power (and limitations) of each medium, and to the changing tastes of the consuming public – the former was too foreboding and the latter was accepted as it spoke to the type myth that would be preferred to truth, probably the opposite today.
All in all, a great book that strove to blend several disciplines. While that blending was the source of my initial frustrations, I was able to set the extra art emphasis aside and truly enjoyed the history.
I also commented on Marty's site and Dan's site .
Print the Legend challenged me to dispense with my focused concept of “history worth reading,” and try something a bit different. To her credit, Martha Sandweiss was able to keep my attention through almost all of the 340-odd pages. Her blending of an overview of the history of photography in the West and a deeper discussion on the power of photography to influence impressions provided just enough historical content to offset the overabundance of technical photographic information.
I’ll start with what I didn’t like first. I believe the discussion on the shortcomings of daguerreotypes could have been consolidate to half its length…not quite as succinct as “there were damn few of them that had much impact, they were very small, they were on metal so adding language was difficult, and they could not be easily reproduced to meet a mass market,” but close.
I could have also done with a bit less on the panoramas. Got it, they were impressive in size and duration, they benefited from narration, they were much more popular than daguerreotypes, and they were much better suited to an iconographic or mythic portrayal of the West. Good, let’s move on.
So, what did I enjoy about Print the Legend? Once the author finished the descriptions of daguerreotypes and panoramas, and worked her way through the frustrations of the early expeditions that brought along wet plate photographic equipment, I noticed the pace and the relevance of the book pick up. I really enjoyed the recounting of the narrative breakthrough of photography…easily reproduced on paper, it seemed natural to add words… and the subsequent increase in popularity and relevance for the medium.
I also enjoyed the janus-faced argument about field of view. In the case of the photo of the Golden Spike, the Chinese were kept just out of view giving the illusion of a great technological triumph achieved by the white men pictured (p. 160). On the other side of the coin, the narrative accompanying a prosaic view of a canyon that states that a silver mine is just out of sight around the bend (p. 186).
I also enjoyed the discussions of reality. As Dave noted in his blog, the comparison of the stark daguerreotype image of Henry Clay Jr.’s grave (p. 36) and the accompanying portrait’s heroic depiction of his death (p. 37) speak at once to both the power (and limitations) of each medium, and to the changing tastes of the consuming public – the former was too foreboding and the latter was accepted as it spoke to the type myth that would be preferred to truth, probably the opposite today.
All in all, a great book that strove to blend several disciplines. While that blending was the source of my initial frustrations, I was able to set the extra art emphasis aside and truly enjoyed the history.
posted by john | 8:46 PM
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