80 billion photos are now taken a year. Photography has moved on into digital age. The medium has never been more widely appreciated or more eagerly exploited.
Photographers now work with huge productions, more like movies. Crewdsen has huge production team. His images sell for $60,000 each.
By contrast, Robert Adams had only his wife to help in the 1970s. Then photography was not popular. Change began when photographically aware teenagers started to collecting real photographs rather than reproductions. Baby boom enthusiasm brought photography into mainstream. Photographers like Klein now found their work treated with new reverence.
COLLECTORS
The fact that photographs can be reproduced is its greatest strength but it's biggest problem for collectors.
In 1999 problem with Lewis Hine's prints. People thought they were buying originals but then discovered that more and more "originals" appeared. Through forensic testing it transpired that photographic paper produced after 1950 contains chemicals called OBAs. Hines died in 1940s yet most of the prints on sale had OBAs so must have been produced after his death. Eventually Hines's darkroom assistant Walter Rosenblum admitted to reproducing the images to take advantage of the market.
Steichen's masterpiece of The Pond - Moonlight sold in 2006 for $2.6m. Most ever raised for a photograph.
Seydou Keita from Mali had long done portraits. Used lots of props. SK had three if his photos shown as unknown in a Parisian gallery. The curator Magnin found Keita and showed his photos at carrier Foundation and at the Gagosian in New York. Hid photos sold for $16,000 each. Then Patras became his agent until Keita died in 2001 following which there was an unresolved dispute between Patras and Magnin over ownership if 1,000 negatives.
In China photography was heavily restricted and used for propoganda. Li Zhenseng covered Cultural Revolution. Work now popular abroad. Wang Qingsong work is appreciated abroad more than at home.
Steichen however received little for his work originally but then decided to make more out of it Munich to the disgust of Stieglitz, his close friend.
Now you can be art and commercial photographer. Ventura moved from fashion to art. Used plastic models in War Souvenir.
Magnum Photos had grown on serious images of photo journalism. But Parr applied to join with his images of working class Britain. Parr was criticized for being cynical, voyeuristic and exploitative.
Jones Griffiths tried to keep Parr out. Heralded big change for Magnum.
Jeff Wall pioneered large scale photographs. Traditional photos too small in his view.
Most top photographers think big. Perhaps biggest is Gursky.
MANIPULATION
Camille Silvy manipulated his image of River Scene as early as 1860s. Turns out he did not even take image. Arranged where people stood -working class on one side, bourgeoisie on other. Added leaves to trees.
At first photography was anything you wanted. 20th century saw more divisions. Now we are back to photography being what you want it to be.
CONCLUSION
This was probably the least satisfying episode of the series - no apparent theme; seemed to be a pot pourri of anecdotes and facts. But very useful to understand the popularity of the Art in early 21st century. A big miss was the lack of discussion on manipulation - perhaps becasue the series dates from 2006 - much has happened since then.
Overall, this series has been an excellent introduction to the history of photography; I knew nothig before but now fell more comfortable with the Foxes, the Atgets, the Parrs etc as well as understanding more about the growth and evelopment of the medium.
