Wiki for Dr. McClurkens Courses

Geoffrey Bennett traces over a century of history of popular photography from the earliest days of color in the mid-late 19th-century to the emergence of amateur and even “snapshot” photographers in the 1980s. When color photography was first developed in the mid-19th-century, it required the use of three color filters in order to produce a color photograph. The process was expensive and painstaking (129). Later, the “Autochrome” process developed by the Lumiere Brothers of France allowed for photos to develop in a single emulsion, thus shortening the process (131). Finally, the “Tri-Pack” system of the 1920s-30s entirely eliminated the need for a set of filters (133).

Still, even over the course of nearly sixty years, photography was still expensive, fragile, and color photography was not widely available to the public. It would not be until the 1940s-1950s that color photography would become popularized in the United States. Part of this popularization was accelerated by the US Government, who desired the ability to quickly take surveillance photographs (135).

When color photography was finally commonly available by the 1950s, it only took roughly another 30 years for photography to transform from a specialized process done only in official clubs in darkrooms, to a hobby that even the most inexperienced amateur lacking technical skills could participate. The success of mass marketing within photography blossomed quickly - particularly with the advent of Instant Polaroid cameras in the 1960s, and the “point-and-shoot” cameras of the 1980s (141).

The availability and spread of color photography sparked mass intrigue and curiosity that was heightened by the sense of euphoria derived from producing a color photograph by oneself. Nowadays, it is easy to take photography for granted, as almost all of us have the ability to document - stylishly or not - any given moment of our lives using our smartphones. If you have paid for a smartphone, you have paid for an almost unlimited amount of photographs. But this was not at all the case even fifty years ago. Photography expanded over the course of less than two centuries because of the many institutions involved in its promotion - including inventor-entrepreneurs, the US government, and of course, amateurs.(==Glynnis Farleigh)

Once color photography was invented, many companies tried to pick up this advancement for their cameras. Companies needed to keep up with Kodak. Kodak was very advanced because of its use of Kodachrome. Still, before this was used, people used the “laborious three-color process, in which three separate black and white photographs of the subject were taken through red, green and blue filters and then printed or projected together” (129). This process was time-consuming and did not always turn out the way people wanted them to. Since this process was so complicated and lengthy, Lumiere Company of France created the Autochrome process. This process was “ using plates dusted with grains of potato starch, dyed in the three primary colors. The fine grains were mixed and sprinkled onto a glass plate before it was coated with a standard black and white emulsion “(130). This process was so much faster, but still had flaws, the grains would clump together and cause fuzziness. All of these issues led to the tri-pack system by Kodak. This system was game-changing and allowed colored photography to happen without any errors. -Reilly Miller

The progression of color film from about the 1930's until now has always fascinated me and how as a society, we are returning to some of our old artifacts. In 1936 coordinations film was very expensive. But around the same time Kodak Color Film started because of the war in 1942. Flash forward to about 1963, the first Polaroid instant color film was created. In 1982, there was the disc camera (which was not as successful). In 1988 Kodak stopped making cameras but film production still continued. While as a society there was a need and want for film and photos, there were specific types that were wanted. Today, Polaroid films are very popular because they are instant and vintage. They are also not as expensive now as they were when first created. It is amazing that over only the course of about 60 years that film and color film in particular has changed so much. -Haley Denehy

In this Text Geoffrey Bennett goes in depth on the history of coloring in pictures taken on camera. He first brings up inventions such as James Maxwell's “color separation” (1861) or Frederick Ives “photochromoscope” (1895) which creates colors through red, green, and blue filters but was very expensive and time consuming. He then moves onto the serious strides imaging companies are making to create colored pictures through examples such as the Kodak Color Film (1942) and onto the creation of the “Polaroid” (1963) camera, which is still very popular in modern time because of its antique look on the picture. There were dozens of inventions made throughout the 1900's that have made significant influences on how imaging is today. All of my life the color in pictures has never been a problem for me, I have been surrounded by technology capable of creating such pictures with ease, but only 50 years before people were struggling to create quality pictures with color, and it shows how quickly the advancement in imaging technology really was. -Nick Bass

Photography has been around for longer than people realize. It was such a delicate process in the beginning and overtime became more at ease. James Clerk Maxwell was one of the first to ease this process for color photographs to become possible, with less physical work. It fascinates me how potato starch was used to accompany the color process. These “fine grains acted like tiny filters.” (130) Who would've thought that suing potato starch was the breakthrough of colored photography? How did the Lumiere Company of France know this would work and not ruin the pictures? Also, the advertising for the Kodak miniature camera was so simple, yet it attracted so many people. It became the beginning of major photography and in a sense led to the purpose for pictures in today's time. — Erika Mabry

I have always been interested in the transition from black and white to colored photography, but I knew little about the processes in which the first colored photos and films came to be. The article illustrates how truly tedious and expensive photographing in color was at first. It was interesting to see that some of the first colored photos where created by photographing a subject multiple times with different primary colored filters. The transitional period in accessibility of colored film from only professionals to amateur photographers was also quite interesting. During the late 1950’s, much of colored photography was confined to enthusiasts that were often members of photography clubs. As the years went on and technologies improved, people needed less and less knowledge and skill with cameras to take quality photographs and the camera began to be marketed to the masses. – Jack Sweetak

“The distinction between amateurs and snapshooters is held to be that, whereas the former devote most of their photography to making pictures that they and hopefully others will admire, the snapshooter’s aim goes no further than recording family, friends, places, and events” (Bennett,140). It is interesting to compare the roles of amateurs and snapshooters to the various roles of today’s photographers. There are foodies, selfies, models, naturalists, influencers, and many more that utilise photography to portray their life experiences and interests. It is also intriguing to note that since the emergence of the camera, human society has used it to further define what these life experiences and interests can be. For example, “Did I really visit Paris, eat a baguette, and fall in love if I don’t post a picture of the Eiffel Tower on Instagram?” Or, “What should I wear out and order to eat that will photograph well?” Humans characterise photography nowadays as a social tool and it is simply remarkable to see this evolution and how cameras and social media influence and shape one another. - Dillyn Scott

35mm film format revolutionized the photographic experience, it allowed average amateurs to take pictures. The enthusiast market exploded as well as color photography was introduced to 35mm film, it allowed for greater manipulation of pictures. The article was written in the 1980s but even today there is a vibrant community of film photography enthusiasts who use those same cameras from decades ago. Black-and-white photography still has its place in the photography community for individuals who shoot film, as it can be more forgiving, but many film enthusiasts still use color even films like the Kodachrome. -John Liberty

I thought it was really interesting to read about the different processes of actually developing the film. I never before had read or learned what actually went into the process. The transformation over time shows the different processes and what ones worked and were kept. Also learning about going from black and white to color was really cool to read. I think even now black and white movies seem more interesting to me simply because it feels like it puts you back in time. Overall I really enjoyed reading and learning about these processes and films. -Tory Martin

It was interesting to see throughout the reading just how much people at the time thought colour photography was going to shape society as Alfred Stieglitz said, “people will go color mad.”(130) While the text does concede that 'color madness' did not occur, the impact of commercially viable, mass-market, color photography on society is undoubtedly giving definition and fidelity to a world previously seen only in black and white and tones of sephia. -Cameron Wills

The transition from homemade food, in terms of gathering and preparation, to the industrialization and processing of food gave birth to women fulfilling a gender role of the cook, (apart of the homemaker archetype), in the early twentieth century. I cannot help but wonder how a woman’s role in the kitchen changed from the early 1900s to what we see today, which are less homemakers and more corporate workers. Are social changes, such as feminism and the independent woman or technology, such as microwavable and fast foods more responsible for this? What exactly has blurred the line of having a modern, predominant gender role perform kitchen work? (–Nate Stringer)

I think it's interesting that women were the primary ones making dairy products including cheese and then it was taken over and perfected by a man. Cheese was then made by factory where 1% of cheese was not made in a factory. When the war came around the factory working men left and they really asked if it was a feasible solution to hire woman… they were making cheese before men were. It really just baffles me to see the discrimination of women and thinking that they are so much less than men in their work ethic, in their intelligence, in their worth of salary, and their worth of skill. Men were getting paid ~$20+ more than women to do the same job, same amount of work, and same hours. I think the best line was “A woman is out of place working in a creamery as women were intended by the Creator to make a home for men” (pg. 172) and unfortunately bringing God into any statement at that period of time made their case so much stronger because religion was important. I sometimes wonder if we ruin our would so much that factories are no longer an option and homemade products are the only source available, would the human race be able to survive and revert to the days before technology? – Claire Starke

This reading reminds us that there is still unequal gender roles in our society today. When the men went to war, the companies had to question if allowing women to work in their place would be the right thing to do even though the women have been making cheese in their farms way before the men have. The women who took the men's jobs were paid 20 dollars less than the men who previously had the jobs. This also reminds us that even in today's society, this discrimination of payment between women and men who have the same jobs still occurs today in many situations. I think that this needs to change because is has been happening for far too long in our society. - Kevin Bach

I found it interesting that in 1917 advertisers started to focus on one of a father-daughter relationship. The advertisements told fathers they could keep their daughters on the farms if they provided them with labor-saving devices. To go even further a Ford ad that was aimed towards men for tractors catered to their concerns of their daughters, by implying that if they owned a ford tractor they would be a better father because they would be less tired. This movement went on further to say that daughters would like the farm more if they had these tools and would thus be more willing to stay. I find it interesting and kind of smart to use daughters as a marketing campaign to specifically cater to fathers. I think fathers would be more inclined to help their daughters than their wives because their daughters are their offspring. – Erin Madden

As a society, we are constantly reminded of the presence of gender roles and our attempts to lessen them, but I have personally never thought about the aspects that caused the gender gap to widen in the first place. One would think technology would ease the work-load, but it simply brought about both higher expectations and standards for women to run their households because of the increasing efficiency of labor. -Meghan McDonagh

The Bell System was a system that was with the “Civil Rights” movement in a way that limited the employment of African Americans, created shop-floor implementation of policies adopted b company executives and government agencies, and Union leaders and individuals who were viewing black women as others and outsiders by attacking them because they were black even though they were women that needed the protection at the time. This chapter had me thinking about the fact that even though people were against the new technology that was coming, the telephone workers worked in extremely stressful conditions that lead to resisting and coping. – Hunter Dykhuis

“Some Notes on Vocational Guidance”-J.A.L. Waddell

Some of the ideas that Waddell brings up seem laughable now, but were actual issues being faced by the professional arena. For example, the almost extensional questions of whether or not a form of testing people's skills that wanted to become engineers was even possible. The list of questions to ask yourself, as a person pursuing or wishing to pursue engineering, felt vague and unhelpful. I, personally, liked the question about historical figures that inspire you. The most interesting concept that Waddell brings up is the idea that after someone receives their education for engineering, they should pursue a senior professional and follow them! That definitely has echoes of the apprenticeship style of teaching from the 18th century. -Kim E.