After reading this article I have to say that our generation is beyond spoiled. Rather than fully devote all of my time to this blog assignment I've been distracted by my awesome iPhone which happens to take way cooler pictures than poor Fenton would ever have been able to accomplish. He certainly didn't have the latest application that I've obtained: the Hipstamatic. And it's not that he didn't have the necessary skills or talent, he merely was without the amenities that are available to us now. With that being said I have to point out how fortunate we are that we even have any sort of pictorial documentation of past events no matter how poor the quality.
It is only because of the recent exposure to Tennyson and his "Light Brigade" work that I'm even familiar to the disastrous events that took place. It's fascinating to partner up the history with the art work and photographs that are available. It makes everything seem more real, even though a lot of the pieces are staged. The Houston article we read states:
"The Crimean war is today less compelling,and the generic conventions
Fenton used to naturalize the scenes of war seem contrived or empty.
The very conventions that make these photographs difficult for us to
read were,however,what made them appealing to a Victorian audience
that desired to possess history."
I have to say that I agree, contrived could certainly be used to describe some of the photographs, but empty...no way. There's something beautiful in the staging of the works. Both the photographer and the subjects new that they were documenting history and for them to have taken the time to create the picturesque representation of the events is pretty profound and overwhelmingly important. Through these photos we don't get a play by play of the Crimean War but we do get to see who was involved.
Check out these proud subjects for instance:
I think these photos capture what Houston meant when she claimed "Victorian audiences understood it[photograph] as primarily truthful and documentary" and photos began to take the role of "souvenirs" which hasn't changed much. We take photos today to keep as souvenirs and documentation only now technology makes things much more accessible. I must mention that as morbid as it would be to see pictures of dead people I think it should have been included in Fenton's paid work. It would help people understand the impact of the Crimean War plus it would appease my naturally perverse sense of curiosity.
It is only because of the recent exposure to Tennyson and his "Light Brigade" work that I'm even familiar to the disastrous events that took place. It's fascinating to partner up the history with the art work and photographs that are available. It makes everything seem more real, even though a lot of the pieces are staged. The Houston article we read states:
"The Crimean war is today less compelling,and the generic conventions
Fenton used to naturalize the scenes of war seem contrived or empty.
The very conventions that make these photographs difficult for us to
read were,however,what made them appealing to a Victorian audience
that desired to possess history."
I have to say that I agree, contrived could certainly be used to describe some of the photographs, but empty...no way. There's something beautiful in the staging of the works. Both the photographer and the subjects new that they were documenting history and for them to have taken the time to create the picturesque representation of the events is pretty profound and overwhelmingly important. Through these photos we don't get a play by play of the Crimean War but we do get to see who was involved.
Check out these proud subjects for instance:
I think these photos capture what Houston meant when she claimed "Victorian audiences understood it[photograph] as primarily truthful and documentary" and photos began to take the role of "souvenirs" which hasn't changed much. We take photos today to keep as souvenirs and documentation only now technology makes things much more accessible. I must mention that as morbid as it would be to see pictures of dead people I think it should have been included in Fenton's paid work. It would help people understand the impact of the Crimean War plus it would appease my naturally perverse sense of curiosity.
Check out my hipstamatic photos, they certainly aren't as important as war documentation but they are pretty sweet regardless of their lack of historical content. I like to think of these as souvenirs from my day today, it sounds nice.
I have evaluated blog posts and written a summative comment on the course blog: http://academicsandbox.com/E372blog/
ReplyDeleteI like how there is a TON of extra space to scroll through after your picture but before the comment line..haha..nice pics!
ReplyDeleteIt really isn't much different than today. The people who collected these photos are similar to the media that we see today...often those are staged to promote certain agendas. We only get to see snippets of war footage, and they aren't allowed to show dead people either (for the most part). These photos were not an accurate portrayal of the Crimean war, but how accurate are the news strips we see on TV today?
ReplyDelete