Mathew Brady studio portraits - Brady, whose studio was on Broadway, just a couple blocks from Pratt Manhattan, was selling more his brand than work by a specific artists. Much like he does some 20 or so years later with documenting the Civil War, Brady he employs "operators" to take portraits in his studio and/or buys prints from others to attach his name to.
Southworth and Hawes, a scientist and artist collaborative effort, promise real artistry with no work by operators. Take notice of their non traditional portrait poses and use of light and shadow.
Text from
Talbot's "Pencil of Nature"
"The chief object of the present work is to place on record some of the early beginnings of a new art, before the period, which we trust is approaching, of its being brought to maturity by the aid of British talent.
This is one of the trifling efforts of its infancy, which some partial friends have been kind enough to commend.
We have sufficient authority in the Dutch school of art, for taking as subjects of representation scenes of daily and familiar occurrence. A painter’s eye will often be arrested where ordinary people see nothing remarkable. A casual gleam of sunshine, or a shadow thrown across his path, a time-withered oak, or a moss-covered stone may awaken a train of thoughts and feelings, and picturesque imaginings."
Some more photos by Maxime Du Camp to accompany your reading.
More photos by Henri Le Secq to accompany reading. Please take a look at use of negative space, repeating shape and pattern and how it is dispersed throughout the frame, and in this image, the deliberate inclusion of the wheel barrel for purpose of proportion and possibly a statement of the changing times.
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