Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Hi all,

I am one of THOSE people... I like old cameras and have a collection in my office- 50 of them, in fact. I teach photography and photojournalism at a college and I use these cameras as a way to illustrate the history that surrounded them at the time they were made. It is kind of amazing to see all the student's reaction to holding a relic of history (for example, the Russian copies of the Leica that was designed as the 1938 Olympic model that was given to Athletes). The story is fascinating and revolves around World War II. This is how I explain the historical aspects of photography. The first class of the semester, I also have a "camera time line" that has a camera from the 1890's through 2020- one for every 10 years, so that the students can appreciate the progress that the art has made over 130 years.

I am writing here because I am searching for new ways to do things and new ideas that I can use to further interest my students in the historical and technical aspects of photography? If you have any ideas, I would love to read about them. Nothing is too big or too small. All ideas welcome. So, if you have something that was memorable to you, please share here. It may help others who are teaching as well and again is greatly appreciated.

Cordially,

Mark Lent
Associate Professor
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Suzhou City, Jiangsu Provence,
People's Republic of China

Burtzy Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA

You might make mention...and maybe you already have...of the fact that in the original Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's light saber was actually a Graflex flash bulb holder from a 4X5 Speed or Crown Graphic press camera, without the reflector on it. The effect of making the saber's light came from a wooden dowel, wrapped in highly reflective 3M Scotchlite tape and placed in the flash bulb socket of the holder. When the gadget was turned to face a light source, it created a bright line for the movie's animation department to do what was called rotoscoping...in this case, drawing a glow around it, frame-by-frame. When the general public became aware of how the effect was created, the price of used Graflex flash holders soared astronomically.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

If you could get your hands on a couple of functioning 4x5 view cameras, light meters, and and accessories, and have them work in teams learning to take photos with those (if you have access to film and processing or better yet a darkroom) - THAT would teach them photography but also an appreciation like nothing else of where we are at today.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

You might mention how photojournalistic “fake news” (not in today’s hyperbolic sense) has helped shape history such as the fact that many of Mathew Brady’s civil war photographs of dead soldiers were staged, and that the famous Life Magazine photo of the flag raising at Iwo Jima was staged many times and not a spontaneous act caught by an attentive journalist. These are relatively benign examples of propaganda that the camera helped foment. In today’s world of digital manipulation the sky’s the limit.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Really?

ELNikkor

If there is any way to set up a B&W darkroom, you could actually have the students use some of those early cameras, learning the analog way photography was done.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

Besides the timeline of vintage cameras, dating as far back as your collection allows, why not also create a timeline of the way processing analog photos evolved over the years: daguerreotype to modern chemical methods, followed up by the evolution of digital processing. You may have already done this, but your original post seemed to concentrate on hardware.

medphotog Loc: Witness protection land

Uh? Where in the wide, wide world of sports did you get your information? Brady hired photographers and put his name to their work. Namely Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan. Both of them left Brady's employ before the wars end. They were the culprits behind the "Harvest of Death" rearrangement and O'Sullivan did a masterful job with the sharpshooter at Devil's Den. One has to think if you're pictching the horrors of war sitting around a tent just doesn't cut it. There was some great non staged documentation though. O'Sullivan's “Council of War” at Massaponax Church is considered on of the first photojournalistic set of images.

Now, about the flag raising... I've never read about the flag having a redo. Yes there were two flags a little one that was first raised and photographed after the fact by Sgt. Louis Lowery a Marine photographer for Leatherneck Magazine. Then the second, more famous one by Joe Rosenthal and filmed by Sergeant Bill Genaust. Incidentally, just before the flag went up Bill was chatting with Joe about being in the way and they both almost missed it because it went up without much fanfare.

I'd suggest speaking about the controversy over Robert Capa's "Falling Soldier" photo. Current thinking it was also staged. Let's not go into National Geographic moving the pyramids on the cover of their magazine.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

I may have misinterpreted a documentary I once saw where it explains how the more famous photograph we are all familiar with was actually a second flag raising staged later that day because the first flag was deemed too small and couldn’t be seen off shore.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

Let's not go into National Geographic moving the pyramids on the cover of their magazine.[/quote]
The famous pyramid photo was originally a horizontal image. Nat Geo editors cropped it to a vertical image to fit the magazine cover. The cropping necessitated the change in spatial orientation. Less widely known is that the photographer, Gordon Gaian, supposedly “staged” the photo by paying the camel drivers to walk across the scene again in order to get a better composition.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Neither, just not introducing political/philosophy views into a photography forum...
There are other places for politics.
So, what do you think would happen if a photography teacher started spouting political views there?

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You might want to show photographs of the civil right demonstrations in the US in the 60's. The photos were important in moving public opinion to supporting civil rights registration. more than written articles could.

Bill 45

Hey everyone back off. Mark is asking for help in teaching photography. If you can't help don't reply.

BebuLamar

I personally try my best not to buy anything from China but it's not always possible. However, it's off topic. The OP is teaching in China but he is not responsible for what happens there.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I don't see why any of this belongs in a lesson on the history of photography. As a student, I would walk out if the instructor starting blabbering on and on like this instead of teaching about what is really relevant to photography.