Paper Photography: American Scene
By 1860, inexpensive paper photographs were being produced in volume for a mass public who sought portraits of celebrities, public events and scenic views.
During the 1860s and 1870s, photography was a witness to most aspects of American culture. The camera captured the rapid advances of the age: engineering achievements, the birth of the modern railroad, the documentation of college life, astronomy and medicine.
The photographer also experimented with the photographic process itself and experimented with manipulations to produce spirit photography and trick photography.
The exhibition also features 3-D stereographic images and cartes-de-visite. While these relatively small images have received little attention as works of art, they were some of the most popular and widely circulated of the period. The parlor stereoviewer was, in essence, the television of its day—a means of bringing virtual images of the larger world into the living room.
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Joseph P. Babbitt, b. 1830 |
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Jeremiah Gurney, 1812-1886 |
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Prescott & Gage, act. 1860s |
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Unknown, |
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Unknown, |
