Let me put in a few words about fixing our past. No, not like psychoanalysts, who usually fixate on something anal, but about photographic pictures and other light marks on reacting surfaces.
Somehow it took root in our minds that until the 30s (this is in mine, it happens with others), it was easier for people to order their statue from a sculptor than to endure a photo session with a photographer.
Many people still think that in those years, in order to get one frame on film, it was necessary to endure the painful procedure of standing upright, desirable shortness of breath and absolute non-blinking. After such an execution, a person who dared to make his portrait could only be moved on a stretcher, due to the general numbness of organs and muscles.
As proof, they show photographs taken at the turn of the century, where the expression on people's faces is as if they were dragged there by force and tortured in every possible way before shooting.
And you really can't look without tears. And when they even begin to show you the devices that helped the sufferers to hold on and not faint from fatigue, then, being at that time, many would stay at a respectable distance from the photo studio and sprinkle holy water on every advertising sign with a proposal to immortalize themselves.
Promotional video:
Hmm … To immortalize, maim, mutilate … Something pulled into the cemetery. But, let's leave the torture chamber alone. In the end we will return.
And now, having heard enough of such stories, about the allegedly long exposure of imperfect light-sensitive coatings, all as one I start laughing when they are shown photographs of empty cities, late 19th early 20th century.
By the way, I was also never particularly interested in these empty photographs, especially of St. Petersburg, because having relations with the entertainment industry, from childhood I remember the deserted streets and banks of the Neva at 3-3.30 in the morning, when the bridges had not yet been brought together, all normal people were asleep, and it is already light outside from May to August. And even the sun shines in June.
By the way, I was also never particularly interested in these empty photographs, especially of St. Petersburg, because having relations with the entertainment industry, from childhood I remember the deserted streets and banks of the Neva at 3-3.30 in the morning, when the bridges had not yet been brought together, all normal people were asleep, and it is already light outside from May to August. And even the sun shines in June.
They begin to condescend to talk about ten - fifteen - half-hour exposures to obtain such pictures. At the same time, people are absolutely sure that they are right. Indeed, it is true that only the stone idol will be clearly visible in the photograph if the rays have burned it for 15 minutes.
The catch here is, as always, in underestimating the possibilities of the 19th century. It should be noted here that it could not arise spontaneously. You don't wake up with the pressing problems of 1887, do you? This means that the impression of photographic backwardness was imposed on you from the outside. From where, remember for yourself.
And I think I can convince you that everything was fine with the fixation of moving objects, much earlier than the end of the 19th century.
1886 Uniformed officers in riding boots walk down a street.
You can, of course, say that the officers are people of servitude. They will be ordered to, and they can stand on one leg for half a day.
Nov. 6, 1884 Crowds of men outside the New York Tribune building in lower Manhattan.
And then there are skeptics with objections, like, yes, this is a stupid production! What haven't you heard of Hollywood?
Well, then we are waiting for insights about a gentleman tied on strings.
Oct. 14, 1886 Mr. Stokes jumps off a wall in Fort Greene Park.
A family of circus performers from an early age on the ropes.
May 22, 1886 Girls jump off a stone wall in Fort Greene.
And an elephant, accompanied by a crowd, children and frozen foliage for half an hour.
June 1, 1891 An elephant from the Barnes Circus walks down Atlantic Street in Brooklyn.
In general, you get the idea. Movement and running and jumping and swimming were easily removed. They would have removed it for years, but the Wright brothers are late.
Then I will lay out in a group more different pitchforks jumping, running and turning your views on the possibilities of 19th century photographers, people.
Well, come on, photographers. Do not forget that moving pictures in the literal sense of the word (according to the present GIFs) were made even earlier.
A series of shots, then a drawing, and here you have a "magic lantern" that projects this onto the guests who are groaning with surprise.
The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge: The horse Sallie Gardner, owned by Leland Stanford, running at a 1:40 pace over the Palo Alto track, 19 June 1878. Frames 1-11 used for animation; frame 12 not used.
We here cannot decide how to catch birds from a twenty-meter ladder with a net, and in 1878, people simply ran after a pigeon with a flash of magnesium. Probably bouncing, with every flap of his wings, so as not to lose height!
And, this "mastodon" was assembled today, but from spare parts of the same Eadweard Muybridge of the nineteenth century.
He himself apparently loved only horses. I removed this from the binge by confusing it.
And I think you can put a fat point in the 19th century lack of fixation technique of the image by looking at the moon, through the eyes of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd American with such numbers on the grave 1816-1892.
But he was not even a professional photographer.
The Moon, New York, January 8, 1865, January 8, 1865:
But the problem, of course, is not that people of that time could easily take selfies and post them on a notice board in front of the mayor's office of their area.
The question goes a little deeper. And shorter! If everyone could shoot lunar bases, then why is the entire documented history of the late 19th century represented by engravings, drawings and drawings of varying degrees of clumsy?
You have a war, and you chirp a sketch with a notepad, dodging bullets. Your tsar or president meets with the heads of state, and invites a man with an easel, while apparently the other photographers are terribly busy aiming their lens at a dove flying about.
Here, even without being a conspiracy theorist, schizophrenic and hereditary paranoid, you can easily suspect someone's hand wishing to retouch something that you did not want to send to the future. Namely …. EVERYTHING!
Good evening! Think about it when you find five minutes of free time between being horribly mechanical. Even if this is the development of a strategy for conquering the world through know-how using components unknown to science, it is still a mechanical work that does not require intelligence. (it is clear that with such an ornate name I drew an analogy with ANY work, employment, hobby, etc?)
Just as the brain cannot show you in a dream a face that you have not seen in life, so you and it together cannot come up with anything that would no longer exist in this world.
PS
Sorry, I forgot about the photos at the beginning of the article. There were terrible people there.
Yes you are right! They are dead! As well as these (look under your feet):
Everything would be fine if it was a fashionable fun to photograph deceased relatives as a keepsake, as in the case of photos in the beginning.
It's creepy that most of the historical characters are presented in the same form, from the same, not very living bodies.
I don’t know how they were later assigned to positions in textbooks. Do you think photogenicity played a role?