Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Medley of Choice Old Prints (Gelatin - Albumen - Carbon)

Eugène Constant
Monte Cavallo, Rome
ca. 1848-52
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eugène Constant
Pantheon, Rome
ca. 1848-52
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eugène Constant
Piazza del Popolo, Rome
ca. 1848-52
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eugène Constant
S. Giovanni Laterano, Rome
ca. 1848-52
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Philip Henry Delamotte
Crystal Palace storeroom with artisans and plaster casts
1852
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Philip Henry Delamotte
Crystal Palace upper gallery, as reconstructed at Sydenham
1854
gelatin silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Franck
Canal St Martin, Paris
1860
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Definition of Blue

The rise of capitalism parallels the advance of romanticism
And the individual is dominant until the close of the nineteenth century.
In our own time, mass practices have sought to submerge the personality
By ignoring it, which has caused it instead to branch out in all directions
Far from the permanent tug that used to be its notion of "home."
These different impetuses are received from everywhere
And are as instantly snapped back, hitting through the cold atmosphere
In one steady, intense line.

There is no remedy for this "packaging" which has supplanted the old sensations.
Formerly there would have been architectural screens at the point where the action
        became most difficult
As a path trails off into shrubbery – confusing, forgotten, yet continuing to exist.
But today there is no point in looking to imaginative new methods
Since all of them are in constant use. The most that can be said for them further
Is that erosion produces a kind of dust or exaggerated pumice
Which fills space and transforms it, becoming a medium
In which it is possible to recognize oneself.

Each new diversion adds its accurate touch to the ensemble, and so
A portrait, smooth as glass, is built up out of multiple corrections
And it has no relation to the space or time in which it was lived.
Only its existence is a part of all being, and is therefore, I suppose, to be prized
Beyond chasms of night that fight us
By being hidden and present.

And yet it results in a downward motion, or rather a floating one
In which the blue surroundings drift slowly up and past you
To realize themselves some day, while you, in this nether world that could not be better
Waken each morning to the exact value of what you did and said, which remains.

– John Ashbery, from The Double Dream of Spring (E.P. Dutton, 1970)

Franck
Colonne Vendôme, Paris (pulled down by Communards)
1871
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Charles Soulier
Grande Salle du Conseil d'Etat, Palais d'Orsay (burned by Communards)
1871
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Charles Soulier
Maisons de la porte d'Auteuil
1871
albumen silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Harrison
Forêt de Fontainebleau
ca. 1870-80
carbon print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ottomar Anschütz
Horse
1884
albumen silver print
(grid added by later owner, muralist Josep Maria Sert)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Baron Adolf de Meyer
Blossoming Cherry Trees, Japan
1900
carbon print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eugène Atget
Fontaine, Sceaux
ca. 1921
gelatin silver print from glass negative
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York