Thursday, August 31, 2017

Oldest Surviving Photograph of a US President

John Quincy Adams

As reported in a Smithsonian article, the oldest photograph of a US president has been found and is set to go on auction October 5th. The photograph is a 174 year old portrait of John Quincy Adams that was taken in March of 1843 in Washington DC. Photography had only risen a few years before this portrait was taken.

The estimated sale price of this piece is between $150,000 and $250,000. This photograph is representative of the first publicly available photographic process, the daguerreotype. This process was invented in 1839 and involved using an iodine sensitized silver plate and mercury vapor. Photographs produced by this were described as being accurate, detailed, and sharp. Daguerreotypes were extremely expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to have their portraits taken, however there are records of them being used for other types of photography as well. This just goes to exemplify the leaps that photography has made in fairly recent history.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-original-photo-us-president-be-auctioned-180964565/

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Surf Photography

On a recent trip to the North Shore of Oahu, I ran across a small photography shop that really caught my eye. Clark Little is a photographer that focused his practice on shorebreak images. After looking around the shop I realized what a unique perspective he was capturing.

By using a waterproof camera he is able to take images of the waves from the inside out. This was a concept in photography that I had not previously contemplated in the past. The aspects of the images that really gathered my attention was how he was able to capture that sand, water, and light that was being reflected through the waves in a variety of different ways.

Clark Little is a award winning photographer that first made his name as a surfer in the 1980's and '90s and then began taking pictures in 2007. He's won numerous awards with one of the most notable being the Nature's Best Photography's Ocean Photography Award. He's also made appearances on Good Morning America and The Discovery Channel, as well as having his art displayed in the Smithsonian Museum.



https://clarklittlephotography.com/