Baldwin G. Looking At Photographs: A Guide To Technical Terms

J. Paul Getty Museum, 1991. — 92 p.The purpose of this book is Lo provide a series of concise explanations of the terms most frequently used by curators, collectors, and historians to deal with the phenomenon called photography. As this book is intended for someone actually looking at photographs, the list of terms has been limited to those likely to appear on descriptive labels in exhibitions or in catalogue entries.From its origins al the end of the 1830s, photography has never ceased to evolve both aesthetically and technologically. For example, judging by their lellers to the periodicals of the 1850s, individual photographers consistently modified both the chemical formulae and the physical manipulations required to produce negatives and prints. They also redesigned and altered their cameras and lenses. Early photographers introduced these modifications for a variety or reasons, but principally to improve the ellicacy of the chemical reactions involved or to produce a variety of visual results that were governed by aesthetic choices.