Chapters 8 and 9 Presentation

385 Pages·2012·37.33 MB·English

Part 4
A New Vision
(1918-1945)
Changes in Photography & Technology,
1918-1945

• Common use of Leica & Contax cameras using 35mm film, with
increased sensitivity to light (faster exposure time)

• Magnesium flash power replaced by safe flashbulb (1925)

• “candid photography” more popular

• Electrification of life in general (In the U.S. by 1920, 10 mil cars,
7.5 mil telephones, radios in many homes)

• Rotogravure process (printing photos with text)

• Motion pictures popular from 1920s; newsreels shown before
feature films from 1935 on
Mass Media and photography (1918-1945)
• Newspapers and magazines becoming main sources of photographers’
income; photo editors influencing public taste

• Competition from radios makes visual (photos) more critical to success
of newspapers

• As modern life becomes more hectic, readers want shorter articles with
more photos

• Tabloid newspapers (crime, disasters, celebrities)

• Dynamic action photos

• “candid photography” & behind-the-scenes photography more popular,
suggests truth

• Photo transmission systems by late 1920s ; improved, cheaper system
by Associated Press Wire by 1935

• Fashion and society photos popular
Chapter 8
Art and the Mass Media
• “The mark of our age is haste, hurry,
nervousness…People have no time, indeed
they flee the calm of contemplation.”

-Edlef Koppen, German editor and radio personality, 1925
• Belief that biologically humans may
have a limited capacity to deal with all
the media exposure and technological
advances

• And that media could alter the
individual’s perception of the world
Martin Munkacsi. Cover of Berliner….

public taste for dynamic ,

split-second action scenes.
Tabloid photographs:
Execution of Ruth Snyder, 1928,
by Tom Howard’s ankle camera
Candid photo at the Hague Conference,
March 1930. Erich Salomon.
Happened Friday, May 6, 1937;
wired to newspapers around the
country for the morning paper,
May 7.