https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaZygCK3Ir4
PWT 29-2018 COPERNICAN ARMILLARY SPHERE : CONJONCTION OF PORTRAITS
Copernican Armillary Sphere (France, circa 1840)
This Daguerrian portrait (circle of Robert Cornelius, Philadelphia, circa 1840)
Quarter plate daguerreotype (circle of Johhn Draper, New York, circa 1840)
La Galerie du Palace invited French artist Lyes Hammadouche. Please come and visit his installation. The conjonction of rare daguerrian portraits from Europe and the Americas meet with the conjonction of planets of a vintage armil.
Planétaire copernicien (Copernican Armillary Sphere), France, circa 1840
The portrait session was a real adventure and often a unique event in each period of life (with the notable exception of the artists’ families). Some models have dramatically thwarted the operator’s efforts to capture the decisive moment.
Early daguerreian portrait of three children (Philadelphia, circa 1843)
Sixth plate daguerreotype (W. V. Prentice, Savannah, Georgia, circa 1855)
PWT 29-2018 COPERNICAN ARMILLARY SPHERE – CONJONCTION OF PORTRAITS
26.07.2018 PWT 28-2018 LES SEPT PÉCHÉS CAPITAUX (SEVEN DEADLY SINS)
Avant Thomas d’Aquin, Evagre le Pontique énumère les idées concupiscibles et irascibles qui donneront les intitulés des sept péchés capitaux :
Gourmandise, criminels identifiés par des morsures gourmandes
Avarice, les accumulations de Landru
Luxure, 20 000 femmes tondues lors de l’épuration à la Libération
Paresse, jarretelles tatouées sur des mollets poilus
Colère, affaire Secula, couteau de vannier
Envie, une bande de dévaliseurs de boutiques
Orgueil, Paul Ferdonnet, autoportrait ithyphallique
(Paul Ferdonnet, rédacteur des bulletins de Radio Humanité, 1939)
PWT 28-2018 Seven Deadly Sins
19.07.2018 P. Weekly Transmission 27-2018 presents: Giacomo Caneva, the Roman School of Photography and the early history of photography in China
Giacomo Caneva was born at Padua on the 4th of July 1813 of Giuseppe Caneva and Anna Pavan. There were four other children, Antonio, Giovanni, Camillo and Teresa, who died as a child. The father was well-to-do, and was the owner of the “Albergo al Principe Carlo” in Prato della Valle. Caneva left Padua on the 12th of November 1834 to register at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti at Venice (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) where, in particular, he followed the School of the Perspective of Tranquillo Orsi. Here he qualified as a “perspective painter” and widened his knowledge of the camera obscura, which he used in his paintings.
In 1840, Caneva moved to Rome with Giuseppe Jappelli (1783-1851), called by Prince Alessandro Torlonia for the arrangement of greenery in the southern area of Villa Torlonia in Rome…
12.07.2018 PWT 26-2018 History of Political Party Funding : The 1907 Tiflis Bank Robbery
The 1907 Tiflis Bank Robbery, also known as the Yerevan Square Expropriation was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907 in the city of Tiflis in the Tiflis Governorate in the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire (now Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi). A bank cash shipment was stolen by Bolsheviks to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach and surrounding police and military using bombs and guns while the stagecoach was transporting money through Yerevan Square (now Freedom Square) between the post office and the Tiflis branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire. The attack killed forty people and injured fifty others, according to official archive documents. The robbers escaped with 341,000 rubles (equivalent to around US 3.86 million in 2017).
The robbery was organized by a number of top-level Bolsheviks, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Maxim Litvinov, Leonid Krasin, and Alexander Bogdanov, and executed by a party of revolutionaries led by Stalin’s early associate Ter-Petrosian (Kamo).
The RSDLP, the predecessor to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was formed in 1898. The goal of the RSDLP was to carry out a Marxist proletarian revolution against the Russian Empire. As part of their revolutionary activity, the RSDLP and other revolutionary groups (such as anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries) practised a range of militant operations, including “expropriations”, a euphemism for armed robberies of government or private funds to support revolutionary activities.
PWT 26-2018 TIFLIS UNDER THE RAIN
28.06.18 PWT 25-2018 CHINESE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY : MYSTERIOUS MARSHALL MILTON MILLER
Mysterious Marshall Milton Miller
“Miller is becoming increasingly recognised as one of the key figures in early Chinese photography, even though almost nothing is known about him or his career. Although little of his landscape work has yet been identified. the genre portraits he took are celebrated for their often jarring intensity and also for the apparent empathy he felt for his Chinese sitters …” (Encyclopedia of 19th Century Photography)
“Thanks to Terry Bennett’s archival research, we now know that Milton Miller, also known as Marshall M. Miller, was born in Dummerston, Vermont, in 1830. After he died in 1899, an obituary in the Vermont Phoenix provided information about his life before and after his commercial adventure in China from 1860 to 1863. ” (Wu Hung, Zooming In: Histories of Photography in China)
PWT 25-2018 CHINESE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY. MILTON MILLER
21.06.2018 PWT 21-2018. Le Dilemme du gendarme : Les Encombrants Voyageurs
Le Dilemme du prisonnier et le dilemme du gendarme
“Le dilemme du prisonnier, énoncé en 1950 par Albert W. Tucker à Princeton, caractérise en théorie des jeux une situation où deux joueurs auraient intérêt à coopérer, mais où, en l’absence de communication entre les deux joueurs, chacun choisira de trahir l’autre si le jeu n’est joué qu’une fois. La raison est que si l’un coopère et que l’autre trahit, le coopérateur est fortement pénalisé. Pourtant, si les deux joueurs trahissent, le résultat leur est moins favorable que si les deux avaient choisi de coopérer.
Le dilemme du prisonnier est souvent évoqué dans des domaines comme l’économie, la biologie, la politique internationale, la psychologie, le traitement médiatique de la rumeur, et même l’émergence de règles morales dans des communautés.
Il a donné naissance à des jeux d’économie expérimentale testant la rationalité économique des joueurs et leur capacité à identifier l’équilibre de Nash d’un jeu.” (Wikipedia)
Riondel. “Tzigane retenu prisonnier à Moillesulaz, il défend à un journaliste de la photographier”. Frontière Franco-Suisse, 1906. Épreuve aristotype d’époque, 78×103 mm, légendée et créditée au crayon au verso
PWT 24-2018 Encombrants voyageurs
14.06.2018 PWT 23-2018 Who Are You, M. Giroux?
Weekly transmission 23-2018 presents:
31.05.2018 PWT 22-2018 SILLY SILHOUETTE OF LA FAYETTE
“After the forming of the National Constituent Assembly, LaFayette helped write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, with Thomas Jefferson’s assistance; inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence, this document invoked natural law to establish basic principles of the democratic nation-state. In keeping with the philosophy of natural liberty, Lafayette also advocated for the end of slavery.
After the storming of the Bastille, Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the National Guard and tried to steer a middle course through the French Revolution…
As leader of the National Guard, Lafayette attempted to maintain order and steer a middle ground, even as the radicals gained increasing influence…”
La Fayette et Mme de Staël – à propos d’une correspondance inédite
La popularité de La Fayette est depuis quelques années en recrudescence, mais c’est à l’Amérique qu’il le doit…”
((Paul-Gabriel Othenin de Cléron, comte d’Haussonville, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1921)
Texte integral en ligne : https://fr.m.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Fayette_et_Madame_de_Staël
PWT 22-2018 Lafayette Nous Voila
AH ! ÇA IRA, ÇA IRA, ÇA IRA ! Edith Piaf singing (Youtube) :
27.05.2018 You could not crash in the party last Saturday ? … Please join us at Bloomsbury Holyday Inn next Sunday
“… and so, at last, to the festivities of today, when Markle was hitched to her true love—her true true love, forever and ever—at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Third time lucky. The heavens above were of an unfamiliar blue. Ever since Elizabeth II was crowned under soaking skies, the pact between good news and bad weather has been a matter of national pride, yet here we were, suffused with warmth—an event so rare that it was greeted by Amal Clooney in a dress of liquefied sunshine. Her husband’s suit, to judge by its tint of shimmering gray, had been woven from the same material as his beard. Oprah Winfrey was in pink and continued to radiate satisfaction, despite the fact that, having turned up promptly at a quarter to ten, she had to occupy her spot in the knights’ stalls of the chapel (not the coziest of perches) for two and a quarter hours before the main event. So contagious were “the atmospherics,” as one member of the palace staff described them, that even Victoria Beckham was affected. She didn’t actually smile, but there were several moments when it looked as if she might.
The surrounding mood was of a buoyancy not seen since the London Olympics in 2012. Ordinary citizens initiated conversations of their own free will rather than, as custom dictates, either waiting for their dogs to sniff each other or deciding not to speak at all. More than two thousand members of the public had been invited onto the castle grounds and were guaranteed a clear view of the proceedings. The invitation was, in part, a vote of thanks for services rendered. One such guest, Helen Mack, had worked in the hospice movement for thirty years, providing care for the terminally ill; another spectator, Cavita Chapman, is not only a senior manager in the treatment of mental health—a cause to which Harry has lent outspoken support—but, as I learned, an expert on the insanely complex plot of “Suits.” Chapman was crisp in her assessment of the real-life couple, expecting great things of Meghan (“She’s a feminist”) and the Prince—“Harry’s always been, you know, ‘Why not?’ ” Put together, Chapman said, “Both of them will change the world.”(Anthony Lane, The New Yorker) Read more »
Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811-1889)
Windsor Castle and Town Skyline, 1851
Salt paper print from an albumen glass negative
JOIN US AT THE LONDON PHOTOGRAPH FAIR – THIS SUNDAY!
27th May 2018, 10am – 4pm
ABOUT
With thousands of rare, unique and unusual finds at every event, The London Photograph Fair is the meeting place for vintage photography dealers, collectors, curators and connoisseurs – since 1982
LOCATION & TIMES
Venue: Bloomsbury Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London WC1N 1HT
Date & Hours: Sunday 27th May 2018, 10am – 4pm
TUBE
Russell Square (1 min walk) / St. Pancras Station (7-10 min walk)
10.05.2018 PWT 19-2018 THE KING WHO WOULD BE A MAN
06.05.2018 PWT 18-2018 Port Famine, A Tragedy Without Pictures
Weekly transmission 18-2018 presents:
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer …
Fortifying the Strait and closing the loop of the Columbian exchange …
Fondation de deux villes dans le détroit de Magellan au XVIe siècle
Weekly drawing by Théophile Bouchet: “Closing the loop”
Two unpublished drawings by Wilhelm Heine who crossed the Strait
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer,
author, historian, mathematician, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain… In 1555 he began his exploring career, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. His first destination was New Spain (in what is today Mexico), where he lived for two years. Little is known of this period in his life, other than that he encountered difficulties with the Inquisition. He then sailed to Peru, where he lived for more than twenty years, gaining a reputation as a navigator.
In Lima he was accused by the Inquisition of possessing two magic rings and some magic ink and of following the precepts of Moses. He then joined Álvaro de Mendaña’s expedition through the southern Pacific Ocean to find the Terra Australis Incognita, which, should Mendaña have followed Sarmiento’s indications, had reached New Zealand or/and Australia; but they discovered the Solomon Islands instead, in 1568. The expedition failed to find gold and attempts at establishing a settlement in the Solomon Islands ended in failure. In order to take credit for the discoveries for himself Mendaña threw the journals and maps made by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa overboard and abandoned him in Mexico. However, a trial was then held in Lima, with the result giving Sarmiento credit for the discoveries.
Continuer la lecture de « 06.05.2018 PWT 18-2018 Port Famine, A Tragedy Without Pictures »
26.04.2018 PWT 17-2018 Powerful Images of the Liberation of Paris
Aug. 26, 1944, de Gaulle was making his official entry into the capital…*
Few things had rankled more with the French leader that summer than the failure of Washington and London to recognize his Provisional Government as the Government of France. His nightmare was of being caught between the Scylla of AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories) and the Charybdis of a Communist‐run commune. He was determined Paris’s liberation should be largely a French gesture under his leadership, and he intended to install himself in the city as soon as it was free, with or without his allies’ blessing.
Suite sur le pdf : PWT 17-2018 Liberation of Paris
16.04.2018 LE SOUPER (Monday 23 April 2018 Dinner Party)
Full Menu:
First Course:
Goat Cheese Gateau
Tomato Jam
Buttermilk Biscuit Crumbles Young Variegated Lettuces
Main Course:
Rack of Spring Lamb
Burnt Cipollini Soubise Carolina Gold Rice Jambalava
Dessert:
Nectarine Tart
Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
East view of mansion at Mount Vernon (Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana)
About the portraits:
Xue-Lan-Se (born 2004)
The Candidate, 2017
El Muro, 2017
Photo ceramic impressions on aluminium (Fotalux), 30×30 cm
Unbreakable, indestructible, convenient for all outside walls,
each one of an edition of 7 numbered signed copies. each 400 US $
12.04.2017 PWT 15-2018 LA MUSIQUE ADOUCIT LES MŒURS – CHARMS TO SOOTH A SAVAGE BREAST
Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I’ve read, that things inanimate have mov’d,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform’d,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
‘Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv’d the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg’d
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?
William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, 1697
SYLVAIN, PHOTOGRAPHE DE TAHITI
In 1946, a young French war correspondent photographer …
seduced by his stopover in Tahiti, when he returned to France from Indochina, chose to settle in Punaauia. Adolphe Sylvain, a public works engineer by training, has just participated in the Libération de Paris as a tank driver in General Leclerc’s 2nd DB. He took the opportunity to fix some of the famous photos of the liberation with his Rolleiflex.
05.04.2018 PWT 14-2018 NEGRE’S NEGATIVES
“In photography, a negative is an image in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because the extremely light-sensitive chemicals used to capture an image quickly enough for ordinary picture-taking are darkened, rather than bleached, by exposure to light and subsequent photographic processing.Negatives were once commonly made on a thin sheet of glass rather than a plastic film, and some of the earliest negatives were made on paper.
28.03.2018 PWT 13-2018 Back to the Cold War ?
Glavsevmorput’ or the Discrete Charm of Soviet Acronyms
One of the more spectacular ones was a 6300-mile polar flight of N025 from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, in early 1937, the precedent to likely ordering that a larger aircraft with crew and cargo replicate that feat.
Access to the pdf: PWT 13-2018 Glavsevmorput
23.03.2018 PWT 12-2018 Thirteen Fragile Original Gelatin Relief Matrices from Galerie Contemporaine
The lead mold, the negative matrix needed a positive matrix: a gelatin relief matrix like those. A high-power hydraulic press was used to press the gelatin matrix into some smooth, perfectly leveled plate of lead, forming then one, two, three negative lead matrices (molds). After a solution of gelatin, albumen, sugar, and ammonium dichromate was dried, it was exposed to sunlight under a glass negative of Nadar or Carjat.
19.03.2018 FRANTISEK DRTIKOL : DE LA GRACE AVANT TOUTE CHOSE
15.03.2018 PWT 11-2018 TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF CHINESE IMPRESSIONS
Two thousand years of impressions
Two thousand years of paper, two thousand years of impressions, two thousand years of destruction, with two main processes: the paper can move to the text (Eastern tradition) or the text can move to the paper (Western tradition).
In China, the stone or the block (matrix) is fixed firmly on a table. The printer takes a round horsehair inking brush and applies ink with a vertical motion. The paper is then laid on the block and rubbed with a long narrow pad to transfer the impression to the paper. The paper is peeled off and set to dry. Because of the rubbing process, printing is only done on one side of the paper. Further reading on Wikipedia related articles and access to a video with this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADfhgDRIhUk
Weekly transmission 11-2018 presents:
Before paper, 2566 BC: earliest extant papyrus, the Diary of Merer
Before paper, c. 300 BC: bamboo slips, the Book of Laozi
Two thousand years ago, invention of paper in China
175 AD: carved stone books and earliest paper and ink-rubbings
690 AD: did Wu Zetian commission 100,000 printed scrolls ?
July 751 AD: The Battle of Talas near Samarkand, a key event in the history of paper
764 AD: the Empress Kōken commissioned 1,000,000 small printed scrolls
1139 AD : the earliest extant book printed with wooden movable type
July 1377: the earliest extant book printed with movable metal type
March 1455: promotion of the Gutenberg Bible in Frankfurt
1640: the earliest extant book printed in British North America.
1725, the printing of the Chinese Imperial Encyclopaedia
WANG XUE-ZHANG (b. 1953). Three traditional ink rubbings of Luoyang carved inscriptions
Post-scritum by Theophile Bouchet: “A Westerner facing Chinese culture”
