The history of travel photography

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

We take it for granted now, but simply the act of being able to capture a photo used to be an accomplishment, the gear was heavy, fragile, and unreliable. And as you can imagine the technological development of both cameras and transportation are the foundation of the history of travel photography. In the beginning cameras were more a technical invention than anything else. It was then used as a tool for creating portraits, and to take pictures of possessions as to keep the memory of something.
Cameras then evolved into a scientific equipment tool, it was useful as a means to document. And since scientists found the technology so useful, a need for a transportable camera had arrived, and that´s where our journey starts.

The 19^th was, as the 18^th century had been, was a time for exploration, explorations that could now be documented more accurately, where they earlier relied on the, often inaccurate, oral descriptions from the travellers.
In the 19^th century, the early developments in the area included a portable darkroom, lots of dangerous chemicals, tanks, water containers, heavy glass plates, plate holders, and a large camera and tripod. Keep in mind how expensive these items would be. In 1839 a photographic process was invented called the daguerreotype, it made it a whole lot cheaper to buy and carry camera equipment for travel. Unfortunately, this process came out with pictures that couldn’t create copies, and therefore it didn’t make much of a sale. Another process was soon after invented, the collodion process, that brought exposure time down to 2 seconds, however, there was still lots of equipment.

Now let’s talk transportation, in the 19^th century travel was extremely expensive, and it was only accessible to the few rich or funded. But throughout the 19^th century the building of railways across the globe expanded drastically and made it easier, and in time cheaper to travel far distances.
The rich, of course, wanted to document their travels as well. And it was made possible for armatures in 1888 when Kodak launched the first “point and shoot” camera. Photography was now available to anyone who could press a button, and, not to forget, afford the camera. The camera itself became transportable as well, even though it was still, in our mind, heavy and unhandy. But the Kodak camera was evolutionary on more than one account, it also used a roll of film! It had 100 pictures in a film, and all you had to do was sent it to Kodak, and they would send you back your photographs.

In many ways the improvements in the travel industry created a demand for camera improvements, just like the improvements of cameras created a wanderlust for travel and tourism.

This becomes clear as we enter the 20^th century, and the Wright Brothers invented the first airplane, and from there on travel escalated fast, over the next hundred years travel became easier, drastically faster, and in the 21^st century, in many ways safer.

The mid-20^th century is when my timeline begins in 1960 when my grandfather brought his first camera. It was a Kodak, they still had a big part of the market, and would have it for a few years yet.
on the timeline we see pictures and comments about the different cameras, and how well they worked. In the end of the 20^th century we skip generations, and follow my mother’s travels, followed by my own in 2012 when I brought my own “real” camera.

In 2017 it was estimated that around 1.2 trillion digital photos were taken. And in 2018 commercial airlines carried approximately 4.3 billion passengers a day. And most of us want to get “that perfect picture” to remember and to prove where we´ve been. In many tourist attractions there are even photo spots, where you can stand to get that famous picture of where ever you are. You can book Travel Photography Tours, where you travel to get those pictures exactly and learn to use your camera. However many people don’t even have an old school camera, they just use their phones.

 

Fun facts:

The oldest travel photo is from 1825 in France and was taken by Joseph Niépce. The exposure time of his camera was 8 hours, and for that reason you can see the sunlight on both sides of the building in the picture.

Pierre-Gustave-Gaspard Joly de Lotbiniére travelled to Greece in 1839 and is famous for taking the first picture of Athens, he then travelled to Egypt and the Middle East, where to took 92 pictures, he then published some of them in his book Excursions Daguerriennes, where he inspired many others to travel.

India 1862, Samuel Bourne was the first man to take pictures of the western Himalayas, because of the high altitude and the heavy equipment he had approximately 40 servants to help him.
Samuel Bourne is also the founder of the oldest surviving photography studio in the world.

Sources

https://mygobe.com/explore/travel-photography-origins/

https://www.pendaphototours.com/history-travel-photography/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/564717/airline-industry-passenger-traffic-globally/

https://www.businessinsider.com/12-trillion-photos-to-be-taken-in-2017-thanks-to-smartphones-chart-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

My timeline

I then further examined the subject of photography by conducting an interview with a first year student on her use of photography. these were the questions asked.

Interview  

Of Neve McLellan by Anne Valbak Christiansen

Introduction of the project

A talk about how photography and it´s technology changes and how it changes us. It´s about how first years use photography in their day to day life, how it influences their lives, studies and growth. Stories from their point of view.

Warm up

What is your name, age and study?

Where are you from? And what were you doing before you started university?

Which camera devices do you use? And what do you use them for?

Invitation to stories

Let´s start with how your relationship with cameras have changed over time:

Can you tell me about some of your early memories that involve photography or cameras in any way?

How about your first camera device? Do you recall what it was like?

• Can you tell me something about it, and what you used it for?
• Do you still use those pictures for something?

In your previous education how would you use camera devices?

• Can you give me some examples?
• How do you use camera devices at university?
• Can you compare the two?

Has your use of photography changed after you started on university?

• And can you tell me some examples of how it might have changed or stayed the same?
• Did you use your camera in the same way at home over Christmas, as you do in Dundee?

Some people might use photography to document, take a picture of something and deal with it later.

• What are your thoughts on that?

Let´s talk a little about social life

Do you use social medias?

• Can you tell me a little about which ones you use and why?
• Can you rank them for me on which ones you use the most?

When you post pictures on social media what would you typically post?

• Why this in particular?
• What influences whether you choose to post a picture?

How important do you think profile pictures are on social media?

• Why?
• What do you think about when you post a new profile picture?
• Can you paint a picture of your thought process?

When you take pictures with your friends, paint me a picture of how that scenario would play out.

• How does that make you feel?
• How about when you take pictures of yourself? Or others take pictures of you?

Some people might use photography to help them cope or express feelings and opinions.

• How might you view the importance and reasoning behind that?

How do you use your camera to communicate?

• Is there a difference in your use of the device when you talk to your family compared to your friends?
• Can you give me a few examples?

Can you tell me about the picture you have taken that means the most to you?

• Why is that important to you?
• How do you think other people would think about it if you showed it?
• Why?

Do you think cameras have a place in your day to day life?

• Do you think it has a place in your friend´s lives?
• What is important for you when you take a picture?
• Why?
• Can you tell me the story about one of the latest pictures you have taken?

How many pictures would you say you take compared to what others do?

• What do you use these pictures for?
• What about the ones you don’t use?

Do you see a difference between how you use a camera and how others might use theirs?

•  You can think in a social aspect
•  A personal aspect
• Or a study aspect
• How might this make you feel?

Do you take screenshots on your phone?

• Can you give me an example of what you might screenshot and what you would use it for?

If you had access to every camera device in the world free of charge, what would you then use day to day?

• What about when you go on holiday?
• Did you take pictures over your Christmas holiday?
• Can you tell me about how you took one of them and why?

Emotions and ideas

What tendencies do you notice there are with the use of camera devices?

• Can you tell me a little about why you think that?

How much time would you say you spent looking at other people´s pictures?

• Why do you think we do that?

How would you say the use of cameras change with age?

• Can you give me some examples?
• What do you tend to be doing when you use yours?

How do you believe you will use photography when you finish university?

• Can you tell me a little more about that?

How do you feel when you are in front of a camera?

• Does it matter if it is video or still pictures?
• How might the person behind the camera influence your experience of being in front of one?
• Does pictures for different purposes make you feel or act in a different way­­

o   Personal

o   Social

o   Studies

Create statements

So, to finish up, the point of the interview was to investigate how photography and it´s technology changes and how it changes us.

How you use photography in your day to day life

how it influences your live, studies and growth.

 

When it comes to…. what you are saying is…

So, if…. was a scenario what would think that…

Wind down

Do you have something in mind that you would like to say about the subject?

• Any last thoughts?

You have my email and my snapchat, and if there is anything you wish to add, you can always contact me.

Thank you very much!

 

I filmed the entire interview, and edited it down to a 3 minute video

https://vimeo.com/user94726552/review/315350956/b4e0010350

 

Why we use Contextual interviews

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

We use interviews because it gives us a more nuanced understanding of what our interviewee is trying to tell us, in other words the answers are highly qualitative because we can read body language, emphasis on certain words and the interviewer and interviewee can elaborate when useful.
That is why filming, and recording audio, is useful in this context, both for the sake of further analysis, but also because the Interviewer can focus on what gets said and has more time to ask the right follow-up questions, when they don’t have to write down everything.

However, even though contextual interviews invite flexibility in the questions most of them can and should be well prepared beforehand, to ensure questions are not leading, because this will taint the answer in a direction or to a conclusion that might be your opinion and not theirs. However, I do believe closed question have their place in an interview. I found the closed questions useful when they were used on purpose, because they can work as a break for the interviewee between harder questions, it can also just be a good way to change subject or lead to the follow-up questions

This leads me to the structure of the interview, which is a very useful tool. Sara Nevay talked about it in “Why Interview”. I had already met Neve for a cup of coffee to go over the consent form and give a brief on what the project was about and how the interview would proceed. I then went through it again when we met for the interview, did a few easy warm-up questions, to get her more comfortable, proceeded with questions that evoked stories, then ideas and emotions, where after I let her create her statements on the aspects of the project itself. Because of the structure of the interview questions, she came through a lot of observations about her use of her camera, that she hadn’t thought about, so when I was wrapping up, she had changed her look on how she uses her camera and how it has influenced her.

I then gave her full freedom to give her opinion on the subject, it gave her a chance to tell her general thoughts about the subject, all the things that she might have thought though the interview that I didn’t ask. And she was a brilliant, because it was something, I hadn’t thought of myself.

Not only did I interview Neve, I did a short interview with my grandparents and then my mother for my timeline project. However, this is where the lesson about preparation comes into the picture, because I was not ready with questions when they called, I had nothing to write on, and I didn´t tape it. So, of cause I didn´t, by any measure, get as much out of it as I could have. Fortunately, I was saved by my grandparents going all-in, sending me pictures and descriptions of the cameras and what improvements they felt. So as to give me all the information I could need.

Give Interviewee a compliment on their looks before they get in front of a camera, so they have more confidence

[00:24:35.23] Anne: Alright so let´s say that you had access to every camera device in the entire world, free of charge, what camera would, what camera device would you then think you´d use in your day to day life?

Putting up a scenario in that way was quite a fun task for both of us.

 

Reflections on interview & my Photography use

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

Even though I had worked through my question’s multiple times, I still found myself asking some unintentional closed questions, and sometimes I had to clarify what I meant, because I was unfocused and stumbled over the sentence or improvised a propping question that was unintentionally closed. After writing the transcript I am also aware that, even though I was aware not to, I spoke too fast or interrupted, whereas next time I will be even more focused on keeping some silence between me and the interviewee speaking and to take a deep breath and read the questions as they were intended.

After I ended the interview, I asked Neve to evaluate on how the interview had been, where she mentioned that she was calmed by our short meeting before the interview, so that she knew what to expect, she also mentioned how her mind usually goes blanc in these situations, and it calmed her that I kept insuring her that it was okay…. Even though in hindsight, that was what happened most of the times I interrupted. So, I will properly do that in the future as well, but I must be aware as to when and how often I do so.  

I learned a lot in the editing process, first we had to improvise on our location, because the room I had booked was shared, so we filmed in her flat instead. So, in the future I would want a place with better lighting, a chair for me to sit on (I sat on the floor for most of the interview). If I had been able to change the composition better and could sit in the same height as the camera, it wouldn’t look as if she was looking down all the time, it would both look better, but it would also be easier to read facial expressions.

The further into the interview we got, the more Neve realized about her use of photography in her daily life, and so did I about my own use.
I too take pictures all the time to remember stuff, and to me, taking a screenshot or a photo of something is like writing down a note. I use it when I´m on Instagram or I am walking around outside and see something that inspires me, it´s just much faster and easier to take a picture of it. The same is the case with Snap Chat, that has become the new text, it is so easy to take a picture and confirm where you are, what you are doing, or make a joke funnier. But it also means that we share a lot more, no one would have dreamt of sending a picture of their food to everyone in their phonebook, only ten or fifteen years ago.
The meaning of our everyday photos has changes as well, the pictures we post tell a story, and as Neve talked about, that´s what gives a picture or video meaning, both the ones we take our self and the ones we see. Cause we do spend a lot of time looking at other people’s pictures, I usually use Instagram for inspiration, and follow lots of design pages, and I take screenshots and save the ones I find particularly interesting. But to be honest, I´m just like Neve, I will properly not look at them again, and when I do it´s because I must empty my camera roll, and then I just delete them. But it doesn’t matter, because, I still have a mental note, and sometimes I remember something, and I then know where to find it.

 

 

 “Talent is good

Practice is better

Passion is best”

– Frank Ilyod Wright

 

Abstraction and understanding of drawing as a tool and practice 

Doing the first week of our “Ways of Seeing” module we worked on understanding visual communication as a tool that we can all use and understand as humans, but as something, we, the class, should also practice and improve for professional reasons.

It started as a lecture on how we understand visuals, colours, shapes and optical illusions. It is a primal language that we as designers and design students can use to communicate values and create intuitive user experiences.

We went on to do an exercise on blind drawings. We were to only look at our partner on the other side of the table, and try to draw them without looking at the paper. It gives some interesting results and says a lot about eye to hand coordination, but even more interesting is the fact that we can still see who and or what the image shows, even though it is simply scribbles that we have blindly put on a page. We then went on to one line drawings, where we were not allowed to lift our pen.

A new media

But visual communication is so much more than a perfect picture, it is sketches, scribbles and physical models.

We were allowed and encouraged to have fun with the portraits, so the next part of the project was to incorporate conductive inc and LEDs into new portraits. I chose to stay with a one-line drawing cause I quite like the combination of the aesthetic simplicity and the intriguing complicity of them. I chose to show the inc and the wires in my final drawing to give it a bit of extra interest.

 

Visual communication

To work with communication we conducted interviews on each other. The computer interviews were to be impartial so that the data did not get corrupted. After my interview with Helena I looked over her answers and took in the feel I decided to do three portraits in one, to symbolise the three people she is. One that is polished and perfect, to be displayed (I used Copic Markers for this, to give it the polished effect) the second one her in her national outfit, to show her deep connection to her culture (I used watercolours for this one, to show the playfulness and happiness she showed when talking about it) and the final portrait, her school self, laid back but a perfectionist at heart ( for this I used oil paints, to showcase her creativity and the oils also work as a mask, and I liked this because she can seem hard to get to know)

 

Practice makes perfect

After the portraits were finished we started out reading week, and for the reading week we had two daily drawing assignments, one was to draw an item that had in some way been influential on that day, and the second was to do an interpretation of a map, in whatever way we wanted. So I ended up with 10 drawings, 5 objects and 5 maps. The papers are all dates with the day they were sketched and the day they were finished. Most were drawn Monday, Wednesday or Friday.

These were my five objects:

And these my 5 maps:

Drawing and models as a means to draw attention

In the third week we started doing visual CV’s, for mine, I wanted to make it interactive and fun like a playbook, so I spend half the first day on doing a draft and then I started working in Photoshop. The drawings themselves took me a lot of work because of the interactive components, and I have not been able to do everything I want on it yet. However, the point of the CV is for us to send it out as applications for summer internships.

After working on my computer with it I printed out the first few pages and made them interactive as I had planned them.

I quickly realised how expensive it will be to print, not to mention sent the entire thing. So I will be making it into an interactive PDF. I haven’t done that yet, so I’ve decided to attatch it as a large gallery, where tapping through it will show how it should be.

Link in PDF

Our final project has been to create a character with a story. More specifically we were to create a pop-up character, using paper mechanics techniques, incorporate LED lights into it, with the help of an Arduino and some programming, and then we were tasked to visualise the story of our character.

The story for mine is here

And this is her lying down and reading her book with rosy cheeks.

All the work that had been compiled during the module had been placed in a sketchbook we created on the first day. As the final small project in this module, I made a little video of going through my sketchbook. For the editing, I used Adobe Premiere Pro and found royalty free music on https://taketones.com/

In 2018 our lack of physical and mental connection to each other is causing real issues to our health and happiness.

A lot of the social interaction today is happening over digital media’s, and when we are finally together physically, often our mental focus will be somewhere else. Which leads to loneliness and a feeling of not being heard and appreciated.

We started the project with a talk about connectivity in 2018, where we touched subjects like FOMO, JOMO, urbanisation, digital nomads, globalisation and loneliness. I will not go into these subjects further in this post.

Our brief was to redesign some part of the public spaces in Dundee. To get a feeling of the city and the options we have, the course group was split, so that we could go to different places, take some pictures, and explain the place to the others.

My group went to Dundee Quay, where we spent some time in the ship that docks by the quay. Where the social spaces in the ship itself led to a few ideas.

On the way back and forth I couldn’t help but be a little inspired by walking on the pavement, which is also a public space, and it is a space we use a lot of time on, with other people, but often without having conversations with them. Either because you cannot hear one another, or because you are wearing a headset and don’t know the people walking by.

So that was the mindset I had before starting my brainstorm.
The main ideas that go through my brainstorming are to be able to talk, I want people to be able to hear one another while walking from place to place. And then I wanted them to come together and gather somewhere beautiful and inspirational to chat and tell stories.

But being aware of the human behaviour, my own included, one of the issues is time. Many do not give themselves time to go to the social gathering or does not take out time to meet up or even call their friends, because they have so many other things happening. So I went for a different approach to encourage connectivity, nudging. I wanted signs on the entrance to every “sound barrier” on the pavement, saying things like:

“Being busy does not make you happy. Being with people you love does” or

“Paradise has never been about places. It exists in moments. In connections. In flashes across time” -Victoria Erickson

Once I had my concept, I started working on form.

At this point, I still didn’t know where I wanted to place my installation, and since I choose the angled version of the sound barrier, I was no longer able to have my quotes on a sign hanging neatly on all entrances.

So I began planning my model and then walked home for the day. Which put me exactly where I was supposed to be, Perth Road, Dundee. An always populated walk, no matter the time of day. It is filled with shops and leads straight by the Uni campus. It was a perfect place to remind pedestrians of the important things in life, each other!

So problem solved, I chose to save my idea of the storyteller to another project. Kill your darlings and all that. And focused on the road that so many people use every day, back and forth to work, uni, for groceries and for a coffee with a friend.

I came in ready to work on my prototype the next day…but honestly couldn’t shake the feeling that my project seemed a little like a jail. So I went to Pinterest for inspiration, where I found an old pin I had saved.

 

I decided I wanted the columns to be made of wood that had been twisted once in the lower half, and once in the angled bit.

The pattern had to be open enough for people not to feel cramped and there would have to be plenty of holes, to be able to cross the road.

I decided to create my prototype with two scales. One a zoomed out version, to show how long I intended it to be, and where I wanted it to be placed. And the other side, a more zoomed in version, to give an impression of what it would feel like to be there.

So to summarise what my thoughts are, and what I hope will influence the thinking and behavioural patterns of the people using the pavement are:

• Nudging to be kind to those around you, and take initiative to talk to them.

• People will be inspired by the plants in the installations and may become more aware of the nature around them in Dundee.

• They will be less likely to cross the road, just because someone is coming towards them on the pavement.

• They will set time off to enjoy the moments they are in, instead of scrolling mindlessly.

As a nice ending to the project, we put our prototypes together, to give it a “map” effect.

 

Part 1:

Group work

Remaking the Tizio Lamp was our first task, we were divided into groups and were handed cardboard, foam board and wooden sticks to complete the task, in addition, we were handed glue guns and tape.

The biggest struggle with the building process was to make joints that could both move and hold the structure in place at once. We achieved that quality by creating tension between the wood (the joint) and the leg itself and then adding a nut to hold it in place. This was done by applying a layer of tape on the wooden piece and forcing the hole, in the leg, over it.

We divided the work and finished before time, this resulted in a few mistakes, like the upper leg not being long enough and the head of the lamp being a little sloppy. But it did mean that we had time to make details like buttons, a fake cord and detail holes on the surface of the lamp.

Part 2:

Individual work

The second task in the project was to redesign the Tizio lamp. It could be anything, as long as it was inspired by the Tizio lamp in one way or another. So the first part of my process was to brainstorm products I might find interesting.

From here I sorted out the, in my opinion, most interesting/challenging ideas. So I took out the bench (Green page 2) and the potholder (Red page 1). But where the bench had challenging joints, that I already knew how I was going to make, the plant holder had a shape and a mechanism that I still hadn’t figured out how to do. So I chose the plant holder in the end.
I then started with the first problem at hand, the shape. To figure it out I made a prototype.

Now that I had a model of the shape, I could go into depth about the technical aspect of the “wires” that should hold and stabilize the pot.
After consulting with our tutor, Jason Nelson, I decided to draw inspiration from Gimbals. And create a prototype to illustrate and understand the principle.

From here on I had enough to start on the more detailed drawings, that I wanted to make, to showcase how I imagine the product to be.

To show the pot and joints of the product I made a detail drawing, that should explain the concept. My aim was to create a potholder, that could be put into a sideways position, without the plant tumbling over.

I then added shadow to the product drawings to give them a finish.