More art & accident and black suns

Speaking of "black suns" and "art and accident" in the last post, I wanted to share the work of Chris McCaw of San Francisco. I saw his work at Photolucida and have been coveting it ever since (don't be surprised if it shows up in a PRC show in the future). As Chris explains on his website, his Sunburn photographs are his "new experiments in starting fires in my camera." Not only are these aesthetically and conceptually gorgeous, but Chris is a very nice person to boot (always a good thing for a curator!). Before packing a picnic to go hear a live taping of Prairie Home Companion on the lawn at Tanglewood, I share with you a few images and part of his artist statement:

This new project initially began completely by accident. In 2003 an all night exposure of the stars made during a camping trip was lost due to the effects of whiskey. Unable to wake up to close the shutter before sunrise, all the information of the night’s exposure was destroyed. The intense light of the rising sun was so focused and intense that it physically changed the film, creating a new way for me to think about photography.

In this process the sun burns its path onto the film base. The sky as a result of the intense light exposure reacts in an effect called solarization. The resulting negative literally has a burnt hole in it with the subject in complete reversal. ... After experimenting with burning film and working with this minimalist aesthetic, I wanted to see what else could be done with different media. I chose to use fiberbased gelatin silver black & white photographic paper. By putting the paper in my film holder, in place of film, I create a one of a kind paper negative. Each negative due to varying sky conditions and length of exposure is scorched by the sun to differing degrees, sometimes burning completely through the paper base. I used both an 8”x10” view camera and a home made 16”x20” camera to create the paper negatives.

Not only is the resulting image a representation of the subject photographed, but part of the subject (the sun) is an active participant in the printmaking. This is just the beginning of this new body of work. I plan to continue to investigate the possibilities of this method of printmaking. My favorite part is watching smoke come out of the camera during the exposure. Thank you for looking.

All images from www.chrismccaw.com

The Seldom Seen or Aberrant Photo

While in Rochester, we made the mandatory stop at the Eastman House and saw the Ansel Adams exhibition. This proved an interesting comparison with another collection-based exhibition from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. The GEH offering was a wonderfully comprehensive exhibition that also included photographs taken in and around the University of Rochester, which I had never seen before. This grouping as well as "The Black Sun," a long exposure of landscape of a stream and tree, leads me to ponder the issues surrounding the seldom seen and the aberrant photograph - images that don't quite fit neatly into a series or haven't seen as much exposure.

Interestingly enough, an extensive internet search did not reveal an image of Adams's THE BLACK SUN, TUNGSTEN HILLS, OWENS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, 1939/print ca. 1970. I could find a few references here and there in terms of solarization and Sabatier effects, but no image - not on GEH's online collections not Ansel Adams gallery's website and not on yahoo or google images. It seems this photograph is reproduced in his book, The Negative, likely as a teaching tool, but are such images deemed too aberrant to showcase online?

Over on his See, Hear, and Remember blog, Christian Patterson recently discussed the idea of "difference vs. sameness" within constructing a series and Shane Lavalette followed up with a post that garnered many comments and another on repetition. I'd like to take up another angle on this discussion: Is the aberrant image within a body of work or portfolio perhaps not one of intentional variety, but an issue of quality, editing, or maybe style, or rather, is it not understanding the role of this particular image at that particular time? Or, is it simply blind luck to capture something so disparate from one's style? (Is the latter even possible?) Further, are such images deemed unfitting by the photographer, the curator, the collector, or the museum, and thus put away and then overlooked? Are the images that are taken for a different reason or as an experiment, relegated to the metaphorical and physical shelf to be "discovered" later? Conversely, do such square pegs simply need to gestate, find their mates, and thus make sense later in one's life, oeuvre, or even decades later from the perspective of a third party? As a juror and reviewer, I must admit some guilt, as often I recommend that photographers build and submit a series that holds together in a juried situation. In such a quick fire method, straight-up aberrant images simply don't hold up and thus often result in the elimination of the whole series. This is not to say that an image cannot be different from others, it can and still fit, but it is the "fittingness" that is hard to explain and a definition of "style" not easy to teach or communicate. As an art historian, we often benefit from looking through the long lens of history when analyzing such groupings (or creating them?).

On the other hand, do such seldom seen images or those created for other purposes lead to new avenues and series? Do these transitional images sow the seeds of a later style shift or are simply accidents? Robin Kelsey, photohistorian at Harvard, gave us a sneak peak at his musings on photography and chance as well as art and accident at the Clark symposium and Boston's CAA respectively. I look forward to what hopes to be a pending book!

Off to Rachacha, Land of Photo

My oh my! It's been a long time since I've written. I've been really concentrating on summer, or at least trying. Since my last post, I went to another wedding, explored the Cambridge arts festival, hiked around Mt. Misery (mentioned in Thoreau's writings), moved my car twice for street cleaning, and sat and then got dismissed from jury duty. Needing a little more head clearing, Bruce and I are now off to Rochester to visit friends and family. Interestingly enough, in the last few weeks, I've corresponded or met with 4 photographers that had ties to Rochester. Usually, it's through school, be it RIT or VSW, and at least 2 of them repeated the nickname above, Rachacha. I don't know where this epithet came from; I thought I was the only one who said it, but apparently not!

While in Rochester, we will go to the Keuka Lake winery Dr. Konstantin Frank, have a barbecue with friends, check out the Rochester Criterium (a fast-paced short bike race held downtown), pop in the Eastman House to see the Steichen autochromes, and maybe hit MassMoca on the way back to witness the Christoph Büchel spectacle/debacle. You can read the whole back story on the massive installation here, and read an archive of his demands here. When we were there last time, we could only see the theatre entrance and it was completely closed. Either way, neither no one wins in this situation. I am sure that it will fuel many dissertations for a long time to come.

Addendum: the real autochromes weren't on display, reproductions were. Although I understand why from a conservation perspective, it was slightly disappointing not to see the real things. I think I'll post on the Ansel Adams exhibition soon.

Image: Edward Steichen, (American, 1879–1973). [Charlotte Spaulding Albright with flowers], ca. 1908. Color plate screen (autochrome) process. George Eastman House collections.

The Oldest Darkoom

From a recent list-serv posting about the newly-discovered "oldest darkroom" in the world:

"The darkroom was owned by Joseph Fortuné Petiot-Groffier who died in 1855. The lab was left untouched by children, grand-children,... after his death until today when a great-great... decided to open the doors to the director of la Maison Nicéphore Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saone in France. The lab was full of ancient chemicals (many still in sealed containers), photo equipment, and over 400 books dating prior to 1830 covering the full knowledge on photography as of that time. It will be recreated at the Maison Nicéphore Niepce." - (translated?) by Guy Glorieux

From my dad's email reply:

"Pierre-Yves Mahe, is the founder of SPEOS photographic school in Paris, and he rents the part of the house where Niépce had his laboratory-workshop in Saint-Loup de Varennes, on the Gras estate. Pierre-Yves was the first photographer to occupy the place since the inventor’s death...The historical residence had remained unexplored until then, just gazed at from outside by some curious people. Pierre-Yves, along with Dr. Zakia and I, wrote the book, The Stop System which was published in French and in English in 1999. The Stop System is still being taught at Speos.

Pierre-Yves visits Rochester from time to time and was here recently when he showed me numerous pictures of the Petiot-Groffier darkroom. It was amazing to hear his recounting of the story of being the first person to enter this historic darkroom in approximately 150 years! The lab was frozen in time as if it were a time capsule, which, undoubtedly, it was. Pierre-Yves showed many pictures of the investigation of the lab with full-time chemists in masks checking over the curious, centuries-old bottles to make sure that they were not dangerous (some were!) and arranging and cataloging them. Eventually, the darkroom will become part of the Niépce house for all to see! What a great find to discover the darkroom, chemicals, cameras, books, and processing apparatus that were exactly contemporaneous with Niépce, many of which were used in his investigations!"

Here are some more articles on this discovery: one in French and one in English.

Off to HOT-lanta and flickring

Sorry for a delay in posting, it's just been so beautiful out in the Northeast. Bruce and I leave tomorrow for Atlanta for a wedding and to visit a friend. I've always had crazy times in this city so I look forward to seeing what will happen. We'll likely hit the High Museum and the Botanical Garden, among other things. I've been to the World of Coke, but maybe Bruce will want to go as he has never been.

In the meantime, there are some new pics posted on our various flickrs. It's always fun to look at pics of people. Check them out!

• Juried show opening fun at the PRC
• A trip to the beach cowboy-style

For Sale: 2 million square feet of Kodak

I just learned that Kodak is putting up for sale more than 2 million square feet of distribution space. According to my dad, "The buildings are some of the largest in the U.S. for distribution with millions of square feet condition space and 22-foot (HUGE) doors of massive truck entry....This was the main distribution center for all of Kodak. All of our products that were made in Rochester, and made elsewhere were shipped from/to here. Actually, this is where Paul (my brother) worked for the summer as a forklift operator."

As Kodak moves to digital and outsources more and more, such large spaces aren't needed anymore. The Marketing Education Center (MEC) where my dad worked for many years is still vacant. Add to that Elmgrove (left in 1999), a handful of buildings in Kodak Park, and several other buildings are/were being demolished, put up for sale, or offered for rent. This is not new news, buildings and products have been slowly downsized and as such they have even been the subject of documentary films, including "The Last Slide Projector," and short films. The artist Tacita Dean was spurred to make several films after learning that a film facility was closing down [Addendum: my film friends are disputing her understanding of what kind of film in the interview, I will try to nail down more and post on this soon]. She traveled to the French manufacturing plant to make Kodak, Noir et Blanc, and Found Obsolescence (all 2006). Her work is now showing at the Guggenheim. You can read an interview with Dean concerning her films about film here.

In keeping with the ideas of the last 2 posts, I think this requires a new approach: You are getting sleepy....buy Kodak, buy Kodak...

More info on the sale/auction at this link
(and you can click on the below image for a closer look): www.cbre.com/usa/us/ny/rochester+partner/property/kodakparksouth

Join the campaign - vote film

The amazing photoblogger Christian Patterson recently found an animated gif that touts "FILM IS NOT DEAD!" and has invited others to copy and post it. (He also found the PRC's color photography timeline a little while back.) The changing world of film and photo has long been an interest of mine. As you can see by the the following post, I am a product of a Kodak family and several family members and friends still work for Kodak (I hope), thus I am keen to spread the word of film!

Bummer, I couldn't figure out to save and post this so it blinks,
until then here are the urls. I'll keep trying.
Feel free to copy this and keep it going....
http://christianpatterson.com/blog/archives/446
a href="http://christianpatterson.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/film_not_dead.gif"

5 Things Meme (long overdue)

I was tagged...a long time ago! The "Five Things Readers Don't Know about You" meme was going around and it came to me. I did an earlier post to buy myself some time and included an explanation of the word "meme" and some links, but then this main post languished in my drafts box. Below, I present 5 things that some might know, but many may not. I figured most won't know all of them, so I will repeat some of my favorite odd stories here and with few family ones sprinkled in -- at least now they'd be all in the same place. Jeremias Paul, who tagged me, tried to track this meme to find its source. Thus, without further ado, I present:

1.) My dad named T-Max film

Yes, it is true. He presented several variants of TriX and ~Max, including TMax. As he was a company man, he received no compensation, but has the letter framed in his office. Older Kodak folks at trade shows know him simply as "Gordie."

2.) My brother and I were exposed to tuberculous when we were younger

Neither of us have it, but if we get a "tine" test, it would come back positive. We have no idea when or how this happened. Both of us were put on a medication and xray regimen for a year. The drugs basically killed the bacterium. All the doom and gloom aside, I feel in good art and historical company; many artists, authors, and musicians had TB. When I took a seminar on modernism in graduate school, I read a fascinating paper that compared Kazimir Malevich's abstractions to the spread of tuberculous and bacteria in petri dishes, both in terms of formal and philosophical concerns.

3.) My last name should be Green, not Brown

My grandfather was born in Cuba to Christian missionaries, the Greens. My great grandparents came to Cuba not knowing how tough it would be to raise a family. My great-grandmother died in Cuba when my grandfather was 2 and my great-grandfather couldn't still minister, provide, and take care of the kids so some went to family, others to friends. He was adopted by family friends in the US, the Browns! Thus, I should be Leslie Green - technically.

3.5) This same grandfather helped to design the engine on the first plane to break the sound barrier, Model B-29, the Bell X-1. He went to Syracuse for aerospace engineering but never finished due to the depression and later worked for Bell Aircraft of Buffalo. He died when my father was 18, so I never met him. The plane is on display at the Smithsonian.

4.) In elementary school, I participated in a super geek thing called "Olympics of the Mind"

Yes, I was one of those kids pulled out of classes occasionally to attend "gifted" sessions. In elementary school, this was so NOT cool. It was not fun to stand up, walk out of class with everyone watching and walk down the hall. In retrospect, it was amazing and taught me creative problem solving. We got to do all this cool stuff like make up board games and play with early computers and robots (programming a turtle to make math shapes). I believe it was fourth grade in which I started doing doing the competitions, which are now called "Odyssey of the Mind," but my group participated in the "build a balsa wood structure" problem. We had to build a light weight structure out of balsa wood and glue. Weights would be periodically placed on top of it and occasionally a billiard ball would come crashing into it on the side. While all this was happening, we also had to dress up and sing a song (our song was based on Kermit's "Rainbow Connection"). Much as in the Pinewood Derby, the kids that won definitely had adult help!

5.) Ansel Adams printed this picture of me (see below)

As you can probably see by now, my Dad is a font of great stories and experiences. During his Kodak days, he was the rep to the Ansel Adams workshops in the 1970s. He had heard that Ansel, at some point during a demonstration, would ask for a negative. So, my Dad put one in his pocket and saddled up beside him. When asked, my father furnished this negative to Ansel. He burned, dodged, and then printed it and then afterwards called my dad over to sign it and give it to him. My father, a RIT grad, was thrilled to meet the master, but his heart sank when he heard what he had to say: "Thank you so much for letting me print this. It's always great to demonstrate on a problem negative." That's me, age 2, sitting on the grounds of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaguia, NY in 1975. I guess I was a good compositional element early on!

I have a few more that I will use as Monday Show and Tells (including, bowling and painting). Whew! Done!

Off to NYC...

I wish NYC was closer to Boston. It is the closest I've ever lived, but makes for a long day if you go and come back in one day (about 3 1/2-4 hours each way). We're off to make a quick trip to see some art, namely Jeff Wall at MoMA and all of the goodies at the Whitney (Taryn Simon, Lorna Simpson, etc.). We'll have to go again soon and just do galleries!

I have to have a blog day, but it has just been so beautiful out (finally). Here are the posts I owe:

• One on our Picture Show closing film night with Zampano's Playhouse and the films and amazing artwork of Joseph Cornell at the Peabody Essex


• The 5 things meme, yes Jeremias I promise I'll do it! It's in my drafts I swear.

Jeff Wall, "A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai)" (1993), MoMA, From: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/02/24/arts/design/20070224_WALL_SLIDESHOW_3.html

Portaits: IN studio and AS performance

I just came across this interesting work via the super-in-depth photo blog site I *heart* photograph, which I visit quite often. The mostly-anonymous Laurel (many wonder, but here is her identity here and here) posts a new photographer and photograph almost every day - and many are new to me. (I wonder where and for how long she scours the internet?!)

I *heart* photograph shared this work by Nora Herting. For the series "Free Sitting," she got a job in a department store portrait studio. She explains that by breaking the rules of the studio portrait, she changes their status as social symbols. The jury is still out on her written conclusions - I like them more for her "hacking" of this genre and her mining of the layout of the commercial portrait printout. The visual design and patterning of the gestures, colors, and gazes, for me, is their strongest suit. I especially like the layouts that include "outtakes," images that the customer would not have selected.

Herting also produced a "studio performance" installation/audio piece on the same idea. Here is what she says about this work (click on the word here to hear it, I had to do it several times):

As my employment as a trade photographer wore on, I became fearless and obsessed. I made hidden microphones embedded in Santa Clause pins and flower broaches. I was striving for covert ways to reveal the odd dynamics and labored performances required to make these mundane photographs. Audio of photographic sitting between a family of four and myself was collected by hidden microphone.

The middle part of the audio is a bit too layered and jumbled for me; I'd love to hear more from more than one family and mixed up with more variety in the endlessly repeated phrases. BUT - I love this idea and it would make a great installation in a gallery.

Visual Studies Workshop did an exhibition on photographic backdrops a while back. Does anyone know what it was called and if it had a catalogue? I'd love to get my hands on one. Update: I just found an essay from Afterimage on the show.

Credit: Nora Herting, Wanted, 44 x 65 inches and Nora Herting, 29' x 12' Photographic Background. Sensor. Audio. Dimensions variable. From http://www.noraherting.net/

Art + Tech = Cyberarts

This past weekend was the first weekend for the Boston Cyberarts Festival and new media enthusiasts were out in force. (The region-wide festival runs through May 6th.) We managed to get to several venues and two openings. Here are some stand-outs:

COLLISIONeleven (C11) (especially the Wizard of OZ piece)

MIT Stata Center Balcony Gallery

3rd floor up stairs from main entrance

32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA USA

as part of Boston Cyberarts and the Cambridge Science Festival

Apr 20 - May 1, 2007, weekdays 9-5, weekends 12-6pm

http://www.collisioncollective.org/

Brian Knep: Aging
Works in Progress from the Harvard Medical School

Judi Rotenberg Gallery

130 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

http://www.judirotenberg.com/

Brian Knep, "Frog Time," 2007, non-repeating video installation, dimensions variable. For more of Knep's work see www.judirotenberg.com or www.blep.com, or even visit him at South End Open Studios (and he is a super nice guy to boot!).

When in doubt, post links

Taking a cue from Modern Kick's post of the same title, here is an attempt at what I have dubbed a "mystery list post":

• Alec Soth's waxing about "the ballad of good and bad titles"
• Christian Patterson is recounting the history of color photography, including film from my hometown (buy kodak, buy kodak)
• Jen Bekman is all about making art affordable
• Modern Kicks asks "why so few art historians blog?"

As for the latter, I want to stand up and shout proudly, I am a card carrying art historian and I blog! (more thoughts on this later...)

Picture Show: Home Run!

Since it is baseball season, it's apt to suggest that the current PRC exhibition, Picture Show, is a home run! We had an EXCELLENT review in the Boston Globe, courtesy of the amazing writer Mark Feeney. The show seems to have hit a nerve and we have gotten a lot of press. I am equally a fan of Mark's insightful reviews as much as I am grateful that he actually takes the time to read and experience a whole exhibition. He always knits together culture, history, and philosophy in his art reviews; I try to do the same in my exhibitions via art, text, and the environment. Exhibitions are my art, so I couldn't be happier that someone appreciated it at that level. The idea of this show has haunted me for a while. These wonderful artists worked very hard to install this complicated show and were so excited to be in such company that many made or adapted new works for the show. Here are some of my favorite phrasings from Mark's review:

The aim of this show of contemporary art is to re-create the enchantment viewers experienced when first encountering these visual marvels a century and more ago. The PRC gallery, curator Leslie K. Brown writes, has been made over into "a space somewhere between a cabinet of curiosity, carnival spectacle, and an early motion picture theatre." An even better analogy might be to the interior of one of Joseph Cornell's boxes. There's the same sense of sly magic and delicate otherworldliness.

In "Always, Just Beyond Reach," a set of outstretched hands can never quite reach a set of pretty flowers. Futility has rarely been so sweetly appointed. It's as if Laura Ashley were hosting a garden party in honor of Tantalus and Zeno.

In a league by itself is Hans Spinnermen's "The Dream of Timmy Bumblebee." It consists of an impressive contraption of metal and glass that looks not unlike an immobilized, Jenny Craig version of Robbie the Robot from "Forbidden Planet. " Projected within it is a film of a bumblebee in flight. The film is incidental to the rather majestic monstrosity of
Spinnermen's creation, which is on loan from le Musee Patamecanique, in Bristol, R.I.

I feel humbled; what more could a curator want than to have their gallery be compared to the inside of a Joseph Cornell box! (For Cornell fans, the Peabody Essex Museum will be hosting a huge retrospective of Cornell's work opening April 28.) The second quote is brilliant, what more can a writer pack into that last sentence!

Picture Show is up until May 6th at the PRC. As the artworks are interactive and kinetic, the show needs you to work! We hope that you can experience the show, but for those out of town you can check out Picture Show installation and opening images on our Flickr site. Enjoy!

Geek Post: Wall text

Until I can muster up a review of Photolucida, I will share this great overview of the history of museum wall text. Yes, that's what I wrote, wall text. As a curator, I think about these things and write them (it can't get more geeky than that!). Over at Tyler Green's Modern Art Notes, he offers up the post "Where wall text came from" in response to the Jeff Wall exhibition at MoMA. Green notes that the show has a short introduction from Peter Galassi and simple individual titles. He also shares a link to a Flickr set of photos that capture bewildering wall text from a newly-renovated Glasgow gallery called the Kelvingrove. Wow...I must say, these astonishing blurbs seem to be written very quickly by an intern or by a performance or conceptual artist. You can read more about the museum's philosophy here. Nevertheless, I must say I still prefer what they dub "Victorian" museum writing to this. Here is a camera phone snap of one of the Kelvingrove texts:

They remind me a bit of the brilliant wall text from the Museum of Bad Art here in the Boston suburb of Dedham. If you haven't been to MOBA yet, get thee there!

Here are some of the standouts from the MOBA catalogue:

Can the swirling steam melt away the huge weight of George's corporate responsibilities? This pointillist piece is curious for meticulous attention to fine detail, such as the stitching around the edge of the towel, in contrast to the almost careless disregard for the subject's feet.
see the image here

Stirring in its portrayal of feline angst. Is Peter hungry or contemplating his place in a hungry world? The artist has evoked both hopelessness and glee with his irrational use of negative space.
see the image here

For those in the Boston area, MOBA is presenting their MOBA Rejection Collection Auction, this coming Monday, April 23. Check out the catalogue online here. Car pool anyone?

Off to Portland....Oregon that is

We're off to Photolucida for tons of portfolio review fun: I as a reviewer, Bruce as a reviewee. I know my eyes will be exhausted, I have to see 48 people over the course of the event. We've never been to Portland, Oregon and we very much look forward to it.

Photolucida also oversees Critical Mass, a super competition. I've been a reviewer for Critical Mass for 3 years and found many people for shows through it. They will announce the book award winners for 2006 very soon (here is the top 50 from 2005). One of my favorite discoveries from this year's top 150 photographers was Susan Lakin and her "Television Portraits". I was delighted to discover that Susan also entered the PRC's Juried Exhibition this year and Jen Bekman selected her as one of 16 out of a record 317 entries! And guess where she lives, fair Rochester, NY!

One of my favorite images by Susan Lakin, From http://www.rit.edu/~srlpph/tv/

Geek Post: Quote for Friday

Friday is nigh, Bruce has an opening, my parents are coming into town and get to meet his parents for the first time. Things are hectic, but good. For a happy Friday, I share a quote I came across from an excellent post by a friend we simply call DK.

For all of those wondering the exact words Steve Martin said in the "paddle ball game/lamp" scene in The Jerk--and we all know we have attempted to quote this part many, many times...Oh my, I just got lost in his website. I adore Steve Martin, *love* Pure Drivel, and especially crack up over his art related writings, which you can read here and here and here -- and oh joy, here is one about photography and philosophy! Without further ado, here are the words from that infamous scene in The Jerk, courtesy of this most excellent site, Quote Geek:

Well I'm gonna to go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this. And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one - I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that's all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair.

Photogenic Fish

Here is the new fish - Oliver! He is also known as Mr. Krinklebein, and he is the second cousin once removed of the fish in the tv version of Cat in the Hat, Karlos K. Krinklebein. As was Chester and Zeke, he is a photogenic fish. Check out his nice bubble nest in the below pic.

To make this a somewhat art and photo-related post, I share with you couple of links (one to the photo archives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration) and a short history of underwater photography:

1856 — William Thompson takes first underwater pictures using a camera mounted on a pole.
1893 — Louis Boutan take underwater pictures while diving using a surface supplied hard hat diving gear.
1914 — John Ernest Williamson shot the first-ever underwater motion picture.
1923 — W.H. Longley and Charles Martin takes first underwater colour photos using a magnesium powered flash
1957 — The Calypsophot camera was built by Jean De Wouters and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. It would later be produced by Nikon as the Nikonos, the best-selling underwater camera series.

Oliver!