Oxana V. GAVRISHINA Russian State University for the Humanities
6 Miusskaya sq., Moscow, 125047, Russian Federation
Associate Professor of History and Theory of Culture Department
PhD (in Cultural History)
e-mail: gavr-oksana@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0003-1438-6736
Gavrishina, O. (2025) Surface and Three-dimensional Volume Effects in Early PhotographyAbstract: The article examines the materiality of photography, which is realized not in the external characteristics of the photographic image, but in the very structure of perception. By analogy with the concept of early cinema (Tom Gunning), in which cinema as a form of new sensory experience is opposed to narrative cinematography, the article raises the question of the parameters of perception of early photography. The regime of the sensory in early photography was determined to a greater extent by tactile (haptic) rather than visual (pictorial) properties. Vision is based, on the one hand, on the “material” characteristics of the depicted object, and on the other – on its abstract characteristics (speculative visual mode). The tactile nature of perception is manifested in the effects of surface and tree-dimensional volume. In the very first pictures (W.H.F. Talbot, Anna Atkins), photography is seen as a literal imprint – a surface: the picture does not depict, rather it duplicates the object. This is particularly easily seen in photographs of plants, fabric samples, and in the use of photography in producing facsimiles of manuscripts and drawings. In the following decades, similar effects can be detected in early Japanese photography, X-rays and autochrome plates. Three-dimensional effects in early photography are linked to the visual potential, but the tactile component is prominent here as well. Early photography resembles not so much painting as sculpture. Light, like the hand of a sculptor, touches the object. This brings photography closer to a death mask and the art of mime. Three-dimensional perception was crucial in creating a “likeness”. The depiction of three-dimensional objects was the basis for teaching drawing. It is no coincidence that Talbot depicts sculptural heads in different projections. Anthropometric photography is based on the same principles. In photo studios the genre of the sculptural portrait – the image of the same person seen from different points of view – was offered until the middle of the 20th century. The tactile nature of photography as a three-dimensional image is most fully realized in stereoscopic photographs. When looking through a stereoscope, the image is broken down into planes (“the skin of things”). Many 19th century photographers implemented stereoscopic vision even in two-dimensional photographs. In the 20th century, photography will be associated with a new vision – technically mediated vision based on the montage of many fragments. However, in early photography the same technical characteristics actualize the material (tactile) perception.
Key words: early photography, Tom Gunning, materiality, regime of the sensory, Laura Marks, haptic visuality, W.H.F. Talbot, Japanese colored photography, X-ray, autochrome, stereophotography.
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For Citation: Gavrishina, O. (2025) Surface and Three-dimensional Volume Effects in Early Photography. International Journal of Cultural Research, 1 (58). 24–34. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_24
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_24
