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cmaphotography.bsky.social
CMA: Photography
@cmaphotography.bsky.social
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Sharing public domain works from the Photography department of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
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cmaphotography.bsky.social
Battlefield of New Hope Church, Georgia, No. 2 https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.159
From the medium’s beginnings in the 1830s through the 1880s, most photographs were intimately scaled objects meant for the hand, the album, and the home. As the medium began being used to document landscapes and monuments in the 1850s, larger scale processes arose such as the glass-plate negative. The mammoth print truly seemed gargantuan in the 1860s. For much of the 20th century, the 8-x-10-inch gelatin silver print was the norm for photojournalism; these prints were destined for reproduction in books and magazines around the same scale.
November 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Senator George Ellis Pugh of Ohio https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.194
Photographing prominent politicians or other celebrities was an effective advertisement for the quality and prestige of a portrait studio. Whitehurst Studio opened in 1849 and soon had galleries in 12 cities, including Cincinnati, producing 30,000 daguerreotypes a year. In 1857 its Washington branch advertised it had photographed the entire Congress. To outflank competition from cheaper operators, Whitehurst, in1854, became a pioneer in America in the production of paper photographs. This is a rare example of an American salted paper print, one of the early paper print processes quickly succeeded by albumen prints. Pugh, a Cincinnati lawyer, represented Ohio in the US Senate from 1855 to 1861.
November 18, 2025 at 5:15 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
St. Anthony Falls from Across the River https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.40
In this image of St. Anthony Falls, the unidentified daguerreotypist made an "instantaneous view" of a remarkable natural wonder, rendering its specific geological formation with exacting clarity. Above a narrow channel where the Mississippi River runs between steep bluffs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the falls churns away at the bedrock over which it descends. Named by Father Louis Hennepin during his travels in 1680, it is the only significant waterfall on the entire Mississippi River. The specific motivations of the photographer remain unknown. He or she may have wished the photograph to be scientific and documentary, a valuable visual aid for an artist, or just a reminder to a curious resident. No doubt, this daguerreotype was a rare image of the environment's unspoiled condition before the mid 1850s, when demand for an inexpensive energy source irreparably changed this area from a natural to industrial landscape.
November 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Great Upper Waterfall, High Alps https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.292
Great Upper Waterfall, High Alps
November 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Southern Portion of the Rock-cut Temple of Hathor, Abu Simbel https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.53
Du Camp was the first photographer to depict the marvels of ancient Egypt. In 1849 a scholarly association commissioned the young writer to document Egyptian monuments and their hieroglyphics. He learned to photograph shortly before embarking for Egypt in the company of the young novelist Gustave Flaubert. In 1852 Du Camp published an album of photographs of Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Syria, which brought him widespread recognition. Just as Du Camp followed in the footsteps of earlier painters and scholars, later photographers like Beato often echoed his choices of subject matter.
November 18, 2025 at 9:44 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
The Peacock Feather https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.146
The Peacock Feather
November 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Unknown Male Sitter https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.356
Almost all early photographers relied on daylight as their sole lighting source. Adam-Salomon’s special lighting techniques yielded a rich tonal range and cast his sitters’ features into relief. A ground-glass ceiling in his studio offered an even, overall light that he accented with side light from glass wall areas that could be covered or filtered by curtains. Initially a sculptor, Adam-Salomon borrowed heavily from the conventions of portrait painting, aggrandizing his subjects by setting them amid luxurious objects and grand architectural features that may or may not have related to their lives. He produced such elegant, large prints in his Parisian portrait studio that he was able to charge four times more than his most able competitors.
November 17, 2025 at 3:18 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
The Woodcutters https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.24
The Woodcutters
November 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Chartres Cathedral: Right Door of the Royal Portal with Our Lady of Chartres https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.11
Chartres Cathedral: Right Door of the Royal Portal with Our Lady of Chartres
November 17, 2025 at 11:56 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Henriette Robert https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.214
Henriette Robert, daughter of the distinguished amateur photographer of this portrait, is seated on a stone balustrade in the garden of the manufactory at Sèvres, where her father spent his entire professional career in various positions of authority from 1839 to 1879. Throughout his working career, however, Robert devoted much passion and energy to his interest in photography. One of his earliest themes was portraiture, embodied in a small, remarkable group of intimate views of his family and his fellow artists at Sèvres. In this spare composition, Robert posed his daughter in a contemplative manner, holding a book and deliberately looking into the camera's lens. This beautiful portrait of Henriette is distinquished by its intensity and its allusion to her personality.
November 17, 2025 at 8:10 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Scots Guards at Edinburgh Castle https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.17
Painted group portraits required each individual to sit for the artist, whereas the camera captured a detailed likeness of each face at once. Photography became an incredibly useful tool for artists tasked with producing group portraits. It was Hill’s desire to paint a contemporary historical event requiring the accurate depiction of more than 450 ministers that led him to contact Adamson, who had just become Edinburgh’s first professional photographer making paper prints. This portrait shows members of the 42nd Gordon Highlanders unit of the Scots Guards.
November 16, 2025 at 6:07 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: East and West https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.32.a
Camera Work: East and West
November 16, 2025 at 4:43 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Westminster Abbey, Tomb of Sir Georges Villiers (d. 1605) https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.215
Westminster Abbey, Tomb of Sir Georges Villiers (d. 1605)
November 16, 2025 at 2:36 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
View of the Great Wall, China https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.248
View of the Great Wall, China
November 16, 2025 at 12:47 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: In Sure and Certain Hope https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.8.h
Camera Work: In Sure and Certain Hope
November 16, 2025 at 9:39 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Cinnabar Mountain, Devil Slide https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.217
A gifted photographer, both aesthetically and technically, Haynes skillfully composed the various elements in this mammoth plate print depicting an expansive, arid landscape with the Cinnabar Mountains in the background. Railroad tracks diagonally cross the composition, providing visual vitality and narrative richness. The large glass negative and albumen printing process allowed Haynes to convey the panoramic view with clarity and fidelity, while responding to the scene’s stunning natural illumination. Beginning in the late 1870s, this Michigan-born artist spent most of his impressive career documenting the entire Northwest as the official photographer for the Northern Pacific Railroad until 1905.
November 15, 2025 at 5:52 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Military Bridge, Across the Chickahominy, Virginia https://clevelandart.org/art/1991.283
In this complex composition, David B. Woodbury merged the documentation of an event with his desire to record an impressive landscape. The image depicts a precarious, yet essential military log bridge that traverses a swamp created by the accumulated waters of the Chickahominy River, located southeast of Richmond, Virginia. Constructed under difficult physical conditions, the structure was later destroyed by floodwaters caused by heavy rains. The workers involved with the structure's construction are positioned in a single line so that each person is identifiable; however, reduced to diminutive size by the camera's distant viewpoint, the workers appear to be dominated by their natural environment. This image appeared in the first volume of a two-volume set of 100 Civil War photographs published between 1865–66 by Alexander Gardner (1821–1882), who printed the negatives and compiled the album, which included work by a number of other photographers.
November 15, 2025 at 5:23 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Floral Still Life (Bleeding Hearts) https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.86
Noted for his close-up studies of leaves, blossoms, and foliage, Charles Aubry was a photographer whose work encompassed both the documentary and the artistic. In this image, the artist isloated a plant on a dark background to concentrate attention on the rhythmic patterns of the blossoms and the abstract shapes suggested by the intertwining branches. Aubry's photographs were prized as important visual records by both scholars and artists.
November 15, 2025 at 2:06 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Lord Elcho (1818-1914) https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.30
Lord Elcho (1818-1914)
November 15, 2025 at 11:05 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Notre Dame de Paris https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.56
A successful commercial photographer, Soulier operated in partnerships initially with A. Clouzard and then with Claude-Marie Ferrier and his son, A. Ferrier. Soulier was admired for his naturalistic architectural and urban views of Paris. In this imposing frontal view of the front façade of Notre Dame, his skill at rendering great architectural monuments and placing them into the context of their urban environment is beautifully realized. Photographed in bright sunlight, the warmly toned photograph is filled with visual, textural, and incidental information. This engaging mid-century photograph is an early record of the cathedral’s surrounding neighborhood, bustling with human activity.
November 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Camera Work: The Etching Printer - William Strang, Esq., A.R.A. https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.199.19.b
Camera Work: The Etching Printer - William Strang, Esq., A.R.A.
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Amiens https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.15
This rare, majestic, and sweeping view of the cathedral of Amiens, France, is an outstanding example of Baldus’s genius for photographing architecture. Placing his large view camera at an elevated vantage point, he recorded the dominating and central position of the church, which was undergoing restoration, as it towered above the surrounding village; open landscape is captured in the distance. In this ambitious composition, he carefully rendered the scene’s textural detail, spatial complexity, and subtlety of light. Compare this distant view with the close-up detail of a stone sculpture in LeSecq’s photograph of the same building (CMA 1996.253).
November 14, 2025 at 3:35 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Scolopendrium Vulgare https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.26
In 1843, Anna Atkins produced the first book illustrated with photographs. The book was the earliest use of photography in a scientific publication. An amateur botanist, Atkins overcame the difficulties of making accurate drawings by placing plants directly on light-sensitive paper and exposing them to light. With these cameraless photographs, later called photograms, she was able to carefully record the basic elements of a plant's line, shape, and texture. This example illustrates a specimen of Scolopendrium Vulgare, also known as Hart's-Tongue fern.
November 14, 2025 at 1:46 PM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Street in the Arab Quarter, Jerusalem https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.120
Street in the Arab Quarter, Jerusalem
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 AM
cmaphotography.bsky.social
Footbridge Near Chingford, from The Compleat Angler https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.49
Footbridge Near Chingford, from The Compleat Angler
November 14, 2025 at 10:02 AM