-
Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Jacques Henri Lartigue was an extraordinary photographer. He was a recreatonal photographer and did not have to earn his money with photography, being born in a wealthy family. At a tender age he produced good photographs, which he continued to do until he died. His photographs were often beautiful and spontaneous. Many pictures were taken handheld, although the cameras were large and heavy.
One photograph of Lartigue is very well known. It depicts a racing car and people along side the road.
The picture was taken with an ICA camera in 1912 on a 4x5 inch glass plate with an f4.5 lens, fast for those days.
This photograph is so appealing because of its distortions. The man at the side of the road is leaning to the left, while the hind wheel of the car is deformed to an oblique ellipse. The car is only half visible and together with the deformations it gives artistic power to the image: the speed of the car seems bigger because of the distorted wheel, as though it was a cartoon. The car is speeding out of the image. In the mean time, the left bystander falls sideways in a silent underwater world with which the race driver has no contact. Even the spokes of the wheel are bent in the driving direction, if you look carefully.
What produced these beautiful and expressive deformations? Was the photographer such a genius that he did it on purpose with the camera, or was it a coincidence? Can we do this in PhotoShop or in a wet darkroom?
The answer is rather simple: the effect came about because Jacques Henri used a large camera which he panned to follow the car (but not quite fast enough) and he used a focal plane shutter of which the slit moved from top to bottom. In this way we see different moments in time projected on different parts of the film. In the image the slit of the focal plane shutter moved upward because of the bottom-up projection of the lens.
Both the leaning of the bystander and the deformation of the wheel and spokes can be explained in this way, demonstrated by this animation (which I wrote in MatLab). The animation should speak for itself.
While making the animation, it appeared that I needed about 65% of the panning speed of the camera necessary to follow the car. That turns out to produce the correct combination of the distorted wheels and leaning angle of the man.
With a modern camera with faster focal plane shutter you either get a blur of the bystanders, or everything is undeformed, as shown here
Much less interesting! On this site a project is shown to build and use slow focal plane shutters.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Excellent! I knew that the picture was distorted because of the shutter, but it is nice to see the "live" things. Bravo!
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Lindolfi...Marvelous!!
"he used a focal plane shutter of which the slit moved from top to bottom. In this way we see different moments in time projected on different parts of the film"
... is there anything like this floating around today... or does anyone know how to do a shutter hack to get this effect...this shutter is an absolute must have for me.
cheers, annie
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thank you, Lindolfi. This is fascinating.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
A truly excellent post, Lindolfi. Welcome to the board and I hope you'll be a frequent contributor!
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Exactly what I taught my students this past semester about how a focal plane shutter works, using Lartigue's image as an example.
This post explains what happens far better than me. Thank you.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thank you so much for posting this and the "corrected" version. which is also visually fascinating.
Ansel Adams writes that he asked Lartigue if the effect had been intentional, and was assured that indeed it was! Not bad for a 10 year old kid.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
A couple of the things I find interesting about Lartigue are, first, how many of his iconic "Modern" photographs were taken in and around Paris during the same years many of Atget's iconic photographs were taken there - although they would seem to be almost from two different historic periods.
And secondly, as good a photographer as Lartigue was, much of his reputation and place in photographic history as the "naïve primitive" child of Modern photography, as a sort of savant, is in good part a myth invented by the Museum of Modern Art to bolster their mission of defining Modernism - he wasn't quite as unique as some would make out. (and indeed, as I recall, some of the well know facts about him are pure myth).
That said, he is certainly an interesting and fascinating photographer (a friend of mine had him to stay once in Montreal when he came over for an exhibition - and as well as taking photographs of their sons during the stay -which he later sent them - he was, apparently, a delightful old gentleman full of stories)
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
I wonder why we don't see more examples of this from that era of photography.
Regards
Bill
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tim atherton
And secondly, as good a photographer as Lartigue was, much of his reputation and place in photographic history as the "naïve primitive" child of Modern photography, as a sort of savant, is in good part a myth invented by the Museum of Modern Art to bolster their mission of defining Modernism - he wasn't quite as unique as some would make out. (and indeed, as I recall, some of the well know facts about him are pure myth).)
Tim,
You beat me to it. A fascinating book that details Lartigue's photographic education and intent is "Jacques Henri Lartigue The Invention of an Artist" by Kevin Moore.
Lartigue was immersed in cutting edge photography at the time as was his father. They had the latest and best equipment and subscribed to many periodicals. No naivete there... That said JH Lartiguei remains one of ny favorite photographers.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cowanw
I wonder why we don't see more examples of this from that era of photography.
Regards
Bill
Do you mean this particular image? or Lartigues "style"?
Part of the reason why his particular images are so well known is because John Szarkowski and MoMA took his albums on wholesale and then promoted them to the world.
As for the racing car image, there are actually numerous examples of the same effect and look in the news magazines of the day, especially when they featured photographs of the newly popular sport of motor racing.
And for much of the rest of Lartigues work, as a youngster, along with his father, they were both part of a very active group of rich industrialist photographic amateurs who formed their own grouping and clubs - experimenting with both the technological/scientific and artistic aspects of photography (there were other distinct groups of photographers at the same time as well - the "Plein Air" group etc etc).
Until recently, not much research was done into these groups and movements in France, but in recent years, their archives and albums have been looked into more, and there are many other similar examples of the sort of artistic and technical experiments of the sort we have only seen more widely in the albums of Lartigue (and his father) - and which were treated up until recently by the photo historians as being essentially unique.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Splendid instructional thread Lindolfi. Many thanks. The period around 1912 particularly in Paris was intellectually hot with a lot of upper class money available to support art and intellectual pursuits. A lot of artistic innovation - post expressionist jumping into modernism - and I'm sure Lartigue was influenced by some of this. I rather thought that this image was an unexpected result for Lartigue though.
Nate Potter
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
For anyone who is interested, Photo Icons: The Story Behind the Pictures, 1827-1991 (no copyright), published by Taschen and edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle, has a nice little write-up of this image (pp 132-141).
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Annie M.
Lindolfi...Marvelous!!
"he used a focal plane shutter of which the slit moved from top to bottom. In this way we see different moments in time projected on different parts of the film"
... is there anything like this floating around today... or does anyone know how to do a shutter hack to get this effect...this shutter is an absolute must have for me.
cheers, annie
Hi Annie,
Graflex made both the speed graphic cameras (make sure the "speed" part is there - that's the focal plane shutter series) and their RB series SLRs with focal plane shutters. I've never seen hard data on this, but while the RB Super D (a 4x5 SLR) shutter has a top speed of 1/1000th of a second, it does this by having a narrow slit, of which I've heard the transit time of the slit across the entire frame is about 1/5th of a second. Both types have shown up on this forum from time to time, and are reasonably common on that auction site (though, of course, buyer beware. . . ).
Cheers!
Bill
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
A slow shutter speed with panning can reproduce that effect on any horizontal focal plane shuttered camera. I have used this technique many times with various 35mm Nikon cameras. I would imagine a Speed Graphic could produce similar images.
Anyway, he is probably one of my favourite photographers of the past . . . not so much from a technology aspect, quite simply just because I enjoy viewing his images. What he shows well is the movement of like, and telling a story within a frame of film.
Ciao!
Gordon Moat Photography
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thanks ... now I can possibly cannibalize a speed graphic and mount the shutter behind my 240 on the 7x11 for a pan of the breakline... that is if it has a speed setting of +1 second... sorry for the detour off-topic.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Bah Humbug. A good student would have worked out the car's decelleration using the residual distortion in the wheel.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thanks very much indeed for the interesting comments.
Struan Gray, the deformation of the wheel starting from a circle only consists of a difference in horizontal and vertical scaling and an additional horizontal skew. That means that no change in velocity of the car or of the camera panning angular velocity is needed to account for the shape of the wheel in the photograph, since there is no "residual distortion". Thanks for your input.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thank you Lindolfi.
Having been amazed of this photograph I think that this is one of the most interesting topics I have seen on this forum for a long time!
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
I wonder why the passengers side real wheel is not skewed?
Regards
Bill
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
I think it is also, just less obvious since we're only seeing 1/4 of it, if that.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lindolfi
there is no "residual distortion".
So why does your red line meander about so much within the white zone?
I once tried to fit an ellipse to the outer and inner black-white boundaries. I couldn't do it without invoking a change in speed for the car (or an accelleration of the shutter curtain, but that should show up in the background figures too).
I think Lartigue took the photo near a corner.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Struan Gray
So why does your red line meander about so much within the white zone?
My first guess is that the young photographer didn't manage to keep an absolutely perfectly even panning speed. Does anyone think they could do better?
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Struan, fitting an ellips is something different from fitting a skewed ellipse. They are not the same mathematical shapes. A skewed ellipse has its minor and major axes at another angle than 90 degrees. A skewed ellips is the correct shape, since the wheel is deformed by the convolution of a moving line element (the slit) with a moving circle (the wheel). I think the fit of the skewed ellips is very good, given the noise in the photograph. Meandering has to do with the limited number of pixels present. Originals here look very clean indeed.
The fact that the wheel is not as sharp (not even the rim) as the rest of the car, suggests that the uneven road made the wheel vibrate. An acceleration of the car would have generated a systematic change in shape, not a random one.
If we assume that the shutter took about 1/5 seconds to move from bottom to top of the image, the shutter took 0.06 seconds to cover the hind wheel and so in order to produce a 10% deformation of the rim from the perfect skewed circle, the car would have to break so fast that it would stop in about 0.6 seconds to standstill, which is quite impossible. Besides: the race driver would not have been able to hold the steering wheel with these bent elbows and still maintain this seated position at such an enormous deceleration. Remember, there were no safety belts. We can safely remove this item from the list of reasonable explanations for any residual deformation of the wheel in the image. Besides, according to me, there is no measurable deformation from a skewed ellipse.
Ole, the panning speed was very constant: The panning angular acceleration of the camera can be found by assuming that the three poles or trees at the side of the road were straight. If the camera would have accelerated, all three poles would have been curved to the left (from bottom to top). The left pole is a little bit curved, but the other two are not, so the camera angular acceleration can be safely set to zero.
Scott, you are right in your reply to cowanw, there is skewing, but less so of the passsenger wheel. From the dimensions of the car (a Delage type F), I reconstructed the distance of the photographer to the car and the rate of angular velocity of the camera and found in a 3D simulation I wrote that the furthest hind wheel should indeed by less skewed than the closest hind wheel. The angular change is less for that furthest wheel because of the rotation of the camera and the linear motion of the car.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
I used a skewed ellipse, of course. The outer rim of the white band gives an accurate enough marker to see a systematic error if you assume a linear motion of the wheel image across the focal plane.
A 10% distortion is fairly brutal. Much less is required to fine-tune the match. As you say, your linear fit is pretty good as it is.
If I remember rightly, a bigger problem is that any residual distortion can also be explained by perspective effects, and there is not enough information in the image to fully elminate those. The fact that the other rear wheel is less distorted, and that the top of the wheel is less thick than the bottom, suggests a wide-angle lens used from a low-viewpoint, but without specifics you end up well into angels on pins territory.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
From the difference in size of the two hindwheels and the width of the Delage Type F, I calculated a focal length of between 210 and 240 mm on 4x5, so that is longer than normal at that filmsize. Viewpoint height was at about 0.8 meter given the perspective and the dimensions of the car. Moreover, the car moved almost parallel to the plane of the film (horizon at half the photograph and fanning of lines on the road), so any wide angle deformation is not to be expected from a wide angle lens.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lindolfi
Ole, the panning speed was very constant: The panning angular acceleration of the camera can be found by assuming that the three poles or trees at the side of the road were straight. If the camera would have accelerated, all three poles would have been curved to the left (from bottom to top). The left pole is a little bit curved, but the other two are not, so the camera angular acceleration can be safely set to zero.
But since the poles (and people) only go down to the middle of the picture, we have no basis of comparison for the lower half of the wheels?
BTW, I believe most 1912 ICA's took 9x12cm glass plates and not 4x5".
While there are several different lenses that may have been fitted to it, 99% of all were 135mm with a few special order 120mm's and 150mm's.
An f:4.5 lens in those days would be either a Tessar-type, a triplet, or a dialyte.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thank you Ole. 9x12 is correct ofcourse, also according to McKeown's. The length is nearly the same as 4x5. However, if you are right about that 135 mm (still a normal length for 9x12 and not wide angle), the image we look at must be a crop. How can we know this is true and if so, why was the image cropped?
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
The proportions of the image look right for 9x12cm, less 3mm for edges. I'll have to look closer when I get home and can compare to an original 9x12cm plate (exposed by myself last year).
Or could it be film? That's another few mm off the size?
A third possibility is tha the camera could have been fitted with a different focal length lens, but I somehow find it difficult to believe in anything longer than 180mm at most.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Here is a correction concerning the situation in which Jacques Henri Lartigue made the photograph:
According to "The Camera" published by Time Life International in 1971, the photograph was made in 1912 during the Grand Prix in Dieppe and the car would be a Delage. However, the number 6 on the car and the type of car shows that this is not the case: The photograph was taken in 1913 in Amiens during the Grand Prix and the driver was René Croquet, driving a Théophile Schneider car. In the race he finished 10th (reference).
According to the title Lartigue gave to the photograph "Courses de voitures, Papa à 80 km/h, 1913", the passenger must have been his father. When the estimate of 80 km/h is correct, we can back calculate the travel time of the focal plane shutter, which would be about 0.07 sec at a vertical dimension of the plate of 90 mm and assuming an uncropped photograph.
This site, shows a number of photographs with a similar deformation of the wheels and also another photograph of the same car during the same race (6th photograph from the top)
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
There are the examples of similar effects that I was wondering about. And they are earlier than the famous one! Maybe, at the time, that type of photographic deformation was simply an expected appearance.
I am such a cynic
Regards
Bill
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lindolfi
"Courses de voitures, Papa à 80 km/h, 1913", the passenger must have been his father. When the estimate of 80 km/h is correct, we can back calculate the travel time of the focal plane shutter, which would be about 0.07 sec at a vertical dimension of the plate of 90 mm and assuming an uncropped photograph.
)
The 80 km/h could not possibly have been an accurate number. Only someone actually in the car would have known how fast it was going, and (as I recall) there were no speedometers in those days in racing cars. It's like the song, "She was flying down the mountain at 90 miles an hour, when the chain on her bicycle broke, etc....":D
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Yes Bill, that can not have been an accurate number. The only accurate number is the average velocity of the car on the photograph, which can be back calculated from the table on this site. The distance was 917.06 km and the average velocity of the number 6 car driven by Croquet 99.62 km/h. The real velocity at the time of exposure can not be known with any precision, you are absolutely right about that. We would know more if anyone comes up with an ICA camera of that type so that we could measure the travel time of the shutter.
cowanw, you are right about the abundance of photographs with deformed wheels from that period. Look here for instance.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
I don't have my original fitting data anywhere, but it would be easy enough to reproduce, and I'm willing to eat a little humble pie if I have mis-remembered or simply had a brain fart.
But, I only have a literally postcard-sized image to scan, and I can't find a high-res version of the image anywhere online. If anyone has a large analogue image and would be willing to scan it (or simply has a higher-res file) I'd love to have it. If not, I'll go with the postcard, but it's a bit blocked up.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Struan, this may be the best one for sale in terms of size.
In my book "The Camera" produced by Times Life Publishers from 1971 on page 162 and 163 there is a large print, but the resolution is hardly better than the digital version I started this thread with. Besides, it is posterized into at most 4 grey levels.
In the large book put together by Avedon about the work of Lartigue, there is quite a good version, but again not a higher resolution. This suggests that the photograph itself was not very sharp, which makes it realistic to use lower resolution versions as material to fit curves on.
The white band on the tire appears to be simply the color of the tire: very light colored rubber, as can be seen from other photographs of the event. The dark soil is stuck on the profile of the tire. So that means that the light band is uneven, since it is not marked on it on purpose. That would mean that a fit to the edge of the steel rim would be a better thing to do. The outline of the tire is the result of the pencil of lines coming from the lens of the camera touching the 3D surface of the tire, so is more complex, else that would have been more accurate, being a large shape in the photograph.
Hope you get your fitting process running again, so I can see what it does, Struan.
PS This is the best I can come up with from where I am now: (click here)
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
This has been a terrific thread, Lindolfi -- you are wonderful. Are you a Baker Street Irregular in your spare time?
I've ordered "The Invention of an Artist," and look forward to reading more about the period.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
There's an ICA Tudor Reflex on ebay now - HERE.
It's got a 210mm Xenar on it, but I don't know the plate size. :(
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Thanks Ole.
The 3D reconstruction shows some more insights
First the situation seen from above. The dark lines indicate the view cone of the camera during exposure:
The situation seen from the camera during the exposure as though a video camera was used
The reconstruction using the moving slit of the focal plane shutter:
From this we can see the following:
1] The variation in thickness of the nearest hind tire (lower left part and upper right parts thicker) can be explained from the pursuit movement and the 3D shape of the tire
2] The left hind tire is less skew since there is less error in pursuit movement, since it is further away from the camera
3] Lartigue operated the shutter when the car was closest to him, but he was already following with his camera
4] The men in the car and steering wheel are the sharpest parts in the photograph, since he followed them, and not the closest hind wheel
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Here's another version of the 3D view during exposure with the focal plane shutter slit moving over the scene, building up the image.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lindolfi
Here's another version of the 3D view during exposure with the focal plane shutter slit moving over the scene, building up the image.
I know this thread is quite old; however, I'm curious about about one possible problem. What is the chance that Lartigue's camera shutter moved from top to bottom as some camera experts argue? For example, this site: http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tech/fp-shutter.html It suggests that Lartigue used a camera (1909 ICA Spiegelreflex-Künstlerkamera System Raupp) which has a focal plane shutter that opens from top down. If that is the case, wouldn't Lartigue have had to be panning from right to left, against the direction of the car? That would be the only way to explain the distortion in the shot.
Cheers!
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
The projected image is inverted at the image plane (it is upside down and back to front). The white line in the animation is, in the real world, running from the top of the camera to the bottom.
I think Lindolfi's 3D projections explain nicely the residuals I was seeing in my fitting. Any further forensics will probably require access to the negative or a high-quality print.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
What an excellent thread!
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Struan Gray
The projected image is inverted at the image plane (it is upside down and back to front). The white line in the animation is, in the real world, running from the top of the camera to the bottom.
I think Lindolfi's 3D projections explain nicely the residuals I was seeing in my fitting. Any further forensics will probably require access to the negative or a high-quality print.
I'd forgotten the image would be inverted. Thanks for the correction! :)
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Fascinating discussion. educational and provocative. My question about the direction of shutter travel was answered before I even asked it. :) But I recommend that if you haven't checked out Lindolfi's DOF calculator, that you do so. It is pretty dang cool. I think.
Cheers
robert
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Annie M.
... is there anything like this floating around today...
Yes, the Graflex Speed Graphic cameras.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jac@stafford.net
Also, all Graflex cameras.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Always good to return to an old thread, innit. :)
The Photo Icons book by Koetzle mentioned earlier, seems quite certain that the lens Lartigue used was a 150mm. He also seems to suggest that Lartigue would have used the fastest available speed, which on that model Ica was /1000. That presumably is an equivalent speed rather than the actual speed of the curtain as the /1000 setting uses an extremely narrow slit.
I'm curious as there is a pre-1949 hotrod beach race coming up in two weeks and I fancy taking my Soho Reflex along. The top speed setting of the vertical plane shutter is /800. I have a choice of lenses - I may use the 175mm as I probably won't be able to get so close to the cars.
-
Re: Jacques Henri Lartigue and his camera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Annie M.
Lindolfi...Marvelous!!
"he used a focal plane shutter of which the slit moved from top to bottom. In this way we see different moments in time projected on different parts of the film"
... is there anything like this floating around today... or does anyone know how to do a shutter hack to get this effect...this shutter is an absolute must have for me.
cheers, annie
Yes similar cameras are available, although not new . My 80 year old 4x5 Graflex can cause the odd formation. By the way, Lindolfi the effect is more obvious with a slow shutter speed, not a faster one. My Graflex shutter goes to 1/1000 second.