glass globe used by Clarence H White

[jp]

I like history but don't know much about the victorian era he seemed to be part of, so any guess on my part might be missing some important context. I'll ask here instead. The glass globes he used in many photos.. Is there any sort of meaning to them? I do know other photography of the era is rich is metaphors related to mythology and religion; I seriously doubt these women are inspired by atlas. I think it's a nice compositional element, but don't know exactly why it was used.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0n9o004br1qzhy8eo1_500.jpg

If I remember correctly, Newhall seemed to like the globe and window screen photo better than the much nicer portraits, but it seems to have even less context or meaning.

White liked circles in general, is the globe just part of an interest in the compositional element of circles?

[Joe Smigiel]

Might it have something to do with the sphere being a perfect form?

Anne Brigman liked them too:

77149

[Mark Sawyer]

The glass sphere had a long history in art before photography came along:

Da Vinci:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Owen21k/daVinci.jpg

Vermeer:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Owen21k/Vermeer.jpg

van Everdingen:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Owen21k/703px-Caesar_van_Everdingen_-_Amor_Holding_a_Glass_Orb_-_WGA7567.jpg

Early on, glass spheres were generally used in religious imagery, (in his 1636 book on Christian emblems, Emblemata sacra de fide, spe, charitate, Jesuit Willem Hesiuswrote "the sphere's ability to reflect the world is similar to the mind's ability to believe in God". Crystal balls were a big part of the Christian occult and Gnostic Christianity. During the Victorian era they became part of the general interest in the occult.

From an artist's point of view, the spheres were probably an interesting challenge to paint, and impressive if you could pull it off convincingly. In photography, they weren't so much of a technical problem, but still quite lovely to look at, and the long history behind them fit nicely with the pictorialists' desire to fit into art history.

They're still pretty fun to photograph...

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Owen21k/tinkerball2s.jpg

[jp]

The glass sphere had a long history in art before photography came along:

From an artist's point of view, the spheres were probably an interesting challenge to paint, and impressive if you could pull it off convincingly.


Thanks Mark for the additional background. I'd noticed them in art prior, but figured it was a technical challenge/gimmick related to the development of portraying 3d perspective.

[Nicholas Whitman]

Pictorialists doing a "Charley the tuna".

[cowanw]

I read some where, where I cannot find now, that the position of the ball in the photograph referred to whethter you were in favour with Stieglitz or not
Perhaps some one was here
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2011/webprogram/Paper6540.html
or knows how to ask Verna Posever Curtis about it.

[Kirk Gittings]

Pictorialists doing a "Charley the tuna".
:)

[jp]

The glass sphere had a long history in art before photography came along:

Da Vinci:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g139/Owen21k/daVinci.jpg


This is a solid and straightforward example of the globe representing the earth... Especially as it is titled Salvator Mundi. However, Christ had a unique reason and purpose in the world that isn't directly transferrable to other portrait subjects. Religious use, in mainstream Christianity, of the globe (as the earth) with a cross was well established at this point, long before we learned as little kids that Christopher Columbus supposedly proved the world wasn't flat by his effort to sail around to the other side.

The Verna Posever Curtis summary looks interesting. I can't find anything more of it at amazon or google books and nothing on her wordpress site.

[jp]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-03-06-08.shtml says some interesting ideas... I can understand a portrait subject wanting to emulate iconography.


Finally, this came in from Kevin Bjorke, in response to my puzzlement over the glass globes that sometimes appear in pictorialist photographs:


Dear Mike,

The glass globe is an iconic reference to Dutch portraiture of the 1500s and 1600s, in which reference to the new optics industry indicated an interest in things new and scientific. It also indicated an interest in similar issues by the portraitist, a fact which has been construed by some (most famously David Hockney) to suggest that artists around this time accepted optical tools into their workshops, which in turn led to the strong explosion of "realistic" painting at that time (spreading from Holland to the rest of Europe).

Also, the globe had powerful social significance, because it indicated that the power of being iconified yourself — of being the subject of a portrait — was moving away from the ultra-powerful church and state authorities (saints, kings, and nobles of various sorts) and into the sphere of growing economic power — a connection to the optics industry usually meant a connection with telescope, navigation, commerce, shipping, and money. So we see it as an emblem of the rise of the merchant class.

The pictorialists (most infamously William Mortenson) just picked up all of the trappings left behind by those older traditions. Whether they were really aware of the meaning of such trappings is left open to question. But to a degree, they did — they were attempting, as the earlier painters had, to imbue their subjects (and themselves) with an illusory connection to power and substance.

— KEVIN BJORKE

[Kirk Gittings]

Hmmm, I learned (if I remember correctly that far back) that it was Magellan's crew, circumnavigating the globe, that proved the earth was round. 1520 something. Prior to that it was a theory originating with the Greeks-Pythagorus maybe IMS.


This is a solid and straightforward example of the globe representing the earth... Especially as it is titled Salvator Mundi. However, Christ had a unique reason and purpose in the world that isn't directly transferrable to other portrait subjects. Religious use, in mainstream Christianity, of the globe (as the earth) with a cross was well established at this point, long before we learned as little kids that Christopher Columbus supposedly proved the world wasn't flat by his effort to sail around to the other side.

The Verna Posever Curtis summary looks interesting. I can't find anything more of it at amazon or google books and nothing on her wordpress site.

[jp]

Update from asking the library of congress:


Question History:

Patron: To Prints and Photographs Reading Room:
A LOC curator, Verna Posever Curtis, presented a paper called "The Mystique of the Glass Globe in Pictorialist Photography". I'm wondering if this paper or notes are available, or the author's contact information might be shared. Thanks! I have not found it using amazon or google books or google search. A summary is here: http://aha.confex.com/aha/2011/webprogram/Paper6540.html

Thank You!

Librarian 1: This is the second question we've received about Ms. Curtis' paper today. We don't have a copy here in the reading room, but I will give you her contact information and hopefully she can send you one. You can reach her at:

Telephone: 202-707-8938
FAX: 202-707-6647
Email: vcur@loc.gov

I will warn you that there was a death in her family this weekend, so she may not be in the office much this week.

Jonathan Eaker

*********************************
Reference Section
Prints and Photographs Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, D.C. 20540-4730
telephone: 202-707-6394
fax: 202-707-6647
URL: < http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/ >
email: < http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-print.html >
***********************************

[BrianShaw]

LOC are great people. They really try hard to please and support research. When you get a copy I hope you will be able to share with us. Interesting topic!

[Mark Sawyer]

LOC are great people. They really try hard to please and support research. When you get a copy I hope you will be able to share with us. Interesting topic!

Indeed! I'd like very much to read this.

[jp]

I'm gonna wait a week or so, out of courtesy for the death in her family they report, then email her. I'd be glad to share it if allowed.

[jp]

Update: she seems to have nothing written to share, but does collect the globes; unusual but cool.


Dear Jason Philbrook,

It is fun to learn of your interest in Clarence H. White and the "mystique" of the glass globe. I do not really have anything convenient to share with you, however, by way of the talk I gave at the American Historical Association awhile ago. Many of the Pictorialists shared White's interest in the use of that prop, not only for its symbolic content, which is difficult to pinpoint, but more understandably, for its beauty by way of reflecting light. You must know this photo then http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96502077/
with the model who holds a lens in one hand and a globe in the other. She is a model whom White and Stieglitz worked with together.

I keep collecting examples of the globe used as prop by photographers and have found it still being used today.

Wish I had more to share, and thanks for your e-mail.


Verna Curtis

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Philbrook [mailto:jphilbrook@staff.gwi.net]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 4:28 PM
To: Curtis, Verna
Subject: glass globes

Ms. Curtis; I am a lifelonger learner interested in photo history, and I'd come across this:
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2011/webprogram/Paper6540.html where you shared your research or thoughts on the glass globes in pictorialism.
It interests me greatly. Is there any chance you have anything written to go along with this that you could conveniently share? Other people I converse with on the Internet are interested as well.

I'm a big fan of Clarence H White and he used the glass globes a great deal. I enjoy pictorialist photography myself using old lenses, but also get to work in some of the same geography White/Day/students enjoyed in the Georgetown area of Maine.

My gut instincts are that it's a mix of carryover from when shiny things were put into old paintings to show off 3-d skills, and a mix of the affinity of "classical" themes (mythology, archetypes, Christianity, etc..) and it's associated symbolism. I'd be curious to know what you've unraveled.

Thanks,
Jason

--
Jason Philbrook

Midcoast Internet Solutions - a GWI company www.midcoast.com and www.gwi.net
207-594-8277

[BrianShaw]

Interesting. Thanks for the update.

[Drew Wiley]

I thought the globe was a symbol of knowledge, another PreRaphaelite icon carried over into the Pictorialist genre. Or maybe Clarence just thought it was a nice way to keep the model's hands steady. I'll ask my cat when I get home.

[Harold_4074]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the "globe" in the Anne Brigman photograph is a glass fishing float (used to suspend nets). These objects are very common, at least on the Pacific coast, probably having washed ashore from Japan. In the Brigman picture, it is probably supposed to be a bubble, not a crystal ball....not sure what that might mean in terms of metaphorical implication...

[RichardSperry]

How about the obvious?

That it's a symbol of divination or prophesy. Especially with that getup the model is wearing. She looks like someone you'ld meet at a Ren Faire.

[Drew Wiley]

My grandfather used to pick up various sizes of Japanese seine floats when out hunting
agates at their summer home on an Oregon beach. I still have one of these things. My cat
did have the definitive answer to their role in the photograph, but it's largely phrased as
an intonation of "meow" for which there is no direct translation.

[Harold_4074]

Actually, the Brigman picture is titled "The Bubble", which clarifies the issue for people like me.

Drew, I think your cat was referring to the artistic tension between (fe)line and form, but didn't want you to take it too fur...that's what my cat said, anyway.