Travel Photography after the Kodak: Two Amateur Albums from the Turn of the Century

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Travel Photography after the Kodak: Two Amateur Albums from the Turn of the Century
Abstract
The author points out that the last decade of the nineteenth century marked a point of transition in the history of photography. The increasing popularity of hand-held cameras, instantaneous exposures and commercial film processing transformed the medium of photography from an esoteric practice into a popular pastime. The Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company's Kodak Camera, introduced in 1888 with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest," embodied the new approach to photography. The author looks at two amateur photograph albums that document travel through Quebec during this period. "Our Quebec Trip", from the collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, records a trip to Quebec City and the surrounding region during August of 1896. "Souvenir of a few pleasant summer days", held in the collection of the McCord Museum of Canadian History, chronicles a nine-day trip from Montreal to Quebec City in the summer of 1898. The photographer of the first album is unknown, other than the person was an Anglophone. The owner of the second album was Montrealer Wilhhelmina (Mina) Margaret Hare (1869-1928). The albums are examined by the author alongside camera advertisements, instruction manuals and photographic journals that created the culture surrounding the camera at the turn of the century and which instructed growing numbers of camera-owners on how to use their cameras. The respective influences of the serious amateurs who promoted photography as a fine art and the photographic industry that sought to expand its market are considered by the author in relation to the aesthetics of the two albums.
Type
Master's Thesis
University
Concordia University
Place
Montreal
Date
2005
# of Pages
vii-142p.
Language
en
URL
Citation
Korda, Andrea. “Travel Photography after the Kodak: Two Amateur Albums from the Turn of the Century.” Master’s Thesis, Concordia University, 2005. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/8281/1/MR04467.pdf.
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