Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/29

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Subject: [Leica] Vermeer's Camear [was: Critical discourse on photography]
From: Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 08:48:34 -0800
References: <B82B2F73.4126%ternahan@sonic.net>

>There was a great BBC programme with Hockney on this - very very interesting
>(great stuff like famous paintings, that when you look closely, have depth
>of field/out of focus problems! And suddenly, at the time when certain
>optical devices become available, everyone in a lot of paintings becomes
>left handed... even a monkey in one picture!
>I flicked through Hockneys book of the programme - very interesting too.
>[snip]
>I imagine it will come to PBS or something like that sometime. There was a
>good article in the Radio Times, and one in the New Yorker by Hockney a year
>or so ago.
>Tim A


On this issue, read Philip Steadman's "Vermeer's Camera" (Oxford, 2001),
reviewed here on the Lug last spring when the book came out. Steadman
studies the same problem as Hockney, but he did it first, if I recall. His
book is also the most thorough exploration of the potential use of a camera
obscura by Vermeer, something that has been debated forever, but has yet to
be proven. Steadman can't prove it either, but he gives some very
compelling evidence that Vermeer did indeed use some form of camera to
compose and paint his pictures. A good read.

Guy
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In reply to: Message from ternahan <ternahan@sonic.net> (Re: [Leica] Critical discourse on photography)