narrative text: little history of photography

Draft 1:

Little history of photography

Here I am in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. He often looks at me amazed and says that he would have never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the photographs in the room. My favorite one is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She sure had been wealthy. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was very long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks just like a drawing. When I first saw the photograph I was surprised because the woman did not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” In times of early photography people kept a distance to the camera. They were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake beach. Props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew of the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs got lost because of the mezzotint process. It is a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo, the special aura of the daguerreotypes, back because they associated it with prestige. So with the gum print photographers simulated the halo.

My third favorite photograph only shows a broken window. The whole picture seems surreal. It is signed by Atget who, I believe, did not pay much attention to capturing the aura. Still, it looks beautiful to me in a strange way.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here busily.  Yesterday he was reading a book which seemed to be in a sorry state. I caught a glimpse of the author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him so far. Suddenly he frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

 [399 words]

Peer Feedback:

My fellow students who proofread my text said that they liked it in general very much. Still there had been some mistakes.

·        For the most part, the mistakes were related to sentence structure. So I decided to follow the ideas of my friends because they seemed appropriate.

·         They also had a problem with the ending of my text. They thought the owner of my narrator would be Baudelaire which clearly wasn’t my intention. So I rewrote the last part to make it less confusing.

·         I also made some preposition mistakes for example: “surrounded with a halo” instead of “by”.

I think the feedback of my peers is very handful as it gives me a different perspective. I think that I could improve my text with the help of them.

 

 Final Version:

I am standing on a pine-wooded shelf in my owner’s office, next to my grandfather, the camera obscura. Grandpa often looks at me amazed and says he never imagined how small a camera would become in the 21^st century. I am a silvery-gray gleaming digital camera, the latest descendant of the camera obscura.

I often look at all the expressive photographs in the office. My favorite is a daguerreotype, the oldest of all photographs. It shows an old lady in gray sitting on a black, metal bench outside. Regardless of her age, her eyes seem full of life. She is surrounded by a halo which makes her seem divine. She must have stayed still for quite a while as the exposure time was long due to the low light sensitivity of these iodized silver plates. To me, it seems like she grew into the picture. It looks like a perfect drawing. What surprised me most is that the woman does not look into the camera. My grandfather told me about a catching phrase that photographers used to say: “Don’t look at the camera!” People kept a distance to the camera and were even afraid of looking at these pictures for too long because they felt like the subjects were staring at them.

Another photograph shows a family on a fake, sandy beach. Exaggerated props back them up. Grandpa laughs and says that this picture has nothing to do with taste. I guess Photoshop makes better fake pictures but at that time people only knew the retouched negative technique.

Once I heard my owner mumbling that the aura of photographs, the halo, got lost because of the mezzotint process which was a way of reproducing pictures. However, with the industrialization people wanted the halo back because they associated it with prestige. So photographers simulated it.

My third favorite photograph shows a broken window and shards of glass covered with raindrops sprinkling in the sun. The picture seems surreal. Still, it looks breathtaking.

I enjoy the hours when my owner is working here. Yesterday he was reading a book by an author called Baudelaire. I have never heard of him. Suddenly my owner frowned and whispered absent-minded: “Get photography back to what it used to be!” I still wonder what he meant. Photography is art and art develops. So why would I want to get it back and to what?

[398 words]