American Presidents and the History of Photography from the Daguerreotype to the Digital Revolution

FAIN: FA-232263-16

Cara Anne Finnegan, PhD
Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL 61801-3620)

A book-length study of the impact of the U.S. presidency on the history of photography and photographic technology.
 
 

The Camera Politic contends that a history of photography told through the lens of its most official subject, the President of the United States, shows us how generations of Americans learned to understand photography's role in public life. The book will analyze images, texts, and archival material to study how presidents participated in and shaped the public experience of photography at four transformative moments: the introduction of the daguerreotype in 1839; the rise of halftone after 1880; the arrival of 35-mm photography in the late 1920s; and the digital revolution of the early twenty-first century. By challenging the narrow characterization of photography as a political tool and extending political communication scholarship back into the pre-television era, my project invites us to think more broadly about how presidential photography participates in the public sphere, and reminds us that every era negotiates the challenges and opportunities of its own "new media."

Media Coverage

Will the White House continue to use photos as a social media tool? (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Craig Chamberlain
Publication: University of Illinois News Bureau
Date: 12/20/2016
Abstract: Interview with me (Cara Finnegan) about topics related to my NEH-funded book project. This interview focuses specifically on the Obama administration's use of social media photography.
URL: https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/442842

Five Illinois Faculty Awarded NEH Fellowships (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jodi Heckel
Publication: University of Illinois News Bureau
Date: 12/15/2015
Abstract: Description of NEH fellowships awarded to five campus faculty for 2016-17.
URL: https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/295246

What's so strange about Trump's White House portrait? Experts explain. (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jacob Gardenswarz
Publication: Vox
Date: 1/26/2017
Abstract: Interviewed for story analyzing Donald Trump's official White House portrait
URL: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/26/14376784/trump-portrait-white-house-experts-explain

Presidents and Photography (Media Coverage)
Publication: WDWS radio
Date: 2/7/2017
Abstract: Interviewed about history of presidential photographic portraits for local radio station.

Zuckerberg s’affiche-t-il en « Américain moyen » à l’image d’un candidat à la présidentielle ? (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Damien LeLoup
Publication: Le Monde
Date: 3/2/2017
Abstract: Interviewed about whether Mark Zuckerberg's official photographs hint that he may run for political office.
URL: http://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2017/03/02/ni-vraiment-patron-ni-vraiment-candidat-mark-zuckerberg-un-americain-moyen-sur-facebook_5087966_4408996.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#

Melania Trump's Official Portrait was Released. And People are Talking. (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Beth Teitell
Publication: Boston Globe
Date: 4/4/2017
Abstract: Interviewed for article analyzing First Lady Melania Trump's official photographic portrait.
URL: https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2017/04/04/the-white-house-released-official-photo-first-lady-what-with-crossed-arms/6jttQ65PsZfWEaoF83n9ON/story.html

Reading the Pictures Salon: Key Pictures from Trump's First 100 Days (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Michael Shaw
Publication: Reading the Pictures
Date: 4/7/2017
Abstract: Featured as an expert on presidential photography in a live, online salon discussing news photographs from the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.
URL: http://www.readingthepictures.org/2017/04/trump-100-days-salon/

Review of Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital (Review)
Publication: Publishers Weekly
Date: 2/1/2021
URL: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-25208-578-9

Review of Photographic Presidents (Review)
Publication: Foreword Reviews
Date: 2/2/2021
URL: https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/photographic-presidents/

Social media review of Photographic Presidents (Review)
Author(s): Souza, Pete
Publication: Pete Souza's Instagram feed
Date: 1/28/2022
URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPat84rlD4J/

Associated Products

Pursuing Grant-Funded Research in Communication: Challenges and Opportunities across the Discipline (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Pursuing Grant-Funded Research in Communication: Challenges and Opportunities across the Discipline
Author: Cara A. Finnegan
Abstract: An informal presentation about my experience seeking NEH funding, on a panel featuring other communication scholars who have received federal funding for research (e.g., NSF, NIH).
Date: 11-11-2016
Conference Name: National Communication Association

Photographing Washington: American Presidents and the History of Photography (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Photographing Washington: American Presidents and the History of Photography
Author: Cara A. Finnegan
Abstract: Almost as soon as Americans started making daguerreotypes, they made daguerreotypes of George Washington. The fact that he was unavailable to be photographed from life, it seems, was no major obstacle. Though he died in 1799 – a full forty years before photography’s invention – the nation’s first president appeared nevertheless as a subject in daguerreotypes of busts, painted portraits, and prints, ironically making daguerreotypes of Washington’s image some of the earliest presidential photographs. My presentation, adapted from the introduction to my NEH-funded book project, explores some of the possible reasons why.
Date: 11-11-2016
Primary URL: http://www.carafinnegan.com/work-in-progress.html
Conference Name: National Communication Association

The Candid Camera and the Changing Visual Values of Political Space (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Candid Camera and the Changing Visual Values of Political Space
Author: Cara A. Finnegan
Abstract: Scholars of rhetoric and political communication have for decades argued that the rise of television transformed rhetoric’s political spaces. Yet television was not the first visual medium to do so; other visual antecedents are worth attending to as well. Beginning in the late 1920s, a new kind of photography appeared in Europe and the United States, made possible by small, portable cameras capable of producing intimate photographs of seemingly unguarded subjects. These “miniature” or “candid cameras” provided photographers with a decidedly different way to picture political actors. Of the dramatic difference between the candid camera and its heavier, larger predecessors, one writer of the era said it was like an “express rifle had been substituted for a pea shooter.” In 1929, the term “candid camera” was coined by the London Daily Graphic to describe the work of German photographer Erich Salomon, whose specialty became the photography of political spaces. Salomon made unposed images of European leaders and diplomats at international conferences and later brought his candid camera to bear on political elites in the U.S. This paper analyzes Salomon’s photographs and the public conversation about them to show how the candid camera transformed ideas about political space in Europe and the U.S. between 1928-1932. By taking advantage of the candid camera’s ability to foreshorten the physical space between photographer and subject, Salomon’s images offered the political sphere new visual values of access, intimacy, and energy. The project illustrates the value of attending to those historically-specific moments when technological change reshapes our real and imagined rhetorical-political spaces.
Date: 7-28-2017
Primary URL: http://ishr-web.org/aws/ISHR/pt/sp/conference
Primary URL Description: International Society for the History of Rhetoric 2017 Conference
Conference Name: International Society for the History of Rhetoric

Plodding Through the Presidents podcast (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Plodding Through the Presidents podcast
Director: Howard Dorre
Producer: Howard Dorre
Abstract: Appearance on podcast to discuss ideas from Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital
Date: 9/28/2021
Primary URL: https://www.ploddingthroughthepresidents.com/2021/09/cara-finnegan-photographic-presidents.html
Format: Web

History Unplugged podcast (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: History Unplugged podcast
Abstract: Appearance on podcast to discuss ideas from Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital
Date: 5-27-21
Primary URL: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvMzEwMTI3OC9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL2VwaXNvZGUvNDQyMjI1MDM?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwi_o_nZ4fTwAhVEWs0KHSSVDYsQieUEegQIBxAF&ep=6
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

New Books Network (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: New Books Network
Director: Lee Pierce
Producer: Lee Pierce
Abstract: Appearance on podcast to discuss ideas from Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital
Date: 6-2-21
Primary URL: https://newbooksnetwork.com/photographic-presidents
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

This American President podcast (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: This American President podcast
Director: Richard Lim
Producer: Richard Lim
Abstract: Appearance on podcast to discuss ideas from Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital
Date: 5/5/21
Primary URL: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/thisamericanpresident?selected=FPMN2548066600
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital. (Book)
Title: Photographic Presidents: Making History from Daguerreotype to Digital.
Author: Cara A. Finnegan
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p085789
Primary URL Description: Publisher website
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780252043796

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