.
Celestograph I (The Full Moon): photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
“I have worked like a devil and have traced the movements
of the moon and the real appearance of the firmament on a laid-out
photographic plate, independent from our misleading eye. I have done
this without a camera and without a lens. [...] The photographic plate
showed an area full of moons. Certainly, every spot on the photographic
plate reflects a moon. The camera misleads as the eye does and the tube
hoaxes the astronomers!”
-- August Strindberg: from a letter to physiologist Bengt Lidforss, 26 December 1893
"The series was taken during the winter of 1893-1894 in Dornach in Austria where Strindberg was staying with his wife Frida Uhl.
"Strindberg distrusted lenses and thought they gave a distorted rendering of reality. The celestographs were therefore an attempt to produce a more objective view of stars and planets. He sent the prints to the French Astronomical Society, where they were discussed."
-- August Strindberg: from a letter to physiologist Bengt Lidforss, 26 December 1893
"The
celestographs or coelestographs are photos of the sky taken without
camera or lens. The plates were directly exposed to the night sky for
some time and then developed. The plates are now lost and only prints
remain. August Strindberg thought he had captured the stars, so he
called the photos celestographs.
"The series was taken during the winter of 1893-1894 in Dornach in Austria where Strindberg was staying with his wife Frida Uhl.
"Strindberg distrusted lenses and thought they gave a distorted rendering of reality. The celestographs were therefore an attempt to produce a more objective view of stars and planets. He sent the prints to the French Astronomical Society, where they were discussed."
-- National Library of Sweden
Celestograph I (The Full Moon), verso: Strindberg inscription: "La pleine lune. Sans appareil. Exposées: 1 minute et 1 1/2 minute. Non-fixées! (The Full moon. Without camera. Exposed 1 minute and 1 1/2 minute. Unfixed!)": photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph IV: The Sun: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph IV (The Sun), verso: Strindberg caption:"Solen / Le Soleil": photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VI: Starry Sky: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VI (Starry Sky), verso: Strindberg caption:"Stjernhimmeln / Etoiles": photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VII: Stars: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VII (Stars), verso: Strindberg caption:"Stjernor/ Étoiles": photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VIII: Stars. Region of Orion: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph VIII (Stars), verso: Strindberg caption:"Stjernor/ Étoiles / La région d'Orion (Stars / Area around Orion)": photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph XII: untitled: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph XIII: untitled: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph XIV: untitled: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
Celestograph XV: untitled: photo by August Strindberg, 1893-94 (Manuscript collections, National Library of Sweden)
August Strindberg with children. Swedish author August Strindberg with his children Karin, Hans and Greta in Gersau, Switzerland: photo by August Strindberg, 1886 (National Library of Sweden)
August Strindberg. Self-portrait of Swedish author August Strindberg in Berlin: photo by August Strindberg, 1892 or 1893 (National Library of Sweden)
12 comments:
Great images, Tom!!! The mad ones (Strindberg....) give beautiful gifts!!! What a blast Strindberg must have had making his Celestographs!!! Thank you!!!
Red,
Thanks for offering the first slim prospect of a hope that in wrestling this exhibition into the view of virtually nobody for absolutely nothing I wasn't merely proving to myself I'm as nutty as the Nonmechanical Cosmophotographer himself, without the mayo or of course the genius.
What an amazing maniac. His early experiments with photography would themselves make the stuff of a great comic novel. Of course here, with these wishful thinking portraits of the universe, Strindberg has anticipated what would now be called "chance operations": the formation of those weird accidental colloidal "constellations" on the plates was happening in a universe, surely, but probably one much closer to home, and pictorial resemblances to the stars, moons & c would have been strictly coincidental. (He seems to have been convinced, by the way, that the sun and moon are not actually round, as advertised.) Not that A.S. was going to let that little problem of representation bother him, obviously.
I love his boldness in showing off the prints to the French Astronomical Academy.
And was that august body amused?
_
"It is not quite clear in how Strindberg wanted these pictures to be perceived, but, as he entitled them 'sky photographs' and even sent them to Camille Flammarion (a famous French astronomer) for observation, it is reasonable to argue that Strindberg considered them to be actual inscriptions of the night sky. He concludes: 'To know where I stand, I am sending pictures to the Société astronomique de France accompanied by a report.' Even if Flammarion himself was devoted to occultism and frequently attended mediumistic sessions, he did not pay much attention to Strindberg’s pictures. In fact, Flammarion presented Strindberg’s Celestographies to the members of the Société astronomique de France, but the transcript of the conference held in May 1894 includes only a brief reference to the work: 'Mister J. Strindberg, Austria, sends photographic prints, made without a lens.' The pictures were then returned to Strindberg."
-- from Traces of/by nature: August Strindberg's photographic experiments of the 1890s: Katharina Steidl (2011)
Amazing. Absolutely the best. A long time ago, while working after college as a microfilmer at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, I had the idea of reproducing (sometimes enlarging, sometimes manipulating) in print extraordinary images that gathered in the film leaders and along the edges of the strips of film. They were arresting and, I thought, enlightening, but nothing like these. (I guess nothing beats looking skyward.) I wish I had pursued what I was doing (and a couple of other things), but the people I worked for didn't see the point and told me to knock it off. These are just great. Curtis
Thanks very much Curtis, glad you enjoyed these -- don't let on, but a voice in my head kept telling me to knock it off while I was attempting to post them. Not everyone possesses the natural temerity of genius. I suppose Strindberg must indeed have thought he was gazing skyward, there in that dark night, as he peered intently ... into that Petri dish, aswarm with those celestial cooties he was bent on seeing as suns and moons and stars.
No steroid has yet been invented to match the extraordinary power of self belief.
I love how the two girls in the family photo seem extremely wary.
Strindberg is one of my favorite madmen. Such earnest and wishful thinking!
This being the internet, I have to point you here.
Terry, I think that may be down to the long exposure. A.S. has set up the shot, and instructed the children to hold still... and wait. But you know kids. Hans is already acting up. Karin and Greta are, naturally, made a bit worried by that. An eternal drama. The men make the plans, the boys do their best to screw it up, and the girls are a bit concerned -- while knowing, of course, that the only solution, in the long run, for these sorts of embarrassing situations, will be to simply let them take over, for the overall good of the universe (of course).
Nora, totally brilliant, and probably closer to the truth than "conventional biography" (!!) would ever allow. The Genius himself, at home, spending some quality time with the kids, chilling on the sofa.
"O Helium! Listen to the happiness! It brings me misery!"
Nora, totally brilliant, and probably closer to the truth than "conventional biography" (!!) would ever allow. The Genius himself, at home, spending some quality time with the kids, chilling on the sofa.
"O Helium! Listen to the happiness! It brings me misery!"
Misereeeeeeey!
thanks, Tom
Very beautiful! Thanks Tom.
Post a Comment