An archaeological approach to photography - media archaeology, focusing on medium as mode of engagement;

also serving as notes for Archaeography - the class.

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Points

• the lens (and the mirror) have been implicated in the architecture of the camera obscura since at least the fifteenth century
• far from being transparent glass, an aid to achieving the accurate image, the lens is an active means of tracing/drawing an image
• in this the lens is a system of compromises
• the design of the lens implicates a genealogical/historical network of compromising decisions about standardised format (35mm SLR/rangefinder, lens mount, bellows extension ...), cost, glass (formulae and availability), optics (correction, resolution, speed, angle of view, coverage ...), medium (plate, film, digital sensor ...)
• the lens is an active component of the camera as mode of engagement

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in the camera the lens enables control over the aperture/opening into the recording room/space

lenses allow the negotiaton of resolution, blur, sharpness, contrast, magnification, field of view, distortion, perspective

and they are always compromises (related also to other design decisions - format, standards - eg 35mm rangefinder lens mounts) that we have to work with - in this they are constraints

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the lens has a stake, a force in our intentions - they are goal-shifting entities - because they help define a particular mode of engagement

creating different "looks"

different ways of drawing an image

sharpness, contrast, microcontrast, resolution, distortion are factors

as well as the way lenses connect with cameras and their modes of engagement with operative and subject/object

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NB the different requirements of digital and analog media

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the history of lenses is a history of such needs, desires, compromises

as well as new materials science and

design techniques - the revolution of CAD - relieving lens designers of the burden of ray-tracing

the importance of old designs (and connections with photography's antiquarian avant-garde)

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cinematography and Panavision - the particular look of the cinematographic camera and lens - the practice of many Hollywood DPs - reducing resolution/sharpness/using older lenses

the issue is that of what appears real, what we think looks real, focus, popping out, video versus film, wide angle, normal and telephoto lenses, flare, zoom

we are here shifting here into issues of [photographic discourse]

eg shoot sharp and your image will be part of that genre/practice/history of shooting sharp pictures

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the issue of quality?

eg German enginnering as the origin of the quality of the Leica?

NO

except if you think about what "quality" precisely is