Louis Daguerre announced the perfection of the “daguerreotype,” the first photograph, on 7 January 1839, and as he recounted the procedure, notes about it were relayed by people in the hall of the French Academy of Sciences to those outside and people were making their own daguerrotypes by that night. For years the Umbra Institute had its own darkroom in Via Danzetta, where students would transfer photographic paper from one tray of chemicals to another, in a process not too radically different from Daguerre’s.
But the Millenium and its technological wonders have caught up with this. The daguerrotype
gave way to the cyanotype, the cyanotype was replaced the wet plate process, and in 1884 George Eastman (the founder of Kodak), developed film…and that’s where we’ve been ever since. Until Fall 2008, when the Umbra Institute made the switch to digital photography. Professor Philippa Stannard now teaches two courses, beginner and advanced, and instead of dodging and burning under an enlarger, students use these tools in Photoshop. The result? We think you’ll agree that it’s spectacular – have a look!
1. Louis Daguerre 1844. 2. "Boulevard du Temple", taken by Daguerre in late 1838 in Paris, was the first photograph of a person. The image shows a busy street, but because exposure time was over ten minutes, the traffic was moving too much to appear. The exception is the man at the bottom left, who stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show. 3. "Untitled" photo by Umbra Alumni Jennifer Dirvianskis.
What is a good breakfast? For Americans, it would be bacon, eggs, a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, and a glass of milk...and maybe a coffee, too. This couldn't be farther from the standard Italian breakfast, which is made up of a croissant and a cappuccino. For Italians, the idea of eating meat in the morning is quite odd - add to that washing down bacon with orange juice or milk (or both) and you've got your Italian friends rolling their eyes.
With modern nutrition, Italy is starting to realize that while you don't have to eat bacon and chug orange juice, you should still have a more balanced breakfast than caffeine, sugar, and pastries. This week in Perugia, to remedy the almost-absent breakfast culture, the city is sponsoring Breakfest (the "e" is so the last part of the word becomes "festa," the Italian word for festival or party). The festival takes place both in Perugia's piazzas and in its cafés and seeks to intorduce Italians to new breakfast possibilities. For more information, click here.
The Steps. Even in Italian, a language hesitant to capitalize anything but the first letter of the first proper noun in a long name (e.g. "A farewell to arms" instead of "A Farewell To Arms"), you can hear that capital S. The capital S in "le Scalette," the Steps...which mean the beautiful steps on the long side of Perugia's cathedral that faces the piazza. During the winter the Steps are mostly empty but like the wild asparagus popping up all over Umbria, people were popping up on the Steps this weekend. Spring has arrived in Umbria and clear skies and mild temperatures filled up Perugia's outdoor living room, Piazza IV Novembre.
"Perugia doesn't have the sea. But the Steps are Perugia's beach, and the people in the piazza, the waves." An old Perugian cobbler once whispered that, as if it were a secret. The cathedral's Steps are the city's social center, the fulcrum around which the city rotates. If you sit there long enough, the Perugians say, you'll see everyone you know. Umbra students may not see everyone they know if they sit out there, but they did sit and chat with Italian friends this weekend. And that's exactly what we're shooting for, getting more into Italian life. A presto!
Louis Daguerre announced the perfection of the “daguerreotype,” the first photograph, on 7 January 1839, and as he recounted the procedure, notes about it were relayed by people in the hall of the French Academy of Sciences to those outside and people were making their own daguerrotypes by that night. For years the Umbra Institute had its own darkroom in Via Danzetta, where students would transfer photographic paper from one tray of chemicals to another, in a process not too radically different from Daguerre’s.
gave way to the cyanotype, the cyanotype was replaced the wet plate process, and in 1884 George Eastman (the founder of Kodak), developed film…and that’s where we’ve been ever since. Until Fall 2008, when the Umbra Institute made the switch to digital photography. Professor Philippa Stannard now teaches two courses, beginner and advanced, and instead of dodging and burning under an enlarger, students use these tools in Photoshop. The result? We think you’ll agree that it’s spectacular – have a look!
