Lucy Lorimar Commentary:
This is a sketch of my camera. This camera is the one that I have used for the past few years as my interest in photography. After my father’s passing, we were going to lose the house if we did not start working. However, we have a plan to do just this. My sisters and I plan to take our passion in photography to the next level. We need to turn the photography obsession into a full-on business to support our family. I have taken the lead on this venture by taking on an apprenticeship at a nearby photography studio run by a family friend. I leave in. a few days for this apprenticeship, and I am quite nervous. While I am nervous to succeed in the apprenticeship, I am more nervous for my sisters in hoping they can get on without me while I am away. I hope that this new chapter in my life brings on new challenges but, in the end, makes our life easier by providing for us. I plan on bringing this camera along with me even if they have their own cameras at the apprenticeship. The camera helps me refocus on the goal and gets me motivated to work to help provide for my sisters. I hope that the apprenticeship works out so that we can start running our own business and start a new life. I also hope that my father is looking down from heaven on us and sees how hard we are working to help each other succeed. I hope he is proud of us.
Editorial Commentary:
The 19th century camera technology was limited to modern day camera technology of course. However, the technology was not completely limited compared to modern day technology of the camera. For example, “increasing the spectral sensitivity of photographic materials was important for many reasons but essential to the evolution of color photography” (Peres 16). The 19th century camera had color photography like modern day photography. In the sketch above, a normal 19th century camera is depicted. This camera was of course far behind the modern-day camera. However, this camera was still fully capable of taking clear and coherent photographs of all sorts of objects, people, and places. In her commentary, Lucy speaks on her apprenticeship for photography she is going to enter very soon. Apprenticeships now are far rarer because of college institutions that can provide higher and more specific education to a larger and more broad audience of students. However, apprenticeships were far more common in the 19th century and earlier. Many apprenticeships were for woodworking or blacksmith, but photography is another example. Apprenticeships provide detailed education on a specific subject much like how in college students decide on one specific degree. In Lucy’s case, she was headed to an apprenticeship focused on photography from a family friend that was planning on helping her and her sisters after their father’s death. The sketch of Lucy and her camera and her following commentary on the sketch gives readers and researchers a way to investigate what details of life were different in the 19th century compared to the present.
Works Cited:
Peres, Michael. "The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography", 2007, pp. iv–iv, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-240-80998-4.50001-3.
Katja+Leander. “INTERFOTO / Topfoto.” TopFoto, www.topfoto.co.uk/asset/4021688/. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.