1350
Luminism. The term Luminism was coined to defi ne
landscape painting from around 1850 to 1875 or later.
The characteristics apply to photography: small scale,
depiction of crystalline light, often the inclusion of a
small fi gure, a feeling of silence and the suggestion
of a transcendent nature. Many of Stoddard’s views of
Adirondack lakes and streams fulfi ll such a ‘defi nition,
but it should be noted that the small aperture and long
exposures required for overall sharpness tended to ren-
der water as a smooth, glassy surface.
Other Stoddard photographs do not fi t the luminist
category. This would be true of some of his fi ne architec-
tural photographs of hotels like the Fort William Henry
at Lake George or night photographs of tourists around
a campfi re. The night photographs required magnesium
fl ash powder and with this dangerous substance, Stod-
dard proved himself a master with a noteworthy photo-
graph of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. He
used magnesium fl ash to illuminate the vast spaces of
Howe Caverns near Albany, New York, and published
an illustrated article, “Photographing Bats” for The
American Annual of Photography and Photographic
Times Almanac, 1889.
Photographs for William West Durant, developer of
the “Great Camps” in the western Adirondacks provide
an impressive record of those rustic estates in the wil-
derness. Stoddard produced an elephant folio album of
silver prints showing Durant’s Sagamore and Camp Pine
Knot on Raquette Lake.
This Adirondack photographer turned his camera on
other aspects of this region which included photographs
of lumbering and of large, conical kilns for making char-
coal for the tanning industry. Both industries showed
little concern for the environment, and this led Stoddard
to publish a short-lived periodical, Stoddard’s Northern
Monthly, (1906–1908) in which he took on the lumber
interests which were denuding large swaths of forests.
While thought of primarily for his Adirondack pho-
tographs, Stoddard photographed in many other areas.
In 1892, he traveled to the West Coast via Canadian
railroad. He photographed indigenous people as well as
scenery and continued his journey to Alaska, where he
made photographs that would be used successfully as
lantern slide lectures. A mammoth panoramic camera
for negatives 20 × 49½ inches, especially made for this
excursion, failed to function.
In 1895, he was a ship’s photographer covering a
Mediterranean cruise. Here, he used a roll fi lm camera
to illustrate his text for the self-published In Mediterra-
nean Lands: The Cruise of the Fries/and, 1896. On June
26,1897, he sailed as ship’s photographer for a cruise
to northern countries including Russia. Surreptitious
snapshots taken with his “kovered kodak”-a Kodak # 4
taking 4 x 5 inch negatives- were a departure from lumi-
nist images and glass plate photography. The resulting
self-published book for the passengers on the northern
European cruise appeared in 1901, as The Midnight Sun:
Being the Story of the Cruise of the Ohio.
In the early 1900s, Stoddard experimented with new
textured printing papers, cyanotype, and soft focus ef-
fects suggestive of the Photo-Secession. Most of his
late activity involved writing, revising his guide book,
and recycling earlier photographs. He also sold cameras
and supplies to a burgeoning amateur photography
market.
Stoddard’s wife died in 1906, and two years later he
married Emily Doty. In 1908, he purchased an qauto-
mobile and was among the fi rst to drive into the Adiron-
dacks. He had early affi liations with the Methodist and
Baptist denominations, was an active member of the
Temperance movement, and later embraced Spiritual-
ism. Stoddard died on May 3, 1917, in Glens Falls.
John FullerBiography
Seneca Ray Stoddard was born 13 May 1843 in Wilton,
New York. He acquired art technique as a railroad car
decorator in Troy, New York, 1862–1864, and then
moved to Glens Falls, New York, where he learned
photographic skills from a commercial photographer.
The area from Saratoga Springs, New York, northward
to the Adirondack mountains was already a tourist
attraction, and Stoddard’s photography of landscapes
and hotels were purchased as stereographs and larger
mounted albumin prints. In 1874, he published Ad-
irondacks Illustrated, which included his adventures
in the wilderness along with his maps and descriptions
of accommodations. He was a successful lecturer who
showed lantern slides before the State Assembly in 1892,
as a lobbying effort for creating the Adirondack Park. He
photographed such distant regions as Alaska and part of
Russia as well as Mediterranean countries. He published
extensively. He exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposi-
tion of 1876, and received widespread acclaim .for his
multiple magnesium fl ash photograph of the Statue of
Liberty. Since a monograph on Stoddard appeared in
1972, his work has attracted renewed attention, and he
is often considered the Eastern counterpart of the noted
photographers of the Western United States. Stoddard
died in Glens Falls, 3 May 1917.See also: Wet Collodion Negative; Albumen Print;
Dry Plate Negatives: Gelatine; and Artifi cial Lighting.Selected Works
Lumbering in the Adirondacks. The Choppers, albumen print
@1890, Adirondack Museum.
Avalanche Lake, Adirondacks, albumen print, @1888, Adiron-
dack Museum.