, originally uploaded by Matt Niebuhr.
Sometimes… the medium is the message… and it becomes quite apparent when isolated…
The medium is the message…
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Category Archives: Criticism
modern Zeitgeist ticker … or a Wordtrain…
LED 1
© jenny holzer
Must see Jenny Holzer….
Moodtrain capturing a little of the mood of the online folk who browse the NYT… a clever little work by Gabriel Dance, Aron Pilhofer and Andrew Kueneman/The New York Times – this is the stuff of the new
Now what we need now is a phototrain… (oh.. maybe there already is of sorts…)
Difference in results of course evident when certain questions are asked and answered with words compared to certain photographs so tagged “About the Economy”…. Then again… photographs themselves don’t always tell us much to they? It takes a filter of sorts….
A Picture of absence and a youth’s portrait
Gerhard Richter, Jugendbildnis, photograph by Joachim Schulz from the series “aura”.
A couple of years ago I noticed a series of photographs named “Aura” by photographer Joachim Schulz. I have off and on remembered these pictures, but couldn’t remember who had made them. I came across them again through the site GALERIE POLLER . What appealed to me about the pictures then and now is noticing the trace left behind – and about the possibility of art to transform place … to create a certain collective recollection of events…
Jugendbildnis (Youth Portrait)
Gerhard Richter, 1988
67 cm X 62 cm, Oil on canvas
Who is this that the painting depicts ?
“She is a student from the 60s or 70s, a soulful look in her eyes, her hair over her forehead; the painting plays up the innocence of the pose. This is Ulrike Meinhof.” source
The painting of this youth looking innocent enough – harmless, sentimental, benign even - but then again -looks can be deceiving as Richter perhaps points out with his series October 18, 1977. Ideology and the accompanying ”isms” often get in the way of really seeing…
I went back and looked at the other pictures of missing pictures of the series “Aura” wondering if another thread might help me to appreciate the series – perhaps something about why these particular photographic situations – post hanging – might be of worth to photograph. It’s not immediately apparent to me other than perhaps the pictures are all relatively well known – or by well known artists…. While I like the conceptual idea alluded to in the text describing the series, it leaves me wishing that the photographer Joachim Schulz, might have embedded more into the work – by choosing certain specific absent art pieces to tell a story. Either way, along similar lines checkout more of Jachim Schulz work here – the curtains are very nice…
Raising Consciousness – Reality and Representation
…” people now are really forced to think about what they see in a photograph – and what to make of it. Whereas until recently the viewer easily got away with not really questioning what he or she saw in the image, or what the intention of a photographer might have been, now one is forced to scrutinize every image on a much deeper level. The consciousness of the relation of reality and representation is becoming much more apparent.”from “A Conversation with Kai-Olaf Hesse” -on Conscientious – Jörg Colberg
The little snippet above is to me what might be most interesting about current fine art photography work. For me, it’s not about gimmicks, manipulation, big or small – it’s more about how those things which I would call “technique” or “presentation” along with the content of the image and whether or not it may elicit more scrutiny. Yet at the same time I wonder… hasn’t that always been the “big idea”?
Innocence and the Eye to see it….Equivalents.
Unabomber Exhibit A –
From a series “Unabomber” by Richard Barnes – ©2007 All right reserved Richard Barnes Photography
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” ~ Pablo Picasso
Assuming Picasso said something of the sort above – it strikes me as one of the key ingredients in finding a way to let go of the filters created in our mind – the learned way that we have of seeing things – which then depending on our awareness – finds its way into the structure of photographs.
Rules present an interesting challenge – if you know them, then you can choose to work with-in the structure, or you can choose to deliberately oppose them… or somewhere in between.
I’ve been looking at “Mirrors and Windows” by John Szarkowski, where the term “romantic” is suggested to describe a photograph more about the picture maker’s sensibility – and taste – and where “realist” is suggested to describe a photographer whose intention is to describe an “acceptance of the surface appearance of things” – “to describe appearances”. Szarkowski points out that these things are not so readily or nearly so clearly evident – suggesting that these two extremes might be considered extreme edges in a range of possibilities. It is an interesting premise – a way to overlay a level of artistic consciousness onto photography. But as Szarkowski notes – it is just an abstract analytical device.
Straight and Synthetic is another dichotomy overlaid upon the way in which photographs are made – more about “process” – the mechanics of recording an image – and interestingly not about subject matter. (happen stance / staged). “Straight” is “as-is” from the machine – “Synthetic” is a photograph manipulated somewhere in the production of the image.
The analytical overlays along an axis of “Romantic / Realist” and “Straight / Synthetic” relationships might be useful in terms categorizing – to institutionalize a way of looking at photographs – but it does not go beyond describing characteristics.
The most interesting question posed by Szarkowski is that posed at the end: “in terms of the conception of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?”
In thinking about this question, I have to say that “Windows and Mirrors” is about establishing a set of rules that can be applied more or less towards analytical looking at a photograph… In my opinion this is less useful in finding your way towards making a photograph. To me, it is not an “or” proposition – you can’t escape the willfulness of making a photograph – photographs aren’t objective – they are always subjective views of the world. Some decisions are required – at some moment action is taken to press the button or some set of rules are put in motion – at the will of the artist. This is why I say there are no objective photographs – and who cares? In the result, the “window” is produced – it is rendered by the willful action of the artist – and if you choose to look at it – look closely at it – you might see something of the world – if it’s a good photograph, you might see the artist viewpoint of the world. But you’ll never have a truly objective view.
I find Minor White’s conception of four kinds of photographs – documentary, pictorial, informational, and the equivalent, – especially the equivalent – as accepting the willfulness inherent in picture making. I think it is the inability to explain in a prescriptive way the characteristics of the equivalent, yet to be able to describe the effects which is important. The equivalent, can’t be explained away – it is that thing about a photograph that captures your attention – for whatever reason and “for unstable reasons becomes decidedly significant to you”.
UPDATE (Most) – Fine Art Photography is I would argue, fundamentally romantic (especially that work which is in debt to obscure art historical references (do you get it?)) and a profoundly self-centered endeavor. Rules might give you a way to play the game, but is that where the aesthetic value resides?
So now I’ve come across the work of Richard Barnes, via Alec Soth’s blog - in particular the “Unabomber” series which causes me to completely rethink the “fundamental” statement above. This comes as a healthly dose of self-realization that generalization and labels are sometimes of little real value – even more so upon trying to grasp more of the rich complexity of Barnes’ work. In a way, I’m glad I was so wrong!
Potential of Noise to Signal…
I came across this some time ago… and I think through this site by Jim Johnson… Below is from “Click here to disappear: thoughts on images and democracy” by David Levi Strauss:
Photography has always had the potential to democratise images, but it has seldom worked out that way in practice. Digital imaging has made image-making devices ubiquitous. Many more people now possess the means to make images more of the time. At the same time, images are primarily used, in the public image environment, to influence public opinion and encourage the consumption of products and services. What is the relation between these two phenomena: near universal private image-making capability and widespread manipulation through public images?
Unconscious Stream of Ugliness, Oblivion and Othering…
Reflections upon a photograph to remember or forget?
“He knows that everything he writes [or photographs*] is consigned to posterity (oblivion’s other, seemingly more benign, face)” Joyce Carol Oates
* There is something gnawing at me about the notion of “othering” that was discussed by Amanda Koster during her recent visit to the Newspace Center for Photography.
Two kinds of photographs:
Photo by Renee C. Byer
In an effort to get Derek outside, Cyndie wheels him through the front door passing by artwork and cards given to her son by classmates at Bridgeway Island Elementary School. “Just like a newborn, he needs to get out and get some air,” she says. It was his last trip outdoors.
from 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner Renee C Byer, for Feature Photography.
And,
the image below (previous post)- of Caxton – by Amanda Koster
I began thinking about this briefly in a previous post, and now with a little more reflection, I think my opinion is becoming more obvious to me; that it has to do with acknowledging a particularly powerful characteristic of still photography which is the effect of a condensed objectification of experience.
My opinion: the emotional content and symbolism in the “prize receipent” feature work by Byer – is initially gripping (emotionally), but quickly I become oblivious and hopeless. “Going towards the light” for the last time only leads me assume the predictable end – I have to have the last image in the feature series in order to close out my emotional state – it completes and releases me emotionally. I am powerless and helpless.
For me, the moment when a photograph (or series of photographs) resists this condensed experience, it changes from story telling to something more nuanced and akin to allusion. There is more depth to an image that orchestrates the voyeuristic quality of photography; to contain both intimacy and distance. It’s like a peculiar detail in a written story that sticks out – that you stub your toe on – something that allows you to project a personal connection…makes it real to you.
I particularly like the fact that the microphone from the interview with Caxton is left in the picture from “Aids is Knocking”, a reminder of opportunity for “dialogue” – along with the particular detail of the “CAT” logo on the tee-shirt. The image alludes to interaction and connection – blending symbolism and realism.
In the context of image fatigue in our visual culture, so much of what we see published invites us to enter a state of visual oblivion – a state of being disregarded or forgotten. I think partly this oblivion is from a lack of attention span coupled with some perverted need to see the ugliness that is potentially all around us. Perhaps this need to see ugliness, reassures that our own lives are relatively untouched and thereby we remain blissfully ignorant? Or, we have a visual dipstick on normalcy. Either way, this stream of ugliness is happening to others, it helps us to somehow manage to get up and get through the day – because thankfully, we are not confronted with the situation at hand. So that is the idea of photography’s negative “othering” potential… to help us live with oblivion.
It has me on the lookout for images that are powerful enough to sustain attention, to promote compassion, to get us to snap out of the hypnotic state of oblivion?
Thanks to a post by Alec Soth on his blog… “Quiz” got me to thinking…
