Episode six: SNAP JUDGMENTS

80 billion photos are now taken a year. Photography has moved on into digital age.  The medium has never been more widely appreciated or more eagerly exploited.

Photographers now work with huge productions, more like movies. Crewdsen has huge production team. His images sell for $60,000 each.

By contrast, Robert Adams had only his wife to help in the 1970s. Then photography was not popular. Change began when photographically aware teenagers started to collecting real photographs rather than reproductions. Baby boom enthusiasm brought photography into mainstream. Photographers like Klein now found their work treated with new reverence.

COLLECTORS

The fact that photographs can be reproduced is its greatest strength but it's biggest problem for collectors.

In 1999 problem with Lewis Hine's prints. People thought they were buying originals but then discovered that more and more "originals" appeared. Through forensic testing it transpired that photographic paper produced after 1950 contains chemicals called OBAs. Hines died in 1940s yet most of the prints on sale had OBAs so must have been produced after his death. Eventually Hines's darkroom assistant Walter Rosenblum admitted to reproducing the images to take advantage of the market.

Steichen's masterpiece of The Pond - Moonlight sold in 2006 for $2.6m. Most ever raised for a photograph.

Seydou Keita from Mali had long done portraits. Used lots of props. SK had three if his photos shown as unknown in a Parisian gallery. The curator Magnin found Keita and showed his photos  at carrier Foundation and at the Gagosian in New York. Hid photos sold for $16,000 each. Then Patras became his agent until Keita died in 2001 following which there was an unresolved dispute between Patras and Magnin over ownership if 1,000 negatives.

In China photography was heavily restricted and used for propoganda. Li Zhenseng covered Cultural Revolution. Work now popular abroad. Wang Qingsong work is appreciated abroad more than at home.

Steichen however received little for his work originally but then decided to make more out of it Munich to the disgust of Stieglitz, his close friend.

Now you can be art and commercial photographer. Ventura moved from fashion to art. Used plastic models in War Souvenir. 

Magnum Photos had grown on serious images of photo journalism. But Parr applied to join with his images of working class Britain. Parr was criticized for being cynical, voyeuristic and exploitative.

Jones Griffiths tried to keep Parr out. Heralded big change for Magnum.

Jeff Wall pioneered large scale photographs. Traditional photos too small in his view.

Most top photographers think big. Perhaps biggest is Gursky.

MANIPULATION

Camille Silvy manipulated his image of River Scene as early as 1860s. Turns out he did not even take image. Arranged where people stood -working class on one side, bourgeoisie on other. Added leaves to trees.

At first photography was anything you wanted. 20th century saw more divisions. Now we are back to photography being what you want it to be.

CONCLUSION

This was probably the least satisfying episode of the series - no apparent theme; seemed to be a pot pourri of anecdotes and facts. But very useful to understand the popularity of the Art in early 21st century. A big miss was the lack of discussion on manipulation - perhaps becasue the series dates from 2006 - much has happened since then.

Overall, this series has been an excellent introduction to the history of photography; I knew nothig before but now fell more comfortable with the Foxes, the Atgets, the Parrs etc as well as understanding more about the growth and evelopment of the medium.

Episode Five: WE ARE FAMILY

PORTRAITURE

What are photographers looking for in self?

Quest to take photography outdoors – walk on the wild side.

Diane Arbus  -“ use camera to strip away what people know about you to reveal what people can’t know about you”. Tried to be good.

Do photographers prey on disadvantaged people? Typical was images of farmers in 1930s.

Arbus was curious of people’s individuality. Quiet spoken. Took interest in subjects. Work of someone who wanted to be anyone except herself. Also did uptown families. Matthaei’s chose her to do Christmas shoot in 1969. In 1971 committed suicide.

Richard Avedon became the cult portrait photography. Tony Macarro went out to get celebrities as he wanted to see them not as they wanted to be seen as.

Picasso granted Cartier Bresson an audience in late 1960s. Did not work, so brought in Tony Vacarro who got him to drop his preconceptions.

Larry Clarke took images of his own life – an insider rather than outsider like Arbus. Like a photo diary. Published as Tulsa in 1971. 

Nan Goldin seeks to show normality of transvestites, the “third gender”. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency comprised 40 pieces of music and 900 slides of friends and family.

IN Japan, Araki also took diary photos. Publishes a book every month. Detailed his honeymoon in 1971 in a book called Sentimental Journey, including explicit sex and intimate encounters.  When she died in 1990 he took images of her dying moments in hospital, publishing as Winter Journey.  Captures past, present and future of someone.

FAMILY PORTRAITURE

Richard Billinghan turned to family for shots. Lived with alcoholic father in a tower block. Originally started because wanted to use for painting.  Used Triple Print as the processing because so bad the images gave him ideas for painting. “All photographs are exploitive, all you can do is make the photographs so artistically good you overshadow that exploitive element that is inherent in the medium.” (great quote from Billingham). Turned Billingham into celebrated photographer.

Sally Mann’s Immediate Family  was her family shots taken in Virginia. 

Larry Sultan produced an anthology over ten years in late 70s and 80s in Valley area of LA. Sultan got grief from parents for becoming artist rather than law school or similar. Pictures from Home series.

POST MODERNISM

Artistry had turned towards post modernism while this was going on – photography followed.

Cindy Sherman turned the children’s game of dressing up as someone else into art by photographing herself. In Untitled Film Stills get publicity style shots reminiscent of old B Movies. She denied her only identity. All imaginary people. Is it Cindy Sherman, Marilyn Monroe, or Cindy Sherman as Marilyn Monroe?

In Hollywood Di Corcia got male hustlers to pose for him, paying them with money from a government grant. Paid $20 as represented the lowest rate for sex. Photographic act was substitute for sex act.

Episode Four: PAPER MOVIES

Winogrand said that took photos to see what the world looked like photographed. Very much what photography was about in 60s and 70s.

O'Sullivan brought his photo with him to the desert in 1860s. Typical of the physical struggle that was part of early photography in particular.

Roma takes walk with my camera.

Photography has had many journeys. Best known was  Robert Frank in 1950s. As a Swiss born photographer, his was an outsiders perspective of 1950s USA when doing 9 month tour. Worried less about photographic perfectionism, more like abstract expressionist art or BEAT poetry. Like Jackson Pollock. Released from constraints.

Took 700 rolls of film. Did layout for his book The Americans in one day with French publisher. Critics hated it. Book lost money.

William Klein also. Trained as artist in Paris then back to New York in 1954. Aggressive photographer worked on the street.

Street and people photography was difficult early in photographic history because of long exposure times meant that people looked blurred. Klein as first pop photographer. People are actors in his lens. No respect for sacred cows of photography.

Weegee was similar. Liked crowd scenes.

Klein cruised the streets. Kid points gun at the lens.

Meyerowitz took inspiration from Klein. shoots street photography in New York based on the Cartier Besson theory of decisive moment. Views himself as a visual athlete. Reimagine the decisive moment for New York.


Friedlander, Arbus and Winogrand all worked New York street.


Winogrand had thousands of prints. He had an appetite for life. Viewed as the godfather of street photography. Very energetic. Rich material from New York. Couple in Central Park Zoo has a couple with chimpanzees instead of babies.


Tony Ray-Jones was acolyte of Winogrand. Be more aggressive, get in closer, don't take boring pictures, get more involved, talk to people, stay with the subject, were all mantras of he and other street photographers as enunciated in his notebook.


Back in Britain, Ray Jones headed for the beach and turned in to a psychiatrist's couch. A place to record eccentricities, people out of themselves.


Ed Ruscha produced a series of books as milestones in pop photography. eg Twenty Six gasoline stations was example of "blank reality" of subjects. Same deadpan approach used to photograph parking lots and the whole of Sunset Strip.


In 1970, biggest change was colour photography. Considered heretical and amateur. Serious photography HAD to be B&W.


Cameras describe things so why not use colour? Needed 8 by 10 inch large-format view cameras. Tripods became essential.


William Eggleston took images of Memphis. He published William Eggelston's Guide. Some say inconsequential, some say baffling beauty. 


In 2005, Eggleston took pictures of Dunkirk. Eccenctric quiet guy who works alone. Dismisses analysis of his work.


Photographers better see the world, help us make sense of what is around us.

Episode Three: RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE

This episode is about the rise of photojournalism, particularly in WW2. The episode majors on Ross, Vacarro and Capa as photographers in the war, with a section on Eugene Smith near the end.

Right place, right time

Cartier Besson was godfather of photo journalism. Considered himself a painter but his decisive moments transformed photography. Right place, right time. Was a big game hunter so used to waiting for moment to arrive.

Behind the Gare Saint Lazare is best known image. Philip Jones Griffiths considers this to be the greatest photograph of 20th century. Picture of man jumping over a puddle symbolises Europe jumping into the unknown? (my note, is this rather overdone, the idea of Cartier Besson as the 1930s Nostradamus?).

Required Leica instant camera, the new revolution.

Capa also used Leica for decisive moments. His maxim was first get close, then get closer still.

Tony Vaccaro photographed as GI. Issue camera was huge Speed Graphic so needed something lighter so used Argus C3. See Vemmerden.

Capa went on D Day. Only 11 images survived. Vaccaro developed his own photographs in soldier's helmets.

Photography in WW2 was good at effects but bad at causes.

Alternative to being in right place at right time

More reflective photographs taken after the event.

Fenton's picture The Valley of the Shadow of Death  taken year after the Charge of the Light Brigade evokes much of the feeling of war. He had only detritus of cannonballs to deal with but the shot evokes the thoughts of what went before.

In aftermath of WW2 photography was used to take images if Nazi horrors.

In Lodz Henryk Ross kept record of what happened in the ghetto. Ross became propogandist for Germans but also took pictures from a house to document the gradually declining conditions for Jews.Took great risk photographing deportations. Included every day life images from ghetto. His pictures challenge notion that there was no joy in the ghetto. Cannot but know that virtually all the people in them would be dead soon after the photographs were taken.

Japan struggled with images of WW2. Cities burnt out by incendiary devices. US images ignored the human tragedy of A bomb so little post war photography taken. In early 1960s Tomatsu started to take post 45 images of Nagasaki. Took images of bomb victims. Photographed items such as watch that stopped at time bomb dropped and melted bottles. Like the Valley of the Shadow of Death this was photography reflecting on what had happened before.

The Family of Man was exhibition over 9 years was most visited exhibition of all time (9m visitors).

Magnum formed in 1947. James Eugene Smith joined. He became famous photo essayist. In mid 1950s moved from Life to Magnum. He took 21000 photographs of Pittsburgh over 3 years. Believed he could change social behaviour by his photography. Took amphetamines, workaholic.

Eugene Smith sent Magnum almost to bankruptcy. Failed to publish the 2,000 images from Pittsburgh project.

Meyerowitz took images of aftermath of 9/11 in Ground Zero. Was told to stop photographing as it was a crime scene.

My thoughts: Good episode – punchy and informative. By implication, deals again with the question of what photography is. Were the featured people:

·         photographers,

·         journalists,

·         photographers who wanted to be journalists,

·          journalists who wanted to be photographers,

·         none of the above?

Does it matter? Yes,  I think it does because it says a lot about whether photography is a real discipline in itself or just an adjunct to another profession. Here we see photography as a TOOL, a means to an end, the end being the graphical and true description of what is happening on the ground. Powerful images but powerful by virtue of context – they were the ONLY images taken and therefore the photographers were bound to be taken notice of. They were pioneers.

Episode Two: DOCUMENTS FOR ARTISTS

Commences with images from WWI. Post WW1 photography became more mechanical with emphasis on process.

Also became an organ of propaganda.

But then photography realised the human side of troubles times (eg Sander).

Abbott felt the camera made her "the contemporary being par excellence".

Agee: "the central instrument of our time"


In Germany Blossfeldt's Art Form of Nature showed variation in plant forms. This was an example of typology and they are around still eg Wylies photographing watchtowers in NI using same framing, same point of view, removes photographer  from the image.

Typologies discipline photographers eg Bechers -shows mine shafts have shape A but it is different every time.
Becher likes blast furnace "seem like animals".

Sander created human typology in 1920s became modernist in The Face of the Times. Obsessive collector of images, like entomologist. His subjects were photographed in same amount of frame. Used seven human types - it was a classification system. His images are "full of implications, world full of things that cannot be spoken of reflecting the chaotic environment of Germany.

In Soviet Union, Rodchenko declared painting dead and turned to photography - art was bourgeoisie. The camera is tool of new man. He even wore a special uniform. Leica produced hand held cameras meaning freed from tripod. Social life became fluid. Rodchenko rejected "bellybutton" photo so make apparent that viewing the world differently.

USSR in Construction glorified the regime's achievements. Rodchenko used Photomontage. Conjured up visions of the future.
Best was UiC on White Sea Canal. Shows rehabilitated political prisoners building canal. Was a 140 mile gulag, in the image you can see the unsmiling faces in the original photo.

In Paris Atget documented the old Paris before it was swept away by redevelopment. He took 10000 images of old Paris using archaic techniques even albumen prints. Could not use modern materials. Single greatest artist of photography - the photographer's photographer.

Pushing into unreal was Man Ray in Montparnasse. Natural maverick, in tune with surrealism. Used solarisation process in late 1920s giving people metallic robotic look. Knew artist Marcel Duchamp.


Man Ray took image of Duchamp's Large Glass. Man Ray discovers Atget. Bought 50 of his photos and excited interest in found objects (created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function).

Bernice Abbott took Atget's portrait in 1927.

In USSR propaganda publications had to be kept up to date. Rodchenko had to doctor images he had taken - blacking out people who were now "non people". Get many obliterated photos.

Sander fell foul of those who planned a master race. Nazis used photography to produce typologies of races.

Sander's images of concerned people were not popular and his printing plates destroyed.

Sander wanted to document the Nazis as well as the Jews.
 
Walker Evans (US) took photos of people using same size in the frame, pretending he is just giving you the facts, but influencing your understanding of the world by his choice of subject.

Walker Evans picked up avant style of photos in Paris. Saw Atget's work and started to use tripod as taking longer meant you saw more.

In 1935 Walker Evans and others were commissioned to portray the Images for the Farm Securities Agency, propaganda images for the rural farming effort. Includes Allie Mae Burroughs taken in 1936, her weathered face matching the weathered wood she has as background. In 1937 he was sacked because did not conform to FSAs requirements.

When war returned Bill Brandt recorded the human side. Brandt used surrealist ideas learnt from Man Ray.

Episode One: FIXING THE SHADOWS

I came across this series courtesy of an entry in a blog. It was originally shown in 2007; I acquired the DVDs and have decided to view them all as part of background to photography.

Episode One was entitled "Fix the Shadows", a slightly enigmatic title for an hour of viewing on the first 70 years or so of photography.

The episode commences with shots taken of Meudon,a Paris suburb, by Andre Kerstez in 1920s. One image is of a street including a man carrying something. The narrator suggests that our enquiring minds want to know who the man is, what is he carrying? Suggests that this is the Genius of Photography: to find "the secret strangers that lie beneath the world of appearances".

The programme starts with Talbot and Daguerre, making a contrast between the foresight of Talbot, a quiet studious man with interest in ecology but a desperate inability to draw, who invented a system that could reproduce images time and again on paper thus enabling the masses to indulge in the pursuit, and the narrow appeal of Daguerre, a flamboyant Frenchman whose invention was fundamentally flawed by its inability to reproduce and consequently to appeal to a wide audience.

Before these two, there had been cameras obscura but breakthroughs came when it was realised that some chemicals reacted to light but these two finally came up with a method to reproduce images, firstly Daguerre in January 1839 and then Talbot a few months later.

I was struck by the sheer beauty of Daguerrotypes - the mirror with a memory as they were called. The inability to reproduce images did make for a more intimate process.

It was realised quickly that photography is all seeing but undiscriminating.

Muybridge was the Englishman who ,having taken some stunning panoramics of San Francisco among other works, teamed up with Stanford, a railway baron, to make the first moving images and in so doing proved that horses do indeed lift all hooves of the floor when trotting.

1850 -1900 saw photography become unashamedly commercial. Nadar was a leading portrait photographer in Paris, deliberately taking less then entirely flattering shots.

The programme then  pursued the old chestnut of whether photography is art. Chuck Close: "Photography is the easiest  medium in which to be competent but the hardest in which to have a personal vision". Vernacular photography was photography taken for a reason - usually to record, for example, crime scenes. The contrast was pictorialism, an early 1900s antidote to vernacular photography, that was deliberately low light and ultimately boring. We are shown some of Lartigue's work.

The programme looked at the invention of Kodak by George Eastman, the founder of the popular camera with a name made up by Eastman and discusses the consequent democratisation of the medium.