Typologies

 29th June 2015

"Almost the same thing - Some thoughts on the collector-photographer" David Campany 

http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/

Notes

In 2003, the Tate Modern exhibited Cruel and Tender; a collection of works by different well known photographers such as August Sander (Face of our time 1929), Walker Evans (American Photographs 1938),  Robert Frank (The Americans 1958/9), the Bechers, Garry Winogrand, Martin Parr, Stephen Shore and more. The images were "characterised by a sense of disengagement[...] analytical and descriptive in its approach to landscape." (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/cruel-and-tender-real-twentieth-century-photograph) Lincoln Kirstein in 1933 labelled Walker Evans' work as "tender cruelty" The Tate Modern review of the exhibition describes the exhibition as comparing the myth and mundane - or looking at the real wold around us.

Historically people have collected things. Museums collect artifacts arranged in groups or time periods. Photography is divided- in pictorialism in the 19th and early 20th century, photographs were not grouped together although straight photographs were. Pictorialism (or art photography) seems to rely on symbols and the viewer reading more into one image than requiring a series or body of work to explain / show the truth. Modernisation was concerned with the numbers and types of images. Campany suggests that this is because people began to see images in daily life and the amount of magazines and printed material made photobooks acceptable. By organising photographs into a book, types of images were grouped together and the books reached new audiences. The books took photography to a wider audience than displaying in a gallery.

As television became more popular, printed media began to decline. Pop, conceptual art and Postmodern art became popular and viewers wanted a single image instead of several. These images still fitted into land and cityscapes, still life and narrative.

The disadvantage of a photobook (catalogue, archive) was that the individual images described but did not articulate on their own. "Visual facts don't speak very well for themselves." (http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15) Campany cites Walker Evans as saying "a document has use, whereas art is really useless." (http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15)

The Bechers' placed their images centrally in the frame; Baltz' images were abstract and this created a challenge for the viewer not knowing how to read a single image because the brain prefers to look at contrast, differences, comparison, dialogue between the images, repetition etc.  Once the images were grouped together they were easier to look at. In a way, the viewer looked at the work twice - once as a stand alone image and as a montage.

When television viewing overtook photography as an art form, it enabled photography to be critiqued as art. Videos became the norm and photography was slow. It described things rather than instants.

The difference between a straight image and a snapshot is that a straight image describes people or things and a snapshot dramatises the event. With snapshots, the photographer takes hundreds of images (veracity and voracity) Winogrand and Egglestone. Two methods - reportage style versus amateur family album. All images are connected under capitalism - manufacture, leisure, consumption, work etc. Campany's final comment was that photography accumulates like modern life, so make one say something about the other.

This reminded me of an exhibition at Format Festival in Derby in 2013 looking at negatives retrieved from a rubbish dump of family life of the Chinese who had cameras. These amateur family snapshots had been grouped on the wall in categories such as the annual holiday, a trip to McDonalds, bedrooms decorated with posters of Western icons, documenting China's rise in capitalism.

References

http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/cruel-and-tender-real-twentieth-century-photograph accessed 29th June 2015

http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15

Bibliography
http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15






New Topographics

Notes from Sean O'Hagan's article on New Topographies 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes accessed 29/6/15

Nearly 40 years ago, William Jenkins curated an exhibition in New York entitled "Photographs of a Man altered Landscape" featuring 1970's urban America. It was not well received by the public. Mundane, surburban, reaction to ideological landscape images, going against tradition such as Adams and Weston.

Exhibiting photographers included:

Frank Golke

Robert Adams - political statements - empty streets, pristine trailer parks, suburban development, uniformity

Lewis Baltz- stark - office walls and buildings, industrial

Nicholas Nixon - inner city development, sky scrapers, grids, freeways, unreality, pedestrians seen as interlopers

Stephen Shore - colour. Influenced by Ed Ruscha. "Heightened sense of detachment of anonymous intersections and streets." 

The Bechers -stark salt mines, european

Walker Evans - billboards, motels, shop fronts, nostalgia

Described as mundane, banal, although at this time it was not acceptable to photograph this subject. People did have a concern in the world becoming urbanised. Students captured views of visitors.



Topographics Movement

Banal subjects are photographed, exhibited and collected as art. Other photographers include Andreas Gursky, Donovan Wylie, Paul Graham.

All the photographers featured use a different style to photograph the banal or mundane urban landscape. What constitutes a mundane subject, and is it mundane or uninteresting to everyone? In my opinion not all subjects are mundane to everyone. I think it depends on whether you are interested or bored with the familiarity of the subject. 

I was aware of the topographics movement and had previously studied the work of the Bechers, Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz. Their work interests me - the Bechers because of its uniformity and lack of people, Robert Adams for his political stance, especially his work on deforestation and Lewis Baltz's geometric designs. I think topography has an audience, and as O'Hagan suggested, the audience was not ready at the time. Contextually, the USA was enjoying capitalism and perhaps did not want to be shown how the landscape was changing around them and the countryside was being built on. Maybe it was too political an issue? Perhaps we look back with nostalgia at how American urban landscapes used to be, so our opinion of the work has changed because the images are now accepted. We may not have been directly involved with the political issues of the time and change for some people is never well accepted. However, this aside, reading another article by O'Hagan (2012), Gursky's Rhein III fetched £2.7m in 2011 at Christies Auction. So now there is an audience for topography. This image could be described as a banal subject, and I appreciate that it may fit in with a colour scheme in a minimalist modern house or office. 

Personally, I like the work of Robert Adams and Nicholas Nixon. Nixon's urban images of towns with skyscrapers or large buildings follow all the conventions of a landscape photographer and remind me of John Davies's work which I think follows similar conventions.

Having experimented in Photography 1 with topography and revisiting  the Lewis Baltz clip, I appreciate how this subject is about the angles of the buildings. I studied bridges across the River Trent (a banal subject) and I was surprised at just how many attempts it took me to get the angle right so that it became a straight image rather than a snapshot. 

I also looked at the Watchtowers and Maze Prison images by Donovan Wylie. To me there is repetition; however the images I could associate with were the cells with different curtains, allowing the prisoners a little individuality in a uniform building. I associate with the idea put forward by Campany that the viewer looks at these images twice. I think if they were exhibited in a group, The viewer would go from one to another looking at each individual image and then look at them as a whole.


Bibliography

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes accessed 29/6/15

https://fraenkelgallery.com/portfolios/new-topographics accessed 29/6/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-lewis-baltz accessed 29/6/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQekhfX73zE (Donovan Wylie - Outposts) accessed 29/6/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoxP-iLvqU (Donovan Wylie - The Maze Prizon) accessed 29/6/15

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/16/sean-ohagan-photography-art-form accessed 29/6/15

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z3Z3#/CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z3Z3&POPUPIID=29YL530X3SO5&POPUPPN=13 (Donovan Wylie) accessed 29/6/15

Explore a road

June 2015

...roads are all something we have in common. Make a short series of photographs about a road near where you live...use this exercise to develop the observational skills that will be challenged in Assignment 2. The object is to try to think about something that is familiar to you in a different way. ...Work intuitively and try not to labour the exercise. Compile a digital contact sheet from your shoot and evaluate your work, identifying images of particular interest-to you or, potentially to a wider audience.

Kirklington Road, Rainworth, Notts

My village is experiencing a growth period with the development of new housing estates and building of new playgrounds for the children. Services such as health care and schools have expanded and the way to sell a new house seems to be to make a "youtube" video of the new build to welcome people in. I found this quite limiting as it does not tell the interested party anything about the village itself. The village is based around a crossroads - one of these being the A617 which runs from Chesterfield to Newark. As the amount of traffic increased, a bypass was built around the village. This has not altered the use of the services and amenities.

I aimed to show the potential resident some of the facilities, amenities and historical points of interest along just one road in the village; from a range of houses, football ground, petrol station, fish and chip shop, village hall, miners welfare, function rooms, school, surgery, dentist, scrap metal collection and public transport. Pavements are wide for children and pushchairs, safety has been considered, houses are cared for and there are plenty of seats - for sitting and watching the world go by.

I considered taking the images in the style of Lee Friedlander's America by Car, because I often drive down this road. As it was a pleasant evening, I walked and found it more sociable as many of the older residents stopped to chat when they saw my camera. I learnt much more about the current affairs of the village and the vandalism to the newest play area which is just off this road. I would not have had this experience in the car. This is what appealed to me about the journey made along the HS2 line by Toby Smith.

This work could be developed by including people; for example a group of people playing bowls on the lawn, a resident sitting on one of the many benches, an event happening at the Village Hall. By photographing earlier in the day, the gates on the surgery would be open and the village would look more lively.

My selection - I discovered when narrowing down the images that I should have had a clear idea of what I was trying to show first. I could show for example, cigarette butts in the layby next to the bus stop, the wine bottles in the bin, the plaster peeling off the houses but does that fit with the audience I am trying to show? This will be important for my Assignment 2 plan.

Still thinking about Friedlander's work, I considered how the A1 might be represented  by a photographer using his style of work. My daughter took a couple of images for me when I was driving, such as moving traffic e.g. being behind a lorry and roadworks - typical of many a journey. I was able to experiment when I reached the destination. I can see how restrictive the view is with parts of the car in, and as a viewer I want to see what is around the corner or further to the left/right. The viewer is only seeing what I want them to see.

Watch one of the films mentioned in this section or any other "road movie" of your choice. Write a short review (around 500 words) focusing on how the road features within the film's narrative.

Road to Perdition (2002) Director Sam Mendes

The synopsis of the film is that a child whose father works for gangsters stows away in the family car to discover the occupation of his father. Upon witnessing his father at work, the son unintentionally puts the family at risk. His mother and brother are killed by gangsters and father and son flee on a road trip to Chicago, (perdition or Hell) during which time the father sets out to create an emotional bond with his son and teach him how to survive. The father robs banks of his former employers to survive and eventually Al Capone dispatches a hitman (photographer) to kill the father. By the end of the film the boy is safe.

The meaning of the film is that the father chose the road he was on which was not the best and he hopes that his son will choose differently.

At the beginning of the film, the boy rides his bike around the frozen town, symbolic of the boy’s emotionally cold relationship with his father. It gives a sense of place to the town which is referred to during the journey when things are not going well.

As the film moves to the road trip, there are beautiful shots of the car in wide open countryside with soft lighting (used throughout) and a sense that life will be alright. These scenes are light and airy, and features greens and browns as the predominant colours. The car is seen from all angles; inside the bonnet, an aerial shot and from inside observing the boy’s interest as the scenery changes from country to big city. The snow disappears and they carry straight on through the crossroads.

As the danger increases, the road becomes darker, especially when they approach the diner where the assassin will meet the father whilst the son is left alone in the car. At this point the father realizes that he needs to teach his son survival skills so he teaches his son to drive. His attitude changed and he started to enjoy his son. A ground level shot of the boy driving past added some speed.

As they approach the town to rob banks, the boy acted as the chauffer, dropping his father off and picking him up. There are some great scenes through the window of the car driving past with the boy driving. The relationship changed again, with the two acting as a partnership.

The boy drove his father when he became wounded and the journey became more urgent with close ups of action inside the car. They are looked after by an elderly couple and as they leave, the weather is brighter with sunshine and the journey has hope again.

The story takes another turn as the father goes back with the son to end the lives of the gangsters of the town and make life more bearable for the future. Once again, the scenes are dark, the rain is torrential and a little misty adding to the drama.

In the last part of the drive, the boy has his head out of the car; it has turned into excitement and the end of all their troubles; the start of a new life. However, the father is killed. The final part of the drive is long shot of the boy driving to the house with the elderly couple to start a new life.

This film summed up a road trip for me – it had a beginning and an end, was shot from different angles through diverse scenery and showed life inside and outside the car.

Territorial Photography

June 2015

Exercise 2.1 Territorial Photography

Read Snyder's essay and summarize the key points. Find and evaluate two photographs by any of the photographers Snyder mentions. Evaluate, reflecting on some of the key points that Snyder makes, as well as any other references.

Pre 1850 photographers were not competing with other mediums.  Photographers were from a privileged background and used the medium to record personal work. Audiences were small and there was no market for their work due to the cost of printing.

By the mid 1850's photographs were accepted as being a different form of art due to the "mechanical" nature of photographs. Contextually photography fitted in with industrialization. Attracted the middle classes who were able to develop the technology of printing and establish a "high finish and endless detail that consequently were thought to be precise, accurate and faithful to the objects or scenes they represented". (p175) Photography developed through new professionals and became gloss instead of matte and the tones were standardized to sepia.  Mass  production became the norm.

From the 1850's a commercial market developed for travel architecture and tourism. Small printing houses were set up to print and sell to tourists at or near to the geographic site as prints or albums. This was the beginning of commercialism.

Carelton Watkins (1829-1916)
In the 1860's, Watkins developed 20x24" negatives. He photographed places such as the Yosemite Park, Pacific Coast, Utah and Nevada. He set the standard for Commercial Landscape Photographers and was commissioned by California State Geological Survey for Mining and Lumbar Interests. He documented a "visual harmony between the land and new tokens of progress symbolized by the industrial landscape itself."(p187) He recorded the progress and change of landscape "by harmonising nature and industry"(p188) so that people felt they could develop a picturesque area. 

Timothy H O'Sullivan (1840-1882)
In contrast, O'Sullivan started his career as a war photographer documenting battlegrounds and was chosen by Clarence King, a geologist to explore the uncharted interior of the country. King refused military support for his venture, believing in new ways of working. During 1867-1874, O'Sullivan documented the inhospitable landscape during two expeditions; "Clarence King's Geological Explorations of the 40th Parallel and the Geographical and Geological Explorations West of the One Hundredth Meridian. His only brief was to "give a sense of the area" (p192) and his images were not included as evidence in the reports.

O'Sullivan's work was discovered by Ansel Adams who sent them to Beaumont Newhall, acting curator of photography at MOMA in New York who labelled them as prototypical modernist photographic landscapes.O'Sullivan portrayed the landscape as inhospitable, anti picturesque and sublime and not somewhere man would want to develop. If King sent images to the financiers of the project when requested, if the images were received as being inhospitable, King had complete control of the land.

Throughout the essay, I was reminded of the work in part 1 concerning photographers being photographers or art photographers. Watkins is a photographer and an O'Sullivan art photographer.

Carelton Watkins

Trestle on Central Pacific Rail Road 1880

This image was trimmed by Watkins to show the Chinese labourers and the Caucasian foreman working in the inhospitable landscape. The curve of the railroad linking the mountains to the foreground is elegant and leads the eye towards the back of the image. This shows man has tamed the land, transport will make places accessible and people would be encouraged to move to the area. Here Watkins has literally emphasized order of the environment. By using a completed foreground building and partially constructed railroad, reducing shadows and highlights, the mid tones do make the photograph easier on the eye. This image is balanced with the workers and reminiscent of his images of Yosemite. The left side looks untouched whilst the right side is busy with well spaced out carts. Watkins labelled this image himself as California Tourists Association.




Timothy H O'Sullivan

Southside of Insription Rock, New Mexico

O'Sullivan used a tight crop on this image giving the impression that the land surrounding this rock may have been inhospitable too. In choosing to photograph  this rock he was acknowledging that others had lived here too. There was a small amount of land visible in the image but not enough to colonize. This rock formation could be seen as a "monstrosity or grotesquerie". It is sublime in its grandeur, and does not conform to contemporary landscapes. If the viewer of the time looked at other photographs of the area, they would probably decide not to venture into this inhospitable land.









References
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201) p175, p177, p178, p192,

Bibliography
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201)
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/101195/carleton-watkins-trestle-on-central-pacific-railroad-american-negative-1877-print-about-1880/
http://www.carletonwatkins.org/index.php#
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/osullivan/index.cfm
http://petapixel.com/2013/09/02/amazing-19th-century-photographs-american-west-timothy-osullivan/