On Plato's Cave

    In Susan Sontag's On Plato's Cave, she details the various ways that "having a photographic experience becomes identical with taking a photograph of it."  One section of the article deals with travel which I found to be particularly fascinating because it echoes some of my own curiosities and observations.  On page 9 she states that photographs "help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure."  Photography has developed along with tourism because gives people an outlet in which to focus their energy when in an awkward or unfamiliar situation.  Sontag also points out that societies with "ruthless" work ethics such as the Germans, Americans, and Japanese, tend to like photography because it eases some of their anxiety about them not being at work.  

    Sontag also discusses the variety of ways in which photographs can be packaged.  Newspapers, photo albums, museums, books... photography is different from other art forms in that it does not lose as much of its essence when reproduced as say painting does.  This gives photography more options than almost any other form of art because it can be cataloged and viewed in sequence or treated as a precious object.  Painting of course could do this as well, but because the reproduction process is different, the painting reprinted becomes almost an entirely different object all together.  

For example, the two images below are two iconographic images, one a photograph and one a painting.  On this blog, we are able to view the photograph in a state much closer to its original form than that of the painting of the Birth of Venus.  The digital era truly lends itself to photography in a much truer way than any other art form.

Week 5- Barthes and Sontag

"The press photograph is a message."  The Barthes Reader delves into the various visual, cultural, and social elements that send both denoted and connoted message.  The article starts by stating the system by which we receive information, and then breaks down the six denoted and connotated meanings in a photograph. 

Alex Potts- Sign

Roland Barthes- Extracts from Camera Lucida

"One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852.  And I realized then, 

with an amazement I have not been able to lessen since: 'I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emporer.' "  Thus begins Barthes series of essays where he attempts to link the photograph with his own reality.  These essays were written while Barthes was still in mourning over the death of his mother, and the many of them document his search for a photograph of his mother that truly embodies her essence. 

While going through these photographs of his mother, Barthes wrestles with the connections between the image, time, and death.  He is attempting to do what is nearly impossible in looking for the "truth of the face I had loved."  Yet he finds what he seeks in the Winter Garden Photograph.  This image depicts her as a little girl and Barthes connection to the image give him relief from his grief.  Barthes very personal search and experience leave one to ponder how his attempt to reconstruct the photograph connects to Alex Potts' essay, Signs.  Potts examines the relationship between each person's observations and connections to art rely on a specific language that is formed from one's cultural and social background.  A sign is an entity that "on the grounds of previously established social convention, can be taken as something standing for something else."  It is the idea of the sign that then plays into Barthes' two themes in the reaction the viewer has to a photograph.  The first is stadium- which is a general sort of appreciation or attraction to a photograph due to cultural and social background.  Examples include news photographs and war photographs.  The second is punctum- which is he describes as a wound or a prick.  It is a detail in that photograph that deeply connects to the viewers emotions and personal experiences.

Some examples. 

Susan Meiselas- a Magnum photographer who is probably best known for her coverage of the insurrection in Nicaragua and documenting human rights issues in Latin America.  As an American viewer especially, I feel we have sadly reached a point of desensitization with these kinds of images.  The theme of punctum is distinctly evident here for while I am drawn to the photo out of pity, concern, horror- all those emotions are more of general feeling.  I have nothing to personally connect me to this image, so while it informs me, it does not cut through to truly pierce my emotions.

Lauren Greenfield's documentation of adolescent girls however is a collection of works that illustrates Barthes' theme of punctum for me.  Especially her series "Thin."  While I have never dealt with anorexia, her images of girls going through such a difficult time is something that resounds personally for me.  

Postmodernism Part 2

Donald Crimp- Appropriating Appropriation

"Photography will always exceed the institutions of art, always participate in nonart practices, always threaten the insularity of art's discourse."  Photography is still the art world's newest child.  Last week in class, we referred to photography as the 'stepchild' of the art world, which is both it's advantage and disadvantage.  Photography has been able to grow and develop outside of the normal constrains of art.  

Photography of course has played a huge role in appropriation.  Crimp compares Sherrie Levine with Robert Mapplethorpe, stating that whil

e both are using appropriation, Mapplethorpe is appropriating style  while Levine is appropriating painting whole "in its material form."

Postmodernism Part 1

Charles Jencks-  The Post-Modern Agenda

Fredric Jameson

Key idea here is that of pluralism which allows for a diverse set of views.  It is "a resistance to single explanations, a respect for difference and a celebration of the regional, local, and particular."  Jencks puts a positive spin on postmodernism versus the more negative view of Jameson.  Jameson conclues that there is no original thought in today's world, and that our submission to the whim of mass masses is dulling the honesty and realism of the individual.  Essentially, he believes that part of what made modernism so successful was that it was not accepted by the masses.   Because it was not a part of the mass culture, it was able to be more real and focused more on the individual.  Current culture is marketed to the masses and therefore can no longer contain this sort of realism.  

Week 2

Clement Greenberg's Modernist Painting.  

  I had my highlighter out while reading and when I got to this article I pretty much highlighted the whole thing.  I'm sure this has happened to many of you- you're at a museum or gallery and gazing at some 'modern' art, perhaps a Pollack or Mondrian, when you overhear some whispered comments.  "My kid could make that" or "Psh, I could have made that in five seconds.  What?  They're selling that for five grand??!!" 

 I'm quite sure many of those people have never read this article nor care to do so.  Greenberg states "modernism used art to call attention to art."  How true!  It is so easy to quickly become caught up in the realistic details of painting especially.  Do people merely want to be impressed by art?  I think of the dutch masters and how easy it is to look at the detail and delicacy of brushstroke involved in their paintings while never stopping to ponder the overall work.   "Whereas one tends to see what is in an Old Master before one sees the picture itself, one sees a Modernist picture as a picture first." 

John Szarkowski's Introduction to The Photographer's Eye

When I began this article I took a moment to remember the first thrill of making an image in the darkroom.  Even now, it still amazes me that you can shine light on paper and run it through some chemicals- an image appears!  I'm sure if you multiplied that feeling by about a million- you'd get and idea of some of the reaction to photography when it first began.  It's no small wonder that people were scampering around all over the place- taking pictures of anything and everything.  Equally understandable is the rough start that photography got in the art world.  Painting was expensive and time consuming, therefore only monumental and important events and subjects were captured.  With the simple ease and inexpensiveness of photography, anything was a possibility for subject matter and anyone could become an artist.  Szarkowski breaks photography down into five issues that have been critical to the progression of photography.  

The thing itself- treasuring the fact that photography deals with the actual

The detail- the photographer is isolating and cataloging clues.  "If photographs could not be read as stories, they could be read as symbols."

The frame- Photography allows you to choose and eliminate.  The world is an infinite scroll in which there are a myriad of compositions to compose and crop.  (I love this idea.)

Time- Photography captures a still moment that was previously hidden in a flurry of movement.  Muybridge stopped time and showed how horses run.  Cartier-Bresson eloquently titled this idea "the decisive moment."

Vantage Point- Photographers are able to choose from a variety of options to present- birds eye view, backs of heads... all to give us a different sense of the scene.

And lastly- I found it interesting that Greenberg talks about modernism as an "evolution"  while Szarkowski compares the history of photography to a "growth."  "Photography, and our understanding of it, has spread from a center.."  This is my very brief mental interpretation of some photography history.  (I'm having issues getting it to appear below- sorry!)