History of Photography — All Readings

Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography - Roland Barthes *

"Camera Lucida is a short book published in 1980 by the French literary theorist and philosopher Roland Barthes. It is simultaneously an inquiry into the nature and essence of photography and a eulogy to Barthes' late mother. The book investigates the effects of photography on the spectator (as distinct from the photographer, and also from the object photographed, which Barthes calls the 'spectrum')." "In a deeply personal discussion of the lasting emotional effect of certain photographs, Barthes considers photography as asymbolic, irreducible to the codes of language or culture, acting on the body as much as on the mind. The book develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum: studium denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting the wounding, personally touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it." - From Wikipedia Referenced - NA Date - Nov 3

From Faktura to Factography - Ben Buchloh

"Why did the Soviet avant-garde, after having evolved a modernist practice to its most radical stages in the postsynthetic cubist work of the suprematists, constructivists, and Laboratory Period artists, apparently abandon the paradigm of modernism upon which its practice had been based? What paradigmatic changes occurred at that time, and which paradigm formation replaced the previous one?" Buchloh distinguishes between two important terms: FAKTURA - the early stage of photomontage. Miscellaneous images, consisting of clippings from magazines and papers, are assembled into a larger image, though the fact that it is assembled from small photographs remains clear. Think of photomontage by Picasso in which the assembled nature of the composition is clear. FACTOGRAPH - the later stage of photomontage that superceded the faktura style. Small images were combined seamlessly into a larger image. Though the photomontage is constructed of small images, its assembled nature is not clear. Think of the propaganda poster of the large hand, the smaller images that make up the larger one are seamlessly incorporated. "Rodchenko abandoned photomontage principles as early as 1924, replacing them with single-frame images and/or series of single-frame images with highly informative documentary qualities." - Ben Buchloh "Factography is a Soviet concept that came about in the 1920s and justified the communist foundation for storytelling. Because there was no room for fiction, no art for art's sake, the communist regime created a series of stories, a collective mythology, out of pieces from the past using real people, real places, and real events, only shifting and spinning the facts behind each to reach a greater truth, a common understanding of reality." - Sarah Sloan Bailey Referenced - Walter Benjamin, Lissitzky, Kandinsky, Rodchenko. Date - Oct 20-25

The Vertigo of Displacement - Stuart Hall *

(Summary according to Paul Mortimer, found online.) DOCUMENTING THE TRUTH AND GUARANTEED KNOWLEDGE Black photographers in the 1980s used the perception of truth associated with documentary photography to challenge the negative image created by the more "dominant regime" of white society. CULTURAL STUDIES AND THE SHIFT TO AVANT-GARDISM Black photographers' shift from the realism of documentary to the non-realist collective of avant-gardism was seen as a response to how best to contest institutional judgement of what is real and true. EXPLORING THE KALEIDOSCOPIC CONDITIONS OF BLACKNESS By the mid 1980's, the concept of a fixed identity of blackness was being challenged; the individual black artist could never represent the whole of the black experience. This broke down the growing perception that only black photographers could comment on black experience. BLACK AND WHITE: TOWARDS A NEW CRITICAL RESPONSE This issue moved towards art criticism as it began to suggest that the meaning behind an art installation might be different based on whether it was known to be created by a black or white artist. BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE 1990s Having challenged the fixed identity of blackness, this does not mean that the original argument can be ignored; that black photographers need to challenge authoritarian misconception of the truth about being black. This circle of challenge and reconstruction or perception and practice is crucial in the development of black representation in art and photography. Referenced - NA Date - Dec 1-8 More questions online - https://paulmocapwdp.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/analysing-an-essay-the-vertigo-of-displacement-by-david-a-bailey-and-stuart-hall/

Picturing Time: The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey - Marta Braun

A brief discussion of the early years, studio, family life, and work of Jules Marey. Discussion of Marey continued in greater depth in "Animating Images" reading. Referenced - Marey Date - Sept 20

Make It Stop: Muybridge & Instantaneous Photography - Philip Prodger

A lengthy biography of Muybridge's life and work. Establishes the following: - Early life and reason for fame - Life scandals - Method of working & technology used - Selection of work - Comparison of Muybridge to contemporaries - Collaboration between Muybridge and sponsor, Leland Stanford Referenced - Muybridge, Galton, Marey Date - Sept 20

Allegorical Procedures: Contemporary Art - Benjamin Buchloh

An in-depth discussion of the practices of contemporary photography. Several questions from reading: What is the relationship between photography and capitalism? How can we understand the paradox of photography critiquing capitalism/property that is then marketed/sold as a consumer product? How and why do artists appropriate photographs or the work of others. Of course, every artist "stands on the shoulders of giants," but what is gained by appropriating or explicitly referencing the work of another artist? Appropriation can range from Sherrie Levine's rephotographs (that explicitly copy Walker Evans and famous artists) to Heartfield photomontages (that assemble a larger and often controversial image from innocuous news-clippings and advertisements). In lecture, we explored in-depth the legacy of the avant-garde and several important avant-garde projects. What is the future though of avant-garde art? Does Sherrie Levine's work reveal that the avant-garde has no place left to go, aside from rehashing existing work? Or, can the avant-garde continue to revolutionize and critique existing modes of artistic production? I'm thinking in particular of our reading "Armed Vision Disarmed" from October 20-25. To what extent has the "armed vision" of the avant-garde been disarmed by the forces of capitalism and history? DuChamp created his urinal to shock and avant-garde artists consistently tried to deconstruct existing systems of what was seen as normal and "acceptable" in the art world. Is there a point after which the audience is so accustomed to being shocked that the avant-garde project no longer shocks our sensibilities? What institutional structures or artistic norms does the avant-garde propose to replace those it deconstructs? These questions apply to more than photography alone; they apply to the larger art world, itself a product of contemporary culture and society. Referenced - Martha Rosler, Sherrie Levine, and Dan Graham Date - Nov 29

Photography Between Narrativity & Stasis: Decay of the Portrait - George Baker

August Sanders photographed "social types," farmers, butchers, and ordinary people in 1930s Germany. Each individual can be representative of other individuals of their social class and profession. Sanders focuses on the individual who is representative of a group. Sanders multi-year project "Citizens" often imaged the socially outcast, such as gypsies and beggars, captioned not with their names but with their occupations in society. As viewers, we are curious about these social outcasts. What are their stories? Who are they? What are the implications of imaging an individual and claiming the photographic product represents all individuals of this group? Does Sanders accurately represent social "types?" How does Sander's photographic archive compare to Bernd and Hilla Becher's serialized images of industrial water towers and steel mills; how are their methods similar to or different form Sander's? Referenced - August Sanders Date - Oct 27

Camera Work/Social Work - Alan Trachtenburg

Author compares and contrasts the styles of Riis, Hine, and Stieglitz, all of which inherited the documentary tradition of Matthew Brady. CAMERA WORK - photography that aestheticizes its subject matter and is not deeply concerned with social justice or documentary photography. Stieglitz is concerned with capturing the golden moment and ideal image, regardless of what it is of; he does not deeply empathize with the plight of the poor he depicts. SOCIAL WORK - photography that, though beautiful, is concerned with alleviating conditions of social injustice and using photography as objective documentary tool. Though image may be visually appealing and intriguing, its primary concern is socio-political. Referenced - Hine, Riis Date - Sept 27-29

Making Connections with the Camera: Social Mobility & Jacob Riis - Sally Stein

Author discussed the career and genre of Riis' work. She claims that, though Riis may seem to empathize with his immigrant and impoverished subjects, he actually sees them as social menace to society. His photographs conceal elements of voyeurism, covert prejudice, racism, and disdain for the less fortunate. Though Riis is himself an immigrant, he tried to distance himself from the immigrant class in order to be accepted as a bourgeois artist. Author further discusses Riis' ambiguous social position as neither bourgeois nor immigrant, neither artist nor journalist. Referenced - Riis, Hine, Stieglitz Date - Sept 27-29

Cupid's Pencil of Light: Julia Margaret Cameron - Carol Armstrong

Author discusses the genre and allegorical tropes that defined Cameron's Victorian era art. Cameron focused primarily on child photography, nude, clothed, or in allegorical poses. Her scenes are domestic and her profession subverted traditional female gender norms of woman as homemaker. Author also briefly discusses some of the semi-abstract and surrealist undertones of Cameron's work. Though images may initially seem imperfect and blurred, these aspects are intentional methods of creating more powerful and poignant work. Brief discussion of the social controversies surrounding the nude photography of children and the social restrictions against the female as artist. Referenced - Cameron, Hawarden, Rëjlander Date - Sept 15

From the Painting to the Photogaphy - Osip Brik

Author discusses the role and advantages of photography in Russian Constructivist art of the 1920s and early 1930s. What aspects of photography specifically appealed to these avant-garde revolutionaries? Brik proposes: - Stasis — the painting is static and does not capture reality with the rapidity of the camera. - The drawing/painting is made by hand while the photograph is made by a machine - "The photographer does not have to halt the environment but can record it in motion." - Brik's writing style is choppy and didactic. A good read. Why would these aspects of photography have appealed to revolutionaries? How can photography be seen as a "revolutionary" medium, shifting the role of painting in society and changing the way information is disseminated in the news? In your opinion, how well did photography embody the revolutionary and anti-establishment ideals of Soviet Socialism? Referenced - Avant-Garde and Russian Constructivism Date - Oct 20-25

Citizenship Beyond Sovereignty - Ariella Azoulay

Author discusses the role of photography in defining citizenship. The subjects of photography, particularly the socially marginalized and victimized, are cast in a very specific light. When viewing the image of social injustice, what are the responsibilities of spectator? What are the responsibilities of photographer when imaging the socially marginalized and victimized? The "citizenship of photographers" are also voyeurs who capture the lives of others and can use photography as powerful tool of social justice, or injustice. Referenced - NA Date - Sept 15

Animating Images: The Cinematographic Method - Marta Braun

Author discusses the scientific work of Marey to capture movement thru photography. Series of images projected onto a single frame capture movement thru time. Marey's work is seen as predecessor to film. Text continues with discussion of Marey's photographic tools, methodology, and the work of Marey's contemporaries, such as Edison, Demeny. Text also discusses various competing film technologies in turn of century France and America. Explains intended audience, advantages, and disadvantages of each technology and why Edison ultimately won over the Lumière Bros. and Demeny. Referenced - Marey, Muybridge, Demeny, Edison, Lumière Bros. Date - Sept 20

From Clementina to Käsebier: The Lady Amateur - Carol Armstrong

Author discusses the work of female amateur photographers and attempts to understand why there have been so few recognized females in photography history. Author compares the work of Cameron to Kasabier and other artists at time. Author describes Hawarden's subject (her daughters) her environment (domestic) and her audience (private). She compares Hawarden's to Cameron's work (also for private conumption) and contrasts both to Käsabier's work in Ameria which was for public sale, public consumption, and slightly broader in scope/subject. (Does use of the word "amateur" to describe female photographers denigrate the quality of their work?) Referenced - Hawarden, Cameron, Käsabier Date - Sept 15

Rhetoric of the Image - Roland Barthes *

Barthes deconstructs the language of an advertising image to exemplify how we read photography. Important distinctions include: DENOTATIVE - the formal analysis of what is physically depicted — the literal CONNOTATIVE - the implications of depicting these subjects in this manner — the implied "The rhetoric" of the image is arrived at by analyzing and merging the denotative and connotative readings of the image. Advertising in particular, with its didactic content, lends itself well to a rhetorical analysis. Referenced - Evans, Margaret Bourke-White Date - Sept 6 & 15

Little History of Photography - Walter Benjamin

Benjamin briefly discussed the origins of photography in science and art. He focuses on the idea of aura — early photographs captured an aura and spirit that was lost as photography became recognized artistic medium. Earliest subjects were unaware they were being imaged, hence the photograph attained aura of authenticity that was lost when subjects grew aware of what photography was. Briefly discussed photography's encroachment on traditional mediums like painting. Referenced - DaGuerre, Atget, Sanders Date - Sept 8-13

The Author as Producer - Walter Benjamin

Benjamin critiques the limits of New Objectivist photography for its lack of social content and message. "What we require of the photographer is the ability to give his picture a caption that wrenches it from modish commerce and gives it a revolutionary use value. But we will make this demand most emphatically when we — the writers — take up photography." Benjamin also critiques Renger-Patzsch whose photographs he feels lack a deeper or more nuanced political/social meaning beyond their formal qualities. He writes: "Needless to say, photography is unable to convey anything about a power station or cable factory than, 'What a beautiful world!' [Renger-Petzsch] has succeeded in transforming even abject poverty — by apprehending it in a suitably fashionable manner — into an object of enjoyment." Would you agree with Benjamin's critique? Does photography have to have a political or social message to produce something for society or to expose some social ill? What is the impact of revolution or social turmoil, such as the Russian Revolution, on the work of the artist and writer? Do these social movements necessitate the artist to "produce" a response through their work? As Benjamin cites: "For whom do you write?" Referenced - Brecht, Renger-Patzch, and New Objectivism Date - Oct 27

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - Walter Benjamin *

Benjamin discusses the impact of photography on the appreciation and dissemination of art. He argues that with the infinitely reproducible photo, the aura of the original work of art is lost. It is no longer the singular and rare specimen visible to those who visit in person. "That which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction [i.e. photography] is the aura of the work of art" Benjamin prophetically ends his essay with a discussion of film and its impact on advertising and mass media entertainment. As photography prepared the ground for film, Benjamin predicted the ability of photography and then film to de-sanctify the aura of a work of art. Referenced - early film, Atget Date - Sept 6

The Political Uses of Photomontage - John Berger

Berger assesses the legacy and work of John Heartfield, an artist who pioneered photomontage as a political weapon against the Third Reich. Berger finds particularly striking examples of Heartfield's work and analyzes their use of photomontage, their formal qualities, and the nuances of their message. Berger concludes that Heartfield's clever use of photomontage conveyed a striking and piercing criticism of fascism. Though, in the end, political forces proved more powerful than the voice of the avant-garde whose end is attributed to the rise of Hitler in 1933. Referenced - John Heartfield Date - Oct 27

In the American East: Richard Avedon Incorporated - Richard Bolton

Bolton discusses Richard Avedon's career and method of photographing the socially marginalized "types" of people in the 1960s and 1970s American West. Bolton then traces Avedon's technique in presenting his work at blockbuster exhibitions for public mass consumption and personal recognition. The text both celebrates Avedon's work and criticizes his methods. Connections can be drawn from this text to work we have seen elsewhere. Consider the following quote: "Avedon has constructed a pantheon of mythical 'types.'" How can we compare Avedon's work to that of August Sanders? Both photograph types in their respective nations, Germany and America. And both focus on the socially marginalized and middle classes of butchers, doctors, laborers, and commoners. Are their methodologies of archiving at all comparable? Regarding his choice of marginalized and often impoverished subject, Bolton writes: "By decontextualizing these idiosyncrasies, and by blowing them out of proportion, Avedon renders the subject mute. The subjects — detailed, delineated, floating before emptiness — become hieroglyphs, ciphers. The photograph seems like a message without a purpose, a supercharged fragment of reality lost in space." Does Avedon do his subjects justice? Does he accurately convey their plight in middle and lower class America? Or does he merely capitalize off of their misery in the production of blockbuster exhibits in esteemed galleries? Bolton critiques Avedon's photography, which he claims lacks depth or insight into the lives of those imaged. Bolton briefly discusses Avedon's methods of photographing his subjects without background, intentionally flattening the depth of field, and muting the colors palette of his image. What can we read into the subjects lives and personalities by examining his images? We can connect this text to the Sigfried Kracauer from the October 27 when he writes: "In a photograph, a person's history is buried under a layer of snow." To what extent can this criticism be applied to Avedon? More importantly, does Avedon produce CAMERA WORK or SOCIAL WORK? (See readings from September 27-29) Referenced - Richard Avedon Date - Nov 10-15

The Museum's Old and The Library's New Subject - Douglas Crimp

Crimp discusses changes over the past few decades to the presentation of photography in library archives and museums. With particular attention paid to the New York Public Library's and MoMA's collections, he discusses how photography has earned greater value in the public's eye than before. He also discusses the NYPL's creation of its rare book and print division and MoMA's blockbuster exhibit on photography (and other artists) at its 50th anniversary. Attention is also paid to the emergence of the unique photographic archive, consisting entirely of photographs vs. libarary archives that merely use photographs to accompany written narratives. How do these changes to the art market and art world reflect our evolving understanding of photography? Where do you predict photography will go in the next few decades now that the photographic record is firmly canonized as a genre in its own right at places like MoMA and Getty? Referenced - Ed Ruscha, MoMA, and NYPL Date - Nov 29 Full text: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic867995.files/Crimp.pdf

Saturday Disasters: Trace and Reference in Early Warhol - Thomas Crow

Crow discusses Andy Warhol's practice of appropriating images and products from mass culture into his work. In his own words: "The principal thesis of this essay is that Warhol, though he grounded his art in the ubiquity of the packaged commodity, produced his most powerful work by dramatizing the breakdown of commodity exchange." How can we understand Saturday Disaster or Tunafish Disaster as representative of the "breakdown of commodity exchange?" Is this a critique of capitalism? The car, typically an object of pleasure and consumption, becomes one of pain and death. Warhol commemorates "events in which the supreme symbol of consumer affluence, the American car of the 1950s, has ceased to be an image of pleasure and freedom and has become a concrete instrument of sudden and irreparable injury." Crow cites Warhol's practice of taking images of common car accidents and silk-screening these images in a grid across a large canvas. Crow discusses how these images are commonly found in local newspapers and disasters common to roadside America. Could the car accident that kills its occupant also be considered a breakdown of commodity exchange? How can we relate the car accidents of Warhol's "Saturday Disasters" project to his famous claim: "Everyone will have a fifteen minutes of fame." Everyone may be famous for fifteen minutes, but what kind of fame does Warhol reference - the publishing of one's mangled body in a car wreck or of one's beaming face poisoned by tuna? Could we consider Warhol's studio as engaging in some of the very practices of "commodity exchange" that his work criticizes? Warhol's studio was named "The Factory" and he hired "assistants" to produce work for him to sell on the market. Warhol critiques capitalism, though to what extent is he a beneficiary of the capitalist and consumerist practices of the art market? These are not questions easily answered. Referenced - Andy Warhol Date - Nov 17

Who is Speaking Thus: Questions on Documentary Photos - Solomon-Godeau

Godeau attempts to trace the origins and define the genre of documentary photography. All photography is, to an extent, "documentary." And, in its earliest days as a medium, the boundaries between documentary and non-documentary photography were vague. But, with time, documentary was defined as a genre with its own implicit aesthetic conventions. Godeau also discusses photography as subjective tool of documentation. The photograph is not objective but captures the subjective preferences of its maker, simply by nature of what he has chosen to image. Documentary photography is not truly "documentary" if its subjects are posed for the camera or if the photographer has selectively chosen what to document. Godeau hence discusses the genre of documentary photography, its history and style, and some of its limitations. Referenced - Charney, Beato, Lange Date - Oct 11-13

Armed Vision Disarmed - Abby Godeau

Godeau cites George Orwell's claim that: "All art is propaganda but not all propaganda is art." To "The radical formalist photography forged in the Soviet Union in the span of years immediately before and for several years after the Russian Revolution disclaimed all aesthetic intent and instead defined itself as instrumental in nurturing a new, collective consciousness. 'Art has no place in modern life,' wrote Alexander Rodchenko [...] in 1928." And yet: "No art practice has yet proved too intractable, subversive, or resistant to be assimilated sooner or later into the cultural mainstream." Godeau traces the evolution of early Soviet photography from am independent and revolutionary genre into the mainstream of art photography. Do we, as students of art history, also participate in the assimilation of Rodchenko's art into the mainstream? By appreciating the art for its visual and aesthetic qualities, are we helping erode the intentions of its creators? Godeau claims the armed vision of constuctivist photography was disarmed by later art historians and cultural movements. Referenced - George Orwell, Soviet Socialism, Rodchenko, Maholy-Nagy, and Renger Patzsch Date - Oct 20-25

Photography Theory - David Bate

INTRODUCTION - Bate introduces the idea of photography genres — a category of photos unified by similarities in form, style, era, or subject. Followed by discussion of approach to analyzing photography as a visual language — semiotics. HISTORY - brief overview of history of photography from Victorian origins to Post-structuralism. Introduces terms to analyze photography — Connotative, denotative, semiotics, rhetoric, photographic code, etc. Referenced - The Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes Date - Sept 6

Marks of Indifference: Aspects of Photography in Conceptual Art - Jeff Wall

In the author's own words: "This essay is a sketch, an attempt to study the ways that photography occupied Conceptual artists, that ways that photography decisively realized itself as a modernist art in the experiments of the 1960s and 1970s. Conceptual art played an important role in the transformation of the terms and conditions within which art-photography defined itself and its relationships with the other arts, a transformation which established photography as an institutionalized modernist form evolving explicitly through the dynamics of auto-critique." Jeff Wall discusses the various photographic projects of conceptual artists and demonstrates how their work advances/defines the genre of art photography. Dan Graham's work in particular is cited as an example of the combination of text and image, where the text below informs our understanding of the image above. Graham's project "Homes for America" is seminal and inspired following generations of artists. Referenced - Alfred Stieglitz, Dan Graham, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol — None of these artists works are discussed in depth, though all are briefly cited to discuss their relationship with art-photography. Date - Nov 22

The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism - Rosalind Krauss

Krauss compares two images: a "Self-portrait" by Florence Henri and a photograph by Man Ray "Monument to deSade." In both images, she discusses the artist's use of framing; the subject is once framed by the physical extents of the picture plate and then twice framed by the frame within the frame. Florence Henri's "Self-portrait" is framed both by the picture plate and by the mirror in which her face is reflected. Man Ray's image too has a double frame: rectangular canvas and phallic crucifix. Krauss also discusses the Freudian and sexual imagery of surrealist photography. Freud posits that sexual images and thoughts underlie daily actions, routines, and objects. Surrealist photography aims to articulate this subconscious through use of framing and photo manipulation. Henri's self-portrait is subtly phallic, Man Ray's explicitly. Krauss links surrealist photography to a discussion of surrealist writing. Both mediums, visual and literary, have an indexical quality, where elements of the subconscious are exposed through artistic practices. Through random word choices, closely cropped images, or unusual photo angles, surrealism attempts to access emotions and thoughts not articulated in daily life or other genres. Essay concludes with a discussion of doubling. What is the effect of doubling (or mirroring) a photograph across a page? We definitely see this with Warhol. But, with surrealism, does doubling an image across the page comment on the inherently duplicative nature of photography? Is surrealist photography more self-conscious of its limitations as a medium than previous genres? Referenced - Man Ray, Florence Henri, Breton, Surrealism, and Dadaism. Date - Nov 1

Corpus Delecti - Rosalind Krauss

Krauss discusses some of the defining aspects of surrealist photography. Through closely cropped images, a body part can simultaneously denote its corresponding part of the human body or connote something else entirely. Consider the image of the chest that is evocative of a bull or of the curled up human body that can resemble a snake, mountain, or rock. Surrealism employs photography as an "associative medium" where an image has both denotative and connotative qualites. Images of the nude in particular are sexually charged, though the use of odd angles and close cropping makes the nude form seem surreal, even evocative of other items found in daily reality. What other tools do the surrealists employ to allow viewers to access the subconscious when viewing their work? Referenced - Man Ray, Breton, Bataille, Dali Date - Nov 1

Photography's Discursive Spaces - Rosalind Krauss

Krauss discusses the role of photography in translating three dimensional world into the two-dimensional genre(s) of photography, such as large-plate, lithograph, or stereograph. Krauss asks: How do we define a genre of photography, or of art? Do we define it while still it is still being created or after the fact, with the perspective of art history? Who defines a genre? Atget - a one man genre Documentary photography - a million man genre Krauss further discusses the history of stereography — two identical images that, when viewed through special glasses, appear as 3D image. Stereography is neither medium of museum art nor photograph in itself; it is in the realm between the two. How does the museum curator use the stereograph? Do they ignore its place in the history of photography all together? Referenced - Atget, O'Sullivan Date - Oct 6

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Midterm Review Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qsTzCKsduZqwZhMFe4nf4lq4SNRhMQyTfI7X62C4Rk0/edit?usp=sharing

Nadar and the Selling of Bohemia - Liz McCauley

Nadar photographed the bourgeois elite and the artist bohemians in 1850s Paris. Reading discussed the operation of his studio, his method of marketing, and his cultivation of "Nadar" not just as genius photographer but as brand name and symbol of class and wealth. Further discussed Nadar's style of photographing individuals, large plates, 3/4 pose, dimensions, and technicalities of marketing. Referenced - Nadar, Paris Bohemians Date - Sept 8-13

Charles Marville's Old Paris - Maria Morris

Photographs of the Pre-Hausmannization of Paris when boulevards were sliced thru the central city. Sees photography as a memory means of preserving and documenting the old and vanishing parts of Paris. Author typifies Marville's photography as an ideological tool to expose poor urban living conditions to public gaze, thereby justifying demolition and social reform. Referenced - Atget, Riis, Charles Marville Date - Sept 6

Global Photography - David Bate *

Photography, since almost the beginning, has been a tool of globalization, allowing for the mass-dissemination of western images and cultural values Globalization offers a new paradigm about the development and impact of photography World or humanist photography aimed to find a global language of photographic communication Digital photographs offer continuity with and difference from analogue-processed photographs Computers offer a "meta-system" for the production and dissemination of photographs, moving images, words, and sound. Globalization has positive and negative effects Photography can be used to embody cultural values. Bate cites Steichen's 1950s exhibit on the Family of Man that presented the heterosexual and single-race family as a universal value and standard. The exhibit traveled the world and was shown to millions, disseminating American cultural values in the process (and illustrating the flaws inherent to this restrictive definition of the family). Referenced - Daguerrotype, orientalism, Roland Barthes, Allan Sekula, and Steichen's "Family of Man" Date - Dec 1-8

Looking at Portraits - David Bate *

Portraiture was central to the historical development of photography as a commercial industry. Portraits are used to identify and make VISIBLE different sections of the population. We can identify key semiotic features of portraiture, whatever the public/private purpose of the portrait. "Recognition" is a component pleasure in looking at portraits. In "projection," a view can implant their own feelings in a portrait photograph even though it seems as if these meanings come from the actual photograph Referenced - Galton, Steichen, Cameron, Riis, Hine, Brady, etc. Date - Sept 8-13

Review of all readings for History of Photography final exam. Readings are listed in order they appear on syllabus and are followed by brief summary. Readings from Bate are taken directly from the text and important readings are starred (*) To review readings assigned after the midterm, please visit: https://quizlet.com/174871398/flashcards

Review of all readings for History of Photography final exam. Readings are listed in order they appear on syllabus and are followed by brief summary. Readings from Bate are taken directly from the text and important readings are starred (*) To review readings assigned after the midterm, please visit: https://quizlet.com/174871398/flashcards

Perpetual Inventory - Rosalind Krauss

Rosalind Krauss discusses the methodology and work of Robert Rauschenberg. She discusses his combination of 2D images from printed mediums (like newspapers) with his use of 3D elements (like preserved animals) that extend the picture plan outwards. Though his individual photographs are marked by the two-dimensionality of Walker Evans' photos of roadside America and billboards, his use of three-dimensional elements expands the picture frame outwards and forwards, to the viewer. IF we were to categorize Rauchenberg's photomontages, would they align more closely to the genre of Faktura or Factograph? Admittedly, these two genres are from a different era, but which one would Rauchenberg embody more? Krauss compares this work to that of Walker Evans, "In Rauschenberg's own photography, we see something far more in tune with the example of Walker Evans's works: the frontality; the relentless focus; the quality of light falling on textured surfaces (clapboard siding, for example, or brick) acting as a kind of graphic, or drawn, stroke; and the fascination with two-dimensional "fronts" (billboards, torn posters, shop winders) standing in for the deep space of the "real," which they effectively block." Krauss also compares Rauschenberg's use of veils and concealment to techniques employed by Robert Frank in his photo book "The Americans." Both employ veils to mask their subjects, simultaneously concealing a subject behind something else and alluring to its presence in the places it is visible. Krauss claims: "Veils do function in Rauschenberg's treatment of found photographs." Where else this semester have we seen artists using found photographs or the processes of re-appropriation for artistic purposes? Warhol? Referenced - Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans. Date - Nov 17

On the Invention of Photographic Meaning - Allan Sekula *

Sekula continues Roland Barthes' discussion of the meaning of a photographic image. A photo is assumed to have a meaning that can be translated from visual image to written text or idea. This rhetorical message is assumed to be naturally "written into" the image. Sekula challenges this notion with the example of the Bush woman who has never seen a photograph, and is hence unable to deduce its meaning or identify its subject. Sekula further compares the work of Stieglitz and Hine. He feels that, though each photographer is imaging a similar audience, they create different style of work with different rhetorical message. Stieglitz "aestheticizes" poverty as beautiful, even admirable, from his position of wealth and privilege. Hine depicts the realities and difficulties of poverty, not as admirable, but as reason for social concern and government action. (Hine's rhetorical message is closer to Riis than to Stieglitz. While Hine and Riis depict poverty from the perspective of empathy, Stieglitz distances himself from poverty and treats it as little more than subject of aesthetic interest.) Referenced - Hine, Stieglitz, Barthes Date - Sept 22

The Body and the Archive - Allan Sekula *

Sekula discussed the role of photography in documenting crime and government surveillance. Photography is used not just as aesthetic tool, but as weapon of social control in the body of the photographic archive. Bertillon - crime photographer in 1870s Paris who develops large archive of mugshots to identify recidivist criminals by physical appearance. Popularizes the mugshot. Galton - photographer of crime who tries to arrive at the archetype of the criminal. Merges many photos of criminals to create blurry composite image of The Criminal. While Bertillon uses individual photos to identify individual criminals from the body of the archive, Galton uses the body of the archive to synthesize the archetypal criminal. Sekula compares and contrasts the criminal methodologies of Galton and Bertillon, both of whom subscribed to the pseudoscience of phrenology. Phrenology - the idea that interior personality traits of an individual, such as goodness or criminality, can be detected by outside physical characteristics, skull size as proxy for personality. Referenced - Galton, Bertillon, Foucault, Phrenology Date - Oct 6

Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary - Allan Sekula

Sekula explores the connection between capitalist modes of production and documentary photography. He focuses on photography's ability to explore and expose the lives of those marginalized by capitalism: the working classes, the proletariat, and the common working woman. Sekula cites Rosler's project on the Bowery as embodying her subjects "internalization of [their] oppression." He also cites documentary photography of oil workers, laborers, and commoners in low-tier manual work. Sekula essay has Marxist undertones, as he concludes: "I am arguing, then, for an art that documents monopoly capitalism's inability to deliver the conditions of a fully human life, for an art that recalls Benjamin's remark that 'there is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of Barbarism.'" Though this text only briefly covers topics discussed in lecture, it is an insightful read and condemnation of capitalist labor practice: anti-communist, anti-union, and unfair to its employees. Referenced - Martha Rosler and other documentary photographers not covered in class Date - Nov 22

From Sensation to Science: Turn of Century Documentary Photos - Maren Stange

Stange discusses the work of Riis in the larger social context of tenement reform and poverty alleviation. She discusses Riis' method of photography, alongside that of his contemporaries. She especially focuses on the use of photography as a middle class weapon against the poor. Riis, hailing from the bourgeois, uses photography to depict the poor as social menace in need of government intervention. In this sense, Riis' "social work" and documentary photography served an ideological objective of government and social reformers. Riis and Hine merely collaborated in executing this larger agenda that shifted public opinion in favor of reform through photography, protest and writing, Referenced - Riis, Hine Date - Oct 11-13

In Defense of the Poor Image - Hito Steyerl

Steyerl discusses the impact of the Internet and globalization on artistic production. He feels the aura of individual images is lost due to dissemination of their copies over Internet and television. This poses difficulties to both the owner of the original work and/or the entity that holds the rights to this work. How does one regulate the use of artwork when it is so readily disseminated over the internet? Could this mass dissemination of reproductions be considered democratic, ensuring that all have access to the cultural canon of photography? Or, is some quality of the original image's lost when lower-quality reproductions are so widely disseminated, as claimed in Benjamin's essay the "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"? "The poor image is a copy in motion. Its quality is bad, its resolution substandard. As it accelerates, it deteriorates. It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, an errant idea, an itinerant image distributed for free, squeezed through slow digital connections, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, as well as copied and pasted into other channels of distribution." Steyerl writes: "Poor images are thus popular images—images that can be made and seen by the many. They express all the contradictions of the contemporary crowd: its opportunism, narcissism, desire for autonomy and creation. [...] The condition of the images speaks not only of countless transfers and reformattings, but also of the countless people who cared enough about them to convert them over and over again, to add subtitles, reedit, or upload them. " Referenced - NA Date - Dec 1-8

The Rhetoric of the Still Life - David Bate *

Still life is a "low" genre, often neglected in historical literature Advertising depends heavily on the rhetoric of still-life photography The idea of "objectness" is central in the logic of still-life pictures New Objectivity in the 1930s began to serve advertising of industrial products. "Product shots" are a development of still-life photography for advertising purposes, but can be linked to historical uses of still life, for example in Flemish and Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century. Referenced - New Objectivity, Renger-Patzsch, and Man Ray Date - Oct 27

Photography - Sigfried Kracauer

The author comments on the general effect of photograph on memory, the archive, and printed mediums, such as "Illustrated Newspapers." Kracauer also posits that photography has become more dissociative with time. When photography was in the hand's of former painters, there was still a connection between subject, medium, and photograph. Specifically, he cites how the photographic archive has a dissociative qualitity that leads the viewer to disassociate the archived material from its corresponding presence in reality. Portrait photography too does not reveal all aspects of an individual's character or personality; it is "opaque." He writes: "In a photograph, a person's history is buried under a layer of snow." How can we relate this understanding analysis to photograph's seen earlier this semester, such as those of Dorothea Lange? Do we associate her photograph of the mother and her two children to actual people? Or is the allegorical and symbolic quality of this image so great that we associate this image not with the actual mother or person but with the universal archetype of the woman or mother? Referenced - NA Date - Oct 27

Documentary and Story-Telling - David Bate

The making of documentary work not only involves shooting pictures, but also the process of selecting (editing) pictures from those taken to make a body of work. This may include cropping, use of captions, and titles, establishing the overall context of the work. The motivation for documentary photography is to "creatively inform an audience" about another part of the population whose life and experience may be unfamiliar to them. The aim of the work may be to criticize, celebrate, support, or attempt to reform the situation they describe. The tactics adopted by photographers range between tripod-based VIEWS and hand-held SCENES (tableaux) which create distinct viewer positions usually perceived as either an objective or subjective "witness" position. Referenced - NA Date - Oct 6

In the Landscape - David Bate

The term "landscape" already implies a visual separation in relation to nature. Landscape has a long pictorial tradition in painting before photography. Photography delivered a high-resolution delineation of the land in a mechanically reproduced picture system of representation. Photography is a privileged form for the signification of longings and desire (social, political, economic, ideological, and highly personal) on to a mute landscape environment. Against the categories of the PICTURESQUE and SUBLIME, photography introduced the new ideal of PHOTOGRAPHIC VISION, an unpainterly "non-aesthetic" vision. Referenced - NA Date - Sept 22

Art Photography - David Bate *

The word ART has several distinct and different meanings, as a type of value as well as referring to specific types of institution and institutional relations. AUTONOMY is a key concept in artistic freedom and responsibility in society. The history of the impact of photography on art is also the history of the impact of art on photography. We can identify distinct historical phases of these relationships since the invention of photography. Photography is central to debates in contemporary art discussions. The relation of photographic images as "spectacle" is a crucial part of its success in a global art market, heralding the popular return to a pictorial paradigm in art practice. Referenced - Edward Weston, Robert Frank, and John Heartfield. Date - Nov 22

Winning the Game When the Rules Have Changed: - Solomon-Godeau *

This text does not reference any of the white male photographers we covered in lecture. Instead, it focuses on African Americans marginalized by photography and photographers. Bell Hooks discusses the importance of the family snapshot in her life as a vessel of memory and even power. Though photography outside the home may have depicted a white and patriarchal culture, images taken inside the home assert the black family's independence and ability to create its own art, not centered on patriarchy but centered on blackness and their own culture. As Hooks writes: "In many black homes, photographs — especially snapshots — were also central to the creation of altars. These commemorative places paid homage to absent loved ones." One passage encapsulates her main idea: "To reverse this trend [of the marginalization of blacks in photography] we must being to talk about the significance of black image production in daily life prior to racial integration. When we concentrate on photography, then, we make it possible to see the walls of photographs in black homes as a critical intervention, a disruption of white control over black images." Referenced - NA Date - Nov 29 Full text - http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/sites/core/files/pages/hooks--Glory.pdf

In, Around, & Afterthoughts From "On Documentary Photos" - Martha Rosler *

This text touches on the voyeuristic nature of documentary photography, its tendencies and its often problematic nature, "Documentary, as we know it, carries (old) information about a group of powerless people to another group addressed as socially powerful." Martha Rosler's 1975 project on the Bowery is given special focus. Rosler assembles an archive consisting of photos of places where homeless people stay paired with some of the slang they employ in conversation. The catch though is that she does not photograph the homeless themselves on the Bowery ; she merely documents the spaces they inhabit and the language they use. To what extent is this photography or language adequate or "inadequate" in describing its unseen subjects? Does this photographic project address the voyeuristic nature of photography — its homeless subjects are not subject to the camera's scrutiny? Referenced - Martha Rosler and her project: "The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems" Date - Nov 22 Full text - http://everydayarchive.org/awt/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/rosler-martha_in-around-afterthoughts.pdf

An American in Paris - Colin Westerbeck

WILLIAM KLEIN - the author introduces Klein's isolated and challenging childhood in the Lower East Side as propelling him toward art and street photography. The text is part biography and part pithy analysis of Klein's methods and talents as street photographer. The text traces his path through Paris, professional relationship with Andre Breton, and eventual adoption of photography after a stint in the art world. Klein breaks with Cartier Bresson's accepted "ethics" of street photography by adopting a larger camera than the 20mm, instructing his subjects pose, playing with negatives, and photographing his subjects in new and revolutionary ways that broke with tradition. The author in particular focuses on Klein's practice of blurring, "abusing," and altering his plates in the darkroom. ROBERT FRANK - this is a brief biography of Frank, his early life in America, his sojourn in Paris, and later his career and production of his famous book "The Americans." Though both Frank and Klein photographed streets scenes, their methods were markedly different: "In [Robert Frank's] photographs, as in his speech and his movements, Frank seems to have a different metabolism from Klein. His manner is slower and less self-assured. His pictures are often of moments less raucous. He notices a quietness in people that Klein, in more of a hurry would pass right over. You can find in Frank's photography, for instance, a kind of face in the crowd whose expression might be mistaken for that same blank look of which Klein has often made a picture. But Frank's image is more typically of one of those unexpected moments when life has overwhelmed somebody's feelings, not drained them." For one, Klein photographed street scenes of urban places, as the title of his book "New York" implies. Frank photographed roadside scenes from across America between his drives between east and west coasts. Each artist has a different focus, though they may share type of equipment, methods, and genre. There is room here to draw connections to other artists we have seen. How can we relate Frank's work to that of Evan's billboards and his rendition of popular culture? Would the term "auto strangulation" apply to Frank as well? Or, do Evans and Frank focus on different aspects of roadside photography, the former on the billboards/gas stations and the latter on the people who inhabit these kinds of environments? Referenced - William Klein, Fernand Léger, Robert Frank, Roland Barthes, Edward Steichen, Walker Evans Date - Nov 3