Kelsh: Reading Response 1 (The Document)

THE DOCUMENT

Why MoMa Is Giving Its Largest Solo Photography Exhibition Ever to Lee Friedlander

Friedlander’s collection of work is significant in that each photograph he captures is a unique view of American society, and because of his masterful compositions. The MoMa decided to display five hundred of his images because of the familiarity of his work that gives it broad appeal, and that he is “able to keep making the same picture without it being the same picture” (16). He often revisits the same subjects such as in his book Self Portrait, where he captures himself over a span of time, and different views of himself.

Travels with Walker, Robert, and Andy

 What ties together these three photographers is their “on the road” theme in photography; Walker Evans and Robert Frank being the first, and Stephen Shore being a natural heir. Evans was the first to snap a shot out of the window of a moving car, skewing “the horizon line and thereby [changing] photography” (17). This created a sense of immediacy and energy that was an element of the new American lifestyle. Shore used color in his photography, which was uncommon for art photography because it was associated with commercial photography. All of them photographed things that exemplify the American lifestyle.

Southern Exposure: Past and Present Through the Lens of William Christenberry

Walker Evans praised William Christenberry’s snapshot-like work by saying “there is something about the way [he uses] this little camera that makes it a perfect extension of [his] eye” (20). What I find most interesting about his work are his pictures he took secretly of the Ku Klux Klan, because it was a big part of what described the South; he brought it to light instead of putting a shroud over it. He created “a stark acknowledgement of the dark side of the South’s cultural history” (22).

John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at Eighty-One

Szarkowski changed the perception of photography; before that, “photography was commonly perceived as a utilitarian medium, a means to document the world”.  Rather than just document things that were oddities or special situations, photographers could too capture things that were snapshot-like and with subjects that were considered ordinary.  In other words, he believed that “their aim had not been to reform life, but to know it” (23). Mr Szarkowski helped change the course of photography by praising the photographer William Eggleston’s work; while at the time people saw it as boring and mundane, he would later be renowned as a pioneer in color photography.

The Imagist’s Eye

I liked the idea of photography being a generative process that pulls you along, similar to how music pulls a musician along. Wessel was also interested in the effect of light on the world and how it turns out in pictures, particularly because of his strictly black and white format of photos, such as in his photograph Santa Barbara, California, 1977. I also like how he puts away his images for a year before deciding which ones to print so that he can have a clearer judgment of each image, having spent time away from it.

Beauty Is Not a Four-letter Word

Richard Misrach’s photography is interesting in the way that it is very aesthetically pleasing while also being saturated with political commentary about war and environmental issues. I find it lovely that he is able to allow “the beautiful and the meaningful to be seamlessly juxtaposed” (31).

The Tableau Inside Your Town Hall

Paul Shambroom is mostly interested in photographing town council meetings as a means of cataloging a city’s artifacts of power. He likes being able to capture the emotions on the faces of these people and how they look during their somber activity. I find it interesting that his photos also function as a narrative and bring issues about representation to light.

Bernd Becher, Seventy-five, Photographer of German Industrial Landscape, Dies

This photographer was considered one of the best of his time. He used photography as a scientific documentation and often chose mundane subjects, and also would often repeatedly photograph the same object and compose them into grids to create visual anomalies.

Keeping It Real: Photo-Realism

Robert Bechtle’s paintings, drawings, and watercolors in the 1960s and 70s are nostalgic pieces that are nearly copies of photography; they do their best to depict the world with optical clarity and visual accuracy as photographs do. Even other art movements began incorporating found images into their own work, and yet photo realists went the furthest by even composing their detailed paintings as photographs.

Portraits of American Paradises, Mostly Lost

Joel Sternfeld was interested in photographing suburbian, utopian communities and emphasize how displaced and fake they seem from the natural landscape around them. What’s interesting about his work is how he captures the idea of an ideal world rather than an ideal world itself.

Keeping His Eye on the Horizon (Line)

I find it interesting that Sze Tsung Leong is so inspired by his architecture background and the idea of representing a 3 dimensional space in a 1dimensional picture by use of horizon and parallel lines. He likes exploring to new place to photograph thing which is something I highly relate to, since its easy to get used to/not see the beauty as much in the environment you live in.

Personal Response

I was particularly interested in Lee Friedlander’s piece New York City because of all the meaning and social commentary about gender and class divide he was able to pack into one single photograph. I also find it interesting that John Szarkowski was one of the first to see photography as “the act of pointing,” and some photographers point at more interesting things than others do. Photo-realism is also interesting in the way that it alludes to the way that we can see the world through photography, even though the movement wasn’t popular at first. Each of these photographers has contributed to the art world of photography in their own unique way.