I
have a natural empathy with the 1970s as it was the time of my life when I
started work, I loved every moment because there were no restrictions on how and
what we did, life was a pleasure. It is not surprising then that I find New
Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape (NT) a part of the history of
photography that is interesting and relevant to my study. Having obtained the original
catalogue I can now spend time looking at the work in print, something I prefer to
screen images. Britt Salvesen, Director and Chief Curator at the Centre for Creative Photography, University of Arizona is the author of the essay that accompanies the catalogue and I have used that as a guide to my research.
Salvesen opens with a look at the history of photography prior to 1975 and the formation of the New Topographics (NT) as an idea and its curation by William Jenkins. NT is an exhibition of landscape photography that opened up a new direction for photography with a title of the exhibition that is unusual and does not really explain much of its content. The survey of the land and its features are the study of Topographics and is generally associated with the work of a surveyor. Topographic surveys record the features of the land, what is on the land (buildings, walls, roads etc) and the contours of the land, often expressed as a height above a datum, sometimes from sea level. The product of this work is then represented through scale drawings and will typically include a plan and various cross sections. From this work an architect or engineer will often design and plan new works onto the landscape. The topographic photographer's work is no different although the resulting output is a series of photographs where we can see clearly what is there and how big it is. The combination of surveyor and photographer will give a complete and concise description of what was there on the dates the work was carried out.
The exhibition shows the work of ten artists by way of 168 photographs. The artists were:
Robert Adams
Lewis Baltz
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Joe Deal
Frank Gohlke
Nicholas Nixon
John Schott
Stephen Shore
Henry Wessel, Jr.
Up until William Jenkins, assistant curator of twentieth century photography at George Eastman House brought them together they were not part of any cohort although some had achieved exposure in the art world. Their coming together however did mark a significant point in the history of photography and the term New Topographics has become a label and validated approach to landscape photography. Salvesen makes the point that at the time "neither the original viewers, nor the curator, nor the participating artists anticipated the outcome" Forty years on from this event and its significance enriches the landscape photography discourse as much as ever. It is surprising that many of the artists had never met and for many they never saw the exhibition in Rochester. In fact at the time it was seen by only a small number of visitors as it had a limited audience and it is by serendipity that it has gained such notoriety and influence. The history of NT can be traced back to the 1960s and in particular the work of Walker Evans and Ed Ruscha, both having completed work associated with the cultural landscape. John Szarkowski at MOMA in New York had sustained Evans's work from the FSA and in 1971 curated a major retrospective spanning the photographers forty year career. Some of the NT artists were heavily influenced by Evans, particularly Gohlke who found affinity with his work and that of Eugene Atget. Salvesen describes Evans work as ...."these elements of 'documentary style', a nuanced, deliberately oblique formulation that can be broached via the broader concept of the vernacular". Salvesen uncovers how the NT artists looked to the work of Ansel Adams and Minor White with a degree of scepticism while at the same time acknowledging the early impact on them by these well known names. Deal went to Yosemite and says it was like seeing everything in quotation marks, while Baltz criticised the dramatic high contrast printing style, which by the 1960s seemed overblown and embarrassingly self conscious. The NT photographers had a wish to depict the mid 1970s America without glorifying it or condemning it. Jenkins wrote of the participants as photographers who can foster ambiguity around the very issue of attachment.... the makers attachment.... the viewers attachment and a detachment of generations of the photographers expressive capacity. Walker Evans, when asked by a student to describe why he photographs billboards, Evans said "I love them". The student then asked is there as social comment here and Evans replied "Not in the least... I photograph what is in front of me...".
So photography based upon attraction, where the viewer is seduced has moved towards photography that does not reveal the motivation of the photographer and this adds a complexity that is undertaken by all of the NT photographers in varying ways.
It is to Jenkins then that the cohort were assembled. Jenkins work as a curator was not well paid but he was expected to travel and meet artists, visit exhibitions and look at portfolios. Jenkins first got to know Deal when he was photographing the art deco houses in Rochester NY. His stylised, detail orientated formal approach was heavily reliant on the influence of Evans and these images are where the seeds of an exhibition on architecture were sown in Jenkins mind. At around that time Jenkins also saw the work of Baltz in Los Angeles and upon his return to Rochester and further discussions with Deal the architecture/landscape idea grew.
Photographers had been showing architecture in the landscape since the 1839 but Jenkins and Deal found no evidence of treating the built environment as a subject on its own. Any previous attempts at showing structures and buildings were more likely to be well known landmarks with elements subjectivity installed by the photographer rather than suburban housing portrayed with critical analysis. Deal pursued this in his own work, changing the way he photographed the Rochester facades to give more space around the building and seeking out the ordinary. When shown this work was not well received. The critic Gene Thornton described the genre as lacking "technique and life". When describing R Adams Denver Views he declared "...I felt I was looking at pictures made without human direction by mere machines..."
These comments were not universal and others wrote of Baltz's Tract Houses project as making "aesthetic something that in reality has no redeeming aesthetic quality"
Salvesen points out that this form of pictorial pleasure, cerebral as apposed to cathartic, is altogether more compatible with advanced painting, sculpture and installation art than with mainstream photography. These pre New Topographics reviews point to a new attitude towards photographic innovation and as it had not yet coalesced into a style it resisted assimilation to existing critical vocabularies. Modernists were finding it difficult to relinquish the basic requirements of subjectivity.
The NT photographers, while being a disparate group of individuals, together were forming a sceptical opinion towards the previous generation. Robert Adams did acknowledge the impact of Ansel Adams while explaining that his work was essentially different with its own aims. Baltz criticised the dramatic high contrast printing. By the 1960s the Ansel Adams photographs were seen by this cohort as overdetermined, overblown and embarrassingly self conscious. It was without doubt Walker Evans who the group were looking towards as inspiration and the construction of a new style, one where, as Gohlke put it "... the photographer seems to be absent...".
The NT photographers were depicting the USA of the 70s without glorifying or condemning and transmitted this with well crafted prints with no darkroom tricks and assembling them into a unifying narrative.
As Salvesen describes it "it is about the environment and the land" with Adams being most explicitly aligned with environmentalism and possibly the one most lured by sentimentality proffered by the landscape. As Americans became prosperous they had leisure time to explore Yosemite, the Everglades, the Grand Canyon etc. and with photography becoming a popular pastimes these areas generated an affection with the public who saw them as pure and pristine. Salvesen is conscious of the possibility that NT might in retrospect be considered as environmentalist but the show was resistant to being aligned with any propaganda. One reviewer (William Wilson) did describe it as "ecologically based social criticism" but on the other hand it is possible to be critical and describe the work as not critical enough as there are images that question land use and the aesthetics of the architecture. Pictures of essentially controversial land use that engender feelings inside are difficult to be come detached from as a photographer and in some cases perhaps impossible, especially for Americans who tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
What I think we end up with are photographs that epitomise the paradox of being both boring and interesting. This is how Robert Adams summarises his objective, "a normal view of the landscape. Almost." What I think we are getting towards is a position somewhere between Ansel Adams and a snapshot taken by a resident of his new home. They needed to be as technically fine as Ansels but convey a detachment one gets from Roberts.
Jenkins worked closely with Deal on the curation of NT and they collaborated closely on the title. Deal it seems did most of the work towards the title and wanted something that tried to say contemporary landscape photography and indicated a break from the past. The result New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape is open for debate and asks questions over what we are to expect.
New has connotations of improvement, progress, recent or contemporary in fact anything other than the past. Topographics is nothing new although has more of a general reference to maps and the original dictionary definition of it being a detailed description of a place or tract of land. The contributing photographers had varying responses to themselves being "topographers",with Adams questioning the geographical focus and its implications of objectivity. Jenkins and Deal had agreed that there was a need for a sub title to make it more explanatory. Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape is full of words that require further investigation. Photographs simply asserts the medium and identifies a specific practise and that they are objects as apposed to the word photography. The compound adjective man-altered is gender specific although there is little feminist objection generally to the whole being described as mankind. The noun it modifies is landscape in the singular and is denoted here to be something imagined and created or used by humans. There is no reference to a before image of the landscape only the after which is then a record of construction and disruption, socially and physically, beneficial or detrimental.
The selection of the photographs and who had the final decision on inclusion is not clear although Jenkins and Deal, one as curator/author and the other as artist/designer had the responsibility for the projects realisation and final content. With ten artists it was never likely that a harmonious agreement would be across the board. Adams and Gohlke expressed reservations about the whole idea and Adams was never enthusiastic about being a part of the show. In part this was due to Jenkins having described it at one stage as a post Ansel Adams endeavour. Adams in his younger days held a deep respect for Ansel Adams' work and probably could put his devotion to landscape photography entirely down to Ansel.
Jenkins retrospectively commented "People come to me and think that I understand this because I invented it, and I didnt really understand it very well then. I think my essay (in the catalogue) reveals that" What Jenkins is reminding the reader of is that NT was an experiment. Readers of the essay may never find what they are looking for as Jenkins it seems may have rushed the writing, never expecting that a generation later it would be dissected by academics and writers wanting to find every nuance of the NT exhibition. The essay is essentially a centre around which the artists are asked to contribute and they are all quoted, so in essence it becomes a conversation. Jenkins essay is concise dealing with the themes of style, objectivity and the document although some critics at the time were less than impressed, describing the exhibition as a "Topographical Error". As Salvesen writes when he starts to finally bring the whole work into a summary "... that through style works of art have meaning... even if in NT that does not include personal, idiosyncratic or self contained meanings" The confusion of genre and subject can be considered a self conscious aspect of NT.
The problem of style is going to challenge the viewer (much less in 2015 than 1975 perhaps) due to expectations being derived from modernist examples of the genre. The straight prints, uniformity of subject matter, the built environment, perfect sharp focus, minimal grain and tonal range were features that had little aesthetic value, previously associated with expression, abstraction, narration and the unique hand printed one off example with high contrast and darkroom manipulation.
Jenkins concludes, NT may have been a "stylistic event" but the actual photographs are far richer in meaning and scope than the simple making of an aesthetic point.
The exhibition was hung in the Brackett Clark gallery in George Eastman House. The room was divided with temporary walls, some white, some grey. The artists work was presented in groups interrupted, all framed with metal section frames and white mats.
Visitors to the exhibition were asked for their thoughts and although taking into account their age, assumptions of Eastman House as a venue, experience with photography and prints the response was wide and difficult to summarise. Some examples include:-
He couldn't have been doing it for his enjoyment, because they are very dull pictures in my opinion.
They obviously didn't take it from an artistic point of view. It looks like it was their job, their project
Viewers apparently admired the lighter printing style which at a simple visual level distinguished them from the high contrast, expressive, chiaroscuro seen in photojournalism at that time.
The exhibition was on view for nearly a year in Rochester after which it travelled to two other locations which accounts for the lack of contemporary reviews. In Los Angeles Robert Woolard drew no conclusions and said there was no way of knowing if this was a passing phenomenon or if it is avant-garde with an enduring attitude to the artistic medium.
In conclusion, NT was a paradigm shift for photography although what is surprising is that no follow on cohort or curator took up the legacy to develop it and continue the discourse with an evolution that would provide heirs to the tradition. Jenkins left Eastman House soon afterwards to teach photography in Arizona and finds the attention NT receives to be bothersome and disproportionate. In addition none of the artists clung on to the NT and instead wanted to work on their own and have individual identities. All went on to produce significant bodies of work and receive varying amounts of support. It is not until the mid 80s and later that the true legacy of NT becomes apparent. Through the work of Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky (with others) they take the style to another level. Biographer and archivist Susanne Lange says that they have taken it "to absurdity" using the abstractness, serial sequences, order and structure as the actual subject matter of the image, heightened by vivid colour and immense scale. In the USA the NT artists did little to influence others in the style of NT even though most of them at some time later in life did teach at universities. Despite the recognition the artists subsequently received the NT exhibition is only one line on their CVs, .. a group show, Rochester, 1975.
New Topographics is in contemporary photography deployed as if it were a universal standard and a kind of masterclass for all photographers to aspire to. It was in reality a loose set of artists who Jenkins and Deal noticed at the time as having something to say about what they saw around them and forced the viewer to look at the present and think about the future. We may see it as a nostalgic period but the lessons from then are completely relevant in our contemporary practice today.
Reflection and Learning Outcome
The research and words above are just the tip of the iceberg when looking at this phenomenon. We all know something of NT, it is difficult to have got this far in photography without some exposure to the work and most will have an opinion on how it affected them. For myself it was a step change a year ago when I finally saw past the work of Ansel Adams and wondered if there was indeed more of a narrative in the banal than the high contrast overworked expressive image. At this change point as a photographer you realise you will abandon most of your audience who liked your "nice" photographs and instead you will be working alone, for yourself and perhaps others of a like mind who will "get it" and take the time to look past the image on paper and see the message beneath. Building a narrative into image making is something I now spend far more time considering, rather than considering the viewer and their reaction as my prime objective. The craftmanship behind these "type" of images is required to be of the highest standard, similar in impact to editing, in so much as when it is done well you may not see it. Banality for some is another word for uninteresting and that is the challenge ahead, to prove them wrong.
Bibliography
Salvesen, Britt., 2013. New Topographics.Arizona: Steidl.
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Saturday, 1 August 2015
Assignment Five - Tutor Report and Reflection
Sometimes it is difficult to know whether the tutor was taken by an assignment or not. I tend to look at the negative parts of the report and dwell on them too much rather than find the positives and be pleased with the outcome. In this instance it was difficult for the tutor as I had gone away from the prescribed requirements of the assignment and built my own. The reasons for this are that I am unable to spend long periods away from home (anything above one and a half hours) due to Carer responsibilities. The work I had made was to look in detail at The Botanical Motif in Fine Art Photography using the title "Beyond Beauty". This was presented as an essay accompanied by 15 photographs.
The prints were well received and commented on as technically very good although a few were described as having lost detail due to heavy printing. I know what this comment refers to and I wish I had made more of an explanation in the technical part of the text to authenticate this. I tend to not write too much on the technical these days as it has in the past been seen as unnesecary, although I wish I had here. Karl Blossfeldt's early work was not technically that well accomplished and he did produce work with a lack of mid tones. I could find no explanation of this, instead coming to my own conclusion that the orthochromatic film he used (panchromatic had not been invented, although he did use it later) with its limited range of the spectrum did not work well with the green colour in the specimens he was photographing. The photographs were being made as an aid to drawing students in a classroom and Blossfeldts main focus was on the shape and form, not as a photograph with the technical baggage that we bring in a contemporary print with its near perfect tonal range. So, the intentional lack of mid tones to simulate this is seen as an error which is disappointing. I will rectify this for assessment with a better technical explanation of the Blossfeldt process rather than making full tone prints. I have in recent assignments been conscious of presenting too much technical information of the work, especially the post processing as this was previously looked upon as not necessary and that more effort should be focused on the conceptual thinking. My role here is to acquire the correct balance.
The prints and the text had covered the botanical motif from Fox Talbot through to Warhol and the contemporary work of Amanda Means. The tutor thought that this was a step too far as it had brought colour images in onto the end of what was primarily a monochrome submission. I agree with this comment and had felt uneasy when including the Warhol inspired images at the time. I know not to mix colour and monochrome but on the other hand I wanted to tell the whole story of the botanical motif. In hindsight and for the assessment version I will limit the work to Fox Talbot and Blossfeldt.
Beyond the prints (one of which will be reprinted and entered into the 46th Eastern Open) I am asked to make a mock up of pages in a Fine Art magazine and produce the assignment as a feature on Karl Blossfeldt.
A comment that crops up from time to time from my tutor is that there needs to be more of ME in the work. It came through in assignment 3 but was not to evident here perhaps. I completely understand the comment and need to do more to correct it. I am having to devise a way of modifying my conceptual thinking to take into account the current constraints in how I can work. My desire to do work inspired by New Topographics will have to wait and I have to think of work that can be constructed in the studio. To that end I have to be careful not to think studio first, but last. The ideas need to come first and a suggestion of thinking in metaphors may be the route I am taking. Less of the Real and more of the Simulated. Back to Postmodernism and leave my Modernist tendencies behind. I would also like to be more experimental but am sure it would fail, which in itself is failure I guess at being a bit too middle of the road. A recent forum debate led a tutor to suggest the students should be nearer to failure and maybe sometimes fail on the journey to success. Bold thinking indeed but at £1000 a module and over a year of your life in the making it would be extremely bold to go too close to that suggestion. In the times when the State paid for the HE that certainly allowed the more adventurous that opportunity. So before this posting evolves into a rambling rant I will conclude, sound in the knowledge that I could do better.
The prints were well received and commented on as technically very good although a few were described as having lost detail due to heavy printing. I know what this comment refers to and I wish I had made more of an explanation in the technical part of the text to authenticate this. I tend to not write too much on the technical these days as it has in the past been seen as unnesecary, although I wish I had here. Karl Blossfeldt's early work was not technically that well accomplished and he did produce work with a lack of mid tones. I could find no explanation of this, instead coming to my own conclusion that the orthochromatic film he used (panchromatic had not been invented, although he did use it later) with its limited range of the spectrum did not work well with the green colour in the specimens he was photographing. The photographs were being made as an aid to drawing students in a classroom and Blossfeldts main focus was on the shape and form, not as a photograph with the technical baggage that we bring in a contemporary print with its near perfect tonal range. So, the intentional lack of mid tones to simulate this is seen as an error which is disappointing. I will rectify this for assessment with a better technical explanation of the Blossfeldt process rather than making full tone prints. I have in recent assignments been conscious of presenting too much technical information of the work, especially the post processing as this was previously looked upon as not necessary and that more effort should be focused on the conceptual thinking. My role here is to acquire the correct balance.
The prints and the text had covered the botanical motif from Fox Talbot through to Warhol and the contemporary work of Amanda Means. The tutor thought that this was a step too far as it had brought colour images in onto the end of what was primarily a monochrome submission. I agree with this comment and had felt uneasy when including the Warhol inspired images at the time. I know not to mix colour and monochrome but on the other hand I wanted to tell the whole story of the botanical motif. In hindsight and for the assessment version I will limit the work to Fox Talbot and Blossfeldt.
Beyond the prints (one of which will be reprinted and entered into the 46th Eastern Open) I am asked to make a mock up of pages in a Fine Art magazine and produce the assignment as a feature on Karl Blossfeldt.
A comment that crops up from time to time from my tutor is that there needs to be more of ME in the work. It came through in assignment 3 but was not to evident here perhaps. I completely understand the comment and need to do more to correct it. I am having to devise a way of modifying my conceptual thinking to take into account the current constraints in how I can work. My desire to do work inspired by New Topographics will have to wait and I have to think of work that can be constructed in the studio. To that end I have to be careful not to think studio first, but last. The ideas need to come first and a suggestion of thinking in metaphors may be the route I am taking. Less of the Real and more of the Simulated. Back to Postmodernism and leave my Modernist tendencies behind. I would also like to be more experimental but am sure it would fail, which in itself is failure I guess at being a bit too middle of the road. A recent forum debate led a tutor to suggest the students should be nearer to failure and maybe sometimes fail on the journey to success. Bold thinking indeed but at £1000 a module and over a year of your life in the making it would be extremely bold to go too close to that suggestion. In the times when the State paid for the HE that certainly allowed the more adventurous that opportunity. So before this posting evolves into a rambling rant I will conclude, sound in the knowledge that I could do better.
Thursday, 23 July 2015
Ideas around an exhibition from 1975
A few postings back I had a look at the changing styles of Spanish architecture in one of their cemeteries in Menorca. It is astonishing how they seem to have abandoned their ability to create beautiful structures when confronted for the need of the new. There are practical reasons and those of cost that will be driving them towards this, especially at a time when behind Greece, Spain is close be being bankrupt. That aside I have spent some time looking at their commercial development. They are quite capable in providing infrastructure. They make good roads, they are wide, have pavements, street lighting and adequate parking. The money for infrastructure is of course from government sources, or more likely the EU when the billboards are studied that promote the works. The story after that is somewhat sad. The businesses who are asked to populate the commercial areas do not last and the empty spaces between buildings seemingly will never be filled. Those that are built are becoming empty allowing the scrubland to begin its slow but reclamation back to scrubland.
While looking at these and photographing the area I was thinking of New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, 1975. The 270 sqaure miles of Menorca is a Unesco Biosphere reserve, a designation issued in 1993 for the rich flora and fauna that thrive in Minorca’s forests, gorges, wetlands, salt marshes and hillsides : a protected place. The loss of natural landscape here is so significant I begin to wonder what the process must be to dig it up, spoil it and make buildings and roads that nobody will use. Questions I did not have the time (or perhaps the language skills) to ask. What I have done is a series of images that could be part of a larger discourse. For now most of them they remain as raw files requiring PP but as I am excited about seeing some for myself I have looked at one and complete the work. It shows the ambitions of the developer with an older building extended although for all that it is empty. The pedestrian crossing, wide pavements and street lights for nothing. While there I saw few people and found the place almost as spooky as the cemetery. All images Leica MM, 28mm Elmarit.
While looking at these and photographing the area I was thinking of New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, 1975. The 270 sqaure miles of Menorca is a Unesco Biosphere reserve, a designation issued in 1993 for the rich flora and fauna that thrive in Minorca’s forests, gorges, wetlands, salt marshes and hillsides : a protected place. The loss of natural landscape here is so significant I begin to wonder what the process must be to dig it up, spoil it and make buildings and roads that nobody will use. Questions I did not have the time (or perhaps the language skills) to ask. What I have done is a series of images that could be part of a larger discourse. For now most of them they remain as raw files requiring PP but as I am excited about seeing some for myself I have looked at one and complete the work. It shows the ambitions of the developer with an older building extended although for all that it is empty. The pedestrian crossing, wide pavements and street lights for nothing. While there I saw few people and found the place almost as spooky as the cemetery. All images Leica MM, 28mm Elmarit.
 |
| People ? |
 |
| Reclaiming the Land |
Monday, 13 July 2015
Assignment 6 - Preparing for Assessment
The brief here is revise and rework all of the previous assignments, and perhaps talk through how I am going to present the work for assessment with my tutor.
As an activity I have been busy with this as the course has proceeded. The question of presentation will be similar to the Landscape module. All photographs will be reprinted for assignment one, two, three and five onto A2 paper with the image size to suit. Some are square, some 3x2 aspect ratio and some multiple images. Within an assignment the images are all printed to the same size. The photographs are printed by myself on a 24" HP Z3200 Designjet using HP Instant Dry Satin. Due to the printer being roll fed there can be an issue with prints curling, especially as the paper comes closer to the core. All prints are therefore glued to 285g card to overcome the curling and at A2 size prevent the prints buckling when handled. Each set of prints will proceeded with a title sheet. In a change from the presentation from Landscape I will not be separating the prints with tissue paper. There is good reason to do this (it prevents the back of one print rubbing the ink of the adjacent print) but I can imagine how irritating it is for the assessors to manage 30 plus sheets of tissue paper when trying to look at the work. I will have to take the risk that the prints wont damage themselves and if they have I hope the assessment is not marked down for this. My normal practice when boxing and transporting prints is to use tissue paper but in those instances there is less work to look at and more time available by the client.
The prints will be transported in a Silverprint 70mm A2 black portfolio box. In addition to the prints there will be the following in the box.
An introduction with contents list
Tutor reports with my comments and actions.
Original write ups on the making of the individual assignments
Reworked write ups as required
Original Critical Review
Re worked Critical Review
Course Notebook
USB stick with original work where submitted to Tutor electronically
Details on the USB stick with URL of this Learning Journal
The only aspect of the above that I still have to decide upon is the method of binding the
text files. For landscape I used a 4 ring binder with dividers which worked well but is maybe a bit bulky. I am considering binding the individual assignments with a spiral binding machine for this occasion.
I have entered for the November assessment.
Edit: Confirmation from tutor is that the tissue paper is not required and the assignments bound individually will befine.
As an activity I have been busy with this as the course has proceeded. The question of presentation will be similar to the Landscape module. All photographs will be reprinted for assignment one, two, three and five onto A2 paper with the image size to suit. Some are square, some 3x2 aspect ratio and some multiple images. Within an assignment the images are all printed to the same size. The photographs are printed by myself on a 24" HP Z3200 Designjet using HP Instant Dry Satin. Due to the printer being roll fed there can be an issue with prints curling, especially as the paper comes closer to the core. All prints are therefore glued to 285g card to overcome the curling and at A2 size prevent the prints buckling when handled. Each set of prints will proceeded with a title sheet. In a change from the presentation from Landscape I will not be separating the prints with tissue paper. There is good reason to do this (it prevents the back of one print rubbing the ink of the adjacent print) but I can imagine how irritating it is for the assessors to manage 30 plus sheets of tissue paper when trying to look at the work. I will have to take the risk that the prints wont damage themselves and if they have I hope the assessment is not marked down for this. My normal practice when boxing and transporting prints is to use tissue paper but in those instances there is less work to look at and more time available by the client.
The prints will be transported in a Silverprint 70mm A2 black portfolio box. In addition to the prints there will be the following in the box.
An introduction with contents list
Tutor reports with my comments and actions.
Original write ups on the making of the individual assignments
Reworked write ups as required
Original Critical Review
Re worked Critical Review
Course Notebook
USB stick with original work where submitted to Tutor electronically
Details on the USB stick with URL of this Learning Journal
The only aspect of the above that I still have to decide upon is the method of binding the
text files. For landscape I used a 4 ring binder with dividers which worked well but is maybe a bit bulky. I am considering binding the individual assignments with a spiral binding machine for this occasion.
I have entered for the November assessment.
Edit: Confirmation from tutor is that the tissue paper is not required and the assignments bound individually will befine.
Deadpan
I recently read Charlotte Cottons chapter on
Deadpan from The Photograph as Contemporary Art. The Deadpan is a genre that I am
finding myself drawn to more and more. This is at odds with some of my previous
practice where I have used overt PP, especially with monochrome work to produce
striking atmospheric work that relied more on the PP than the content. In our
constant search for images there is a tendency to want to be different, so I
guess we get noticed and that can deliver work that is without substance and
relies heavily on style. Deadpan is a word that initially denotes plain. Plain
what though ? A plain message or a plain looking image. A plain image I would
say is one where there is a reduced palette, reduced contrast and a simple
aspect ratio. A plain message needs a plain image. Cotton uses an example on
page 80. A muslin girl who lives in temporary accommodation in Amsterdam is
photographed with a deadpan pose, looking straight into the camera, simple side
lighting and facial expression. There is nothing the girl can say as her
presence in that society is detached with little to express. That is therefore
the essence of what the photographer (Celine van Balen) has captured.
Cotton starts Chapter 3 by reminding us that deadpan aesthetic is probably the most widely used in gallery spaces around the world and that the readers of the book are at the mercy of the medium in seeing the work differently and that the typically large prints with their breathtaking clarity one associates with the genre.
For the deadpan the photographer is emotionally detached. It moves the images outside of the sentimental and the subjective so that we cannot detect the photographer. The photography becomes a way of seeing and engaging with the subject that is beyond the limitations of individual perspective and beyond a single human standpoint. It is a genre where the photographs become highly specific and nuetral, with totality of vision and large proportion.
Deadpan's popularity began in the 1990s as a reaction to the previous decades offerings of subjective art making. The desire within art for new and the gallery demanding work that is commercial drove the genre especially with landscape and architectural images.
As a style Cotton says it is often described as "Germanic". This labelling is largely due to the key figures from that nationality being at its forefront. A number were educated under Bernd Becher in Dusseldorf where he encouraged students to create artistically led and independent work. This Germanic work of the 1920s and 30s led to a movement know as New Objectivity. Albert Renger-Patsch (1897-1966), August Sander (1867-1964) and Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) were the earliest to adopt the style. I would also include the work of Karl Blossfeldt that I include in assignment 5.
Bernd and Hilla Becher were highly influential beginning in the late 1950s with a series of photographs of water towers, gas tanks and mine heads. Each building being photographed from the same perspective, in similar light which creates a "system" for the typology that moves towards the deadpan. Their work first coming to prominence in 1975 as part of the New Topographics: Photographs of the man Altered landscape. New Topographics shows an investment by photographers in topographical and architectural photography and the socio political implications this has for industry and the ecology of the landscape. As Cotton points out the significance here is that these issues are being raised as a conceptual discourse in the art gallery through a neutral and objective approach.
Contemporary deadpan is led by Andreas Gursky (b. 1955). Gursky through overtly large prints produces work of extreme quality. With dimensions in excess of five metres they are imposing pieces of work that are immense in their detail and clarity. The work brings together the traditional use of large format film cameras with the post production and printing available in the digital environment. Unlike the typologies of Becher, Gursky creates photographs that are not part of a series and stand alone within his oeuvre. He does however work with connected themes and the images stand as discreet visual experiences with a consistency of quality that is sublime, all of which contributes to his critical and commercial success. Gursky is not style over substance, as Cotton points out on p 84. when discussing his technique "It comes from his capacity to travel the world, find his subjects and then convince us that each scene could not have been more fully described than from his chosen perspective" Gursky has within his style an ability to choose a viewpoint, often distant from the subject that places the viewer away from the subject,, remaining detached. We see the scene as a whole made up of very small ( but detailed) parts. Within contemporary practice Gursky is in a dominant position although by no means does he hold the only position. Walter Niedermayr (b. 1952) and Bridget Smith (b. 1966) explore landscape and architecture within a paradigm of the topographer, resisting the photographer's intervention to glamorise or inject emotion into a scene. Similarly Ed Burtynsky (b. 1955) and his photographs of the oilfields of California show a manmade landscape that has been over run with oil wells as far as the eye can see. It is for the viewer to decide on the narrative as it tells of the rise in technology and the worlds need for oil and the riches it brings and the other is of the destruction of the once barren landscape and the worldwide pollution as a result of burning hydrocarbons. The deadpan technique employed by Burntsky offers no hint of his position on the subject, he acts as observer and recorder without opinion. The only photographer intervention is the choice of subject matter and the possible viewer analysis.
Lewis Baltz (bb. 1954) first gained recognition as one of the contributors in the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape in 1975. Since then and after his move to Europe he has moved away from the stark monochrome to colour images representing the high tech especially in a series of photographs within the clean environs of the power industry.
Cotton p. 93 looks at the work of Naoya Hatakeyama (b. 1958). It is here that I feel uneasy with where Hatakeyama's work in connection with a large construction project in Osaka is less than art and is in reality a record photograph. The record photograph is a document produced by either the contractor or the architect to make a visual record of how the work proceeds. Largely due to the fact that much of the construction gets covered up during the process there is a need technically and contractually to know what the works looked like on a given day. These images are deadpan and should be produced to the highest resolution, but generally they would be the work of a photographer with no art brief. Cotton does not say if the photographs are used in this context. Axel Hutte (b.1951) introduces an element of mystery into his deadpan photographs by making them at night. The presentation of the large transparencies and the night photography technique is to be questioned as it detracts from the banality required for deadpan to be be consistent as a genre. The same can be said for the night images of Dan Holdsworth (b.1974). The subject is out of town shopping centres with empty car parks, but photographing them at night introduces an artistic attitude that detracts from the functional use of the landscape. Cotton in this instance becomes somewhat subjective in her analysis and when asking " one might reasonably ask what took it rather than who" I feel she is struggling with her role.
The deadpan is a genre of contemporary photography. It may last another 20 years or it may end in 20 days, that is difficult to say. It is in fashion with the galleries and the art buyers and although there may well be other models of contemporary photography that excel it is fortunately/unfortunately (delete as appropriate) the one where the commerce of art is dictating the flow of work. This may sound as though I am cynical of the deadpan, far from it, as my practice has been influenced particularly by Baltz and Shore.
I will return to the subject at a later date and will discuss then whether my opinions have begun to modify.
Cotton starts Chapter 3 by reminding us that deadpan aesthetic is probably the most widely used in gallery spaces around the world and that the readers of the book are at the mercy of the medium in seeing the work differently and that the typically large prints with their breathtaking clarity one associates with the genre.
For the deadpan the photographer is emotionally detached. It moves the images outside of the sentimental and the subjective so that we cannot detect the photographer. The photography becomes a way of seeing and engaging with the subject that is beyond the limitations of individual perspective and beyond a single human standpoint. It is a genre where the photographs become highly specific and nuetral, with totality of vision and large proportion.
Deadpan's popularity began in the 1990s as a reaction to the previous decades offerings of subjective art making. The desire within art for new and the gallery demanding work that is commercial drove the genre especially with landscape and architectural images.
As a style Cotton says it is often described as "Germanic". This labelling is largely due to the key figures from that nationality being at its forefront. A number were educated under Bernd Becher in Dusseldorf where he encouraged students to create artistically led and independent work. This Germanic work of the 1920s and 30s led to a movement know as New Objectivity. Albert Renger-Patsch (1897-1966), August Sander (1867-1964) and Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) were the earliest to adopt the style. I would also include the work of Karl Blossfeldt that I include in assignment 5.
Bernd and Hilla Becher were highly influential beginning in the late 1950s with a series of photographs of water towers, gas tanks and mine heads. Each building being photographed from the same perspective, in similar light which creates a "system" for the typology that moves towards the deadpan. Their work first coming to prominence in 1975 as part of the New Topographics: Photographs of the man Altered landscape. New Topographics shows an investment by photographers in topographical and architectural photography and the socio political implications this has for industry and the ecology of the landscape. As Cotton points out the significance here is that these issues are being raised as a conceptual discourse in the art gallery through a neutral and objective approach.
Contemporary deadpan is led by Andreas Gursky (b. 1955). Gursky through overtly large prints produces work of extreme quality. With dimensions in excess of five metres they are imposing pieces of work that are immense in their detail and clarity. The work brings together the traditional use of large format film cameras with the post production and printing available in the digital environment. Unlike the typologies of Becher, Gursky creates photographs that are not part of a series and stand alone within his oeuvre. He does however work with connected themes and the images stand as discreet visual experiences with a consistency of quality that is sublime, all of which contributes to his critical and commercial success. Gursky is not style over substance, as Cotton points out on p 84. when discussing his technique "It comes from his capacity to travel the world, find his subjects and then convince us that each scene could not have been more fully described than from his chosen perspective" Gursky has within his style an ability to choose a viewpoint, often distant from the subject that places the viewer away from the subject,, remaining detached. We see the scene as a whole made up of very small ( but detailed) parts. Within contemporary practice Gursky is in a dominant position although by no means does he hold the only position. Walter Niedermayr (b. 1952) and Bridget Smith (b. 1966) explore landscape and architecture within a paradigm of the topographer, resisting the photographer's intervention to glamorise or inject emotion into a scene. Similarly Ed Burtynsky (b. 1955) and his photographs of the oilfields of California show a manmade landscape that has been over run with oil wells as far as the eye can see. It is for the viewer to decide on the narrative as it tells of the rise in technology and the worlds need for oil and the riches it brings and the other is of the destruction of the once barren landscape and the worldwide pollution as a result of burning hydrocarbons. The deadpan technique employed by Burntsky offers no hint of his position on the subject, he acts as observer and recorder without opinion. The only photographer intervention is the choice of subject matter and the possible viewer analysis.
Lewis Baltz (bb. 1954) first gained recognition as one of the contributors in the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape in 1975. Since then and after his move to Europe he has moved away from the stark monochrome to colour images representing the high tech especially in a series of photographs within the clean environs of the power industry.
Cotton p. 93 looks at the work of Naoya Hatakeyama (b. 1958). It is here that I feel uneasy with where Hatakeyama's work in connection with a large construction project in Osaka is less than art and is in reality a record photograph. The record photograph is a document produced by either the contractor or the architect to make a visual record of how the work proceeds. Largely due to the fact that much of the construction gets covered up during the process there is a need technically and contractually to know what the works looked like on a given day. These images are deadpan and should be produced to the highest resolution, but generally they would be the work of a photographer with no art brief. Cotton does not say if the photographs are used in this context. Axel Hutte (b.1951) introduces an element of mystery into his deadpan photographs by making them at night. The presentation of the large transparencies and the night photography technique is to be questioned as it detracts from the banality required for deadpan to be be consistent as a genre. The same can be said for the night images of Dan Holdsworth (b.1974). The subject is out of town shopping centres with empty car parks, but photographing them at night introduces an artistic attitude that detracts from the functional use of the landscape. Cotton in this instance becomes somewhat subjective in her analysis and when asking " one might reasonably ask what took it rather than who" I feel she is struggling with her role.
The deadpan is a genre of contemporary photography. It may last another 20 years or it may end in 20 days, that is difficult to say. It is in fashion with the galleries and the art buyers and although there may well be other models of contemporary photography that excel it is fortunately/unfortunately (delete as appropriate) the one where the commerce of art is dictating the flow of work. This may sound as though I am cynical of the deadpan, far from it, as my practice has been influenced particularly by Baltz and Shore.
I will return to the subject at a later date and will discuss then whether my opinions have begun to modify.
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
The Spanish Cemetery
For some years I have tried to capture the
architecture of the Spanish island of Menorca. Not known as a party island it
is quiet and retains many of the influences of its former governments,
including the Spanish, French and the English. What we have then is an eclectic
mix of European styles from the 16-17th century with contemporary styles,
especially in the non holiday housing.
A walk through the streets of Mahon (the capital) gives the feeling of an unregulated place with little or no consideration to the juxtaposition of the old and new. I find this rag tag disharmony an irritation and therefore difficult to photograph. This may be (almost certainly is) my inability to choose images that could tell the Menorcan story through the architecture. There are also the problems of styles from the place having been ruled by a number of countries and my Englishness in wanting a clear pattern. The Port of Mahon had a strategic importance for those fighting in the Mediterranean with the Spanish, French and English all having made it home for their fleets due to its secluded deep harbour. So the mixture, when it occurs is somehow messy and I struggle with the laid back approach of the culture and its "Manyana" (tommorow) feel that one day it will be sorted out, but not today. One particular feature of the Spanish culture that has interested me for some years is their cemeteries. I have seen nothing like these in the UK and the burial method (above ground) has created architecture that is visually interesting and culturally different. The burial spaces (crypts) all being above ground is thought provoking and the eclectic display of portraits of the deceased make the experience of visiting a very moving experience. The feeling that you are walking amongst the dead is tangible, as apposed the UK graveyard where you quite literally walk on the dead. The images below are from the town of Es Castell and on arrival the entrance into the walled area is bright and fresh. The level of maintenance is sublime with a clear message that this is not a sinister place. Probably due to the age and size of the original buildings there was a need to construct a new part by way of an extension. The new cemetery is frightful place, physically and emotionally. There is no architectural style whatsoever, or perhaps there is, it is a style of the nuclear age. The walls, the above ground crypts, the paving, the buildings are all constructed of reinforced concrete, with no attempt to soften the visual impact of this engineering material. I have spent 30 years working with reinforced concrete, building bridges, water treatment, sewage treatment, waste disposal, petrochemical and marine structures but none of that prepared me for the concrete cemetery. It has given the place a feeling of industrial utility with its engineering and lack of any human intervention in the design to take a step beyond its purpose to please the eye. All of the exposed steelwork including doors and handrails are not painted or coated. The steel is bare, it is rusting and it contrasts with the white concrete to make a monochrome place that has a binary existence. The photography of the old part was a delight, the shapes, the names of the deceased, the flowers, the curves of the cornices and archways, the haphazardly placed chair, have a harmony with the needs, not of the dead perhaps but certainly the bereaved or the visitor. The birds sang and the trees whispered in a warm breeze and strangely I felt a warmth there, I was not intimidated by the faces looking at me and I did not feel as though I had trespassed. I had taken the precaution of asking a local Spanish friend if there were any restrictions in terms of etiquette or local bylaws about making photographs, and was told there were none, so I did not feel obliged to work quickly and then escape. When I walked towards the new part I felt a chill. This place has no character, well thats not true, it has the character of a Stephen King film. Desolate, grey and waiting for death. The rows and rows of spaces waiting for their coffins is the equivalent of pre dug graves in a UK graveyard. A loud noise breaks the silence as I work my way around taking the photographs. I can see nobody and it is difficult to position the noise, an engine, maybe a grass cutter, but there is no grass. I then glimpse a man with a blower machine moving along the rows chasing leaves. Maybe I could have stayed longer, tried something else with the photography, a wide angle perhaps, but no, I left. I was not at ease and I have never experienced two similar places with so totally different atmosphere than the old and new cemetery. The architecture, the change from classic Spanish with its gentle curves and finials, its textures and warmth, its apparent empathy with the dead and then the cold stark construction with reinforced concrete and the dark rusting steelwork. I did venture too far and at the back of the buildings found various empty coffins which I did not photograph. There is a limit to what I needed and this seemed a step too far.
A walk through the streets of Mahon (the capital) gives the feeling of an unregulated place with little or no consideration to the juxtaposition of the old and new. I find this rag tag disharmony an irritation and therefore difficult to photograph. This may be (almost certainly is) my inability to choose images that could tell the Menorcan story through the architecture. There are also the problems of styles from the place having been ruled by a number of countries and my Englishness in wanting a clear pattern. The Port of Mahon had a strategic importance for those fighting in the Mediterranean with the Spanish, French and English all having made it home for their fleets due to its secluded deep harbour. So the mixture, when it occurs is somehow messy and I struggle with the laid back approach of the culture and its "Manyana" (tommorow) feel that one day it will be sorted out, but not today. One particular feature of the Spanish culture that has interested me for some years is their cemeteries. I have seen nothing like these in the UK and the burial method (above ground) has created architecture that is visually interesting and culturally different. The burial spaces (crypts) all being above ground is thought provoking and the eclectic display of portraits of the deceased make the experience of visiting a very moving experience. The feeling that you are walking amongst the dead is tangible, as apposed the UK graveyard where you quite literally walk on the dead. The images below are from the town of Es Castell and on arrival the entrance into the walled area is bright and fresh. The level of maintenance is sublime with a clear message that this is not a sinister place. Probably due to the age and size of the original buildings there was a need to construct a new part by way of an extension. The new cemetery is frightful place, physically and emotionally. There is no architectural style whatsoever, or perhaps there is, it is a style of the nuclear age. The walls, the above ground crypts, the paving, the buildings are all constructed of reinforced concrete, with no attempt to soften the visual impact of this engineering material. I have spent 30 years working with reinforced concrete, building bridges, water treatment, sewage treatment, waste disposal, petrochemical and marine structures but none of that prepared me for the concrete cemetery. It has given the place a feeling of industrial utility with its engineering and lack of any human intervention in the design to take a step beyond its purpose to please the eye. All of the exposed steelwork including doors and handrails are not painted or coated. The steel is bare, it is rusting and it contrasts with the white concrete to make a monochrome place that has a binary existence. The photography of the old part was a delight, the shapes, the names of the deceased, the flowers, the curves of the cornices and archways, the haphazardly placed chair, have a harmony with the needs, not of the dead perhaps but certainly the bereaved or the visitor. The birds sang and the trees whispered in a warm breeze and strangely I felt a warmth there, I was not intimidated by the faces looking at me and I did not feel as though I had trespassed. I had taken the precaution of asking a local Spanish friend if there were any restrictions in terms of etiquette or local bylaws about making photographs, and was told there were none, so I did not feel obliged to work quickly and then escape. When I walked towards the new part I felt a chill. This place has no character, well thats not true, it has the character of a Stephen King film. Desolate, grey and waiting for death. The rows and rows of spaces waiting for their coffins is the equivalent of pre dug graves in a UK graveyard. A loud noise breaks the silence as I work my way around taking the photographs. I can see nobody and it is difficult to position the noise, an engine, maybe a grass cutter, but there is no grass. I then glimpse a man with a blower machine moving along the rows chasing leaves. Maybe I could have stayed longer, tried something else with the photography, a wide angle perhaps, but no, I left. I was not at ease and I have never experienced two similar places with so totally different atmosphere than the old and new cemetery. The architecture, the change from classic Spanish with its gentle curves and finials, its textures and warmth, its apparent empathy with the dead and then the cold stark construction with reinforced concrete and the dark rusting steelwork. I did venture too far and at the back of the buildings found various empty coffins which I did not photograph. There is a limit to what I needed and this seemed a step too far.
Over
dinner with some friends I outlined my shoot. Needless to say not everyone sees
this type of behaviour as normal (the English) but my Spanish friends love the
place and agree that it is a special. Photographers, sometimes misunderstood or
a bit weird, who knows.
I
had spent some time considering how I wanted the images to convey a place that
is different. Different in as much as however you look at them cemeteries are a
place where we go to for a limited number of reasons. It is mostly for
reflection to visit a loved ones grave and remember them so there is a focus on
a single grave. I didn't want the images to be as if from an undertaker or the
local authority. My photographs needed to show the atmosphere and the
architecture without being overtly clinical. I choose to use a standard
lens (50mm on FF sensor) so that my vision (and therefore my perception)
was not distorted. My selection to shoot with a wide aperture was made so that
limited detail is shown, except where I specifically desired it.
The
outcome as far as a learning experience was significant. The emotions I felt at
the time were extreme and this affected the photography without doubt. I should
perhaps have made a second visit, hoping that the "place" had less to
say directly to me and then I could have explored it more thoroughly
photographically, but my instinct is that any fear I had is somewhere in the
original photographs and a second visit would be too contrived. I could have
done better but I was not prepared for the emotional impact and that is
something I will need to overcome if I find myself in a similar situation in
the future.
The
photographs shown below are the start of what one day could be a larger body of
work, which requires more travel to Spain !!.
 |
| Old Cemetery 5 |
 |
| Old Cemetery 1 |
 |
| Old Cemetery 2 |
 |
| Old Cemetery 3 |
 |
| Old Cemetery 4 |
 |
| New Cemetery 1 |
 |
| New Cemetery 2 |
 |
| New Cemetery 3 |
 |
| New Cemetery 4 |
 |
| Old Cemetery 6 |
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