Film review: Photographers of Australia: Dupain, Sievers, Moore (1992)

Dupain, Sievers, and Moore

Previous to viewing this 45-minute film I had no knowledge of Australian photography, nor the names of any of the country’s photographers. It may serve you as it served me, as a general introduction to the country’s photographic history through the lives and careers of three of its well known practitioners.  The most compelling character was Sievers, who told his commanding officer in the Luftwaffe, to which he had been drafted as a cameraman, that he would do his legal service but afterwards would use everything he learned during his time in the military to work against the Nazis. He was given 24 hours to leave and took the opportunity to emigrate as far from Europe was possible.  Having worked in 1930’s Berlin, one of the world’s leading centers of design, he was shocked to find Australian photographers still practicing 19th century pictorialism!  After his bravado with the German air force, it seems he lost his nerve to speak to power and ended up making a career out of industrial photography, selling his conscience for access to factories and mines where he could work on large scale compositions.  He recognizes that his job was to make industry look good, to present a nonreality to shareholders and the general public.   The other two photographers seem less interesting next to Sievers, but the filmmakers manage to accentuate a major difference in their view to subject matter, with the older Dupain declaiming any need to look abroad for subject matter, and the younger Moore driven by a need to explore the world.

Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 1: Thinking About Photography, 4th ed, 2009

Photo found at http://yimvmd.blogspot.ae/2010/09/bodyworld.html

Aesthetics and Technology

This chapter places photography within the context of wider intellectual movements, beginning with the 19th century debate about the camera as an instrument of science or of art.  The photograph came to supplant the painting in producing facsimiles of reality and from a very early date there was mass acceptance of the idea that photographs are reproductions of reality, small snippets of truth.  Individual photographers, in their style and subject, became inheritors of the attributes of Great Masters.  With the arrival of late 20th century post-modernism, all defining narratives were said to have been lost in a world grown increasingly interwoven.  Authenticity, the unique vision of the master, was no longer possible nor sought after, as was the idea that reality was somehow reproducible.  But even in an age of widespread production and consumption of digital images, the idea that photos are somehow real remains common currency.

Price & Wells note the camera’s appearance in an age of criticism where discussion often centered on how to define photography and distinguish it from other forms and practices.  They note the lack of consensus, the absence of any definable uniform practice or product, and the character of discussion:  a tendency toward reductionism - attempting to define an essence - or detailed description - avoiding any type of theory.  Perhaps one of the  more interesting ideas raised in this chapter is the camera as the product of need, rather than agent of change.  They note that technical elements were already in place in the early 19th century, and that as early as the late 18th century there are notes in the literature of ideas for capturing and processing light.  What socio-economic forces led to the invention of the camera?  One driving force was the demand for portraits, which was soon met by the new technology, putting painters - like film processors at the dawn of digital - out of work.

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 6: The Impact of Research, 2012

The book concludes with a rather thin chapter (half of its 15 pages are images) rehashing much of what has already been said. Research is valuable in developing a photographic practice by creating a feedback loop of reflection-practice-reflection.  The idea of journal keeping is brought up again, this time with the suggestion of maintaining a private journal in which one can record freely without the pressure of having to think about an audience.  Archives are revisited, especially personal archives, which the authors see as especially useful in providing material for future reflection (either for oneself or for an audience).  Perhaps the most valuable advice is something most of us probably already know - time creates distance and fresh perspective. As we change during the interval between seeing a set of images, so too does our perspective and our evaluative abilities.  (Apparently Ralph Eugene Meatyard used to develop his photos only once a year.  At the other extreme, Winogrand seems to have been rather uninterested in developing and printing, leaving behind 2500 undeveloped rolls, plus 4100 rolls developed but never reviewed.)

The lurid colors

Further to a post I made a couple weeks back in regards to a local photographer's use of color, I ran into much the same yesterday while pursuing an article about camera trends and the possible demise of the DSLR.  The blogger is a well-known travel photographer who makes the kind of photos equivalent to black-light posters, full of bright, saturated, almost neon-like color.  The popularity of his blog and his ability to sell images suggest many people like this kind of imagery.  To me it seems insistent, pushing the limits of visual intensity.  There's nothing subtle or understated, nothing to draw you in, just a club to clobber you over the head. 

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 5: Research and Practice, 2012

After you have been working for a while, research becomes connected to practice in a way that makes the two things hard to separate — the working process becomes second nature. A reflctive practitioner automatically engages with research methods and a continuous process of critical analysis right from the start of a body of work. 

From testing the relevance of your work, determining your audience and taking time to view your work from new angles, to the final production decisions on how to present your work, your research will continue to inform your practice. p121

This chapter is another grab-bag of issues, from ethics to exhibition.  The authors begin with the idea that photography involves testing ideas.  In order to find out how things look, photographers devise ways to view their work in different ways, such as test prints hung on a studio wall to determine how images work in space - size, color, lighting and relationship to other images.  They suggest that besides testing out technical methods, photographers may also test out audience reaction.  Ethics in practice, such as full disclosure to interviewees and model release forms, is briefly mentioned.

Notable: Rob Walters' Omaha

The comments to Walters' photos are revealing. One notes that the photos are self-selecting, that is, the photographer deliberately ignored scenes that did not fit his ideas about a people-less city.  An Omahaan chimes in to say, yes, visit this part of town and you'll find lots of people.  Another commenter believes the photographer should be more in touch with his subjects, approaching people on the street to find out why they are on the street.  Someone finds the images bleak.  One man wonders why readers would be interested in "amateur random pictures" of "mundane scenes."

What we prefer is to feel safe, with other people around; to feel charmed by stories that reaffirm our own stories about ourselves; and reassured that our existence isn't really this bleak. What most people seem to prefer when looking at images can be found in popular styles of photography relying on creating super-saturated hyper-realities.  

Rob Walters website.  

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Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Introduction, 4th ed, 2009

This book is included in the Essential Reading List for the Digital Photographic Practice course. I'm looking forward to exploring it.

The introductory paragraph is so tight that the best way to summarize is simply to quote.

This book introduces and offers an overview of conceptual issues relating to photography and to ways of thinking about photographs,  It considers the photograph as an artefact used in a range of different way and circumstances, and photography as a set of practices which take place in particular contexts.  Thus it is essentially about reading  photographic images rather than about their makings.  The principal purpose is to introduce key debates, and to indicate sources and resources so students (and other readers) can further develop lines of enquiry relevant to them.  The book primarily examines debates and developments in Britain, other parts of Europe and in North America.  The perspective is informed by the British base of the team of writers, particularly showing their influence of cultural studies within British academia in the 1990s when the book was first planned.  Our writing thus reflects a specific point of departure and context for debates.  There is no chronological history.  Rather we discuss past attitudes and understanding, technological limitations, and socio-political contexts through focus on issues pertinent to contemporary practices.  In other words, we consider how ideas about photography have developed in relation to the specific focus, or field of practice, which forms the theme of each chapter.  We cannot render theory easy, but we can contribute to clarifying key issues by pointing to ways in which debates have been framed.  (p.3)