The unreal

The BJP ran an article on the Hamdan International Photography Awards, a Dubai-based competition sponsored by the prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamden.  I couldn't help but notice that while all of the winning images might be considered documentary in style, they don't feel like documents of reality.  Were you standing in these scenes, it's hard to image they would appear to your eye as they appear in the photos.  The color is too vivid, the light too dramatic, the detail too exact.  In fact it is the overwhelming amount of detail that makes you feel these images are something more than minimally or mildly filtered reality.  (All photography, of course, being a form of reality filtering.)  The abundance of detail makes the images seem flat.  Nothing stands out among all the other details.  Everything calls for your attention. The only photo where this is not true is that of the boats. Your eye can rest on the boats because the background of fog and misty mountains gives them relief and allows them to stand out.  The image of the pair of men and boys is less busy than the two school images, but even here the shadows have been over-developed.  There is too much definition and consequently there is no definition of any one thing or group of things within the image.

HIPA announces prize winners at grand ceremony
Hamdan International Photography Awards (HIPA) announces the winners of its third competition, Creating the Future, in Dubai
Gemma Padley — 17 March 2014

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/03/hipa-announces-prize-winners-at-grand-ceremony/

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Update: I see on the BJP Facebook page that others also find these images unphotographic.

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Book Review: Aperture Masters of Photography: Berenice Abbott, 1997

I found this book in the UAE college library system, one in the Aperture Masters of Photography series profiling important photographers in affordable hardback editions.  This 1997 volume is approximately 100 pages and features 41 black and white images, an essay by Julia Van Haaften in English, French, and German, as well a chronology of Abbott’s life, and lists of selected exhibitions, collections, articles, and bibliography.

I was interested in viewing Changing New York, but this is the only book in any of the country’s university libraries on Abbott. About half the images here are from the NY series, the remainder from her science work, as well as what looks like an interesting road trip down US 1, and photos centered around her home in Maine.

Changing New York appears to be out of print (and as I discovered quite heavy and expensive to ship to Dubai), but fortunately the NY Public Library has a fabulous collection of this work available online.

Film Review: Eugène & Berenice; Michael House, director; 2008

Eugene Atget and Berenice Abbott

Looking for a film on Atget, I was fortunate to learn about Berenice Abbott, a young American who made her way to Paris in the 1920s and fell in with Man Ray as an assistant.  Man Ray was a neighbor and admirer of Atget, and through her employer Abbott made contact with the city's photographic chronicler, making the only known portraits of Atget just days before his death.

Abbott returned to US just before the Wall Street crash of 1929 and inspired by Atget began work on her own archive of the depression-era NY of the 1930's.  She also managed to purchase what was left of Atget's image collection (that wasn't owned by the French government), arranged for a volume of photos to be published in the US and France, and wrote and published her own book on Atget in the 1960s.  She sold her collection to it's current owner, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I was unaware that Atget had done a study of prostitutes and wonder if I might find the confidence to do the same.  It would make a wonderful study for Dubai.  I have at least a couple of massage parlors in my neighborhood.  Do I have the courage to ask? 

Sit Up Straight Production

Michael House, director

Eugène & Berenice

2008
52 minutes

Atget's Paris, Abbott's NY

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Barrett, Criticizing Photographs, Ch 7 Theory: Is It Art?: Evaluating Photographs, 3rd ed, 2000

http://jonnicheatwood.com/

This chapter seeks to shine light on the assumptions underlying art criticism. It has to do with ideas about aesthetics, or definitions of art and the process of art. Barrett notes that from the earliest days photographers and critics argued about whether photography was art. Museums largely settled this issue by adding photographs to their collections, but by the 1980’s the question had shifted to whether some types of art - multimedia objects incorporating photographic images - could in fact be considered photography. Whereas much of photographic art theorizing typically took place among photographers, the late 20th century saw a number of outsiders join the discussion, most notably Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Rudolph Arnheim, and EH Gombrich. Among photographers writing on theory, Barrett notes Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and August Sander. The other important voice in aesthetic discussions is that of the museum and gallery curator, who through his decisions about what to buy or display influences the topic or tone of discussion. Barrett notes in particular John Szarkowski, Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art (1962-1991). In his survey of theoretical positions, Barrett reviews the following:

Barrett, Criticizing Photographs, Ch 6: Evaluating Photographs, 3rd ed, 2000

 

In Chapter 6 Barrett turns to the evaluation and judgement of photography.  He uses these terms interchangeably to define “a what that demands a why.”  Judgements are statements that demand reasons.  Without them they seem like little more than preferences, about which no one would reasonably contend.  They are arguments that require evidence.  They can be persuasive, convincing, compelling  - but not right or wrong.  

Judgements, says Barrett, consist of appraisals based on reasons founded in criteria.  Appraisals are about the merit of the work, reasons support an appraisal, and criteria are assumptions about rules and standards of what makes art good or bad.  These are most often founded on definitions of art and aesthetics.  They may be explicit or implicit.