Conventional Photography as Contemporary Art - Essay Example

?Snapshot Photography’s Evolution and Relevance to Contemporary Photography Conventional Photography With the introduction of photography in the mid nineteenth century, a new mode of expression in art emerged with it. The early photographers were artists and virtuosos in their own right. Given the complication of handling cameras and dealing with the aftermath of complicated chemicals on photographic film, photography was not for the ordinary person. (Gordon, 2011) The progression of photography gave rise to a new class of artists who were skilled at both photography and at handling cameras and their demands for developing photographs. At this point in time, photography was a rare luxury – the rich and the famous and the wealthy could afford to hire professional photographers who would capture moments in time. One of the essential traits of such photography was its propriety. The photographs reflected photographic talent and an unwritten standard which was followed throughout the industry. For example, photographs dating back to this period often depict people either standing up straight or sitting down properly with a smile perched on their faces. Given that photography was both esoteric and expensive, it was treated as a rarity. Though it was undeniably art but it was more or less sacrosanct art that bowed to the doctrines of the commercial photographer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Everything had to be “picture perfect” for it to become piece of art and history through the lens. Only rarely can one find photographs from this era that are more spontaneous in nature. 2. Introduction of the Kodak #1 and the age of the Kodak Brownie One of the essential elements that made photography popular was its instantaneous nature – the object of the picture did not have to pose in studios for eons in order to get the picture painted. Instead one could just stand till the flash of the camera assured you that you were part of history. This also meant that photography was able to capture the more instantaneous things in life such as a child crying or someone laughing. However the early photographic traditions did not consider this mode of thinking about photography popular. Hence, the common man had to wait for George Eastman to appear with his Kodak #1 before things began to change. (Fineman, 2004) Kodak’s #1 was a pure marvel – anyone with a bug for photography could purchase a camera, click a few pictures and send it to Rochester, New York in order to get the pictures developed. The technological advances coupled with Kodak’s brilliant marketing strategy soon led to the rise of “shutterbug” or amateur photographers. Kodak’s marketing slogan clearly said: “You press the button, we do the rest.” The actual story was very similar too. Within ten years of Kodak’s introduction of the personal camera, some 1.5 million rolls of film had been sold to amateur photographers alone. This had quite a few implications but most notable of all it made everyone who could own a camera a photographer. (Ford & Steinorth, 1988) The Kodak Brownie set a new standard for simple amateur photography that was soon branded as “snapshot” photography. Snapshot as it was used was a pejorative term and indicated that a photograph was amateur. It could be because the camera was out of focus, the background was not well framed, the subject of the picture was acting how he would in normal life or simply because it was the work of a “snap shooter”. Although amateur photography had taken deep root but art based circles were quick to react to such changes and took snapshot photography as an offense to fine art. 3. Early Opposition to Snapshot Photography A variety of clubs consisting of amateur photographers in the early twentieth century took it as their duty to promote photography as an art and not as the work of anyone who could handle a camera. The more vocal of these organisations in the United States was the Photo-Secession that was founded in 1902 by Alfred Stieglitz who was a well known photographer, publisher and gallerist. The Pictorial photographers that swelled this organisation considered snapshot photography as too rough and lacking aesthetic sensibility to qualify as art. The efforts of Stieglitz soon landed the Pictorial photographers and their works “in the hallowed halls of high art”. (Greenough, 2007) Stieglitz opposed both commercial as well as amateur photography and this resistance to amateur photography continued for a few decades. 4. Early Pioneering Snap Shooters The status quo began to change with the emergence of figures such as Walker Evans who considered the more propriety kinds of photography as American folk art. Evans concentrated largely on using his lens on the main streets of small towns as well as roads that lined the rural American South. His work can be seen as cultivating a tradition of straightforwardness in photography based largely on a vernacular tradition. It was only much later that the purely vernacular nature of snapshot photography gave way to more commercial pursuits and interests too. Evans was succeeded in his endeavour by a number of young photographers in the aftermath of the Second World War. Although much of the photography of battlefields in the Second World War is not considered as snapshot but a few pieces are essentially snapshot in nature. The photography of battlefield situations is more or less anywhere, anytime in nature and could be defined as snapshot in nature. However snapshot photography took off after the Second World War especially throughout the fifties as new faces emerged in photography. 5. The Second Generation Snap Shooters The works of Robert Frank and William Klein show a deviation from normal photography. Their works emanate a feeling of energy and their spontaneous nature makes them stand out clearly as snapshot photography. The hurried and rather immediate nature of snapshot photography is also undeniable. (Green, 2005) Most of these photographs are both blurred as well as grainy at times and their horizons are tilted. The framing is often erratic too but their vernacular nature soon gained them a place in art based circles. Both these artists managed to capture the chaos and movement present in urban life and transmitted them as vernacular visual manifestations. 6. Rise of Snapshot Photography Around the mid sixties the ideas of a “snapshot aesthetic” starting to take foot within art circles especially photography circles. This gain on the part of snapshot photography was aided largely by the work of photographers such as Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand. These photographers waded through the busy streets of New York using hand held cameras and created images that portrayed a sense of spontaneity. Most of these images possess a very vernacularly random nature and portray ordinary situations shown as if caught on the fly. Until this point in time, the majority of snapshot photography was dedicated to black and white alone. However with the emergence of the early saturated hues of the seventies, snapshot photography took on a new colour. More notably William Eggleston and Stephen Shore incorporated these early colour hues into their work in snapshot photography. (Lindgren, 1993) 7. Wider Currency and Support for Snapshot Photography As snapshot photography grew to more than just fascination in art circles, it began to draw regular support from the likes of John Szarkowski who was at that time the curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He soon penned a seminal book and translated it into an exhibition with the name of The Photographer’s Eye. The power of snapshot photography and proof of its recognition was provided by placing snapshot images alongside more commercial studio pursuits as well as pictures from newspapers. When put in comparison to the works of prominent photographers like W. Eugene Smith and Gordon Parks, Szarkowski remarked that snapshot photographs were aimed not: “... to reform life but to know it.” Szarkowski helped to promote the works of snapshot artists such as Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander especially through an influential exhibition at his museum titled New Documents. He also recognised that these works exhibited a new trend in modern photography namely that they were casual and snapshot like in their appearance whilst they also carried ordinary subject matter in them. (Levine, 1992) The success of this book was soon followed by other similar works such as The Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy as well as Evidence by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel and The Champion Pig: Great Moments in Everyday Life by Barbara P. Norfleet. The contents of these compilations took on a new colour altogether as they introduced more new and common instances of everyday life to the general public through the lens of snapshot photography. These compilations were composed of images from police files, portraits carved in small town studios, remains from newspapers in small towns as well as pictorials from insurance adjusters. Most of these images hailed from unknown amateur photographers as well as some from commercial photographers but all contained an element of surprise from within ordinary lives. This element served as a visually arresting theme that soon brought these works of art cult status in art circles. Resultantly these compilations were adapted by artists and collectors alike and helped to fuel the growing interest in snapshot photography. This also created an interest in gathering various vernacular photographs from years gone by and captured at the hands of amateur photographers through sales at flea markets, auctions and estate sales. 8. Maturity of Snapshot Photography Following the mid eighties, snapshot photography gained more prominence through the efforts of photographers such as Garry Winogrand, Wolfgang Tillmans, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr and Terry Richardson. (Saltz, 2010) The nineties saw the adoption of snapshot photography into fashion magazines and advertising campaigns. Towards the end of the nineties vernacular photography and the collection of anonymous snapshots gained stronger footing in art circles. Most of these photographs hailed from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century – much the same age as when the Kodak revolution took photography by surprise through simple handheld cameras. The collections of vernacular and snapshot photographs from this era reached every major American museum and theatre and were displayed extensively. One of the more prominent exhibitions in this series was Snapshots: The Photography of Everyday Life, 1888 to the Present which was put up at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1998. Another major exhibition was put up at the Metropolitan Museum in 2000 known as Other Pictures: Anonymous Photographs from the Thomas Walters Collection. The major feature of both exhibitions was imperfect photographs at their best. All photographs contained some form of a technical error in terms of photography such as a looming shadow or a tilted horizon or inadvertent double exposure. However it must be noted that these imperfections made these photographs all the more interesting for art circles as they provided a rare glimpse into early amateur photography as well as an extraordinary charm derived out of ordinary experiences and their visual manifestations. Most of these pieces were parts of family albums at one point in time but their presentation as anonymous and vernacular content instils a new air of mystery about them and forces the viewer to wonder about the content. Other than the sheer wonder and amazement another aspect is the provocation that these pieces of art create in the minds of the viewer. It is this nature of modern snapshot photography that has made it this popular with the modern viewer who is more or less tired of the ordinary and mundane. The providence of something unique in the ordinary forces people to wonder what their own responses to such situations could look like. (Jarzombek, 2004) This in turn forces more and more people into the folds of snapshot photography. 9. Fashion, the Heroin “Chic” and Snapshot Photography The works of later snap shooters especially Nan Goldin have helped to make snapshot a signature style in photography. The early nineties witnessed the invasion of snapshot photography as the primary mode of expression within fashion circles. This trend was all the more strongly felt within fashion magazines directed towards the youth. The simple yet strongly suggestive content of snapshot photography aided in making it the primary form of visual representation in the fashion industry. Fashion magazines such as The Face and I-D played a major role in making snapshot photography what it is today. In due course of time the works of Nan Goldin gave rise to the “Heroin Chic” look in the fashion world although it was widely criticised otherwise. (Furek, 2008) Moreover the introduction of snapshot photography to the pressures of commercialism meant that it had gained strong support and backing both from the artistic community and from the media gurus. One of the more important functions of Nan Goldin’s work has been the constant exposure provided to margins that the community is not ready to look into as yet through the use of snapshot photography. Starting early in her career, Goldin has almost exclusively documented groups such as the post punks from the early seventies, the hard drug culture, AIDS victims, drag queens etc. and has relied on the power of snapshot photography to deliver results. Most of her work relies on the snapshot aesthetic in order to depict behaviour such as violence, aggression, drug abuse as well as some autobiographical moments. The impact of Nan Goldin has been undeniable as far as fashioning the current trends in snapshot photography go. The New York Times has noted that Goldin had (Tillman, 2003): "... forged a genre, with photography as influential as any in the last twenty years." 10. Prominent Works from Goldin One of the most prominent pieces produced by Goldin is titled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency based on the title of a song taken from Bertlot Brecht’s Three Penny Opera. This was released in 1986 and as consisted mostly of her images taken between 1979 and 1986. The work relies on visually depicting deviant behaviour such as drug abuse and violence as well as depicting aggressive couples and some autobiographical moments. The work represents an important contribution from Goldin to art in general and to snapshot photography in particular. Ordinary people are depicted in ordinary situations in visually provoking manner such that the viewer is forced to reanalyse his beliefs. The people depicted in her photographs represented actual people and their behaviour in actual situations. It is no wonder that most of the people who appeared in her Ballad were already dead by the end of the nineties. Some had succumbed to drug overdoses while others had fallen victim to AIDS. Goldin also lost prominent friends such as Cookie Mueller and Greer Lankton who had been the subject of a number of her works. This goes to show that Goldin has been using snapshot photography to depict some parts of our lives that we may wish to suppress but which still exist and otherwise thrive. The visual representation of such phenomena often forces a person to question themselves and their system of beliefs supporting such actions. In doing so Goldin has been relying on the provocative nature of snapshot photography time and again. The depiction of thin and lightly clad women and drag queens initiated the “Heroin Chic” look of the fashion circles of the nineties although Goldin found it reprehensible that such images were being used to sell clothes. Goldin has also combined pictures taken in the Bowery district of New York into other works such as I’ll Be Your Mirror and All By Myself. Another major component of Goldin’s work has been the depiction of women especially looking into mirrors as well as girls depicted in bars and bathrooms. Other subjects include drag queens and depiction of sexual acts as well as a candid portrayal of a culture of dependency and obsession. (Ayers, 2006) Goldin’s work has also been treated as a private journal exposed publicly. Since the mid nineties her work has included more diverse subjects such as the skylines of New York, her lover Siobhan, parenthood, uncanny landscapes, babies and little children as well as family life. In this respect Goldin’s work can also be viewed as a reflection of self over a number of years. 11. Conclusion Snapshot photography in particular and photography in general have come a long way since the days of Kodak’s #1. The depiction of human beings on a purely spontaneous scale defines the snapshot photography mode. Although it was used to represent ordinary people and ordinary situations initially, but since it has been adapted to more commercial pursuits and this speaks volumes of the recognition branded to snapshot photography. The works of artists such as Nan Goldin are allowing ordinary people to view ordinary situations in different light and to ask questions. The provocative nature of visual depiction in snapshot photography is undeniable and can only be seen to grow. 12. 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