Comparison of Stieglitz and Jacob Riis photography style - Essay Example

Introduction: The advancement in technology has proclaimed itself in every field and photography has not been an exception. While there was a time when taking a photograph itself involved many delicate and carefully taken steps, the photography of today is easy yet with alterations and effects lent to it through computers, it is not the same as before. It was in 1880s, that the term straight photography was coined to mean the kind of photographs that were completely un-manipulated and natural. The other type of photographers came to be known as the pictorialists. By the champions of the straight photography, it is defined as “Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form.” Stieglitz: Dubbed as the “Patron Saint of Straight Photography”, Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) began earnest photography in 1883 and from the very beginning was against the idea of manipulation of any sort in the photographs that, to him, meant capturing life completely as it is. He is most famously noted for his promotion of photography as a complete art form in itself. Through 1892 and onwards, Stieglitz became considerable famous for his photographs of the every day life of New York and Paris. He was one of those people who were able to see the transformation of New York City from one of considerable poverty to one that rose as a symbol of the modern world. His photographs have captured the essence of both eras and follow the transformation of the larva into the butterfly. His one famous photograph is “The Terminal” which he took from the 4x5, which was, unlike the 8x10 camera not considered for professional purposes. However, due to his greater freedom of carrying the camera and talking photographs without a tripod, he was able to take as many photographs as he wanted through much greater ease. Using all natural elements such as the smoke and the ice, he softens the fame and presents his sober mood through the medium. All the faceless subjects of the photograph present what came to be recognized as his pioneering faculties in the field of straight photography. “Alfred Stieglitz photographed "The Terminal" after having waited hours in a snowstorm for his subject to compose itself as he wished it1.” (Faulkner et al, 1963, 279) The complete feel and the aura of the photograph is captured by Stieglitz “I found myself in front of the old Post Office. The Third Avenue street railway and the Madison Avenue car systems had their terminals there, opposite the old Astor House. It was extremely cold. Snow lay on the ground. A driver in a rubber coat was watering his steaming car horses. How fortunate the horses seemed, having a human being to tend them. The steaming horses being watered on a cold winter day, the snow-covered streets ... [expressed] my own sense of loneliness in my own country.2” (Norman, 1990) Stieglitz had to wait in the brewing storm to capture the exact moment that he wanted for his subject in the photograph. It was completely natural and the subjects were not made to pose for the coming capturing of the frame. To have the effects of the rising smoke and fallen snow as well as the light hews, he had to wait for the right season and time of the day, but the complete natural hues and lights of the time were captured by him. Riis: A Danish-American journalist and photographer, Jacob Riis (May 3, 1849 - May 26, 1914) is known for his talents to use his photographic essays and journalistic talents to help the less fortunate of the New York City. It was recognised in the late 1880s that his photography was meant specially to affect a change in the conditions of the socially deprived. He used his reflections of life in the slums to bring to light their deprivations and presented them in his best-selling book “How the other half lives”. “Five cents lodging” was one such photograph that reflected what went on in the areas such as Melburry Bend. “His photographs showed a hidden city, a morgue of the living. He allowed New Yorkers to witness, as if firsthand, the overcrowding he caught in the cellars and flophouses, the tenement rooms where sleeping bodies were stacked on top of each other, the dingy corners that had been turned into sweatshops. His pictures are a harsh, unofficial census, a record of impossible conditions in immigrant New York. On each face he photographed, there is a look of personal extinction except, that is, on the faces of children, who somehow manage to look only hardened3.” (Klinkenborg, 2008) Riis faced even more difficulty as he is known for dark photography and had to adjust his equipment and camera and also had to set the lights, since most of his photography is of indoors. He used the flash system, for which he is also taken as one of the pioneers of flash photography. The agenda of the photograph was clear in his mind. He had to portray the plight if the illegal immigrants for which he had to take the permission of the land lord as well as to assure him that the illegal business he is running will not be identified by the authorities. He also had to direct the actions of his subjects so that they would seem startled and just awoken. This went somewhat against the straight photography as practised by some other photographers of the era. The preparation of frame for the photograph took considerable time. It was, however, his intention to capture the plight as realistically as possible and then to bring it before the citizens of New York as well as the civilized world. All those who were in authority and had the power to make a difference were addressed by Riis. Comparison: To begin with, the two photographs differ in the fact that “The Terminal” was not staged and set up before hand in fact, Stieglitz had to wait for almost three hours to get just the right situation for his photograph. The season, the snow as well as the smoke or fog rising from the ground were used by him for softening the effect and for creating the frame. The picture has been taken outdoors, and in the records there is no hint at any techniques of any kind being employed. Riis on the other hand was capturing the dark aura. While he was also aiming for the straight photography, the situation had to be created with the help of the land lord of the building and the complete aura of the helplessness and bleakness of the residents. The picture has been taken inside a room and he had to ask the residents to pose and settle down for the frame to be still. Stieglitz does not need the profile of his subjects in his photograph and his depiction is of the simple life as it is lived on the streets of New York. The people are not his targets in the photograph rather the life and the aura of the city are. In his picture, the profiles of the subjects are not viewable. Riis on the other hand has done his utmost to capture the profiles of the subjects. The way they sat up at the flash, which is choreographed to make sure that the bewilderment as well as the helpless body language is captured by the camera. Stieglitz has addresses the audience at large, the current and the coming generation through the depiction of life on normal day; he has captured the scene for the records, for the beauty of the scene itself and for manifesting the beauty of the natural aura around him. His main purpose is not moralistic or didactic, but a simple essence and reflection of life. Riis on the other hand has used the medium of his camera so that he will be able to address the authorities and will be able to make them see the plight for which they are responsible. He wants the citizens of the city to know the inhuman treatment being meted out to the illegal immigrants and the constant fear, depression and chaos in which they are forced to live. “The Terminal” documents an era, a way of life and some daily happenings that were a part of the life of the New York during its pebble-stone era. The effects of season and the natural frame of light and smoke have been used for the frame. “The Five Cents Lodging” on the other hand is about the misery of a class and group of people in particular, and how they are forced to face some circumstances that are most humiliating in the heart of a city that prides itself on civility. The two photographs belong to the straight photography genre but they are both different in their agendas, although they are of the same time period. Slightly differing are also the reasons that are behind the photograph and their target audience is also way apart. The techniques utilized are also different as there is some slight choreography in one while there is complete patience and wait for the other. Bibliography: Faulkner, Ray, Faulkner, Ray Nelson, Ziegfeld, Edwin and Hill, Gerald, Art Today: An Introduction to the Fine and Functional Arts, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963, 279 Norman, Dorothy, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer, Aperture, 1990 Klinkenborg, Verlyn, Recovering the Complex Legacy of the Photographer Jacob Riis, New York Times, February 12, 2008, Editorial Observer Read More