Extended Essay
How has Analogue Photography affected
the Photography of Today?
Intro
To begin this essay, an important
question we must ask ourselves before discussing the nature of Camera-less
Photography is: what actually is photography? Photography can be used for many
things and for many reasons such as historical or scientific accuracy and thus
used for an empirical function but is also used for aesthetic and narrative
purposes. As such the medium as a whole evades us.
This is a concept that Roland Barthes
discusses in the book ‘Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography’: “We might
say that photography is unclassifiable.” Barthes (1993)
Susan Sontag also suggests that
photography is a very broad field and states:
“virtually every important photographer right
up to the present has written manifestos and credos expounding photography’s
moral and aesthetic mission. And photographers give the most contradictory
accounts of what kind of knowledge they possess and what kind of Art they
practice.” (Sontag, 1977;)
Overall it seems that photography is a
very selective and somewhat broad process. It cannot be simply discussed and
requires extensive knowledge and research. It might be suggested that
photographers themselves are often creatures of habit but yet are still flawed
with conflictions with regards to what Photography can be.
The point of this essay is very much to
try and address a gap in the understanding of what can be accomplished with
Photography by incorporating Fine art techniques and to record and show how,
for many contemporary artists, they are moving away from the conventional means
of photography in order to create for them, a more meaningful mode of practice.
They want to explore and expand the horizons as to the way in which Photography
can be made, incorporating a greater sense of the craftsmanship involved, but
this is one of the many approaches one can take to producing photographic
images.
In the world of Photography, there are
various guidelines which a photographer should follow in order to create an
aesthetically pleasing photograph, such as “Rule of Thirds,” “Aperture”
“Vantage Point” whether it be for commercial use such as journalism,
advertisements and graphics, or if it is for a more Fine Art style of work.
The term ‘Concrete Photography’ comes
from the Concrete Art movement which was dedicated to fundamental artistic
self-expression. This movement is one with its own set of rules, the rule being
that the medium is the object. The artists involved were (and are) not interested
in the subject matter or photographical techniques such as depth of field,
exposure and other formal elements. (Kerber 2005)
This essay shall not so much cover these
guidelines but look at how experimental Art techniques in the contemporary
world have impacted the field of Photography and influenced people to move away
from the guidelines and reject the mastery.
For my literary review I am going to
look at theorists who have explored the medium of Photography but very much in
the context of the method known as ‘Camera-less Photography’ or analogue
methods. The purpose is to discover how these approaches have affected
contemporary artists and photographers and influenced their practice for
creating work that breaks the convention with regards to commercial
photography.
Literary
Review
A main theorist on the subject of
Photography, ‘Susan Sontag’ suggests that Photography has a sense of
philosophical power and can be a way of “imprisoning reality.” (Sontag, 1971)
The website ‘Cultural Studies Now’ reports her view that, since the days of
Plato, there has been an ongoing discussion and debate on the image and reality
and how in the modern society, people prefer the image aesthetic as opposed to
the real experience. Sontag is fascinated by this discussion. This is important
to note with regards to my chosen area of my study for this essay and how
camera-less images are more focused on the aesthetic values and formal abstract
variations of Photography. The work of the camera-less artists is relevant and
applies to this debate.
In contrast to painting, there is a
great difference in that photography has more object like qualities and is a
direct extension of the interaction the viewer has with the object and the photograph.
As such Photography has changed and evolved into something far more prominent
in our society than painting was throughout history and affects aspects of
political, economic and scientific life. Sontag and others comment that it has
always been a way of creating artistic supervision in society. Sontag argues
that Photography is far more powerful than painting for this reason.
This can be regarded as related to most
aspects of Photography but with regards to Camera-less, it could not be said to
be universally agreed. Camera-less is still finding its way into the everyday
society because it pays much homage to the field of painting through its
approach of ‘painting with light’. There is expression of the emotional and
expressive aesthetic qualities to create a sense of purity. It is still in a
sense in its evolving phase; painting has also been through this evolution.
Kerber (2005) recognises this in
‘Concrete Photography’ but argues that it is becoming apparent to society
because “more attention is being payed to it today.”
For this reason Kerber suggests that Concrete
Photography is becoming more powerful;
“In that Concrete photographs fix or
freeze the fleeting, they defy forgetfulness, counter the absence of location
within media ‘reality’ and thereby raise fundamental questions of our time.”
Kerber (2005; 6)
Since the dawn of photography, it is
apparent that we as the people consume and absorb the essence of photograph, in
acquisition and as such creates a somewhat spiritual and symbolic idea: one
which has dark undertones. The American Indians were photographed without
consideration and there was much concern later regarding the belief that the
process of taking a photograph was linked to ideas of possession and
“potentially a means of control” (Sontag 1977; 156)
This reference of control is also
stated in Barthes (1993; 9) who says that:
“The person or thing photographed is
the target, a kind of little simulacrum, any eidolon emitted by the object,
which I would like to call a spectrum of the photograph.”
This emphasises the somewhat demonic
nature of the photograph and, when analysing the word ‘target,’ it could be
said to mean a person, object or place is selected as the means of attack. This
implies a strong sense of control. For the photographer this nature can become
the main element that drives them to capture images, the word ‘capture’ also
has aggressive undertones and as such it is understandable that people
initially feared the camera.
For both the sitter and the
photographer, the nature of photography can have a great physical and somewhat
intrusive control. This point is made because of the nature of Photography
means that the camera is capturing a segment of time but also captures the emotion.
For both the photographer and the subject there is a great deal lost when a
photograph is taken and the act of photography can be seen as soul
relinquishing, submission or acquisition. The photograph is an extension of the
object itself. (Sontag, 1971).
With regards to the camera-less artefacts,
this point clarifies the nature and the essence that the artist feels towards
photography with regards to the intimacy and emotion expressed through the
medium. The use of the camera-less approach is to an extent a greater use of
the object extension concept through the use of the actual item being used for
the process, for example in Man Ray’s photograms.
His works, along with Schad’s have
visual and process connections to that of a stamp, made with conviction, and
the idea of this stamp like expression emphasises the idea to seize control
with the photograph itself, like they had launched an attack on the medium.
In the book, Concrete Photography
(2005) Verlag states that how the camera-less medium was so experimental that
it was, in the Third Reich’s eye, seen as a “degenerate” form and as such there
was an activist undertone to the practice. This is now possibly affecting the
modern political climate. This emphasises Sontag’s idea of the power and effect
photography has in political context.
For the contemporaries and theorists
from the 1960’s Concrete photography was considered “pseudophotographs” (stet -
Pawek cited in Kerber 2005; 16) and were neither art nor photography.
It is apparent in Peter Blank essay ON THE LITERATURE OF CAMERALESS PHOTOGRAPHY (1990) that there has not
been as such anyone who has recorded the historical to contemporary links in
the field of Camera-less Photography. Blank even states in his paper that “the
most important term here is Art and Photography” (Blank, 1990). He notes the
fact that camera-less photography is referenced in Art books but does not as
such have its own body of literature. This ties in very well with my own
research on this matter
To consider
more recent perspectives, after examining an article by Peter Breul ‘The
Dramatic Challenge of Feature Photography’ in Pedersen’s Photo Annual (2000) it
was discovered that around the time of the millennium, photography was seen as
a commercialised field and seemed to be losing the craftsmanship it once had:
‘The most important thing is to be constantly
aware of the story which is being photographed:
the photographer must have this clearly in his mind at all times.
Another thing a photographer should never forget is that these photographs will
appear on a double page spread in a magazine, not on a gallery wall or in a
glossy art book. This is a significant difference.’
However by 2003 there has been a
shift in the perspective of what Photography can be. In the same publication
there is a question and answer with the photographer ‘Hans Nelemen.
Nelemen suggests that the analogue
and the digital processes may combine in the future and form a hybrid that
gives the process of what a photograph can be more meaning:
“How do you predict the future of
traditional photography given the new immergence of digital technology?’
‘The two will go hand in hand.”
Hans Neleman interviewed by, Rexer,
L 20 Questions on Photography in Pedersen (2003)
Historical and Modern Links
In order to understand how Camera-less
Photography and experimental techniques have affected photographer’s approaches
to the field, we must first learn about the method itself. The history of
Camera-less Photography, which is the method of taking a photographic outcome
without the use of a camera, began in 1826 when
William Henry Fox Talbot created his
‘Photogenic Drawings,’ These were made by placing leaves and fabrics on
sensitized paper and exposed under direct sunlight.
This is the earliest form of what is
now known as the ‘Photogram’. In these the darker areas showed where the sun
had exposed the paper and thus showed the detail of the object that was placed
on the paper. This occurred as the object covered the paper and so did not
expose it, hence the white area is revealed, as shown in plate one.
Plate One:
William Henry Fox Talbot
Titled: Wrack, from the
“Bertoloni Album” (1839)
Photogenic drawing
(22x17.5cm)
From studying the plate by Talbot, it
is evident to the viewer that the outcome in today’s context is a more Fine Art
response in comparison to commercial photography counterparts and shows Talbot’s
intrigue into the idea of experimentation with the process. It has the
appearance of a traditional etching on a copper plate and shows a great deal of
detail. There is no background and it has a flat composition as well. In all
this makes it almost seem like an initial study from that of a Fine artist.
Then in 1839, Jacques Louis-Jacques-Mandé invented the ‘Daguerrotype
Process’ whereby he coated copper sheets with silver to create his black and
white photographs. On
further analysis, sources regarding the Daguerrotype are contradictory
regarding whether they relate to the field of Camera-less Photography, as
various sites and journals say it is relevant to the topic in question and is
among the founding sources for this means of practice. However it is also
documented by others that these images were the first in camera productions because of the camera obscura. Hacking and
Campany argue that a Daguerrotype is “a unique object” (2012; 9) and the
uniqueness and experimental nature of it can be seen in the same light as
camera-less methods. It is important to note that this is an ongoing debate.
In 1843, the photographer Anna Atkins published
a book called ‘British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in Instalments’, which
documented plant specimens. These were done using a process known as “Cyanotype
Printing” whereby a photosensitive iron solution is made and applied to light
receptive surfaces and then exposed to UV light. This creates an almost
blueprint style outcome that shows a white outlined object on a vibrant
Prussian blue background.
It was then around the 1850’s and
1860’s that the likes of the French painters ‘Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,’
‘Charles-François Daubigny’
and ‘Jean-François Millet’
from the Barbizon era used a process known as ‘cliché-verre,’ whereby they
would coat a piece of glass with a ground mixture of asphaltum and varnish and
once dry, would draw through the surface before exposing their hand drawn
negatives. Different densities of mixture would be applied to the glass plates
to create a sense of tone and depth as shown below in plate two.
Plate Two:
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Titled: A Picnic In a Clearing (1857)
Cliché-Verre (17.1x22cm)
Looking at Corot’s cliché-verre, it is
very apparent to us, that there are significant resemblances to that of a
traditional etching or illustration and to the work of William Henry Fox Talbot
shown earlier which shows that, in spite of the eighteen years that passed
between these works, photographers are still feeling compelled to create work
that is appropriate to their Fine Art routes and aesthetic qualities. The piece
also shows a more refined approach in comparison to Talbot’s but still has that
element of experimentation and chance to it. The etched plate would still need
to be exposed for the right amount of time and pressed against the
photosensitive paper well to ensure a good print, as is the nature of
traditional photographical printing.
In the year 1917, Christian Schad, an
artist very much influenced by the Dada movement, created photograms of found
objects. In particular he used discarded paper and fabrics and also chose to
cut the prints out in unusual shapes “to free them from the convention of the
square.” These then became known as ‘Schadographs’ for which the Dadaists used
as an example of what was at the time anti-art. Schad thus influenced the likes
of ‘Man Ray,’ a pioneer of the photogram in the 1920’s and 1930’s. As we can
see here (see plate three) this was a pinnacle point in the presentational
values of a photographic print and how Art techniques and movements have
influenced Schad into creating an outcome that very much rejects the mastery in
every photographic way. As such he has influenced the Dada movement and, beyond
this, we notice there is is an interesting crossover of how Art can infuse and
influence Photography and vice- versa.
Plate Three:
Christian Schad
Titled: Schadograph Nr. 8 (1919)
Photogram printing-out paper image
(5.7 x 8.2cm.) Mount -(15.3 x 15.5cm.)
As can be seen from Schad’s work, he
very much made it obvious that he did not want to follow the general way of
creating photographs, to the point where the square mount was regarded as a
waste. This was due to the fact that he was breaking away from this compositional
form. In turn it shows his angst for change with regards to the way Photography
could be made. This was very much a quality and attribute of the Dada movement
as the movement was influenced by styles such as ‘Cubism’ and ‘Futurism’ and
this factor is also very obvious with Schads work due to the use of abstract
shapes, cut parallel angles and irregularity and yet an intriguing array in
form. This was also the first point in which an artist/photographer used the
idea of the found object as a way to create a more intimate experience combined
with an abstract perception of the everyday world. This helped changed the way
in which we perceive photography from its rather limiting sense of imagination
visually due to the somewhat banal and highly repetitive experience of taking a
photographic documentation.
The ‘Rayographs’ were the next
instalment into the world of camera-less photography. These were produced by
the surrealist and Dadaist Man Ray who was well known for his photograms and
taking a fashion approach to them, as shown in plate four shown below. His
works very much communicate more structure in composition than that of Schad’s because
of the object placement and due to the overall exposure of his prints. He depicts
an almost scientific and yet playful element to his works.
From further research in ‘Man Ray’s
memoir Self-Portrait, 1963, Marcel Duchamp, a fellow peer of
the era, describes Man Ray as "Man Ray, n.m. synon. de
Joie jouer jouir." Which translates "Man Ray, masculine noun,
synonymous with joy, to play, to enjoy.” Cited in Wikipedia (2016)
This definition in itself is evident when you
look at the work of Man Ray and his way of rejecting the mastery in
Photography. He also quoted in his 1948 essay, ‘To Be Continued, Unnoticed,’ "There is no
progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are
simply different ways of doing it.” Cited in Wikipedia (2016).
This also emphasises Man Ray’s feelings towards Photography and
Art. His approach was very much about wanting to offend the sensibilities and
conformities of what traditional Art and aesthetics were.
As we can see in plate four shown below, the negative space created by the
objects helps us to understand the form of the objects better and helps to
create a more intimate experience because of the way in which the detail of the
items has been stripped from the viewer. The variations in transparencies of
the materials helps to create a more personal and somewhat supernatural
encounter. By the same token, there is still a great deal of detail in this
work due to the intricate shapes that are formed such as the forks on the comb.
Plate Four:
Man
Ray
Titled:
Les Champs Délicieux
(1921-22)
Plate Five:
1950
Platinum-Palladium print
Platinum-Palladium print
Contemporary and Modern Practice
There is much going on at a practical
level in contemporary practice. For example the work of ‘Alice Cazenave,’ a
graduate from Central Saint Martins who combines the idea of Photosynthesis
with camera-less photography and other contemporaries in the Fine Art world.
Plate Six:
Alice
Cazenave
Titled:
Breathe
Pelagonium
Print
Unique
print, fixed (4cm x 5cm)
The result is a hybrid both a
scientific examination and also personal documentation to actually seal a
portrait inside the membranes and infrastructure of a leaf and so it becomes a
living breathing function of the item itself, thus giving the photograph more
power and emphasises the intimacy from the artist.
It is also a topic that is an on going
discussion in universities, particularly from ‘Ella McCartney’ (who led an
artist lecture at the University of Bolton on 18th November 2015).
Her lecture was about her style and the effect this has had on the contemporary
Art world; for example how her work was noticed by the Saatchi Gallery. Some of
the images she creates are ‘Energetic Photograms,’ through the method of
Electrolysis where an electric current is used to create an image rather than
using a camera. A search for examples of her work reveals that it has not been
uploaded online on both her personal site and also the Saatchi Gallery website,
or even published in any book. For this reason there are no images of her work.
There is already a lot documented in
the form of actual artwork with regards to Camera-less Photography and, for
some artists, this is their preferred way of working as a photographer/artist.
This may be due to the fact that it becomes less of a technical exercise with a
camera and more of a spiritual and emotionally invested journey for them and
one that is more stimulating by the creative process of experimentation.
Irving Penn was a photographer that
worked mainly with fashion photography and still life but also photographed
famous people such as
“John F Kennedy,” “ Audrey Hepburn”
and also the Dadaist “Marcel Duchamp.”
One of his famous works was the
cover for the 1950 edition of Vogue magazine, as shown in plate five and from
analysing the Man Ray piece (plate four) it is very apparent that there are
many similarities between the two images. Thus it can be seen that, in spite of
there being more technical elements involved in Irving Penn’s work because it
is a platinum-palladium print, the formal elements of the works relate to
camera-less techniques. This also shows how ahead of his time Man Ray and the
Dadaists were for it to be used in contemporary fashion and Art practice in
future years and still be a point of reference today.
“A good photograph is one that
communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person
for having seen it- it is, in one word, effective.” (Penn, Irving cited on
Photography Colleges, 2013)
Penn’s view is almost one of a Fine
artist here rather than that of a commercial photographer due to the personal
element of this quote and a need for something more in a photograph to connect
with the viewer instead of taking a photograph as a means of earning money and
due to the fact the Photographer himself was influenced by the Dada movement
also ties in with his forward way of thinking with regards to his practice,
creating a hybrid of the old influences and the modern contemporary social
climate.
Psychogeography is a technique that
emphasizes the playfulness of the urban environment as a means to create work
and it can be argued that Man Ray has changed the psychogeography of
photography and as such the modern urban environment in spite of the world of
commercial photography being so vast and dominating. This is due to the fact
that today he is considered a pioneer of photography and the Dada movement, the
likes of Irving Penn and contemporary photographers being inspired and paying
homage to his analogue process. He is of obvious importance, even in the
digital age; referring back in this way reflects the general etiquette of Fine
Art but is not a typical technique for photographers to use. The fact that Man
Ray did not use a camera still shows his rejection of the mastery of
photography today, this being an important element in the fashion industry due
to its progressive nature. It is ironic that the fashion industry revolves
constantly and never invents, only innovates but is evolving according to the
times. Thus fashion designers are very much in the same category as the
Dadaists but it is essential to recognise that without Man Ray and his
progressive style as used in Fine Art, photography could be very mechanical. In
a sense Man Ray is a timeless classic.
Susan Derges initially began
working in a studio and then decided to make her studio the outside world and
moved on to create photogram using a dye destruction print method whereby she
submerges an aluminium slide coated with photopaper and exposes the plate with
a flash gun.
Plate Seven:
Susan Derges
River Taw (Ivy) 1998
Photogram, Dye
Destruction Print
Derges’ innovative process has made
her become a giant within the experimental photography field, her work has an
incredibly tense output that captures every detail of the water and nature life
size and in that precise moment which pays homage to the original ideas
expressed by many of the camera-less photographers discussed in this essay as
having an overwhelming sense of intimacy. She sought to achieve “a more direct
and tactile relationship to water by using the landscape as a large darkroom.”
Derges, S (cited in Hacking & Campany 2012; 541)
The use of the Daguerrotype process has
transcended into the work of ‘Adam Fuss,’ a Contemporary Photographer who
creates Daguerrotype
prints and even uses live snakes in his work, which takes the idea of
experimentation even further.
Plate Eight:
Adam
Fuss
Home
and The World (2010)
Daguerrotype,
Photogram
On a video as shown on the V&A Chanel he quotes “I feel the
Photogram which has much less information, has more intimacy and feeling than a
normal photograph.” The quote from Adam Fuss directly shows how for a lot of
photographers, the need for something more than just a print is what drives
them to use Fine Art as a way to further develop their work and have their own
artistic license and as such change the intentions of Photography as he also
quotes “metaphorically, I’d stepped into the camera and I’m still there.” This
shows that it’s almost like a personal journey for Fuss, which again shows his
artistic mentality towards the field. He has an interest in a spiritual journey
with his work and again this reiterates his yearning for something more, a
discovery of the unseen and intimate which is very much the view of a
contemporary fine artist than that of a commercial photographer.
When examining plate eight its very apparent of how the snakes highlight
to the viewer things such as of old artifacts and mythology, demonic ideology
etc. and through the colour palette creates associations with the viewer of
good and evil and so relates to how the Native Indians and other such
communities used to fear the photographer and the photograph.
In Higgins (2013) Fuss also quotes “we’re so conditioned to the syntax
of the camera. We don’t realize we’re running on half of the visual alphabet.
In their simplicity photograms give the alphabet unfamiliar letters.”
From analyzing this quote we can clearly see Fuss’s attempt to show to
the public that in the digital age, there is a loss of the idea of the
parameters of the photograph and the analogue approach.
Adam Fuss is one of these artists that
feels that the process of creating a photogram is a much greater way to show
intimacy within a photograph. This is the case as the process involves using
objects exposed on light sensitive paper and developing the print, rather than
the traditional and conventional way of archiving and recording objects which
is to take a photograph of said object.
Throughout the history of camera-less
photography we can see that there has been many developments and a current one
that Fuss has also used is a method known as ‘Scanography’ whereby one can use
a photocopier/scanner as a means of photography. Again he used snakes to
document the movement of the snakes but is more complex because distortions are
made on the digital image because a scanners sole purpose is not to record
moving objects, so when it does, the technological software and programming in
the scanner replaces elements of the image with sections of RGB to attempt to
rectify the inconsistencies, thus creates colour burns, which are very ominous
and pay homage to the original analogue traditions of camera-less photography but
also adds a contemporary element to it because of its digital qualities as
shown in plate nine.
Plate Nine:
Adam
Fuss
From
left to right:
After
Li T’ang, After Shen Chou, After Kuo His
(all
made 2015)
Scanographs
The images shown in the plate above
were used in an exhibition called “λόγος” which is a term
ancient Greek philosophers used and means a connection between the earthly and
the divine which further emphasizes the artists pursuit for a more spiritual
and emotional connection to the work and this element of giving the photograph
more symbolic power and relates with the ideas mentioned earlier on possession
and control.
Conclusion
The idea of broadening our horizons
with Photography is important as we are so used to the same-ness of the process
of the digital camera. Fuss suggests we create ‘an unfamiliar visual alphabet’.
On reflection it is apparent that Schad’s work is very much like a new form of
alphabet, in a visual and artistic way and this idea in itself was one of the
fundamental values of the Dada movement being to create a language that has no
language and open to new interpretation within the contemporary climate.
The research explored in this essay is
relevant to practice as it both teaches the history of the methods and also the
fundamental concepts behind experimental photography. It examines and explains the underlying mode
of practice relating to camera-less artwork and also offers insights into how
an artist using this medium could further develop practice with particular
techniques. The ‘Daguerrotype,’, ‘Cliché-Verre’ and experimental contemporary
artists such as Adam Fuss are relatively unknown to most artists but may have
much to offer to contemporary practitioners.
From reading this essay it can be
understood that photography is of great importance and has a powerful social
and artistic impact. It is also important to note that this has changed since
the beginnings of photography; the fact that there is a large variety of
photographic options for photographers to select before creating a piece of
work is a vital point. Camera-less photography has evolved with the digital
times, but yet the fundamental values and ideals of the process and the spirit
carries on. For the audience there is now understanding; that in itself is the
very essence of photography.
‘Every Image is to be seen as an
object and every object as an image.’
Bazin, A (237) The Ontology of The
Photographic Image
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