Why art photography?
Soutter, L. (2013) Why art photography? London: Routledge.
Quotes
Some photographic portraiture feels voyeuristic because we get the impression that the sitters would not have wanted to be portrayed in the way they have been. For example, Diane Arbus’s and Richard Avedon’s images can feel shockingly invasive and unkind, as if the photographers have been ruthless in imposing their own vision. Grannan’s work is complicated by its conceptual subtext. She plays off the question of the collaborative portrait by letting it be known that this is how and where her sitters wanted to pose, this is what they wanted to wear (or not wear). Yet writing around the project indicates that like the stylist of a fashion shoot the artist stage-manages quite extensively to achieve her desired image.
p.21
The traditional portrait is a humanist enterprise, wrapped up in the project of reading, understanding and reinforcing what we know about human subjectivity. While many photographers still work with this model, some of the most successful contemporary art photographers, including the ones in this chapter, draw on a variety of genres and the radical gestures of twentieth-century art to produce a new kind of portraiture. Like a hybrid plant, it retains characteristics of its precedents, while bearing very different fruit. The lasting legacy of postmodernism has been its challenge to the master narratives of the twentieth century, including logic, certainty and truth. Contemporary art discourse thrives on works which are to some extent illogical, uncertain and riddled with elements of contradiction, fiction and fantasy.
p.28
Contents
Introduction: Why Art Photography? 1
1 Hybrid Genres: Portraiture 13
2 Objectivity and Seriousness 31
3 Fictive Documents 52
4 Authenticity 70
5 Digital Dialogues: Spectacle and Spectators 92
6 Beyond Photography 112
Index A-C
A
abstract expressionism, 22
Adams, Ansel, 17, 94, 11011
Adorno, Theodor, 50n, 97
aesthetic, the, 4, 31, 38, 129
affect, 42, 128, 13211
Afterlife (Broom berg and Chanarin),
60-1, 62, 64
aftermath photography, 57
Alberro, Alex, 110n
Aletti, Vince, 29n
Alphabet Concept VBLV (Beecroft),
9, 10
amateur photography, 16
ambiguity, contemporary art,2 7-8,3 4,
100, 128
American Apparel, 85
American art/photography, 33-5
Andre, Carl, 18, 50n
Amin, Eleanor, 22-3
appropriation, 4, 5
Arbus, Diane, 21
Aristotle, 77-8
art photography: arguments against, 7-8, 126-7; contemporary concerns, 6-7; in context, 5-6; criticality and complicity, 9, 11-12; defining, 2-3, 128-30; expanded field of, 112-126; value and meaning, 1-2, 8-9; versus photography as art, 2-5
Art Photography Now (Bright), 28n
Asher, Michael, 22
Adas Group, The, 64, 65, 69n
Austin, J. L., 74, 90n
authenticity, 4, 7, 70-91; and consumerism, 84-7; in context, 77-9; versus inauthenticity, 89; and performativity, 83-4; and the personal, 76-7; presenting the authentic, 79, 81-3
author-function, 75
automatism, 129
autonomy: versus contingency, 17-18;
and objectivity, 37, 38
avant-garde art/photography, 3, 17, 28n,
29n, 35, 99,129
A vedon, Richard, 21
Avgikos, Jan, 29n
B
backstories, 16-17, 64, 101
Badiou, Alain, 91n
Baker, George, 113, 114, 13011
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 84
Baldessari, John, 4
Ballad of Sexual Dependency (Goldin), 76, 90n
banality, 7, 43, 44
Banco de Espaiia IV (Hofer), 40
Barney, Matthew, 121, 122
Barry, Robert, 4, 22
Barthes, Roland, 41, 73, 75, 89n, 90n, 129
Basin (Kolker), 107, 108
Batchen, Geoffrey, 8, 113, 13011
Bate, David, 73, 75, 90n, 11011, 130n
Baudrillard, Jean, 26, 6811
Baxendall, Michael, 8-9, 12n
Becher, Bernd, 5, 31, 35-9,43,47,4911, 72
Becher, Hilla, 5, 31, 34, 35-9, 47, 49n, 5011, 72
Beecroft, Vanessa, 9, 10, 11
Bellmer, Hans, 3
Bemojake (publisher), 107
“Beneath the Roses” (Crewdson), 98-9
Benjamin, Walter, 4, 129
Beshty, Walead, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 127, 130n, 131n
black-and-white photography, 6
Blalock, Lucas, 131n
Blaustein, Jonathan, 85-6, 91n
Blossfeldt, Karl, 35
Book of Alternative Processes, The (James), 12n
Borchardt-Hume, Achim, 110n
boredom, 44-5, 50n
Bourdieu, Pierre, 16, 28n
Bourriaud, Nicolas, 125
Brecht, Benoit, 100
Breton, Andre, 54
Breuer, Frank, 5, 31, 42-5, 47, 72
Bright, Susan, 28n
Brilliant, Richard, 14, 28n
Broomberg, Adam, 52, 60-1, 62-3, 62, 64, 66, 6811, 129, 13011
Buchloh, Benjamin, 8, 23, 29n
Burgin, Victor, 4, 12n, 55, 127, 132n
Burke, Edmund, 95
Butler, Judith, 84, 90n
C
Callahan, Harry, 20
camera, digital, 119; large-format, 5, 98;
phone, 105; thermographic, 105, 107;
virtual, 107
Campany, David, 58, 6811, 129, 132n
Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 17, 28n, 129
Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (Antin), 22-3
Cavell, Stanley, 78
Celebrity (Hirasawa), 105-7
Chanarin, Oliver, 52, 60-1, 62-3, 62, 64,
66, 6811, 129, 130n
Chevrier, Jean-Frarn;:ois, 55-6, 57, 58, 6811
Choureau-Matikian, Helene, 66, 69n
Church Street and 2nd Street, Easton, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1974 (Shore), 33–4
Cibachrome prints, 76
Cirauqui, Manuel, 57-8, 6811
citizen’s journalism, 93
Clark, Larry, 85
Classic Essays on Photography (Trachtenberg), 12n
colour photography, large-scale, 5 commercial culture, and photography, 1-2, 7, 9 -11, 84-87, 97-101
complicity, 9-12, 14, 99-100
conceptual art, 4, 5, 6, 13, 17, 22-5, 39, 56
consumerism, 11
Continental philosophical tradition, 35
contingency, versus autonomy, 17-18
Cotton, Charlotte, 12n, 127, 132n
Cremaster series (Barney), 121, 131n
Crewdson, Gregory, 92, 97-9, 100, 101, 108, 109
criticality, 5, 6, 9, 11, 100; and Hofer, 39–42
criticism, photographic, 17; formalist, 129 critique of representation, 4, 11, 26, 28, 32, 73, 74, 95
Crasher, Zoe, 13-16, 17, 18, 23–4, 25, 27, 28n, 13011
Crow, Thomas, 8, 12n
Cui Cui (Kawauchi), 81, 82
curators, 3, 16, 44, 54, 64, 107, 111n, 126; artist as curator, 105
Curtin, Brian, 29n
Curtis, James, 67n
D-H
D
David, Jacques-Louis, 56
Davies, Lucy, 110n
Day, Corinne, 74
Day Nobody Died, The (Broomberg and Chanarin), 62-3, 64
deadpan photography, 11, 31, 35, 44, 47-8, 95; versus authentic images, 72
Debord, Guy, 26, 29n, 97, 99, 100, 110n, llln
de-familiarization, 63
Delahaye, Luc, 52, 55-8, 59, 66; Les Pillards (The Looters), 56, 57, 60
Derrida, Jacques, 41
Deschenes, Liz, 131n
detachment, 41-2
Dialectic of Enlightenment (Adorno and Horkheimer), 50n, 97
Diasec process, 41
digital photography, 7, 92-111, 119, 130n
disinterest, 37
documentary photography, 11, 21, 41, 93; document versus documentary, 52-3; documentary constructions, 53–4; documentary dilemmas, 54-5; fictive documents, 52-69; and tableau, 55-8, tacit rules of documentary, 21; traditional, 52-3, 58, 63, 66; truth, claim to, 52-3; useless documents, 54
Drucker, Johanna, 11, 12n, 63, 64, 69n, 99, 100, 108, 111n
Dublon, Amalie, 131n
duBois, Michelle, 14-16, 18
Duchamp, Marcel, 13, 18-22, 26. 129; Fountain, 18, 19, 29n; readymades 18, 29n
Durden, Mark, 29n
Dusseldorf School, 5, 31, 35, 41-43, 47, 95
E
education, photographic (MA and MFA degrees), 5, 27, 3011, 42, 126
Edwards, Elizabeth, 13011
Eklung, Douglas, 51n
emancipated spectators, 100-2, llln
Emin, Tracey, 18
Empson, William, 30n
Eshkol, Noa/Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) system, 119, 120
Espace Louis Vuitton, exhibition at, 9
ethics, 16, 21-2
Evans, Jason, 129
Evans, Walker, 33, 34, 53, 6711
expanded field of photography, 112-126
expressionism, 22, 35
F
Falls, Sam, 13111
“Family of Man, The” {Steichen), 36
fashion photography, 13, 21, 85, 109n
Faulkner, William, 75
feeling, and authenticity, 71, 8911
feminism/feminist theory, 28, 71
fiction: defined, 58; fictive documents, 52-69; levels of, 66-7; literary, 53
film, and photography, 97-8, 113, 119-121, see also video
fine art photography, 3, 4, 6, 12; see also art photography
Five Dances and Nine Wall Carpets by Noa Eshkol (Lockhart), 121
Flaubert, Gustave, 53, 84
Foster, Hal, 26, 2911, 73, 8911, 9011, 11111
Foucault, Michel, 41, 75, 9011, 102
Fountain (Duchamp), 18, 19, 2911
Fowler, Alastair, 28n
Fox, Howard N., 2911
frames/framing, 4, 94-5
Frank, Robert, 97
Frankfurt School, 43, 45
Fried, Michael, 36, 41, 50n, 72
“From Presence to the Performative: Rethinking Photographic Indexicality” (Lowry and Green), 73-4
G
Gallot, Jean-Marc, 10
genre, 3, 14, 48; definitions, 3, 13-14; hybridization of, 6, 13-30
German art/photography, 32, 35-6, 48
Gestalt Philosophy (Kohler), 47
Glenn, Constance W., 50n
globalization, 95, 127; of the art world, 39
Godfrey, Mark, 59-60, 6811
Goldie, Peter, 12n
Goldin, Nan, 5, 70, 71, 72, 74, 78, 79, 84, 87; Ballad of Sexual Dependency, 76, 90n; Nan One Month After Being Battered, 76, 77
Goldstein, Ann, 45, 50n
Google, 102, 105, 109
Grannan, Katy, 13, 19-22, 23, 25, 27, 2911
Green, David, 73-4, 75, 90n
Greenberg, Clement, 116, 129, 13111
Grundberg, Andy, 79, 9011
Guggenheim Museum, New York, 121-2
Guignon, Charles, 78, 90n
Gulf War Did Not Take Place, The (Baudrillard), 59, 6811
Gursky, Andreas, 92, 95-7, 101, 108, 109
H
Hall, Stuart, 28n
Hambourg, Maria Morris, 51n
Harris, Lyle Ashton, 123
Harris, Melissa, llln
Harrison, Rachel, 112, 117, 118-19, 118, 13111
Hart, Janice, 13011
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 35
Hemingway, Ernest, 53
Hill, John T., 6711
Hirasawa, Kenji, 92, 105-7
Hirsch, Robert, 1211
History of Photography, The (Newhall), 8
Hoch, Hannah, 97
Hofer, Candida, 5, 31, 39-42, 47, 72; Banco de Espana IV, 40,
Hopkinson, Rebecca, 3011, 13211
Horkheimer, Max, 5011, 97
Hubbard, Sue, 2911
humanism, 28, 36, 71, 75, 78, 88
hyper-photography, 92, 96, 10911
I-P
I
identity: middle-class, 18; postmodern theories, 14, 71
image tampering, 11011
image/images, large-scale images, 5, 41; versus object, 112-13; poor, 102-9; pure, 94-7; snapshot photography, 15-16; social use, 107; vernacular
image-making, 92
impartiality, 37
inauthenticity, 89
individualism, 33
information capitalism, 105
institutional critique, 114, 130n
Internet, 67n, 101, 105, 126
in tertextuali ty, 27
Irvine, Karen, 59, 68n
Iverson, Margaret, 89n
J
Jaar, Alfredo, 55
James, Christopher, 11, 12n
James, Sarah, 36, 39, 50n, 128-9, 132n
Jenkins, Henry, 13111
Jens F. 1141115 project (Schorr), 24, 25
Joyce, Ja mes, 53
JR, 123, 124-6, 131n
K
Kant, Immanuel, 35, 36, 37, 47
Kawauchi, Rinko, 70, 72, 81-2, 82, 87
Kelly, Mary, 131n
Kermode, Frank, 53, 58, 67n, 68n
Kimmelman, Michael, 131n
Kiss Explosion (McGinley), 85, 86
Kodak, Eastman, 109
Kohler, Wolfgang, 47
Kolker, Richard, 92, 93, 107-8
Kosuth, Joseph, 4
Kraus, Chris, 85, 91n
Krauss, Rosalind, 4, 113, 117, 13111
Kruger, Barbara, 26
L
Lacan, Jacques, 73
LaChapelle, David, 109n
landscape, 3, 17, 101
Le, An-My, 52, 59-60, 61, 66
Leavis, F. R., 84
Les Pillards (The Looters) (Delahaye), 56, 57, 60
Let’s Be Honest, the Weather Helped (Raad), 64, 65
Levine, Sherrie, 5, 26
lightbox, 5
Lister, Marin, 11011
Lockhart, Sharon, 112, 119, 120-1, 122
Looking Away (Crasher), 15, 16
Louis Vuitton brand, 9, 11
low-res images, 101-3, 106-7 see also “poor image”
Lowry, Joanna, 29n, 73-4, 75, 83, 90n
M
Malcolm, Janet, 11011
Mann, Sally, 75
“Manning the Rail, USS Tortuga, Java Sea, 2010” (An-my Le), 60, 61
Mapplethorpe, Robert, 5
Marien, Mary Warner, 12n
Marion, Jean-Luc, 91n
Marlbora cigarette advertisements, re-photographed (Richard Prince), 26-7
McGinley, Ryan, 70, 72, 85, 86, 87, 91n
medium, photography as, 3, 6, 7, 17, 116-21, 128, 128-30, 13111; and expanded field of photography, 113-14
Mihailov, Boris, 73
minimalism, 34, 38, 39, 117
Mitchell, William, 110n
modernism/modernist photography, 3, 4, 6, 9, 17, 28n, 121; and digital photography, 94; natural modernists, 1-2; and objectivity, 32, 34, 37, 39, 48
Moholy, Lucia, 35
Moholy-Nagy, Laszlo, 3, 34-5, 50n, 129
montage, photographic, 95, 97
Mora, Gilles, 67n
Moschovi, Alexandra, 12n
mounting, 94-5
Munoz, Oscar, 55
Museum of Modern Art, New York, 8
“museum photography” (Julian Stellabrass), 41, 50n
“Mystic Lake” Series (Grannan), 19-21
N
Nadja (Breton), 54
Nan One Month After Being Battered (Nan Goldin), 76, 77
Nancy, Jean-Luc, 87, 91n, 100
narrative/narrator, 75, 84, 89, 116, 121, 125, 129; in conceptual art, 22-4
“near documentary” (Jeff Wall), 66
New Objectivity, 35
“New Topographies” exhibition, New York (1975), 34
New York, Museum of Modern Art, 8
Newhall, Beaumont, 8, 12n
Nine Eyes of Google Street View, The (Rafman), 102, 105
99 Cent II Diptychon, 2001 (Gursky), 96
Nordstrom, Alison, 50n
Norfolk, Simon, 57
nude, the, 3, 6, 24
O
object, versus image, 112-13
objectivity, 6-7, 31-49, 70; defining, 32-4: Dusseldorf School, 35, 41, 42, 43, 47, 95; see also Becher, Bernd; Becher, Hilla; Breuer, Frank; Hofer, Candida; Struth, Thomas
Ohlin, Alix, 11011
O’Keeffe, Georgia, 14
On Being Authentic (Guignon), 78, 90n
On Photography (Sontag), 12n
O’Reilly, Sally, 89n
O’Sullivan, Simon, 132n
Othova, Marketa, 6
Owens, Clifford, 112, 122, 123, 124, 131n
Owens, Craig, 4, 95, 110n
P
Passages (Beshty), 114
Patterns of Intention (Baxendall), 8-9, 12n
Per Pulverem Ad Astra (Stenram), 101-2
performance art 9, 11, 122-4
performance studies, 89
performativity, 73-4, 83-4
phenomenology, 100
Phillips, Christopher, 8, 12n, 6711
Phillips, Lisa, 2911
Photograph as Contemporary Art, The (Cotton), 1211, 127, 13211
photographic theory, 4, 127-130
Photographs with an Audience (Owens), 122, 123, 124
photography: as art, 2 -6, 8 -9; 11-12, 112, 128-30; expanded field of, 112-126; large-scale, 5, 41; snapshot, 15, 16, 74, 76, 129; see also art photography; deadpan photography; digital photography; image/images; medium
Photography: A Cultural History (Warner), 1211
photojournalism, 17, 21, 67-811; and authenticity, 70; and documentary photography, 53-5, 58, 59, 64
Pickering, Sarah, 48, 49
pictorial paradigm, 112
pictorialism, 32
Pierson, Jack, 74
Piss Christ (Serrano), 27
platinum printing, 5
Plato’s cave allegory, 97
“Polaroided” series (Zoe Crasher), 15
Polidori, Robert, 41, 42
Pollock, Jackson, 22, 46
“poor image, the” (Hito Steyer!), 102-9
pornography, Internet, 109
portraiture, 3, 6, 13-30
post-medium condition, art’s, 116-7
postmodernism, 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 26, 128; and authenticity, 71; and digital photography, 95; and objectivity, 32;
postmodern textuality, 17-18, 25-8
post-structuralism, 4, 41, 71, 100
post-studio art, 116-17
Potts, Alex, 13 ln
Price, Derrick, 67n
Prince, Richard, 5, 26-7, 29n
printing, photographic, 5, 17, 94-5
“prosumer”, 103, 1 lln
psychoanalysis, 71, 73
Q-Z
Q
Quawson, lvluzi, 70, 72, 82-3, 87
queer theory, 71
R
Raad, Walid, 52, 64-6, 130n
Rafman, Jon, 92, 102-5, 107, llln
Ragland-Smiuth, Ellie, 89n
Ranciere, Jacques, 91n, 100, 101, 109, llln
Ray, Man, 3, 54
Razmi, Jahangir, 61
readymades (Duchamp), 17, 18, 29n
real, the, 39, 53, 58, 87-88; and authenticity, 72-4
realism, 35, 39, 43, 66-7, 74, 107; socialist, 6; traumatic, 73
reality, 7; and authenticity, 70, 73, 87; and digital photography, 95, 97, 108; and fiction/fictive documents, 52, 53, 54, 58, 66, 67; and genre, 25-26, 28; objectivity, 32, 35, 38, 43; in work of Struth, Thomas, 45-7
“Reconsidered Archive of Michelle duBois, The” (Crasher), 14
refamiliarization, 63-6
Rejlander, Oscar, 95
relational aesthetics, 125
representation, 35, 87, 92; critique of, 4, 11, 26, 28, 32, 73, 74, 95
Richardson, Craig, 29n
Rimanelli, David, 76, 90n
Ristelhueber, Sophie, 57
Ritchin, Fred, 109n
Robbe-Grillet, Alain, 67, 69n, 129
Roberts, Russell, 67n
Robinson, Henry Peach, 95
Rodchenko, Aleksandr, 3
romanticism, 11, 75, 78, 88
Rosier, Martha, 54-5, 67n
Ruscha, Ed, 34
S
Salvesen, Britt, 34, 50n
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 126, 132n
Sander, August, 35
Sarraute, Nathalie, 90n
Schellekens, Elisabeth, 12n
Schjeldahl, Peter, 47, 5011
Schorr, Collier, 13, 24, 25, 27, 2911, 13011
Scruton, Roger, 5011
Seawright, Paul, 57
Seizing the Light: A Social History of Photography (Hirsch), 1211
Sekula, Allan, 55, 127
self, the, 7, 71, 88
seriousness, 42-5
Serpentine Gallery, London, 27
Serrano, Andres, 5, 27
Sherman, Cindy, 16, 73, 76
Shinkle, Eugenie, 43, 50n
Shore, Stephen, 33–4
Sierra, Santiago, 22
Simpson, Lorna, 123
simulacra, 73
simulation, 93
Sincerity and Authenticity (Trilling), 87, 9111
“Small Wars” (1999-2002) (An-my Le), 59
Smith, Sarah-Neel, 13111
Smith, W. Eugene, 53, 67n
Smithson, Robert, 34
snapshot photography, 15, 16, 18, 74, 76, 129
social documentary, 52
social networking, 105
Society of Independent Artists exhibition (1917), 19
Society of the Spectacle, The (Debord), 97, 11011, llln
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, 4, 127
Sontag, Susan, 8, 12n, 6711
spectacle, 8, 92, 93, 97-9
spectarors, 93, 100-2
Steichen, Edward, 36
Steigler, Bernard, 91n
Steinert, Otro, 36
Stellabrass, Julian, 41, 50n
Stenram, Eva, 92, 101-2, 102, 103, 107
Steyer!, Hito, 102-3, 105, 108-9, llln
Stieglitz, Alfred, 3, 12n, 14, 19, 94
still life, 3, 72
Stimson, Blake, 36, 50n, 69n. 13111
Strand, Paul. 33. 35. 49n
Street View, Google …
Struth, Thomas …
sublime, the, 95, 96; 1 l0n, digital, 108, 109
subtexts, 16-17
surrealism, 3, 6, 54
Svoboda, Jan, 6
Sweet Dreams: Complicity and Contemporary Art (Drucker), 11, 12n, 99, llln
Szarkowski, John, 131n
T
tableau, 5, 55-8
Tagg, John, 67, 127
Taliban (Delahaye), 55, 56
Taylor, Charles, 78
Teller, Juergen, 74
Terada, Rei, 89n
textuality, postmodern, 25-8, 87
theatricality, 72, 122
thermographic imaging, 107, 109
Tillmans, Wolfgang, 70, 71, 72, 74, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 87
Tim, b. 1981 (2004) (Grannan), 19, 20
Townsend, Chris, 90n
Trachtenberg, Alan, 1211
transmediality, 121-2, 126, 13111
trauma, 73, 74
Trilling, Lionel, 87, 9011, 91n
truth/truth-value, 7, 70, 92-3
“29 Palms” series (Le), 59-60
typologies, 35, 39, 47-8
U
Untitled (Cowboy) (Richard Prince), 26, 2911
V
Velazquez, Diego, 14
Verhagen, Marcus, 5011
vernacular image-making, 92
video, 123, see also film
virtual camera, 107
visuality, 5, 32, 48, 98
Voyage of the Beagle (Harrison , 118-19
voyeurism, 15, 21
Vuitton, Moet Henness,· Louis. 9, 10
W
Wall, Jeff…
Wallis, Brian …
Warhol, Andy …
Water Towers (Bechers) …
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 26, 85
Who’s Afraid of Conceptual Art (Goldie and Shellekens), 1211
Williams, Raymond, 84
Williams, Tennessee, 75
Wolf, Sylvia, 109n
Women Are Heroes JR . 12-. 125, 126
Wood, Catherine, 13111
Wyeth, Andrew, 24, 25
XYZ
Zimmermann, Mark, 77, 9011
Zwehl, Bettina von, 48
