Nancy Newhall - Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light - Cat Boyce

Newhall noted that Adams once wrote, “Photography makes the moment enduring and eloquent” (270). In his photography, Adams is searching for moments of beauty captured through the use of passing light or mood to yield a new perspective on the subject he is portraying. Although I had previously known this, I never had the perspective Newhall gave into Adams musical background influencing his photographs. Adams was trained as a concert pianist and he compared the negative to the “score” and the print to the “performance.” Newhall explores these ideas, and notes that Adams believes as he is composing a photograph that reality engulfs him with “configurations in chaos” which he then “kinetically observes” until he chooses his composition that achieves “an entirely new and different experience which is remote from actuality in many ways.” Adams is versatile in being able to photograph a wide range of forms and evoke a vast amount of emotions. Just like some of the most famous composers, Adams is able to capture climax’s in moments, therefore creating crescendos in his own artwork.

Newhall goes on to discuss how Adams compared a fine print to a symphony experience. That feeling of engulfment from being submerged in live music gives goose bumps and a surreal feeling of warmth. Adams seems to believe that a fine print can give that same sense of being consumed by the imagery. I would agree and say that photography has the power to evoke emotion and feeling just as much as music does. Although a photograph may seem like only one note, I do think it has the power to be read as a whole composition.

At a talk at Yale with Mary Virginia Swanson last week, she briefly mentioned her time working with Ansel Adams. She remembers him fondly and shared that he loved to educate those who wanted to learn. Swanson said that he would teach people in his own personal darkroom and loved to be surrounded by other creative individuals. He was one to teach, help and extend a hand. Apparently, he often had cocktail hours, in which he would open his home up to anyone.  I found it very interesting to learn about her experience and Newhall’s while working with him  as well as what they thought about him as a person and as a photographer. It was enlightening to read this article by Newhall, and hear about Swanson’s experiences first hand.

I always thought of Ansel Adams as one of the most famous photographers, if not the most iconic for people who don’t really follow the history of photography. I found myself in a conversation with an individual, just weeks ago when I was photographing for large format just to find out that he had no clue who Adams was. Granted maybe if he saw the work, he would know who I was talking about. However, I was intrigued by that conversation because I have known Ansel Adams since I can remember. I thought it was almost common sense. Regardless if Adams is not as popular as I thought he was, I do find the beauty in his work that Newhall explained was so important to him. I believe his work will go down in history forever (as it already has). I also think it is interesting to see the parallels in his photographs to his background as a concert pianist. I think it’s interesting to learn more about photographer’s pasts and interests because everything comes full circle in influencing who they are as a person and photographer.

Unmasking Claude Cahun: Self-Portraiture as a Primary Source

Christie Dooley

In her essay “A Mutable Mirror: Claude Cahun,” first published in Artforum in 1992, Therese Lichtenstein attempts to unmask the obscure identity of Surrealist artist Claude Cahun. She begins with a formal analysis of an untitled photomontage made by Cahun ca. 1930 for the opening page of an autobiography.  Lichtenstein’s descriptive language is notable here—she characterizes Cahun’s image as a distorted projection of selfhood, made up of “disembodied,” “anamorphic” and “grotesque” elements.  Unfamiliar with Cahun’s frontispiece, the reader must imagine the cosmically charged arrangement according to these words, for Lichtenstein intentionally withholds contextual information until the end of her formal description.  Lichtenstein's introduction only further obscures the complex nature of Cahun’s identity.

Nobody can straightforwardly answer, “Who was Claude Cahun?” Cahun’s identity is inextricably linked to her own struggle for empowerment and recognition. Though the facts are important—Cahun, born Lucy Schwob, was a Jewish, homosexual, and radical female activist—the self-portraits that “circulate obsessively through all her work” are our primary sources of information. Lichtenstein interprets these self-portraits as an exploration “of the self as an accumulation of selves, or a shifting set of social relations.”  Furthermore, Lichtenstein considers Cahun’s self-portraiture (and androgyny) an act of liberation in a male-dominated Surrealist sphere. Indeed, Cahun seemed to wrest herself from definitive societal roles in her eruptive I.O.U (Self-Pride), which reads “Sous ce masque un autre masque. Je n’en finirai pas de soulever tous ces visages.”  Here is the image:

Are these stacked masks just another riddle pumped out of an Exquisite corpse game, or as Lichtenstein suggests, a representation of her multi-faceted and unfolding identity? Though some of Cahun’s fragmented images seem to reflect incoherence and crisis, I agree with Lichtenstein—Cahun deliberately chose to assert her differences through spectacle.

Pollan Response: Big Organic

Pollan Response: Big Organic

The idea of organic seems simple enough.  Food and food products produced without any scientific intervention to the food and livestock is fed its natural diet with room to roam a pasture.  Little did I know the Big Organic and laws passed to determine what was needed to be labeled “organic” were not what I had envisioned at all.  Organic farmers are able to use synthetics such as xanthan gum and ascorbic acid.  Animals such as dairy cows are still confined.  In the law it states that to be classified as organic the animals only need “access to pasture” or “access to outdoors”.  The laws give exemptions and twist and turn to allow for common practices in other forms of agribusiness, but only a few restrictions are really needed to qualify as organic.  Occasionally, I buy organic foods.  It made me feel better because I thought it was coming from a better place.  In reality it may not be all that different or all that more humane.  I even question the farmers markets that I go to now.  Do they use synthetics? Do they use organic seeds?  It makes you wonder what you can really trust.  I understand that since agriculture is in fact a business you need to take the steps to be competitive in the field.  Although in this business it means that “organic” is not as organic as one would think.  

If only there were a way to bring back the idea of the idea of organic most people imagine is there.  Its also hard the go back to this idea when companies like Monsanto are promoting a “feed the world campaign” with they GMO infused grain and locking people into business by constantly needing to buy more corn.  If only there was a way to bring the farmers who genuinely care back, a public that looks out for it is own well-being, and rid agribusiness of companies who use chemicals to make food more profitable for them. 

Gladwell Reading

In “The Picture Problem” by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses tow different forms of photography, one used in the military and one used in the medical field. Lantrin, and image system to detect scud launchers and Mammogram image device. These devices are similar, in that they are both trying to fight a war, one on terrorist and one on cancer. But they do differ as well, the Lantrin is used to destroy and kill, while the mammogram is used to save and preserve life, I also noticed the distinction in one being very masculine and the other feminine. I found it an interesting choice to compare them.

            Gladwell compares two relatively new technologies, that both need a specialist to interpret. This is, to Gladwell, where the problem lies. When the military was using the Lantrin, there were problems with them bombing regular trucks and houses, not actual scud launchers. The image the military received from the Lantrin wasn’t what it is today; it was very grainy, dark, and blurry. Hard for anyone to interpret in my opinion, but the military had ‘specialist’ who interpreted these images and declared them scud launchers or not. Mammograms require a specialist interpretation as well, now a days someone specifically specialized in reading MRIs, mammograms, CT scans, X-rays, etc., which usually isn’t even the head doctor on your case. The human interference and interpretation here is the problem, there are so many different interpreters looking at the images, and giving different interpretations. The problem there may lie in the fact that these specialists are being taught in different places, the context in which they are readings these images may differentiate hugely. 

-Emily Walsh

Wells, The Commodification of Human Relations

In the case study in Wells, which we read for this week, discussed the commodification of human relations and advertising.  She begins by explaining that photographs contain two messages, a denoted message and a connoted message. A denoted message is “the literal reality which the photo portrayed”. While a connoted message is one that is “making use of social and cultural references. It  is an inferred message, it is symbolic.” In Advertisement photograph we carry no illusions about the denoted image, we know it is highly structured and do not read it as documenting real life. We are “unconsciously aware when reading the image that the connoted message is the crucial one.”

            In Advertising the image is usually meant to visualize dreams, aspirations and narratives within which we can put ourselves and create a meaning. This type of advertising can be found virtually anywhere in the world, but especially in fashion and lifestyle advertising. These messages are read through the images first level signifiers and second level signifiers. “The signs which were produced in an image are further mystified by a second level of signification in advertising messages”, but it is the second level of signification that the production of ideology is important.  Advertising messages is all about the transfer of the existing meaning(s) that we have of one image to the product and services represented in the advertisement as a whole. Commodity advertising uses a widely adopted convention of juxtaposing the image of the product and the “mood image”.  Our role as active viewers and interpreters in important in the creation of these meanings, we are involved and implicated in the production of ideology.

            Once we recognize the influence of the social and cultural on how we interpret these images, we can see that not everyone interprets them in the same way, the production of meaning is “fluid and often ambiguous”.

-Emily Walsh

Medieval Church vs Modern Museum

Well's section titled "Photography Within the Institution" really stood out to me. In it he discusses the position of photography within museums, and how this position has developed since the 1970's. He reviews the scale of the photographs and how it may reflect a certain status in the gallery context through that scale. He touches on "heritage industries" and how museum and "heritage institutions" have become an inextricable part of displaying and questioning nation identity.

What stood out to me the most was the quote that Wells used by Robert Wilson. He argued that "in the twentieth century museums have taken over the function once exercised by church and ruler, they provide the symbols through which a nation and culture understands itself" (Wells, 297). I can heartily agree with this, especially after taking many courses on Medieval Europe and its art, and seeing that history and imagery in contrast with the present. During the Middle Ages, the Church was one of the main creators and influencers of culture. Its chapels and basilicas, holy places, monasteries and cathedrals, as well as private libraries and collections, housed relics that in most cases would be flocked to by thousands for viewing and veneration. These relics and the symbol of power that the Church was, in a way reinforced the identities of "ideal" Europeans and Christians. Today, we flock to museums to witness and revere great works of art that reinforce in a similar way, although perhaps not religiously, our western cultural identity. These works of art propel us to think of our nation and contemporary as well as historical identities on a grand scale, and the "heritage institutions"--the containers of these identity-makers--as asserting the authority of our nation and culture.

Illuminations pgs. 333-348 Deborah Bright

While reading Deborah Bright’s “Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the Cultural meanings of Landscape Photography”, I found myself agreeing with some of her points, but confused and discouraged by others. A primary focus of this passage was the emphasis of masculinity in landscape photography and the exclusion of woman photographers in many exhibitions and books featuring masters of the medium. I believe that women have something important and unique to contribute to landscape photography, but I don’t fully agree with the way Bright was arguing this point. For example, on page 345 Bright quoted female photographer Linda Connor saying, “Women’s childbearing capacity ‘makes an enormous difference’ in how they perceive themselves and their relationship to the world”, and goes as far as to say women posses “natural creativity” while a man’s creativity is artificial. My problem with a statement like this is that these women are trying to argue their equality to men, but are presenting stereotypical gendered thinking about the roles of women as their reasoning and putting down male artists. Why succumb to the social role that society puts women in if you are trying to convince people it is a construct? Perhaps I am interpreting this wrong, but that is not logical to me. Connor also talks about how women tend to have a more emotional and intimate relationship with nature which is a very generalized statement. If we are going by preconceived notions of how men and women are “supposed” to act then men should be tough and strong and women should be sensitive and weak, but as an artist a man is practicing a sensitive way of perceiving his world and a woman going into the wilderness is going against her “nature”. Connor can say these things about herself specifically, but to bring all female photographers into the argument is a generalization. On the next page Bright brings up how these gender roles are enforced within families and taught from a young age, which I do feel is true. All that being said, I realize this is a 30 year-old article and the general thinking of the time was different. Nonetheless, I feel that more valid reasoning should be provided for this argument and it should focus more on how men and women are equally good photographers and should be represented equally. 

Illuminations Abbott 203-207- Fallon Wilson

Berenice Abbott discusses photography throughout history and the effects of popularity and money on its development. At the birth of photography, there was “enthusiasm among artists, scientists, [and] intellectuals,” all interested in investing in the new form of technology. Due to the interest and demand, technologies improved quickly and soon almost “anyone could afford the photograph, whereas before only the wealthy could pay the price to have their portraits painted.” What Abbott does not mention though, is that photography was not considered an art form for much of this time. It appeared to users that photographs simply documented the world we see, lacking the skill necessary for painting portraits in the past.“The term ‘documentary’ is sometimes applied in a rather derogatory sense” for this reason. I feel that it is necessary to make this point known because painting and photography are so closely compared in the reading. 

When money started to take over and photography was used for commercial work, photographers began ironing out the imperfections that made the original documentary photographs so beautiful and real. This perfecting process “…was thought to be imitation or emulation of painting,” but poor painting, in Abbott’s opinion. “Instead of the honest, realistic likeness, artificial props with phony settings began to be used. A period of imitating the unreal set in…Retouching and brush work also set in.” This shift created a very different form of photography that no longer focused on capturing the world how it is, but how we wanted it to be. It allowed more imagination to be involved in the creation of a photo.

While I understand Abbott’s aversion to the works created around this time, I feel that both kinds of work are equally relevant. In the definition of “documentary’ according to Webster, anything attempting to convey information could be considered so. While what we refer to as “documentary” today may be a more clear representation of what we see in the real world, photos taken with the intention of flattery or being ‘picturesque’ are still attempting to convey information.  They are a combination of the imagination that came with painting and the realism that we expect from photography. 

Extra Credit options 3/4 + 3/5

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Thoughts on Wells Case Study: Landscape

The way Wells used landscape photography as an example of changing aesthetic was really interesting to me, and I particularly enjoyed this section because it made me think about the ways in which photography traces cultural shifts in time, as represented in ‘genre’.  Her last point to me really stuck- “a range of factors and questions are in play when discussing specific fields of practice. It is productive to analyse genres in terms both of specific historical traditions within visual culture and of contemporary issues and aesthetics” (310).  This point was emphasized by the examples described in the section of flora and fauna photographs; specifically the use of cyanotypes to ‘dis-locate ourselves’. I really appreciated the sentiment that artful photography can be used in an intellectual way to highlight and attract attention to global issues. In this day and age, one major issue is global climate change, and I never really thought about the role photography could play in making the issue, in a way, more ‘tangible’. I had such a strong reaction to the photograph on page 309 by Susan Derges, ‘Larch’. Its shape is abstracted yet formal; you don’t know at first if you are looking at an aerial view of a watershed and the surrounding topography – but you slowly come to realize the pattern cast from the shadow as a tree. I loved the process of comprehending, understanding, reading, and judging this photo. For me, it mimicked the process of detachment; of no longer recognizing nature, due to such an immersion of technology in the 21^st century. I never understood landscape photography as having this engaging capability, even if now it seems relatively obvious. It is a pretty powerful realization.

Response to Nancy Newhall

While this passage was brief, I enjoyed reading it. I thought it was beautifully written, evoked picturesque imagery, and I felt a personal connection to it as a photographer.  I can understand how Nancy Newhall’s writing boosted photography’s popularity as an art form in American culture. She had an obvious affinity for Ansel Adams’ work, and her writing reflects that. In fact, this article is basically a poetic combination of Newhall’s analysis of Adams’ photography and his own words and principles. The most poignant quote in the piece for me comes not from Newhall, but from Adams: “He wonders why so many artists should be ‘mostly concerned with the expression of their egos.’ For himself, ‘There is too much clear sky and clean rock in my memory for me ever to wholly fall into self-illusion.’” In fine arts programs and art schools, there is an enormous push toward this “egotistical,” self-expressive art-making. When I first got into photography as a teenager, I was expressly interested in nature photography – flowers, trees, the elements, the sky. As I began formal training in college, I learned that this type of photography was not exactly encouraged. They were regarded as hobbyist snapshots that didn’t require deeper thought. Interestingly, these were the type of photos that were egotistical, according to university classes, because they were an indulgence. Because of that, we spend much of our time coming up with ideas for more meaningful projects and ways to talk about our work, instead of letting our work speak for itself, which is what it will have to do when it is displayed for the viewing public. In my opinion, Ansel Adams got it right when he says “a true photograph need not be explained, nor can be contained in words.” I think self-expressive art making is also important, but I also believe that it exists on the same level as art mirrored after the natural world.

Digital Exhibitionism Response- Fallon Wilson

Digital Exhibitionism: The Age of Exposure by Ana María Munar states, “[s]ocial media allow for the digitalisation of creative texts (visual, narrative or audio) that were previously produced and consumed using other technological tools with a lower diffusion capacity,” providing “…a new scene for the self-making of personal biographies.” While this may seem like a positive improvement, it also leads to a few problems as well. 

First, because the sharing of such information has become so simple, it has also led to the degradation of self documentation. Facebook and Twitter are notorious for statuses and posts that share trivial bits about a person’s day or life, blurring the lines between “document[ation] of a person’s biographical record and daily life banalities.” At the same time though, despite the build up of unnecessary day-to-day information, there is a semi-permanence and security felt when saving data to the web that did not exist with paper and pen. There is no threat of fire, flood, or other physical destruction that threatens hand written journals, photo albums and other methods of material documentation.

Another problem that arises in the development of a virtual personal biography through social networking is that people are constantly comparing themselves to their peers. This tendency skews documentation because one feel the pressure to make their life seem more exciting or successful than it actually is. “Users of social networks are becoming increasingly conscious about the image they want to project and the use they want to make of that image. The profile pages of Facebook and the updates on Twitter are virtual blocks of a personal brand.” Some even go as far as creating alternate realities for themselves online. Shows, such as “Catfish” on MTV, arrange for couples that met online to actually meet in person, often exposing that at least one of the people involved is not at all who they said they were. The anonymity that comes with a digital age is as dangerous as it is an improvement in our society.