Chapter Seven: Photography Theory

1
Chapter SevenPhotography Theory

• Is It Art? Is It True? Is It Moral?
• From Terry Barretts Criticizing Photographs 4th
  ed.

2
Introduction

• Theories answer large questions and offer
  competing explanations of phenomena (153).
• Many personal theories are implicit (153) and
  not consciously held.
• Analysing theories helps us to make our theories
  explicit (153)open to examination.
• Private theories have no social impact shared
  theories are socially consequential (153).
• Theories help us to understand the world some
  are fixed, others more flexible.
• When new information arrives we adjust our
  theories (154).

3
Photography Theory and Practice

• Persons affected by photographic theory include
  photographers, critics, curators, collectors,
  historians, photography teachers (154-56).
• Theory pervades all thinking about
  photographyits history, criticism, making, and
  teaching (156).
• Disagreementsare based on disagreements about
  underlying theories (157).
• See the Avedon and Mapplethorope critiques in
  Chapters 2 and 6. These photographs are
  considered art, but that they are art is
  insufficient for some critics to designate them
  good art (157).

4
Ontological Concerns What is a Photograph?

• Ontology asks questions about the nature of
  being eg. what is it?
• Photography (claimed in 1839 by Dominique
  Francois Arago as a French invention) is both a
  science and an art (158).
• It has a special connection to truth
  (158)light from an object is recorded (see
  colour plates 24, 19, and 7 as real-life
  events). One reason pornography is
  objectionable (158-59).

5
Barthes vs Snyder

• Roland Barthes
• a magic, not an art
• power of authentication exceeds its power of
  representation (159).
• Photos evoke the past (159).
• studium and punctum studium denoting the
  cultural, linguistic, and political
  interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting
  the wounding, personally touching detail which
  establishes a direct relationship with the object
  or person within it (wikipedia).
• C. S. Pierce, also interested in signs, says
  photos have an indexical quality or are signs
  caused by what they show (159).

• Joel Snyder
• no more privileged than painting or language
• false belief that photographs give us
  privileged access
• camera invented to recreate the style of
  representation common in Western aesthetics
  (159)that shows 3-dimensional depth perception
  or perspective.

6
Digital Images and Ontology

• What is a photograph?
• How are traditional photographs different from
  digital photographs?
• Martin Lister, a British cultural theorist,
  suggests analog photographs (chemically created)
  are transcriptions whereas digital images are
  conversions (160-61).
• Analog photos can be scanned and converted into
  pixels, or images can be digitally shot.
• Photographers now have unprecedented access to
  a previously inaccessible level of information
  and signification (161).

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A digital image vs an analog photograph?
Trick question both are digitalon your computer
screen! The one of the left was shot from outside
our atmosphere (800 x 800 pixels) with the Hubble
space telescope, the other by an amateur at
ground level (ST10XME CCD 20in RC Optical
Systems telescope Operating at f/16.8 2in AP 2x
Barlow).
8
Digital Images continued

• Something in the real world was in front of the
  lens in analog photography, but no such claim to
  truth can be made about digital images (161).
• The digital age suggests the death of photography
  as we know it (161).
• This claim is epistemological (161 62) which
  is a question about the nature of truth.
• Are photographs closer to truth than paintings
  (162)? Do digital images undermine belief in
  photographs as true (162)?

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Epistemological ConcernsRealist Theory and
POSITIVISM

• Since the invention of photography accuracy and
  perfection of detail (162) were considered
  paramount.
• The science of photography influenced sociology
  positivism tells us that the methods of
  natural science can be directly applied to social
  science (162).
• Positivism pursues facts (162).
• Photographs are credible and persuasive (163
  65)legally, politically, commercially, and
  scientifically.
• Barthes, Hines, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams, Edward
  Weston, Kendall Walton (transparency), Susan
  Sontag and Life Magazine all make powerful claims
  about photo-realism (163-65).

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Conventionalist Theory

• Joel Snyder disagrees with realist theory.
• Three ways to photograph a horse in motion
  demonstrates that conventions determine
  representations of motion (166)
• Stationary camera slow shutter speed (horse is
  blurred and background is sharp)
• Panning camera (horse sharp, blurred background)
• Stationary camera fast shutter speed (both
  horse and background are sharp)
• Realism is a style of representation that is
  culturally created and read (166).
• Cameras in the 1800s enhanced nature (167)
  according to picturesque conventions or rules.
  Sometimes nature wasnt pretty enough, so
  machines made it better!

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Photographic Truth

• Digital images cause realists alarm (167).
• Adrian Piper (philosopher and artist) gives us a
  balanced view There is something special
  about the photographs relation to what is being
  photographed, even when that information is
  adjusted with Photoshop (168).

Charles Messier (1771), a comet hunter, created
the Messier Catalogue of what not to look at.
See the Messier Grid Map (Plate 31, 169), images
of 110 astronomical objects.
12

• Same Messier Grid Map, though some images are
  enhanced or stacked to create colour others
  have been photographed using different
  wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

13
Photographic Truth continued

• One famous example discussed earlier is Times
  cover of O.J. Simpsondigitally rendered (170).

14
Photographic Truth continued

• Analog manipulations were done early to mimic
  paintings, part of the preference for
  pictorialism in photography (171).
• Censorship and government manipulations of images
  assume people prefer entertainment over harsh
  reality (173). See colour plate 7 in reference
  to one of the only stark images to come from the
  first Gulf War (173).

15
Aesthestic Concerns

• Is photography Art?
• Yes, it is, though hotly debated in the 1960s
  and 70s (173).
• The camera was used in its early history by
  artists, but some artists felt it was incapable
  of using imagination (174).
• During the 40s and 50s, even straight photos were
  used as abstract imagery (abstract art was at
  its height), eg. Minor Whites images as
  metaphors (174).
• MOMA was one of the first museums to collect
  photos as art (174)see also the discussion of
  Grundberg and George Dickeythe institution
  confers the status of artform (176).

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Aesthestic Concerns continued

• Allan Sekula calls art a mode of human
  communication (178).
• The New York Public Library had to re-catalogue
  books of famous photographers in 1975 (previously
  under history, geography, and science) under
  Photography (179).
• What are the consequences of calling photographs
  art?
• Money , (see pricing of images 180).

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Modernism and Postmodernism

• Modernism in art and photography is part of the
  larger era called modernity (155).
• Modernity is placed in time from the
  Enlightenment (1687 1789) to the present (155).
• Early modernity emphasized a belief in science as
  the key to understanding the universe, and
  therefore politics could also be based on reason
  as well to create an ideal just society (155).
• See page 184 for a list of basic Modernist
  aesthetic principles.

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Modernity

• Major events include democracy, capitalism,
  industrialism, science, urbanization (emphasis on
  freedom and the individual).
• Margaret Bourke-White was a famous female
  photojournalist whose work exemplified the
  heights of modernity. She was the first well
  known industrial photographer her famous photo
  of the Hoover Dam appears on the first cover of
  Life.

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Postmodernism or Po-Mo

• Beginnings are obscure.
• Some date postmodernism to the student revolt in
  Paris in 1968 as its symbolic birth (156).
• Postmodernists reject modernitys results no
  true just society, but rather oppression of
  peasants under monarchy, workers under
  capitalism, and women under patriarchy.
• See the list on 185 of Postmodern photographic
  practices.

20
Postmodernism and Disillusionment

• Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish Marxist critic
  and cultural theorist, examined the importance of
  photography as central to postmodernism.
• His famous essays are called The Work of Art in
  the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and A Short
  History of Photography.
• Both of these emphasize that art and photos can
  be endlessly reproduced, thereby diminishing the
  status of art as precious objects (hailed by
  modernists). See the discussion on 186-87.
• Susan Sontag reacts negatively to postmodernist
  claims that seem nihilistic and may leave us
  paralyzed and unable to react to the worlds
  injustices (187).

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Photographs as Texts

• For postmodernists even photographs are texts, so
  are films and television shows.
• Modernists speak of works made by DWMs (Dead
  White Males) rather than texts.
• Works speak with one voice and have one
  meaning, presumably the authors (181).
• Texts speak with many voicessome blend and
  others clash as a field of citations and
  correspondences called inter-textuality (182).
• No one text is completely original.

22
Structuralism and Post-structuralism

• Both influence current critical theory.
• Structuralism is modernist it is the search for
  meaning and truth in underlying codes, systems
  or structures (182).
• Claude Levis-Strauss, a Belgian anthropologist ,
  applied primitive myths and their structures to
  modern sociology (182).
• Poststructuralists, like Derrida, are skeptical
  of any ultimate truths, believing that truth is
  historically dependent and always biased
  (182).
• Postmodernists are even skeptical about the
  notion of a self (from the Enlightenment and
  Descartes) (182).

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Ethical Concerns Are Photographs Moral?

• Digital images need to be questioned regarding
  accuracy and aesthetics (187 89).
• Some socially-minded critics have equated the
  camera to the gun and photography to hunting
  (189).
• Photographers show constraint in what they do
  not photograph (190).
• Consent is an important ethical issue.
• See also Rankin Waddells decision, as a
  photojournalist, not to take pictures of 9/11
  (190-91). The camera can stand in our way by
  creating an emotional distance.

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Marxist Theory and Ethical Photography

• Looks at class structure and examines art in the
  context of ideological struggles.
• Ideology comes from ideaand refers to a world
  view, normally political.
• Marxism is a leftist approach to social life that
  values the worker and questions the positive
  effects of capitalism (a rightwing approach to
  using the planets resources).
• Art in aid of Marxism questions the results of
  class consciousness and the power to rule over
  others as well as the transparency of the
  photograph that can hide complex social relations
  (163).

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Feminist Theory and Ethical Photography

• Sex refers to our biological being, whereas
  gender refers to our social and cultural
  identification (163).
• Modernism is based on patriarchy and male power
  structures which has limited womens and well as
  mens roles in the culture.
• Feminism questions gender stereotypes and asks us
  to reconsider notions of power that we tend to
  take for granted, especially concerning social
  roles and sexual imaging.
• See Plate 33 (193). Does the gorilla head and
  hand on a female torso, a pun on Guerrilla
  Girls undercut or enhance the message?

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Applying Feminist Criticism

• In looking at the image by Jan Saudek entitled
  The Dolls, 1975, one must consider the internal,
  external and original contexts.
• A feminist analysis would examine more than the
  intent of the photographer and consider gender
  stereotyping and cultural expectations
  surrounding the depiction of women and girls as
  well as their socialization.

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Multicultural Theory and Ethical Photography

• Is about social reform (early 1960s ) to help
  make society more equitable for people of
  diversity (197) and claims that only individuals
  can make changes to society.
• We can change how we view and produce visual
  culture (197).
• Photographs, therefore, are not fine art, but
  instruments of social change.
• Is about racial attitudes whites speak for
  humanity while others are only allowed to speak
  for their own race (198).
• See 199 for the culture of spectacular
  lynching and the ref. to postcards and slides
• See 200 for Kobena Mercers analysis of black men
  in Mapplethorpes photography.

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Queer Theory and Ethical Photography

• Queer refers to gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.
• Teresa de Lauentis coined the term queer
  theory in 1989 and traced the history of
  transgendered terms (200).
• Gay lib took place in the 1970s (struggled to
  build a safe place for sexual minorities 200).
• Queer theory demands more than liberation but
  rather to destabilize conservative norms about
  marriage, sex and gender (201).
• Queer Theory challenges what we consider normal,
  legitimate and dominant (201).
• AIDS and its effect on gay artists and white
  heterosexual privilege are also political themes.

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Postcolonial Theory and Ethical Photography

• Like multicultural and queer theory, postcolonial
  theory is also instrumentalistphotos affect
  attitudes.
• Colonialism refers to the suppression and
  destruction of indigenous peoples and their
  culture under white European rule.
• Imperialism refers to the annexing of land
  belonging to others to build an empire.
• Postmodern artists draw on these themes and are
  much less optimistic about the future.
• Postcolonialism examines the after effects of the
  withdrawal of colonial domination.
• Orientalism, seeing the East as inferior to the
  West, is also part of this theory.

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Renee Cox and the Hot-en-Tot Venus, 2000

• See page 207 for Renee Coxs photograph of a
  similar name and style made in 1994.
• Why do you think she may have remade the image in
  colour in the year 2000?
• Read the section about eroticized photographic
  representations of Others (206).

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Conclusion

• In thinking about art theories, remember that
  postmodernism, Marxism and feminism are complex
  and not unified theories.
• Some blend together, like Marxist feminist
  theorists and critics.
• Theory is important as are various approaches to
  theory since they affect practice (208).
• Therefore we become better informed all round,
  and much better photographers because we know
  something more about art, theory and the world
  (208).