uni_F_orm

Uniforms usually means some serious case.

Politics, Power, and the FSA

The F Blog received the following article from Cecilia Strandroth, PhD, Uppsala University. It´s an interesting contribution to our ongoing discussion about documentary photography, "reality or fiction" and the importance of photography as an independent form of art. Thanks Cecilia! /Ulf


My dissertation In Search of the Pure Photograph investigates some of the lesser known Farm Security Administration photographs made in the United States of the 1930s. The FSA photographs are today regarded as documentary icons, as masterpieces of 20th century American art, and as a national treasure. But this status also implies limitations. A national treasure could only contain things to be proud of.

There are thus also FSA photographs which never have become part of the national monument: photographs which could be described as “propaganda”. The FSA agency which employed the photographers was a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The photographers’ job was to make images used to market the government’s politics. They produced photographs of the government’s programs meant to aid the poor rural population. Some examples made by Marion Post Wolcott in Alabama portray the interaction between the local FSA personnel and their clients. Here, one could see fieldworkers for instance conducting evening classes and meetings, delivering medicines and clean linen and inspecting the farms’ animals. These activities are adhering to a fixed pattern of gender and ethnicity. Female fieldworkers discuss sewing and cooking with female clients, male fieldworkers discuss economy and agricultural matters with male clients. Caucasian fieldworkers meet with Caucasian clients, African American fieldworkers with African American clients. Exceptions are qualified personnel with an education. Caucasian doctors and nurses treat the diseases of the African American population. Power relations appear to be inscribed in the very bodies of the subjects of these images. Behaviours, postures and identities are performed according to fixed New Deal roles of class, gender and ethnicity. The photographs make visible how power was exercised, capture the ideology behind the New Deal’s programs.


Such images therefore deserve to be rescued from their present historical oblivion. They could be as important as sources of historical research as the generally famous FSA photographs. Such a usage has been hindered by the traditional interpretation of how the documentary value of the photographic image functions. It looks upon the documentary photographer as an eyewitness who stands beside the flow of life and captures aesthetically pleasing slices for eternity. This eyewitness or observer has to be passive, the document is regarded as compromised if influenced by intruding intentions, staging and rhetorical arrangements. This naturally makes the documentary value of FSA’s “propagandistic” photographs dubious.


But to photograph is not to passively observe and record, but an activity which in itself creates meaning. Looked upon in this way, a photograph is always inherently rhetorical, never an authentic observation. The FSA’s “propagandistic” photographs rather make explicit the construction present in all images. They function as sources exactly through being rhetorical, staged and arranged; they are not windows to the world but windows to an ideology.

©Cecilia Strandroth, PhD, Department of Art History, Uppsala University
In Search of the Pure Photograph. A Historiographic Study of the Farm Security Administration, Walker Evans, and the Survey Histories of Photography is available from Fronton förlag,

Photos by: Marion Post Wolcott, Coffee County, Alabama, 1939.
For more photos see FSA/OWI Collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

Documentary Photography: The Paradox of Reality

F blog friend Rhonda sent me a link to a lecture given by Francisco Mata Rosas in Mexico City at the Center of the Image, during the Mother Jones Foundation award ceremonies in 1995; "Fotografía documental paradoja de la realidad." Interesting to read. You may see pictures by Francisco Mata Rosas at the ZoneZero site.

ZoneZero is a site in Spanish and English dedicated to photography. In the "About" section the editors explain some of their visions and objects:"any work shown here should have as its most important merit, not how it was done but why.","to serve as a bridge between creative minds from all parts of the world, but in particular coming from Latin America.", "to promote the understanding of where, in the context of the digital age, the tradition of a "still image" is headed."

The site is well worth to explore. I recommend it.
/Ulf

Photographs can lie

Tired of Christmas already? Well, here is something to refresh your brain cells. An interesting online exhibition about falsification of pictures in Soviet Union. I can´t help thinking about how easy this kind of "cloning" etc is done today. Are there any modern examples? Well, I will keep my eyes open.
Have a look at The Commissar Vanishes.

/urbano

Reality or fiction - a mini project

What´s cooking on the blog? Well...Christmas? But, even more perhaps the intriguing question of reality vs fiction in photography. Welcome to contribute to this discussion. This will probably go on for a while. Send your contributions to Gruppo F Inbox or to the Editors. Previous and coming postings on this subject will be labelled "reality or fiction?".
/Ulf

K.F.

Photo: Emese Altnöder
Emese says: "Merry Christmas to The F Blog!"

The vanishing lamplighter and a profitable crop of onions

Bill Becker is director of the American Museum of Photography, a Virtual Museum "a Museum Without Walls...for an Art Without Boundaries" It´s a very interesting and fun place to visit with many stories from the history of Photography.

Lately on the blog, we have talked about how much "reality" there is to be found in a photograph. Well, the subject has been discussed almost since the birth of photography.

With the kind permission of Bill Becker I quote from the site: "Photographers, .... understood that their art was not always unimpeachable, and that the choice of lens, camera angle, even the time of day that a picture was made could all have an impact on the final image." The quote is from an article called "The Camera Does Not Lie" by Bill Becker, published in a section of the site called Photographic Fictions - how the camera learned to lie. Great reading and pictures and it will hopefully result in a book as well.

The picture above "the Vanishing Lamplighter - (I love that title btw) is an example of an "accidental" effect. The lamplighter was moving around and it looks like he is about to disappear forever. (detail from photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company.)

"Harvesting a Profitable Crop of Onions"
William H. Martin (1865-1940)
Silver Print postcard, 3.5 x 5.5 inches, 1909

Mr. Becker says."Optical illusions teach an important lesson, because they convincingly demonstrate that seeing isn't always believing. And in the same way, manipulated "trick photographs" provide incontrovertible proof that the camera can be taught to lie."

Mr Martin was a photographer in the beginning of the 20th century making a fortune in producing trick photographs. Compare it to the Photoshop fictions of today. Nothing is new under the sun.

You will find much more if you visit the American Museum of Photography.
We hope to get back to Bill and this fascinating place again some day.
- American Museum of Photography
- Photographic fictions

Sydney police mug shots, 1912-1930

Lou Sterling, 1921 Central cells*

"We have learned to be suspicious of the photographic image." This is the starting point of an essay written by Peter Doyle who teaches writing in the Media Department, Macquarie University, Sydney. (Scan vol 2 number 3 december 2005)

Over a four year research period, Doyle examined around two thirds of the pre-1950 section of the NSW Police forensic archive — around fifteen thousand glass plate and acetate negatives.

In the essay he uses a collection of police "mug shots" to examine the relationship between
- the subjects of the photographs and the camera
- the photographic subject and the police photographer
- the subjects "captured" in the photographs and the viewer of the pictures

Doyle writes: "As historical documents, as instances of an important type in the evolutionary history of the photograph, and as gripping images, the prison mug shots are clearly of great importance. Yet I came to dread them. The refrain of defeat and despair became increasingly oppressive. The affectless convict stare seemed to convey neither acceptance nor even anger."

Doyle about the picture above: "Among the most surprising are the many smiling subjects found among the Special Photographs, such as jaunty pickpocket and gunman Lou Sterling, a well-known crime figure of the 1920s"

Scan is an on-line journal devoted to the media arts and culture, hosted by the Media Department at Macquarie University, Sydney.

the emotional reality

What is reality i photography? Is it my way of feeling that what is around or is it just the way I document some moments, but maybe it is the way I understand the moment caught/created in the picture. Is the first picture my way of feeling reality? The second one is closer to reality probably, but it can be just the way I see the Silesian backyard. When You look at this photos You have to decide what is real and try to understand what is there, but You also feel something it can be boredom or confusion or nostalgia or plenty other feelings - thats the other emotional reality which is also important, but often neglected.

Photos and text by Grzegorz Lizurek

Is Photography Dead ?

In a very interesting article in the NEWSWEEK Dec 10, 2007 Issue, Peter Plagans discusses the status of current photography, related to the evolution of photography as an art form. He says: "A digital photograph...can be a Photoshop fairy tale, containing only a tiny trace of a small fragment of reality. By now, we've witnessed all the magical morphing and seen all the clever tricks that have turned so many photographers—formerly bearers of truth—into conjurers of fiction."

Plagans concludes his article by saying: "The next great photographers—if there are to be any—will have to find a way to reclaim photography's special link to reality. And they'll have to do it in a brand-new way."

Read full article here

In Search of the Pure Photograph

On 14 December a disputation is held at the Department of Art History, Uppsala University, Sweden. The doctorand Cecilia Strandroth has made a Historiographic Study of the Farm Security Administration. See some details below. We are hoping to hear more here on The F Blog from Cecilia Strandroth in the near future about the study. We have published several pictures from the FSA archives on the F Blog. Use the Blogger search tool to find out more.
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Research Interests
The history and theory of photography, historiography, gender, visual culture, internet image use

Dissertation
In Search of the Pure Photograph. A Historiographic Study of the Farm Security Administration, Walker Evans, and the Survey Histories of Photography.

One camera, one lens, one film, one developer

"Most of the time, from 1959 - 2007, I have used one camera body with one lens. Different cameras of course through the years but it´s the M Leica with a 35 mm lens that have served me best. The Swedish photographer Christer Strömholm once said: "one camera, one lens, one film, one developer." And my understanding of that statement was: be sure to master the tools you´ve got completely - and you can focus on the act of creating pictures. My approach to photography nowadays is very much this: one camera, one lens. Straight ahead photography, straight photography or whatever you may call it is another. Just think about all the pictures we have seen through the years from Julia Margaret Cameron´s portraits of the 19th century to pictures by Bruce Davidson, Vinogrand, Robert Frank - just to mention a few. Almost all of them were pictures of people - and the photographers were close to their motifs in more than one way. The cool and fancy pictures that you find in many photo magazines will probably guarantee the future of the photo magazines and their contributing photographers. But will these pictures prevail and be recognized in the future? I don´t think so. There is something lacking. That is why I believe in straight ahead photography or straight photography and a photography that is close to the people, to the activity of humans. This is the photography of the future in my point of view." - Bengt Björkbom























I value the words of Bengt. He is an experienced photographer and his conclusion is somewhat challenging. How about dedicating the F Blog to some straight ahead photography the coming weeks? I have noticed an interesting approach by my coeditor Anders Blomqvist, who has published the series "Colour Box Scenery". Pictures coming directly from his cell phone camera. No editing, no post processing; "Devoid of flim-flam; devoid of trickery". I also come to think of Sally Mann and her work. Wow...this could be an interesting journey. Beginning today with some pictures by Bengt Björkbom. To be continued.../ulf