What I am reading and researching and seeing

So back from NYC and Paris fashion week.   The work was tough, long hours behind a camera watching for images to unfold.   I produced additions to 4 ongoing portfolios that have been in the making for one year.   While in NYC went to the Callhan show at PACE, In Paris went to Pompidou, and Musee dOrsay.  The S Salgado opening of his current work Genesis was at the European House of Photography.   I was invited to look at the  Taschen Publication,  Large book 3x2 feet at the Paris Cultural center for the Arts the book sells for $10,000, I passed. Went to Magnum office to say hi.  

Books bought in NYC and Paris:

Szarkowski John, Photography Until Now
Mike Brodie, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity
Cindy Sherman, Centerfolds
Alec Soth, Looking for Love
Josef Koudelka, Decrea Zione
Ray Metzker, The Photographs of  Ray Metzker
Charles Harbutt, Arrivals and Departures
and  many old catalogs form shows in the 1970's

MIAH©2103 Paris

Researching and reading. I found the readings and researching to be a real eye opener, for how photography and critical theory or criticism is looked into.  

Freidlander, Lee. Snapshot New York: APERTURE press, 1974, print (page 113)

Model, Lisette. Snapshot. New York: APERTURE press, 1974, print (page 6)

Szarkowski, John. The Photographer’s Eye. New York: The Museum of Modern Art., 1966, print

Gowin, Emmett. Snapshot. New York: APERTURE press 1974, print (pg 8)

Grundberg, Andy. Crisis of the Real. New York: APERTURE press 2010, print (pg 7)

Bresson, Henri Cartier. Decisive Moment. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1952, print

Sontag, Susan. On photography. England: Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers, 1977, print (page 110)

Strand, Paul. Snapshot.  New York: APERTURE press, 1974, print (page 49)

Winogrand, Garry.  The Animals. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1968 LIFE Documentary Photographers 1972, print (page 164)

Lyons, Nathan Photographers on Photography, New Jersey: Foundation of Modern Photography Series, Siskind Aaron, 1966 Prentice-Hall. Inc Print

Kelly, Jain Darkroom II, Aaron Siskind, New York: Lustrum Press Inc 1978, Print

Lyons, Nathan, Photographers on Photography, New Jersey: Foundation of Modern Photography Series, 1966 Prentice-Hall. Inc Print

Smith, Henry Holmes New York: Robert Mann Gallery Guide 1965 Print

Christov-Bakargiev, Carolyn Milano, Fran Kline 1910-1962, Italy: Skira Editore 2004 Print

Moholy Nagy, Laszlo New Vision of Design, Chicago: Insitute of Design 1947 Print

( 134)

New York, fashion week and abstract

New York went well, worked on some street works and fashion works.  Getting ready for Paris

Disconnected photo essay

“The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons”. Sneakers 1992

The body of work “DISCONNECTED” is a look into society’s fascination, addiction and compulsive behavior towards portable cellar modular devices.  With a mutual attraction towards these small machines we have become absorb as a society with our cell phones. 

Depicted photographic events unfold to the viewer how society removes oneself from the now and one another, by being absorbed into something else. Are we forming a state of reclusiveness through the use of technology thinking we are free to be expressive through our cellphones?

Each time you tap into a phone one is being tracked,marketed, targeted, rated and charted for advertisement, usage, and information.

“There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information”. Sneakers 1992

That weighty line may have been questionably true in 1992, but it is now a reality of our  society.  In 2011, civilazation created and stored approximately 1.8 zettaybtes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) of information!

Emerson Networks puts their number of data centers worldwide at 509,147. For some perspective, that means they take up 285,831,541 square feet of space, or about 5,955 football fields.

All photos MIAH©

Two Looks

Johnson 1

Miah Nate Johnson 

September 1, 2013

AIB/MFA 

Sunanda Sunyal

Photography Two Looks

“As I stand aloof and look there is to me something profoundly

affecting in large masses of men following the lead of those who

do not believe in men.” (Whitman )

This paper will look into two worlds of photography, the snapshot and the street photograph.  The fact that millions of snapshot photographs are taken each day, which form a cultural and social existence in the world, suggest that the power of the snapshot embraces the meaning of the world being recorded.  What separates the snapshot from the street photograph? Are both not capturing a moment that could be of importance? Is one a reminder of memories and one a voyeuristic look into society? Is one a social archival art form and one not?

Lee Freidlander states “In a snap, or a small portion of time, all that the camera can consume in breadth and a bite and light is rendered in astonishing detail” (113). Therefore, a snapshot may suggest a fleeting, temporary view or a precious remembrance. The snap shot could be a nonchalant observation or the purposeful record of an event.  As a social society we take snapshots of everyday occasions to chronicle births, deaths, love, trips, meals and vacations. 

While a snapshot can capture a sentiment of a time, a moment of something we might treasure, or respond to, the basic everyday existence of the snapshot within societies brings together a singular commonality to the expression of life.    As Lisette Model comments on the snapshot, “the image taken is that of innocence with a vitality and expression to life” (6). That being said, the snapshot holds no preconceived thought and promises no gain; it is truly simply there to be.  

The snapshot images in the book, Artist Unknown, by Oliver Wasow are a collection of found snapshots that are organized into categories that define them as art.  Understanding the impact of the photographs in Artist Unknown, opens an insightful relation to the world that prompts emotional attachment and nourishes artistic awareness.  But as John Szarkowski states about the components of what makes photographs in the book Photographer’s Eye, “ The central act of photography, the act of choosing and eliminating, forces a concentration on the picture edge- the line that separates in from out- and on the shapes that are created by it.” (9).

Photographer Martin Parr’s Street photos are taken very much like snapshots. They are a look into British life but are complicated notions of ordinary scenes. In Parr’s pictures there is an artistic strangeness that unveils the mask beyond a snapshot. This brings the viewer into personal moments that he captures. Parr comments on his work “ I take pictures of ordinary life, perhaps sometimes surreal. Because life is surreal” (67). But the underlining fact is that there is a relative weakness we feel as viewers to the ideology of truth caused by a photograph.  Andy Grundberg states, “It wears that discourse as a mask, but it wears this mask not to poke fun at it, nor to flatter it by imitation, nor to point us in the direction of something more genuine that lies behind it” (8).

So the question could be, is street photography a social archival art form that captures the social state of a society during a particular period or is it just a snapshot?  

Does this visionary approach of exposing life through street photography as an art lead to a new understanding of unknown societies?  The essence of understanding a specific society is exposed in the street photographs of Josef Koudleka, Garry Winogrand and Robert Frank. These photographers’ visions expose an impulsive unforced style which instills a powerful message of the understanding of life.  The characteristics these photographers share, pull the viewer into a moment confined by the reality and truth in which the photograph captures, therefore the viewer is inspired to simply look at the photos and form an opinion.  For this reason, the use of street photography depicts events that expose the meaning of seeing and sharing the world in a way that provokes a thoughtful response.  Susan Sontag remarks about Paul Strand’s photos in her book On Photography, “whether Bowery derelict, Mexican peon, New England farmer, Italian peasant, French artisan, Breton or Hebrides fisherman, Egyptian fellahin, the village idiot or the great Picasso are all touched by the same heroic quality-humanity” (110).

Concerning the idea of humanity, the street photo offers an imposing reality while the snapshot only demonstrates an unappeasable relationship to a singular personal moment. Consequently, street photography has somehow become seductive, with the notions of images are real or surreal being complementary in the sense that they are pushing our emotions to be progressively more complicated along with the perversity of the real.  It assumes that what is real persists, unchanged and intact, while only society has changed through the essence of time. Henri Cartier Bresson states in his book, Decisive Moment,“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory”(Bresson).

Yet somehow street photography creates the illusion of capturing everyday life in a form of expression or a visual dialogue with a conceptual approach to give the viewer a perception of immediacy and the forming of memories.  The characteristics that street photography evokes are a more inclusive truth than can be rendered in the isolated moment of a snapshot unfolds the importance of the street photo as an art form is that it shows the unusualness of the decisive moment captured. This somehow forms a correlation between viewer and subject, which might evoke an insight and an understanding of the human condition that causes us to respond. In all respects a street photograph is a document of an unemotional event in which the viewer falls into a voyeuristic realm. The viewer is therefore removed from the irrationality of the real.   Paul Strand states, “ It can be used by many people for many different reasons by amateurs and by professional, and also by artists. There is no one answer to the question of how to photograph” (49).

So how does all of this tie into my work ? The answer is, I am not sure.  I like to think that since I call myself an artist, craftsman and photographer, and have studied my art form for over 30 years, I am above the snapshot realm, but sometimes I do wonder. I feel my work takes me into a documentary sense of expression that captures what lies before me as a street photographer.  My aim in my work is to form a narrative for others to react to, and by doing so I open a conversation.  Garry Winogrand once stated in a lecture at Yale about street photography “ I don't have a message in my pictures... The true business of photography is to capture a bit of reality ( whatever that is) on film” (164). 

Works Cited

Bresson, Henri Cartier. Decisive Moment. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1952 Print.

Freidlander, Lee. Snapshot New York: APERTURE press, 1974 Print. (page 113)

Grundberg, Andy. Crisis of the Real. New York: APERTURE press, 2010 Print. (pg 8)

Jaeger, Anne-Celine, Image Makers. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007 Print.

Model, Lisette. Snapshot. New York: APERTURE press, 1974 Print. (page 6)

Sontag, Susan. On photography. England: Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers, 1977 Print. (page 110)

Strand, Paul. Snapshot.  New York: APERTURE press, 1974 Print. (page 49)

Szarkowski, John. The Photographer’s Eye. New York: The Museum of Modern Art., 1966 Print.

Whitman, Walt. Thoughts, Leaves of Grass 1867 print

Winogrand, Garry.  The Animals. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1968 LIFE Documentary Photographers 1972, print (page 164)

  

Freidlander©

 Model©

 Bresson©

 Parr©

 Koudelka©

 Winogrand©

 MIAH©

 MIAH©

 MIAH©

 MIAH©

 Frank©