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©
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