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Basic Critical Theory for Photographers Basic Critical Theory for Photographers Ashley la Grange AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press An imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803 First published 2005 Copyright ß 2005, Ashley la Grange. All rights reserved The right of Ashley la Grange to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1T 4LP. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (þ44) 1865 843830, fax (þ44) 1865 853333, e-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com), by selecting ‘Customer Support’ and then ‘Obtaining Permissions’ British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0 240 51652 4 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.focalpress.com Typeset by CEPHA Imaging Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, India Printed and bound in Great Britain Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com | www.bookaid.com | www.sabre.com Contents How to use this book vii Frontispiece xi Foreword xiii Acknowledgements xvii 1 John Berger, Ways of Seeing 1 2 John Szarkowski, The Photographer’s Eye and Stephen Shore, The Nature of Photographs 15 3 Susan Sontag, On Photography 30 4 Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida 76 5 Martha Rosler, In, Around and Afterthoughts (On Documentary Photography) 113 6 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Inside/Out 125 7 Clive Scott, The Spoken Image: Photography and Language 133 v Contents 8 Andy Grundberg, The Crisis of the Real 149 9 Raghubir Singh, River of Colour 159 10 Bertrand Russell, Appearance and Reality 169 11 Italo Calvino, The Adventures of a Photographer 172 12 Poems by Felix Morisseau-Leroy and George Szirtes 187 13 Robert Adams’, John Baldessari’s and Peter Godwin’s Analysis of Particular Photographs 193 Figures 199 Bibliography 222 Appendixes 226 Glossary 236 Index 248 vi How to use this book Many people are put off critical theory because they see it as difficult (often unnecessarily difficult), and cannot see its relevance to their own practical work. The situation is not helped by the fact that much critical theory is written by academics, for other academics who are already familiar with the issues, vocabulary and earlier arguments. The result is that critical theory becomes unnecessarily elitist and many people who would be quite capable of debating the issues are discouraged from doing so. The idea behind this book is to draw these disenfranchised people into some of the debates. Each chapter is followed by a series of assignments, some theoretical, some practical and some a combination of both, which should generate critical thinking by the student. The student and/or institution the student is studying at must decide the range of assignments to be done and the depth at which they should be done. Many of the assignments can be used as discussion points rather than for written work. The selection of areas to include in the book has been very difficult; there are very important issues and writers that have been ignored. The book does not attempt to cover all the issues and schools of thought, it attempts to encourage students to think critically and hopefully they will then apply this type of thinking to other issues. In part, texts have been chosen that develop arguments or ideas raised in earlier texts so allowing the student to follow the development of ideas by different writers. For example, Sontag, Rosler, Solomon-Godeau and Szirtes all deal with the work of Arbus. The texts have been summarised without editing out issues that some readers may feel are not key to the main argument. This has been done for several reasons: to avoid editorialising the summary; to give the reader a better feel of how the argument developed; and to allow the reader to decide for themselves which issues are the most important or interesting. vii How to use this book The indexing should prove particularly useful as some of the key texts, Sontag’s On Photography for example, were not indexed in the first place. All references to photographers by the various writers have been left in and indexed as an aid to research. As a further aid to research, key words that would not normally be indexed, such as ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’, are included. Although the book is illustrated, it would be impossible to reproduce all the photographs required to illustrate all the points of view of the writers. Access to a range of monographs on the work of the photographers is essential to respond adequately to many of the issues raised. The first chapter is a summary of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. It is first for two reasons: it is easy to understand having been written for a general audience and it leads into photography from art. This should help those students who have never studied photography before but, who will be familiar, to some extent, with art. The book is still in print making reference to it easy (it should be referred to as it is extensively illustrated). Although first published in 1972 the issues it raises, like sexism and the effects of advertising, are still relevant today. The second chapter is a summary of John Szarkowski’s The Photographer’s Eye and Stephen Shore’s The Nature of Photographs. Unlike the Ways of Seeing they were written for a photographic audience but are also clearly written and are very well illustrated. They have been chosen for two reasons; because there is a sense in that whatever else a photograph is, it is at a basic level, what they describe it as; and they, to some extent, can be seen as expressing the views of ‘straight’ photography, an approach to photography that dominated the twentieth century. The Nature of Photographs is still in print so referring to it is easy. The third chapter is a summary of Susan Sontag’s On Photography. This collection of essays is undoubtedly one of the most influential pieces of photographic criticism written and is probably required reading in most university courses on photography. It deals with a wide range of issues but many students find it an intimidating read. It is still in print and the summary should be read in conjunction with the full text. The fourth chapter is a summary of Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida. Again this influential book is often found on university courses. Not an easy read, it is an intensely personal search for photographic truth and deals with issues that often arise in photographic criticism. It too is still in print and the original and the summary should be used in conjunction with each other. viii How to use this book The fifth chapter is a summary of the first part of Martha Rosler’s essay In, Around and Afterthoughts (On Documentary Photography). This essay picks up issues on documentary photography that had been raised by Sontag, and allows the student to follow the development of arguments by different critics. The essay is not infrequently published in collections of essays on photography, so is relatively easy to find. The sixth chapter summarises Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s essay Inside/Out. This essay further develops some of Sontag’s and Rosler’s arguments as regards documentary photography. Despite the quality of the essay it seems harder to find than the Rosler essay. Chapter seven is a summary of the first chapter of Clive Scott’s book The Spoken Image which explores the relationship between photography and language. It has been included to introduce students to some of the concepts in semiology and semiotics. These are philosophies of language that both relate to the work of Barthes and are seen as being important in shaping some contemporary approaches to photography. Chapter eight is a summary of Andy Grundberg’s essay The Crisis of the Real. In it, Grundberg explains what post-modernism is. This movement in photography developed in reaction to straight photography and is probably the main alternative to straight photography. Post-modernism is, however, very vaguely defined and Grundberg explains it very well. Chapter nine is a summary of Raghubir Singh’s introduction to his book River of Colour. As a leading late twentieth century Indian photographer, his introduction is an example of a non-Western approach to photography. He explains the differences between Indian and Western art and in doing so adds to the debate as to the merits of using colour as opposed to monochrome in photography. Chapter ten is a summary of a chapter of Bertrand Russell’s book The Problems of Philosophy and is included to show that issues raised in the criticism of photography are not specific to photography itself.