Expressive Photography

EXPRESSIVE PHOTOGRAPHY:

ON THE NEED FOR A CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH

TO THE STUDY OF PHOTOGRAPHICS

by

MICHAEL JOHN EMME

B.A. The University of Victoria, 1976

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Department of Visual and Performing Arts in Education

Faculty of Education

We accept this thesis as conforming

to the required standard

The University of British/Columbia

1985

© Michael John Emme, 1985 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department

The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3

Date cf T^M)bur WV\

>E-6 (3/81) ii

ABSTRACT

The thesis is proposed that an orderly understanding of the expressive capacities of Photography can be drawn from a survey of the disciplines of art history, art criticism, psychology, sociology, and anthropology as well as the field of photo-technology.

Photography is defined as including five elements: the camera, the photographer, the subject, the image and the viewer. Topics considered are: the camera's mechanical limitations and qualities; the various behaviours and attitudes involved in picture-taking; the considerations involved in subject choice; the limitations and qualities of expression of the photographic print; and role of the viewer.

It is posited that the disciplines and fields listed above have a valuable addition to make toward our understanding of expressive photography. It is proposed that future courses in photography, whether they be intended for elementary school, high school, art school, or teacher training, include a cross-disciplinary approach. Such an approach can be incorporated into the curriculum through the use of the behavioural-attitudinal model introduced in

Chapter III. Whether a course is weighted toward studio experience, history and criticism, or cultural education, using a cross-disciplinary approach will enrich the learning experience. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS i Title Page

Authorization ii Abstract iii Table of Contents iv List of Plates vii List of Figures viii Acknowledgements

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. THE CAMERA 16

III. THE PHOTOGRAPHER 27

IV. THE SUBJECT 50

V. THE IMAGE 60

VI. THE VIEWER 71

VII. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION 82

FOOTNOTES 93

PLATES 95

FIGURES 140

REFERENCES 146 iiia

Plates 8,12,13,23,26,29,30,3^,35,37 & ^3 listed on the following leaves iv-vi were not filmed. Permission to do so was not obtained.

For further information, contact Special Collections Division, Library, 1956 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Y3. iv

List of Plates

Plate 1 President Cleveland and Family.

Photographer unknown. page 95

Plate 2 Mardi Gras. J. Lartigue. page 96

Plate 3 Photographs made by a 1 Kodak1 camera. page 97

Photographers unknown.

Plate 4 Chicago, 1955-7. By: R. Frank. page 98

Plate 5 Untitled, 1963- By: D. Lyons. page 99

Plate 6 The Horse in Motion. By: E. Muybridge. page 100

Plate 7 Untitled. By: E.Muybridge. page 101

Plate 8 Nude, East Sussex Coast. By: B. Brandt, page 102

Plate 9 In the Vetrinary Clinic.

By: A. Macijauskas. page 103

Plate 10 El Paso and Cuidad Juarez.

By: D. Lehman. page 104

Plate 11 Untitled. By: T. Gibson. page 105

Plate 12 An Apple Shot with a Bullet Travelling

at 900 Meters per Second.

By: H. Edgerton. page 106

Plate 13 Martha Graham, Letter to the World (Kick).

By: B. Morgan. page 107

Plate 14 I.R.T. 2. By: D. Lyons. page 108

Plate 15 Desde La Azotea. By: E. Weston. page 109

Plate 16 Wounded Soldier Receiving Water in a

Deserted Camp. By: M. Brady. page 110 Plate 17 Portrait of a Spanish Girl

By: M. Somoroff. page 111

Plate 18 A Wounded Marine Awaits Medical Evacuation.

By: Time Inc. page 112

Plate 19 Briceberg Grade, Sierra Nevada Foothills.

By: A. Adams. page 113

Plate 20 Untitled. By: A. Le Coz. page 114

Plate 21 Corpse. Photographer unknown. page 115

Plate 22 Clearing Winter Storm. By: A. Adams. page 116

Plate 23 Fabric, Harper's Bazaar. By: Hiro. page 117

Plate 24 Beauty of the Beast. By: B. Wright. page 118

Plate 25 Wild Mushrooms. By: M. Kezar. page 119

Plate 26 Compound Eye of the Fruit Fly

By: M. Kage. page 120

Plate 27 Andre Tardieu, Dr. Curtius, and Henri

Cheron, The Hague. By: E. Solomon. page 121

Plate 28 Seville, Spain, 1933. By: H. Bresson. page 122

Plate 29 Five Cents Lodging, Bayard Street.

By: J. Riis. page 123

Plate 30 Making Human Junk. By: L. Hine. page 124

Plate 31 Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville.

By: D. Lyons. page 125

Plate 32 Tatooed Man at Carnival, Md. 1970.

By: Diane Arbus. page 126

Plate 33 Massacre of East Pakistani Guerillas,

Dacca, 1971. By: H. Faas. page 127 vi

Plate 34 The Sun. By: N.A.S.A. page 128

Plate 35 Two Ways of Life, By: 0. Rejlander. page 129

Plate 36 Ms. Mona. By: T. Fasoling. page 130

Plate 37 Portrait of Samuel F.B.Morse.

Photographer unknown. page 131

Plate 38 My Father at Ninety. By: I. Cunningham, page 132

Plate 39 Witnesses to Nuolear Test (cropped).

By: F. Goro. page 133

Plate 40 Witnesses to Nuclear Test. By: F. Goro. page 134

Plate 41 Trang Beng, June, 1972. By: N. Ut. page 135

Plate 42 The Effect of Two Solution Development.

By: A. Adams. page 136

Plate 43 Miss Thompson. By: C. White. page 137

Plate 44 Untitled. By: J. Uelsmann. page 138

Plate 45 Play to Win. By: G. Hayes. page 139 Vll

List of Figures

Figure 1 The Camera. page 140

Figure 2 The Diaphragm of a Camera. page 141

Figure 3 The View Camera. page 142

Figure 4 The Attitude-Behaviour Classification

(A.B.C.) Model for Picture-Taking. page 143

Figure 5 The Aesthetic-Technical Axes page 144

Figure 6 The Photographic Enlarger. page 145 viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the many people who have

supported me in this work. Dr. Graeme Chalmers, my

committee chairperson , provided thoughtful criticism and

enthusiasm; Bob Steele brought his artist's eye and love of

teaching to this task and contributed much; and Fred Herzog

added his expertise in the area of photography combined with

a willingness to wrestle with the 'tough questions'.

In addition, I would like to thank all those fellow

travellers in the master's program who listened and

responded as I discussed the ideas that grew into this

thesis.

Finally, I want to thank Mary-Jane, my wife, who both encouraged me to pursue this study and supported both of us during the year in which it was written. 1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Does an orderly understanding of the expressive capacities of Photography exist? If we limit ourselves to studies in the field of Art photography the answer must be no. The debate over photography in the world of art is many things, but it is neither comprehensive nor orderly. Such being the case, can an understanding be synthesized from writings extant in the fields of art history, art criticism, psychology, sociology, and photo-technology? Certainly the scope of these fields in combination is sufficient to offer a much broader perspective on Photography than already exists. In addition, the fact that each field has, to a greater or lesser extent, considered the problem of

Photography is an encouragement to further study. This thesis posits that a cross-disciplinary study of Photography is the only approach that can hope to offer a complete understanding of the expressive capacities of the medium, and as such, has considerable implications for art education.

One of the most pervasive sources of two-dimensional imagery today is photography. From newspapers and magazines, through textbooks and television to advertising billboards and art galleries, if a statistical study were to be done it would probably be found that an average North 2

American confronts dozens of photographic images every day and contacts, without consciously viewing, hundreds more.

Since the 1830's when Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre claimed to have invented "a chemical and physical process which gives Nature the ability to reproduce herself" (Newhall,

1964, p. 17), a revolution has taken place that has altered our perception of the world. Our self concepts are defined, in part, by the images we see of ourselves in photographs (Pazer & Beilin, 1981). Our sense of what is happening around the world and the perception of its immediacy and import is informed by photojournalism. The popularistic notion that the peoples of the world, workers and royalty alike, are basically the same is, in part, a result of photography's leveling influence (Newhall, 1964, p. 22). "Photography opens a window, as it were. The faces of public personalities become familiar and things that happen all over the globe [are ours] to share. As the [viewer's] outlook expands, the world begins to shrink"

(Freund, 1980, p. 108).

Presumably a tool with the capacity to generate such broadly felt change is both simple (Being accessible to many), and complex (Being capable of satisfying diverse impulses). It is the purpose of this chapter to offer reasons for the careful study of photography as a part of art education. At the same time this writer will argue for, 3 and present the thesis that, an appropriate approach must focus on the expressive capacities of the medium while retaining a viewpoint that is broad enough to draw from 1 fields beyond traditional aesthetics and art photography.

The debate over photo-imagery as an art form has been long and splenetic. Baudelaire bemoaned the public's demand for

Art [that] is, and cannot be other than, the exact

reproduction of Nature...[suggesting that] a vengeful

God has granted the wishes of this multitude. Daguerre

was his Messiah. And now the public says to itself:

'since photography gives us every guarantee of

exactitude that we could desire (they really believe

that, the idiots! ), then photography and Art are the

same thing.' From that moment our squalid society

rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze at its trivial

image on a scrap of metal, (as cited in Sontag,

1973, p. 189-190)

On the other hand, George Bernard Shaw declared that:

If you cannot see at a glance that the old game is up,

that the camera has hopelessly beaten the pencil and

paint brush as an instrument of artistic

representation, then you will never make a true critic:

you are only, like most critics, a picture fancier,

(as cited in Bunnell, 1980, p. 3)... True, the camera 4

will not build up the human figure into a monumental

fiction as Michaelangelo did, or coil it cunningly into

a decorative one, as Burne Jones did. But it will draw

it as it is, in the clearest purity or the softest

mystery, as no draughtsman can or ever could. (Bunnell,

1980, p. 145)

In today's world of art, photography has found an uneasy place. While critics such as Susan Sontag (1973) and

Janet Malcolm (1980) offer strong argument for the inferiority of photography as an art form, others such as

Max Kozloff (1979) and Museum of Modern Art director, John

Szarkowski (1966) offer equally strong support for the medium. This debate is contained within the Art World (see footnote 1) of museums and galleries, and if all photography were appropriately to be judged by such criteria there would, perhaps, be no more to say. Photography, unlike any other medium capable of being considered, by formal definition, an art form, is a social phenomenon that touches the lives of most western people on a daily basis. It is, therefore, reasonable to question the evaluation of the medium from an exclusively traditional aesthetic perspective. Janet Wolff, in her book Aesthetics and the

Sociology of Art (1983) offers a new approach. Wolff, in calling for a "sociologically informed theory of aesthetics"

(p. 46) reviews the "historical specificity of the rise of 5 aesthetics" (p. 12) in the eighteenth century. Her purpose in doing this is to counter the argument some aestheticians might present that aesthetic experience and judgement is somehow outside of history and therefore capable of being defined in universal terms. Wolff suggests that aesthetics is to a great extent "ideological" (p. 46) and takes some of its direction from social context.

This argument is especially significant in the study of photography as it suggests that the study of social behavior enlightens our understanding of the expressive capacities of the medium. Wolff does not offer a wholly resolved

"sociological aesthetic". She recognizes that:

the expression of [art], and hence its evaluation,

cannot be reduced to the totally extra-aesthetic

aspects of ideology and politics, although [she argues]

it is equally true an aesthetics which ignores the

social and political features of aesthetic judgement is

unacceptable and distorted. (Wolff, 1983, p. 107)

We are left to strike a balance. On the one hand it seems imperative to a full understanding of the expressiveness of photography to investigate the medium in all its aspects, while on the other hand recognizing that not all those uses of photography are intended as art.

An example that clarifies the relationship between general photography and "art photography" is the "snapshot". 6

Snapshots are first of all the result of an advanced technology. The fifty years from the camera's invention to the 1880's saw the development of a bewildering variety of processes for picture taking. The majority of these were slow, cumbersome and required enough aptitude for chemical and mechanical manipulation that people were generally content to pose in studios or booths to be photographed formally (see plate 1). Some photo-artists, Jacques-Henri

Lartigue being a notable example (see plate 2), were able to overcome these many restrictions and produce very animated, personal images. Lartigue's images combine a strong sense of familial play with an impressionist's concern with capturing the motion of a fleeting moment. The majority of photographs, however, reinforced, or perhaps created the impression that our ancestors of 100 years past were a very stiff, serious lot.

By 1888, however, George Eastman produced the "Kodak" detective camera. It featured a roll of flexible, paper-backed film capable of recording 100 snaps. Eastman's advertising slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest",

(Newhall, 1964, p. 88) literally announced the beginning of a new epoch. From this date forward, all that was required to take photographs was a modest cash outlay (see plate 3).

Very quickly, taking photographs was not restricted to formal settings. As Alfred Stieglitz noted, "the placing in 7 the hands of the general public a means of making pictures with but little labour and requiring less knowledge has of necessity been followed by the production of millions of photographs" (Bunnell, 1980, p. 124). For many years art photographers ignored the results of this "fatal facility" (Bunnell, 1980, p. 124) as Stieglitz referred to it. The feeling was that the blurred, poorly composed products of "snapshooters" (Newhall, 1964, p. 94) while undoubtedly meaningful to the producers, were judged to be artless. In 1966 John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern

Art challenged the status quo by bringing selected snapshots together with self consciously artistic photographs. The result was a realization that there is a power in what might be called naive photography. Szarkowski discussed his discovery in "The Photographer's Eye~ (1966) and encouraged a style of photography exemplified by Robert Frank (see plate 4) and Garry Winogrand (see plate 5) that stepped away from art school formalism and moved towards something akin to the snapshot. Frank's images of everyday people that he encountered in his travels across America, while not playful like Lartigue's, combine subject matter that was unconventionally ordinary with a freedom from the constraints of formal composition. If Lartigue's work is seen as pivotal in that it represents 'inspired snapshot photography' more than a consciously artistic attitude, his 8 heirs must be photographers like Frank and others who draw from the social phenomenon of the snapshot for their art.

More recently, sociologists such as Boerdam (1980) and

Musello (Wagner, 1979) have begun to study family photographs as significant expressive evidence of the emotional and social operations of the family unit.

As the previous examples suggest, snapshots are one example of a dynamic relationship that exists between the artistic community and photographers at large. I would argue that the extent and openness of this relationship is unique among art media and certainly worthy of further investigation.

It would, therefore, seem logical that a full understanding of the expressive capacities of art photography must include a detailed understanding of the medium at large.

To aid in such a study, a precise definition of what is meant by the term "Photography" is essential. For the purposes of this and future study I would suggest that the term be understood to include: the subject, camera, photographer, image, and viewer. What follows is a brief explanation of the significance of each of these five elements of Photography.

Perhaps the most primary element in the study of photography is the technology itself. "The inescapable fact 9 of mechanism" (Cavell, 1973, p. 369) not only makes photography possible, but also unique. Because of the very mechanical nature of the medium, "photography overcame subjectivity in a way undreamed of by painting"

(Cavell, 1973 p. 369) and the other arts. Whether justified or not, Photography is perceived as "the reconciliation of science and expression" (Strand, 1922).

The technology altered our understanding of things as basic as the motion of a horse. The scientific and psuedo-scientific studies of Eadweard Muybridge, made possible by films and shutter mechanisms fast enough to do the job, allowed us to examine frozen moments of motion

(see plates 6,7). The fact that Muybridge used this technique not only to examine horses, but also women disrobing, and being thrown into convulsions by electrical shock (Kozloff, 1979) reveals the beginnings of yet another aspect of the emotionally powerful, and psychologically revealing capacities of the medium.

The second significant element in Photography is the photographer. As alluded to previously, the mechanism of photography imputes an element of truth to the medium while allowing the photographer to pursue his or her intentions.

"When a photograph is cropped, the rest of the world is cut out. The implied presence of the world, and its explicit rejection, are as essential in the experience of a 10 photograph as what it explicitly presents" (Cavell, 1971, p. 371)

Perception as well as social and emotional factors combine with the limitations of the technology and the intention of the photographer to make the act of taking a picture extremely complex. For example, Sontag points out that the language of photography is often couched in predatory terms. We "take" or "shoot" pictures often employing subterfuge and stealth (Sontag, 1973)-

The object of this seemingly aggressive behavior and the third element of Photography is the subject.

Technically, virtually anything is legitimately the subject of photography, but, drawing from Becker's notion of "art worlds" (Becker, 1982) it becomes apparent that there are many subgroups in photography that are directed by the intention of the photographers and revealed by the choice and use of their subjects. Subjects can range from the very personal and obviously emotional area of family photography

(Boerdam & Martinius, 1980) (Wagner, 1979) through the sciences that have helped us to see both microbes and our planet to the exploitative and erotic .(Gabor,1972,1984)

Included in the spectrum are other areas such as journalistic, advertising and art photography each of which has in common that the intention of the photographer will influence the handling of whatever subject might be chosen. 11

Careful study of the relationships between the subject and photographer, camera, image and viewer is significant and should offer insights into why photographs happen and what they mean.

The fourth element of Photography is the image. The technical limits of photographic printing are broad enough

(Adams, 1981) to allow for significant artistic manipulation. This, of course, means that photographers can generate images that will serve whatever purposes they might have. Again the inference of truthfulness plays a part in the image's message. Of interest, as well, is how these photographic objects are used. Why, for example, are so many personal photographs kept in shoe boxes neither to be viewed nor destroyed? Which personal images qualify to be hung on the wall and why? Similarly, which commercial reproductions, posters, ads and foldouts are kept and displayed, by whom and for what purpose? Coming from another tack, how does the field of Art photography fare as a business? What kinds of images get hung in galleries and which sell? The range of questions on this topics is virtually endless and crosses between sociology, consumerism and aesthetics with dizzying frequency. Needless to say even a minimal unravelling of the life of photographic images will aid in a broader understanding of the medium.

The last, and in some ways most important, element of 12

Photography is the viewer. Perceptually, how do we view photographs? Why do we value them? What is it about our relationship to some photographs that make them "melancholy objects" (Sontag, 1973, p. 51)? Why is it that photo-erotica is such a booming business? Perhaps most importantly, how do the various feelings and behaviors we bring to photography influence the medium?

Needless to say, a comprehensive look at expressive photography is going to take us well beyond traditional aesthetics. Specifically, the fields of photo-technology, art criticism, art history, psychology and sociology must be considered in depth.

From the field of photo-technology we can discover the limits of the camera as a machine. The technical limitations of the medium have influenced the nature of photographic images from the beginning (Newhall, 1964).

Some of these limits, such as the early inability to record blue skies with accurate tonality were seen as liabilities.

Other limits, such as the distortion endemic to wide-angle lenses, have been accepted as variations on "reality".

Still other limitations, such as the fuzziness of gum bichromate prints, were sought out as artistic advantages.

The field of art criticism brings us to consider the relationship between photography and the formal world of the fine arts. Art criticism offers us a framework in which to 13 consider images that purport to be art and at the same time an element in contrast to the majority of Photography which makes no pretense about its status. The changes in critical standards (Szarkowski, 1966) that make more of our daily picture taking open to formal art-critical analysis are an aspect of this field of study.

Art history offers us a body of information closely allied with art criticism. The developments of the medium over time can reveal how Photography came to be such a popular medium and perhaps offer insight into its marginal status in the world of museums and galleries.

Psychology has much to say about photography. Rudolf

Arnheim's discussion of Gestalt psychology (Arnheim,

1969,1974) can offer us some understanding of the perceptual elements in picture taking as well as help us to understand the "fascination" (Kozloff, 1979, p. 72) that photographic images hold for us. As well, the predatory and deviant behaviors of some photographers and viewers, along with the aloofness or cherishing behaviors of others needs to be approached (Kozloff, 1979, p. 15).

Finally, the field of sociology has much to offer.

Janet Wolff's insights into alternative ways of understanding aesthetics (Wolff, 1983) and Becker's notion of artworlds (Becker, 1983) both may help us to better understand the relationship between Photography and Art 14 photography. Beyond this, the enormous area of photographic images in daily life can guide us to an appreciation of the relationship between photography and popular culture.

If Photography is as far reaching a medium as this study suggests, the implications for its use as an element of education are equally significant. In her book

Approaches to Art in Education,(1978) Laura Chapman has argued for the study of art as important to a general education program. She feels that the purposes of Art education are threefold. It should,"encourage personal fulfillment through art experience; transmit an appreciation of the artistic heritage; and develop an awareness of the role of Art in society" (Chapman, 1978, p. 19). Both Chapman and Vincent Lanier before her (Lanier, 1966, p.5-8) are among those who have have drawn attention to the need for the inclusion of new media in the school curriculum at all levels. This writer would add special emphasis to the need for photography to be taught in university teacher-education programs. Obviously I'm referring to a program of much greater scope than what many universities offer as Photo I.

Simply considering how much of student's textbooks at all levels is photographic information brings home the importance of teachers understanding how these images work.

In discussing the status of Photographic education at the college level, A.D.Coleman suggests that there is a need 15 to,"assist [people] in becoming active rather than passive in their relation to visual communication by teaching them photography as a means of self-expression, as a tool with which to probe into their world and into the nature of vision itself" (Coleman,1978, p. 23).

Suzanne Lacy identifies photography as one of the elements of the "background, the 'noise' of our lives"

(p. 8). She states further that:

the educative function of images resides as much in

the way they are constructed as in their expressed

content. Make no mistake: commercial image makers

understand this very well- how colors and shapes act on

our perception, how even abstract symbols can be

manipulated and juxtaposed to create meaning and

provoke response-all highly useful information for

advertisers, politicians, and other would-be shapers of

public opinion.(Lacy, 1981, p. 8)

Lacy joins other educators as well as sociologists such as Curry and Clarke (Wagner, 1979, p. 173-188) in calling for greater levels of visual literacy among students and teachers alike. 16

CHAPTER II

THE CAMERA

In Art and Technics Lewis Mumford (1952) said, "If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion" (p.8l). Later in the same book Mumford argued that,"the real triumphs of photography depended upon the photographer's respect for his medium" (P. 93). At first these two statements seem to draw attention to the genuine ambivilence many of us feel towards the camera. In fact both statements argue the need for demystifying what a camera does.

Perhaps all of us are at least occasionally seduced by the delusion that the camera is somehow a surrogate for human vision. Snyder and Allen (1975) state that:

A photograph shows us 'what we would have seen' at a

certain moment in time, from a certain vantage point if

we kept our head immobile and closed one eye and if we

saw things in Agfacolor or in Tri-X developed in D-76

and printed on Kodabromide #3 paper. By the time all

the conditions are added up, the original position has

been reversed: instead of saying that the camera shows

us what our eyes would see, we are now positing the

rather unilluminating proposition that, if our vision

worked like photography, then we would see things the 17

way a camera does. (p. 152)

Two questions then arise: how does the camera 'see' and what is the expressive range of that vision? Since its invention, approximately 150 years ago, the camera has consisted of three principal components: the lens, that focus light on the film plane; the diaphragm and shutter mechanisms, which regulate the quality and quantity of light to reach the film; and the film, which is basically a flat sheet of some light sensitive material (see figure 1).

Photographic lenses are precisely ground and carefully coated pieces of glass (or plastic) that are designed to transmit light while compressing or magnifying that light, and thus what we would call the images in the light, so that those images can be recorded on film.

The photographic image [as generated by the camera's

lens] is flat and two-dimensional. It has borders

that define what is included and what is not; Its

focus, content, and point of view are fixed at the

moment of exposure. These characteristics are very

different from what we are accustomed to and take for

granted, in our visual contact with the world. Whether

we realize it or not we observe the world from many

different points of view, not just one, by means of our

binocular vision..., and through continuous movements

of the eyes, head and body. The brain synthesizes this 18

continuous exploration into a unified experience.

(Adams, 1980, p. 95) o Human vision typically covers a 50-55 field. A

comparable angle is found in a 45-50 mm lense for 35 mm 2 cameras. Lenses with a shorter focal length , what we would

call 'wide-angle' lenses, can give a field of vision up to o

180 . Wide angle lenses make things seem smaller, but more

sharply in focus. Because these lenses are compressing an

enormous amount of visual information onto a flat surface,

prints resulting from the use of such lenses appear

distorted (see plate 8). In fact, "what appears as

•distortion' is actually geometrically accurate, considering

the extreme coverage of the lens and the flat field of the

negative "(Adams, 1980, p. 63). As Rudolf Arnheim (1969) has

suggested, we impute symbolic import to what we see. The

perceived distortions, when they are not recognized as

elements of lens design, can imply judgements about the

subject of the photograph (see plate 9).

The counterpoint to the wide-angle lens is the long

focal length or tele-photo lens. Tele-photo lenses

restrict the field of vision by magnifying what is viewed.

Where a wide-angle lens creates a sense of depth and

panorama, a tele-photo lens flattens distances causing the

impression that far and near objects are in close proximity

to each other. This phenomenon has been used to good 19 advantage in film where a character is seen to be running down an endless road unable to escape whatever fate is closing in from behind. In journalistic photography, creating the impression that two individuals or objects are near to each other, when in fact they are not, has obvious editorial possibilities (see plate 10). Another aspect of 3 tele-photo lenses is their very shallow depth-of-field. By being able to focus on one area while all else is blurred, the possibility for isolating people or objects exists.

Because tele-photo lenses magnify objects seen at a distance, it is possible for the photographer to work anonymously. The ability to photograph candidly will be discussed at greater length when we consider the photographer, but it is obvious when one approaches the local grocery store checkout counter and is confronted with tabloid expose's and scandals, all of which have been amply

'documented' with photographs, that the tele-photo lens' possibilities have been explored by some 'journalistic' photographers.

The diaphragm and shutter mechanisms in a camera, whether they are integrated or separate, work together to control the quantity of light that strikes the film plane.

Early cameras employed simple caps or covers to control exposure, but early plates and films required exposures sometimes extending beyond an hour and were therefore very 20 forgiving in this respect. With the more recent development of very light-sensitive films, fast accurate exposures demand suitable equipment.

The diaphragm of a camera controls what is called the aperture. This mechanism is composed of thin metal leaves that regulate an opening in much the same way as the iris of the human eye (see figure 2). Without cutting out any portion of the image being transmitted by the lens of the camera, the diaphragm regulates the flow of light to the film. As the aperture is enlarged or decreased there is one significant impact on the image: the depth of field is altered. The smaller the aperture used, the deeper is the field that is in focus. Conversely, as the aperture expands the shallower is be the field that is in focus. Again, the ability to control what is sharply defined and what is blurred in an image is one way for the photographer to impose his intention on the photograph (see plate 11).

One of the most dynamic elements of photography is its ability to 'capture' time. The shutter of a camera is most directly linked to the recording of events as they occur through time. There are enough variations in the design of shutters that a discussion of their qualities would become quite involved. For our purposes it is sufficient to realize that equipment available to the untrained photographer today is capable of freezing an image in one 21 two-thousandth of a second. More exotic shutters work much more quickly (see plate 12).

The camera's shutter provides us with a whole vocabulary for depicting motion in a still image.

Let's consider how we might photograph horses

running a race. We can keep the camera stationary and

use a slow shutter speed: the horses will appear as

blurs against a stationary background. We can 'pan'

the camera with the horse and use a somewhat faster

shutter speed: the horses will be somewhat sharper and

the background will be blurred. We can use an

extremely fast shutter speed and 'freeze' the horses

against the stationary background. All of these

methods are commonly used and accepted ways of

photographing moving things. But we don't see motion

in any of these ways; we see moving things.(Snyder &

Allen, 1975, p. 156) (see plate 13)

The ability to freeze motion has also allowed U3 to see ourselves in a completely different way. The human eye, in conjunction with the mind, filters enormous quantities of visual information. Often, details are lost because our perception is not quick enough or attuned to recording it.

A whole field of art photography has grown out of the camera's capacity to record moments we otherwise wouldn't notice. In viewing a picture of a candid street scene, our 22 first impression of the photograph does not differ greatly from the experience of being on the street (see plate 14).

Study the picture more closely. A mouth gapes open, as

if to signal real vacancy, a squint looks menacing or a

leg appears to stumble. These are the fugitive

shimmies or twitches of the body in motion, never seen

because never expected. The fastidious brain has no

use for them, but the quicker, mindless camera can't

help catching them out. (Kozloff, 1979, p. 7)

An aid to the shutter and diaphragm in regulating light that is in common use is the photo-flash. Typically, flash photos are harsh. The light comes from one direction,

(usually right around the camera), and is very intense, therefore casting strong shadows. This kind of 'hard' lighting often reveals surface texture that would ordinarily not be noticed in more diffused lighting. Snapshot portraits often show pale, pock-marked skin with dark patches for the eyes, nostrils and mouth: a bedsheet with cigarette burns!

From the first chemical coated plates to the current crop of high-speed, high-resolution films, an incessant evolution has taken place spurred by curious amateurs and profiteers alike. Lenses and viewing boxes have existed for centuries in the form of telescopes and variations on the camera obscura. But it wasn't until light sensitized plates 23 were developed in the 1830's that photography came into being.

Current films generally depend on the photo-sensitivity of silver salts to record light. In the case of black-and-white films those salts are converted to metalic silver to produce the darkness on the negative. Colour films are more complex, but basically, dyes are substituted for the silver through a bleaching process during development.

Currently there exists a vast number of choices in terms of film types. The film's sensitivity to light is one of these options. This choice can influence the sharpness of the negative as well as the ability to photograph in low light or to capture motion, which has been discussed earlier. Film's capacity to capture detail reveals how different it is from the human eye.

The novice photographer usually learns about the

difference between camera and human vision through a

series of disappointments...Examining a developed

photograph, he 'discovers' a bit of trash or a

telephone pole, or he finds that the object that filled

his attention when photographing appears small and

insignificant in the picture, lost in its surroundings.

In either case the result is not what the photographer

believes he saw when he made the exposure, and the 24

effect he recalls is absent or spoiled by intrusion.

(Adams, 1980, p. 96)

While uncontrollable quantities of detail may prove to be a frustration in some circumstances, it is also one of 5 the most distinctive assets of photography. The f/64 group, whose name was derived from the smallest and thus sharpest aperture setting on most lenses, promoted a style of art photography that exploited the medium's capacity for recording detail (see plate 15). On a more sinister plane, extremely sensitive materials in combination with very sharp lenses have allowed for the use of spy satellites in snooping on our neighbors. Whatever the case, this detail has generated, as Max Kozloff pointed out (1979), a degree of fascination that is unprecedented in other media.

Black and white and colour films each have distinct characteristics which influence the photographer's control and thus his or her 'vocabulary'. Black and white films are, of course, monochromatic, as they render all visible colours in values of grey and black. They do not record the tonal relationships between colours accurately, for example the red of an apple may seem darker than - is correct when seen next to green leaves. These sorts of problems can be resolved with the use of filters. More interesting is black and white film's capacity to regulate tonal contrast. An image's impression of harshness can be amplified by 25 heightening the contrast, or a much gentler impression can be created through the use of a film that gives a much smoother tonal scale (see plates 16,17).

With colour film it is much more difficult to control contrast, but in compensation you have the entirely new consideration of the colour itself. A brief comparison between the civil war photo referred to previously (see plate 16) and more recent image from America's undeclared war in Vietnam is instructive (see plate 18). The colour image carries with it a heightened impression of truthfulness that made visual news coverage of the Vietnam war a potent and frightening tool. At the same time the colour is more lurid, or as Kozloff suggests, "more voyeuristic" (p.189). We attend less to the details and texture contained in an image and more to the colour. The symbolic power of colour has long been understood, and adds a new and potent dimension to an already powerful medium.

In addition to these more common films, brief mention should be made of the films that record in spectral ranges to which the human eye is insensitive. Infrared film can be used in much the same way as standard black and white will produce a recognizable image. Its tonal values, however, show heat radiation rather than light radiation. While this film is generally used for industrial or military purposes, it has offered an interesting alternative to some art 26 photographers (see plate 19). This and other materials, such as x-ray film, demonstrate how fundamentally different film is from our visual perception.

The camera combines the rich possibilities of lens, shutter and film in a package that offers a means of expression to many. This package can take the form of elegantly simple •instamatic' cameras which, though limited in their capacity to be controlled by the photographer, offer an accessible approach to picture taking. The camera can also be in the form of the now ubiquitous 35mm single lens reflex that offers an ever-extending range of lenses and advanced automatic exposure systems, making it possible for the technically uninitiated or uninterested to take extremely sophisticated photographs. At the other end of the spectrum is the view camera (see figure 3). While antiquated in appearance and admittedly cumbersome, this package, which is still used regularly in commercial photography, gives the photographer the capacity to bend and mold his or her subject almost at will. 27

CHAPTER III

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

By taking a camera in hand anyone can become a photographer, and in doing so they involve themselves in two potent relationships. The first and, more immediate, is with the subject to be photographed. This interaction between subject and photographer evolves through a limited period of time and is punctuated by those moments the photographer chooses to sieze with the aid of the camera. Studying the social and psychological pressures at work in the photographer-subject relationship can enlighten our appreciation of the expressive richness of any photographic image (Wagner, 1979) (Krauss & Fryrear, 1983).

At the same time, the photographer is involved in a relationship with a significant artifact, the image which his or her photo-work is attempting to produce. In addition there is also an indirect third relationship between the photographer and whatever audience may see the eventual photographic image. It is in this second extended relationship between the photographer, the image and audience that we are able to find the key to understanding why some photographic works are valued as 'art' while others function as document or family keepsake. As Edward Weston suggests, "The value of the photograph as a work of art depends primarily on the photographer's seeing before 28 exposure, but its artistic value can only be determined by an examination of the finished print" (Bunnell, 1983, p. 130).

In this chapter we will consider the complex social and psychological interactions that occur between the photographer and subject. We will also consider the broad range of attitudes, from the consciously aesthetic to the rigidly scientific, which photographers bring from the images they produce to the picture taking act. It should be clear, as well, that a high degree of 'cross pollination' occurs between the two photographic relationships.

Picture-taking can be a rich blend of personal, social and aesthetic values.

There is much that can be learned about the expressiveness of photography by imposing a certain degree of organization on the complex relationships that exist between the photographer, subject and image. This chapter will draw from sociology, psychology, aesthetics and photo-technology to propose some frameworks that can function as aids to understanding. As the rich debate over Pictorialism around the turn of the century shows

(Bunnell, 1980), any one 'definitive' construct that attempts to explain photography as art, as social phenomenon, or as technical wonder must of necessity ignore some important aspect of this potent medium. It is 29 therefore the hope of this writer that the constructs offered in this chapter will be understood for what they are intended to be: attempts to broaden, not limit, the scope of the study and appreciation of photography.

The camera is a tool. The expressive range of this tool continues to expand, in part, as the result of spectacular advances in the technology. But it is in the end only a tool. Theodore Dreiser stated that,"the camera is nothing, a mere implement, like a painter's brush. It is the soul of the man who manipulates it that gives every picture secured its value" (as cited in Bunnell, 1980, p. 119-240). Another early writer, J. Nilsen Laurvik expands this idea further by suggesting that:

...the intelligence of man, ever alert to shape to his

own use the forces of the universe, has found a way to

penetrate and imbue with his personality this newly

discovered force. So that today a photograph may be

anything from the faltering, stuttering, wholly

unconscious and ungoverned snap-shot of the willy-nilly

button-pusher to the individual and compelling print of

a Clarence White, a Steichen, a Keiley, a Coburn or a

Stieglitz.(as cited in Bunnell, 1980, p. 119)

In considering the how and why of the picture taking act, yet another early writer on photography identified the problem that a study such as this faces: The science [of photography] is so full of varied

fascinations that it procures many followers, and these

become so much enamoured of it that they do not lightly

give it up. Every class of person seems to find

something congenial in photography; the mechanical

genius takes to devising hand-cameras and instantaneous

shutters; the chemical student wallows in strange

combinations of 'reducing agents'; the globe-trotter

who glories in his travels has a handy means of

providing peregrinations; in short, every one finds

photography so easy and so interesting a method of

producing graphic and lasting results without lengthy

or expensive preparation, that there is little cause

for wonder that so many more or less unoccupied persons

having taken to it, stick to it. (as cited in

Bunnell, 1980, p. 21)

In order to bring some semblance of order to such a chaotic mass of behaviors, it is useful to study photographers from the perspective of a given structure.

Visual sociologist Christopher Musello (1979) identifies three basic purposes in family photography: idealization,

'natural portrayal* (documentation), and demystification

(Musello, 1980, p. 111). Musello's intent is to investigate all aspects of family photography. For the purposes of this chapter we shall only consider his headings as they apply to 31

the photographer's relationship with his or her subject but

will expand Musello's original terms of reference beyond

family photography to include all picture-taking.

Musello defines the intention to idealize as the desire

to, "obtain a portrait of the person at their 'best'"

(Musello, 1979, p. 110). In broadening this first category

to suit all photographers, it is clear that photography not

only idealizes when it acts as mythmaker in building up the

image of the family, but also acts as mystifyer when it

presents Imogen Cunningham's flowers, Diane Arbus' freaks,

or even Yosef Karsh's rich clients as somehow larger and

stronger than life. A second photographic intention, which

Musello calls, "natural portrayal," (p. 110) and which we

shall identify as the desire to document, " may be posed or

candid but in either case the aim is...to produce the best

image of that person in an everyday context. In expanding

this definition to suit all photography it is necessary to make it somewhat more neutral. When photographers intend to

document their subject, they try to depict the person or

event as naturally as possible. The photographers' hopes are

that their images will be as much 'facts' as possible.

Photographers who hope their pictures will demystify their

subjects intend, "to subvert a subject's prevailing [or

public] image" (Musello, 1979, p. 112). Demystifying images

can be playful or cruel, but in either case there is an 32 element of revelation intended by the photographer. Musello also identifies a fourth purpose for taking pictures: "the communion function" (p. 106). Musello suggests that the photographic images are where this "reinforcement of kinship relations and values," (Musello, 1979, p. 109) occurs. This writer would suggest ththat the act of photography may also serve the communion function. In such circumstances, the photographic behavior is the principal end. The resulting images are of little significance. Taking a picture as an act of communion becomes a ritual whose function is to "document, reinforce, and in some senses reify relationships, beliefs and values" (Musello, 1979, p. 107-9).

In conjunction with these four photographic purposes, this writer would add at least three basic approaches to the act of securing a photographic image.(see figure 4) Where

Musello's (1979) categories classified various attitudes towards one's subject, these next three categories identify relationships of physical proximity between the photographer and subject as well as defining levels of mediation and cooperation involved in picture taking. The three picture taking behaviors are: stealing, recording and manipulating.

Stealing involves taking pictures without a subject's awareness that you are doing so. Candid photography uses this 'cloak of secrecy' for a variety of reasons. The 33 photographer may feel that a more natural picture will result or it may be feared that some unpleasent consequence would result from being discovered. Whatever the photographer's motive, an underlying current of illicitness informs the picture taking act and may transfer over to the resulting image.

The photographic recorder's approach is much more neutral. It is characteristic of this method that the

o subject is aware of the presence of a camera but the photographer makes no overt attempts to influence the subject's behaviour. Many of the social sciences that have begun to incorporate photographic images in their research have developed guidelines to identify and encourage this sort of approach (Wagner, 1979).

The photographic manipulator is an interventionist.

With this sort of technique a very clearly preconceived notion of how the final image should look influences everything from the equipment that is chosen to the poses and environment in which the subject is placed. Much commercial photography operates in this sphere. Everything about the picture-taking act is orchestrated as much as the photographer's power to do so permits.

Musello's (1979) purpose in creating his

"sociodividistic framework" (p.104) was to aid in the sociological analysis of family photographs. Assuming the 34 applicability of his categories to photography generally and using them in conjunction with the three picture-taking behaviors identified by this writer, we have at least ten different formulae for understanding the complex relationship that exists between the photographer and subject (see figure 4). It should be stated clearly that the ten categories are the arbitrary formalization of a complex, multi-dimensional spectrum. The application of this attitude-behaviour classification (A.B.C.) model for picture-taking is offered as a method to develop a greater understanding of photography, not to restrict its possibilities.

Photographers who use stealing behaviors to take images that will idealize their subject can best be understood by considering the family photographer (see figure 4, category

1). Candid photography generally has only become possible with the relatively recent advances in camera technology.

Parallel to the technical changes can be found a growing casualness in family photography (Boerdam and Martinius,

1980, p. 108). Candid family photography incorporates an element of play (see plate 20) in combination with a disregard for compositional concerns that has carried over into art and commercial photography to some extent

(Szarkowski, 1966).

The photographer as recorder-idealizer can be seen in 35 more formal snapshot family photos (see figure 4, category

2). Boerdam and Martinius (1980) speak of the "systematic

flattery" (p.103) found in most family photography.

Snapshooters usually elect to photograph weddings,

birthdays, and special religious days. Most family photo

albums give the impression that the family unit is strong and happy regardless of daily evidence to the contrary.

Tastes, of course, vary both culturally and through

time. A startling example of this can be found in the 19th

century photography of the dead.(see plate 21) In the last

century photographs of the dead were important family

documents that were kept as a positive reminder of the

deceased.

Some schools of art photography idealize by recording as well. The best example of this can be seen in the work of

Ansel Adams.(see plate 22) Adams' work combines extremely high technical control with a romantic vision of the

outdoors to produce landscape images that are at once

'factual' and ideal.

Portraiture, propaganda, and advertising are three

types of photography that use heavy manipulation to idealize

their subjects (see figure 4, category 3). In this context

the photographer is often involved in conscious mythmaking

or mystification. In commercial portrait photography, for

example, the subject usually enters a special environment 36

(the studio) that is totally controlled by the photographer.

The subject then follows directions given by the photographer, often striking poses that would otherwise be unnatural. The portrait photographer often works from a portfolio of poses that will require as few lighting set-ups as possible. Where portrait photographers are often usually small business people who deal with the public and have to

'hustle' a large number of clients to make a living, advertising photography often places more weight on a single image. A nationally run ad campaign has to be

•perfect' and the photographer will take the time and get paid for making a perfect picture. With advertising photography, subject and photographer cooperate in creating a situation that will produce the best picture.(see plate

23) People having their portraits taken may be naive about what is being done for them, but professional models are rarely so.

Photography used as propaganda is probably the most dramatic example of manipulation used to idealize. As with advertising photography, a cooperative relationship exists between the subject and photographer. But with propaganda photography the photographer is trying to manipulate ideological symbols rather than, "a gestalt that has been adroitly created by Madison Avenue" (Jacobs, 1979, p. 6).

Gisele Freund (1980) cites the example of, "Heinrich 37

Hoffmann [whose] photographs helped Hitler establish an image that the world would not forget" (p. 134).

Stealing to create documentary images is seen in surveillance photography (see figure 4, category 4).

Everything from the now commonplace video-security systems to high resolution satellite based photography derives its value from the camera's ability to provide useful, factual information. Needless to say, photographers involved in this sort of image-making are stealthy to the extreme. Whether the images are created by a detective, the police or the military, there is an element of conflict present.

Surveillence photos presumably wouldn't be taken if the subject wasn't seen to pose some sort of threat. At a less sinister level, much wildlife photography fits in this category.(see plate 24) In this case it is often the subject's timidity that requires the care of the photographer.

Photographers who act as recorders of documentary images (see figure 4, category 5) are more overt than the preceeding group. The work in visual sociology (Wagner,

1979), visual anthropology (Collier, 1967) and, to some extent, visual psychology (Krauss & Fryrear,1983) involves overt but non-interventionist methods.

Sontag (1973) identifies another group of recorder-documentors. It is her contention that citizens 38 of the three most industrially advanced nations (the

U.S., West Germany, and Japan) bring their work ethics to their increasing leisure time. The results are three groups of tourists who approach holiday photography with all the intensity of a career. "Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures"

(Sontag, 1973, p. 10).

The laboratory is the most likely environment to find manipulator-documentors (see figure 4, category 6).

Macro-photography, whether it involves basically standard equipment, (see plate 25) or an electron microscope (see plate 26) is a field that is becoming increasingly technical and specialized. Aesthetic considerations would not seem to be an appropriate part of work whose aim is to provide visual information about 'natural' phenomenon.

Interestingly, however, micrographic images have begun to appear in galleries. It would be interesting to discover how much aesthetic choices have influenced final images in scientific photography. Certainly, in viewing such work, it is important to keep in mind the aesthetic as well as the scientific intent of the photographer.

The notion of 'demystifying' is ambiguous to say the 39

least. If the term is taken to mean: revealing that which would normally not be seen and which "subverts a prevailing

image," (Musello, 1979, p. 112) of the subject, then it

applies to journalism, art, family photography, and

pornography. Add to this the act of photographic thievery and a potent, controversial approach to picture-taking is

revealed (see figure 4, category 7).

Perhaps one of the first and better known photographers

of this genre was Dr. Erich Solomon. Armed with an Erminox high-speed camera, and an aggressive but pleasant

personality, Solomon photographed famous people and revealed

their unguarded moments to the world. Obviously the image quality of a picture made indoors with poor lighting from a camera hidden in a coat was not as high as prints that were

created more carefully. Doctor Solomon's pictures were such a success, however, that they permanently altered journalistic photography (see plate 27). "It was no longer the clarity of the image that counted, but the subject matter" (Freund, 1980, p. 120). Not only did photographers' behavior change because of Solomon and those that followed quickly after him, but the viewers' expectations about what they wanted to see changed as well.

Where Solomon's attitude as a photographer was generally one of playful curiosity, much of contemporary candid street photography has employed many of the same 40

tactics to create more critical images. As the quotation

attributed earlier to Max Kozloff suggests (Kozloff, 1979,

p. 7) many photos reveal us in the disheveled state between heartbeats that we never knew existed before photography,

(see plate 28) While photographers such as Cartier-Bresson undoubtedly work toward these sort of images, their control only goes so far. After film and lens choices and exposure

and camera angle have been set the photographer has to fly on faith. He or she can't see our camera revealed frailties any more than those being photographed! Only the camera can

'see' that fast. The photographer then must become a viewer of his or her (and the camera's) work in order to select the images that best suit his or her purpose.

The recorder-demystifier is a photographer with a cause

(see figure 4, category 8). The early history of visual sociology gives us the names of two men in particular who documented social ills that were being ignored by the general public. Jacob A. Riis was one of the first photographers to search out the down side of the industrial revolution and photograph it as a social statement, (see plate 29) Even more pointed were the photographs of the sociologist, Lewis W. Hine. His images were taken with the intention of revealing the horrors of child labour practices around the turn of the century, (see plate 30) Another earlier photographer whose sense of mission resulted in many 41 important and expressive images was Matthew Brady. His images of the American Civil War were an early grim example of the photography of war.

Recorder-demystifiers often have a high level of emotional involvement with their subjects. Hine and Riis did not put themselves in physical danger, but many war photographers have, as have photographers such as Danny

Lyons (see plate 3D and Diane Arbus (see plate 32) whose work gives an intimate look at counter cultures in our society.

The problem of manipulation and journalistic photography can draw attention to the photographer's role as manipulator-demystifier. Kozloff expands on an example of photographic manipulation experienced by Horst

Faas (Kozloff, 1979, p. 13-14). Faas describes a situation where East Pakistani prisoners were being held. The photographer was horrified to realize that when he approached the captives, their captors began to systematically impale the helpless men with bayonets.

Sontag suggests that it is now plausible, "in situations where the photographer has the choice between a photograph and a life, to choose the photograph" (Sontag, 1973» p. 69).

Despite a sense that the executions were being staged for the camera, Faas and his associates continued to photograph for a time because he thought, "it was our job to report all 42 that happened." (Faas, 1972, p. 226)(see plate 33)

Journalistic photography in the western world has moved more and more to the depiction of spectacle regardless of how grim the subject matter may be (see figure

4, category 9). Faas' job was to provide news photographs with high 'entertainment' value for an increasingly numb audience. The question then becomes: Who is the manipulator? The photographer who has the ability to intercede in events is an active participant regardless of what choice is made. Sadakichi Hartmann revealed his understanding of the relationship between the photographer and manipulation when he stated that the, "sociological conditions and the normal appreciation of the appearances of contemporary life, will lead the camera workers unconsciously to the most advantageous and characteristic way of seeing things" (as cited in Bunnell, 1980, p. 188).

Any group that recognizes the value of press coverage and stages a 'media event' is attempting to manipulate. The public that signals its desires to the media by what it watches and what it buys is, perhaps unwittingly, acting as a manipulator. And finally, the intoxicating fascination of the photograph itself with its lurid abundance of

'forbidden' knowledge manipulates those of us who are addicted to it, (and who isn't?).

Musello (1979) discusses the "communion function" (p. 43

106-109) of photographs in the family. Something similar to

this can be an element of a photographer's behavior as well.

This area of photography does not, however, show as broad a

range of behaviors as have the three previous categories

(see figure 4, category 10). The term 'communion' is

generally associated with sacramental ritual and carries

with it an implication of 'oneness with God'. As the term is

being applied here, it suggests a oneness with the subject

being photographed and the activities in which photography

acts to heighten their significance. With the communion

function heavy manipulation, on the one hand, and extremely

voyeuristic stealing, on the other, contradict the basic

intention of the photographer.

As Boerdam and Martinius (1980) suggest, "taking family

photographs [is a] social activity; members of the family

photograph each other, pose each other, and choose their moments" (p. 93). There are innumerable examples of family

photo albums whose images are genuinely unrecognizable and many other images that are simply relegated to shoeboxes.

The pleasure that was derived in these picture-taking

situations had little or anything to do with the resulting

image. Rather, the photographer's participation in the

event photographed added to the value of the immediate

experience.

David Jacobs describes a 'scenic lookout' at Mt. 44

Rushmore. He suggests that the thousands of people who would rather take their own blurry landscapes of the monument instead of buying the professional-quality slides available in the nearby tourist shop can be explained by:

the simple fact that the tourist is responding to the

beauty of the place. He or she transacts or expresses

his response through the camera. Such photographic

behavior is not the exclusive domain of an Adams or a

Caponigro, even if the snapshots that result are not

always aesthetically pleasing or significant. The

snapshot, unlike the pre-digested slides in the lobby,

can be signs for personal presence and response.

(Jacobs, 1979, p. 6)

Perhaps a good example of manipulative photography that fulfills the communion function are the images taken in photo-booths. These sorts of self-portraits are very controlled, planned situations at one level, while remaining spontaneous, play-activities. The photographer, (whoever puts the quarters in the machine), quickly relenquishes his or her control of the image making and joins who ever else may be participating as a subject. The shared experience of mugging before an *operatorless' camera reveals a oneness among the participants that is documented in the resulting strip of pictures.

The many candid photos taken at family events where the 45

photographer was so involved with his or her subject that

film wasn't loaded in the camera, the lens cap wasn't

removed, or the flash wasn't activated demonstrates both the

naive trust that is put in the technology and the level of

communion that was experienced by the photographer.

As was suggested early in this chapter, the

photographer is not only in relationship with a subject but

with the image that he or she is trying to produce. With

the exception of the communion experience mentioned above,

if the photographer's actions do not result in some sort of

tangible image the picture-taking experience will likely be

perceived as having failed.

Figure 5 presents a visual representation of two

considerations that every photographer faces regarding the

'image in mind'. The photographer must, through default or

decision, choose the degree of mechanical 'purity' of the

processes involved in producing the image. The photographer must also choose the degree to which aesthetic

considerations will influence the act of picture-taking and

the eventual role of the resulting image. The photographer's

technical considerations and aesthetic considerations can be

visualized as a pair of perpendicular axes (see figure 5).

These axes define four quadrants that represent four broad

but distinctive attitudes toward the photographic image that

a photographer can bring to the picture-taking act. 46

The horizontal axis is called the aesthetic axis. The left extreme represents a photographer's mechanistic impulse. This can be understood as the desire to create an image with as little human, emotional 'interference' as possible. The value being brought to this kind of picture-taking is the search for 'mechanical truth' in a photograph. Certainly the invention of photography was heralded by many for its capacity to create 'true' depictions of reality in this mechanical sense. The opposite extreme of the horizontal axis represents a photographer's aesthetic impulse. If a photographer is striving for

'emotional truth' as the dominant value in his or her picture-taking, then that work would tend toward the right side of the horizontal axis.

The vertical axis represents the technical considerations involved in picture taking. The top of this axis represents technically 'pure' photographic process. By this is meant that the photographer allows him or herself the fewest possible options for manipulation. This decision emphasizes the value of the photographer's momentary vision and the importance of the photograph as an artifact of that vanished moment. The bottom of the vertical axis represents the photographer's decision to allow him or herself every opportunity to manipulate the picture-taking and print producing processes. This decision devalues momentary vision 47 while opening the possibility for the photographer's more heavy-handed presence in an image that places value on artifice.

The photographer's decisions with regard to the technical means and aesthetic ends of picture-taking are clear value statements. As Edward Weston suggested,

(Bunnell, 1983, p. 130) the final printed image is the viewers' means for judging those values.

The aesthetic-technical axes (see figure 5) show how a photographer's values regarding the image being produced can vary. Clearly these values must have an impact on the attitudes and behaviours that a photographer brings to his subject as discussed earlier. It is equally clear that any attempt to place a particular photographer's work within one of the four quadrants of the aesthetic-technical axes will involve a strong statement of values by this writer regarding that boiling cauldron called aesthetic theory.

Without attempting to adjudicate in the debate between the various aesthetic camps, it should be possible to demonstrate the value of the aesthetic-technical axes (see figure 5) as a critical tool by considering four extreme examples: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jerry Uelsmann, N.A.S.A, and Harold Edgerton.

Quadrant 1 combines a photographer's desire for technical 'purity* with an emphasis on the production of 48 an aesthetically powerful image. Cartier-Bresson's work strikes this balance well by capturing what he called "the decisive moment" (Rosenblum, 1984, p. 488) with purity and aesthetic richness (see plate 28).

Quadrant 2 (see figure 5) combines technical manipulation with the aesthetic impulse. The work of Jerry

Uelsmann (see plate 45) demonstrates extreme technical control. The combination of multiple images in his work is exacting. At the same time it is clear that these are challenging aesthetic objects. When a photographer like

Uelsmann takes a picture he considers the subject as it is, and as it might be cut from its natural surroundings and injected into another artificial environment of his

creation.

Quadrant 3 (see figure 5) combines heavy manipulation with a mechanistic impulse. A good example of this type of work can be seen in some of the images produced by N.A.S.A.

(see plate 34). Scientists can use computer enhancement techniques on photographed images to add colours that will help them see different temperatures or gases. They are in essence revealing facts by arbitrary means as the colours are a more-or-less random decision on the part of the

scientists.

Quadrant 4 (see figure 5) combines technical 'purity' with the mechanistic impulse. Harold Edgerton's experiments n9

with ultra-fast cameras and flashes resulted in images that

are technically both fascinating, and very clean, (see plate

12) Works such as Edgerton's apple being pierced by a

bullet draw attention to an interesting puzzle. Was the

image produced solely in aid of science or did he intend the

work to have a level of aesthetic value as well? Considered

another way: what is the viewer's share in the aesthetic

appreciation of a photograph? This question leads us away

from the photographer and will be considered in a later

chapter.

This chapter has produced two constructs that can act

as tools for the photographer and viewer alike in attempting

to appreciate the very complex role that is played by the

photographer in Photography. It is clear that some sort of

interaction must occur between the photographer's relationship with the subject and his or her relationship with the image. Study in greater depth of these various behaviours and attitudes is outside the scope of this

thesis. It is hoped, however, that the A.B.C.model and the

Aesthetic-Technical axes (see figures 4 & 5) can act to offer some direction to that future study. 50

CHAPTER IV

THE SUBJECT

The subject in photography incorporates the

photographer's intention; the viewer's desires; the

fascination of the camera as tool; and the image as

document; as well as something, or very often someone, that

is being photographed. It is the purpose of this chapter to

survey a variety of disciplines to discover which subjects

are 'worth' photographing, and when those subjects are

people how they respond to being so elected?

The field of Art has employed photography in two

distinct ways. As an original artform photography has only

recently begun to gain acceptance. The first art

photographers were pictorialists who chose as their subjects

carefully staged depictions of melodramatic events. These

early photographers, as typified by Oscar Rejlander (see

plate 35) reflected the more staid tastes of the times with

their romantic efforts. Art photographers broadened and

deepened their selection of subject around the turn of the

century as a result of the efforts of organizations such as

the Linked-Ring society and amateur photographic

clubs (Rosenblum, 1984, p. 208). Most recently, the art world has struggled with the range of photographic subject

matter. Everything from unreadably personal 'snapshots'

through journalistic and fashion photography to images 51

portraying human sexuality with an explicitness of which

only photography is capable, have found their ways to

various gallery walls.

Baruch Kirschenbaum, an art historian, had to consider

this problem when he was asked to speak as an expert witness on behalf of photographic exhibitors charged with offending

the public morals as a result of a show in Rhode Island

called 'Private Parts' (Kirschenbaum, 1984, p. 5-21). It was Kirschenbaum's contention that Art and in a special way

photography,

has been a way of dealing with pathologies. It deals

with them through the acts of revelation and

objectification. Like pornography even at its most

obscene, it is symptomatic, descriptive, articulating,

and inviting of collaboration. We may not always like

what we see, but we need not close our eyes or shake

our heads; we should see what is there to be seen and

call it by its right name without pretense.

(Kirschenbaum, 1984, p. 21)

All of this has contributed to a general confusion among art critics as to what standards are applicable to photographs offered as art. Whether this ambiguity is to be deplored

(Smith, 1982, p. 17) or accepted (Wolff, 1983) will undoubtedly be the subject for much continued debate.

The other element of subject in art and photography has 52 been discussed at length by John Berger (1972). In his book,Ways of Seeing, Berger hails the democratization of art as having been brought about by the photographic reproduction of otherwise inaccessible works of art.

Without question, the plethora of picture-books on art would not exist were it not for photography and photomechanical reproduction processes. As Berger points out, art reproductions are perceived as a mixed blessing by some because they tend to undermine the significance of galleries and tend to devalue original works by presenting them in a variety of 'less dignified' contexts (see plate

36).

Photography's ability to help us see the familiar things differently is not limited to art. Science has changed radically as a result of photography. In essence science has taken those characteristics of photography that amplify human perception and used them to carry out detailed observations of phenomena that can't be seen.

When the French government first considered buying the

Daguerreotype process from its inventor, one of the most outspoken and eloquent supporters of photography was the scientist, Dominique Francois Arago. He suggested that:

...when the observer applies a new instrument in the

study of nature, his expectations are relatively small

in comparison to the succession of discoveries 53

resulting from its use. In a case of this sort [the

invention of photography] it is surely the unexpected

upon which one must especially count.

(Trachtenberg, 1980 p. 21-2)

With the crude materials first available, Arago had the imagination to recognize the medium's potential. He understood the camera's usefulness for mapping the craters of the moon and copying Egyptian hyroglyphics. But his greatest accomplishment was helping a governmental body to realize that it couldn't imagine the vast range of subject matter open to this new device and that making photography a public possession would benefit society.

The field of visual anthropology is the earliest example of the concentrated use of visual data in support of the social sciences.

In the 1930's, Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead

centered their analysis of culture in Bali upon visual

data, both film and stills. Their historic monograph,

Balinese Character, has never been matched for its

subtle blend of photographs within a tightly organized

conceptual framework. The text provides a rich

interplay of insights as one works from sets of images

to words and back again. Visual anthropology has since

grown sufficiently to support an organization, the

Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 54

whose practitioners have spawned numerous ethnographic

films and photo collections. (Stasz, 1979, p. 119)

The subject of anthropological photography is,"people in the course of their daily activities" (Stasz, 1979, p.

124). The data gathered funtions as a document that aids in discovering the particular society's cultural character. A recent example of visual anthropological research with a bit of a twist was carried out by Stephen Sprague (1978).

Sprague's study investigates the Yoruba of Western Nigeria.

The Yoruba are of special interest because they:

...have...integrated photography into both the

traditional and contemporary aspects of their culture,

...Yoruba photography is a genuine expression of the

culture with uniquely Yoruba symbolic meanings and

functions, and with an implicit set of culturally

determined conventions governing proper subject matter

and formal coding of the visual image.(Sprague, p.17)

Sprague's subjects were the subjects the Yoruba chose to photograph as well as how the Yoruba acted behind and in front of the camera in addition to the value placed on the resulting image. In studying a culturally unique

'photographic society' Sprague was able to achieve a level of objectivity that could usefully be directed toward studying our own society and its use of photography.

Jon Wagner (1979) identifies three areas of special 55 interest for visual sociologists: "Behavior of the human

'organism,1 the meaning and structure of situated action,

and the nature of visual imagery and imaging" (Wagner,

p. 285). Implicit in this listing are two subjects: first, people's interactions with each other, and second photography and photographs as an element of that

interaction. Wagner recognizes the difficulty that exists in objectively analysing behavior as evidenced in photographs.

His recommendation, "for work within this area is that the dialectic between use of photographs to study human activity and the study of photographic imagery itself be kept alive" (Wagner, 1979, p. 294). As Clarice Stasz (1979) suggests, "the great challenge for visual sociologists now

is to establish a method, a set of rules for using and understanding images that are not adaptations of

categorize-and-count techniques" (Stasz, 1979, p. 136).

Psychology naturally focuses on the individual more than does sociology. "It is clear that physiologically we human beings experience the world in a very incomplete way.

In fact, much of what we call technology exists to compensate for this deficit" (Krauss & Fryrear, 1983, p.

43). In photography the mental health field has found a flexible tool for expanding the perceptions of client and councellor alike.

As early as 1852 the camera proved useful for 56

documenting the external symptoms of certain mental

illnesses. More recently the camera has been used in

photography. Peter Bunnell identified the source of the

medium's potency when he suggested that,"while the facile way in which...pictures are made eludes considered thought,

the majority of them represent a pictorial record of the

most private of human relations between people" (as cited in

Krauss & Fryrear, 1983 p. 3D.

The subjects of photographs taken as an element of

therapy are as varied as the individuals who hold the

cameras. In Phototherapy in Mental Health (1983) editors

David Krauss and Jerry Fryrear identify twelve approaches to

therapy that can use photography.(p.4) Simplified somewhat,

the categories suggest that photography is therapeutic in

three ways: as a behavior, the action of picture taking is

beneficial; a client's choice of subject can also be a

useful aid to insights for the counsellor; and as a basic

form of communication between certain patients, their

counsellors and family (Krauss & Fryrear, 1983, p. 3-39).

History has found in photography two elements of

interest. The photograph can be regarded as an objective

source of data about past events, or it can be studied as a

past event in itself. Both perspectives offer historians

enormous banks of information in the form of the vast and

often uncatalogued quantities of photographs taken over the 57 last 150 years. Edgar Allen Poe recognized the historical value of photography in 1857 when he said:

No photographic picture that ever was taken, in heaven,

or earth, or in the waters underneath the earth, of

anything, or scene, however defective when measured in

artistic scale, is destitute of a special, and what we

may call an historic interest. Every form which is

traced by light in the impress of one moment, or one

hour, or one age in the great passage of time. Though

the faces of our children may not be modelled and

rounded with the truth and beauty which art attains,

yet minor things-the very shoes of the one, the

inseperable toy of the other-are given with a strength

of identity which art does not seek.(as cited in

Trachenberg, 1980, p. 65)

As with the other social sciences, dealing with the photographer's intention in his or her use of subject is a major concern when viewing photographs as historical documents. "The statement the image makes-not just what it shows you, but the mood, moral evaluation, and casual connections it suggests-is built up" (as cited in Schlereth,

1980, p. 20) from the details, whether intentionally or not, that were brought together by the photographer.

An example where the historians pitfalls are more obvious can be seen in the work of Brooke Baldwin. 58

Baldwin's essay,Stereotyped Images of Blacks in American

Popular Photography, (1980) recognized that while the medium of photography was not the source of racial stereotyping, "still, it holds a place of great importance the history of negative racial portrayal" (Baldwin, 1980, p. 14).

Through careful analysis of images that were made to be sold as novelty items between the 1890's and 1930's, Baldwin is able to document how the business of producing and selling racial slurs progressed. He is able to identify particular negatives that started out as innocuous portraits but, through retouching, became 'comic'

With visual anthropology the photographic subject is

'them'; with visual sociology the photographic subject is

'us'; in phototherapy the subject is 'me'; in visual history the subject is all of the preceeding in the matrix of time and place; art photography has the freedom to draw its subjects from anywhere, but with the challenge of developing a sense of direction and creating communicative art.

Often involves not only the photographers concerns regarding subject. For example, how do people respond to being photographed? On seeing a photographic subject who is obviously being used by the photographer, whether for pornographic, commercial, artistic or scientific purposes, we might wonder how they could let their picture be taken in 59 that way. The simple answer is that we are generally passive in front of the camera. We trust the camera to be honest, without giving much thought to the operator behind the machine. Most certainly few of us consider how our likeness in a photograph will be used. In learning to become more literate photographically we must become more active as subjects as well as viewers. We can do this in part by being aware of the many possible purposes that we can serve as photographic subjects, and by recognizing the latitude that photographic technology allows its users. 60

CHAPTER V

THE IMAGE

Photographer Garry Winogrand's intriguingly simple statement, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed," (Sontag, 1973, p. 197) draws attention to all the links in the chain of Photography. At once he is considering, himself, his subject, and the image that results from his use of photographic tools. The photographic print is the direct link between the viewers, who are by far the largest group involved in Photography, and all the other elements of the medium. Bunnell described 6 the debate among early pictorialist photographers as centering around the belief that, "the negative [is] the standard or base for the subsequent conceptualization of the print. It is the print which becomes the work of art, and the negative remains the link to the subject as it was in nature" (Bunnell, 1980, p.4). Our concern in this chapter is the photographic image and the ways in which that image conveys, intentionally or not, expressive content.

Photographic images take three basic forms: original prints (in black & white or colour), slide transparencies, and photomechanical reproductions. As holograms, laser generated images with a striking illusion of three-dimensionality, become more common they may become a fourth important component of this list. 61

The first photographic images seen by the public were daguerreotypes (see plate 37). These were monochromatic images that appeared as black & white positives but were, in fact, delicate, silvery impressions that were printed on metallic plates.

Contemporary black & white photographic printing is based, as is the production of negatives in the camera, on the sensitivity of silver salts to light. Paper that has been coated with a light-sensitive emulsion is exposed to light projected, by aid of an enlarger, through a negative

(see figure 6). The negative blocks the light only in those areas that are opaque. Any light that gets through the negative is focused with an enlarging lens and gives a sharp image of whatever is on the negative. The sharply focused light that has been projected onto the photographic paper invisibly alters the silver salts creating a "latant image"

(Rosenblum, 1984, p.194). Chemical development of the photographic paper changes the exposed silver salts into metalic silver which can be seen by the human eye as tones of grey leading to black. As will be seen shortly, this developing process can be controlled to advantage in a variety of ways.

Colour prints are produced on paper stock just as are most black & white originals. With colour printing, a number of light sensitive emulsions are impregnated with 62 different dyes that react to the different colours projected through the enlarger by the negative (or positive). The developing process causes each of these layers of emulsion to reveal their dyes, and the resulting image that appears on the paper duplicates the colours of the original subject.

Colour slide film first became commercially available as 35mm movie film. The film operated through,"the formation of a triple-layer emulsion containing dye-couplers in primary colours that would block out their complements"

(Rosenblum, 1984, p.606). The transparency that resulted through the development of this film was in more or less full colour and could be projected on a screen. The Kodak corporation was the first manufacturer of this product, and its presence on the market "renewed interest among amateurs in slides and slide projection during the late 1940's"

(Rosenblum, 1984, p.606). Its predecessor, the lantern slide, had long been out of fashion.

The vast majority of photographic images, and images in general for that matter, are not 'original prints' in the sense described above. Original photographic prints, while of high quality, can not be reproduced quickly or economically in quantity. From the late 19th century, printed information in the form of newspapers, magazines and books grew in quantity and with it grew the demand for easily reproduced photographic images. The evolution of the 63 various methods of rapid printing are important in this growth, but the most significant-development was, "the 1855 discovery by Poitevin that when bichromated gelatin is hardened...it produces reticulation-a fine grain that restructures continuous tonalities into barely visible dots" (Rosenblum, 1984, p.451). This discovery lead eventually to the use of a screening process that intentionally broke a photographic image into,"a code of dots small enough not to interfere with the visual information in the picture" (Rosenblum, 1984, p.451). These dots, when etched onto a metal plate, could be incorporated into the printing process alongside text with the result that illustrations and words were printed with equal rapidity. This convenience was achieved at the expense of image quality in terms of rich dark areas and subtle tonal gradations. A variation of this so called 'half-tone' printing method is used in most of the coloured images that we see today in books, magazines, and ever more frequently newspapers.

For the purposes of this thesis the preceeding brief technical overview is sufficient as a basic intoduction to the photographic print. Of greater concern is how these printing processes can be manipulated to allow what Ansel

Adams refers to as, "imaginative control"

(Adams, 1968, p.1). 64

Photographic printing has two basic elements. The first involves the formatting of the image. Included in this are decisions such as what size and shape the print should be, and what segment of the negative should be printed. Compositional considerations are generally a part of this first element. The second element of printing involves deciding on print qualities such as contrast, luminosity, colour relationship and so on. A range of decisions is possible in this category and those choices can all act to amplify whatever expressive content is evident in a particular image.

A 'straight print' as it was referred to by photo-artists such as Edward Weston or Imogen Cunningham

(see plate 38) would represent an entire, uncropped negative that shows little or no manipulation. Photography such as 7 this requires the ability to carefully "previsualize"

(Adams,1980) desired results. Along with its content, images that call themselves straight prints express an attitude of self-righteousness that is claimed by all those who practise 'total' honesty. There are, however, many choices open to even straight printed images that may not be obvious at first, but do allow even the most rigourously honest photographer a certain amount of expressive latitude.

Assuming that an image is to be presented as something short of a full-negative print, the option to crop allows 65 the photographer almost infinite compositional choice, (see plates 39-40) This capacity to print selectively has been used to advantage by editorialists, gossip mongers, and propagandists. It is difficult to recognize cropping in an image unless you have access to the original negative. This technique alone should make it clear that a photograph, any photograph, is a very controlled human product!

Whether a print is cropped or printed in its entirety, the scale in which it is printed influences its impact. Richard D. Zakia, in Perception and Photography, suggests that,"what a person experiences [through their perception] depends upon what he is looking at and what he is looking for, what is out there and what is in him"

(Zakia, 1975, p.80). Any image is perceived in relation to the viewer. The scale of the image, therefore, will influence its impact. A human form that is printed twice human size, as in a billboard, is larger than life and its message is amplified accordingly. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of comfort in that fact that news photographs are diminutive. Imagine the horror of viewing an already powerful image such as the now famous picture by

(see plate 41) that depicts a young Vietnamese girl, a victim of a napalm attack, if it were reproduced on a billboard. Freund cites, "Malraux [who] asserts that

'reproduction has created fictitious works of art by 66 systematically falsifying scale and by presenting stamps of oriental seals and coins as if they were columns, or amulets as if they were statues" (Freund, 1980, p.95).

Contrast can be modulated quite precisely in black & white prints. By contrast is meant the number of shades of grey that can be differentiated between black and white in an image. Images that jump quickly from black to white with few intermediate steps are said to have 'high contrast', while 'low contrast' images may lack either black or white but have a more subtle tonal scale. A technically 'ideal' print would have both tonal extremes with a large number of intermediate greys (see plate 42).

As was suggested earlier, in Chapter II: The Camera, the harshness of high contrast can seem excitingly or brutally 'hard', the subtlety of low contrast might seem gentle or even bland. A technically 'ideal' print would certainly appear rich and appealing in comparison to the preceeding two choices. Photomechanical reproductions until very recently were limited to high contrast likenesses of original work. With recently technical advances such as the

'duotone' process it is possible to print very rich images at a reasonable cost.

In terms of contrast, colour printing is still very limited. Special temperature sensitive 'professional' films will allow the careful user to soften the otherwise 67 typically contrasty results of colour photography. Once the negative is produced, however, there is very little control left. Control of contrast in colour photography is therefore a matter of choosing the best lighting and film for a particular task.

One factor that influences all photographic prints, and once again draws our attention to the difference between a printed image and the real world, is luminosity. Under normal print viewing conditions, the most light a photograph can hope to reflect is about 60 times more in the brightest areas when compared to the darkest areas. Slides, on the other hand can show a luminosity range of about 100 to 1.

This means that a well photographed slide can seem more luminous and thus more powerful in at least one respect.

To put all of this in proportion, however, the luminosity that we experience when viewing the world can range to

10,000 to 1 (Adams, 1981). Dazzling though a photograph may seem it rarely is as rich with light as 'the real thing.'

The clarity of an image might seem above dispute as an ideal for those of us who have been frustrated by our inability to properly focus a camera. In fact crispness and fuzziness in a printed image were the first expressive choices over which photo-artists did battle. The earliest photographs enchanted people with their magical capacity to record details sharply. Soon, however, artists such as 68

Clarence White (see plate 43) opted for printing processes that gave softer images, hoping, perhaps, that by leaving more to the imagination photographs might provide a greater intellectual challenge and give greater aesthetic satisfaction. It is not necessary for us to pursue this debate. Rather, it is important to recognize the historical fascination that clarity and detail holds, and the expansiveness and allusive interest that softer images can generate.

It is important to realize also that current technology allows for a blending of the two choices. A simple example of this can be seen in almost any commercial portrait photographer's display window, where one can usually find a bridal portrait whose misty perimeter draws our attention to the clear,sharp eyes of the bride as she looks off into a romantic future.

Johannes Itten's work in colour theory helped draw attention to the fact that colours and colour relationships have definite psychological impact.

The optical, electromagnetic, and chemical processes

initiated in the eye and brain are frequently

paralleled by processes in the psychological realm.

Such reverberations of the experience of colour may be

propagated to the innermost centers, thereby affecting

principal areas of mental and emotional experience. 69

(Itten, 1975, p.83)

This is important in photographic printing as it relates to the self-conscious use of colour to create a mood. Kozloff

(1979) draws attention to the photographer of the rich and famous, Ernst Haas,"a Life magazine Paganini of Kodachrome, who had taken it into his head that [colour] photography should be about, not the sensations, but the sensationalization of [colour]" (Kozloff, 1979, p.188). By using the richest films with careful lighting and even more careful printing, Haas was able to use the expressiveness of^ colour to reinforce the alure of his subjects.

Heavy manipulation of an image may be obvious or go completely undetected. The photo-artist, Jerry Uelsmann has created fascinating works of art through the use of multiple negatives in a single print (see plate 44).

Technically his prints are so finely done that it is difficult to tell that the final image has been contrived largely in the darkroom. Our tendency to assume the truthfulness of a photographic image will be discussed at length in the next chapter, but it is clear that our willingness to believe aids Uelsmann's images. Very few multiple images are as obvious as Uelsmann's. Advertising

photography uses this technique constantly. The combining of an ideal sky with and ideal foreground and an ideal model 70 might be logistically impossible, but 'stripping' or isolating elements in various negatives allows advertising art directors to produce whatever image will present their product to greatest advantage (see plate 45).

The preceeding paragraphs were intended to draw attention to the expressive choices available to any photographer. These are not deceptions being carried out by unscrupulous artists. No one would question Rembrandt's right to exaggerate the effect of light on his painted subjects, but few would not realize that he, as the artist, chose to bathe his subjects in a golden glow. Photo-artists are equally free and able to manipulate their images for effect, whether those images are produced 'to order' or for more personal reasons. It is, however, incumbent upon us as viewers of photographic images to be aware of the choices being made in the production of a photographic image. 71

CHAPTER VI

THE VIEWER

"During the Renaissance it was said of a cultivated person that he had 'a good nose.' Today we say that he has

•vision,' for sight is now the sense most often called upon" (Freund, 1980, p.215). Vision, as it is applied to the appreciation of photographic images is a complex attribute. Becker suggests that:

People who write and think about photography typically

distinguish between informational and expressive

photographs, between science and art, between

photographs mainly intended to answer questions and

those intended to engage us in an aesthetic experience.

Most photographic practitioners want to keep that

difference clear. [Becker] wants to muddy it as much as

[he] can, and say[s] that every photograph has some of

both, and that this duality has some consequences for

the way we look at, experience, think about, and judge

photographs of all kinds. (Becker, 1980, p.27)

Becker's comments are in alignment with this writer in suggesting that psychological, social, and historical factors must be considered when discussing how and why we view photographs. In some ways the preceeding four chapters are intended to serve as elements in the total discussion of the viewer's relationship to photography. It should be 72 clear that: the camera sets mechanical limits on photographic image making; the photographer injects his or her personal vision into the process; the subject is largely, but not completely at the mercy of the photographer, and can have input into the final image; and that image, in its many expressive forms, has virtually blanketed the world. This accumulated investment of creative energy would be absolutely meaningless if it were not able to effect the viewer.

The purpose of this chapter is not to reprise the ideas presented on the preceeding pages. Clearly, photography does effect us, the viewers, in a variety of ways. Of interest here are insights into the attitudes and behaviors that Photography draws from us.

Psychology considers the multi-faceted relationship that exists between each of us individually and the environment in which we live. One of the most curious aspects of our relationship with photographic images is the frequently cited fact that we accept the photographic object as an artifact. We quickly and unquestioningly go beyond the simple fact of a piece of paper with images printed on it and attribute to the object an almost physical connection between itself and whichever persons or places are represented on its surface. Rather than being recognized as a representation of a person, the photograph represents that 73 person in the same way that a lock of hair or an old possession does.

Part of our naivete is a result of the fact that photographs 'offer more details than reality.' That is, the medium allows us to pause and focus on objects that our normal perceptual inventory of the world would miss.

Photographs are a two-dimensional reality that correspond to-and yet confuse our three-dimensional perceptions.

Stereoscopic vision has been called a primary factor in

spatial orientation. It exists in babies at the

earliest age that can be measured, and thereby seems to

be an innate quality of vision. (Layer, 1979, p.44)

Photographs present mathematically correct representations of space while taking up virtually no three-dimensional space in themselves. This conundrum becomes even more disarming when we realize that perceptual psychology has clearly established that we mentally adjust our environment.

For example, we eliminate the apparent convergence of the lines in the view up from the foot of a tall building and quickly convert the visual reality of the skyscraper into what we 'know' to be true and safe, which is a structure" that is plumb and square (Arnheim, 1969). Photographs are more literal.

Inescapably built into every photograph were a great

amount of detail and, especially, the geometrical 74

perspective of central projection and section. The

accuracy of both depended merely on the goodness of the

lens. At first the public had talked a great deal

about what it called photographic distortion-which only

meant that the camera had not been taught, as human

beings had been, to disregard perspective in most of

its seeing. But the world, as it became acclimated,

or, to use the psychologists word, conditioned, to

photographic images, gradually ceased to talk about

photographic distortion, and today people actually hunt

for that distortion and, except in pictures of

themselves, enjoy it when found...Thus, by conditioning

its audience, the photograph became the norm for the

appearance of everything. It was not long before man

began to think photographically, and thus to see for

themselves things that previously it had taken the

photograph to reveal to their astonished and protesting

eyes. (Trachtenberg, 1980, p.219)

The medium 'taught us to see,' and as a result, somewhere between our optical and mental perceptions, photographs manage to bypass the impulse that would sort them into the same category as other types of representations. Instead photographs are often shunted off to that part of our mind that collects our experiences of reality. 75

A very faithful drawing may actually tell us more about

a model but despite the promptings of our critical

intelligence it will never have the irrational power of

the photograph to bear away our faith. (Trachtenberg,

1980, p.241)

Photography acts on us in much the same way that a child's unfettered imagination does, drawing us into a world of real emotions and reactions despite the unreality of the qualities attributed to the object that prompted them.

Psychology tries to understand our physiological and emotional reactions to photography. Phototherapy has been able to exploit our high level of emotional involvement with photographic images. Krauss & Fryrear (1983) assert that photographs are useful tools in helping to clarify a patient's otherwise muddied perception of reality because of the medium's ability to be perceived as convincingly factual.

In discussing photographic postcards, Freund (1980) brings together many of the complex psycho-social impulses that photographic images draw out of us.

In choosing a postcard, the purchaser identifies

somewhat with the artist who conceived it. Sending a

postcard with the view of a landscape we are visiting

is an affirmation of our leisure to travel and thus

becomes a symbol of our social status...The success of 76

the postcard thus lies in the memory we wish to

prolong, the dream that we can buy for a little money,

and voyeurism with all its substitutes. (Freund, 1980,

p.100)

As the preceeding passage suggests, our outward behaviors in relation to photographic images are guided to a great extent by psychological impulses. Some of those impulses are unique to the medium of photography. There is, for example, "no work of art in our age so attentively viewed as the portrait photography of oneself, one's closest friends and relatives,[and] one's beloved" (Trachtenberg,

1980, p.211).

The viewing and possession of photographs is often a social, and occasionally an anti-social, behaviour. The field of visual sociology is concerned with the study of those behaviors as a means to achieve a greater understanding of social values and operations (Musello,

1979). The family, advertising, entertainment, journalism, art, education, politics, and science use photographs in a social context and thus need to be considered when trying to judge the impact of photography on society.

It is not relevant to try to offer here a detailed understanding of all of the varied behaviors that viewers bring to photographic images. Most of us experience a full 77 spectrum of emotional reactions, from cherishing and joy to melancholy, anger and even horror, towards the photographic images we see every week. We are confronted with photographic images almost everywhere we go and attend to them with varying levels of awareness. We surround ourselves with the desireable images of family and beauty (Boerdam &

Martinius, 1980) We inform ourselves with journalistic and scientific images that show us the world (Kozloff,1979). At the same time images are thrust upon us in the hope that they will influence our purchases or politics (Berger,

1972), and it is clear that they often succeed.

The young field of visual sociology is only beginning to grapple with explanations for the way we behave in relation to photographs. Writers in the field such as Jon

Wagner (1979) are still trying to determine which sociological questions the medium can reasonably be expected to answer as well as what the pitfalls are in using such expressive images as information. The more complex problem of the communications that quite apparently occur between the viewer and the image will be the subject of much study in the future.

It is safe to say, however, that no image producing medium has involved more of our society. Nor has any other means of visual expression had such an impact on the world's cultures. 78

The field of visual anthropology has long recognized in

photography a useful tool. The medium's capacity to

unobtrusively 'freeze and preserve' specific visual moments has allowed anthropologists to analyse cultural phenomena in detail. Magazines such as National Geographic, and others have made a modest entertainment industry out of the scientific and psuedo-scientific observation of 'them.'

Of more significance, Roland Barthes (as cited in

Trachtenberg, 1980) argues that photography represents an,

"anthropological revolution...in man's history"

(Trachtenberg, 1980, p.278). He argues that those cultures that participate in photography have acquired a type of

"photographic consciousness [that is] truly unprecedented, since it establishes not a consciousness of the being-there of the thing (which any copy could provoke) but an awareness of its having-been-there. What we have is a new space-time category: spatial immediacy and temporal anteriority, the photograph being an illogical conjunction between the here-now and the there-then" (Trachtenberg, 1980, p.278).

The example of the Yoruba (Sprague, 1978) demonstrates both elements of the anthropological significance of viewing. On the one hand we are presented with a society that takes and values different photographs than does our western culture. On the other hand we can recognize the temporal anteriority to which Barthes refers in the Yoruba's 79 desire to photograph people in order to commemorate special days. This behavior certainly has a parallel in our own culture and suggests that the belief that photography,

"embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption" (Trachtenberg, 1980, p.242) is cross-cultural, that is, innate to the medium.

With regard to history and the viewing of photographs, there are two fields that require consideration. The history of photography as an evolving medium has been studied in depth over the past 50 years. More recently, the field of visual history, that is, photography as a ^useful historical document, has begun to be defined.

Histories of photography such as those by Newhall (1964) and Rosenblum (1984) have generally studied the medium as an art form. This means that individual images and bodies of work have been presented as complete unto themselves. The assumption in this is that photographs should convey to their viewers a consistent meaning, but Freund argues that,

"captions that provide...commentary can change the meaning

[of photographs] entirely" (Freund, 1980, p.163). Kozloff asks that we consider the, "historical circumstances of which the photo is an extract. [He suggests that] it's useful to compare the reconstruction of a scene with that artifact, the photo, which is its residue. There are often whole or part comparisons, often crucial to understanding 80 photographic intention, though quite discouraged in art history" (as cited in Berendse, 1977, p.3).

In time, the field of visual history in conjunction with its sister fields of visual sociology, and anthropology as well as phototherapy will give us a variety of guidelines for understanding how much of a photograph can be taken as fact. This in turn will make it clear that much of photography, though seemingly mechanical, conveys expressive content.

Aesthetic viewing of photography incorporates elements that are absent with other media. Kozloff suggests that:

there is an aura of implication in photos. Something

[which is] very different from the sensation we have

when treating the work as an integrated and intact

composite of formal energy...the visual aspects of the

medium often carry a heavy psychological charge which

will be overlooked if you're only expecting a nice

arrangement. Sontag despairs that photos can get any

deeper than the appearances or surfaces, since they are

bereft of the causal nodes in the narrative arts.

Shouldn't we acknowledge, on the contrary, that we

often enough feel embarrassed or grieved upon contact

with a photograph, voyeuristic or exhilarated, and that

these emotional states, as they fluctuate, stem

precisely from our power of identity or transference 81

with what is seen? (as cited in Berendse, 1977, P-4)

What Kozloff seems to be suggesting is that traditional aesthetic conceptions of viewing are inappropriate for most photography and by limiting the medium's expressiveness to the rarified context of galleries and museums we would be selling photography short. Obviously photography's expressiveness is being recognized in many contexts. The medium will certainly never find comfortable acceptance as fine art by those viewers who insist on operating from a traditional aesthetic frame of reference. Few, however, will deny that photography is a powerful form of visual expression. 82

CHAPTER VII

SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION

A visual revolution was begun in the 1830's and has continued to the present. The ability to cause light and lens to impress a permanant image on paper has quickly evolved from a fascinating experiment carried out by gentlemen-chemists to a multi-faceted, international means of communication and expression.

The preceding chapters have outlined five elements of

Photography: the camera, the photographer, the subject, the image, and the viewer. By using a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of these elements it is posited that a much broader understanding of the expressive capacities of the medium can be discovered.

The camera has been shown to be at once a technical marvel and a revolutionary new way of seeing. Its capacity to quickly and easily freeze momentary impressions of light has made it a fascinating and popular method for image making. A brief survey of photographic technology drew attention to the variety of films, lenses, and cameras and suggested some of the many ways in which they could be combined for expressive effect.

The photographer was described as participating in two relationships, one with the subject and the other with the image and viewer. Combining an adaptation of Musello's 83 approach (Wagner, 1979) to the study of family photography with this writer's breakdown of photographer's behaviors, a chart (see figure 4) was devised that identified at least ten approaches to picture-taking. Musello (Wagner, 1979) identified four attitudes toward picture-taking.

Idealization is the desire to present one's subject, be it a person, object, or place, in the best of possible lights.

Documentation is the desire to present one's subject as objectively as possible. Demystifying is the photographer's desire to reveal hidden elements about the subject. The communion function, as identified by Musello (Wagner, 1979) is an attitude of being at one with one's subject that finds unique expression in the picture-taking act. This writer's three picture-taking behaviors reflect degrees of physical proximity and relationship with a photographer's subject.

Stealing is candid photography, where the subject is unaware of being photographed. Recording is a neutral, aloof but unhidden approach to picture-taking. And manipulation, as the name suggests, represents a photographer-controlled and active relationship with his or her subject. This attitudinal-behavioral classification (A.B.C.) model draws from a variety of disciplines and fields and offers a strong framework around which to build educational programs in picture-taking or picture-viewing.

A second framework was described that considered the 84 photographer's relationship with the image and viewer. It was suggested that in picture-taking the photographer was able to choose the technical means and aesthetic ends that would result in a photographic image (see figure 5). This second diagram, without attempting to define 'art' suggests where the aesthetic impulse comes into photography. The aesthetic-technical axes (see figure 5) used in conjunction with the A.B.C. model (see figure 4) suggests a cross-disciplinary structure that can prove useful to photographers and viewers alike in their attempts to fully appreciate the expressive capacities of the medium.

The subject, or target of the photographer was considered from two perspectives. The disciplines of sociology, psychology, anthropology, history and art were surveyed to determine which photographic subjects each found most appropriate to its area of inquiry. Anthropologists are most concerned with the external evidence photography is able to record of cultural difference. Sociologists are interested in photographs as data for studying social behavior. In addition, sociologists may study the behaviors that have developed around the photographs themselves.

Psychologists' found in photography a useful tool for externalizing the internal concerns of the photographer or viewer. Phototherapists have been able to exploit this fact for therapeutic purposes. Perceptual psychologists have 85 also shown that photographs offer a new view of the world that varies from our own perceptions by being more literal, for therapeutic purposes. Historians found in photography a valuable documenting tool. Like sociologists, historians are interested in photos both as documents and as elements of the history they portray. In other words, as facts and as forms of expression. Art photographers can expropriate subject matter from any of the above fields, but art photographers' principal subjects, like psychologists' are the photographer and the viewer. The expressiveness of the medium is emphasized by the photographer as artist.

The photographic image was shown to be the most flexible element of photo-technology. Despite the fact that the print is capable of virtually unlimited manipulation, photography is credited with a level of truthfulness that is rarely questioned.

It was suggested0that the viewer is the element of photography that includes the largest group of people. The number of photographic images that we face every day is beyond measurement. Suffice it to say that each of us is very actively involved in giving and receiving photographic messages.

It is appropriate to suggest that we actively grasp both the role of consumer and producer of photography and that both of these activities require sensitivity and conscious 86 involvement. In addition to expanding our role as viewers of expressive visual imagery, photography gives us a medium through which we can form our own art. More than ever before, image-making is in the hands of the people.

The liberation or democratization of visual expression is not, however, without some drawbacks.

It [photography and cinematography] multiplied the

permanent image as images have never been multiplied

before, and by sheer superabundance it undermined old

habits of careful evaluation and selection. And that

very fact, which went along with the achievement of a

democratic medium of expression, has raised a whole

series of problems that we must wrestle with today, if,

here as elsewhere, we are not to starve in the midst of

plenty. (Mumford, 1952, p. 95)

Whether, as Mumford suggests, we are losing our ability to be careful viewers, or if simply more of us now have the opportunity to interact with and create more visual imagery, it is clear that, "within our culture, the photographic image has become an active determinant in not only how we dress, act, and what we consider to be significant, but also and in a major way, how we know about things" (Muffoletto,

1979, P-99).

Our educational system needs to recognize that teaching a few students basic darkroom technique is not meeting our 87 responsibilities to educate ourselves in this growing form of communication.

"It has been said that not he who is ignorant of writing but ignorant of photography will be the illiterate of the future" (Trachtenberg, 1980, p. 214). This statement begs a twofold question: 'Who needs to be educated photographically, and how might this be accomplished?'

Educating for intelligent and sensitive viewers of

photographs is as important, if not more important,

than educating for intelligent and sensitive makers of

photographs. No matter how good we are as teachers,

the vast majority of the students we meet in

undergraduate and (especially) high school classes will

not be professionally involved in photography in their

futures. Nor is it desirable that they be. Even those

few who will be professionally active in the field will

be so in a variety of roles; possibly as journalists,

critics, editors, advertisers, teachers, gallery

directors, curators, collectors, visual sociologists

and anthropologists, as well as artists. (Barrett,

1977, p. 20)

Few of us will make a living of photography, but at the same time photography will unquestionably be a part of our daily lives. It is clear that anyone who communicates by means of photography, and we all do, would benefit from a 88

clear understanding of photographic expression. Students and teachers from elementary school through to university are involved in the daily use of photographic images. Do they understand all of what is being communicated through those images? The advertising industry has long been aware of the potency of photographs as a means of conveying their messages both quickly and clearly. How aware are we as consumers of the messages that advertising photography communicates? Each of us, as members of families and other social units, create and cherish photographs. Can that experience be enriched?

Most art education in North America places heavy emphasis on the learning and practising of technical skills.

These 'studio' courses have generally avoided 'viewer education' beyond very basic experiences with the critical viewing of 'great' art. As has been mentioned earlier,

Chapman (1979) and many other 'discipline-based' art educators have proposed that art education in the future strive for a balance between studio activities, historical and cultural concerns. There is a need for curriculum development in Photography education that addresses the need to study the 'great photographs' and various social contexts as well as expanding studio and recreational image making.

In addition to this, consideration must be given to the fact that photography reaches beyond the borders of 89 traditional art education. If the medium is to be used as a regular element in general education (and it obviously is now), then photographic communications must be included as a basic course of studies in teacher's colleges, as well as finding a place in the general education curriculum.

How should the expansion of photographic education be approached? Art educators have long contended that expressive communication by means of visual imagery is a basic and substantial component of our culture. In a society that places growing emphasis on the importance of science and emperical method, art educators have found it difficult to offer evidence for the need to support visual education that people responsible for educational funding could eccept. By looking to the various social sciences and their collective interest in photography, art educators have convincing support for the importance of visual education as well as a challenging breadth of approaches to include in a new and expanded photography curriculum.

The Attitude-Behavior Classification model and the

Aesthetic-Technical axes deliniated in Chapter III of this thesis offer two frameworks around which a stronger program of photographer or viewer education can be built. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, the two constructs begin the process of educating students by asking them to consider the photographer as the prime mover in the picture-taking 90

act. Through the application of this approach, students at

any level, should begin to combat the naivete7 that this

writer along with many others has documented as underlying

most people's viewing of photographs.

Support is growing for cross-disciplinary approaches to

arts education. Art educator, Graeme Chalmers, believes

that, "teachers and students who are ethnographers and who

study the artifacts and 'visual sign making' (Wilson &

Wilson, 1977) of their own cultures will learn to value and

understand the arts as well as to produce art that matters"

(Chalmers, 1981, p. 6).

It is equally true that students who draw from the

methods of sociologists, visual historians, as well as being

sensitive to the psychological impact of photo-imagery, will

have at their command a vast resource for personal

expression as well as thoughtful interpretation of the

multitude of photographic images that they will inevitably

confront.

The constructs proposed by this writer can be applied

to at least four areas of education. As a method for

training students as photographers, the models offer at

least ten different methods for picture-taking. In

conjunction with technical and aesthetic instruction at a

level appropriate for the particular student, the A.B.C.

model and Aesthetic-Technical axes expand and formalize the 91

'vocabulary' of many current photographic studio programs.

One of the chronic difficulties inherent in teaching photo-history and criticism is the inability of many viewers to get beyond the photograph as fact. Because photographic images, whether the work of master photographers or snapshooters are a strong blend of photographic intention and historical document, it is important the art and the history of the image be considered in conjunction. This writer's constructs, by drawing attention to the photographer's intention, can balance the historical view of photographs by blending the richness of art appreciation with the fascination to be had through the study of

'original' historical documents.

Social studies and consumer education both rely heavily on photographic documentation as an element of curriculum.

The evaluation of those images can and should be enriched.

Whether the student is viewing a photo of lifestyles in

India, or an advertisement promoting toothpaste, the images should not be taken as simple 'facts'. Careful application of the A.B.C. model can draw attention to the biases, intended or not, of both the photographer and the publisher of an image.

Finally, this writer's models offer frameworks for improving the media literacy programs that are commonly an element of most teacher education curriculae. This thesis 92 draws attention to photography as an effective and popular means for personal, commercial, and academic expression. It is incumbent on educators to insure that they understand what photographs are communicating when they are being used as elements of formalized education, and it is also important that students be taught to be visually literate.

Visual literacy should be a part of the basic equipment every teacher brings to the classroom.

This thesis is, in many ways, a beginning. It has drawn attention to the potency of Photography and argued for a broadly based approach to understanding that richness.

The Attitude-Behavior Classification model and the

Aesthetic-Technical axes are frameworks for studying

Photography that require further development. The various disciplines and fields from which they draw need to be mined to a greater depth than this thesis has attempted in order to fully understand photography and fully realize the media's potential for expressive communication. 93

FOOTNOTES 1 Howard Becker (1980) defines an artworld as,"the network of people whose cooperative activity, organized via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things produces the kinds of art works that art world is noted for" (p. X). In the case of art photography, the tradition grew out of amateur club photography and has largely clung to a serious attitude and a non-commercial image (Newhall,

1964)(Rosenblum, 1984). This photographic artworld is now very closely linked to gallery exhibitions and thus has a limited viewing audience (Rosier, 1979, p. 22). 2 The focal length of a lens is the measurement in millimeters of the distance between the objective or front lens and the film plane where any image viewed through the lens should be sharply focused. 3

'Depth-of-field' refers to a lens' ability to bring into focus objects that are at varying distances from the camera and the film plane. By regulating the depth-of-field it is possible, up to a point, to select which elements of a photograph will be sharp and which will be blurred. Both focal length and lens aperture can influence depth-of-field. 4

Lens aperture is measured in f-stops. This measurement is calculated as the ratio between the focal length of a given lens in millimeters and the opening created by the lens diaphragm, also measured in millimeters. Therefore, if 94 a lens is set at f-16, that means that the diaphragm opening is one-sixteenth the size of the lens' focal length. 5

"In 1930, the 'f/64' group, informally established in

San Francisco, promoted Precisionism through its advocacy of the large-format view camera, small lens aperture (hence the name), and printing by contact rather than enlarging"

(Rosenblum, 1984, p. 422). Notable members of the group were Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston. 6 The term 1pictorialist' was applied early in the history of photography to those who produce images intended to be art. The term implies a certain romanticism and is generally not applied to photographers who's work tends towrd hard edged realism. 7

•Previsualization' as it is applied to photography is a term coined by Ansel Adams. A photographer considers the technical limitations of each step involved in producing an image and modifies his or her technique in order to produce a desirable image. In Adams' case, years of technical experimentation gave him broad control of his negative and print. He attempted to use these controls to their fullest through careful previsualization. 95

PLATE 1

President Cleveland and Family. Photographer unknown.

(The American image, 1979, p. 53) 96

PLATE 2

Mardi Gras. By: Jacques-Henri Lartigue.

(Bowen, 1976, p. 19) 97

PLATE 3

Photographs made with a 'Kodak' camera.

(Newhall, 1964, p. 90) Chicago, 1955-7. By: Robert Frank.

(Szarkowski, 1966, p. 19) 99

PLATE 5

Untitled, 1963. By: Garry Winogrand.

(Szarkowski, 1966, p. 59) PLATE 6

The Horse in Motion. By: Eadweard Muybridge.

(Osterwood, 1972, p. 59) PLATE 7

Untitled. By: Eadweard Muybridge

(Muybridge, 1974, p. 53-4) 104

PLATE 10

El Paso and Cuidad Juarez. By: Danny Lehman.

(Lehman, 1985, p. 741) 105

PLATE 11

Untitled. By: Tom Gibson.

(The Banff Purchase, 1979) 108

PLATE 14

I.R.T. 2. By: Danny Lyon.

(Lyon, 1981, p. 137) PLATE 15

Desde La Azotea. By: Edward Weston.

(Bunnell, 1983) 110

PLATE 16

Wounded Soldier Receiving Water in a Deserted Camp.

By: Matthew Brady. (The American Image, 1979, p. 11) Portrait of a Spanish Girl. By: Michael Somoroff.

(Somoroff, 1985, p. 125) 112

PLATE 18

A Wounded Marine Awaits Medical Evacuation. By: Time Inc.

(Doyle & Lipman, 1982, p. 159) Briceberg Grade, Sierra Nevada Foothills. By: Ansel Adams.

(Adams, 1981, p. 152) 114

PLATE 20

Untitled. By: Andre Le Coz

(Monk, 1968, p. 114) 115

PLATE 21

Corpse. Photographer unknown.

(Buckland, 1980, p. 67) 116

PLATE 22

Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park. By: Ansel

Adams. (Adams, 1981, p. 46) PLATE 24

Beauty of the Beast. By: Belinda Wright.

(Wright, 1984, p. 772) 119

PLATE 25

Wild Mushrooms. By: M. Kezar.

(Kezar, 1985, p. 538) 121

PLATE 27

Andre Tardieu, Dr. Curtius, and Henri Cheron, The Hague.

By: Dr. Erich Solomon. (Erich Solomon, 1978, p. 17) 122

PLATE 28

Seville, Spain, 1933« By: Henri Cartier-Bresson.

(Henri Cartier Bresson, 1976, p. 17) 125

PLATE 31

Crossing the Ohio River, Louisville. By: Danny Lyons.

(Lyons, 1981) PLATE 32

Tatooed Man at Carnival, Md. 1970. By: Diane Arbus

(diane arbus, 1972) Massacre of East Pakistani Guerillas, Dacca, 1971.

By: Horst Faas. (Kozloff, 1979, p. i4) Ms. Mona. By:T. Fasoling.

(Fasoling, 1977) PLATE 38

My Father at Ninety. By Imogen Cunningham.

(Mitchell, 1977) 133

PLATE 39

Witnesses to Nuclear Test (cropped). By: Fritz Goro.

(Goro, 1984, p. 42-3) PLATE 40

Witnesses to Nuclear Test. By: Fritz Goro

(Goro, 1984, p. 1*2-3) 135

PLATE 41

Trang Beng, June, 1972. By: Nick Ut.

(Scherman, 1973, p. 45) 136

PLATE 42

The Effect of Two Solution Development. By: Ansel Adams.

(Adams, 1981, p. 229) Untitled. By: Jerry Uelsmann.

(Uelsmann, 1974) PLATE 45 140

FIGURE .1

THE CAMERA FIGURE 2

THE DIAPHRAGM OF A CAMERA 142

FIGURE 3

THE VIEW CAMERA

FIGURE 4

THE ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOUR CLASSIFICATION (A.B.C.) MODEL

FOR PICTURE-TAKING

ATTITUDE:

B E 1. 7. 0 on W on A u n V i 1 o Record n 0 u 0 n c R t i 3- 5. e. o o

3. 9. 10. 144

FIGURE 5

THE AESTHETIC-TECHNICAL AXES

m

T t C -At STHE-TIO p.tno-t lonal N, N" I C A U

i • manip u\at we X. FIGURE 6 146

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