Durham E-Theses Photography and the Role of the Artist MANLEY, CHRISTOPHER,GEOFFREY How to cite: MANLEY, CHRISTOPHER,GEOFFREY (2012) Photography and the Role of the Artist, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3493/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk i Abstract How do we think the photographer as a creator? This question often provokes a debate regarding the limits of the photographic medium: In particular, the potential for freedom of creative expression. The concern that photography is unable to afford the artist sufficient creative control over her work follows from the observation that photographs are causally related to the object photographed. Consequentially, the viewer is unable to take an interest towards the photograph as an aesthetic representation; since it is the object photographed that holds the attention of the viewer, rather than the photograph itself. However, I contend that in reaching this conclusion we overlook the decisive impact of photography on the creative practice of picture making. Rather than illustrate the artist as restricted in her use of the photographic medium, I aim to show how photography has transformed the relationship between artist, subject and medium. The access to and engagement with her subject requires a different kind of approach. Instead of following the usual route that attempts to mark out a description of creative practice which has as its centre the intentions of the artist, I claim that a more insightful approach may surface from rethinking the role of the artist: A role in which the quality of intention does not follow – solely – from the imaginative or interpretive intentions of the artist, but emerges from a multitude of perspectives. Photography and the Role of the Artist A doctoral thesis submitted by Christopher Manley Undertaken in the Philosophy Department at the University of Durham, 2010 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged iii Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………….i List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………….vi Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..viii Introduction…………………………………..…………………………………………………...1 Chapter 1: The artistic aims of the photographer 1.1: Finding the photographer……………………………………………………………………7 1.2 Technological Interference………………………………………………………………….12 1.3: Intentionality and appearance………………………………………………………………15 1.4: Technology and the role of the artist………………………………………………………..20 1.5: The fantasy of technology…………………………………………………………………...23 1.6: The fictive in representational art…………………………………………………………...25 1.7: Photography as a means to an ends……………………………………………………........28 1.8: The photographer’s intention?................................................................................................32 1.9: possibility and representation……………………………………………………………….34 1.10: The Aesthetic possibility in the event.……………………………………………………..37 1.11: Challenging the role of the artist…………………………………………………………...44 1.12: Detail……………………………………………………………………………………….47 1.13: Detail and the de-centred intent……………………………………………………………49 1.14: The photographer’s problem….……………………………………………………………54 1.15: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………55 Chapter 2: The modern eye 2.1: The modern eye……………………………………………………………………………..57 2.2: The remarkable appearance………………………………………………………………...63 2.3: Lighting the subject…………………………………………………………………………64 iv 2.4: Contemporary beauty………………………………………………………………………66 2.5: Outside the frame……………………………………………………………………………71 2.6: Striking the imagination……………………………………………………………………..72 2.7: Documenting meaning………………………………………………………………………73 2.8: Some reactions to Scruton’s transparency thesis……………………………………………78 2.9: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..81 Chapter 3: Transparency and the visual 3.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….83 3.2: Walton’s transparency: The potency of photographic realism……………………...………88 3.3: The Real in art………….……………………………………………………………………90 3.4: Walton’s neurosurgeon……………………………………………………………………...91 3.5: Intentional counterfactual dependence……………………………………………………...92 3.6: Natural counterfactual dependence………………………………………………………….92 3.7: Transparency and the descriptive…………………………………………………………...94 3.8: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..95 Chapter 4: Seeing through Walton’s transparency thesis 4.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….97 4.2: The context theorist…………………………………………………………………………98 4.3: Seeing through interpretation………………………………………………………………101 4.4: Pictorial status…………..………………………………………………………………….105 4.5: Aesthetics through the lens………………………………………………………………...107 4.6: The presence of the camera………………………………………………………………..112 4.7: The aesthetic frustration……………………………………………………………………114 4.8: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………115 v Chapter 5: Through the picture 5.1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..…118 5.2: Defamiliarizing perspective…………………………………………………………….…121 5.3: Constructing the Frame……………………………………………………………….…...123 5.4: The Albertian and the Keplerian…………………………………………………….….…126 5.5: The Albertian picture………………………………………………………………………128 5.6: Keplerian representation…………………………………………………………………...132 5.7: Crafting the visual………………………………………………………………………….135 5.8: Losing the interpretive……………………………………………………………………..139 5.9: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………........141 Chapter 6: Fascination through the lens 6.1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….146 6.2: Expressing the real…………………………………………………………………….…..148 6.3: Signposting……………………………………………………………………………...…151 6.4: Disrupting the signifier…………………………………………………………………….154 6.5: Determining intent…………………………………………………………………………160 6.6: Re-establishing the boundaries of intentionality……………………………………….….162 6.7: The possibility of representational meaning…………………………………………….…164 6.8: Framing intent……………………………………………………………………………...167 6.9: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...….168 Chapter 7: Reconsidering the structure of intentionality 7.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...172 7.2: The point of divergence……………………………………………………………………175 7.3: The critical challenge………………………………………………………………………180 7.4: The framework of a new approach………………………………………………………...183 vi 7.5: The allegorical as a point of divergence…………………………………………………...188 7.6: Confounding Origin………………………………………………………………………..194 7.7: Photography as an allegorical artform……………………………………………………..196 7.8: The fragments of representational meaning………………………………………………..199 Chapter 8: The act of photographing 8.1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...205 8.2: The photographic eye………………………………………………………………………210 8.3: Creativity and the invisible………………………………………………………………...212 8.4: Enacting intent……………………………………………………………………………..216 8.5: The ethic of photographic practice………………………………………………………...219 8.6: The relationship between: subject, camera, photographer…………………………………223 8.7: The parameters of aesthetic character……………………………………………………...228 8.8: Photographic……………………………………………………………………………….231 8.9: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………236 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...……240 List of Illustrations 1. Joel Meyerowitz, Fallen Man, 1967…………………………………………………………..20 2. Yousuf Karsh, Winston Churchill, 1941………………………………………………………31 3. Charlie White, from the series Understanding Joshua, 2001………………………………....39 4. Charlie White, US Gymnastics Team, 2005. ……………………………….…………………41 5. Gillian Wearing, Self-Portrait as My Father, 2003. ………………………………………….45 6. Duane Michals, Chance Meeting, 1969……………………………………………………….51 7. Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2001-2….………………………………………………………62 8. Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863. ………………………………………..…………………….65 vii 9. Edouard Degas, The Orchestra at the Opera, 1871…………………………………..……….70 10. Rene Magritte, Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe, 1926. …………………………………………….75 11. Duane Michals, Things are Queer, 1973…………………………………………………….87 12. Sugimoto, The Devonian Period, 1992……………………………………………………..112 13. Albrecht Durer, Man drawing a Lute, 1523..………………………………………………129 14. James Casebere, Neovision Underground #1, 2001. ………………………………………136 15. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533. …………………………………………….……..143 16. Yinka Shonibare, Untitled, 1997…………………………………………………………...157 17. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Union City Drive In, Union City, 1993. …………………………….…159 18. Gary Winogrand, Central Park Zoo, New York, 1967…………………………………...…166 19. Eugene Meatyard Lucybelle Crater & fatherly friend, Lucybelle Crater, 1970-72………..203 20. Hans Eijkelboom, New York By Numbers 2008……………………………………………225 21. Lee Friedlander, New York, 1966. …………………………………………………………232 22.Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare St. Lazare, 1932. ………………………………...234 23. Edward Weston, Nude, 1934. ……………………………………………………………...238