Amy Stein
at Clamp Art
and Simen Johen
at Yosi Milo
Monday, October 12, 2009
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For the students of Pratt Manhattan taking the Saturday 1 - 4 pm class ... and anyone else that's interested.
Links
- Maxim Ryazansky
- magnum photo blog
- pop photo blog
- conscientious photo blog
- wanderlustagraphy photo blog
- marshall poe video essays about photos
- too much chocolate (photographers interviewing each other)
- Charles Baudelaire "on photography"
- alternative photography
- ny times article from 1897 "the last word on photography"
- shorpy (has a collection of old photos)
- photography history (lots of old essays / articles)
- lens culture
- photography-now
- photography-guide
Posts
1 comment:
I'm going to be somewhat contrary here and say that Baudelaire would actually have appreciated the type of work as we saw in the two shows.
To me, the focus of his complaint here is that the definition of art at the time required and unfailing faithfulness to nature. Photography, which at the time had connotations of "exact truth," was just an example of what he seems to see as a demise of creativity.
The shows that we saw both construct a 'new truth' that doesn't exist in reality. In particular Johen's work, which so heavily relied on digital manipulation and intricate detailing, goes beyond capturing of nature as it is.
That said, my reaction to Baudelaire's overall argument is that it seems just like every other reaction to advancing technology, particularly in regards to creative uses. The use of color photography in art shows was controversial 40 years ago, the addition of color photography in the newspaper was controversial 15 years ago. Digital manipulation in the ways that we saw in the Johen show is still fairly new and would probably evoke strong reactions from traditionalist.
In the end, we use the tools available to us to create. When new tools make themselves available, we expand our repertoire. But art is subjective by its nature and is typically defined in each of our minds by what we have known of art before. Human nature dictates that there will always be those pushing forward and those resisting change.
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