As part of my Advanced studies I have to prepare a critical studies text within my chosen genre – in my case portraiture. The exact description of the work in my Advanced Learning Contract is as follows:
“Contextual Studies Text:
2 – 3000 words, illustrated and fully referenced.
Define the areas of interest for your critical study. This should involve a discussion of the work of a single or several practitioners in a related field. Your study should be relevant to your own practice, and you should describe how this is so, but the emphasis of the text in on the analysis and evaluation of the work of other practitioners.’
The starting point for my work is the following extract from Barthes Camera Lucinda:
“The PORTRAIT-PHOTOGRAPH is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art.” (Barthes)
I am particularly interested in the image-repertoire ‘the one I want others to think I am’. This is the domain of posing and theatrical display by the subject. My work will explore the strategies photographers have used to limit conscious self presentation by the subject. Much of my own work during the Advanced module has been following a path of investigating such strategies.
I intend to focus on portrait photographers who have worked in series and have deployed approaches grouped under the headings set out below. Where I have already identified source material I have provided the relevant references. These are by no means complete at this stage.
- Candid portraits where the subject is unaware of the photographer which I will cover under the title ‘The Unseen Photographer’ a title used in the 2010 Tate Modern Exhibition Exposed (Phillips). Photographers/work I shall review under this heading are Walker Evans/Subway Portraits (Evans), Harry Callahan/Women lost in thought (Callahan), Philip-Lorca DiCorcia/Heads and Streetwork (DiCorcia) and Thomas Struth/Museum Photographs and Audiences (Struth). My ‘Museum Portraits’ fall into this category.
- Portraits where subject is aware of the photographer but is fully absorbed in another activity. This will be covered under the heading ‘The Absorbed Subject’. In this area I shall be reviewing the work of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin/Trust (Broomberg), Paul Graham/Television Portraits (Graham), and Lee Friedlander/At Work (Friedlander). My ‘Urban Artists at Work’ series falls under this heading.
- Situations where the photographer deliberately tries to distract the subject or where the subject is tired/distracted as a result of emotional or physical stress immediately prior to the portrait sitting. I cover this under ‘The Distracted Subject”. Here I will be reviewing the work of Bettina Von Zwehl/Various (von Zwehl) , Elina Brotherus/Self Portraits (Brotherus), Rineke Dijkstra/Self Portrait (Dijkstra). This is the strategy I deployed for my ‘I am an Ironman’ self portraits.
- Portrait subjects come to a sitting with ideas about what might be expected of them which are conditioned by social conventions. Photographers sometimes de-rail their subjects by requiring them to present themselves to the camera in an unexpected way. This might be as simple as asking them to stand very still, not to smile or requiring them to wait for a long time before the shutter is depressed. The section “The Uncertain Subject” will deal with this. Photographers who have worked in this way include Rineke Dijkstra/Beach Portraits and others (Dijkstra), Judith Joy Ross/Various (Ross), Albrecht Tubke/Portraits (Tubke), Thomas Struth/Family Portraits (Struth). This is the approach I have been taking with my ‘Ironman Family’ portraits.
- Early Calotype portraits were thought by Walter Benjamin to cause the subject to ‘focus his whole life in the moment rather than hurrying on past it’. The reason for this was that the portraits required the subject to remain still for exposures of up to a minute. I plan to review the portraiture of David Octavius Hill (Hill) under the heading The Suspended Subject”. I will be experimenting with the effects of long exposure times on the portrait pose through my ‘Portraits after David Octavius Hill’ series.
There is much to do and I am a little concerned that I have too much ground to cover with some 15 photographers listed, several with more than one series to be reviewed. I will start to post my reviews to this blog as I work my way through. I have already covered the work of Rineke Dijkstra, so the good news is I have made a start.
References
Barthes R. (1982) Camera Lucida New York: Hill and Wang
Phillips S. (Ed.) (2010) “Exposed voyeurism, surveillance and the camera” London: Tate Publishing
Evans W. “Subway Passengers New York City”, 1 February – 14 May 2000, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Exhibitions, , Available from: http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/190011726?pkgids=131 [Accessed on 19th March 2012]
Callahan H. “Women Lost in Thought”, Dec 1, 2005 – Jan 14, 2006, Danziger Gallery, Available from: http://www.artnet.com/galleries/exhibitions.asp?gid=117084&cid=83050&source=2&type=2 [Accessed on 19th March 2012]
DiCorcia P. “Exposed: Surveillance, Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera”, Exhibition, Tate Modern, Available from: http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/609410003001 [Accessed on 19th March 2012]
Struth, T. (2010), ‘THOMAS STRUTH Photographs 1978-2010’, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel Publishing
Broomberg A. & Chanarin O. (2000) ‘Trust” London: Westzone Publishing
Graham P. (1996) “Paul Graham” London: Phaidon
Friedlander L. (2002) “lee friedlander at work” New York: Distributed Art Publishers
von Zwehl B. (2007) “Bettina von Zwehl (Photoworks Monograph)” London:Steidl
Brotherus E. (Interview 1999) Das Mädchen sprach von Liebe (1997-1999) Available from: http://www.elinabrotherus.com/photography/das-madchen-sprach-von-liebe/ [Accessed on 24th June 2012]
Dijkstra R. (2012) Rineke Dykstra: A Retrospective New York: The Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation
Ross J.J. (1995) “Judith Joy Ross” New York: MOMA
Tubke A. (2006) “Albrecht Tubke: Portraits” Vienna: Verlag fur Moderne Kunst
Stevenson S. (2002) “The Personal Art of David Octavius Hill” New Haven: Yale University Press
photo-graph 
Catherine
September 28, 2012
That’s such an apt quotation at the beginning.. So much reading to do Keith and I like the looks of “Women lost in Thought’.
vickiloader
September 29, 2012
Keith, you left a comment on my blog [http://vickifoto.co.uk/2012/09/19/understanding-dead-pan/]; and I replied saying I had read something along the lines of there being different ‘images’ and said I thought it was either Clarke or Barthes; and now from reading this, I realise it was Barthes. So I have to go back and read Camera Lucida again—but maybe second time round, it will make more sense and stick in the head more?
Keith Greenough
September 29, 2012
Hi Vicki just made another post on the blog. Barthes is a French philosopher.I sometimes wonder if it is the job of French philosophers to be obscure!!…his ideas are well regarded but most people including me find him difficult. What you also have to remember is that these are ideas, not provable facts, and not everyone agrees with his ideas….
vickiloader
September 30, 2012
Hi Keith—Barthes was one of the first that I read—and to be honest it was a little like a low-flying plane for me. Although Camera Lucida is such a thin book, the ideas contained therein were too lofty for me to understand. I know I’ll get better at it—slowly—Clarke was a real battle at first as well—but now he makes more sense! Following all of the above with interest.
I remember when they ‘launched’ your blog on ‘We Are OCA’ and said it was a different approach, because they normally post blogs when a course is finished—but being able to follow as you progress through a project is really worthwhile.