Can Photography Capture Reality? by Johnny Bedini

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? & OTH ER STO RIE S

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? & OTH E R STO RIE S

J o hnny Bed ini

CONTENTS

T H I S B O O K I S D E S I G N E D TO B E R E A D W I T H T H E L E F T H A N D S I D E S E P A R A T E F R O M T H E R I G H T.

LEFT

R IG HT

C AN P HOTOGRAPHY C A PT U R E R EAL IT Y?

B I B L IO G RA P HY

SYSTE M / GRID

TYPOGRAPHY & COM M UN IC AT I O N

KI N O/ F I L M [ EXHI BI TI ON RE V I E W]

ST Y L E & P OP UL A R TASTE

R O B OTS O F BR I X TO N

R I C HA R D D EACO N TAT E BR I TA I N

F R O M H E A RTF I E L D TO M E TA H AV E N

SYST E M/GR ID “Grids might be seen to direct the messy, ordinariness of life” David Crowley, paraphrasing Michel de Certeau, 2001

REMIND ME RÖYKSOPP 2001

“A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it” ANDY WARHOL, 1975

The thought that stuck with me from this lecture was the idea that our lives, especially in an urban environment, are structured systems operating within a never ending global grid. Towards the end of the lecture, Monika showed us Norwegian band Röyksopp‘s music video for their 2001 song ‘Remind Me’, which portrayed a diagrammatical science textbook-like simulation of a woman’s everyday life in London. It shows the mechanical workings of every piece of technology and engineering she comes into contact with, and the underlying message is that almost everything we do in our daily lives in the city is a totally non-unique experience. Andy Warhol said something similar in 1960: We are all in the system of everyday life, contained within the grid of urban planning. This has been something which has been developing since the turn of the 20th Century with the popularisation and mass ownership of suits. Suits work as the perfect metaphor for the monotony and ordinariness of life – a set of clothing designed to homogenise the population, to create a milieu of restriction of aesthetic expression. This is the modernist dream – a totally functional, mechanical way of life, devoid of chance and unexpectedness. When you look at most American cities, you can see this dream being realised – blocks of buildings surrounded by arrow-straight roads, a grid through which people flow, like water in an irrigation ditch. But is this such a bad thing? Does the modernist way simplify life? Is 3

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY REALLY CAPTURE UR FIRST LECTURE OF THIS PROJECT WAS

‘PHOTOGRAPHY! FILM! ACTION!’ BY MARK INGHAM. In this lecture Mark touched upon an extremely interesting question, which was ‘can photography capture reality?’ It is not a question that begs for a yes or no answer, and it is not a question that I will be the last to attempt to answer. It is more a question of context – of what the answerer believes to be reality. Reality to me is different from reality to you. But can photography and art capture reality? There is plenty more discovery to come but from the outset I did not believe that photography could truly capture reality, and to an extent I still believe that. Many artists, photographers, art historians and philosophers, have given their view on this subject. Aristotle said 350 years before Christ that ‘The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance, and this, and not the external manner and detail, is true reality’ (Hegel, 1975). Aristotle believed that what is conveyed by art is the reality of it, rather than its physical appearance. Mark Rothko tackles this subject in great depth. He believes that ‘A painting is the representation of the artist’s notion of reality in the terms of the plastic elements … therefore art is a generalization’ (Rothko and Rothko, 2004). In other words, artists represent the physical aspects of reality, and it is up to the viewer to add the other aspects, as well as their

THE TRUTH CLAIM

REALITY?

UNTITLED | MARK ROTHKO | 1969

N O 14 | MARK ROTHKO | 1960

SYST E M/GR ID C O N T I N U E D

that a good thing? Well, I think it does simplify life. But I don’t think that is a good thing.

COMMISSIONER’S PLAN FOR HARLEM MORRIS, RUTHERFORD & DE WITT 1811

Life is worth living for the possibility of the unexpected; as much for a chance encounter with a future lover as for an improbable train collision or an unexplained seizure. Life is worth living because you don’t know what is coming next – when you make a decision to do, or not do, something, you make that decision based on your calculations of the repercussions of that decision. When that decision pays off you feel the success of your boldness – when it doesn’t, you have to pick yourself up and make another decision. And in this way life is a cycle – a cycle of peaks and troughs, of good decisions and bad ones, of irresponsible exploits and sensible actions. But this is an irregular cycle, an ever-mutating polygon rather than a circle. And this is how it should be – even if ‘chance’ was eradicated, and I knew exactly which numbers would win today’s lottery, there would be no joy in winning (especially because everyone else would presumably win too). If there were no surprises in life, then it wouldn’t be worth living.

URBAN LIFE 8 DRAGOMIR MIŠINA 2006

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? own interpretation. For example, a painting of a slum might evoke smells of sewage and animals, whilst a photo of a mountain range could create the sensation of coldness. Yet, in order to explore this question further, we must take a step back and look at the simpler question of what is reality. This is not a question answerable in 2000 words. Science fiction writer Philip K Dick stated that ‘Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away’ (Dick, 1978), whilst Dwayne H. Mulder of Sonoma State University writes ‘our knowledge is limited to the realm of our own subjective impressions, allowing us no knowledge of objective reality as it is in itself ’ (Mulder, 2004). Mulder believes that we can never truly know what is objective reality, i.e. unquestionable provable reality. Mulder’s view is somewhat existentialist, whilst Dick’s is fairly absolutist. For the purpose of this essay existentialism should be ignored, as if we take the view that nothing is necessarily real, then the answer to the original question is a flat no. Another interesting debate within this debate is commonly known as the ‘truth claim’. The original debate centred on whether digital film was less ‘true’ than analogue film, and whether a photo’s indexicality can be preserved in numerical, databased form. Tom Gunning coined the term, in his essay ‘What’s the Point of an Index?’, in which he states ‘our delight in visual illusion may play as important a role as indexicality’ (Gunning, 2004), indexicality being ‘the semiotic function by which signs indicate their object, i.e. what they are about or stand for’ (Lefebvre, 2007). He comes to the conclusion that ‘the fact that rows of numbers do not resemble a 6

“Art is a part of reality. Real people make it, can observe or experience it, and potentially are changed by it. Art is real. Music is real. Dancing is real. Books are real.” FRITZIE | TED.COM CONVERSATION ‘ARE ART AND REALITY OPPOSITES?’ 2013

I HOPE I SHALL ARRIVE SOON PHILIP K. DICK 1985

“The rows of numerical data produced by a digital camera and the image of traditional chemical photography are both indexically determined by objects outside the camera. Both photographic chemicals and the digital data must be subjected to elaborate procedures before a picture will result” TOM G U N N ING | 2004

TYPOGRAPHY & COMMUNICATION ‘Does type design and typography allow an experimental approach at all? The alphabet is by its very nature dependent on and defined by conventions. Type design that is not bound by convention is like a private language: both lack the ability to communicate.’ Peter Bil’ak 2005 HIROSHIMA POSTER WIM CROUWEL 1957

This lecture was interesting simply as it was an exploration into an aspect of design in which I am very interested. We looked at some of the great typographic pieces from throughout design history, including Wyndham Lewis’ Blast magazine. Blast was the manifesto of the Vorticists, a movement about which I wrote my A-Level dissertation. There were some other classics from design history, including Wim Crouwel’s Hiroshima poster, Jan Tschichold’s poster for ‘The Professional Photographer’, and the various musings of master critic Robert Bringhurst.

AIGA LECTURE STE FAN SAGME IST E R 1999

The most interesting topic touched upon was in regards to typography as an art. J-P Harnett said “Typography is bound by conventions of language to never become art”. I think what was meant by that was that the function of typography is to convey the language in which it is written, and therefore, under the loose definition that art is functionless, typography will always be design as opposed to art. There are certainly examples of typography getting close to that borderline – the work of David Carson and Stefan Sagmeister

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? photograph … does not undermine any indexical claim’ (Gunning, 2004). This is backed up by David Green and Joanna Lowry who believe that ‘the very act of photography … as a form of designation that draws reality into the image field, is thus itself a form of indexicality’ (Green and Lowry, 2003). I agree with them on this, the manner of storage of an image does not, in my opinion, affect its validity. Gunning also states that ‘the mediation of lens, film stock, exposure rate, type of shutter, processes of developing and of printing become magically whisked away if one considers the photograph as a direct imprint of reality’ (Gunning, 2004). This is an interesting view, as can something that can be altered, digitally or manually, through hundreds of different settings truly ever represent reality? Is there too much subject to change in the process of creating a photograph to call it an ‘imprint’ of reality? André Bazin wrote on this subject many times. He states, echoing Gunning and Green, that ‘the photograph as such and the object in itself share a common being, after the fashion of a fingerprint’ (Bazin, 1960). But he goes further, suggesting that ‘photography actually contributes something to the order of natural creation instead of providing a substitute for it’ (Bazin, 1960). I agree with Bazin on this front. Take, for example, the work of Annie Leibovitz. Her photographs convey real emotions and moods and feeling, but they are entirely staged, and therefore the total ‘opposite’ of reality. Yet they capture the reality of the person photographed. As she says ‘Sometimes I enjoy just photographing the surface 8

“Photography can even surpass art in creative power. The aesthetic world of the painter is of a different kind from that of the world about him. Its boundaries enclose a substantially and essentially different microcosm. The photograph as such and the object in itself share a common being, after the fashion of a fingerprint. Wherefore, photography actually contributes something to the order of natural creation instead of providing a substitute for it. The surrealists had an inkling of this when they looked to the photographic plate to provide them with their monstrosities and for this reason” ANDRÉ BAZIN | 1960

LENA DUNHAM FOR VOGUE ANNIE L EIBOVITZ 2013

TYPOGRAPHY & COMMUNICATION C

springs to mind – but in my view the creation of a functioning typeface can never be considered art.

RAYGUN MAGAZINE COVER DAVID CARSO N OCTOBER 1997

To me, typography that is art is not typography at all. Fiona Banner’s work could be considered typography, but it isn’t really – her work is meant to be read, the (often hand drawn) type in which it is written is not important. Hand drawn typography is another interesting subject – is handwriting typography? In almost all cases I would say no it is not. This is because one of the fundamental features of typography is consistency of letterforms, and handwriting, whilst different handwriting has clear, repeated differences, is inconsistent by nature. Calligraphic fonts are, by that same definition, examples of typography as they are consistent letterforms, despite their handwritinglike appearance.

BREAK POINT FIONA BANNER 1998

SPREAD FROM THE FACE N O 25 NEVILLE BRODY 1982

ZAPFINO HERMANN ZAPF 1998 9

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? because I think it can be as revealing as going to the heart of the matter’ (Liebovitz, 1994). Like a Renaissance painter she sets her subjects in an environment which echoes their personality and preferences, with objects, surroundings and situations that reflect their character. In contrast to the set-up style of Leibovitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured the ‘decisive moment’ (Cartier-Bresson and Tériade, 1952). This was the very instant that someone(s) or something(s) moved/ aligned/jumped/ducked and came into a perfect composition for just a millisecond, like an eclipse. Is this reality though? I don’t think it is. Take the man jumping over a puddle in his ‘Decisive Moment’ series. He is suspended in mid-air, but we know that he was standing before and after the photo was taken, but only through our own knowledge of physics. An alien viewing that photo might make the presumption that humans can fly. As Pedro Meyer writes ‘the photograph does not explain to you what is going on to the left or to the right or above or below the frame. Oftentimes, it doesn’t even explain to you what is going on inside the frame’ (Meyer and Fontcuberta, 1995). A Cartier-Bresson photograph is a snapshot of reality, but often conceived in such a way as to attempt to change the reality he was witnessing, to enhance reality if you will. Which brings us nicely back to André Bazin’s view. As a contemporary of Cartier-Bresson, it seems likely that Bresson’s photographs, amongst others, may have inspired this viewpoint. ‘I’ve never really believed that photography is about replicating the world as our eyes see it, but more about taking our personal artistic interpretation of the world and using 10

* THE FALLING SOLDIER ROBERT CAPA 1936

FROM THE ‘DECISIVE MOMENT’ SERIES HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON 1952

* Believed to have been a legitimate photo of a soldier being shot, in around 1975 it was proven to probably be staged

OM N FR TIO I S GE HIB A X IM E E H T

KINO/FILM GRAD (Gallery for Russian Arts and Design) on Little Portland Street is, much like the road it lives on, a tiny gallery. However the totally open plan and dark walls counter the possible claustrophobia, and a soft carpet and the muffled sound from the films projected onto the walls keep the noise level down. I arrived 15 minutes later than I had intended to – my untrustworthy Windows Phone had, once again, delivered me 10 minutes away from where I wanted to be, but, as it turns out, that wouldn’t be its only hindrance of the evening. But first, the exhibition, Kino/Film (I’m not entirely certain but I believe that Kino derives from Sovkino, the state-controlled organisation deployed to make and spread propaganda). This exhibition is a display of film posters (and excerpts from some of the films) from 1920s USSR, including works from Mikhail Dlugach, Aleksandr Naumov and Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg. The innovative use of bold blocks of colour and violent upward diagonals became a staple of Soviet art and design, from El Lissitzky to Wassily Kandinsky, and would prove highly influential in the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s. I mentioned earlier that my phone had not finished its uselessness on arriving at the gallery; well its second sabotage was, admittedly, not one of its own fault, but probably one of even greater annoyance. The gallery had teamed up with ‘Blippar’, a company who make augmented reality applications, and as such, the information on the posters and film snippets was available on downloading the app. Well, as with most things mobile-related, they had made the app for iPhone and Android, but alas, not Windows Phone. So unfortunately I spent my time in the

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? the way a camera sees the world to record it’ (Mumford, 2012). This is a belief shared amongst most, if not all, photographers. If photography is to be an art, as opposed to a craft, there must me some sense of emotion or meaning in an image – a simple record of what is or was there when the photograph was taken is, in my opinion, not art. Reportage and news photography is an interesting subject in the context of reality in photography. The very purpose of reportage photography is to convey the real situation at a point in time somewhere; reportage is defined as ‘a technique of documentary film or photo journalism that tells a story entirely through pictures’ by Collins Dictionary. However, reality is more than meets the eye. Emotions, smells, tastes and sounds are all aspects of reality. Therefore in order to truthfully tell a story through images often a large amount of editing must be undertaken. The most common example would be putting photos of desperate people in desperate situations into black and white, as it helps to convey the seriousness of the image. ‘I don’t want anyone to appreciate the light or the palette of tones. I want my pictures to inform, to provoke discussion’ (Salgado, 1998). Sebastiao Salgado is probably the most famous reportage-style photographer out there, and he may not want people to ‘appreciate’ the technical skill in his photos, but he has several tricks up his sleeve to manipulate the reality of what he is photographing in order to make it say what he wants it to say. Hypothetically, one could take a camera into a warzone and take a photo that is cheerful and merry. In fact, that one photo could 12

FROM ‘GENESIS’ EXHIBITION SEBASTIAO SALGADO 2013

A REAL MAN SEBASTIAO SALGADO 1993

“What I want is the world to remember the problems and the people I photograph. What I want is to create a discussion about what is happening around the world and to provoke some debate with these pictures. Nothing more than this” SEBASTIAO SALGADO | 1996

“The advantages of using film as a propaganda tool for the largely illiterate masses were not lost on the government, who supported the burgeoning film industry” EXHIBITION BLURB IN REGARDS TO 1920S RUSSIA

KINO/FILM CONTINUED

gallery feeling vaguely confused and bemused about the whole thing – not even being able to understand the film titles (my Russian isn’t what it used to be) left me a little in the dark. I felt, through my ignorant eyes, that the exhibition lacked a stand out piece, an artifact of true historical or aesthetic significance. A Yaya Toure or Luis Suarez was required – instead it was a team of Steve Sidwells; good, hardworking, but ultimately it lacked that star quality. Also, whilst the aesthetics of these posters may have been fairly unique at the time, having them all together in the same space really exposed the extreme stylistic similarities within Sovkino. For example, these three posters on the left are all by different artists. I guess that was sort of the point – industrial Russia with its industrial art, but its a little repetitive, especially in the confines of a gallery.

FRANZ FERDINAND 2005

My final, perhaps most scathing, comment to make on the exhibition was that ultimately, the posters weren’t as good as a lot of the Soviet art and design I had seen previously; El Lissitzky, Kandinsky (even though he didn’t live in Russia at this time), or Kazimir Malevich and other Suprematists and Constructivists. But its a small gallery, and I appreciate that its the first time that these works have been displayed together in London, I was just a little disappointed; as a fan of Russian art and design in the 20th Century I was hoping for a more conclusive or varied selection to look at, and some info to give a little context. My final note? People of the world remember, you can’t just use technology as a substitute for everything, because not everyone has the right technology to use your technology! Tech yes? Tech no.

AN EXAMPLE OF CO N ST R U C T I V I ST INF LUEN CE ON M OD ER N D ESIG N

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? probably then be made dark and sinister, and then back again, and so on and so forth. I feel we’re getting close to the crux of this question. Lets take a step back from photography. The issue of reality in art has been around for a long time. ‘Christianity taught us to see the eye of the lord looking down upon us. Such forms of knowledge project an image of reality, at the expense of reality itself. They talk figures and icons and signs, but fail to perceive forces and flows. They bind us to other realities, and especially the reality of power as it subjugates us’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 1983). This is a passage written by philosopher Gilles Deleuze, and whilst it is not specifically about our question, its an interesting metaphor. The image of Christ is a perfect example of a projected reality – in our mind’s eye we imagine Christ to have a beard, brown/blond hair, wearing white robes with a fairly pale complexion. It is now thought that Christ, being from the Palestinian region, would likely have been a lot darker. His image has changed from century to century – ‘in the Roman catacombs … Jesus is portrayed beardless, as the Good Shepherd. By the fourth century, however, he has grown a beard and begins to look more familiar’ (Smith, 2007). Regardless of whether Jesus was ‘real’, his image is real and yet transient and changeable – his image was morphed into what was popular at the time, whether it was blond hair and blue eyes in the Renaissance, or the hairy, dirty Christ of Mel Gibson films. The relevance of which I think is this – reality is a slippery fish, impossible to comprehensively define. Now that we’ve explored various different views on reality in art and photography I think I’ll throw my 14

TRANSFIGURATION RAPHAEL 1516-20

STILL FROM ‘THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST’ 2004

STYLE & POPULAR TASTE I unfortunately missed this lecture, but I read the ‘required reading’. Whilst it is strange to read a passage in which the writer refers to ‘peasants’ in a non-ironic, non-joking manner, it raised some thought-provoking and important questions. It was especially interesting in contrast to Adriana Eisler’s lecture on systems and grids, as she labelled the suit as the ultimate homogenising clothing. And I think both are, to an extent, right.

YOUNG FARMERS AUGUST SANDER 1914

“Villagers – and, in a different way, city works – were persuaded to choose suits. By publicity. By pictures. By the new mass media. By salesmen. By example.” JOHN BERGER THE SUIT & THE PHOTOGRAPH 198 0

The suit was designed and originally implemented as a functional piece of clothing, and as a power symbol. However, as with any clothing, there are good and bad suits. Even to the least educated eye (i.e. my own) the difference between a Primark and a Ted Baker suit is monstrous. And the ‘peasants’ referred to by John Berger will, most likely, have something closer to the former. As Berger writes, ‘the economic logic of fashion depends on making the old-fashioned look absurd’ – this is not a new theory, but it is one which I haven’t really thought about before in such terms. I think that is the issue I’ve always had with fashion – it is the opposite of design. Fashion, by definition, is functionless and transient. Fashion is essentially shorthand for ‘make a lot more money off people by convincing them that what they have now is out-dated and therefore they need to buy new things’. Although I’m not really sure the point that Berger is trying to make – is it simply that peasants are ugly and ungainly? Or that fashion drives people to buy things that are unsuitable and inappropriate? Or smply that, in times gone by and almost definitely in times still to come, those at the bottom will always aspire to be like those at the top, and this will extend to every facet of their appearance?

CAN PHOTOGRAPHY CAPTURE REALITY? hat into the ring. To me photographs represent an aspect of reality – be it a fleeting glance, a brief gaze into the middle distance, or the flicker of a smile. This aspect of reality can be manipulated by the photographer to express an emotion or a mood, but this in itself brings the photograph further away from reality. Film has an advantage over photography, as it can capture a longer period of reality, adding ‘what is going on to the left or to the right or above or below the frame’ (Meyer and Fontcuberta, 1995), as well as the ability to tap into another sense – sound. And not just the natural sound of the situation being filmed - music, for example, can be added to create an ‘artificial’ atmosphere. In a funeral scene in a film, sad, probably classical music (e.g. Claire de Lune by Debussy) can be added to create a sombre and melancholy atmosphere. Or the same scene in a dark comedy might feature joyous and merry music to cause an uneasy yet amusing discrepancy. However, like the cropping and manipulation of photography, these are ‘effects’ which are added by the artist to create the sense of reality that he wants to portray. This fake reality can actually add to the reality of the viewer – the best filmmakers and photographers realise that they cannot capture reality in their art, but can affect the reality of the viewer. Take American Beauty (1999). Sam Mendes (the director) wanted the final scene to be affecting, so he shoots a view of the street on which the film takes place from above, with Kevin Spacey (despite his character having just died) giving a monologue about his personal enlightenment. This is obviously totally unrealistic – a dead man obviously can’t give voiceovers 16

OBEY PEDRO MEYER 1988

HE IS OURS PEDRO MEYER 1983

STILL FROM ‘AMERICAN BEAUTY’ SAM MENDES 1999

ROBOTS OF BRIXTON

ROBOTS OF BRIXTION POSTER KIBWE TAVARES 2011

STILLS FRO M R OBOTS OF BR IXTON KIBWE TAVARES 2011

Robots of Brixton is a short film set in the future about the robots of Brixton rebelling and therefore recreating the Brixton Riots of the Thatcher era. The music is amazing, and most of the special effects, although the feet of the robots annoyingly didn’t really stay in place how they should have. It made me think of my friends’ house in Brixton, and how Brixton would be if that sort of thing were to happen. When in time did this event occur? Is it 20/30/40 years in the future? The Karl Marx quote was interesting – ‘history repeats itself, first as a tragedy and second as a farce’. I don’t know how true this is – to call World War 2 a farce after being a repeat of World War 1 seems both disrespectful and untrue. However I can sort of see what he is getting at – that history shouldn’t repeat itself, but people always fall into the same traps. The film didn’t make it very clear what caused the riots, (although the robots appear to be enslaved and living in terrible conditions) and whether the central character was in some sort of shisha haze, recalling the event, or whether he was snapped out of it by the TV coming through the window. It was a shame that, as it was a British production, the budget wasn’t quite high enough, but the music really is amazing. Minimalist post-apocalyptic dub is the best way I can think of describing it, and that does a disservice to just how floor-shakingly epic it is. The fact that this guy was a student just two years older than me when he made this is most disturbing. I enjoyed this lecture, although it was, by definition, very heavy on technical language relating to both formal and contextual analysis. It reminded me of being back in my history of art class (but with less biscuits).

from above a street, yet it affects the reality of the viewer. Therefore, whilst the film does not portray reality, it can change the reality of the viewer, and manipulate the emotions of the viewer, which is, really, the primary function of any art. Therefore to conclude, I think André Bazin’s musings are closest to my own. I believe that whilst photography and art cannot ‘capture’ reality like an insect in amber, they have an effect on reality. The images of Christ painted by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian and friends created the reality of the image of Christ, then over time his image evolved to the ‘Passion of the Christ’ (2004) Jesus, complete with bloody thornéd crown, dirty ragged clothing and long dark hair and beard. Mark Rothko hits the nail on the head with his analysis of Cèzanne:

MONT SAINTE-VICTOIRE | CÈZANNE | 1885

‘Thus, while he abstracted the shapes of the appearances, he still retained their particularities, for he never lost sight of his original and constant objective: the reaffirmation of the visual reality of the world, of the reality of the things that we accept as real in our visual experience’ (ROTHKO AND ROTHKO, 2004)

RICHARD DEACON TAT E BR ITAIN

AFTER | RICHARD DEACON | 1998

I really enjoyed this exhibition at the Tate. Firstly it was remarkably uncrowded, which was a nice surprise. Secondly the space was beautifully curated (hats off to Clarrie Wallis), which made wandering around and sketching an unusually pleasant experience (I’m not really a fan of galleries in general, they’re always too crowded or too minimalist, too loud or too quiet, too full or too empty…). And thirdly this was the first art exhibition of 2014 I’ve genuinely liked. Richard Deacon is a man of materials – his work is driven by the media he uses to create it; a process artist of sorts. In each of his pieces you can see where the material manipulation has occurred – the saw marks, splinters and scratches again redirect your attention towards the act of making. Of physical making, the kind of making that, as a graphic design student, is becoming increasingly alien.

IT’S ORPHEUS WHEN THERE’S SINGING #7 RICHARD DEACON | 1978-9WW

Deacon is interested in ‘geometricism’. His drawings highlight the mathematical, algorithmic manner in which he creates his work and his ideas. He has a deep appreciation for gentle, smooth curves and immense skill in transposing these onto naturally straight, inflexible materials. I did a few little sketches of the work – I don’t often do this, but I couldn’t resist as to my ignorant eyes his works suggested a doodling quality – 3 dimensional doodling. One aspect of this exhibition which pleased me immensely was the lack of ‘information’ provided by the artist/curator/gallery. It allowed for clear-minded interpretations; many of the pieces evoked houehold objects in my mind, but I’m sure that other people would get totally different responses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. American Beauty. (1999). [film] Los Angeles: Sam Mendes.

12. Liebovitz, A. (1994). The (eye) of Annie Leibovitz.

2. Bazin, A. (1960). The Ontology of the Photographic Image. Film Quarterly, [online] (Vol. 13, No. 4), pp.4-9. Available at: http://blsciblogs.baruch. cuny.edu/art3061sp2013/files/2013/02/ Andre-Bazin-Ontology-PhotographicImage.pdf [Accessed 20 May. 2014].

13. Meyer, P. and Fontcuberta, J. (1995). Truths & fictions. 1st ed. New York, N.Y.: Aperture.

3. Cartier-Bresson, H. and TĂŠriade, E. (1952). The decisive moment. 1st ed. New York: Simon and Schuster. 4. Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1983). Anti-Oedipus. 1st ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 5. Dick, P. (1985). How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later. In: P. Dick, M. Hurst and P. Williams, ed., I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, pp.1-24. 6. Green, D. and Lowry, J. (2003). From Presence to the Performative. In: D. Green, ed., Where is the Photograph?, 1st ed. Maidstone: Photoworks, pp.47-60. 7. Green, D. (2003). From presence to the performative: rethinking photographic indexicality. Photoforum/Photoworks. 8. Green, D. (2003). Where is the photograph?. 1st ed. Maidstone: Photoworks. 9. Gunning, T. (2004). Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the point of an index? or, faking photographs. Nordicom Review, 25(1-2), pp.39--49. 10. Hegel, G. (1975). Aesthetics. 1st ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 11. Lefebvre, M. (2007). The Art of Pointing. On Peirce, Indexicality, and Photographic Images. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/192769/The_Art_ of_Pointing._On_Peirce_Indexicality_and_ Photographic_Images [Accessed 20 May. 2014].

14. Mulder, D. (2004). Objectivity. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [online] Available at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/ objectiv/#SH2a [Accessed 20 May. 2014]. 15. Mumford, A. (2012). Reality and Photography. [online] Andymumford.co.uk. Available at: http://www.andymumford.co.uk/blog/realityand-photography/ [Accessed 21 May. 2014]. 16. Passion of the Christ. (2004). [film] Hollywood: Mel Gibson. 17. Reportage. (2014). In: Collins, 1st ed. [online] Glasgow: HarperCollins. Available at: http://www.collinsdictionary. com/dictionary/english/reportage [Accessed 21 May. 2014]. 18. Rothko, M. and Rothko, C. (2004). The artist's reality. 1st ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. 19. Sebastiao Salgado. (1998). Life, (The Eisie Issue), p.160. 20. Smith, D. (2007). Painting a Portrait of Jesus. Biblical Archeology Review. [online] Available at: http://www. biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/peoplecultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historicaljesus/what-did-jesus-really-looklike/ [Accessed 21 May. 2014]. 21. Ted.com, (2013). Are Art and Reality Opposites? | A conversation on TED.com. [online] Available at: http://www.ted.com/ conversations/21092/are_art_and_reality_ opposites.html [Accessed 14 May. 2014].

My only quibble would be the ‘value for money’ aspect of the show. It cost me, I think, £9 and there were only 4 or 5 rooms with 2-5 pieces in each – I understand that artists need all the financial help they need, but does Mr. Tate really need so much student money? Although I guess they let you draw in there, which is more than can be said about the V&A *mumbles curses under breath and wrings hands together*

All in all, a highly enjoyable, and highly recommended exhibition! I give it 6 wooden snake things out of 7 of those curly things on leaves. DURING ‘AFTER’ JOHNNY BEDINI 2014

ART FOR OTHER PEOPLE N O 12 RICHARD DEACON 1984 21

‘THE BUTTER IS FINISHED!’ JOHN HEARTFIELD 1935

DEGENERATE ART POSTER 1935

FIRST THINGS FIRST KEN GARLAND 1964

‘HERCULES BIER’ LUDWIG HOHLWEIN 1925

FROM HEARTFIELD TO METAHAVEN So there we have it. Nearly 100 years of political graphic design. I think the most interesting character to emerge was ‘John Heartfield’ (real name Helmut Herzfeld). He was a true antiestablishmentarian – not only did he piss off the Nazis by changing his name when one of the most popular German street chants at the time was “Gott strafe England!” (“May God punish England!”), but he was the first man to use art as a political weapon. Y

MUNICH OLYMPICS POSTER OTL AI C H ER 1972

ou’d think that the first political design would be quite meek, but Heartfield was truly aggressive in his attack of the Nazi party – in 1934 he made a poster which mocked the ‘Blood and Iron’ motto of the Reich by tying four bloody axes together to form a swastika. In the first quarter of the 20th Century he worked with many dramatists, including the enormously influential Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator. He once escaped from the SS by jumping off the balcony of his own apartment. He escaped Germany by walking over the Sudetenland mountains. Walking over mountains! Move over Che Guevara! His photomontage based work is, in my opinion, very visually striking and reflects his bold, controversial beliefs and behaviour. Truly an epic man.

EUROLOLLY METAHAVEN 2013 23

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons. By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity. In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world. We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.â&#x20AC;? KEN GARLAND FIRST THINGS FIRST [TEXT] 1964 24

JOHNNY B E D I N I BE D12 3 6 8924 26