Photography Magazine
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ew York City in the 1930s saw a skyscraper boom that would change the skyline of the city. A direct result of the Bessemer Process, introduced in the 1860s, steel frame construction initiated the building of taller structures for commercial and living spaces. After this, the structure of the modern skyscraper was designed to have underground piers for support, along with columns and girders encased in a hung curtain wall aboveground (Skyscraper). In 1931, the Empire State Building became the tallest in the world and remained such for 40 years (Walsh). This architectural development in the early- to mid-20th century intertwined with the rise of the Art Deco movement, which leaves a lasting impression on some
Lunch atop a Skyscraper Art and the Skyscraper Boom of the 1930s
of New York’s most famous buildings even today. The Art Deco movement swept New York City and visu-
al arts at the same time skyscrapers rose from the ground, so naturally a hallmark of 1930s architecture became the
Art Deco style. The Art Story describes the movement visually as “symmetrical, geometric, streamlined, often simple,
and pleasing to the eye.” Furthermore, an important facet of the style was its relationship to practical items, for example buildings and other mechanical pieces. The movement was
engulfed the human inhabitants of the city into their photographs. During the 1930s, photography was moving away from its journalistic and practical use to simply reproduce
of Benjamin’s ideas, is interesting because it crosses the boundary between form of mechanical reproduction and medium of art. Alfred Steiglitz is “credited with getting photography accepted as an art form” (Harvard). Though his transformative career started well before the 1930s, the lasting impact culminates in the ability to view his photography the photographer’s surround- thematically. He is the direct ings and preserve them as they producer of a cultural shift in were observed and becoming a society that begins to value more thematic. photography for the political Walter Benjamin’s 1935 statements it has the ability essay entitled “Art in the Age to make. Taken in 1935, the of Mechanical Reproduction” two photos by Alfred Steiglitz explores the relationship depict the RCA building and between the reproducibility chronicle a time of developof certain art forms and their ment of infrastructure in the cultural impact on older and US. In both, looming shadows
From the Shelton, West Alfred Steiglitz (1935)
not so much used to describe purely visual art so much as the style of decoration and the way it related to visual art at the time. The Empire State Building, RCA Building, and Chrysler Building are all examples of skyscrapers from the 1930s decorated with Art Deco motifs. Art deco is described as “visually pleasing but not intellectually challenging,” (The Art Story) in contrast to the photography that chronicles it. Since there is considered to be no real Art Deco photography, it becomes in essence a reproduction of the art until it adds its own themes. Photographs of New York skyscrapers didn’t simply paint smallscale portraits of their subject matter, they incorporated the individuals and sense of fear and technological prowess that
“The instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it beings to be based on another practice—politics.” -Walter Benjamin rising modern art forms. He discusses specifically architecture as an ancient form of art and its artistic function in use and perception (or touch and sight). Photography, when interpreted in the context
(presumably the result of other massive skyscrapers) obscure everything but the two tallest buildings, one of which is the RCA building, constructed in the Art Deco style. In a way, the photographs hit home
Lunch atop a Skyscraper Unknown (1932)
the idea that in the midst of the Great Depression, the Art Deco movement turned a blind eye to poverty and distress, constructing buildings whose style can only be described as lavish and even excessive. There is not a person in sight, only structures that dwarf the humans who created them. Berenice Abbot’s photos of New York in the 1930s follow a similar theme. Her photography seeks to depict the man-made structures as giant and all-encompassing of the city. In Pike and Henry Streets,
From left to right: From the Shelton, West Alfred Steiglitz (1935) Floating Oyster Houses, South Street and Pike Slip Berenice Abbott (1931-32) Walkway, Manhattan Bridge Berenice Abbott (1936) Next page: Pike and Henry Streets, New York Berenice Abbott (1936) Nightview, New York Berenice Abbott (1932)
she photographs from the ground a street surrounded by tall apartment buildings and a bridge on all sides. The effect dwarfs the viewer and integrates them into the harsh landscape of the city, unforgiving in its technical progression and ability to obscure the individual. The captured history and emotions in the portraits of the city taken by Abbot and Steiglitz emphasize photography’s emergence as a ful-
ly-developed art form which conveys political messages, as a result of (according to Benjamin) its reproducibility as medium. It is hard to imagine a point in time in which photography was not considered art, as though it were too simple in its ritual of creation to compare to the production of a painting. Benjamin refers to aura as “that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction.”
In comparing architecture, which cannot be reproduced, to photography, which is exclusively a reproduction from the film used to shoot it, the difference in aura between the two media is clear. The Chrysler building, an icon of the Art Deco movement, is singular in its production of aura. The Empire State Building, too, cannot be comprehended as one of the largest buildings and greatest feats of construc-
tion without being in its presence, in effect experiencing it. Photographs cannot capture its enormity the way in which photographs attempt to capture paintings and sculpture. Buildings are multifaceted in that Benjamin describes the immersion into architecture as an art form through “use and perception.” As such, the aura of architecture is a direct result of experiencing a building, not only seeing it in person, but
using it and interacting with it in the way in which it was designed. Clearly, architecture, as a medium that is very difficult to reproduce (even on a low level) is still tied to its ritualistic basis as an art form. If the “mechanical reproduction [of photography] emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual,” (Benjamin) and instead creates a basis for political work, the ubiquity of “Lunch
atop a Skyscraper� is a perfect example. Much has been written as to the work’s history and the themes of 1930s America it represents. But its reproduction and distribution to become one of the most well-known photographs in the world have made it a part of the culture it represents. Certainly there is little to no
aura in a photograph that is so widespread it is printed on keepsakes and postcards, but the meaning it holds in capturing the spirit of an era gives it the cult value Benjamin describes as the inverse of exhibition value. The political message of the piece is one of hard work and audacity but of industrialization. The photo
was taken in 1932 (Anthamatten), in the midst of the Great Depression and is unique for the way in which it pays tribute to the contributions of anonymous men over the existence of the structure they completed. They are the foreground above the city, for a moment its superiors, all with an air of nonchalance.
Sources
Anthamatten, Eric. “Lunch atop a Skyscraper.” The Mantle, 3 July 2012. www.mantlethought.org/arts and-culture/lunch-atop-skyscraper. Accessed 4 December 2017. “Art Deco.” The Art Story, 2017. www.theartstory.org/movement-art-deco.htm#resources_header. A cessed 4 December 2017. Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 1936. Berenice Abbot. Nightview, New York. 1936. Berenice Abbot: New York City in the 1930s. TIME, http:// content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1852302_1790958,00.html. Accessed 4 December 2017. Berenice Abbot. Pike and Henry Streets, New York. 1936. Berenice Abbot: New York City in the 1930s. TIME, http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1852302_1790958,00.html. Accessed 4 December 2017. Berenice Abbot. Floating Oyster Houses, South Street and Pike Slip. 1936. Berenice Abbot: New York City in the 1930s. TIME, http://content.time.com/time/photogal lery/0,29307,1852302_1790958,00.html. Accessed 4 December 2017. Berenice Abbot. Walkway, Manhattan Bridge. 1936. Berenice Abbot: New York City in the 1930s. TIME, http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1852302_1790958,00.html. Accessed 4 De cember 2017. Ireland, Corydon. “When Photography Became Art.” Harvard Gazette, 5 October 2010. news.harvard edu/gazette/story/2010/10/when-photography-became-art/. Accessed 3 December 2017. “Skyscraper.” Brittanica, 2017. www.britannica.com/technology/skyscraper. Accessed 4 December 2017. Alfred Steiglitz. From the Shelton, West. 1935. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. MoMA, www.moma.org/artists/5664?=undefined&page=1&direction=. Accessed 4 December 2017. Walsh, Cameron. “A Brief History of Skyscrapers.” Museum of the City, 2017. www.museumofthecity.org/ project/a-brief-history-of-skyscrapers/. Accessed 4 December 2017.
Zoe Genet LMC 2000 Fall 2017