Modern to Contemporary

Photography from World War II to the Present

Art Photography- Modernism and Surrealism

• Modernist artists tried to make an artistic statement, as well as a socio-political one.

• Modernist photographers focused on detail, texture and the fascinating combinations of lines shapes and forms in the world around them.

• Modernism not only influenced the aesthetics of photography, but also the craft of making photographs. Modernist photographers were excellent technicians and developed new techniques while mastering the old ones.

Alfred Stieglitz. Spring Showers, New York.1911. Photogravure

Alfred Stieglitz

The Hand of Man. 1902, Photogravure

Equivalent, 1925, Gelatin Silver Print

Edward Steichen

Self Portrait with Brush and Palette, 1902, gum print

Sunday Night, 40th St. New York, 1925, Silver Gelatin Print

Minor White

Rochester, 1954

Beginnings, 1962

Harry Callahan

Weeds Against the Sky, Detroit. 1948 Eleanor, 1951

Frederick Sommer

Valise d’Adam, 1949. Silver Gelatin Print

Virgin and Child with St. Anneand the Infant St. John, 1966. SilverGelatin Print

Photojournalism• Along with fine art

movements in photography, photojournalism has helped shape contemporary themes in photographic art. The concept of “reality” has become a key concept in the field of photography. What is real? Does the photographic artist have the same right to invent reality that a painter or sculptor does or should photography always be bound by what can be put in front of the camera?

Jacob Riis, Bandit’s Roost, 1888

Eugene Atget

• Eugene Atget was the first person to make artistic use of the 35mm camera format. His photographs are not only a comprehensive documentation of French life, they are beautifully composed fine art photographs. Atget is often considered the father of photojournalism for his combination of documentary and fine art principles.

Eugene Atget, Avenue des Gobelins.Ca. 1926

War Photography

• Photojournalism’s insistence on showing the dirty, ugly, evil and horrific aspects of life, gave contemporary photographers the courage to present increasingly more disturbing imagery.Don McCullen. Wounded Father

and Daughter. 1960s

Ron Haviv. Arkan’s troops attacking MuslimCivilians, Bijeljina, Bosnia, 31 March 1992

W. Eugene Smith• Photojournalism also

introduced the “photo essay” format- a narrative in pictures that often speak much louder than words. W. Eugene Smith is generally credited with inventing this presentation format, but many famous photographers have worked in this way; particularly the FSA and war photographers.

Wounded Soldier, Okinawa. 1945

The Wake, Spanish Village. 1951

Robert FrankStreet Car- New Orleans, from The Americans

Street Photography

Starting with EugeneAtget, photographers’depictions of everydaylife presented a way forviewers to see how otherpeople lived. This newinsight opened people upto the idea that life itselfhas artistic merit and thatother experiences and points of view arevaluable and necessary.

Robert Frank

Parade- Hoboken, New Jersey. 1955

Robert Frank

Political Rally- Chicago. 1956Political Rally- Chicago. 1956

Mary Ellen Mark

Tiny in Her Halloween Costume, Seattle WA, 1983

Homeless Damm Family, Los Angeles CA, USA. 1987

Sebastiao Salgado

Cast of Thousands in the Gold Mine of Serra Pelada, Serra Pelada in the Federal State of Para, Brazil, 1986

Sebastiao Salgado

Firefighters at WorkSabotaged Oil Wells in Kuwait,1991

Refugee camp at Benako, Tanzania, 1994.

Commercial Photography• Using themes present in

journalistic imagery as well as the techniques and aesthetics of fine art photography, commercial advertisement photography played a great role in defining cultural and societal identities during the early 20th Century. This kind of idealization of the “American Dream” and American identity plays prominently in contemporary views on cultural and societal roles.

Ed Steichen. 1932, Steinway and SonsPiano Advertisement (Mother and Son)

Hollywood and Fashion

• The concept of “celebrity” really took off in the age of motion pictures and glamour photography.

• Many contemporary artists play with the idea of cultural identity, which is very much molded by both advertisement and the behavior of celebrities, both of which simultaneously reflect and dictate contemporary behavior and norms.

Nickolas Muray, Elizabeth Taylor1948

Cecil Beaton

• Cecil Beaton was one of the most popular and influential Hollywood photographers. His style almost single-handedly defined Hollywood glamour.

Cecil Beaton. Marlene Dietrich. 1935

George Hurrell

Norma Shearer, 1932Jean Harlow, 1930s

Nickolas Muray and Victor Keppler

Nickolas Muray. Woman in Cell PlayingSolitaire. 1950

Victor Keppler. Housewife in Kitchen. 1940

In addition to style, commercial photographyhelped define gender roles and other “types”In American culture.

Richard Avedon

• Avedon worked from the 1950 to the 1980s as one of the top commercial photographers in the world.

• He was an advisor for the film Funny Face, starring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, which is based on his work and the fashion industry.

Richard Avedon. Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d'Hiver, Paris 1955

Irving Penn

• Inspired by both Beaton and Avedon, Irving Penn was the art director for Vogue magazine, shooting over 100 covers himself.

Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950

Deborah Turbeville

Modny Dom Gallery, Omsk

Sarah Moon

Guy Bourdin

Bettina Rheims

Madonna - Lying on the Floor of a Red Room, September 1994

David LaChapelle

Mike Myers. Vanity Fair. 1999 Husqvarna Chainsaw Ad. 1999

Steven Meisel

Both images from Four Days in L.A. the Versace Pictures. 2001

Contemporary Art Photography- After the 60s

• Photographers in the 1960s, inspired by the social change of the time, created artwork that was based more on a concept than on formal beauty. The 60s began what we call the “post-modern” age. Postmodernism is an attempt to subvert and destroy boundaries based on style, medium, politics and other social constructs. The post-modernists were concerned with questioning those constructs.

• The major themes in contemporary art are Identity, Time, Place, and Culture (including Technology).

“Blaze Starr At Home”, 1964, Diane Arbus

Identity

• The social constructs that define both personal and group identities- gender, ethnicity, class and economic status- are a rich source of material for postmodern artists. Most explore what social definitions of identity mean, both psychologically and sociologically.“King and Queen of a Senior Citizens’

Dance”, 1970, Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus

• Arbus is arguably the most influential female photographer after World War II. After studying with another famous photographer, Lisette Model, Arbus made photographs that called into question the creative rights of a photographer as well as the sheer ability of a photograph to reveal something secretive.

Untitled

Diane Arbus

Both images, Untitled

Lee Friedlander

• Friedlander’s street photographs and self portraits explore the theme of identity from a personal standpoint in relationship to one’s physical place in the world. He is also interested in breaking up surfaces and creating a confusing sense of depth and space.

New Orleans, 1968

New York City, 1966

Gary Winogrand• Winogrand was a

pioneer of the “shoot from the hip” style of photography also used by Friedlander. Winogrand’s series “Women are Beautiful”, published in1975, is both an homage and a critique of feminine beauty and cultural standards of femininity.Both images untitled from the series,

“Women Are Beautiful”, 1975

Cindy Sherman

• Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” cast the artist herself as a solitary heroine in a cultural drama. By playing various stereotypical roles, Sherman explores the meaning of identity in culture. The title of the series encourages viewers to complete the rest of the “film” on their own.

Untitled Film Still #14. 1971

Nancy Burson

Lorna Simpson

• Lorna Simpson’s work explores the meaning of being a woman and an African- American by examining how history, words and images define identity and social roles.

Coiffure. 1991Waterbearer. 1986

Nan Goldin

• Nan Golden’s sometimes disturbing images of her friends and lovers offers an extremely intimate portrait of her own life. Most of her work deals very intimately with relationships and personal struggle.

Nan Goldin, Rise and Monty on the lounge chair, NYC, 1988. From the series Ballad of Sexual Dependency

Yasumasa Morimura

• Morimura uses digital enhancement and elaborate costumes and sets to explore Western culture through the eyes of an Easterner who was brought up on Western art. His work explores how identity changes or is influenced by other cultures.

"An Inner Dialogue With Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns"

Nikki S. Lee

The Hip Hop Project, 2001

Parts [6], 2002- 2003

Go Watanabe

Mariko Mori

Time• The concept of time is dealt

with through the exploration of history and the nature of time itself. Photography is a time- based medium. Time itself is used by the photographer to capture the image. Contemporary photographers have dealt with this by examining what a camera can capture over a period of time. Many artists who deal with time do so by exploring older photographic processes as well.Custom House. Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell

• Morell uses the old camera obscura technique to create dreamlike interiors. His combination of old and new techniques represents a trend in contemporary photography to examine the roots of the medium.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

• Much of Sugimoto’s work explores the meaning and function of time. His shots of exhibits at Natural History and wax museums examine how we redefine things over time.

• Many of his works are a meditation on time and light.

Earliest Human Relatives, 1994

Union City Drive- In 1978

Anna And Bernhard Blume

• The Blumes use motion and a Surrealist aesthetic to explore the effects of time and events on a person’s psychological state.

From the series, Trautes Heim, 1985-86

Place

• The concept of exploring a place can involve exposing it’s past as well as it’s present state. Many artists who use this concept are interested in the way events build hidden meaning into a place or in the ways in which human beings use or misuse resources.

Beate Gutschow. LS #13, 2001

New Topographics

The New Topographics Photographers tried to show how human interaction hasImpacted the once wild and untamable American west.

John PfahlWave, Lave, Lace, Pescadero Beach, California, 1978

Lewis Baltz#40 South Wall, Mazda Motors, 2121 East Main Street, Irvine, 1974

Robert AdamsClear Cutting- Oregon

Stephen Shore

Both Images from the series, Uncommon Places. 1970s

William Eggleston

• William Eggleston’s work used color as a compositional element at a time when “true” art photographers mostly worked in black and white.

• His work seeks to redefine ordinary objects and places from boring clichés into idyllic reminiscences and studies in color.

Memphis. 1975

Untitled (field of yellow and purple flowers). 1978

Joel Sternfeld

After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California. July 1979

McLean, Virginia, Dec 1978 1978

Jeff Wall

• Wall is one of contemporary photography’s biggest stars. He uses elaborate set- ups, multiple exposures and digital enhancement to create epic scenes that look spontaneous.The Destroyed Room. 1978

Jeff Wall

Picture For Women, 1979A Sudden Gust of Wind, after Hokusai

After, ‘Invisible Man”, The Prologue Milk

Culture and Technology

• Another popular theme for contemporary photographers is the critique of consumer society. Inspired by documentary and journalistic photography, artists who critique society are interested in the ways that society pressures us to conform by consumption and the ways in which contemporary humans interact with ecology.

“Oppenheimer’s Garden”, 1999. Robert And Shana ParkeHarrison

Historical, or “Alternative” Processes

• Many contemporary photographers are now using older processes in new ways or combining old processes with new ones.

Adam Fuss, “My Ghost”, 1999.Unique Silver Gelatin Photogram

Irving Pobboravsky

Japanese garden. Daguerreotype1975 (ca).

Pool GEH garden. Daguerreotype1994 

Jerry Spagnoli

Obama Inauguration (Swearing In), 2009/2009

Sally Mann

• Sally Mann uses the wet plate collodion process used during the Civil War. Her images of death and the ghosts of the Deep South are deeply haunting. By using a process used during the time of the Civil War, she makes a deeper connection to the ghosts of suffering, guilt, resentment and defiance that still linger from the war and still permeate the southern United States geographically and psychologically.

Sally Mann, Deep South, 2005

Mark Osterman

• Mark Osterman taught Sally Mann the art of wet plate collodion photography. He is considered by many to be America’s leading authority on old processes- particularly wet plate.

Mark Osterman, Two-headed Boy [Amnesia Curiosa] 2006 (ca) Salt print from a collodion negative

Mike Robinson

• As president of the Photographic Historical Society of Canada, Mike Robinson still practices and teaches daguerreotype photography at Ryerson university in Toronto.

Mike Robinson, “Valentine”, Daguerreotype Double Exposure. 2006

Dan Estabrook

Message in a BottleWatercolor and Gouache on Salted Print

Little Devils, no. 3Pencil on Salted Print

Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

• Husband and wife, the ParkeHarrisons’ work casts Robert as a kind of post- apocalyptic “everyman” in search of new ways of communicating in a strange new world.

Tree Sonata

Binh Danh

Study for Transmission, no. 3Chlorophyll Print preserved in Resin

Ancestral Altar, no. 11Chlorophyll Print preserved in Resin

Binh Danh

Ancestral altar, no. 14Chlorophyll Print preserved in Resin

Ghost of Tuol SlengDaguerreotype

Sandy Skoglund

• Skogland’s work combines installation art with photography. Her colorful rooms populated by teeming animals are part sculpture, part installation and part photography. They present a comment on nature’s place in a human- dominated world and seem to suggest what might happen if animals overran our lives.Gathering Paradise. 1991

C- Print

Sandy Skoglund, “Revenge of the Goldfish”, 1981. C- print

Teun Hocks

• Like the ParkeHarrisons, Teun Hocks presents an “everyman” character trying to make his way in a strange, sparsely populated world. Hocks’ work also uses humor as a way to engage the viewer.

Untitled (Drummer), 2005Acrylic on Silver Gelatin

Andreas Gursky

• Gursky’s highly composed images of factories and huge Wal-Mart- type stores convey a sense of repetitiveness in modern life.

“99 cent II Dyptichon”

Andreas Gursky

"Pyongyang I,“2007“Mayday V”, 2006

Gregory Crewdson

• Crewdson’s elaborate sets create a sense of unease as he comments about suburban life.

From the series, “Twilight”

Gregory Crewdson

All images Untitled from the series, “Twilight”

What is the future of photography?

Helen Chadwick