EYES WIDE OPEN! 100 Years of Leica

Paolo Roversi 1969

Exhibition view, Portraits by Paolo Roversi 1969

Going to see the exhibition on the last day wasn’t the wisest decision. The Kunstfoyer was overran by hundreds of people who took their last chance to see the highlights of 100 years of Leica photography. The first fully functioning model of a Leica camera was built by Oskar Barnack at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar in 1914. It was the first camera that used standard 35mm cinema film. Due to the war the camera wasn’t launched until 1925, but then its story of success began. The camera marked a paradigm change in photography. The film role allowed the photographer to take 36 pictures in quick succession whilst the small format enabled to take the the camera everywhere and to capture the seen spontaneously. The Leica corresponded to the spirit of a new, fast-paced era. For most Leica photographers the camera wasn’t just a device, they had a close and affectionate relationship to their camera. The exhibition showed a range of different Leica models beginning with a reconstruction of the very first Leica. The photographs didn’t only represent the story of the Leica camera, rather they showed a history of photography. Between them you find iconic pictures of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Alfred Eisenstaedts famous kiss, V.J. Day, Time Square 1945. My personal highlights were the portraits by Bruce Gilden and Paolo Roversi. 

Exhibition view, Bruce Gilden "Portraits" 2013

Exhibition view, Bruce Gilden “Portraits” 2013

Good to know if you wan’t to impress people with your photography knowledge:

The name Leica is a combination of the first three letters of the founders surname (Ernst Leitz) and the first two letters of the word camera.

Photo London Fair 2016

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A weekend stuffed with awesome photography, exhibitions, books, talks and great conversations.

Last weekend I visited the second edition of the Photo London Fair that took place at Somerset House next to the river Thames from 19. – 22. May 2016. The Photo London weekend started for me with a talk by the British photographer Martin Parr, who is well known for his colorful and ironic portraits of British society. Parr isn’t only a photographer, he is a curator, collector and author as well, but when he introduces himself, he describes himself as an entertainer. So you can imagine a talk by Martin Parr is everything else than boring. After the talk he signed books in front of his Real Food Van where you can try the food of his new photobook Real Food (the pumpkin and goats cheese pie was delicious!)

Martin Parr Real Food Van

Martin Parr Real Food Van

Saturday was dedicated to visit the uncountable exhibitions of the fair. The Fair is so huge that one day is hardly enough to see everything (especially because it was open from 12 – 6pm only). Nevertheless I did all of the fair in one day because my todo list for the weekend was enormous. Almost a hundred exhibitors showed their best works from vintage prints of the greatest photographers to young and contemporary artists. You can find the most famous and iconic pictures that you know from the books at the fair and you can actually buy them (well if you can afford them). In my opinion it’s a great characteristic of photography, that it’s usually produced in editions and therefore more approachable.

Don McCullin

Don McCullin

In the mezzanine of Somerset house Hamiltons Gallery showed an atmospherically curated solo exhibition of the British photo journalist Don McCullin who is famous for his documentation of disasters and wars. The basement housed two other solo shows, Sergey Chilikov ‘Photoprovocations’ and Craig Horsefield ‘Twelve’ and also a small exhibition of awarded photobooks.

Sergey Chilikov Photoprovocations

Sergey Chilikov Photoprovocations

I really enjoyed the fair and will definitely come back next year. My recommendation: If you want to see all of the fair and want to have some time to talk to gallerists and artists plan at least two days for the fair.  It also is a great place to network if you are in the art photography business.

http://photolondon.org

Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century

Paul Strand Cameras, Victoria ans Albert Museum Exhibition

On my weekend trip to London to visit the Photo London Fair, the first exhibition I went to see was Paul Strand at the V&A and it was one of the best exhibitions I had seen in the last couple of month. Maybe I was kind of affected because I really like Strands photography, but the exhibition was very well curated showing an interesting and extensive selection of his works. The other way around it’s easy to get disappointed having the expectation of a mind-blowing exhibition. Howsoever, Paul Strand was one of the greatest and most influential photographers of the 20th century whose images have defined the way fine art and documentary photography is understood and practiced today. The V&A curated a journey through Paul Strands life and departed his works into six periods:

Strand fence

The White Fence, Port Kent, 1916

I. A Modern Vision: The first room shows Strands early work where he was influenced by pictorialistic works by Alfred Steglitz. In the 1910’s he explored a variety of subjects e.g. modern city, people and abstract photography. On the way to the second room you can sit down and watch his movie Manhatta from 1921.

 

II. Looking at Nature: In 1919 Strand started to use a large format camera what brought more clarity into his pictures, so he started to take a lot of nature photographs.

III. Intimate Portraits: In 1922 he bought a his first film camera a Akeley Motion Picture Camera. He was in love with his camera and his wife so he took numerous intimate portraits of both, the camera and the woman.

Paul Strand Rendes The Wave Native Land

Exhibition View, Paul Strand Rendes 1936

IV. America, Canada & Mexico: Strand was a traveller. In the 1920’s and 1930’s he toured trough America, Canada and Mexico. When he moved to Mexico in 1932 he got involved with the local socialist politics. He shot two critical short films: Redes (The Wave) 1936 that tells the story of a group of Mexican fisherman striking and Native Land 1942 that doesn’t dread showing cruelty and violence to raise awareness for the the civil liberties violations in the US.

Young Boy, Paul Strand, 1951

Young Boy, Paul Strand, 1951

 

V. Portraits of Places: From 1945 Strand travelled around the US, Europe and Asia for numerous book projects. His choice of places was mainly politically motivated. In addition to the photographs his books about places and its people are displayed in showcases.

 

VI. At Home in Orgeval: Paul Stand spent the last 26 years of his life (New York 1890 – 1976 Orgeval) with his wife in the small french village of Orgeval. For the first time in his live he had his own darkroom in his house. He lived a quiet life exploring nature in his photographs.

The exhibition is on until 3. July 2016 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

More information:

https://www.vam.ac.uk/

bird bald book bubble bucket brick potato

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The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest shows Marton Perlakis first solo exhibition, showcasing a selection of his series ‘bird bald book bubble bucket brick potato’ 2014-2015. The Hungarian photographer created a coherent allegorical series of object and portrait photographs that is organized around a single, peculiar character Elmér. His series questions the communication mechanisms and aesthetic conventions that define our understanding of reality.

Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, Budapest 8.3. – 11.4. 2016

 

François Fontaine – Silenzio!

Leica Gallery Vienna

François Fontaines work ‘Silezio! Mémoires de cinema’ is an atmospheric journey through film history. The pictures show blurry stills shot directly from the screen. Fontaine reveals iconic film scenes of Hitchcocks Vertigo, Brigitte Bardot in Godards or Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia. Scenes that we remember and associate with our own memories.

François Fontaine, Silenzio! Kino der Erinnerungen (Mémoires de cinema) 15.1-16.4.2016 Leica Store Vienna 

Hiroji Kubota

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WestLicht Museum Vienna presents a collection of over 80 photographs by the Magnum photographer Hiroji Kubota. The Japanese photographer is a world traveler, who takes his time and engages with the particularities of the places and people to capture them in his pictures. His photographs form multifaceted portraits of the traveled countries. After studying in America he traveled through China for over 6 years and returned over 75 times to his favorite destination Myanmar.

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Bild: (c) Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos

WestLicht Museum Vienna 3.3. – 22.5.2016

Walker Evans – American Photographs

Walker Evans American Photographs – Exhibition and Photobook

and their Affects on Photography’s Status as Art

Walker Evans is one of the best known American photographers. Quantities of publications have been released about him since his famous exhibition American Photographs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1938. Nevertheless, most of his iconic pictures weren’t supposed to be shown as fine art in the beginning. Many of them were taken during Evans work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), a governmental program between 1935 and 1944, that was founded to raise attention for the poverty of the American countryside population. In fact, his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art was the first one-person photography show in an art museum, which marks it as a milestone in photography’s history, as well as for photography’s status as fine art. The importance of the exhibition is still noticeable. In 2013 the Museum of Modern Art presented a 75th anniversary show with a display of more than 50 prints from the original exhibition. Furthermore, they published a new edition of  the corresponding photobook. 

Let’s have a look at Walker Evans’ exhibition of 1938, as well as the accompanying publication and see if and how they affected the status of photography as art. Can we find any strategies in Evans’ photographs that might indicate that the work has been made for an art context? How does the exhibition’s display and interpretation contribute to our understanding and valuing of it as art?

Walker Evans American Photographs, MOMA 1938

In 1938, Walker Evans was asked to give a solo photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Evans already had exhibited in the MOMA in the previous years, but the uniqueness of this exhibition was the fact that it was the first one-person exhibition of a photographer. The exhibition space wasn’t the usual Gallery but a contemporary space in the basement of the Rockefeller Center. The exhibition opened on 28 September 1938 and finished after two month on 18 November 1938. Afterwards a slightly varied version of the exhibition circulated to ten venues around the United States until 1941. Although, the Museum of Modern Art’s curator of photography, Beaumont New Hall, was rightfully accountable of curating the show, Walker Evans himself took over his part and created the display, including the planning, editing and sequencing of the show. According to New Hall, Evans chose one hundred of his works and installed them, together withScreen-shot-2013-08-09-at-4.14.06-PM his friend Lincoln Kirstein – over night. The presentation of the photographs was very varied. He used different formats for his prints and cropped them depending on the context. Some of the prints were shown in square white frames behind glass, whereas others were simply mounted on boards or glued directly on the wall.

 

However, the arrangement of the pictures was not arbitrarily. The context between the photographs was very important for Evans, even though there is no narrative order to find in his work. A picture can have a designated meaning next to another image, whereas it can have an unmitigatedly different meaning next to another one. The one hundred photographs Evans chose for his show were divided into two parts. The first part was presented on the southern side of the exhibition space and was dedicated to show the population of East America. Most of the photographs were portraits of people in their ordinary environment, local advertisement and photographs of statues representing local heroes. The second part on the other hand, gives an outline of vernacular architecture. Evans shows different types of houses and churches in urban and agricultural areas, creating an architectural identity of the United States of America.

Walker Evans’ Photographic Work

With the structure of Walker Evans American Photographs exhibition in mind, we can now have a closer look at Evans and his photographic work. Evans was born in 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri and died in 1975 in Yale, Connecticut. His photographic carrier started in 1928 when he returned from a one year stay in Paris, where he had tried to become a writer. Back in New York he learned how to use a camera and got his first commission to take photographs for a book. His early photography was greatly influenced by European Modernism. In his early years, his intention was “to bring the strategies of literature – lyricism, irony, incisive description, and narrative structure into the medium of photography“, as the Metropolitan Museum of Art claims. In 1935 Evans started to work for the Resettlement Administration (RA), later Farm Security Administration (FSA), a governmental photography program that should raise attention for the poor conditions in rural areas during the American depression.


Although, Roy E. Stryker, head of the association, predetermined the photographic topics, Evans worked in his own style. He traveled through the eastern parts of the United States and stayed with farmer families for several weeks. Evans, with his background in writing, was interested in the stories behind the pictures. In contrast to his colleague Dorothea Lange, he got to know the people and portrayed them in a more personal and intimate way. Around one third of the photographs shown in the American Photographs exhibition originate in his FSA work. An example therefor is his famous picture Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife. The photograph was taken in 1936, when Walker Evans and James Agee lived with Allie Mae Burroughs (the portrayed woman) and her husband Floyd in their small cabin for several weeks. The family lived under poor circumstances and owned nothing. Their land, cabin and tools were leasedh2_2001.415 from their landlord and their costs for leasing and living were higher than their income. Evans took four photographs of Allie against the wooden wall of their cabin and chose the most pleasing, inviting, and amenable from his negatives to show in the exhibition. The portrait was taken very close-up and allows the observer a straight look into the woman’s eyes. Thereby, he creates a very familiar and intimate moment. The woman’s face is signed by her hard live. Although, taken on commission for his FSA work, the photograph reveals Evans artistic style of photography. He shows her in a clear and straight way, refusing any kind of artistic pictorialism. The framing of the portrait, nevertheless, gives us the impression of a Madonna or a modern Mona Lisa.

hb_2011.553.4To give another illustration on Evans’ photographic style, let us have a look at the picture New Orleans House (1935), which was part of the second section of the exhibition. The picture shows three almost identical houses which could be little greek temples with rooms to let in. The  photography department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York suggests it to be a portrait of siblings who are quietly struggling to survive, searching for recognition and separate identities that they may likely never realize. Despite its interpretation, the photograph shows Evans signature style. The perfect front view of an architectural building was the base for his well known street photography in the 1930’s. The influence of the French photographer Eugène Atget becomes particularly obvious in these pictures. Atget documented the old and disappearing Paris around 1900. His idea was to catalogue systematically all details of the city, before they would vanish in consequence of the industrialization. He portrayed the city in an objective and straight way which is also perceptible in Evans work. Also the idea of cataloguing repeats in Evans’ American Photographs, revealing an image of American people. Another predecessor of Evans was August Sander who had the aspiration to create a complete overview of people of the 20th century in Germany. Having taken all these factors into account, Evans’ photographs indicate both, artistic effort and documentation. Notwithstanding emerged in the FSA context, his photographs aren’t socio-critical on the first view. In fact they imply a deeper critical aspect involving the story behind the picture.

The Photobook :  Walker Evans American Photographs

Accompanying to the exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art released a photobook with the same manifesting title, Walker Evans American Photographs. Significantly, Evans didn’t accept the limitations of the book to be an explaining exhibition catalogue, on contrary, he saw the publication as an independent book fortuitous to the limited run show. In contrast to the swift installation of the exhibition in one night, Evans spent most of the year 1938 on the photobook. He edited it together with his friend Lincoln Kirstein, who also wrote an essay that appears in the book. All together the photobook features 87 black and white photographs, many of them appearing in the exhibition, but not all of them The format of the book is 8hb_1987.1100.482to the pictures. The details of the photographs and the included essay are listed at the end. Corresponding to the exhibition, the book is separated into two parts. Similarly, the first part consi.75 x 7.75 inch which makes it easy to handle and the square easily accommodates both, vertical and horizontal images. The photographs are printed on the right side of the book, the pages on thsts of 50 photographs illustrating American people in their vernacular enviroe left contain only the page numbers in the corner. Besides of this, there is no writing added ment. With the first and second image, Evans refers to photography itself. He shows a small and old looking photo studio and an advert of a photo studio showing a collection of portraits with the lettering Studio. The advertising poster itself reveals a profile of the local society.

 

img615These pictures are followed by portraits, adverts and statues and finally by a picture of a big house looking like an old temple with a fallen and disrooted tree in front of it.  Also in the manner of the show, the second part presents an overview of the vernacular architecture. He opens and closes the section with a photograph of crushed fragments of tin ornaments. The other 35 images picture houses, churches, house entrances and a steamboat. The two parts are followed by an Essay written by Evans’ friend and co-editor of the book, Lincoln Kirstein, who discusses the status of photography as art and praises his friends work. How important the sequence of the photographs is for Evans’ work is also noticeable in the essay. Kirstein warns against the miss-understanding of the book and gives the reader some instructions how to read it. “The photographs are arranged to be seen in their given sequence. They demand and should receive the slight flattery of your closest attention. They are not entirely easy to look at. They repel an easy glance. They are full of facts they have to be inspected with more care than quickness.“  Even though there is no narrative in Evans’ photobook, the importance of the sequence is undeniable. It is in the nature of a book that all included parts depend on each other. With this in mind, it doesn’t surprise that Evans followed the same concept in his exhibition. Therefore, I would claim that Walker Evans American Photographs book isn’t an exhibition catalogue, in contrast, the show could be seen as an exhibited version of the book.

The Affect on Photography’s Status as Art

Having a good idea of the exhibition and the photobook, we can now discuss how they have affected photography’s status as art. In the first place, we have the most obvious factor: the exhibition as the first one-person photography show in the Museum of Modern Art and in an art museum in general. The viewing of an exclusive photography show in an art museum raises photography into the canon of fine art. We should also consider the fact, that the Museum of Modern Art is one of the most important museums for modern and contemporary art. Them showing Evans’ work can be seen as a statement and a recognition of photography. With showing his photographs they also converted Evans work from documentation to fine art (e.g. his FSA work). Considering that leads inevitably to the question, why they chose Walker Evans for their first show. What criteria were they looking for? Maybe we can get to the bottom of things considering what strategies in Evans’ photographs might indicate that the work has been made for an art context? 

As mentioned above, Evans’ style was influenced by photographers like Eugène Atget and August Sander. Whilst other photographers in the same period still tried to imitate painting with soft-focused pitoresc photographs, Evans’ clear and straight ’anti-art’ style shows an unmistakable similarity to European Modernists. This could be an indicator why the Museum of Modern Art might have chosen his photographs. Another key thing to remember is, that Evans declared himself to be an artist. Notwithstanding working for the Farm Security Administration program, he had an artistic demand on his work. On the other hand, should we question, if  Walker Evans work would have been acknowledged as art if the Museum of Modern Art hadn’t placed him on the pedestal of fine art.

Furthermore, we could reflect how the exhibition’s display and interpretation contribute to our understanding and valuing of photography as art. The presentation of two artworks, an exhibition and a photobook, which are both based on the idea of sequence and context of photographs, remains how photography is presented in contemporary exhibitions and photobooks. Photography, in contrast to painting, seems to be ideal for showing aspects in serials. While painters need days, weeks or month to finish an artwork, photographers can record different aspects of a topic in a short amount of time. Also the form of a book seems to be made for photography. Prints can easily be made and the presentation as a sequence in a book offers the opportunity to create different meanings. Down to the present day, context is an important factor of our understanding and valuation of photography.

After all, we can claim that Walker Evans American Photographs exhibition and photobook had an affect on photography’s status as art. As the first one-person photography show, the exhibition is a milestone in the history of photography. Nonetheless, we must also critically reflect what factors make Evans’ photography to art and in what context they have been shown. Finally, the example of Walker Evans illustrates, that you can’t strictly separate between documentation and art in photography.

Bibliography

Campany, David, and Walker Evans. Walker Evans: The Magazine Work. Göttingen: Steidl, 2014.

Evans, Walker, and Jerald C. Maddox. Photographs for the Farm Security Administration, 1935-1938: A Catalog of Photographic Prints Available from the Farm Security Administration Collection in the Library of Congress. 2nd Pbk Print. ed. New York: Da Capo, 1975.

Evans, Walker, and Lincoln Kirstein. American Photographs. 50th-anniversary ed. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art ;, 1988.

Evans, Walker, and Lincoln Kirstein. American Photographs. New York: Errata Editions, 2008.

Hill, John. American Photographs: Legacy of Seeing. In Evans, Walker, and Lincoln Kirstein. American Photographs. New York: Errata Editions, 2008.

Keller, Judith, and Walker Evans. Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection. Malibu, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995.

Department of Photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. Walker Evans (1903–1975), Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm.

Department of Photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2001.415.

Department of Photographs, Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. New Orleans House, 1935. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2011.553.4.

Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/.

Museum of Modern Art, New York. https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1388.

Museum of Modern Art, New York. http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/08/01/two-views-of-walker-evanss-american-photographs/.

The New York Times. July 19, 2013, p. C23. New York. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/arts/design/walker-evanss-american-photographs-at-moma.html.

NOÉMIE GOUDAL

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Southern Light Stations ( 2 Oct 15 – 10 Jan 16)

An atmospheric exhibition on the top floor of the Photographers Gallery presenting works by the French artist Noémie Goudal. Her interests lie in manmade mutations of nature and landscape. For Southern Light Stations she build complex constructions into landscapes and captured them in her photographs. Thereby the line between fiction and reality blurs within the pictures.

My personal highlight were the stereoscopes. The viewing devices from the 19th century view a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. Goudal uses the stereoscopes to show clouds with that simple and great 3D effect. Old technique – still fascinating.

Upcoming exhibitions at The Photographers Gallery:

THE EASTER RISING 1916 From Sean Sexton’s photographic collection and curated by Luke Dodd  22 Jan – 3 Apr 2016 

SAUL LEITER Saul Leiter’s pioneering colour photography 22 Jan – 3 Apr 2016

ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ A recent project by the eminent Brazilian artist engaging with archives and vernacular photography 22 Jan – 3 Apr 2016

WOLF SUSCHITZKY’S LONDON Iconic images, vintage prints and previously unseen work 22 Jan – 6 Mar 16

POWERPOINT POLEMICS 21 January – 3 April 2016

Stanger by Olivia Arthur

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Last summer I found this outstanding photobook by Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur at the Magnum archive in London. In her monograph the artist deals with the aftermath of a marine disaster that killed more than 200 people in Dubai in 1961. She observes the city through the perspective of a man, missing since the shipwreck. This offered her the opportunity to look at the rapidly growing city of today aswell as the small village that it was in the past. The photographs are printed on transparent paper so that the single prints coalesce with each other. Thereby the reader can experience the images in a permanently diversifying way. The book was self-published by Olivia Arthur and delights with great photographs and remarkable design.

Get more information about Olivia Arthurs Book in this interview by time.com