Assignment 013: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

In Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, he discusses mass production and reproduction of artwork throughout different eras and it’s affect on auras.  Benjamin goes into discussing the idea of reproduction in certain art forms stripping the “creativity and genius” from the work, while in other areas (such as photography) it in fact has no impact, and is crucial to the aura to be felt by a larger audience.

 Production has been crucial in bringing art into the modern world, even though art has technically always been able to be reproduced, mechanical reproduction has brought about a larger variety of what is possible.  Any man could have attempted a replica of any work of art, but until mechanical reproduction nothing could have been exact.  The Greeks used reproduction in founding and stamping.  The only works of art that they were able to reproduce were terra cottas, bronzes, and coins.  While this was definitely a step in the write direction, it does not shine a light to what we are now capable of.

The idea of mechanical reproduction literally brought about photography.  It changed the way art was looked at, and how art was created.  “For the first time in the process of pictorial reproduction, photography freed the hand of the most important artistic functions, which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens.”

The idea of aura is best explained when brought into a personal experience.  For me (and seemingly Benjamin as well), aura is most well experienced during an event.  He used the description of mountains, but I have felt the aura rising from a beautiful sunset over the ocean.  The serene, powerful moment that is felt is a piece of art in itself and doesn’t seem like it could ever fully be reproduced.  Except, that is, in photography.  The idea of mechanical reproduction does nothing negative to the photographic world.  The aura felt when looking at a photograph can be felt by however many viewers all over the world, never prohibited by the idea that that photograph may not be the original one.

“In photography it doesn’t matter which print was made, all will have the same aura

It is no accident that the portrait was the focal point of early photography. The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the picture. For the last time the aura emanates from the early photographs in the fleeting expression of a human face. “

Assignment 012: Time Expanded

Time Expanded

 

“However, some objects and images seem to have extraordinary qualities; they stir up a perceptive intelligibility that oversteps its chronological marker, as if they were giving rise to a dialectic of temporalities and practices. This is how we recognize one of the distinguishing conditions of works of art” (Mah, 13)

This quote begins the first chapter of Time Expanded.  To me I felt like this is really discussing the idea of seeing a piece of art that stops time in your mind, draws you in, and makes you wonder.  With the creation of photography, also came a new meaning to the word “time.”  Photography is able to make a time stamp and in a way freeze bits of the past.  Mah states,  “the photographic image is ontologically bound to an instant of time; it is tied to a specific act of dating, the moment (and the space) in which the image was conceived in physical contiguity with its referent.” (13)  I have always felt that a photograph freezes a moment in time, and Mah reflects this by discussing that photography is forever bound to time because of its ability to record moments.  Photography also deals with a kind of anxiety for the photographer and for the viewer, the idea of “recording time” and making a piece in time forever archived gives new meanings to a photograph. 

            Since the invention of photography the cultural obsession with living for eternity has only grown.  Knowing that a moment can somewhat be frozen in time gives the human mind of feeling that they have gained a certain kind of control over death.  By capturing these moments, death feels postponed, and subconsciously immortality feels probable.  By being internally wired to be conscious of our “biological ticking clock” the human obsession with archiving is forever growing.  In Time Expanded, the different layers of this are openly discussed (photography, television, phones, internet).

“Consequently photography causes us to face this dual meaning: on the one hand, it suspends movement, petrifying the real; and on the other hand, it reveals that immobility is a relative impossibility, because the instant is alive with time and motion of the sort that the eye and mind always experience whenever they are provoked by fixity.  We can therefore say that there is an intelligibility which only photography can give us, or that there is a way of experiencing and thinking that suggests a photographic consistency.” (16)

In chapter three, Ulrich Baer continues with the association between death and photography.   He discusses that from one of (if not the very first) photographs ever taken we sees a connection to death.  In Louis-Jacques-Mandé  Daguerre’s photograph of a man having his boots shined on the Boulevard du Temple we see half of his body out of focus symbolizing he is already half gone, and that much closer to death.             

Walter Benjamin was the first to make this association between death and photography.  He addressed modern concerns of time obsessions and how photography immobilizes the living, thus holding off death.

I had never thought of photography as directly relatable to time, but after this reading I definitely see a strong connection.  Before I only felt that time was relatable in terms of losing track of it while I am taking pictures.  The idea of holding off death, while interesting, is not something I agree with.  The idea of freezing moments, I fully agree with.

Assignment 011: Roland Barthes

Roland Gérard Barthes

Bio: Roland Barthes was born in 1915 in Normandy.  He was a philosopher, critic, and French literary theorist. Barthes was a famed thinker.  His ideas influenced many different schools of thought to this day.  Some schools of theory that he influenced were structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and post-structuralism.  His essay The Death of the Author (1968) is recognized as his best-known work.  This essay is often considered a great transitional work for Barthes in searching for some kind of significance with the culture of the world. 

 Camera Lucida

In Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, he describes the workings of an intriguing photograph to him in great depth.  He found that the little pieces of a photograph pulled together the image in a way that made the viewer interested.  Without these different kinds of connections and details the image didn’t hold the viewers attention.

The reading opens with Barthes discussing a photograph by Koen Wessing of soldiers with nuns walking in the background of the image.  The idea of these two completely separate entities belonging together in this world caught his attention as a viewer.  While he claims the image meant nothing to him, it forced him to think.  Barthes described the image as, “I understood all at once that this photographs adventure derived from the co-presence of two elements.” (23)

The way that he sees images that deal with raw, emotional subject matter in a distant way intrigues me.  Reading about what intrigued him has intrigued me and made me think about how I see different art.  Barthes felt that these photographs were mere scenes that simply existed to him, and the fact that something was just there is what drew him into the image.

“What I feel about these photographs derives from an average affect, almost from a certain training.” (26) This quotation made me wonder about the way we view art today, especially in an academic setting.  Do we criticize work the way we do because we have been trained to do so?

Stinging, difficult moments make a photograph; I believe this statement to be completely true. For Barthes the details, or the punctum intrigued him.  For me, it is the curiosity of knowing more about the subject matter, and without that intial sting how else would I be drawn in?  Barthes describes punctum as “sting, speck, ct, little hole – and also a cast of the dice.  A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).” (27) He believed that noticing this punctum was not simply where your interest derives, but if you can pinpoint this detail of a photograph you understand the photographer.  Whether or not you are agreeing is different, but if you can find this detail you have understood their meaning.

My favorite quote of Barthes from Camera Lucida, is “by the mark of something, the photograph is no longer ‘anything whatever.’” (49) I am not sure how to interpret this quotation, or for that matter, a good amount of this reading.  I am, however, very intrigued to read more into Barthes and his theories.  I felt connected to his ideas about looking at photographs, and equally confused.

Final Book Proposal

Femme

(or something else)

I have been toying with many different concepts for my final book assignment.  But, no matter what I keep coming back to the idea of femininity and the nude figure.  I was very inspired after looking through different photography books from the special book collections on the fourth floor of Cabell library.  I was most inspired by Sante D'Orazio's A Private View, Photographs & Diary. The way that he combined multiple images to a page, and in some instances put a single image across two pages really interested me.  I don't want my nudes to come off in a sexual way, but I want them to be perceived more for the innocence a nude figure represents. I plan to solely use digital images, and some of the images I will include in my book will be from earlier projects from the semester. I will include a small amount of text in the beginning of the book, but none with the images.  

 Inspirations

 

 Diane Arbus

I have not been able to find any information on this work but it was taken around 1970.  I think that many of her images show a raw, innocent quality quality that I want to show with my own images.  This image specifically felt very personal without knowing anything about the subject.

 Arthur Elgort

Kate Moss, Paris, 1993, 20 x 13 1/4 in.

I have always been very inspired by Elgort's work.  His images have so much emotion behind them yet seem effortless.  He is able to capture beauty and light in a way I hope to be able to do.  His photographs show a kind of innocence of women, yet a kind of strength at the same time.  I feel like this combination is what makes his photographs incredible.

Here are some more images that have been inspiring to me for this project: