Photography and fiction Contextual and theoretical studies lecture Nicola Homer MA, Associate Lecturer London College of Communication

Describe this painting in a sentence.

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), View on Delft, c. 1660–1661 Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), View on Delft, c.1660–1661. Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshaus/Wikimedia Commons.

The French novelist Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was a great writer of the 20th century. In his modernist novel In Search of Lost Time, he opens a window on to the world of 19th-century France. The narrator looks at voluntary memory, or active recall, and involuntary memory in the episode of the madeleine. According to German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin, Proust suggests you can only truly recall experiences through involuntary memory. The past is “somewhere beyond the reach of the intellect, and unmistakably present in some material object” – ‘Some Motifs in Baudelaire’, Charles Baudelaire (London: Verso, 1985). Marcel Proust, Unknown date. Dutch National Archives, The Hague/Wikimedia Commons.

First galley proof of À la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann with handwritten revision notes by Marcel Proust (1871–1922). Christie’s/Wikimedia Commons

Édouard Manet (1832–1883), Music in the Tuileries, 1862 Édouard Manet (1832–1883), Music in the Tuileries, 1862. National Gallery, London/Wikimedia Commons.

The French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) wrote The Painter of Modern Life (1859–60), in which he described the urban type of the “flâneur”, or the stroller, as characteristic of the modern artist in society. Baudelaire said the painter’s vision was key to understanding modernity and photography should stay in its rightful place within the realm of industry as “the handmaid of the arts and sciences” – ‘The Modern Public and Photography’, ed. Alan Trachtenberg, Classic Essays on Photography (New York: Leete’s Island Books, 1980). Félix Nadar (1820–1910), Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, 1855. Sotheby’s/Wikimedia Commons.

“Like Baudelaire, many critics of the day saw a causal connection between photography and the new strain of painting,” according to Peter Galassi, author of Before Photography (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1981). An illustration of Baudelaire’s argument is seen in the pictorial expression of this image: Friedrich Wasmann (1805–1886). View from a Window, c.1832–33. Kunsthalle, Hamburg Wikimedia Commons.

German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) wrote ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936), in which he introduced the concept of the “aura” that derives from the originality and uniqueness of art. Yet this aura is lost through mechanical reproduction. In his essay ‘A Small History of Photography’ (1931), Benjamin looked at the beginnings of photography and its pioneers Niépce and Daguerre. He recognised that the authenticity of the photograph was key to understanding the materialist moment. “Photography turns all life’s relationships into literature,” he wrote in ‘A Small History of Photography’, One-Way Street and Other Writings (London: NLB, 1979). Walter Benjamin, 1928. Source: Akademie der Künste, Berlin – Walter Benjamin Archiv/ Wikimedia Commons.

When was the first photograph taken?

“Enhanced version of Nicéphore Niépce’s View from the Window at Le Gras (1826), the earliest surviving photograph of a scene from nature taken with a camera obscura”

When was this photograph taken?

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), The Photographer’s Studio, 1837. Société française de photographie/Wikimedia Commons.

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877). Window in the South Gallery of Lacock Abbey, made from the oldest photographic negative in existence. August 1835. National Museum of Photography, Film and Television Collection/ Wikimedia Commons.

William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1844 William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door, 1844. The Pencil of Nature, 1844/Wikimedia Commons.

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) was a pioneer of the art of photography, who experimented with her image-making and became known for her portraits of celebrities of her era. Pictured: Mrs. Herbert Duckworth (1846-1895), born Julia Prinsep Jackson, later Mrs. Julia Stephen, Mother of Virginia Woolf, 1867. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston/Wikimedia Commons.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Darwin, September 1868 Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Darwin, September 1868. Royal Photographic Society/Wikimedia Commons.

Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Tennyson, 1864 Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Tennyson, 1864. Given by or purchased from Julia Margaret Cameron, 27 September 1865. © Victoria and Albert Museum.

Julia Margaret Cameron, The Minstrel Group, 1866 Julia Margaret Cameron, The Minstrel Group, 1866. Given by Mrs Margaret Southam, 1941. © Victoria and Albert Museum.

On Pictorialism “The Pictorialist perspective was born in the late 1860s and held sway through the first decade of the 20th century. It approached the camera as a tool that, like the paintbrush and chisel, could be used to make an artistic statement. Thus photographs could have aesthetic value and be linked to the world of art expression.” (www.britannica.com)

Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934), The Red Man, 1903 Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934), The Red Man, 1903. Source: Camera Work, No 1, 1903/Wikimedia Commons.

Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), The Flatiron Building, New York, 1903.

The Flatiron Building in Manhattan was barely visible early Saturday morning. Date: 23 January 2016. Credit: Benjamin Norman for The New York Times.

What is happening in this photograph?

Eugène Atget (1857–1927). Eclipse, Paris, 1912 Eugène Atget (1857–1927). Eclipse, Paris, 1912. Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons.

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was an English novelist and essayist, who was known for her modernist masterpieces Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). In her fantastic biography Orlando (1928), Woolf included a series of photographs. Pictured: Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London, The Hogarth Press, 1928. First Edition. Smith College Libraries, Northampton, Massachusetts. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Five-minute class exercise: In pairs, work together to write a narrative story from the perspectives of the people (or one of the people) pictured in the next image.

Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936), Gathering Water-Lilies, 1886. The J Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936), Gathering Water-Lilies, 1886. The J. Paul Getty Museum/Wikimedia Commons.

A workshop by Mark Ingham & Nicola Homer 2016 Pose! ‘That’s Not Me’ A workshop by Mark Ingham & Nicola Homer 2016

Skepta featuring JME - #ThatsNotMe – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyONbqggasY

What is happening in the next photograph?

“Rare bird alert: Red-necked stint spotted in Keys; first sighting ever in Florida”

Within hours, the “rare bird alert” was posted on several birding websites. Bird watchers from around Florida and even a retired couple from Iowa began flocking to the Keys to try to see the red-necked stint for themselves. They came armed with binoculars, scopes and cameras with long lenses. Many wore floppy hats to ward off the sun and try to stay cool in the 90 degree heat and humidity. Barbara Brown of Des Moines was getting laundry out of the dryer when her husband, Don, told her: “I’m going down to Key West. Want to come along?” They hopped on a plane the same day so that Don Brown could try to make the red-necked stint No. 734 on his life list of North American birds.

After camping out for days, tourists look up into the sky as Apollo 11 rocketed into space. (David Burnett/Contact Press Images) In the summer of 1969, all eyes turned to a spit of land on Florida's Atlantic coast—the site of the Kennedy Space Center, named for the president who had challenged the nation to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. That July, the Apollo 11 mission would attempt just that. Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/moonwalk-launch-party-31100115/#rA7R0O0mZrZ1BjTu.99

1-minute Portrait What was it like posing for an early photographic portrait? Recreate the experience by timing yourself sitting completely still for one minute. Have someone photograph you at the end of that time. Reflect.  Look at the photograph. What does your facial expression and body language convey? How did it feel to be that still for that long?

In a sentence describe what is happening in the next photograph.

What is happening in this photograph?

How does the next image change how you think about this photograph?

Do you know what context this photograph was taken in?

What was your initial reaction to this photograph What was your initial reaction to this photograph? And has it now changed?

ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images – British Prime Minister David Cameron, Denmark’s former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and President Obama take a selfie during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

Is this the first Selfie?

Or was this?

Robert Cornelius self-portrait, Oct. or Nov. 1839, approximate quarter plate daguerreotype. The back reads, "The first light picture ever taken.”

What do you think the difference is between a ‘self-portrait’ and a ‘selfie’?

Now take the most posed ‘selfie’ you can!

Can you try and take an un-posed ‘self-portrait’.

Have a close look at the next set of photographs and then write down your initial reactions to them.

How do you think these photographs were taken?

“To create his Heads series, diCorcia rigged a powerful strobe light to a scaffold high above the street in New York’s Times Square. He activated the strobe by radio signal and captured unwitting pedestrians in a flash of light from over 20 feet away. Remarkably, the strobe was imperceptible to his subjects since the photographs were taken in broad daylight. Using this technique, the figures appear to emerge from inky darkness, spotlighted and haloed and as if there was almost no distance between the camera and the subject. Over the course of two years diCorcia took more than 4,000 of these photographs, though he chose only 17 for the series.” From: MoMALearning Heads

DiCorcia’s Heads series was at the center of a debate between free speech advocates and those concerned with protecting an individual’s right to privacy. In 2006, one of diCorcia’s subjects sued the artist and his gallery for exhibiting, publishing, and profiting from his likeness, which was taken without permission. While critics claim that the project violated his subjects’ right to privacy, diCorcia explained that he did not seek consent because, “There is no way the images could have been made with the knowledge and cooperation of the subjects.” From: MoMALearning Heads

Free speech advocates argue that street photography is an established form of artistic expression and that the freedom to photograph in public is protected under the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but the presiding judge suggested the complex nature of this issue, stating, “Even while recognizing art as exempt from the reach of New York’s privacy laws, the problem of sorting out what may or may not legally be art remains a difficult one.” The debate rages on. From: MoMALearning Heads

“Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.” Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes  

“What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.” (Barthes 2000:4) Barthes, R. (2000/1980) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Vintage.

“The Photograph then becomes a bizarre medium, a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest shared hallucination (on the one hand 'it is not there,' on the other 'but it has indeed been'): a mad image, chafed by reality.” (Barthes, 2000:115)

On Photography by Susan Sontag. “To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.” (Sontag 1979:14-15) On Photography by Susan Sontag. First published in 1977, from essay written in 1971, 1974 & 1977 Sontag, S. (1977/1979) On Photography, Penguin Books.

“All photographs are memento mori “All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (or thing's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.” (Sontag 1979:15) On Photography by Susan Sontag. First published in 1977, from essay written in 1971, 1974 & 1977 Sontag, S. (1977/1979) On Photography, Penguin Books.