Beyond the Medium
Thorough research of the works and techniques of Tina Barney and Elliott Erwitt led me to a simple conclusion: their art is simple and meaningful but, meaning is what an observer makes of it. What does this indicate one might ask? It means that although they both have very distinct ways of taking a photograph their common goal is to evoke emotion in their observers. Elliott Erwitt put it in the simplest terms when he said, “I think you should just look at the stuff and if it enriches you in some way or knocks you out, that’s all you need” (Danziger 89).
The most effective source of information that guided my research was documented interviews with Tina Barney and Elliott Erwitt. The artists’ truly expressed their thoughts on their work and techniques in these discussions. Tina Barney gave particularly good insight to her work when she said, “What people see in my pictures comes from the fact that I care very much about the subjects, and know the environment, the surroundings, and the lifestyle because it’s my life” (Barney 6). When asked whether her art dealt with human emotion Tina Barney responded in a confident fashion: “That’s really my primary concern – to investigate how one person treats another. Along with that I wish that they would be more affectionate and tell each other they care, clearly and visually. I also want to show them how I feel about them” (Barney 10).
Tina Barney’s first photograph in which she said “she had all the elements she was looking for” was the one I found most compelling: Sunday New York Times (Braff). Barney truly captured the essence of the typical 80s American family. She was born into a wealthy upper-class family and so her work reflects her life...
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Barney, Tina. Friends and Relations. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Braff, Phyllis. “Art Reviews: Portraits Painted With Cameras.” The New York Times. 4 April
1999. 27 September 2006.
Danziger, James, Barnaby Conrad III. Interviews With Master Photographers. New York: Paddington Press Ltd., 1977.
“Elliott Erwitt.” The Permanent Collection. 2005. Museum of Contemporary Photography. 27 September 2006. < http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/erwitt_elliott.php>
“Elliott Erwitt.” Robert Koch Gallery. 27 September 2006.
“Tina Barney: Theater of Manners.” Noorderlicht Photofestival. 27 September 2006.
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Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
This book was also one of my first encounters with an important truth of art: that your work is powerful not because you convey a new emotion to the audience, but because you tap into an emotion the audience already feels but can't express.
Peanut butter and jelly, a common combination of two separate entities, most people have heard of this duo, many enjoy it, but only one manufacturer packaged them together in a handy snack. Much like the tasty treat that is Goobers is the tasty duo of Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes. Two separate men, Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes put together in one reading, complementing and accentuating each other. Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, more over they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get to the essence of what a photograph is, one by thinking and writing about it and one by doing it. In this paper I will show how Adam Fuss’ work matches up with and demonstrates the ideas of Barthes’ in Camera Lucida. I will look at one body of work at a time and show which parts of Barthes’ ideas are present in the work, in its creation and its theory. I will start with his first professional body of work, move through to his most recent work and then look back to some of his childhood pictures. Whether Barthes' ideas actually influenced Fuss’ work I am not sure of, I have not found any text or interview that leads me to believe that it is, however I would not be surprised if it has.
To be named one of the top photographers of the 20th Century is a substantial credit on its own, but to do so with no formal training or background in the art is remarkable, yet accomplished by Philippe Halsman. It all started at the young age of fifteen, when Philippe would photograph friends and family with his father’s 9x12-cm view camera, developing the glass plate “miracles” in the family’s bathroom sink. Even in these early years, using rudimentary equipment, it was evident Halsman had a gift and would leave a definitive mark on the photographic industry. With his ability to capture the true spirit of the subject and his advanced technical abilities, his career was destined to be nothing short of successful (B. Johnson 180).
In the chapter, “The Mirror with a Memory”, the authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle, describe numerous things that evolved after the civil war, including the life of Jacob Riis, the immigration of new peoples in America, and the evolution of photography. The authors’ purpose in this chapter is to connect the numerous impacts photography had on the past as well as its bringing in today’s age.
5 Light, Ken. Tremain, Kerry. Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
Tolmachev, I. (2010, March 15). A history of Photography Part 1: The Beginning. Retrieved Febraury 2014, from tuts+ Photography: http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/a-history-of-photography-part-1-the-beginning--photo-1908
Most photographers have a statement in mind and look for a picture that expresses it. Erwitt observes what life wants to say and then records it so others can hear. For me this is what photography is about. I believe a scene should inspire you not be staged. Like Erwitt’s work I try to take pic...
Sontag, Susan. "Essay | Photography Enhances Our Understanding of the World." BookRags. BookRags. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
As seen in paintings of battle scenes and portraits of wealthy Renaissance aristocracy, people have always strived to preserve and document their existence. The creation of photography was merely the logical continuum of human nature’s innate desire to preserve the past, as well as a necessary reaction to a world in a stage of dramatic and irreversible change. It is not a coincidence that photography arose in major industrial cities towards the end of the nineteenth century.
W. Eugene Smith: Shadow and Substance : The Life and Work of an American Photographer by Jim Hughes
Marrs, Suzanne. Eudora Welty(tm)s Photography: Images into Fiction. Critical Essays on Eudora Welty. W. Craig Turner and Lee Emling Harding. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, 1989. 288-289.
"History of photography and photojournalism.." History of photography and photojournalism.. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .