tom breeton - unit 1

UNIT ONE

EVALUATIVE REPORT

I found it difficult to settle in at Camberwell. I came from a foundation course where I studied and

practiced "ne art in a class of like-minded people, and I assumed this would be the case again when

starting my degree.

However, as the term progressed I discovered my peers had vastly different agendas of their own

which they wished to ful"l, which is obviously always going to be the case within a "ne art domain.

I struggled to come to terms with the change in dynamic, as well as the academic environment

which made me start to have doubts about the course.

$e more I thought about how different everything was, the more I started to doubt myself and

question my motives and where I wanted to take my work. To start with I thought I would just

experiment with techniques rather than concepts as this was a fairly safe path which I thought I

would bene"t from. However, retrospectively I think this was probably a bad idea as I couldn’t clear

my head and had no focus. I didn’t really want to make work for myself, I was just doing it for the

sake of the course, which was a shame.

After feeling lost for some time I discussed my feelings with an art graduate. $ey said it sounded

like I was too focussed on being a professional, rather than using these three years to be

experimental and challenging myself. $ey said that anyone can learn technique, but only a select

few can express their ideas successfully and change peoples ideas about art.

TOM BREETON - BA(HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY

With this advice I decided I should fully focus on my own practice rather than comparing myself to

others. $is helped me to develop a few ideas around artistic platforms and how new media is

shaping the way we experience art. For example I have seen more art on the internet in the past

week than I have in person since September.

$is led me to think about creating digital, online platforms for work and using their bene"ts to

break the dogma that ‘"ne’ art is viewed in galleries and museums. One of my favourite

contemporary artists who uses YouTube as a platform for art is Mark Mcgowan.

Unfortunately, during my state of despair I lacked any sort of motivation for research, I did

document the work I came across but didn't actively partake in visiting galleries other than the ones

we were instructed to. I didn’t really feel my work was ‘research based’.

I found the critiques enjoyable, but not that helpful. I thought that people didn’t really speak their

mind and instead just found each others work very agreeable, which wasn't always a good thing.

Lectures so far have been very enjoyable, I am more interested in contemporary artists and their

works than I am in the history of photography as I have studied that comprehensively for 5 years, so

having lectures on work from the last 5 years has been one of the highlights.

I have started 2012 with a new outlook and hope to improve on an relatively unsuccessful "rst term

which I have learnt a lot from.


HOW CAN WE USE SZARKOWSKI’S

DESCRIPTION OF ‘THE THING

ITSELF’ IN ORDER TO MORE

COMPREHENSIVELY UNDERSTAND

THE WORK OF PHOTOGRAPHER

IMMO KLINK?

$is essay discusses key elements of John Szarkowski’s ‘$e Photographer’s Eye’ in relation to the

work of Immo Klink. $is should help to discover a more profound meaning within his

photographs using Szarkowski’s analytical style. Focusing on ‘$e $ing Itself ”, which highlights

the idea of photographs as factual evidence, and how this can become problematic when techniques

such as ‘staged photography’ are used.

Part I - Establishing the Criteria

John Szarkowski’s ‘$e Photographer’s Eye’ essay followed his critically acclaimed curation of an

exhibition of the same name. In his introduction to this exhibition he stated (about the invention of

modern photography) ‘!e photographer was forced to "nd new ways to make his meaning clear. !e

emergence of this special visual language has conditioned our sight, our language, and our imagery.’

To explain ‘this special visual language’ Szarkowski chose over 200 photographs and divided them

into the "ve famous groups (which he later discusses in his essay). He used ‘$e $ing Itself‘ to

explore his idea that ‘More convincingly than any other picture, a photograph evokes the tangible presence

of reality’. Szarkowski often thought of photography as a contradicting medium to painting, he said


that when an artist paints a picture he leaves his impression on the canvas, creating "gures and

landscapes in a way only he may see them, whereas when a photograph is taken we must trust that

‘the lens is impartial and will draw the subject as it is, neither nobler nor meaner’.

Two of the images Szarkowski chose to exhibit were Walker Evans’s ‘Farmer’s Wife’ (Figure 1)and

Edward Weston’s ‘Hot Coffee’(Figure 2). One can use these images as a starting point for the

answers we hope to "nd in Immo Klink’s work. ‘$e $ing Itself‘ can be split into three main parts,

each part can be interpreted into a criteria of analysis which can be used to critique photographs

and therefore discover for example; a profound meaning or an unknown agenda of the artist.

Firstly, Szarkowski states that ‘!e world itself is an artist of incomparable inventiveness, and that to

recognise it’s best works and moments …requires intelligence both accurate and supple.’ $is leads to the

"rst of the analytical criteria:

$e world is an artist of incomparable inventiveness, therefore it requires someone of great

intelligence to record it.

Now, using this criteria against a photograph, for example Walker Evans’s ‘Farmer’s Wife’ one may

suggest that Evans has used his skill as a photographer to capture the emotion of Allie Mae

Burroughs during an economic downturn during which her family owned nothing. Szarkowski may

agree that although Evans did not create the beauty, sadness and desperation we see in the

photograph, he perfectly captured it during a period when the upper classes of the USA had no

interest in this subject, yet may have been interested in his other works.

Secondly, Szarkowski contradicts his "rst point by arguing that ‘pictures, no matter how convincing …

[are] a different thing to reality itself ’. He goes on to say ‘It was the photographers problem to see not

simply the reality before him but the still invisible picture’. Leading to the second analytical criterion:


Although photographs are generally acknowledged as evidence of reality, they should not always

be. $e photographer must think heedfully how the photograph will be perceived in a different

context.

One may say of Edward Weston’s ‘Hot Coffee’ that although in the 21st Century it may be obvious

to viewers across the world that this was an advert for a roadside café - something we are so

accustomed to seeing - at the time, a viewer unaccustomed to marketing and advertising may have

assumed this to be for example, a prop for a "lm set.

Finally, Szarkowski references the character Holgrave from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘$e House of

the Seven Gables’. $e character states that a photograph ‘brings out the secret character with a truth

no painter would ever venture upon, could he even detect it’. Szarkowski explains that when a subject is

immortalised in a photograph a reality is created which didn’t exist initially, he states that ‘the image

would survive the subject’ meaning for example; in 100 years an image may exist in a place where

nobody has any knowledge of where it came from or why it exists in that space, at that moment in

time. Yet when it was captured there was a speci"c agenda of the photographer, and they probably

would’ve known exactly where, when and why it was taken. From this "nal paragraph the "nal

criterion can be introduced:

When a photograph is taken, a time, place and subject are recorded within it. However, not all of

these things are obvious to the viewer, and each viewers perception of a photograph will be

completely different.

$is criterion works perfectly with Walker Evans’s ‘Farmer’s Wife’. Although I know that the

photograph shows a woman who is struggling to survive during the great depression, there are only

elements of the photograph that suggest this, and even those cannot con"rm it. For instance, her

blouse may have been typical for the period, and it may be heavily worn (showing her lack of

wealth), but the same blouse would be available for a woman to purchase today, and it may have


been styled to have a worn-in look. $ere is nothing in the photograph that actually guarantees it’s

from the 1930’s which reiterates the idea that a photograph may be strong evidence at one time, but

may not be reliable another.

Part II - Applying the Criteria

‘G8 Riot Police’ & ‘George W. Bush at Buckingham Palace’

Firstly we come to G8 Riot Police, this photograph was taken by Klink in July 2005 in Gleneagles,

Scotland. $e photograph depicts 6 riot-police officers in fully-protective clothing, with shields and

batons, stood in a "eld near Gleneagles. It is both surreal and humorous, yet it has darker, sinister

connotations and shows a scene so unlike what we are used to, it almost seems staged. $is

occurrence has been captured by Klink perfectly and it provides us with an image we may never

come across again in our lifetimes. $e second image ‘George W.Bush at Buckingham Palace’ shows

approximately 50 police officers stood outside Buckingham Palace whilst the 43rd US President was

meeting the Queen in 2003. What is so signi"cant about the photograph is that Klink has used a

technique that is often seen as a faux pas in photography, by over-exposing the re%ective strips on

the police officer’s jackets, he has left the rest of the photograph under-exposed. $is could be

recognised as the ‘great intelligence’ discussed in Part I.

$ese photograph’s however could well be staged, especially ‘G8 Riot Police’ where several costumes

could have been hired and 6 models sent to a "eld wearing them. Which leads us to wonder

whether Klink considered Szarkowski’s idea of ‘the still invisible picture’ when taking the photograph.

Maybe if he had pondered the idea he would’ve changed the composition to guarantee a more

genuine photograph. It is interesting to see photograph’s such as ‘George W.Bush at Buckingham

Palace’ in the present day as there are so many current affairs (including the 2011 London Riots)

that concern policing in the UK.


$e last two chosen photograph’s by Klink are ‘YSL’ and ‘Chanel’ which he took on May Day Bank

Holiday, 2002. $e series of photographs is called ‘Mayfair at Mayday’. $ey show retail giants such

as Prada, Donna Karan, Versace, YSL and Chanel that have had their shop-front’s completely

boarded up before a suspected attack by ‘Anarchist protesters’. Klink’s humorous playfulness is shown

again in this work. Again, all Klink’s work was done for him, he just had to correctly capture the

subjects and I think he has done that more successfully here, there are prestigious, recognisable logos

and brands hidden between chip-board which usually would be totally contradictory, Klink avoid’s

suspicion of staged photography by using names and places almost anyone could recognise.

However, the only problem with photograph’s of a commodity such as fashion is that these names

may disappear from our vocabulary within a few years, leaving the photographs meaningless. $is is

a perfect example of Szarkowski’s idea that ‘the image would survive the subject’. In 100 years a

student like myself, looking through Klinks work may come across designer names they have never

heard of, and any sentiment or humour in the photographs is lost in the memory of a previous

generation.

Using the ideas John Szarkowski discusses in ‘$e $ing Itself ’ have helped discover details within

Immo Klinks photographs that may never have been apparent before. Deciphering Szarkowski’s text

and creating a more focused, contemporary criteria formed the bulk of the essay. $is meant I was

left with little space to fully discuss Klink’s work as intended. However, one would hope to be able

to take the ideas from this essay and use them again and again on photograph’s throughout history,

just as I have done with Szarkowski’s essay. Creating this criteria has successfully helped me now,

and may continue to for many years.


Immo KlinkG8 Riot Police, 2005


Immo KlinkGeorge W.Bush at Buckingham Palace, 2003

Immo KlinkYSL, 2002


Immo KlinkChanel, 2002

(Figure 1) Walker Evans


Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936

(Figure 2) Edward Weston

Hot Coffee, 1937

Bibliography

Beschloss, M. (2009). George W. Bush. Available: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/

georgewbush. Last accessed 10th Dec 2011.

Hawthorne, N (1981). $e House of the Seven Gables. New York: Bantam Classics. 83.

Ivins, W (1953). Prints end Visual Communication. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

180.

Shabi, R. (2005). $e War on dissent. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jul/02/

development.g8. Last accessed 10th Dec 2011.

Szarkowski, J (2007). $e Photographers Eye. 3rd ed. New York: $e Museum Of Modern Art. p6-11.

Unknown. (1964). $e Photographer's Eye. Available: http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/3231/releases/MOMA_1964_0018_1964-05-27_20.pdf?2010. Last accessed 10th Dec 2011.


http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewbush




http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/jul/02/development.g8




http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/3231/releases/MOMA_1964_0018_1964-05-27_20.pdf?2010




"Walker Evans: Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife (2001.415)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: $e Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2001.415 (October 2006)

Wilson, J. (2002). Anarchist protesters turn their May Day attentions to Mayfair. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/apr/27/mayday.world. Last accessed 10th Dec 2011.


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




http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/apr/27/mayday.world




tom breeton - unit 1

Documents