Once upon a time I did an Arts Degree with a major in photography. Back when you still had to make a booking to use an enlarger in the darkroom and you spent afternoons inside developing rolls of film in the hope that there was at least one exposure that was calculated perfectly.
Even though I technically don’t practice photography as an art form all that much anymore, rather using it as a form of documentation, I still enjoy stumbling across photographic artworks in museums. I can instantly recognise Jeff Wall’s work or a Diane Arbus. I feel a sense of nostalgia and familiarity, remembering the discussions about photographic masters at university.
In 2004, Facebook was launched and by 2011 an estimated 100 billion photographs had been shared on the social network. Things were shifting in the photography world. During this period I was teaching photography (digital) to high school students and I realised everyone was now a photographer, you didn’t need an Arts Degree. Most of the students had camera phones and for me photography as an art form started to lose it’s magic. Students didn’t need to learn how to take photographs (or process them) because they could already do it instantly with their phones. I disengaged with contemporary photography and instead engaged with other forms of image making. The art form started to feel repetitive and it seemed like it was ‘nothing new.’ The function of photography had changed. It was hard to convince 15 year olds of the stillness and mystique of an Ansel Adams or the exquisite beauty and detail that went into a Annie Leibovitz…probably when I was doing this selfies were being uploaded to Facebook. It left me to question is there any real skill in photography these days when we all carry a camera around in our pockets? How do I feel about instant digital image making?
Last year in New York I was exposed to photographic works at the New Museum (The Keeper) and MOMA (Nan Goldin Ballard of Sexual Dependency) which redeveloped my love for photography as an art form. I’m again engaging with photography, visiting contemporary art spaces in Kansas City (Spencer Museum of Art), London (Saatchi Gallery), Rotterdam (Kunsthal) I’m drawn to the photography works. I’ve noticed a freshness to contemporary photography and the innovative ways it is being used to communicate ideas. I’m loving the inclusion of technology both in the production of the images and the displaying of images through screens and data projectors. I’m appreciating the combination and merging of still and moving images.
At Saatchi’s From Selfie to Self Expression exhibition, photography was used as a way to explore the history of the “selfie,” from the 16th century to the present day. This exhibition was challenging. The show opened with a room full of screens containing self portraits from the old masters (Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Rembrandt, Picasso). Like a slide show, the actual paintings are on a screen – pictures of them not the actual physical artworks. The audience is encouraged to approach the screens and touch them to ‘love’ the art work like you would on Instagram or Facebook. The other rooms contained more contemporary artists who explore the theme of the selfie, Nan Goldin, Colombian artist Juan Pablo Echeverri, Juno Calypso and a great image of George Harrison taking a picture of himself in front of the Taj Mahal in 1966.
“The selfie is by far the most expansionist form of visual self-expression, whether you like it or not … The art world cannot really afford to ignore it.” – Nigel Hurst Chief Executive Saatchi
In Amsterdam I have visited Foam Gallery a total of 4 times. It’s a gallery dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary photography. The current exhibition is an annually held show called Talent. A collection of “20 young artists shaping the future of photography…The annual Talent Call is always an intriguing barometer of the state of contemporary photography.” This year they received 1,790 submissions from 75 countries. This exhibition is one of the most inspiring exhibitions of emerging photographers I have ever seen. It is dynamic and completely captivating. Photography as an art form is represented with such diversity and variety of different approaches.
A sculptural photographic work by Alix Marie (Bleu), miniatures by Sushant Chhabria (In Loving Memory Of), heavily stylised fashion images by Namsa Leuba (Next Generation Lagos), images associated with surveillance, security and spying by Clement Lambelet (Collateral Visions) and digital constructed realities by Harit Srikhao (Mt Meru) are among the extensive collection. As well, the exhibition proved that photography is an exceptional choice of medium for social commentary on a range of contemporary and current social issues. Digital works explore “the American dream” by Weronika Gesickt (Traces) and an absolutely thought provoking work by Mark Dorf (Transposition) that combines photography and sculpture and explores a link between the constructed environment of nature (in the form of a botanical garden) and the constructed environment of digital image making. In his images he intentionally exposes his use of photoshop tools such as the clone stamp and blending effects to indicate a ‘man-made’ image. Wang Nan (Fluorite) uses dark imagery to capture children labeled as “problem children” in a rigid and academically focused Chinese education system, perhaps commenting on the current state of education in China. Wang focuses on children who are labeled as ‘difficult’ because of a curiosity and wonder in their interior worlds. These images give the children a freedom to play and explore in front of the camera.
Many of the artists in the exhibition work in a digital environment. I still don’t know how I feel about digital photography given the amount of painstaking hours I spent in the darkroom processing and reprocessing film and images. However, what I am realising is that photography is an art form and a way of communicating that has not lost its power since the rise of the selfie, camera phones and Facebook. There is so much innovation and such variety possibilities and opportunities that the medium offers.
The Artful Traveller 