Postmodernism: what surrounds the photograph #2

Douglas Crimp 

The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism from, Crimp, D. (1993) On the Museum's Ruins. Massachusetts:MIT Press. 

Postmodernism is concerned with the diversity and multiplicity of art, the plurality. Crimp stresses this is different to pluralism that presupposes 'the fantasy that art is free, free of other discursive practices and institutions, free above all of history. And this fantasy of freedom can be maintained because every work of art is held to be unique and original' (p.109).  (See Catherine Balet notes below #1)

Walter Benjamin argued the distinct and unique character, what he refers to as the 'aura', is lost because of being easily and cost effectively reproduced. The aura is linked to veracity and certainty of its uniqueness. This is valued by galleries, art historians and museums who demand 'the presence of the artist must be detectable; that is how a museum knows it has something authentic' (p.113). (See Michael Mandiberg notes below #2) .   

Benjamin considered that only some photographs had an aura, specifically those created prior to the commercialisation of photography, due to their long exposures and the relationship between subject and photographer. Hence the presence of the subject was a contributory factor, something Benjamin felt was lost when photographic processes evolved, for instance gum bichromate. Postmodernism 'approaches the question of ........all those aspects of photography that have to do with reproduction, with copies, and copies of copies' (p.111). 

Crimp's essay reflects on the certainty of the diminishing aura of a piece of original art happening due to its reproduction but also highlights how 'equally inevitable are all those projects to recuperate it, to pretend that the original and the unique are still possible and desirable. And this is nowhere more accurate than in the field of photography itself, the very culprit of mechanical representation' (p.112).   

It addresses 'the plurality of copies' (p.109) and evaluates postmodernist appropriation, duplication of art work and what he refers to as the 'presence'. 'The peculiar presence of this work is effected through absence, thorough its unbridgeable distance from the original, from even the possibility of an original. Such presence is what I attribute to the kind of photographic activity I call postmodernist' (p.111). (See Sherrie Levine notes below #3)

Catherine Balet (French) 

Looking for the Masters in Ricardo's Golden Shoes 

I actually really like this series for what I can only describe as its almost mischievous approach. However it also addresses 'the nature of portraiture and the way the internet has led to even the most celebrated photographs being divorced from their historical, social and artistic context' (O'Hagan. guardian online). 

French photographer Catherine Balet's friend, Ricardo Martinez Paz, is the protagonist who features in all the images. Whilst being instantly identifiable Balet's images avoid being mere imitations of the original appraising the development of photography and  'what makes a photo become iconic' (catherinebalet online).   (See Douglas Crimp  notes above #1)   

'Balet shows us what photography used to be --a mirror of the age in which it was produced, and in doing so hints at what, to an alarming degree, what it has become---a vast galaxy of images that can be endlessly re-produced, altered and re-imagined, as well as misread, misappropriated and rendered meaningless in the process' (O'Hagan. guardian online).  

Looking for the Masters screenshots 

Available @ http://www.catherinebalet.com/index.php?page=The-Masters

Balet Version of Nan Goldin Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/08/looking-for-masters-ricardos-golden-shoes-catherine-balet-photography-review

Cindy Sherman Untitled #397Available @ https://www.thebroad.org/art/cindy-sherman

Nan Goldin Nan & Brian in Bed Available @ https://www.moma.org/collection/works/101659

August Sander Young FarmersAvailable @ https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sander-young-farmers-al00014

Michael Mandiberg (American)

AfterWalker Evans.com / AfterSherrieLevine.com 

The site is the home to Mandiberg's copies of Levine's copies of Walker Evans images taken during the depression in the 1930's. 

Rather than repeat the accompanying text verbatim the link is available http://www.aftersherrielevine.com/texts.html

A visitor to the site can download high res copies along with a Certificate of Authentication and framing instructions @  http://www.afterwalkerevans.com/images2.html 'A certificate of authentication is conventionally used to preserve the economic value of an art object through a limited edition, here the certificate is used to create an art object that accrues cultural value by negotiating art history and theory, yet which has little or no economic value' (Mandiberg).  (See Douglas Crimp notes above #2). 

Sherry Levine 

Walker Evans images of his son Neil were re-photographed and copied by Levine and duly exhibited.

(See youtube link below). 

A friend of Levine commented that by looking at her copies it generated an interest to see the authentic Weston images. However, Levine states this in turn will lead to a desire to see Weston's subject, his son, 'but when you see the boy the art is gone it is only in the absence of the original that representation can take place' (Crimp. p.119).  See Douglas Crimp notes above #3

Crimp notes 'it was, of course, Weston who said that the photograph must be visualised in full before the exposure is made. Levine has taken the master at his word and in doing so has shown him what he really meant. The a priori Weston had in mind was not really in his mind at all; it was in the world, and Weston only copied it' (Crimp. p.119). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IZhzUDSBTY

References / Bibliography 

Crimp.D. The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism from, Crimp,D. (1993) On the Museum's Ruins. Massachusetts:MIT Press. 

O'Hagan, S. (2016) Looking for the Masters in Ricardo's Golden Shoes by Catherine Balet (Guardian online). Accessed 12/9/18 available @ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/08/looking-for-masters-ricardos-golden-shoes-catherine-balet-photography-review

Mandiberg, M. (2014) Creative Appropriation: The Smallest Move is often the Hardest (MoMA online).  Accessed 12/9/18 available @ https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/blog/creative-appropriation-the-smallest-move-is-often-the-hardest

http://afterwalkerevans.comAccessed 27/8/18

http://www.catherinebalet.com/index.php?page=The-MastersAccessed 12/9/18

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/08/looking-for-masters-ricardos-golden-shoes-catherine-balet-photography-reviewAccessed 12/9/18

https://www.dewilewis.com/collections/new-titles/products/looking-for-the-masters-in-ricardos-golden-shoesAccessed 12/9/18

http://www.mandiberg.comAccessed 12/9/18

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/blog/creative-appropriation-the-smallest-move-is-often-the-hardestAccessed 12/9/18