Let’s group today’s photography into two types of images. I’ll call the first type ‘postmodern’, and the second type ‘pretty-glossy-world’. I’ve appreciated both of these styles, but lately, I somehow find them not quite as satisfying. On his blog, George LeChat attributes this lack of satisfaction to a lack of formal elegance or distinction. He provides some interesting comparisons of vintage and contemporary photographs. George may be on to something, but I think that the cause may be deeper.
The ‘postmodern’ images are mostly what I see in the fine art world. Photographs in this style often have a skeptical view and call into question the values that we have grown up with. The images take topics like consumerism or romance with an edge of disenchantment – a glum response to what the world has given us, and questions, “is that all there is?” Or, as Freddie Mercury sings in Bohemian Rhapsody, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? …. Nothing really matters, Anyone can see, Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me.†This is a world that rather than fight injustice, tries to cope with it.
The ‘pretty-glossy-world’ style expresses a better-than reality. These photographs provide an idealized and supposedly better version of the real thing. It’s the prominent style of imagery used in the media that surrounds us – from calendars and postcards to glossy marketing campaigns. When you go to a restaurant, the photograph on the menu is a ‘better’ reality than the food that is served to you. Images in fashion magazines are altered to give models larger eyes, bigger breasts, streamlined bodies and weirdly smooth skin. There’s a counterpart to this in landscape photography, where this type of image has been referred to as eco-porn. We are drawn to these images, because beauty is worth celebrating. However, these images are not real beauty. They are not a view of a truthful world, but of a tantalizing and deceptive non-world.
I have leanings toward creating both types of images. The failure of society to live up to it’s values leads me to reconsider, while pop culture provides eye candy of the sugar coated unreal.
I want to create images that depict something else. Photographer Mark Hobson describes this as:
A place where, even though the referent matters, the skeptical/questioning gaze of the camera never places it on an altar of idolatry that drips with sappy sentimentality. A place where the referent is addressed with a respect that preserves it’s authenticity but still allows the photography-observer to move well beyond the ‘actuality of the real world’.
I’ve written about this, “beyond the actuality of the real world” as re-enchantment, to redeem what may be lost.
Take a look at this video of war photographer James Nachtwey accepting the TED award.
Nachtwey’s photographs depict suffering in a hope of ending it. There is a justice that has been lost and longs to be redeemed. His images strive for a reality that is beyond today’s actuality.
OK, I’m not doing anything like James Nachtwey. But, absorbing his photography provides a clue to what I’m seeking. I would like to be true, to re-enchant and re-value. So, I’m learning. I’m listening.
