I really enjoyed reading Wall's description of making photographs and his writing style.
I took a photography class in high school and it was always magical to go from film to paper. There is definitely a very concrete and wet connection to the historical. On the one hand, photography does distance one from the real however on the other hand the traditional production technique gets one in a rhythm, time disappears in a way. Digital photography breaks from the past although due to the digital I was able to see Wall's own photography.
Wall's photography is very interesting. I was especially captivated by this photo:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2007/jeffwall/
There is a very eerily yet calming feeling to the above photo. These men are dead yet the way in which Wall has positioned them makes them look as if they are in conversation with one another. The top three men who actually seem to be joking with one another. I don't know how to explain it but the image of one dead man dangling another man's flesh in front of him is somehow captivating - probably due to the mix of misery and comedy. Its as if the guy dangling the flesh is saying "look at what I have possessed of you, too bad we are both dead and noone may possess us any longer."
I took a photography class in high school and it was always magical to go from film to paper. There is definitely a very concrete and wet connection to the historical. On the one hand, photography does distance one from the real however on the other hand the traditional production technique gets one in a rhythm, time disappears in a way. Digital photography breaks from the past although due to the digital I was able to see Wall's own photography.
Wall's photography is very interesting. I was especially captivated by this photo:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2007/jeffwall/
There is a very eerily yet calming feeling to the above photo. These men are dead yet the way in which Wall has positioned them makes them look as if they are in conversation with one another. The top three men who actually seem to be joking with one another. I don't know how to explain it but the image of one dead man dangling another man's flesh in front of him is somehow captivating - probably due to the mix of misery and comedy. Its as if the guy dangling the flesh is saying "look at what I have possessed of you, too bad we are both dead and noone may possess us any longer."
Hmm, which image are you referring to exactly? It sounds like there's a definite connection to Victorian-era memento mori portraits, and the many Civil War photographs by Brady, Gardner, and others... death is definitely a theme running through both the Batchen and the Bazin readings.
ReplyDeleteNote that the image Wall mentions in the short piece, "Milk," is part of the MoMA collection.
Isn't it also sad that Berkeley got rid of its photographic darkroom a few years ago?