Photography and Reality

Photography (Chapter 2), Howells, R. (2011)

This chapter begins by looking at the history of photography.  Howells argues that when Daguerre perfected his Daguerrotype people believed in the authenticity of the image and felt that it was like owning a small piece of reality.  Unfortunately these images were not mechanically reproducible; that only came with the development of Henry Fox Talbot's calotype.  As the years passed, photography began to open up a visual world as never before.  People were able to see places and people they would not be able to do otherwise.  Photographs had an authenticity that was lacking in fine art.  Photography began to be used to record battles and army life and began to show the reality of war, which was somewhat glamourised in the paintings of earlier war artists.  Photography also came to be used as a means of documenting social conditions and to agitate for change.

Because photography was a means of mechanically recording and could only record truth.  Whilst this was regarded as a positive side of photography it began to be used as an argument that photography cannot be art. Howells points out that this is the view of Roger Scruton but Howells suggests that Scruton's argument is flawed and  counteracts that by analysing the image Rowing Home the Schoof-Stuff taken by Peter Emerson and Thomas Goodhall in 1886.  He suggests that many artistic decisions had to made during the taking of the image: recognising the aesthetic potential in the first instance, where to set up the camera, framing of the scene, compositional choices, timing, focus and sharpness and correct (in their eyes) exposure.  During the development stage other artisic and creative decisions were made including the use of platinum based chemistry to give a softer effect than the more contrasty silver chemistry.  Howells refers to Roger Fry who argues that the subject matter should be relegated and we should concentrate on the elements of design, many of which apply to photography as much as they do to painting.  Other people such as Aaron Siskind and Nathan Lyons entered the arena.  Siskind contended that '...the meaning should be in the photograph and not the subject photographed.  Howells refers to some of Siskind's abstract work of graffiti, battered enamel signs and peeling posters to illustrate his point.  I am reminded of the images I enjoy making of peeling paint.  An example is included later.

The famous photograph of a cottage at Dungeness and right next to the power station in a sales brochure and the work of the American Farm Services Administration photographers, especially Migrant Mother (1936) are used to illustrate his point.  These images were produced to create support of the change to economic policies and were made with conscious authorial intent.  Howells quotes Susan Sontag who wrote in On Photography that photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings are.

Howells concludes by homing in on the debate about Scruton's philosophy by William King and Nigel Warburton.  Both disagreed with Scruton, although in different ways.  The final conclusion is that, if photography is to be regarded as art then much depends on a photographer having an individual style and that, perhaps that cannot be clear from one single image, but through a series of images and the photographers work as a whole.  If, then, the stylistic features emerge, photography can be seen as a work of art.

One aspect that Howells concentrates on is the camera position and the effect that it has.  I am reminded of my own work when photographing flowers: I always shoot from a low position to give the flower impact rather than from above which tends to diminish the plant.  An example of this is a rare white helleborine that I photographed this morning and include below.As well as camera position, I also had to make decisions on composition exposure and, especially, aperture and lens choice.  I used a 150mm macro lens and a relatively wide aperture in order to achieve a plain out of focus background.  Timing was crucial; the plant was in the shade but the background in the sun so I had to wait until the right moment to avoid unsightly highlights in the background.

I agree with Howells arguments and, although my white helleborine may not be the greatest work of art on the planet  I have been through a similar creative process to Emerson and Goodhall and I like to think that when my workis examined as a whole, I am beginning to develop an individual style.

White Helleborine

Peeling Paint