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Criticizing Photographs
/ \ n iiiLiuu-ULLion LU u n u t i s i a n Q i n g linages
Third Edition Terry Barrett
Criticizing Photographs
An Introduction to Understanding Images

THIRD EDITION

Terry Barrett
The Ohio State University

Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, Wl New York

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McGraw-Hill Higher Education eg
A Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies

Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images

Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill

Companies, Inc. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020.
Copyright © 2000, 1996, 1990 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

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ISBN 0-7674-1186-2

Sponsoring editor, Janet M. Beatty; production editor, Melissa Williams

Kreischer: manuscript editor, Joan Pendleton; design manager, Jean
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facturing manager, Randy Hurst. The text was set in 10/13 Berkeley
Oldstyle Medium by TBH Typecast, Inc. and printed on acid-free
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barrett. Terry Michael
Criticizing photographs: an introduction to understanding images
/ Terry Barrett.—3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7674-1186-2
1. Photography, Artistic. 2. Photographic criticism. I. Title.
TR642.B365 1999
7 7 0 ' . 1 — dc21
99-26895
CIP

wAv\v.mhhcA:om
Contents

Preface XI

Chapter 1 • About Art Criticism J

Defining Criticism 2
Sources of Criticism 4
Kinds of Criticism 5
The Backgrounds of Critics 7
Stances Toward Criticism 8
Relations Between Critics and Artists 20
Criticizing Criticism J1
The Value of Criticism 13

Chapter 2 • Describing Photographs 15

Defining Description 15
Descriptions of Avedon's "In the American West" 16
Describing Subject Matter 20
Describing Form 26
Describing Medium 28
Describing Style 31
Comparing and Contrasting 31
Internal and External Sources of Information 32
Description and Interpretation 34
Description and Evaluation 34
The Importance of Description to Readers 35
 Prxc'ii|'inr Photographs 112
( hii|>l<'i i • Interpreting I'hotogi.ipliN Id
i xplanatoi v /'IK>I<H;»<I/>IIS / /2
i >< lining Interpretation IJ
I 111' ( )l)jccls ol Inli'ipii°l:ll 101 is I'l
c: =3 im, rprttlvt Photographs 112
I /In. ally Evaluative Photographs 112
Interpretive Claims anil Arguments I/ \. ,iln in ally Evaluative Photographs 1 13
Interpretive Perspectives 42 i In nn in al Photographs 114
I luce Interpretations oj Lileanor -12 I In Interpretive Process: A Summary 1 14
Other Interpretive Strategies 45
('ombinations of Interpretive Approaches 48
( h.ipli'i (< • I v.iln.iling Photographs 116
Right" Interpretations 48
I s,uii|ili •. nl Judgments /16
Interpretations and the Artist's Intent 50
111> 11-111< ills and Reasons /1 7
Interpretations and Feelings 51
ImljMiii ni\ and ( riteria /19
Interpretation, Meaning, and Personal Significance 52
I llffi K in ( riteria 120
I he Community of Interpreters 52
Realism 120
I xprcsslonism 122
Chapter 4 • Types cf Photographs 53
I iMnudism 123
C Categories of Photographs 54
lir.iiinncntalism 124
New Categories 56
i '//HI ( liferici 126
Descriptive Photographs 58
i Kooilng Among Criteria 126
Explanatory Photographs 61
I >ilii i Ing |udgments 127
Interpretive Photographs 70
liulginciils Are Arguments 128
Ethically Evaluative Photographs 76
Reuppiaisals 128
Aesthetically Evaluative Photographs 82
judgments and Preferences 128
Theoretical Photographs 91
Inuiiiinnalism and Judgments 129
I in i Ibjei ts of Judgments 130
Chapter 5 • Photographs and Contexts 96 ludgmentsol Robert Mapplethorpe's Photographs 130
Internal Context 96 Hilton Kramer's and Grace Gluech's Views
Original Context 97 oj Mapplethorpe's Work 131
I Menial Context 99 (i/ln'i Critics' Views oj Mapplethorpe's Work 134
External Contexts and Connotations 101 i inn lusion 138
Interpreting Barbara Krugers Untitled ("Surveillance"),
with Contextual Information 103 Ch.ipt.'i / • Theory: Is It Art? 140
"Surveillance" and Internal Context 105 Aesthetic Theory 143
"Surveillance" and Original Context 105 I In in les and Critics 144
"Surveillance" and External Context 10')
I heories and Photographers 145
Barbara Kruger's Untitled ("Surveillance"),
I liriiiies and Historians 146
and the Categories / / I
 I heoiics ,UHI ( maims Ho
A Survey ol rheoretlcal Positions lis
Realism and Conventionalism I \9
Modernism and Postmodci nisiii I V>
Marxist Theory and Criticism 162
Femi?tis( Theory and Criticism 163
Preface
( (inclusion 166

Chapter 8 • Writing and Talking About Photographs 168

Writing About Photographs 168
Observing the Work and Taking Notes 168
An Interpretive Paper 169
i \t". ni ii Ai IIINC, ART CRITICISM have convinced me that one of the best
An Evaluative Paper 111
The Process oj Writing 175 Y w .iv. in appreciate an image is to observe, think, and talk about it. This is what
an i i II H I.in emails, and it's what this book is about. My goal is to help both begin-
Talking About Photographs 177
ning anil advanced students of photography use the activities of criticism in order
Discussions of Art in the Presence of the Artist 178
to liciiri ipprei late and understand photographs.
Studio Critiques 1 79 I In book Is Organized according to the major activities of criticism which Morris
Welti Identified In his study oi Hamlet criticism, namely, describing, interpreting,
Notes J 83 evaluating, and theorizing. His breakdown is sufficiently broad so as not to exclude
any Considerations about criticism, and sufficiently narrow to provide a directed
Bibliography 195 and i leal consideration of the complex activities of criticizing photographs. The
goal "I thcie activities is always increased appreciation and understanding, or whal
Index 205 Harry BfOUdy, the father of aesthetic education, calls "enlightened cherishing." I
like hll compound concept because it acknowledges feeling as well as thought,
WIIIHHII i resting a dichotomy.
I he Inlawing chapters consider describing photographs, interpreting and evalu-
ating them ,111(1 theorizing about photography, in that order. I've placed major
emphasis on the interpretation of photographs because I believe that discussion of
meaning Is more important than pronouncements of judgment and that interpreta-
tion r, tin iiin.t important and rewarding aspect of criticism. Interpretive discussion
increases understanding and thus deepens appreciation, whether that appreciation
is ultimately negative or positive. A judgment rendered without an understanding is
irresponsive and irresponsible. Unfortunately, criticism is too frequently confused
with negative value judgments because of its everyday connotations. The term crit-
ii ism in iln language of aesthetics encompasses much more.
I HI tin present, at the nstc oi oversimplification, tne four activities of criti-
cism deSt iil'ing, interpreting, evaluating, and theorizing—can be thought of as
Seeking answers to four basic questions: What is here? What is it about? How good
 «C3
iiiii> hi II my i hair, foi their support In the writing ol this book. I hanks especially
li It? K ii .HI•' l liis hook explore! thi i ritli lim ol photographs by means ol th( n h' '.usan Mn h.ii'l Barrett, my loving wile, for her enthusiastic, joyous, and loving
major questions, nmliiii ill mi- ami my work.
i In hook also provides .1 variety ol iniwi ri to ihew c|uestlons by critics, ln< lud i il || " hi i in ih.mk the reviewers ol the third edition manuscript for their Inci
mg student critics in Chapter H, who sometimes agree and sometimes disagrei slvi comment!!, especially Ron Carraher, University of Washington; Victoria Hirt,
about the same photographs. I've cited dozens ol < rltli i and many more photogn I HIM i lit) "I ',niiill I loud.i; Ilea Nellies, University of Illinois; Han Powell, I Inivei
pin-is in my selections I've tried to present a diversity ol 11iin.il voices to responsl sit) "I I 'ii ism ,\ih lenne Salinger, University of New Mexico; Christopher Tsouras,
hi)' provide readers a range of critical stances and approaches I mm which to choose < ommunlt) < ollcge ol Southern Nevada; John Upton, Orange Coast College; and
I i hose these particular critics and photographers as being especially appropriate to |on M "uni,ishim, Miami University
the points being discussed; no hierarchy of critics or photographers is implied by
in)' choices.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

Readers familiar with prior editions of this book will notice a change in the pho
tographs: there are more of them, and many are different from those in previous edi
lions, to better exemplify what is being written about.
In my experience with using this book in classes, students who are new to pho-
tography are sometimes overwhelmed with many names of photographers whose
work they do not know. This is a problem that this book, itself, cannot rectify. It is
my hope that the descriptions or discussions of the photographers and their works
will motivate readers to find and explore these fully on their own. Such exploration
is becoming increasingly easier because of the World Wide Web, which carries
the home pages of individual photographers, for example, Carol Flax's (cflax@u.
arizona.edu); online galleries of photographs, (or example, @art gallery (hup://
gertrude.art.uiuc.edu/@art/gallery.html); electronic journals of photography and o
criticism, such as James Hugunin's U-Turn (http://www.uturn.org); museums of
photography, for example, the Center for Creative Photography (http://www.ccp.
arizona.edu/ccp.html); and archives of images, such as Susan Ressler's "Women
Artists of the American West" (http://www.sla.purdue.edu/waaw/).
I've updated, expanded, and refined material throughout with the intention of
making this third edition more useful. I enjoy teaching students about photography
and criticism. 1 hope my positive attitude has infused this book and that it inspires
readers to respond more passionately and thoughtfully to photography.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book may never have happened without mv serendipitous meeting of Jan
Beany of Mayfield and her continued gentle and joyful handling of the entire edito-
rial process from the initial conception ol the book through this third edition. All of
the people at Mayfield have been very pleasant to VV01 V with and extremely cooper-
ative, especially Dick Grccnberg, Melissa Williams KrelSl her, Jean Mailander, Brian
Pecko, and Joan Pendleton. Thanks lo Judith Koioscik, my dean, and James
 < M A I M I l<

About Art Criticism

ill1, IOOK IS Mioui leading and doing photography criticism so that you can
T In in i .i|i|ini i,lie photographs by using critical processes. Unfortunately wo
usually ilmi i equate < riticism with appreciation because in everyday language the
term i illli Ism has negative connotations: It is used to refer to the act of making
judglYll ntl usually negative judgments, and the act of expressing disapproval.
hi ni.iv. media, critics are portrayed as judges of art: Reviewers in newspapers
ran- restaurants with stars, and critics on television rate movies with thumbs u p or
thumbs down 01 hum 1 to 10, constantly reinforcing judgmental aspects of criti-
cism ( 'I | | | the words critics write, those most often quoted are judgments: "The
besi pi.iv nl tlit- season!" "Dazzling!" "Brilliant!" These words are highlighted in
bold i\ | n in movie and theater ads because these words sell tickets. But they consti-
tute onl\ I few ul the critic's total output of words, and they have been quoted out
ol conn Kl I hese snippets have minimal value in helping us reach an understand-
ing ol ,i play oi a movie.
t inn s an writers who like art and choose to spend their lives thinking and
writing iilioul ii hell hooks, a critic and scholar of African American cultural stud-
ies, wiiir-. litis about writing: "Seduced by the magic of words in childhood, I am
still transported, carried away, writing and reading. Writing longhand the first
draftl ol all my works, 1 read aloud to myself, performing the words to hear and feel
them I Wttll to be certain I am grappling with language in such a way that my
woiif. I• v r ami breathe, that they surface from a passionate place inside me." 1 Peter
Schleldahl, a poet who now writes art criticism as a career, writes that "I get from
art I regulai ( hance to experience something—or perhaps everything, the whole
world us someone else, to replace my eyes and mind with the eyes and mind ol
anot IHI loi a charged moment." 2 Christopher Knight, who has written art criticism
AIMHII All i rltli Km

Ftingold thinks it unfortunate that theater criticism in New York City olteu prt
loi the I o$ Angeles Times iln< e L989, lefl •> sin > i v.lul i , m n as .1 museum cmatoi in vents theatergoing rather than encourages it, a n d . h e adds that "as every cinn
write crltic|sm precisely because he wanted to I" 1 IONCI i<> art: "The reason I ^iii knows, a favorable review with some substance is much harder to write than .1
Interested in a career in art in the In si place Is to be ,u mi in I .111 and artists. I Inn in I pan."11 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, who writes frequently about photography, says
1I1.11 in museums you spend mosi ol youi nine around trustees and paperwork there are instances when it is clear that something is nonsense and should be called
Some critics don't want to be called critics because ol the negative connotation nonsense, but she finds it more beneficial to ask questions about meaning than
ol the term. Art critic and poet Rene Ricard, writing in Artforum, says: "In poiui ol about aesthetic worth. 1 0
fa< 1 I'm not an ail critic. 1 am an enthusiast. 1 like to drum up interest in artists w In I "What do I do as a critic in a gallery'" Schjeldahl asks. He answers: "I learn. I
have somehow inspired me to be able to say something about their work." 4 Mich.n I walk up to, around, touch if I dare, the objects, meanwhile asking questions in inv
Feingold, who writes theater criticism for the Village Voice, says that "criticism mind and casting about for answers—all until mind and senses are in some rough
should celebrate the good in art, not revel in its anger at the bad." 3 Similarly I.in v agreement, or until fatigue sets in." Edmund Feldman, an art historian and art edu
I ippard is usually supportive of the art she writes about, but she says she is sonir cator, has written much about art criticism and defines it as "informed talk aboui
times accused of not being critical, of not being a critic at all. She responds, "That's art." 11 He also minimizes the act of evaluating, or judging, art, saying that it is the
okay with me, since I never liked the term anyway. Its negative connotations place least important of the critical procedures. A. D. Coleman, a pioneering and prolific
the writer in fundamental antagonism to the artists."13 She and other critics do nol critic of recent photography, defines what he does as "the intersecting of photo-
want to be thought of as being opposed to artists. graphic images with words." 1 2 He adds: "I merely look closely at and into all sorts
of photographic images and attempt to pinpoint in words what they provoke me to
feel and think and understand." Morris Weitz defines criticism as "a form of studied
DEFINING CRITICISM
discourse about works of art. It is a use of language designed to facilitate and enrich
I he term criticism is complex, with several different meanings. In the language ol the understanding of art." 13
aestheticians who philosophize about art and art criticism, and in the language Throughout this book the term criticism will not refer to the act of negative judg-
of art critics, criticism usually refers to a much broader range of activities than just ment; it will refer to a much wider range of activities and will adhere to this broad
the act of judging. Morris Weitz, an aesthetician interested in art criticism, sought definition: Criticism is informed discourse about art to increase understanding and
to discover more about it by studying what critics do when they criticize art. 7 He appreciation of art. This definition includes criticism of all artforms, including
look as his test case all the criticism ever written about Shakespeare's Hamlet. After dance, music, poetry, painting, and photography. "Discourse" includes talking and
reading the volumes of Hamlet criticism written through the ages, Weitz concluded writing. "Informed" is an important qualifier that distinguishes criticism from mere
that when critics criticize they do one or more of four things: They describe the talk and uninformed opinion about art. Not all writing about art is criticism. Some
work of art, they interpret it, they evaluate it, and they theorize about it. Some critics art writing, for example, is journalism rather than criticism: It is news reporting on
engage primarily in descriptive criticism; others describe, but primarily to further artists and artworld events rather than critical analysis.
their interpretations; still others describe, interpret, evaluate, and theorize. Weitz A way of becoming informed about art is by critically thinking about it. Criticism
drew several conclusions about criticism, most notably that any one of these four is a means toward the end of understanding and appreciating photographs. In sonic-
activities constitutes criticism and that evaluation is not a necessary part of criti- cases, a carefully thought out response to a photograph may result in negative-
cism. He found that several critics criticized Hamlet without ever judging it. appreciation or informed dislike. More often than not, however, especially when
When critics criticize, they do much more than express their likes and dis considering the work of prominent photographers and that of artists using pho-
likes—and much more than approve and disapprove of works of art. Critics do tographs, careful critical attention to a photograph or group of photographs will
judge artworks, and sometimes negatively, but their judgments more often are pos- result in fuller understanding and positive appreciation. Criticism should result in
itive than negative: As Rene Ricard says, "Why give publicity to something you what Harry Broudy, a philosopher promoting aesthetic education, calls "enlightened
hate?" When Schjeldahl is confronted by a work he does not like, he asks himsell cherishing." 1 4 Broudy's "enlightened cherishing" is a compound concept that com-
several questions: "'Why would I have done that if I did it?' is one of my working bines thought (by the term enlightened) with feeling (by the term cherishing). He
questions about an artwork. (Not that I could. This is make-believe.) My formula ol reminds us that both thought and feeling are necessary components that need to be
fairness to work that displeases me is to ask, W h a t would I like about this if I liked combined to achieve understanding and appreciation. Criticism is not a coldly
it?' When I cannot deem myself an intended or even a possible member of a work's intellectual endeavor.
audience. I ask myself what such an audience member must be like." 8 Michael
 Mr l \ M i l l I Ml)

backbone of a review. Set up your thesis by the third paragraph and use tin- test
SOURCES OF CRITICISM
of the space to substantiate it.""1 The editors add: "Keep descriptions britl and
Photography criticism can be found in many places—in photography classrooms, within the context of the ideas you are developing." Dialogue similarly defines
lecture halls, and publications. Published criticism appears in books, exhibition cat- «• t x reviews as the "personal assessments of individual shows or ol more than one
alogues, art magazines, photography magazines, and the popular press. Exhibition related show or event."17 Dialogue's editors also ask that writers include only siilh
catalogues list the exhibited works; reproduce several, if not all, of the pictures; and cient description for intelligibility but add: "Use descriptions to help the reader sec
usually have an introductory essay explaining why the curator selected this group the work in a new way and/or to illuminate connections between the exhibited
of works for an exhibition. Such essays often offer insightful interpretive commen- work and the larger art world." Both publications distinguish short reviews from
lary on photographs and photographers. After the exhibitions, the catalogues are feature articles and have different editorial guidelines for each.
marketed as books and take on a life of their own. Policies about what they cover vary from publication to publication,- too. Grace
Barbara Kruger has combined her critical essays, which previously appeared in Glueck, who writes art criticism for the New York Times, explains that her paper
several publications, into a single volume titled Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and covers important museum and gallery shows because that is what the readers
the World of Appearances. Rosalind Krauss's critical essay on Cindy Sherman's pho- expect. Similarly, because his magazine is national and devotes comparatively little
tographs accompanies the artist's work reproduced in Cindy Sherman 1975-1993. space to art, Peter Plagens of Newsweek covers museum shows, almost exclusively,
Arthur Danto has published critical essays on Cindy Sherman's Film Stills and the but tries to write about as many museum shows of contemporary art as possible.
photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe in comprehensive books by those artists." Many critics have editorial independence about what they cover. Kay Larson,
Susan Sontag's criticism of photography began as a series of articles and became the who writes for the weekly New York Magazine, says, "1 write about what interests
book On Photography. Jonathan Green's book American Photography is a critical me." 18 She explains that she tries to see everything in town that she can manage to
treatment of recent American photography. Much critical writing about photogra- see, looks for things that she likes, and then makes her choices about what to write:
phy has appeared in exhibition catalogues such as The New Color Photography, by "Ultimately I base my decisions not only on whom 1 like but whom I feel I can say
Sally Eauclaire, and Mirrors and Windows, by John Szarkowski. These two catalogues something about. There are many artists every week whom I do like and whom I
are based on exhibitions these curators have organized. As past curator of photogra- feel 1 can't say anything about." Robert Hughes, who writes around twenty-four
phy at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Szarkowski organized many exhibi- pieces a year for Time, is subject to no editorial restrictions or instructions, and he-
tions and often prepared accompanying exhibition catalogues. Sally Eauclaire is a covers what he chooses. However, because Time is a newsmagazine and needs to be
freelance curator who designs shows for museums and prepares catalogues. timely, the exhibitions must still be showing when his article runs and, because the
The majority of photography criticism, however, is found in the art press—the magazine is distributed internationally, he writes many of his reviews of shows out-
large art magazines such as Artforum and Art in America, and regional art journals side New York City.
such as Dialogue from Columbus, Ohio, New Art Examiner from Chicago, and When critics write for different publications, they are writing for different audi-
Artwcek and Photo Metro from California. Much photography criticism is also pub- ences. Their choices of what to write about and their approaches to their chosen or
lished in journals specifically devoted to photographic media, such as Afterimage, or assigned topics vary according to which publication they are writing for and whom
in photography publications including Aperture and Exposure. Reviews of photogra- they imagine their readers to be. A review of an exhibition written for the daily
phy exhibitions appear in daily newspapers of national import, such as the New newspaper of a small midwestern city will likely differ in tone and content from a
York Times, and in local newspapers. Some critics choose to write for very large review written for the Sunday New York Times because the readers are different. The
audiences and publish in mass media circulations: Abigail Solomon-Godeau has Times has national as well as regional distribution, and its readers are better
published her criticism in Vogue, and Robert Hughes and Peter Plagens write art informed about the arts than are average newspaper readers; a critic writing for the
i riticism for Time and Newsweek. Times can assume knowledge that a critic writing for a regional newspaper cannot.
Each of these publications has its own editorial tone and political ideology, and
( t II its sometimes choose their publications according to their style of writing, their
Critical interests, and their personal politics. They also adapt their styles to fit cer- KINDS OF CRITICISM
i.iin publications.
In an editorial in ihcjournal of Aesthetic Education, Ralph Smith distinguishes two
Editors often provide direction, sometimes quite specifically. The New Art Exam-
types of art criticism, both of which are useful but serve different purposes:
ine!, for instance, instructs its reviewers that "the writer's opinion of the work is the
 '•" 'Ml I I I I I I I '. III

photography to examine ideologies surrounding making, exhibiting, and writing

exploratory aesthetic criticism and aigttiiicnialivc ucslhclli cillicism. In doing
about photographs. Her writing is often criticism about criticism. Later in this book
exploiittory aesthetii nil it ism, a critic delays judgments ol value and attempts rather
lo ascertain an object's aesthetic aspects as completely as possible, lo ensure that we will explore in detail theories of art and photography, theoretical criticism, and
readers Will experience all that can be seen in a work of art. This kind of criticism how theory influences both criticism and photography.
relies heavily on descriptive and interpretive thought. Its aim is to sustain aesthetic Grundberg also identifies another type of criticism as "connoisseurship," which
experience. In doing argumentative aesthetic criticism, after sufficient interpretive he rejects as severely limited. The connoisseur, of wine or photographs, asks "Is ibis
analysis has been done, critics estimate the work's positive aspects or lack of them good or bad?" and makes a proclamation based on his or her particular taste. This
and give a full account of their judgments based on explicitly stated criteria and kind of criticism, which is often used in casual speech and sometimes found in pro-
standards. The critics argue in favor of their judgments and attempt to persuade fessional writing, is extremely limited in scope because the judgments it yields arc
Others that the object is best considered in the way they have interpreted and usually proclaimed without supporting reasons or the benefit of explicit criteria,
judged it, and they are prepared to defend their conclusions. and thus they are neither very informative nor useful. Statements based on taste are
simply too idiosyncratic to be worth disputing. As Grundberg adds, "Criticism's
Ingrid Sischy, editor and writer, has written criticism that exemplifies both the
task is to make arguments, not pronouncements." This book is in agreement with
exploratory and argumentative types. In a catalogue essay accompanying the nude
Grundberg on these points.
photographs made by Lee Friedlander,19 Sischy pleasantly meanders in and through
the photographs and the photographer's thoughts, carefully exploring both and her
reactions to them. We know, in the reading, that she approves of Friedlander and THE BACKGROUNDS OF CRITICS
his nudes and why, but more centrally, we experience the photographs through the
descriptive and interpretive thoughts ot a careful and committed observer. In an Critics come to criticism from varied backgrounds. Many art critics have advanced
essay she wrote for the New Yorker about the popular journalistic photographs degrees in art history and support themselves by teaching art history as they wrile
made by Sebastiao Salgado, however, Sischy carefully and logically and cumula- criticism. Several come from studio art backgrounds. Some critics are also exhibit-
lively builds an argument against their worth, despite their great popularity in the ing artists, such as Peter Plagens, who is a painter and a critic for Newsweek, and
art world.20 She clearly demonstrates argumentative criticism that is centrally eval- Barbara Kruger, who exhibits photographic art and writes criticism. Rene Ricard is
uative, replete with the reasons for and the criteria upon which she based her nega- a poet and art critic; Carrie Rickey writes film criticism for the popular press and art
tive appraisal. criticism for the art press.
Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic for the New York Times, studied art history
Andy Grundberg, a former photography critic for the New York Times, perceives
as a graduate student but wrote music criticism for a daily newspaper in Atlanta,
two basic approaches to photography criticism: the applied and the theoretical.
then for the Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S. News & World Report, and the New York
Applied criticism is practical, immediate, and directed at the work; theoretical criti-
Times. At the Times he started writing about art as well as music and became chief
cism is more philosophical, attempts to define photography, and uses photographs
art critic in 1990. Robert Hughes, art critic for Time magazine since 1970, is Aus-
only as examples to clarify its arguments. Applied criticism tends toward journal-
ism; theoretical criticism tends toward aesthetics.21 tralian and a Jesuit-trained, ex-architecture student, ex-painter, ex-political car-
toonist. He also writes essays for the New York Review oj Books and the New
Examples of applied criticism are reviews of shows, such as those written by
Republic, has produced an eight-part television series on modernism, The Shock of
A. D. Coleman. Coleman also writes theoretical criticism as in his "Directorial
the New, and is the author of several books on art.
Mode" article. Other examples of theoretical criticism are the writings of Allan
A. D, Coleman became a full-time, freelance critic of photography in 1968. He
Sekula, such as his essay "The Invention of Photographic Meaning," in which he
wrote a regular column called "Latent Image" for the Village Voice and also wrote for
explores how photographs mean and how photography signifies. He is interested in
Popular Photography and the Sunday New York Times. Since 1974 he has written
all ol photography, in photographs as kinds of pictures, and refers to specific pho-
for a variety of publications including Artforum and currently is photography critic
tographs and individual photographers only to support his broadly theoretical argu-
lor the weekly New York Observer. He also provides commentary for National Public
tnents. Similarly, Roland Barthes's book, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography,
Radio's "Performance Today" and writes criticism for various publications such
is | theoretical treatment of photography that attempts to distinguish photography
ai Photo Metro, published in San Francisco. Coleman is not a photographer and was
from other kinds of picture making. In her writing about photography, Abigail
neVCI formally schooled in photography; prior to writing about photography, he
Solomon-Godeau draws from cultural theory, feminism, and the history of art and
AIHUII All ( 1111 < K m

how to explain it, and there are many ways to take oil—through sociology, history,

3
wioic theater criticism for the Village Voiic. lie began willing' ahoiu photography theory, standard criticism, or description."26
because he was "excited l)y photographs, curious alien the medium, and fasci- Grace Glueck sees her role as a critic as being one of informing members ol the
nated—even frightened—by its impact on our culture." I !<• thinks of himself as a
public about works of art: She aspires to "inform, elucidate, explain, and en
voice from tlie audience of photography and wrote more than lour hundred articles
lighten."27 She wants "to help a reader place art in a context, establish where it's
from that vantage point between 1968 and 1978. In 1994 he published a collection
coming from, what feeds it, how it stacks up in relation to other art." Glueck is
ol his recent essays about issues of contemporary international photography under
quick to add, however, that she needs to take stands "against slipshod standards,
the title Critical Focus.22
sloppy work, imprecision, mistaken notions, and for good work of whatever
Before she began writing photography criticism, Abigail Solomon-Godeau was a stripe."
photo editor with an undergraduate degree in art history, and she had her own busi- Coleman specified, in 1975, his premises and parameters for critical writing:
ness of providing pictures for magazines, textbook publishers, educational film
snips, and advertisers. She eventually became bored with her work and also became A critic should be independent of the artists and institutions about which he/she
aware that she was part of what culture critics were deriding as the "consciousness writes. His/her writing should appear regularly in a magazine, newspaper, or other
industry." About that she says: "Here was an enterprise that was literally producing forum of opinion. The work considered within that writing should be publicly acces-
a certain reality that people, or students, or whoever, wouldn't question because it sible, and at least in part should represent the output of the critic's contemporaries
was perceived as real [because it was photographed]. That's when I started thinking and/or younger, less established artists in all their diversity. And he/she should be
that I would really like to write about photography."23 After trying for two years to willing to adopt openly that skeptic's posture which is necessary to serious criticism.28
make a living as a critic in New York, she realized that the only way she could eco-
These are clear statements of what Coleman believes criticism should be and how it
nomically survive as a critic was to teach. She earned her Ph.D. in art history to gain
should be conducted. He is arguing for an independent, skeptical criticism and for
access to jobs in higher education. While teaching, she has written for publications
critics who are independent of artists and the museums and galleries that sponsor
as diverse as Vogue, Afterimage, and October and has published a collection of her
essays in Photography at the Dock.24 those artists. He is acutely aware of possible conflicts of interest between critic and
artist or critic and institutional sponsor: He does not want the critic to be anyones
Grace Glueck believes that to become educated the critic needs to look at as mouthpiece but rather to be an independent voice. Coleman argues that because
much art as possible and at "anything that deals with form including architecture, criticism is a public activity, the critic's writing should be available to interested
movies, dance, theater, even street furniture." Mark Stevens agrees and stresses the
readers, and that the artwork which is criticized should also be open to public-
importance of spending time in museums: "Immersion in excellent examples of dif-
scrutiny. This would presumably preclude a critic's visiting an artist's studio and
ferent kinds of past art is the best training for the eye."
writing about that work, because that work is only privately available.
Coleman distinguishes between curators and historians who write about art,
STANCES TOWARD CRITICISM and critics. He argues that curators, who gather work and show it in galleries and
museums, and historians, who place older work in context, write from privileged
Critics take various stances on what criticism should be and how it should be con- positions: The historian's is the privilege of hindsight; the curator's is the power
ducted. Abigail Solomon-Godeau views her chosen critical agenda as one of asking of patronage. Coleman cautions that the writer, historian, curator, or critic who
questions: "Primarily, all critical practices—literary or artistic—should probably be
befriends the artist by sponsoring his or her work will have a difficult time being
about asking questions. That's what I do in my teaching and it's what I attempt to do
skeptical. He is quick to point out, however, that skepticism is not enmity or hos-
in my v/riting. Of course, there are certain instances in which you can say with cer-
tility. Coleman's goal is one of constructive, affirmative criticism, and he adds: "The
i.iinty, 'this is what's going on here,' or 'this is nonsense, mystification or falsifica-
greatest abuses of a critic's role stem from the hunger for power and the need to be
tion.' But in the most profound sense, this is still asking—what does it mean, how
liked."2q
does it work, can we think something differently about it."25
Mark Stevens agrees that distinctions should be maintained between writing crit-
Kay Larson, who is also concerned with explanation of artworks, says that she icism and writing history: "The trouble with acting like an art historian is that it
Ittl ts writing criticism "by confronting the work at the most direct level possible— detracts from the job critics can do better than anybody else, and that is to be lively,
suspending language and removing barriers. It's hard and it's scary—you keep want- spontaneous, impressionistic, quick to the present—shapers, in short, of the mind
ing to rush back in with judgments and opinions, but you've got to push yourself
of the moment."30
back and be with the work. Once you've had the encounter, you can try to figure out
n u l l ! A l l ( | 11 I < i s m

being a translator of the artist's intentions to the public."1'' Michael leingold

I in y I ippard is a widely published independent ml nilli who assumes a posture
believes that criticism "is not a part of the artistic process. That is a matter between
(lillcnni 1 • < tin Coleman's, and her personal polu ies loi 11 uu ism aie m disagreement
artists and their materials, artists and their colleagues, artists and their audiences.
with those of his just cited. She terms her art wriiing "advocacy criticism."31 As an
Criticism comes later. When it tries to impose itself on the process, it usually ends
"advocate critic" Lippard is openly leftist and feminist and rejects the notion that
by corrupting art while making itself look insipid or foolish."36
good criticism is objective criticism. Instead, she wants a criticism that takes a polii-
Editors of periodicals that publish criticism are also sensitive to issues of integ-
ical stand. She seeks out and promotes "the unheard voices, the unseen images, or
the unconsidered people." She chooses to write about art that is critical of main- rity and possible conflicts of interest between a critic and an artist or institution.
stream society and which is therefore not often exhibited. Lippard chooses to work The New Art Examiner, for example, declares in bold type in its reviewer's guide
in partnership with socially oppositional artists to get their work seen and their lines: "Under no circumstances are manuscripts to be shared with outsiders (the
Mines heard. artist, dealer, sponsor, etc.)." Dialogue disallows reviews from writers who have a
business interest in a gallery where the show is located, a close personal relation-
Lippard also rejects as a false dichotomy the notion that there should be distance
ship with the exhibiting artist, any position within the sponsoring institution, or
between critics and artists. She says that her ideas about art have consistently
previous experiences with the artist or sponsoring institution. These policies are
emerged from contact with artists and their studios rather than from galleries and
instituted to avoid damage to a publication's and a writer's credibility.
magazines. She acknowledges that the lines between advocacy, promotion, and pro-
There aren't easy answers to questions of the ethics of criticism or to deciding
paganda are thin, but she rejects critical objectivity and neutrality as false myths
personal or editorial policy. The question is less difficult, however, if we realize that
and thinks her approach is more honest than that of critics who claim to be re-
critics write for readers other than the artist whose work they are considering. Crit-
moved from special interests.
ics do not write criticism for the one painter or photographer who is exhibiting;
they write for a public. Grace Glueck thinks that, at best, the critic gives the artist
RELATIONS BETWEEN CRITICS AND ARTISTS an idea of how his or her work is being perceived or misperceived by the public.
The relation between the critic and the artist also becomes less clear when we
Lippard and Coleman raise a key question in criticism about the critic's relation to realize that criticism is much more than the judging of art. This point is easily for-
the artist. And they each have different answers: Coleman advocates a skeptical dis- gotten because in art studios, in schools, and in classrooms of photography, criti-
tance between critic and artist, and Lippard a partnership between them. Critics cism is often, unfortunately, understood solely as judgment. The primary purpose
take various positions between these two polar positions. Peter Schjeldahl says that of school criticism is usually seen very narrowly as the improvement of art making;
"intimate friendships between artists and critics, as such, are tragicomic. The critic
little time is spent in describing student work, interpreting it, or in examining
may seek revelation from the artist, who may seek authentication from the critic.
assumptions about what art is or is not.37 Thus we tend to think that published pro-
Neither has any such prize to give, if each is any good." He adds: "A critic who feels
fessional criticism is judgment and, more specifically, judgment for the artist and
no anguish in relating to artists is a prostitute. A critic who never relates to artists,
the improvement of art making. This conception of professional criticism is far from
fearing contamination, is a virgin. Neither knows a thing about love."32
accurate.
Kay Larson feels that to be informed she is required to study history and also to
"talk to artists."33 She struggles with the issue of responsibility and states, "Your
responsibility to the artist is to be as fair as possible," and in a second thought adds, CRITICIZING CRITICISM
"You have a responsibility to your taste and values."
Although the critics quoted in this chapter have seriously considered their positions
Mark Stevens sees his primary responsibility being "to his own opinion." He also regarding criticism, their positions differ; and their theories and approaches do not
tries "to be fair, and not to be nasty," and he regrets the few times he's been sarcas- combine into a cohesive and comprehensive single theory of criticism. Quite the
tic.1'1 He thinks that knowing artists is difficult because he doesn't want to hurt
contrary. Critics frequently take issue with one another's ideas. Art critic Hilton
their feelings or champion work that he doesn't think is good. He thinks "it's prob-
Kramer has dismissed Lucy Lippard's writing as "straightout political propa-
.iMy a bad idea to know artists too well, to accept works of art or to know dealers
ganda."iH John Szarkowski is frequently accused by social-minded critics of "aes-
loo well."
ihciicizing" photographs—turning too many of them into "art," particularly socially
Christopher Knight likes to associate with artists but does not talk to them about oppositional photographs. Allan Sekula's writing is so suspicious of photography
their work until after he has written about it: "I never talk to an artist about the thai it has been called "almost paranoid" and has been likened to a history of
work until I've written something because it only confuses me. I don't see myself as
- M l M Ml I /Ml I I I I l( I M l I

faintly insane, like painting the brightest possible target on my chest. To write
w o m e n written by a misogynist. 1 '' I hese conllli ling views t ntililbute to an ongoing, clearly is to give oneself away."42 This book tries to give ideas away by making them
interesting, and inlormalive dialogue about c i i i u i.ni and photographs that enlivens clear and thus accessible—especially when they are difficult ideas—to anyone inter-
the leading of criticism as well as the viewing ol photographs. ested in knowing them.
Art critic Donald Kuspit is the editor of a series ol books that anthologize the
major writings of such contemporary art critics as Lawrence Alloway, Dennis Adrian,
Dore Ashton, Nicolas Calas, Joseph Masheck, Robert Pincus-Witten, Peter Plagens, THE VALUE OF CRITICISM
and Peter Seltz. In his foreword to their writings, he calls them "master art critics" The value of reading good criticism is increased knowledge and appreciation of art.
and provides some reasons for his positive appraisal of their criticism. He thinks Reading about art with which we are unfamiliar increases our knowledge. If we
they provide sophisticated treatment of complex art. They have all thought deeply already know and appreciate an artwork, reading someone else's view, of it may
about the nature of art criticism and have seriously considered how they should go expand our own if we agree, or it may intensify our own if we choose to disagree
about doing it. He praises the independence of their points of view and their self- and formulate counterarguments.
consciousness about it. Kuspit knows they have all expanded their criticism well There are also considerable advantages for doing criticism. Marcia Siegei, dance
beyond journalistic reporting and have avoided promotional reporting of the artist critic for the Hudson Review and author of several books of dance criticism, talks
stars of their day. He admires these critics for being passionate about art and their about the value for her of the process of writing criticism: "Very often it turns out
criticism and for depending on reason to prove their point. In their passion and rea- that as I write about something, it gets better. It's not that I'm so enthusiastic that 1
son they have avoided becoming dogmatic—they "sting us into consciousness." make it better, but that in writing, because the words are an instrument of thinking,
In these statements Kuspit provides criteria for good criticism by which he can I can often get deeper into a choreographer's thoughts or processes and see more
measure and weigh the writings of others about art. Mark Stevens offers these crite- logic, more reason."43
ria for good criticism: Critics should be "honest in their judgment, clear in their Similarly, A. D. Coleman began studying photography and writing photography
writing, straightforward in their argument, and unpretentious in their manner."40 criticism in the late 1960s because he realized that photography was shaping him
He adds that good criticism is like good conversation—"direct, fresh, personal, and his culture; he wanted to know more about it and "came to feel that there might
incomplete." Not all criticism is good criticism, and even if all criticism were good be some value to threshing out, in public and in print, some understandings of the
criticism, critics would have differing points of view and would want to argue them. medium's role in our lives."44 For him the process of criticizing was valuable in
Those in the business of criticizing art and criticizing criticism understand that understanding photographs, and he hoped that his thinking in public and in print
what they do is tentative, or "incomplete" in Stevens's terms, open to revision, and would help him and others to better understand photographs and their effects on
vulnerable to counterargument. The best of critics realize that they cannot afford to viewers.
be dogmatic about their views because they can always be corrected. They can be If the process of criticism is personally valuable even for frequently published,
passionate and often are, but the best of them rely on reason rather than emotion to professional critics, then it is likely that there are considerable advantages for others
convince another of their way of seeing a work of art. Critics believe in how they who arc less experienced with criticizing art. An immediate advantage of thoughtful
see and in what they write, and they try to persuade their readers that their way is engagement with an artwork is that the observer's viewing time is slowed down and
the best way, or at least a very good way, to see and understand. Writing about measurably prolonged. This point is obvious but important: Most people visiting
Robert Hughes's criticism, Nicholas Jenkins says that Hughes's "strong opinions museums consider an artwork in less than five seconds. Five seconds of viewing
seem shaped almost as much by his love of the surge of powerful rhetoric as by his compared to hours and hours of crafting by the artist seems woefully out of balance.
sense of intellectual conviction." Hughes concurs: "Of course there's an element of Considering descriptive, interpretive, and evaluative questions about an artwork
performance in criticism."41 Critics are also open to another's point of view, but that ought to significantly expand one's awareness of an artwork and considerably alter
other will likewise have to persuade them, on the basis of reason, before they one's perception of the work.
change their views. In criticizing an art object for a reader or viewer, critics must struggle to translate
Several readers and critics themselves have complained that criticism is too often their complex jumble of thoughts and feelings about art into words that can be
obscure, too difficult to read, and at times incomprehensible. Peter Schjeldahl, with understood first by themselves and then by others. Everyday viewers of art can walk
some self-deprecating humor, writes that "I have written obscurely when I could get away from a picture or an exhibit with minimal responses, unarticulated feelings,
away with it. It is very enjoyable, attended by a powerful feeling of invulnerability." and incomplete thoughts. Critics who view artworks as professionals, however,
Then, with less sarcasm, he adds: "Writing clearly is immensely hard work that feels
m i l l Art Criticism

have a responsibility to struggle with meaning and addn . qui '.lions that the art-
w o r k |)oses or to raise questions that the artwork does not.
Crities usually consider artworks from a broader perspective than the single pic-
CHAPTER 2
ture or the single show. They put the work in a much larger context of other works
l)y I lie artist, works by other artists of the day, and art of the past. They are able to
do this because they see much more art than does the average viewer—they con-
sider art for a living. Their audiences will not be satisfied with one-word responses,
quick dismissals, or empty praises. Critics have to argue for their positions and base
their arguments on the artwork and how they understand it. Viewers who consider Describing Photographs
an in the way that a critic would consider it will likely increase their own under-
standing and appreciation of art—that is the goal and the reward.

DEFINING DESCRIPTION
To describe a photograph or an exhibition is to notice things about it and to tell
another, out loud or in print, what one notices. Description is a data-gathering pro-
cess, a listing of facts. Descriptions are answers to the questions: "What is here?
What am 1 looking at? What do I know with certainty about this image?" The
answers are identifications of both the obvious and the not so obvious. Even when
certain tilings seem obvious to critics, they point them out because they know that
what is obvious to one viewer might be invisible to another. Descriptive information
includes statements about the photograph's subject matter, medium, and form, and
then mi in- generally, about the photograph's causal environment, including informa-
tion about the photographer who made it, the times during which it was made, and
the sin i.il milieu from which it emerged. Descriptive information is true (or false),
,i< i urate (oi inaccurate), factual (or contrary to fact): Either Richard Avedon used
an 8 by l () Inch Dcardorff view camera or he didn't; either he exposed more than
I /.Oini iheets of film or he didn't. Descriptive statements are verifiable by observa-
iinii and an appeal to factual evidence. Although in principle descriptive claims can
be shown in be true or false, in practice critics sometimes find it difficult to do so.
( i in< | obtain descriptive information from two sources—internal and external.
1111 \ derive much descriptive information by closely attending to what can be seen
within the photograph. They also seek descriptive information from external
ouii i mi hiding libraries, the artists who made the pictures, and press releases.
• Ihlng IS a logical place to start when viewing an exhibition or a particular
photograpll bci ause it is a means of gathering basic information on which under-
Itandtll I built. Psychologically, however, we often want to judge first, and our
i >i".i i ii i r i i . . 1 ...p ziphs
3
document" the American West becomes important loi Davis's ultimate judgnicni ol
lnsi statements often express approvsil or disappioval I hen- Is nothing inherently the show.
wrong with judging lust as long as judgments are ntlotmed and iclevant inform! Davis begins his review of the show by discussing one piece, which lie calls
lion is descriptively accurate. Whether we judge first and then revise a judgment "immensely ambitious" and "revealing." It is a complicated piece and not reprinted
based on description, or describe and interpret first and then judge, is a matter of with the article. Our mental image of it depends on Davis's description: "More ih.ui
choice. The starling point is not crucial, but accurate description is an essential part 10 feet long, almost 5 feet high, it is the largest image in an exhibition dominated by
of holding defensible critical positions. Interpretations and judgments that omit life-size faces and torsos." The work is very large by photographic standards; Davis
facts or are contrary to fact are seriously flawed. emphasizes the dimensions of it and also reveals that most of the show is life-size:
Critics inevitably and frequently describe, but in print they don't necessarily first "Here we stand face to face with four grimy coal miners lined up across three sepa-
describe, next interpret, and then judge. They might first describe to themselves rate photographs." Readers who may not know the term triptych can now deciplui
privately before they write, but in print they might start with a judgment, or an that this piece is composed of three separate photographs. Davis identifies the sub-
interpretive thesis, or a question, or a quotation, or any number of literary devices, ject matter of this piece as four coal miners whom he describes as "grimy" and as
in order to get and hold the attention of their readers. They would probably be "lined up." He also describes the experience of viewing this large image: "we stand
dreadfully boring if they first described and then interpreted and then judged. In face to face" with them.
the same sentence critics often mix descriptive information with an interpretive Davis's description of the image's size is important to note because if his readers
claim or with a judgment of value. For our immediate aim of learning the descrip- see these photographs they will likely see them as pages in Avedon's book, small
tive process of criticism, however, we are sorting and highlighting descriptive data reproductions in magazines or newspapers, or perhaps as slides on a screen in a
in the writing of critics. classroom, but not as they were presented life-size in the Ft. Worth exhibition. One
purpose of descriptive accounts is for understanding in the present; another is to
accurately record for posterity. Some of today's criticism of new work will eventually
DESCRIPTIONS OF AVEDON'S "IN THE AMERICAN WEST" become part of art history for future generations long after exhibitions have closed.
When Richard Avedon's photographs "In the American West" were first shown, in Davis then explains that one of the four miners in the triptych appears twice,
1985, Douglas Davis was in the difficult position in which art critics often find with his face split by the separation between two of the three pictures. Davis finds
themselves—he had to write some of the first words about some new and challeng this split "hypnotic and arresting." In one picture the miner wears a beard and in
ing work. He also had to write for an audience of readers who had not seen the the other he does not. Davis explains that Avedon photographed the miner twice,
work. Avedon's American West work is now relatively well known because it has at three-month intervals: the first time the miner had a beard, the second time he
been exhibited and has been available in book form since 1985, l and it has been did not.
considered by several critics. But the work wasn't known when Davis wrote about it All of this description of the one triptych appears in Davis's first paragraph of the
for Newsweek, shortly after its inaugural exhibition opened. Davis's review is one article. And this information sets up his ensuing interpretation of what the work is
magazine page plus a column in length, about 1,000 words, and is accompanied by about and then his evaluative conclusion about how good it is: "In many ways, Ave-
four of Avedon's photographs from the exhibition. It is full of descriptive informa- don's long awaited new body of work . . . is as two faced as this miner."
tion—facts and verifiable observations about the work in question. For Davis, this new work is two-faced because, first, it has been promoted as a
Davis opens his article with this sentence: "In the thick of the crowd of portraits forthright, direct, and "documentary" treatment of the West and as a departure from
on display in Ft. Worth by famed fashion photographer Richard Avedon to docu- Avedon's high-fashion style for which he is famous. But according to Davis,
ment the American West, there is one immensely ambitious—and revealing—trip- although the photographs may seem candid and spontaneous, they are highly con-
tych." 2 Thus, because his readers may or may not know of Richard Avedon, Davis trived: "As always he pursued style, manner and effect." The show, Davis concludes
quickly and without condescension informs them that Avedon is a famed fashion in the last sentence of the article, does not document the West, but rather docu-
photographer. He also explains that the show is of portraits, that there are a lot of ments Avedon himself and his style. Thus, Davis's judgment is mixed: The show
them—"in the thick of the crowd of portraits"—and that they are on display in Ft. fails because it is not an accurate documentation of the West as it was promoted and
Worth. That they are on display in Ft. Worth, although basic, is interesting to note as it pretends; but it succeeds as the continuation of a photographer's "exhilarating
because major shows by a famed fashion photographer, and by Avedon, are more pursuit of the perfect photographic style."
likely to open in New York City than in a city in Texas. That they were made "to
 Hctwmi Hit- opening paragraph about the iriptyi h .mil ilit- c OIK hiding paragraph
containing Davis's judgment ol the work arc three paiagi.iplis ol descriptive inloi
in.it ion. Not only are descriptions interesting and enlightening in themselves, but
they are also used to support a critic's interpretation and judgment. Davis's interpre-
tation of the work is that it is very stylized, and his judgment is that the work both
lails and succeeds because of its stylization. We and other critics may agree or dis-
agree with Davis's decisions about Avedon's work, and in Chapters 3-6 we will fully
consider interpreting and judging photographs, but our primary concern here is
description. Although description, interpretation, and evaluation overlap in a
critic's writing, often in the same phrase or sentence, we will continue sorting out
Davis's descriptive language and consider all the descriptive information he pro-
vides in his brief article.
1(1 the next paragraph we learn that the work was long-awaited and that it has
been highly advertised as different from the work that made Avedon famous in the
L960S. Davis typifies the style of earlier work as "mannered high-fashion." In the
first paragraph he said there were many photographs; now he specifies that 124 pic-
tures are on display and that they are reproduced in a book published by Abrams. In
a judgment and not a description, Davis calls the book "handsome." He also adds
that the photographs have "seeming candor and spontaneity."
In the third paragraph Davis informs readers that this work was commissioned
in 1980 by the Amon Carter Museum of Ft. Worth, where the show opened. Davis
tells us that Avedon traveled extensively and went to the Rattlesnake Roundup in
Sweetwater, Texas, to a rodeo in Augusta, Montana, and to coal mines in Paonia,
Colorado. He held 752 photo sessions and shot 17,000 pictures. Davis states that
Avedon's project was as immense as the documentary efforts of William Henry Jack-
son and Edward Curtis, who surveyed regions of the American West in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In the fourth paragraph Davis discusses Avedon's method of shooting. He tells us
that Avedon has "a bare chested beekeeper stand before the lens with scores of bees
crawling across his skin." Davis claims that Avedon's subjects seem relaxed and real;
he attributes this to Avedon's method of photographing, which he also describes. He
relates that in making these photographs Avedon used an 8- by 10-inch Deardorff
view camera, permitting him to stand close to the subjects, talk with them, and
snap the shutter while standing away from the camera. Davis observes that the
backgrounds are all uniformly white, made with a sheet of seamless paper hung
behind the subjects; that the exposures were by natural daylight; and that all the
prints are enlarged from uncropped and unretouched negatives.
In the final paragraph Davis quotes Avedon as saying that when looking at one of
these photographs he wants us to believe that the subject "was not even in the pres-
ence of a photographer." He offers more descriptive language about Avedon's stylis-
Rii h.inl Avedon, Boyd Fortin, Thirteen Year Old Rattlesnake Skinner, Sweetwater, Texas, 1/10
tic treatment of the subjects—"the deadpan stare into the camera, the slouch of the
( o|'\ii>',hl (D liy Richard Avedon. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
body, the cropped arm or head at the edge of the frame." He describes the subject
• \>rsi r m i M i | r n o l o i p .iplis

maltfi ol anolhci picture as a "burly lumber salesman 11<>111111>•, his impassive baby
upside down" and mentions a coal miner who has a face "painted with rock dust"
before he draws his conclusion in his final sentence, quoted earlier, that Avedon
cxbilaratingly pursues the perfect photographic style.
r simple, Straightforward, and obvious when we read them, but Davis had to lashion
these subjects with carefully selected words. The photographer gives us images; ihc
critic gives us words for the images.
In his Artforum review, William Wilson describes the same subject matter thai
Davis saw but summarizes it differently. He calls the subject of the show "a human
Davis's article is written for a mass circulation magazine with readers of diverse cyclorama" and says that the show includes not only the expected "cowboys and
Interests. It is relatively short, of "review" length rather than "feature" length. Indians" but also "a couple of mental-hospital patients; a physical therapist; three
Another review of about the same length was published in Artforum in the same sisters from Wildhorse, Colorado."8 About the three sisters, Wilson adds that they
month that Davis's appeared in Newsweek? It is written by William Wilson, identi- have served as co-presidents of the Loretta Lynn Fan Club for the past twenty-five
fied in a byline as a writer and editor. A feature article called "Avedon Goes West" years. In colorful descriptive language utilizing alliteration, Williams mentions
was written by Susan Weiley and published in Artnews six months later.4 Both Art- "soot and grime and rips and rashes and blood" and states that the heads of slaugh-
jorum and Artnews are national in scope and devoted exclusively to visual art. tered sheep and steers are important inclusions in these portraits.
Whereas the Davis and Wilson reviews are about one magazine page in length and In her feature article in Artnews, Susan Weiley had considerably more space than
about 1,000 words, Weiley's is six pages and about 3,500 words. One photograph the one page allotted to the reviews by Davis and Wilson, and she chose to describe
accompanies Wilson's review, and four are printed with Weiley's article. a lot of Avedon's work, starting with his older fashion work which, she tells us,
Davis and Wilson generally agree in their appraisals of the show. Although they began in 1946. She discusses how his work differed from that of his peers who pho-
both approve of the work, they have reservations. Like Davis, Wilson does not tographed fashion, and she explains that he freed the fashion photograph from the
accept the work as an accurate documentation of the West. He sees it as Avedon's still studio pose. She uses lively descriptive language to discuss the subject matter of
fiction, but he doesn't mind that; rather, he enjoys the photographs as he would a his fashion work and how he presented it: In real and recognizable places he pho-
good story. Although he faults some of the photographs as "self-important" and tographed models as they "leaped off curbs or bounced down a beach or swirled
"patronizing" and mere "fashion,"5 he is positive about the exhibition. Susan Wei- their New Look skirts through Parisian streets or gamed at a roulette table."9 Weiley
ley, however, clearly disapproves of the work. Although she admires Avedon's "flaw- also relates that in addition to his commercial fashion work in the sixties and sev-
less craftsmanship," for her the American West project is "cold and mechanical" enties Avedon made portraits of celebrities. Beyond merely identifying the subjects
and "without that power to deeply disturb."6 For her it is "fashion, not art." With as portraits of artists, writers, and politicians, she characterizes them in carefully
these brief overviews of the positions taken by Wilson and Weiley, we have two chosen descriptive language: "Avedon presented the frailties of the body: the sags
more critical positions on Avedon to consider as we continue to explore description and bags, lines and pouches that flesh is heir to, the double chins, enlarged pores,
in criticism. In addition to analyzing descriptive statements about Avedon's work by glazed eyes and sullen expressions of the rich, the powerful, the famous." She also
these three critics, we will also consider descriptions of other types of photographs. describes a "devastating series" of portraits Avedon made of his father as he was
dying of cancer.
DESCRIBING SUBJECT MATTER When she discusses his American West work, Weiley not only describes the sub-
jects he photographs but also those he does not photograph: "fearless gunslingers or
Descriptive statements about subject matter identify and typify persons, objects, stalwart lawmen or fierce cattlemen or Houston oil barons, or any of the stock char-
places, or events in a photograph. When describing subject matter, critics name acters that live in our imagination of the West." As do Davis and Wilson, she lists
what they see and also characterize it. the persons in the photographs by their jobs but further describes the lot as "a cat-
Because there are 124 portraits in the Avedon exhibition, many of which are alogue of the odd, the bizarre, the defective, the deformed, the demented and the
group portraits, there are too many to list individually. Davis chooses to summarily maimed." And like Wilson, but unlike Davis, she mentions the bloodiness of some
describe the subjects of the show as "ranchers, housekeepers, rodeo riders and oil of the subjects: "Slaughterhouse workers and their implements are drenched in
drillers, pig men, meatpackers and an army of unemployed drifters."7 Some of these blood, and severed, bloodied calf, steer and sheep heads all have their likenesses
nouns were supplied by Avedon as part of his titles—for example, David Beason, Immortalized."
shipping clerk, Denver, Colorado, 7/25/81—and Davis has included several of them in Weiley concludes that Avedon's choice of subject matter is more interpretive
his review. But he invents the phrase "an army of unemployed drifters." He adds than descriptive: "After a short time one realizes the westerners were selected solely
that one of the coal miners is "tall and enigmatic," and he writes of a boy "with a for their strange physical characteristics." She is not alone in her conclusion.
snake wrapped coyly around his arms." These descriptions of subject matter seem
I '<"•• i iliini) I'hol o<)r .1 |>h\

Richard llolion, writing in A/fniindgr, consider* Avcdont Work exploitative and

asks ol die subjects of the photographs: "Win- liny lold (hat, had iliey been Leaf
dirty, less debilitated, or had better taslc, or bellci posture, iliey might not have
been chosen to be photographed?"10
These critics have seen the same work and write about die same exhibition, but
in describing the subjects of the photographs they have us notice different aspects
anil characteristics. There is much overlap in their observations about the subject
matter, because they are writing about observable facts, but there is also room for
different selections of what to include and what to exclude as well as considerable
variance in the language they use to describe the subject matter once they have
named it.
Avedon's subject matter is mostly people and is relatively uncomplicated—usu-
ally one person to a photograph. But as we have just seen, describing that subject
matter is not an easy task. The subject matter of many other photographs is also
simple, but when criticizing it, we characterize what is there. Edward Weston's sub-
led matter for an entire series of photographs is green peppers. The subject matter
of a Minor White photograph is bird droppings on a boulder. Irving Penn's subject
matter for a series of photographs is cigarette butts.
Some photographers utilize a lot of simple objects as their subject matter. In a
series of still lifes, Jan Groover "took her camera to the kitchen sink" and pho-
tographed complicated arrangements of kitchen utensils such as knives, forks,
spoons, plates, cups, plastic glasses and glass glasses, pastry and aspic molds, metal
funnels, whisks, plants, and vegetables.11 Most of the objects are recognizable, but
some are abstracted in the composition so that they are "surfaces and textures" and
not recognizable on the basis of what is shown. Although in real life Groover's sub-
ject matter is a pie pan, on the basis of what is seen in the photograph it can be
identified only as "a brushed aluminum surface" or "a glistening metallic plane."
The subject matter of many abstract works can be described only with abstract
terms, but critics still can and should describe it.
The subject matter of some photographs is seemingly simple but actually very
elusive. Cindy Sherman's work provides several examples. Most of these pho-
tographs are self-portraits, so in one sense her subject matter is herself. But she
titles black and white self-portraits made between 1977 and 1980 "Untitled Film
Stills." In them she pictures herself, but as a woman in a wide variety of guises from
hitchhiker to housewife. Moreover, these pictures look like stills from old movies.
She also made a series of "centerfolds" for which she posed clothed and in the man-
ner of soft-porn magazine photographs. So what is the subject matter of these pic-
tures? In a New York Times review, Michael Brenson names the subject matter of the
film still photographs "stock characters in old melodramas and suspense films."12
But Eleanor Hcartncy, writing in Afterimage, says that both the self-portraits and the Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #13, 1978.
film still photographs directly refer to "the cultural Construction ol femininity."13 , 0p) | l|hl I) by Cindy Sherman. All rights reserved. Courtesy of Metro Pictures. New York City.
I hey are pictures of Cindy Sherman and pictures ol ( indy Sherman disguised as
scribing Photographs

others; they arc also pictures of women as women an- ttpreMtlted in cultural arti-
facls such as movies, magazines, and paintings, espei ially as pic lured by male pro-
ducers, directors, editors, painters, and photographers. To simply identify them as c a»
"portraits" or "portraits of women" or "self-portraits" or "self-portraits of Cindy
Shei in.in" would be inaccurate and in a sense would be to niisidentily them.
Some photographs, such as those of Joel-Peter Witkin, have obviously complex
subject matter. His subject matter is sometimes difficult to decipher and always
demands attention because it is usually shocking. In a feature article in Exposure,
(iynthia Chris characterizes Witkin's subject matter as sexual, violent, and perverse
and itemizes it in this litany: "fetus, child, male, female, hermaphrodite, corpse,
skeleton, the beautiful, the deformed, the obese, live animal and taxidermic speci-
men."14 Hal Fischer, in Artweek, describes Witkin's subject matter in the following
way: "tortured figures, obese women, carrot dildos, fetuses and anything else which
may enter this photographer's imagination are fabricated into enigmatic, often
grotesque tableaux."15 Witkin uses models whom Fischer describes as "earth-
niother goddesses, transsexuals, masked and bound men and other inhabitants of
the demimonde." In her article Chris states: "Usually nude, they are less dressed
than entangled in hats, hoods, masks, wings, rubber hoses, flora, fauna, food, and
sex toys."16 The subjects are sometimes further altered by scratching and other
manual manipulations done to the negatives before they are printed, and many of
the photographs are collages of different negatives.
Witkin also includes other art objects or segments of them in his tableaux, and
he frequently refers to artworks by artists of earlier times. Van Deren Coke details
some of these art objects and art references in his introductory essay to an exhibi-
tion catalogue of Witkin's work.17 A 1981 photograph by Witkin titled The Prince
Imperial refers to a portrait of the son of Napoleon III made in the 1860s. Witkin's
Manclan is based on a painting done in the 1830s by George Catlin, and Courbet in
Rcjlander's Pool refers to both the painter Courbet and the photographer Rejlander.
Some of Witkin's photographs refer so closely to other artworks that Coke includes
the historic paintings in the catalogue of Witkin's contemporary work: The Little
Pur, painted around 1638 by Peter Paul Rubens, is printed opposite Witkin's Helena
Pourntent In a footnote, Coke relates that Witkin's photograph parodies a portrait of Joel-Peter Witkin, Portrait of Nan, 1984.
Kubens's wife, Helena Fourment. Witkin also parodies portraits by Goya and Grant Copyright © by Joel-Peter Witkin. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
Wood (Portrait of Nan) and a sculpture of Venus by Canova. In another of Witkin's
photographs, P_ygma!ion, segments of reproductions of Picasso's paintings are part of
the photograph. Thus the subject matter of this photograph is other art, which is
observable only if the viewer knows the other art or is told of the references by
someone else, such as a critic. The parodies in particular are problematic because a
parody is not effective unless the reader or viewer knows that it is a parody and how
it ridicules what it refers to. In these examples of Witkin's work, the subject matter
is BOI obvious, so the critic must describe it accurately and i ompletely
I'M i ihint| I ' h o t o q r a p l n

DESCRIBING FORM
Form refers to how (he subject matter is presented. Hen Slulin, the painter and pho-
tographer who made photographs for the Farm Security Administration in the
l() M)s, said that form is the shape of content. Descriptive statements about a photo-
graph's form concern how it is composed, arranged, and constructed visually. We
can attend to a photograph's form by considering how it uses what are called "for-
mal elements." From the older artforms of painting and drawing, photography
has inherited these formal elements: dot, line, shape, light and value, color, texture,
mass, space, and volume. Other formal elements identified for photographs include
black and white tonal range; subject contrast; film contrast; negative contrast; paper
contrast; film format; point of view, which includes the distance from which the
photograph was made and the lens that was used; angle and lens; frame and edge;
depth of field; sharpness of grain; and degree of focus. Critics refer to the ways pho-
tographers use these formal elements as "principles of design," which include scale,
proportion, unity within variety, repetition and rhythm, balance, directional forces,
emphasis, and subordination.
Fid ward Weston identified some of the choices of formal elements the photogra-
pher has when exposing a piece of film: "By varying the position of his camera, his
camera angle, or the focal length of his lens, the photographer can achieve an in-
finite number of varied compositions with a single stationary subject." 18 John
Szarkowski reiterated what Weston observed over fifty years ago and added an
important insight: "The simplicity of photography lies in the fact that it is very easy
to make a picture. The staggering complexity of it lies in the fact that a thousand
oilier pictures of the same subject would have been equally easy."19 )an Groover, Untitled, palladium print, 1977.
In an essay for an exhibition catalogue of Jan Groover's work, Susan Kismaric C opVTtfhl © by Jan Groover. All rights reserved. Courtesy Janet Borden Gallery, Inc.
provides a paragraph that is a wonderful example of how a critic can describe form
and its effects on subject matter:

I he formal element put to most startling use in these pictures is the scale of the
objects in them. Houseplants, knives, forks, and spoons appear larger than life. Our
common understanding of the meaning of these pedestrian objects is transformed to
a perception of them as exotic and mysterious. Arrangements of plates, knives, and
houseplants engage and delight our sight through their glamorous new incarnation
while they simultaneously undermine our sense of their purpose in the natural
world. Meticulously controlled artificial light contributes to this effect. Reflections of
color and shapes on glass, metal, and water, perceived only for an instant or not at all
in real life, arc stilled here, creating a new subject for our contemplation. The natural
colors of the things photographed are intensified and heightened. Organic objects are
juxtaposed with manmade ones. Soft textures balance against, and touch, hard ones.
The sensuous is pitted against the elemental.20

I he formal elements to which Kismaric refers are light, color, and texture; the prin-
ciples ol design are scale, arrangements of objects, and pixtapositions. She cites •
scale as the most dominant design principle and then describes the effects of
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llit-y ought to explicitly mention the properties ol the m e d i u m in the descriptive
shooting. I lc also lells ns thai Avedon held /').' •. 1111 < • 1111 > • >.i v.ion- <l adds that I it-
phase ol criticism.
did this work over five consecutive summers, traveling through seventeen western
slates, Iroin Kansas lo California.
Weiley does not detail much technical information, 1ml she describes Avedon's DESCRIBING STYLE
positioning of the subjects in front of white paper on location and lells us that two
Style indicates a resemblance among diverse art objects from an artist, movement,
assistants loaded his camera, She describes his method of photographing and inter-
prets the psychological effects of his method: "He is in total control, has complete time period, or geographic location and is recognized by a characteristic handling ol
authority over his subjects. He selects, arranges, directs, just as he would a fashion subject matter and formal elements. Neo-expressionism is a commonly recognized,
shot."22 recent style of painting, and pictorialism, "directorial" photography,28 and the
"snapshot aesthetic"29 are styles of photography.
In her essay on Groover's work, Kismaric specifies that some of the still lifes are
To consider a photographer's style is to attend to what subjects he or she choose-,
done in the platinum-palladium process. She explains that this method of working
to photograph, how the medium of photography is used, and how the picture is for-
was invented in f 873 for its permanence, but she also details its aesthetic quali-
mally arranged. Attending to style can be much more interpretive than descriptive.
ties—"delicacy, soft grays, and warm tones."23 Kismaric considers further Groover's
Labeling photographs "contemporary American" or "turn of the century" is less
choice of photography rather than painting even though Groover was trained as a
painter: "By using photography instead of painting, Groover complicates the notion controversial than is labeling them "realistic" or "straight" or "manipulated" or
of representation, and emphasizes the capacity of photography to make works of "documentary." The critics of Avedon's work being considered here are particularly
the imagination." interested in determining whether his style is "documentary," or "fictional," Or
"fashion." Determining Avedon's style involves considerably more than describing,
Critics of Witkin's work usually discuss how he uses the medium of photogra-
but it does include descriptions of whom he photographs, how he photographs
phy. Gary Indiana, in a review in Art in America, says that "many of the prints have
them, and what his pictures look like.
been made to look like daguerreotypes salvaged from partial decomposition" and
Of all the treatments of Avedon's style considered here, Weiley's is the most com-
adds that "the edges are scored with black lines and smudges suggestive of Action
plete. She begins with his earlier portraits, claiming that he "Avedonizes" his sub-
Painting."24 In a review in Artwcek, Hal Fischer also describes how Witkin treats the
jects.30 She generalizes his early portrait work as "confrontational" and typifies it as
medium of photography and posits some of the effects of his treatments: "By etch-
"frontal, direct, with a single subject centered, staring directly out at the viewer."
ing into his negatives and selectively bleaching and toning the prints, this artist
She explains that he undermined the glamour of the famous people he pho-
imbues his imagery with a nineteenth century aura without compromising the
tographed—that he stripped them of their masks and "brought the mighty down to
sense of photographic reality."25 In the same publication a year later, Jim Jordan
human scale, assassinating all possibility of grace or vanity." Weiley is much less
agrees that Witkin's formal treatments of his photographs make them look old, from
sympathetic to Avedon's treatment of his subjects in the American West work; she
the eighteenth century and the court of Louis XVI. Jordan further relates that
finds his manner of working "disagreeable," "condescending to his subjects," and
Witkin uses a Rolleiflex camera, prints on Portriga paper, sometimes through a tis-
"frankly arrogant" in its exploitation. Whereas the famous people he photographs
sue paper overlay that he sprinkles with water and toning chemicals.26
are media smart and used to being photographed and publicized, the westerners are
Uta Barth makes photographs in the spirit of conceptual art that examine and
not, and she thinks that in the hands of Avedon they are "like innocents led to
pointedly utilize distinctive characteristics of the medium of photography, such as
slaughter." Thus, on the basis of descriptive facts about Avedon's style, namely
camera movement, position, nonstationary subject, scale, or focus. According to
whom he photographs and how he photographs them, Weiley goes beyond describ-
critic Andrew Perchuk, Barth's photographs are "boiled down to an almost topolog-
ing and interpreting his style and forms a negative judgment about it.
ical study of how the photographic apparatus orients and disorients the viewer."27
Thus the description of medium involves more than just using museum labels, as
in labeling Jan Groover's images as "three chromogenic color prints," or "platinum- COMPARING AND CONTRASTING
palladium print," or "Gelatin-silver print." To fully describe the medium a photog-
A common method of critically analyzing a photographer's work is to compare and
rapher is using is not only to iterate facts about the process he or she uses, the type
contrast it to other work by the same photogtapher, to other photographers' works,
of camera, and kind of print, but also to discuss these things in light of the effects
or to works by other artists. To compare and contrast is to see what the work in
their use has on their expression and overall impact. Critics might more fully
question has in common with and how the work differs from another body of work.
explore these effects as part of their interpretation or judgment of the work, but
.' • I ><••,( i il .in.i I'holocji .iplis

viously. I his information comes Irom a variety ol sources, including picss releases,
Each ol ihc ciiiics under consideration here descriptively t ompaies Avedon's work interviews with the artist, the exhibition catalogue, and knowledge ol photography
lo thai ol other photographers. history. To compare and contrast Avedon's work with his own earlier work and with
Davis compares the size of Avedon's American West project to the late nine- the work of others, including nonvisual work, each of the critics weni to exiei n.il
teenth- and carly-twentieth-century documentary projects of William Henry Jack- sources.
son and Edward Curtis. 31 Jackson was an explorer, writer, and photographer who In an example different from the critical treatments of Avedon's work, Van Deren
over twenty-five years produced tens of thousands of negatives of Indians and the Coke relies primarily on external information to provide an introduction to Wilkin's
western landscape. Curtis published twenty volumes of The North American Indian work in an exhibition catalogue. 33 Coke gathered the information from WltkinS
between 1907 and 1934. Although Davis compares the three photographers, he master's thesis, written at the University of New Mexico in 1976, and from state-
docs not equate Avedon with the other two in terms of merit. In a judgment and not ments that Witkin has made about his work. Much of the information Coke pro
a description, Davis states that "Avedon is no Jackson or Curtis." vides is biographical, about the facts of Witkin's life and about his psychological
Critics need not limit their comparisons of a photographer to another photogra- motivations for making specific images. Coke believes that information about
pher. Wilson makes comparative references between Avedon and several others of Witkin's life illuminates his photographs, and he includes as psychological motiva-
various professions, most of whom are not photographers but rather literary tion Witkin's shocking story of how at the age of six he witnessed a car accident and
sources he knows and figures in fashion and popular culture: Sam Shepard, Edward stood close to the decapitated head of a little girl. Coke also relates that Witkin's
Curtis, Mathew Brady, August Sander, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Truman father was an orthodox Jew and his mother a Catholic and that they divorced over
Capote, Evil Knievel, Salvador Dali, Elsa Schiaparelli, Charles James, Andy Warhol, religious differences, that Witkin's first sexual experience was with a hermaphro-
Tom Wolfe, Calvin Klein, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and Irving Penn. Wilson dite, that he studied sculpture in the evenings at Cooper Union School of Art in
compares Avedon to other storytellers and to others who bridged the gap between New York, that he was an army photographer during the Vietnam War, and that one
fashion and art, because he interpretively understands Avedon to be telling stories of his assignments was to photograph accident and suicide victims.
and attempting to transcend fashion with his photographs. In her article on Witkin, Cynthia Chris relies on external information thai
Of all the critics considered here, Weiley makes the most use of in-depth com- includes Coke's catalogue essay and a lecture Witkin delivered at the Art Institute ol
parisons, paying particular attention to the similarities and mostly the differences Chicago. She particularly notes how Witkin obtains the unusual subjects for his
between Avedon's work and that of Robert Frank, August Sander, and Diane Arbus. photographs—by searching the streets, by following people, through want ads, and
She cites Robert Frank's book, The Americans (1959), because like Avedon's it is "a through an afterword in his book "that reads like a shopping list"—because she
harsh vision of America" 32 and because both men are outsiders to the cultures they finds his methods objectionable. 34
photographed: Frank is Swiss, and Avedon is not a cowboy. To compare Avedon Critics and theoreticians of criticism differ on the importance and desirability ol
with Frank, Sander, and Arbus, Weiley has to describe each one's photographs and external information, on certain types of information, and on the means of gather-
manner of working and then specify how each photographer's work is different ing it. As we saw in Chapter 1, A. D. Coleman, for example, advocates distance
from and similar to that of the others. between the critic and the artist, and distinctions between curating and criticizing
and between writing history and criticism. Lucy Lippard, however, assumes a part-
nership with the artists she writes about and feels comfortable interviewing them
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
and seeking their views of their work. In the past, critics rejected biographical and
We have seen that a critic can find much to mention about the photograph by psychological information about artists as irrelevant and advocated instead that the
attending to subject, form, medium, and style. And, as mentioned earlier, critics artwork be the source of criticism, that the rest is distracting. Most contemporary
often go to external sources to gather descriptive information that increases under- CrtttCS, however, embrace a more contextual view of criticism and art and carefully
standing of that photograph. In their writings the critics of Avedon's work each used consider the photograph's causal environment, including the context in which il
much information not decipherable in the photographs. By looking only at his was made. The importance of considering context will be explored in Chapter 5.
American West photographs, a viewer cannot tell that Avedon's exhibited pho- I lie lesi of including or excluding external descriptive information is one of rel-
tographs were selected from 17,000 negatives, that he held 752 shooting sessions, evancy. The critic's task in deciding what to describe and what to ignore is one ol
that the work was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum, or that they were soiling the relevant information from the irrelevant, the insightful from the trivial
made by a famous fashion photographer who had a large body of images made pre-
i ' I ' M i ii m i . | n u n i >. 11 i|<ii

"Wilkin's incredible range ol lonn definition within the prints" and claims thai
atul (I isl lading. When engaging in i lit it IMII, Imwrvri, unc won It I not want to sub- < 3 Witkin's surlace treatments "inform the viewer that these are works of art.'"'0 Jor-
stitute biography for criticism or to lose slghl ol the woilt .mini uitcrcsiing facis
about the artist. dan's phrase "incredible range of form definition" is also a mix of description and
judgment, with positive connotations.
In published criticism, descriptions are rarely value-free. Critics color llicii
DESCRIPTION AND INTERPRETATION descriptions according to whether they are positive or negative about the work, anil
they use descriptors that are simultaneously descriptive and evaluative to influence
It Is probably as impossible to describe without interpreting as it is to interpret
the reader's view of the artwork. Critics attempt to be persuasive in their writing.
without describing. A critic can begin to mentally list descriptive elements in a pho-
Readers, however, ought to be able to sort the critic's descriptions from judgments,
tograph, but at the same time he or she has to constantly see those elements in
and value-neutral descriptions from value-laden descriptions, however subtly they
terms of the whole photograph if those elements are to make any sense. But the
are written, so that they can more intelligently assent or dissent.
whole makes sense only in terms of its parts. The relationship between describing
Novice critics can find it beneficial to attempt to describe a photograph without
and interpreting is circular, moving from whole to part and from part to whole.
connoting positive or negative value judgments about it. They may then be more
Though a critic might want to mentally list as many descriptive elements as pos-
sensitive to and aware of when descriptions are accurate and neutral and when they
sible, in writing criticism he or she has to limit all that can be said about a photo-
are positively or negatively judgmental.
graph to what is relevant to providing an understanding and appreciation of the
picture. Critics determine relevancy by their interpretation of what the photograph
expresses. In a finished piece of criticism, it would be tedious to read descriptive THE IMPORTANCE OF DESCRIPTION TO READERS
item after descriptive item, or fact after fact, without having some understanding on
As we have seen throughout the chapter, description is an extremely important
which to hang the facts. That understanding is based on how the critic interprets
activity for critics, established or novice, because it is a time for "getting to know"
and evaluates the picture, or how one evaluates it. At the same time, however, it
a piece of art, especially if that art is previously unknown and by an unfamiliar
would be a mistake to interpret without having considered fully what there is in the
artist. Descriptions are also important to readers, because they contain crucial and
picture, and interpretations that do not (or worse, cannot) account for all the
descriptive elements in a work are flawed interpretations. Similarly, it would be irre- interesting information that leads them to understand and appreciate images.
sponsible to judge without the benefit of a thorough accounting of what we are Descriptions provide information about photographs and exhibitions that readers
judging. may never get to see and otherwise would not experience at all. Descriptions are
also the basis on which they can agree or disagree with the critic's interpretation
and judgment.
DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION Describing photographs and reading descriptions of photographs are particularly
important activities because people tend to look through photographs as if they
Joel-Peter Witkin is a controversial photographer who makes controversial pho-
were windows rather than pictures. Because of the stylistic realism of many pho-
tographs. Critics judge him differently; and their judgments, positive or negative or
tographs, and because people know that photographs are made with a machine,
ambivalent, influence their descriptions of his work. Cynthia Chris clearly disap-
people tend to consider photographs as if they were real events or living people
proves of the work: "Witkin's altered photographs are representations of some of
rather than pictures of events or people. Pictures are not nature and they are not nat-
the most repressed and oppressed images of human behavior and appearance,"35
ural; they are human constructs. Photographs, no matter how objective or scien-
whereas Hal Fischer writes that "Joel-Peter Witkin, maker of bizarre, sometimes
tific, are the constructions of individuals with beliefs and biases, and we need to
extraordinary imagery, is one of the most provocative artists to have emerged in the
consider them as such. To describe subject, form, medium, and style is to consider
past decade."36 And Gene Thornton of the New York Times calls Witkin "one of
photographs as pictures made by individuals and not to mistake them for anything
the great originals of contemporary photography."37 Their evaluations, positive or
more or less.
negative, are often mixed into their descriptions. For example, Gary Indiana uses
Description is not a prelude to criticism; description is criticism. Careful descrip
the phrases "smeared with burnt-in blotches" and "the usual fuzz around the
live accounts by insightful critics using carefully constructed language offers the
edges" to describe some formal characteristics of Witkin's prints, 38 and Bill Berkson
kind of informed discourse about photographs that increases our understanding
describes the same edges as "syrupy"39 These are not value-neutral descriptors but
and appreciation of photographs.
lather descriptors that suggest disapproval. Another critic, Jim Jordan, talks about
 11' i n

and ollcn these choices arc very sophisticated. We need to interpret photographs

i H A i ' i i i: 3 order to make it clear just what these inflections are.

When looking at photographs, we tend to think of them as "innocent"—that
as bare facts, as direct surrogates of reality, as substitutes for real things, as din
reflections. But there is no such thing as an innocent eye. 2 We cannot see the woi
and at the same time ignore our prior experience in and knowledge ol the wot I
Philosopher Nelson Goodman puts it like this:

as Ernst Gombrich insists, there is no innocent eye. The eye comes always ancient
to its work, obsessed by its past and by old and new insinuations of the ear, nose,
Interpreting Photographs tongue, fingers, heart, and brain. It functions not as an instrument self-powered and
alone, but as a dutiful member of a complex and capricious organism. Not only how
but what it sees is regulated by need and prejudice.3

If there is no such thing as the innocent eye, there certainly isn't an innocent earner.i
What Goodman says of the eye is true of the camera, the photograph, and the
"photographer's eye" as well:

It selects, rejects, organizes, discriminates, associates, classifies, analyzes, constructs.

It does not so much mirror as take and make; and what it takes and makes it sees noi

A S A CULTURE we are perhaps more accustomed to thinking of interpreting

poems and paintings than photographs. But all photographs—even simple
bare, as items without attributes, but as things, as food, as people, as enemies, as
stars, as weapons.
ones—demand interpretation in order to be fully understood and appreciated. They
Thus, all photographs, even very straightforward, direct, and realistic-looking
need to be recognized as pictures about something and for some communicative
ones, need to be interpreted. They are not innocent, free of insinuations and
and expressive purpose. Joel-Peter Witkin's bizarre photographs attract interpretive
devoid of prejudices, nor are they simple mirror images. They are made, taken,
questions and thoughts because they are different from our common experiences,
and constructed by skillful artists and deserve to be read, explained, analyzed, and
but many photographs look natural and are sometimes no more cause of notice
deconstructed.
than tables and trees. We accept photographs in newspapers and on newscasts as
facts about the world and as facts that, once seen, require no scrutiny.
Photographs made in a straightforward, stylistically realistic manner are in spe- DEFINING INTERPRETATION
cial need of interpretation. They look so natural that they seem to have been made
While describing, a critic names and characterizes all that he or she can see in the
by themselves, as if there had been no photographer. If we consider how these pho-
photograph. Interpretation occurs whenever attention and discussion move beyond
tographs were made, we may accept them as if they were made by an objective,
offering information to matters of meaning. Hans-Georg Gadamer, the European
impartial, recording machine. Andy Grundberg, reviewing an exhibition of National
philosopher known for his extensive work on the topic of interpretation, says that
Geographic photographs, makes this point about these kinds of photographs: "As a
to Interpret is "to give voice to signs that don't speak on their own." 4 To interpret is
result of their naturalism and apparent effortlessness, they have the capacity to lull
to account for all the described aspects of a photograph and to posit meaningful
us into believing that they are evidence of an impartial, uninflected sort. Nothing
relationships between the aspects.
could be further from the truth." 1
When one is acting as a critic, to interpret a photograph is to tell someone else,
Nothing could be further from the truth because photographs are partial and are
in speech or in writing, what one understands about a photograph, especially what
inflected. People's knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes—heavily influenced by
one thinks a photograph is about. Interpreting is telling about the point, the mean-
their culture—are reflected in the photographs they take. Each photograph embod-
ing, the sense, the tone, or the mood of the photograph. When critics interpret a
ies a particular way of seeing and showing the world. Photographers make choices
work of art, they seek to find out and tell others what they think is most important
not only about what to photograph but also about how to capture an image on film,
InI(*i i 'i el lilt] I'hnlniji ,i|)hs

peppers, and mushrooms emerging from an open string shopping bag I lie i oloi
iii an image, how its parts fit together, and how its form affects its subject. Critics scheme is formed by yellows and greens against a red background. I he Panzani
base interpretations on what is shown in the work and on relevant information out- label is on the can and cellophane packages. Barthes identifies three pans ol (lie ad;
side of (he work, or what in Chapter 2 we called the photograph's causal environ- the linguistic message, the denoted image, and the connoted image. The linguist!)
meiu. Interpretations go beyond description to build meaning. Interpretations arc message is the word Panzani, which is both denotational and connotational. Bardies
articulations of what the interpreter understands an image to be about. Interpreters explains that the word denotes a brand name of the packaged products but thai n
do more than uncover or discover meaning; they offer new language about an image connotes, just by the way it sounds, "Italianicity." The word would not have thai
to generate new meaning. connotation in Italy for Italian readers because they would not perceive that the
Another way of understanding interpretation is to think of all photographs as word sounded Italian.
metaphors in need of being deciphered. A metaphor is an implied comparison The photographic image itself denotes what it shows: a can, spaghetti packages,
between unlike things. Qualities of one thing are implicitly transferred to another. mushrooms, peppers, and so forth. But Barthes explains that the image connotes
Verbal metaphors have two levels of meaning: the literal and the implied. Visual several other messages. The ad represents a return from the market, and it implies
metaphors also have levels of meaning: what is shown and what is implied. A pho- two values', freshness of the products and the goodness of home cooking. The vari-
tograph always shows us something as something. In the simple sense, a portrait of ety of the objects connotes the idea of total culinary service as if Panzani provided
a man shows us the man as a picture—that is, as a flat piece of paper with clusters everything needed for a carefully prepared dish. The vegetables imply that the con-
of tones from a light-sensitive emulsion. In another simple sense, a photograph centrate in the can is equivalent to the vegetables surrounding it. The predomi-
always shows us a certain aspect of something. A portrait of Igor Stravinsky by nance of red, yellow, and green reinforces Italianicity. The composition, focus,
Arnold Newman shows us Stravinsky somehow, as something. In Goodman's words, lighting, and color transmit a further value: the aesthetic goodness of a still life.
"the object before me is a man, a swarm of atoms, a complex of cells, a fiddler, a
Barthes's schema can be applied to all photographs, not only photographic ad-
friend, a fool, and much more." The photograph represents the thing or person as
vertisements. It is another way of emphasizing that photographs need to be
something or as some kind of person. Newman's portrait of Stravinsky shows the
interpreted. All photographs connote; and without some understanding that photo-
man sitting at a piano. In a more complex way, however, the portrait of Stravinsky
graphs connote or imply or suggest, viewers will not get beyond the obvious and
shows him not only as a man sitting at a piano but also as a brilliant man, or a pro-
will see photographs as reality rather than pictures of reality.
found man, or a troubled man. The more complex "as" requires interpretation. To
miss the metaphoric and to see only the literal is to misunderstand the expressive
aspects of photographs.
Roland Barthes, the late French scholar, was a semiotician who investigated how THE OBJECTS OF INTERPRETATIONS
culture signifies, or expresses meaning, and he paid particular attention to how Sometimes critics interpret single photographs, but they often interpret whole bod-
photographs signify. He identified two signifying practices: denotations and conno- ii", ol work by a photographer and even the photography of a country or a period in
tations.3 A photographed still-life arrangement may denote (show) flowers in a vase history I his section consists of a series of interpretive statements by several critics,
on a wooden table; it may connote (suggest, imply) peace, tranquility, and the ea< h i onsidering the work of a different photographer. These interpretive state-
delightfulness of the simple. These connotations may be conveyed by the lighting, meiils show a range from the particular to the general: from consideration of a sin-
colors, and the absence of superfluous objects. A fashion photograph may denote a I'II photograph to a set of photographs to a photographer's career and to a historical
model wearing a coat and a hat but may connote flair, sophistication, and daring by dri .idc II| plioiography.
the look and pose of the model and the setting. To look at the photographs and to |ohn Sxarkowski interprets one hundred individual photographs, one at a time,
see only flowers in a vase on a table, or a hat and a coat on a woman, and not to rec- and mil' page to each, in his book Looking at Photographs. In discussing a Josef
ognize what they express is to miss the point of the pictures. Koudelka photograph (Untitled. No date. 7V*" X HVz"), he explains that Koudelka
The distinction between denotations and connotations is made clearer by an ll 1I1 iln ii'il to photographing the Gypsies of eastern Europe, who are in danger of
interpretation of a magazine advertisement that Barthes provides.6 The advertise- van! Inn • Szarkowski relates that the photographs contain specific information
ment is a photographic ad for Panzani spaghetti products that appears in a French .ilnHii i iv|v,ics' everyday life, but adds that "such anthropological data does not
magazine. The ad shows cellophane packages OL uncookeu spaghetti, a can of iln 11 n.il point." So Szarkowski is providing general descriptive information
tomato sauce, a cellophane package of Parmesan cheese, and tomatoes, onions,
I n t e l | > l r l 1 1 1 . i I ' I M > ! i i . | i . 1 1 • 1 1 • .

In olleis M'vcial vety general interpretive statements about large time periods, huge
about tbi' photographer —that he is commuted i<> the suhjn I ol < iypsics and gen
amount', ol wot 1 , and grand ideas about the land. This sentence by Green is the
cral descriptive inlorination about (he photographs that they give us much
lusi si nh ui c ol the eleventh chapter of his book American Photography.
detailed anthropological data about the Gypsies' way ol lilt-. Hut then he stales lli.it
In an introductory essay to a book of John Pfahl's color photographs utilizing
even though litis information is apparent on the surface, it is not what the pho-
pic line windows, Edward Bryant writes: "Since the 1950s the picture window has
tographs are really about. He adds: "They seem instead to aim at a visual distil la
been commonplace in the American visual vernacular. Its ubiquity has coincided
lion of a patlern of human values: a pattern that involves theater, large gesture,
brave style, precious camaraderie, and bitter loneliness. The pattern and texture ol with that of the wide-screen movie, the undivided windshield, the big painting, and
his pictures form the silent equivalent of an epic drama." 7 Szarkowski then dis- that ultimate picture window, the television set." 11 This too is an interpretive state
cusses the specific untitled photograph and tells how it is an epic drama about ment, although it is not directly about the photographs of Pfahl. It is about the
human values. importance of the picture window in American society, and it helps us think about
aspects of our cultural environment and prepares us to consider the pictures of pic-
This statement by Sally Eauclaire offers interpretive insights into a set of pho-
ture windows by Pfahl. Just as Green writes about the land as a source of symbols
tographs: "As a black American, he vowed to record this part of his heritage and to
for photographers, Bryant considers the picture window. Interpretive statements
revive interest in this custom, which has been dying out since World War II." 8 She
about photographs are not limited to photographs: As Ronald Dworkin states, they
refers here to Daniel Williams's photographs of Emancipation Day celebrations. She
"may be of more general importance, helping us to an improved understanding of
explains that these events are held sporadically around the country, depending on
important parts of our cultural environment." 12
the initiative of local people. The photographs themselves depict African Americans
in family gatherings at picnics; and without some explanation beyond the pho-
tographs themselves, a viewer would not know that these pictures had anything to INTERPRETIVE CLAIMS AND ARGUMENTS
do with slavery, emancipation from it, or Emancipation Day celebrations.
These quotations of Szarkowski, Eauclaire, Rice, Green, and Bryant not only pro-
Shelley Rice writes about the photographer Mary Ellen Mark: "In other words,
vide descriptive information about photographs and photographers but also provide
Mark's career—and photographic production—have been characterized by an
interpretations of the photographs. Although they are declarative sentences, usually
almost dizzying diversity, a catch-as-catch-can quality that is as dependent on
stated with unflinching authority, these statements should all be considered to be
chance in the assignments offered to her as it is upon her own personal choices of
interpretive claims. Even though the authors do not express any doubts about their
subjects and themes." 9 Rice writes the statement after describing the diversity of
ideas and assert them as if they were self-evident and undeniable truths, they real-
subjects Mark has photographed for Life, Look, Esquire, Paris-Match, Ms., and other
ize, and informed readers of criticism realize, that their interpretive statements are
publications and lists some of her subjects: celebrities, women in a psychiatric ward
in Oregon, prostitutes in Bombay, battered wives, abused children, famine victims claims to truth and that if readers of criticism are to accept them as true or reason-
in Ethiopia, and neo-Nazis in the United States. Rice's statement about Mark is able, they will want evidence for the claims before they accept the interpretations.
interpretive in her generalization about the whole of the photographer's life work, Each of these quoted sentences is from a larger piece of writing. The sentence by
her typifying it as having "dizzying diversity" Rice also explains that Mark's work is Szarkowski is part of a one-page essay, and the sentence from Green is from a whole
the result of a combination of accepting assignments from others and choosing top- book. In the complete pieces, the critics do provide reasons for their understand-
ics for herself. ings of the photographs they are writing about.
Interpretations are more than the single or few sentence statements quoted ear-
About photography made over more than ten years, Jonathan Green states: "In
lier. Such statements are claims in need of arguments, or hypotheses in need of a
the seventies straight photography moved away from documentation of the outcast,
convincing body of evidence. A fully developed interpretation is an argument that
the bizarre, and, the freak and turned back to the most basic source of American
has premises leading logically and forcefully to a conclusion. But a fully developed
myth and symbol: the American land." 10 Green is writing about American photog-
interpretation is rarely written as a logical argument, with premises one, two, three,
raphy, and particularly a style, straight photography. He summarizes the straight
and four clearly stated and a conclusion clearly drawn. Instead, interpretations are
photography of the 1960s as documentation of unusual people and then generalizes
often mixed with descriptions and sometimes with evaluations. Nonetheless, a
that in the 1970s photographers who were working in the straight mode began
reader can analyze a fully developed interpretation by identifying its premises and
making landscapes. lie also states that their choice of the land as subject matter was
conclusion and then by seeing if and how the premises lead to and support the
a return to the past. In the same sentence, Green then says that the American land
conclusion.
is the most basic source of American myth and symbols. Thus, in this one sentence
I l l I I ' l I ' l I ' t 11111 I ' l l l l l < I < 11.11 > 11'.

Interpretations an* answers In quesllnus people have about photographs I M

maili iniei prclivc questions dial critics asl< nl phntngiuphs nic "What do these phn
lographs mean? What arc iliey about'" All intei piclaltons share a fundamental
principle—(hat photographs have meanings deepei than what appears on then sin
laces. The surface meaning is obvious and evident about what is pictured, and tin
deeper meanings are implied by what is pictured and how it is pictured. If one look'.
ai the surface of Cindy Sherman's self-portrait photographs, for example, which
were discussed in Chapter 2, they seem to be about a woman on the road hitchhlk
ing or a housewife in a kitchen. Less obviously, however, they are pictures of the
artist herself, in various guises, and they are self-portraits. Because of how the sub
jeet is photographed, the film stills can also be understood to refer to media repn
senlalions and to how popular and fine art media represent women. And, in an
interpretive statement by Eleanor Heartney, they are, less obviously still, about "the
cultural construction of femininity." 13 Heartney and other critics who considci
Sherman's work are not content to understand the film stills simply as pictures ol
women doing various things, self-portraits of Cindy Sherman, or self-portraits of an
artist in artful disguises. They look beyond the surface for deeper meanings about
lemininity, the representation of femininity, and culture.

INTERPRETIVE PERSPECTIVES
Critics interpret photographs from a wide range of perspectives. Following are bricl
interpretations by several photography scholars, each written from a different van-
tage point to show the variety of strategies critics use to decipher images. The first
three interpretations are by different writers on the same images, Harry Callahan's
photographs of his wife, Eleanor, which are titled Eleanor, Port Huron, 1954. These
examples show how critics can vary in their interpretations and how their various
interpretations of the same images can alter our perceptions and understandings.
Then interpretations of other photographers' works are used as examples of a vari-
ety of interpretive strategies.

Three Interpretations of Eleanor

A COMPARATIVE INTERPRETATION John Szarkowski claims that most people
who have produced lasting images in the history of photography have dealt with
aspects of their everyday lives and that Callahan is one of them. For many decades
he has photographed his wife, his child, his neighborhoods, and the landscapes to
which he escapes. Szarkowski notes that Callahan is different from most photogra-
phers who work from their personal experiences. Whereas they try to make univer-
sal statements from their specifics, Callahan, according to Szarkowski, "draws us Harry Callahan, Eleanor, ca. 1947.
ever more insistently inward toward the center of [his] private sensibility. . . . Pho- Collection of the Akron Art Museum. Purchased with funds donated by Eleanor W. Aggarval.
tography has been his method of focusing the meaning of that life.. . . Photography Photo by Richard Haire.
has been a way of living." 14
 (11.111111
- 1111' I I' I I • I
I hese awe inspiring, bcautilul photographs ol women are extremely oppressive.
AN AIU III IYIVU IN 1 f KI'KI I Al ION In AIN.I/UIM /'/mM.e.nip/iy, Jonathan Given I hey In (In- old traditions of woman as possession and woman as giver and saeri-
devotes several pages to Callahan and reproduces live ol die Eleanor photographs ' ' luei . . . In this aesthetically veiled form ol misogyny, the artist expects his wile to
In contradistinction to Szarkowski, Green sees them as elevating Eleanor tin take off her clothing, then he photographs her naked (politely known as nude), and
woman to an impersonal, universal, mythical, and archetypal status. About a pho after showing everybody the resulting pictures he gets famous. . . . The subtle prac-
tograph of Eleanor emerging from water, he writes: "We experience the Jons cl 01 IgO tice of capturing, exposing, and exhibiting one's wife is praised as sensitive.
ol all the possibilities of existence. Eleanor becomes the Heliopolitan goddess rising
from the primordial ocean and the Terra Mater emerging from the sea: the embodi
mem and vehicle of all births and creations." Green continues: Other Interpretive Strategies
PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION Laurie Simmons has made a series ol
Over and over again, Callahan sees Eleanor in the context of creation: she has
become for him the elemental condition of existence, she is essential womanhood, photographs using dolls and figurines in different dollhouse settings. In writing
a force rather than an embodiment, an energy rather than a substance. As such she about Simmons's work, Anne Hoy states that these female dolls are trapped in
appears cold and inaccessible, beyond the human passions of lust or grief. She is the environments in which they are dwarfed by TV sets and out-of-scale grocery
word made flesh. items. In contrast to the trapped dolls, Simmons later suggested freedom by pho-
tographing cowboy dolls outside, but their liberation was illusory because even
A FEMINIST INTERPRETATION In a personally revealing critique, and one quite the grass in the pictures outsized them. In the early 1980s, Simmons made a series
different from the two preceding interpretations, Diane Neumaier traces the devel- of swimmers using figurines and live nude models underwater. About these, Hoy
opment of her thinking regarding women, particularly photographers' wives, writes: "In a Freudian interpretation, they suggest the equivalence of drowning
including Eleanor, as the subject matter of photographs. She recounts when as an and sexual surrender and the sensations of weightlessness associated with those
undergraduate she discovered photography and excitedly changed her concentra- twin abandonments." 1 7
tion from printmaking to photography. She became acquainted with the work of
such prominent photographers as Alfred Stieglitz and Emmet Gowin and their pho- FORMALIST INTERPRETATION Some interpreters base their interpretations ol
tographs of their wives, Georgia O'Keeffe and Edith Gowin. Neumaier was thrilled images solely or primarily on considerations of the image's formal properties.
with the romanticism of these three famous couples, and she hoped to be like them Richard Misrach has been photographing the desert for a number of years, first at
and do similar work. However, as years passed, and as her consciousness grew night with flash in black and white and then in the day in color. Kathleen McCarthy
through the experiences of being simultaneously a wife, mother, and artist, her con- Gauss offers this interpretation of one of the color photographs, The Santa Fe, 1982:
flicts also increased: "a unique configuration of space, light, and events." She continues:

I simultaneously wanted to be Harry, Alfred, or Emmet, and I wanted to be their A highly formalized balance is established between the nubby ground and smooth,
adored captive subjects. I wanted to be Eleanor, or Edith and have my man focus blue sky, both neatly cordoned off along the horizon by red and white boxcars. The
on me and our child, and I wanted to be Georgia, passive beauty and active artist. most reductive, minimal composition is captured. The train rolls along just percepti-
Together these couples embodied all my most romantic, contradictory, and impos- bly below the horizon, bisecting the frame into two horizontal registers. Yet, this is
sible dreams.16 another illusion, for the train is in fact standing still.18

Neumaier unsuccessfully attempted to photograph her husband as these men had Gauss's treatment of this image mixes her descriptive observations with interpre-
photographed their wives: "To possess one's wile is to honor and revere her. To tive insights. She is content to leave this image with these observations and insights
possess one's husband is impossible or castrating." In years following her divorce, about its compositional arrangement and not to conjecture further.
she attempted to immortalize her son in her photographs, as Gowin has his chil-
dren. But these efforts also failed because she could no longer manipulate her son SEMIOTIC INTERPRETATION Roland Barthes's interpretation of the Panzani
into the photographs and because her time for art was limited by her role as a advertisement detailed earlier is an example of an interpretation that seeks more to
mother. She had to reevaluate those early pi< lutes ol the photographers' wives and, understand how an image means than what it means. Bill Nichols uses a similar
for her, feminist conclusions strongly emerged; she could now see them as pictures interpretive strategy to understand a Sports Illustrated cover published during the
of domination:
 |niv.rv. MII h knowledge, however, then they can examine Michals's work in this
full week ol football season when Dan Dcvine lnj-.m < oa< lung llie Node DailK
Inc.uli i i ontext,
loolball icain. The photographic cover shows a close up ol ihe quarterback read) It
receive a hike and an inset of Devine gesturing from the sideline. Nichols points out
BIOGRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION Critics also provide answers to the question
that the eyelinc of the two suggests that they arc looking at each other and that thru
"Why does the photographer make these kinds of images (rather than some othei
expressions suggest that the quarterback is wondering what to do and the coach | |
kind)?" One way of answering this question is to provide biographical information
providing him an answer. Nichols interprets the contrast between the large size ol
about the photographer. In his introduction to the work of Joel-Peter Witkin dis
the photograph of the quarterback and the smaller photograph of the coach as sig
cussed in Chapter 2, Van Deren Coke provided a lot of biographical information
nilying the brawn of the player and the brain of the coach. He surmises:
about the photographer. 22 In writing about the images, Coke strongly implies ,i
This unspoken bond invokes much of the lure football holds for the armchair cause-and-effect relationship between Witkin's life experiences and the way his
quarterback—the formulation of strategy, the crossing of the boundary between images look. For instance, after relating that Witkin's family had little extra money
brain/brawn—and its very invocation upon the magazine's cover carries with it a Coke says: "This explains in part why we find in Witkin's photographs echoes ol I
promise of revelation: within the issue's interior, mysteries of strategy and relation- sense of deprivation and insecurity." For some critics, however, such a j u m p Iroiu
ship will be unveiled.19
an artist's biography to a direct account of his or her images is too broad a leap
Regarding Coke's claim, for instance, we could first ask to be shown that there is a
MARXIST INTERPRETATION Linda Andre provides a sample of the kinds of sense of deprivation and insecurity in the work, and then we could still be skeptical
questions a Marxist critic might ask about an exhibition of Avedons celebrity that the reason, even "in part," is because Witkin's family had little extra money
photographs: There could be another reason or many reasons or different reasons or no available
We might look at the enormous popularity of Richard Avedon's photographs at the reasons why there is, if indeed there is, a sense of deprivation and insecurity in
Metropolitan Museum of Art as attributable as much to the public's hunger for pic- Witkin's photographs.
tures of the rich, famous and stylish—a hunger usually sated not by museums but
by the daily tabloids—as to his photographic virtuosity. To broaden the focus even 1NTENTIONALIST INTERPRETATION It is a natural inclination to want to know
more, we might ask what kind of society creates such a need—obviously one where what the maker intended in an image or a body of work. So when critics interview
enormous class inequalities exist and where there is little hope of entering a different artists, they seek their intended meanings for their work, how they understand their
class—and what role Avedon's pictures might play in the maintenance of this own photographs. Well-known photographers are frequently invited to travel and
system.20
talk about their work in public, and sometimes they explain their intentions in
making their photographs. Although the views of the makers about their own work
Andre explains that one of her attempts as a critic is to place photographs in the
can and should influence our understanding of their work, those views should not
context of social reality—to interpret them as manifestations of larger societal
dclcnniiic the meaning of the work or be used as the standard against which other
developments and social history, as well as photography and art history.
interpretations are measured. We will discuss the problems of intentionalism as an
interpretive method later in this chapter.
INTERPRETATION BASED ON STYLISTIC INFLUENCES Critics often explain or
offer explanatory information about a photographer's work by putting it into a his-
INTERPRETATION BASED ON TECHNIQUE Critics also provide answers to the
torical and stylistic context. In an introduction to the work of Duane Michals, for
question "How does the photographer make these images?" In answering this ques-
example, Anne Hoy writes that Michals's images "pay homage to the spare, realistic
tion, the critic may provide much interesting information about how the photogra-
styles and dreamlike subjects of the Surrealist painters Rene Magritte, Giorgio de
pher works—his or her choice of subject, use of medium, printing methods, and so
Chirico, and Balthus." 21 Such contextual information helps us to see the work of
forth. Although these accounts provide useful information, they are descriptive
one photographer in a broader framework, and it implicitly reinforces the notion
accounts about media and how photographers manipulate media rather than inter-
that all art comes in part from other art or that all artists are influenced by other
pretive accounts of what the photographs mean or what they express by means ol
artists' work. Such comparisons demand that readers have certain knowledge: If
the surface and beyond the surface. Interpretations usually account for how the
they do not know the work of Magritte, de Chirico, and Balthus, for example, then
photographs are made and then consider the effects of the making on the meanings.
Hoy's interpretive claim will not have much explanatory force for them. If they do
 Combinations of Interprefive Approaches M . 11 < i. .1 meaningful l hose that are arrived at aftei careful thoughl and thai i an be
backed With c\ uleticc should cany weight, lb dismiss a carefully thoughl oui o|im
When critics Interpret photographs, they are likely to use H hybrid ol approaches loll wllh a (oiniiienl like "That's just your opinion!" is intellectually irresponsible
rather than just one approach. For his analyses ol photographs, Bill Nichols, foi I his Is not in say thai any reasoned opinion or conclusion must be accepted, bul
example, claims to draw on Marxism, psychoanalysis, communication theory, semi- rathei thai I reasoned opinion or conclusion deserves a reasoned response.
otics, structuralism, and the psychology of perception. A feminist may or may not
Another widespread and false assumption in our culture about discussing an
use a Marxist approach, and Marxist approaches are many, not just one. A critic may
goes something like this: "It doesn't matter what you say about art, because it's all
also choose among approaches depending on the kinds of photographs being con
subjective anyway." This is extreme relativism about art that doesn't allow for mull
sidcred. Finally, a critic may consider one photograph from several of these per-
and falsity, or plausibility and reasonability, and that makes it futile to argue aboui
spectives at a time, resulting in several competing interpretations. Fhis approach
art and about competing understandings of art. Talk about art can be verifiable, il
raises issues about the correctness of interpretations.
the viewer relates his or her statements to the artwork. Although each of us comes
to artworks with our own knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes, we can talk ami
be understood in a way that helps make sense of photographs; in this sense, OUI
"RIGHT" INTERPRETATIONS interpretations can be grounded and defensible.
"Surely there are many literary works of art of which it can be said that they are There are two criteria by which we can appraise interpretations: correspondence
understood better by some readers than by others." 2 3 Monroe Beardsley is an aes- and coherence. 2D An interpretation ought to correspond to and account for all thai
thetician who made this comment about interpreting literature. And because some appears in the picture and the relevant facts pertaining to the picture. If any items in
people understand artworks better than others do, concludes Beardsley, some inter- the picture are not accounted for by the interpretation, then the interpretation is
pretations are better than others. If someone understands a photograph better than flawed. Similarly, if the interpretation is too removed from what is shown, then it is
1 do, then it would be desirable for me to know that interpretation to increase my also flawed. The criterion of correspondence helps to keep interpretations focused
own understanding. If someone has a better interpretation than I do, then it fol- on the object and from being too subjective. This criterion also "insists on the dif-
lows that better (and worse) interpretations are possible. In essence, not all inter- ference between explaining a work of art and changing it into a different one." 2 0 We
pretations are equal; some are better than others, and some can be shown to be wani to deal with what is there and not make our own work of art by seeing things
wrong. Unlike Beardsley, however, the aesthetician Joseph Margolis takes a softer not there or by changing the work into something that we wish it were or which it
position on the truth and falsity of interpretations—the position that interpreta- might have been.
tions are not so much true or false as they are plausible (or implausible), reason- We also want to build an interpretation, or accept the interpretation, that shows
able (or unreasonable). 2 4 This more flexible view of interpretation allows us to i lie photograph to be the best work of art it can be. This means that given several
accept several competing interpretations as long as they are plausible. Instead of interpretations, we will not choose the ones that render the photograph insignili
looking for the true interpretation, we should be willing to consider a variety of i ant Or trivial but rather the ones that give the most credit to the photograph—the
plausible interpretations from a range of perspectives: modernist, Marxist, feminist, ones that show it to be the most significant work it can be.
formalist, and so forth. The criterion of correspondence also allays the fear of "reading too much into" a
Although we will not use the term true for a good interpretation, we will use work of art or photograph. If the interpretation is grounded in the object, if it cor-
such terms as plausible, interesting, enlightening, insightful, meaningful, revealing, n s p o n d s to the object, then it is probably not too far removed from and is not read-
original; or conversely, unreasonable, unlikely, impossible, inappropriate, absurd, jar- ing too much into the photograph.
fetched, or strained. Good interpretations are convincing and weak ones are not. According to the second criterion, coherence, the interpretation ought to make
When people talk about art in a democratic society such as our own, they tend to •ruse in and of itself, apart from the photograph. That is, it should not be internally
unthinkingly hold that everyone's opinion is as good as everyone else's. Thus, in a inconsistent or contradictory. Interpretations are arguments, hypotheses backed by
discussion in which we are trying to interpret or evaluate an artwork and a point of evidence, cases built for a certain understanding of a photograph. The interpreter
view is offered that is contrary to our own, we might say "That's just your opinion," drawl the evidence from what is within the photograph and from his or her experi-
implying that all opinions are equal and espe< i.illy ilia|„our own is equal to any ence ol the world. Either the interpretive argument is convincing because il
other. Opinions that are not backed with reasons, however, are not particularly .ii < ounts for all the facts of the picture in a reasonable way, or it is not convincing.
• I I ' I '' I 111 (m n | h i | i i n

Mo,I I II 11 >• II 1.1111, perhaps, the interpretive task should be on the vicwei ,iiid HOI
INTERPRETATIONS AND THE ARTIST'S INI LNI
Qfl I In plinltigi.ipliiT. By relying on or wailing for the photographei to explain his 01
Minor While, the photographer and Influential teachci of photography, once said In i \M ,iir abnegating our responsibility of interpreting what we see For all
tli.ii "photographers frequently photograph better than they know." 2 ' He was can ili> ii i ..II. p \ rn earlier, intentionalism is a flawed and weak critical met hod.
lioning against placing too much emphasis on what photographers think they have , mi .i,Kin ate that viewers should ignore photographers' statements ol
photographed. White placed the responsibility of interpretation on the viewer Irrelevant, but a less extreme position seems more reasonable. When
rdther than on the photographer, in response to the problem in criticism of "intcn- , | I mi, nis ,iir available, we can consider them as part of the photograph's
tionalism," or what aestheticians refer to as "the intentional fallacy."28 Intentional- I i 11\ Irimmenl and part of the evidence for interpretation. Some artists are vei v
ism is a faulty critical method by which images (or literature) are interpreted anil II I in about their work. Edward Weston has written two volumes of diaries, The
judged according to what the maker intended by them. According to those who /Mil /.-,, win. h oiler insights about him and his work. Nathan Lyons and Alan
subscribe to intentionalism, if the photographer, for instance, intended to commit tin lii< nberg have published valuable anthologies that include early photographcis
nicate x, then that is what the image is about, and interpretations are measured '.i.ihuii -ills .ibiiiu some of their photographs and photography in general. 32 In oui
against the intent of the photographer. In judging photographs, the critic attempts 1111• 111 \ mobile society, photographers frequently travel and speak about the IntetUI
to determine what the photographer intended to communicate with the photograph nl lb, n work, which can increase our general understanding and appreciation ol
and then on that basis judges whether the photographer has been successful or not. thcii photographs.
II the photographer has achieved his or her intent, then the image is good; if not, When a photographer does offer particular interpretations of specific images 01
the image is unsuccessful. r ,il nitripietations that apply to his or her work, that interpretation becomes
There are several problems with intentionalism as a critical method. First it is one among many possible or actual interpretations. If the artist's interpretation is to
difficult to find out what the intent of the photographer was. Some photographers be ,u 11'pied as sound, it must adequately account for what is presented in the pic-
are unavailable for comment about their images; others don't express their intents. Miii and conform to the standards of coherence and correspondence as must all
Several photographers would rather not have to make images and criticize them. As Intel prctations. We should take an artist's interpretation as an argument and evalu-
Cindy Sherman has said, "I've only been interested in making the work and leaving ate u mi the same grounds as we do other interpretations that are offered. We
the analysis to the critics." 29 ihould not consider an interpretation more privileged because it comes from the
Some photographers are unaware of their intents when they photograph. Jerry .nil.I
Uelsmann, for example, works very intuitively and spontaneously: "I don't have an
agenda when I begin. I'm trying to create something that's visually stimulating,
exciting, that has never been done before but has some visual cohesiveness for me, INTERPRETATIONS AND FEELINGS
has its own sort of life." 30 He tells of how he made an image of a young woman, Interpreting photographs, or responding to them in other ways, should not be
standing nude, presenting a glowing apple, and the picture now seems to him to be solely an intellectual endeavor. As an art educator studying criticism has observed,
obviously an "Eve image." But at the time he made the multiply exposed photo- "What vcaUy happens in art criticism relies heavily on that flash of insight based on
graph, he was unaware of this connotation: gut feelings, life experiences, and perceptual information coming together just
right." M Feelings provide important clues to learning about the content of an
Because I concentrate so intensely on detail while I'm working, it wasn't really until
image. If we are aware that a picture evokes feelings in us, then we can identify
the next morning that I recognized the obvious iconographic implications of the
them, acknowledge them, and try to decipher whether something in the picture
image that are so blatantly there. It seems impossible, in retrospect, that I didn't plan
triggers such feelings in us. Then we need to relate those feelings back to the image,
to do an Eve photograph. But at the time I was working the idea didn't enter my con-
perhaps through questions: What is it that I am feeling? Why am I feeling it? Is
scious thought.
there a certain subject or form or a particular use of the media that I am reacting to?
Many photographers allow room for their subconscious in their work and unin- Being attuned to our feelings when viewing images is a way to get beyond the obvi-
tended meanings that it may add to the work. Sandy Skoglund, for example, says ous, to begin to identify the connotations of images. As well as being a clue toward
that "one of the most captivating aspects of the ways I work is the subterranean understanding and a possible starting point for interpretation, feeling is an appro-
content and consciousness that kind of leaks out, that I don't intend when I'm mak- priate result: After we perform careful critical analysis of an image or exhibition,
ing art." 31 our feelings about it may change profoundly.
I n ! i'i |>i ' i M M i r h . ii i u p . i | ili .

INTERPRETATION, MEANING, AND PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE

A distinction can be made between significance and meaning. n Significance is more
personal than meaning. Significance refers to how a photograph aliens us or what it
( I I A I ' l l Ii 4
means to us. Meaning is more objective than significance, referring to what the pho
lograph is about in itself or what several people would infer or what can be made
obvious to any informed viewer. A similar distinction between "meaning in" and
"meaning to" helps the interpreter stay on track in presenting an interpretation ol
the photograph. 3 5 What a photograph means to me may not be what the photograph
is about in itself. Personal significance and personal associations with photographs Types of Photographs
are valuable to each of us, but they may be too idiosyncratic, too personal, to In-
valuable to others who wish to understand more about the image itself. If our inter-
pretations are too personal and too idiosyncratic, they become more about us and
less about the image. Another way of saying this is that "if interpretation is not ref-
erenced to visual properties (in the image), discourse leaves the realm of criticism
and becomes conjecture, therapy, reminiscence, or some other manner of purely
subjective functioning." 36

THE COMMUNITY OF INTERPRETERS S INCE T H E EARLY YEARS of photography, people have been placing photo-
graphs in categories. In 1839, the year the medium was invented, photography
Ultimately, viable interpretations are those held by a community of informed inter- was divided into its two oldest and most enduring categories when it was pro-
preters that includes critics, artists, historians, dealers, collectors, and viewers. claimed to be both a science and an art. 1
Interpretations, in the end, are a collective endeavor arrived at by a variety of peo- Another time-honored division from the early years of photography, and still in
ple observing, talking and writing about, and revising their understandings of com- use but with different labels, divides photographs made as art into two groups, pic-
plex and dynamic images made by sophisticated image makers. Julia Kristeva torialist and purist. More current terms for these divisions are "manipulated" and
pleads for an "ethics of modesty" for all interpreters—that is, that no one considers "straight." The division was antagonistic; at issue was the means of making pho-
his or her perception as the only possible one. 3 7 Michael Parsons, an art educator, tographs. In 1861 C. Jabez Hughes, a pictorialist, declared: "If a picture cannot be
has written insightfully about the community of art interpreters: produced by one negative, let him have two or ten; b u t . . . the picture when fin-
ished must stand or fall entirely by the effects produced and not the means
as we look at a painting, we presuppose the company ol others who are also looking employed." 2 The straight aesthetic, however, would mandate that photographers
at it. We are imaginatively one of a group who discuss the painting because they see use techniques considered "photographic" rather than hand-manipulated and
the same details, and can help each other to understand them. The painting exists "painterly." In 1904 critic Sadakichi Hartmann promoted straight photography: "In
not between the two individual poles of the artist and the viewer but in the midst of short, compose the picture which you intend to take so well that the negative will
an indefinite group of persons who are continually reconstructing it—a community
be absolutely perfect and in need of no or but slight manipulation." 3 About twenty
of viewers.38
years later Edward Weston reiterated the straight position, declaring "the approach
The community is corrective: It won't accept .my Interpretation unless the inter- to photography is through realism." 4
pretation is sensible and contributes to knowledge; on the other hand, the commu- Photography historian Beaumont Newhall, in his 1964 edition of The History of
nity of interpreters disallows dogmatic and Inflexible understandings because it Photography, divides photographs into four stylistic trends: straight, formalistic,
knows that art objects are ultimately rich object! thai arc less than determinable documentary, and equivalent. 5 He identifies Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward
and that our understandings of them will continue to shilt, usually subtly but some- Weston, and Ansel Adams as paradigm examples of those employing a straight
times dramatically. By following the principle! detailed in this chapter we can join approach "in which the ability of the camera to record exact images with rich tex-
in that dialogue, contribute to it, and benefit lioin it ture and great detail is used to interpret nature and man, never losing contact with
I i I " III I ' M . .1 i n | l .11 111 '.

M l n n r . i< II its more about the artist, and windows more about the world. Milieu-,
reality." Man Kay and Fazio Moholy-Nagy arc Identified With the loimalistic siylc,
aie loiiiantiiiilly '.ell expressive, exhibit concern lor formal elegance ratlin than
wlik'h Newhall typifies as a means ol isolating and oigaiu/mg loi in lor its own sake
deft upturn, ate generally made from a close vantage point for simplicity by absiiai
without the use ol cameras and without a concern lot the photograph. The sublet t
turn, and lavoi subject matter such as virgin landscapes, pure geometry, the nniileu
matter is paramount in documentary, which is essentially a desire "to record with
tillable nude-, and social abstractions such as "the young." Windows are icalisiii
out Intrusion, to inform honestly, accurately, and above all, convincingly." The term
explorations more concerned with description than suggestion that attempt to
equivalent, borrowed from Stieglitz, designates photographic metaphors, "charged
explain more and dramatize less and which usually deal with subject matter (hat is
with emotional significance and inner meaning," but which are "first of all, pho
specific to a particular time and space, and they can usually be dated by evidence
tographs." Newhall is not neutral about these categories and promotes the straight
within the picture.
aesthetic and approaches that are considered uniquely photographic. He cites pho-
In the 1970s Time-Life publications came out with a widely distributed series ol
tographs made by Walker Evans and other photographers employed by the Farm
books, the Life Library of Photography. One book of the series, The Great Themes,
Security Administration as documentary images. Stieglitz referred to his own pho-
uses the following categories to cover photography: the human condition, still life,
tographs of clouds as equivalents, and Newhall mentions the photographic land-
portraits, the nude, nature, war.
scapes Minor White made as other examples of equivalents.
In "Six Ideas in Photography," an exhibition she curated in 1989 for the sesqui-
centennial of the invention of photography, Gretchen Garner offered these cate-
CATEGORIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS gories: Time Suspended—photography is time's witness, stopping it forever; A
Wider World—photography shows us distant, hidden, and exotic worlds; Famous
In two of the photography exhibitions he has organized, John Szarkowski proposes
Faces—through photographs, the famous are familiar; Minute Detail—optical clar-
categories through which we may view photographs. In the exhibition and subse-
ity reveals a richly textured universe; Private Theater—the camera is an intimate
quent book published in 1966 called The Photographer's Eye, he embraces pho-
audience for the photographer's dreams; and Pictorial Effect—form, color, and tex-
tographs from both the art and science categories and identifies five characteristics
ture are created through photography. 8
that he considers unique to photography:
There are also subdivisions of categories. Sally Eauclaire, as the curator of a trav-
The thing itself—photography deals with the actual. eling exhibition of color photographs, wrote an accompanying catalogue, The New
The detail—photography is tied to the facts of things. Color Photography of the 1970s. She divided the large category of recent color work
into seven subsets: self-reflections, formalism, the vivid vernacular, documentation,
The frame—the photograph is selected, not conceived.
moral vision, enchantments, and fabricated fictions. Estelle Jussim and Elizabeth
Time—photographs are time exposures and describe discrete parcels of time.
Lindquist-Cock, in 1985, looked specifically at another category of photographs,
Vantage point—photographs provide us new views of the world. 6 landscapes, in Landscape as Photograph and subdivided that category into land-
scape as God, fact, symbol, pure form, popular culture, concept, politics and pro-
In 1978, with a traveling exhibition and in a book, Szarkowski proposed a break-
paganda. In Fabrications: Staged, Altered, and Appropriated Photographs, Anne Hoy
down for looking at photographs made since 1960: "mirrors and windows."
divided recent photography into five categories: narrative tableaux, portraits and
Although he presents mirrors and windows as the two poles of a continuum
sell-portraits, still-life constructions, appropriated images and words, and manipu-
between which photographs can be placed, he divides the photographs in the book
lated prints and photo-collages.
and the exhibition into two distinct groups rather than placing them along a con-
( ategorics are designed for different purposes, and they use various means to dis-
tinuum. He aligns mirrors with the romantic tradition and windows with the realist
tinguish photographs. The Time-Life great themes are distinguished by subject mat-
tradition in literature and art:
ter and are easy to use. The pictorialist and purist, or straight and manipulated,
The romantic view is that the meanings of the world are dependent on our own categoi ies attend to photographic procedure and resulting photographic form. They
understandings. The field mouse, the skylark, the sky itself do not earn their mean- tend, however, to wrongly suggest that straight photographs are not manipulated.
ings out of their own evolutionary history, but are meaningful in terms of the anthro- Newhall's categories are dated, and he no longer uses them. Szarkowski's photogra-
pocentric metaphors we assign to them. It is the realist view that the world exists phei s eye categories and mirrors and windows also start with form and then ask us
independent of human attention, that it contains discoverable patterns of intrinsic
to consider how form affects meaning. They consider photography to be a unique
meaning, and that by discerning these patterns, and forming models or symbols of
medium, Hoy's and Eauclaire's divisions help us make sense of bodies of new work
them with the materials of his art, the artist is joined to a larger intelligence.7
1 y | " ' s of [ ' h o l o ( | i . i p h s

m specific, contemporary times, and Jussim and l.iiul(|tiisi ( ock's a-.k us to think ih.it tliey are presented "with such detail and tonal fidelity that they tempt us to see
about photographs with one subject matter, the landscape, throughout time. ihem as uninllcclcd transcriptions," but he goes on to explain that the photographs
"are equally allied with the practices of Conceptual and Post-modernist art, since
they erect typologies of form that challenge the traditional meanings of art, archi-
NEW CATEGORIES tecture, and photography."9 These photographs, in Grundberg's understanding,
would fit best in both the descriptive and the theoretical categories: They meticu-
This chapter presents a new category system that incorporates the best of the cate-
lously describe a class of structures—water towers—but in their style or, more
gories just mentioned. It covers all photographs, art and non-art, family snapshots
accurately, their conscious denial of style, they also comment on art and photogra-
and museum prints. It is based not on subject matter or form but rather on how
phy. To see them only as descriptive photographs of water towers—not also as ait
photographs are made to function and how they are used to function. This system
about art—would be to misunderstand them.
is designed to help viewers think about photographs and especially to interpret
them. It has six categories: descriptive, explanatory, interpretive, ethically evalua- Because the categories overlap, we can use them to see how any given photo
tive, aesthetically evaluative, and theoretical. The categories have distinguishing graph is descriptive, if and how it explains in any scientific sense, how it is inflected
characteristics, but photographs overlap them. It is the viewer's task to figure out In by the photographer's worldview, if it makes a value judgment of an ethical or aes-
thetic type, and how it may be commenting on or influenced by other photographs
which categories a photograph fits and in which one or more it fits best. The cate-
and artworks.
gories are explained in the sections that follow, and examples of photographs are
given for each. Often photographs made to be a certain type of photograph are later used as
another type. NASA's space exploration photographs were certainly made as de-
These six categories are for sorting photographs, not photographers. Photogra-
scriptive and explanatory photographs, but some of them were later used as ads for
phers tend to make certain kinds of images with some consistency, but they also
Mobil Oil and Tang orange drink. Advertisers moved them from a descriptive cate-
may depart from their usual work. Most of Edward Weston's photographs fit within
gory to an ethically evaluative one, from fact to advertisement. The Farm Security
the aesthetically evaluative category, but his photographs that condemn destruction
Administration photographs, in their day, were generally accepted as "documen-
of the environment belong in the ethically evaluative category. Many of Barbara
tary" but are now understood to be "propaganda"; yesterday they would have been
Kruger's images are about social issues and are ethically evaluative, but some are
placed in the explanatory category, today in the ethically evaluative category. Many
more specifically about how we as a society use images; these would overlap into
photographs not made as art are often shown as art: Photomicrographs, space
the theoretical category.
exploration photographs, and studies of motion once made for science are pub-
Photographs may fit well in more than one category, and more than one category
lished in coffee-table books and hung on museum walls. Implications of category
may apply to any single photograph. For example, all photographs, no matter how
displai ements such as these will be discussed in the next chapter, which considers
abstract, give relatively accurate descriptive information about the people, places, how the context in which a photograph is seen affects its interpretation.
and objects they show. Thus, all photographs could fit the descriptive category.
The most important aspect of these categories is that they are interpretive. That
Most photographs also interpret what they present photographically, because they
is, we must interpret a photograph before we can reasonably categorize it. As we
are made by people with points of view, with understandings of the world, with pas-
saw in the previous chapter, to interpret is to figure out what an image is about and
sions. Thus, all photographs could be placed in the interpretive category. All art and
to build an argument based on evidence for the understanding we have of an
all photographs are about other art in the sense that past art influences present art,
linage. We do not have to do much interpretation to sort photographs into piles
and present art can always be read in the light of influences upon it. Thus, all pho-
ai i ording to whether they are landscapes, nudes, still lifes, or portraits. But we do
tographs could fit in the theoretical category. Most of these placements, however,
have lo put a lot of interpretive thought into determining whether a portrait by
would be in a weak sense. To place a photograph into a category and show that it
Diane Arbus is like a portrait by Joel-Peter Witkin or one by Richard Avedon and
fits in a strong sense, we have to figure out what it does most, what it does best, or
whether any one of these is like a portrait on a driver's license or one made at a
how it is most clearly being used.
Scars department store.
Some photographs and photographic projects do fit accurately in more than one
lo place a photograph in one or more of these categories is to interpret it. In-
category and belong in more than one category in a strong sense. An example is the
terpretations, as we discussed in the previous chapter, are always open to counter-
water tower project of Bernd and Hilla Becher. For years they have been systemati-
irgument. In this chapter, Suburbia by Bill Owens is placed in the explanatory
cally photographing water towers in Germany and America and in 1988 completed
. ategory, because it uses straightforward photographs of people who are aware ol
a book of 223 of them, Water Towers. Of these photographs, Andy Grundberg writes
•t • I y|l<". n l l ' l \ n l ( i ( | l , l | l h s
m
live .IIKI 111 In inlciprctivcly and evalualively neutral, An ID photograph attempt!
being photographed and who arc cooperating with I lie photojuaphcr. It uses tin
ncllliei in express the siller's personality nor to Mallei the sitter's appearance DUI
people's own words lor its captions. Owens claims that it is .1 documentary projei 1.
i.nliei 10 accurately describe the sitter so that someone can match the photograph
and it seems a project that attempts, in scientific Fashion, lo piclorially survey a
lo the peison.
suburban community. In American Photography, however, Jonathan Green writes:
In .\n elaborate descriptive undertaking in 1982, the Eastman Kodak Company,
"Although Owens's work purports to be neutral and objective, his final pronounce-
in collaboration with Musees de France Research Laboratory, meticulously icconsi 1
ment is much harsher. . . . His conservative anecdotal and reportorial style docu-
tuted the Bull Room of the cave at Lascaux, France, for exhibition at the Grand
ments a visual environment unrelieved in its superficiality. For Owens, suburbia is
Palais des Champs Elysees in Paris. The celebrated 17,000-year-old bison paintings
beyond redemption." 1 0 Presumably, if Green were to use these categories, he would
on the walls of the cave at Lascaux had been closed to public viewing in 1963 to save
place Suburbia into the ethically evaluative group because he sees it as a condemna-
them from environmental deterioration. Set designers used details from surveyors'
tion of that which it portrays. If we were using these categories to discuss Suburbia,
photographs made with a pair of stereoscopic cameras to build contours of the cave
we would find ourselves in disagreement; and a friendly argument might ensue, but
walls. Twenty-five photographs of the bison paintings were taken with a pho
a very beneficial one, because deciding whether Suburbia is objective and neutral
togrammetric camera and flash and were printed in a 1:1 ratio on Ektacolor paper.
about what it presents or whether it condemns is essential to accurately under-
The prints were assembled as a flat mosaic under the direction of a physicist who
standing the book.
ensured that they were fit together in such a way that distortions would be avoided
Photographs have been placed in the following categories without argument and
when the photo mosaic was adhered to the contours of the overhanging, concave
without presentation of much evidence for their placement, mostly even without
sides of the reconstructed cave walls. The print mosaic was placed on decalomania
reproduction of the images, and you may think they have been placed incorrectly or
paper, separated from its Ektacolor base, and adhered to the artificial rock face and
inaccurately. You are invited to disagree and to provide evidence for more accurate
its myriad indentations. The cave paintings were accurately reproduced.
placements. And although many photographers are mentioned in this chapter, cer-
Descriptive photographs are very valuable to medical researchers. In early cancer
tainly not all could be. The ones who are mentioned are thought to provide the
research, pathologist Daniel Gould made an electron photomicrograph showing
clearest examples for explaining the categories and how they can be used. Those
virus particles in a portion of cancer tissue (magnified 52,000 times) occurring nai
knowing the history of photography, including the immediate past, will recognize
urally in a woolly monkey. The inset shows a virus particle budding from a cell
the photographers mentioned in the categories; those unfamiliar with the photogra-
membrane (magnified 201,000 times). Further studies of this virus provided the
phers may use the many names of artists and projects as a basis for browsing the
first views of certain basic molecular mechanisms in cancer.
library.
A Meeting with the Universe is a book produced by NASA that is full of astonish-
That is the point of creating these categories and for using them. Placing pho-
ing descriptive photographs. A photograph of Jupiter, taken from Voyager 1, shows
tographs in these categories demands interpretive thought and encourages inter-
the planet with its Great Red Spot behind two of its moons, each about the size of
pretive agreement and disagreement. These categories have been designed to
Earth's moon. The photograph was made from about 12 million miles away but pro-
encourage and facilitate interpretive discussion; they are not meant to end discus-
vides detail of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere. At the other end of the size and dis-
sion through pigeonholing, or automatic sorting. If they are used in this way, they
tance scale is a photograph that shows a speck of cosmic dust less than one-tenth of
are rendered useless.
a millimeter across, photographed under an electron microscope.
As Voyager 2 departed the sun's family in 1989, it sent back a flood of pho-
DESCRIPTIVE PHOTOGRAPHS tographs including rings circling Neptune, which were previously unknown. While
John Glenn in 1998 made his historic second space flight aboard Discovery, he and
All photographs describe in the sense that they offer descriptive, visual information,
fellow astronauts sent to mission control photographs they took daily. These were
with greater or lesser detail and clarity, about the surfaces of people and objects.
posted on NASA's Web page while the flight was in progress. The site also allowed
Some photographs, however, are not meant to be more than descriptions, such as
visitors to access world maps providing situational awareness of the shuttle's loca-
identification photographs, medical X rays, photomicrographs, NASA space explo-
tion above the Earth in real-time display. Through the Internet, NASA offers 500 ol
ration photographs, surveillance photographs, and reproductions of artworks.
what it considers its best astronaut-acquired images of Earth as photographic prints,
Their photographers are attempting to accurately record subject matter, and in
as well as photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp, images from the Cassini mission thai
many cases these photographs are painstakingly produced to be accurately descrip-
wmm
m mm
•IIIIVC ••, .ii '..Minn in .'iHH, i I) i.id.ii images ol 'Hariri, and high-resolution ladioinc
lets show, in); i liangcs in vegetal ion across the 1 ai ill's land surlacc."
Some photographers make descriptive photographs as art. l.ynne Cohen hnds
complex Institutional interiors, devoid of people, bathed in artificial light Indll Btlng
neithei time of day nor time of year, containing artifacts left behind—resuscitation
'•* .->*$>*•>>< dummies, rubber mannequins, a cow aorta, portable brick sample boards, targets—
•-•if •'- '• i***?/-} f»-
and photographs them with detached distance.
W In another descriptive project, over a seven-month period in the financial dlstril I
of Lower Manhattan, Mary Alpern set up a camera in one high-rise building across
:£"•'/. .**-%!&.*.' from another and photographed illicit sexual transactions between men and women
taking place in what she later discovered to be a small bathroom. Each photograph
is framed by the exterior window of the bathroom, and each is softly focused, wilh
identities of the individuals difficult to determine. 1 2
For many years Hiroshi Sugimoto has been photographing movie palaces and
drive-ins, recording architectural spaces of past eras as they give way to multiplexes
in shopping malls. As architectural documents, his photographs clearly serve a
rj
^^^*^«H**** *>"'
(|By»K descriptive purpose, but Sugimoto adds theoretical interest in photography by pho-
tographing the theaters only by means of light made available by the running ol
^**--»^" films they project: With whimsy his photographs witness lengthy movies in single
still shots, with the screens so overexposed they appear brilliant and blank, as if the
V- photographer were showing us a whole movie in a single frame of film.

EXPLANATORY PHOTOGRAPHS
The difference between "photographic descriptions" and "photographic explana-
tions" is small, but there is enough difference between an ID photograph on a
driver's license and Eadweard Muybridge's photographs of how animals and people
move lo merit separate categories. Photographs made by Muybridge in 1880 typify
whai we call explanatory photographs.
*^ While employed as a photographic surveyor of the Pacific coast in the 1870s,
S.I rflft-. ' ,?
Muybridge, an Englishman, met Leland Stanford, a railroad magnate, lover of
i***>.*S*
horses, and founder of Stanford University. Stanford was engaged in an argument
wilh a man named Frederick MacCrellish over whether a trotting horse ever had
.ill ICMII ol iis hooves off the ground at the same time. Stanford believed it did,
M.u i relllsh did not, and they wagered $25,000. Stanford hired Muybridge to solve
ould, Portion of Histiocytic-type Cell with Budding Virus Particles (x 52,000); I he ItSUC and supplied him with whatever research funds he needed. Muybridge
Iding virus (x 201,000), 1971. laid a n.ii k made of rubber to eliminate dust, hung a white cloth with numbered
National Cancer Institute, 47: 881-89, 1971. © Daniel H. Gould. All rights reserved. vi rtical Inns as a backdrop to the track, and pointed twelve cameras at it. lie
designed the cameras so that they would be tripped in sequence when a horse
liiul i .i thread stretched across the track as it moved down the track. Muybridge's
pholugruphs showed all the different gaits of the horse, which further showed thai
• i v i " " ' " i r' 11 < 11 < > < 11.11 > 11 ••

in the midst ol its walk, trot, and gallop, all lour ol iis hooves were oil (lie ground
al I he same time. Stanford won his bet, and to the chagrin ol many artists, previ-
ously painted and sculpted representations ol horses, from ancient times to con-
temporary, were shown to be inaccurate. Muybridge offered a visual explanation of
how horses nunc. A question had been asked of him and answered by him through
his invention of equipment and procedures that provided an explanation in pho-
tographs. He went on to refine his techniques and eventually, with the support ol
I he University of Pennsylvania, made over 100,000 photographs of moving ani-
mals, including ostriches and baboons, and men, women, and children in a variety
of movements and actions.
Stimulated by the work of Muybridge, Etienne Jules Marey a French physiologist
researching locomotion, invented in 1883 a single camera that could take a series of
pictures on a single photographic plate. He clothed men in black, painted white
lines down their arms and legs, and photographed them moving against a dark
background. The resulting pictures were linear graphs of motion of arms and legs,
Harold Edgerton, Self-portrait with Balloon and Bullet, 1959.
trajectory paths, and oscillation patterns of movements. Marey's intent clearly was Copyright 1990 © Estate of Harold Edgerton, courtesy of Palm Press, Inc.
to explain with photographs: "By means of chronophotography we arrived at a sci-
entific interpretation of the various bodily movements."13 His experiments and
M uybridge's led to more sophisticated time-motion studies in relation to efficient
human industrial labor. Marey's photographs and diagrams are also identified as the
visual source for Marcel Duchamp's famous painting, Nude Descending a Staircase
(1911-12), and other art by the Italian futurists at the beginning of the twentieth
century.14
More recently, physicist Harold Edgerton has photographically examined the
characteristics of bullets in flight and other fast-moving objects with the strobo-
scopic equipment and technologies he invented for his photographic studies. By
photographically stopping the action of bullets moving 15,000 miles per hour with
strobe exposures of a millionth of a second, he has discovered that as a bullet strikes
a hard object the bullet liquifies for an insiam, losing iis shape as it compresses
upon itself, and then solidifies again in shattered fragments.
Social scientists also use photographs to explain. Sometimes their work is called
"visual sociology" and "visual anthropology." I loward Becker was the curator of an
exhibition of photographs in 1981 called "Exploring Society Photographically,"
which explored investigations that used pholography "to understand the workings
ol the social world." The photographers Rcckei used in die show included both
artists and scientists: "The photographers represented here cover the full range of
possibilities. Some are more concerned wilh the presentation of evidence than oth-
ers. . . . They all leave us knowing more abou! some aspcel of society than we did
before we absorbed their work."1,5
During a twenty-five-year period, lidward < itrtis produced a twenty-volume
work with more than 2,000 images and anthropology al notes about Native Ameri-
can culture as he witnessed it in the early pail ol ihe twentieth century.16 In his
I y(i il i i n ' l i " 11 11 >h

photography career, which spanned eighty years, (nines Van Dei /ec documenied
i lie Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and '30s and made thousands of photographs
depicting African American culture in New York." The work of these two men
provides clear early anthropological and sociological examples of explanatory
photographs,
More recently, Songs of My People is a traveling exhibition and book of pho-
tographs of African Americans made by African American photojoumalists. Lauren
(i reen field's Fastforward is a book of color photographs of wealthy teenagers grow-
ing up in very wealthy communities of West Los Angeles, contrasting them with
counterparts in poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the central city.18 Tina
Harney's book, Theater of Manners, documents her well-to-do, upper-class New
England family in its natural setting.19
Most press photographs can be placed in the explanatory category, but not all,
because some go beyond explaining and also evaluate, condemning or praising
aspects of society, and thus would better fit in the ethically evaluative category.20
Press photographs that attempt neutral, objective reportings about persons, places,
and events fit in the explanatory category.
Cornell Capa has always been concerned with "the who what when where and
why of things."21 He is an esteemed photojournalist himself and colleague of his
brother Robert Capa, killed by a land mine in Indochina in 1954. Capa has directed
the International Center of Photography for the past two decades, encouraging a
new generation of photojoumalists such as Jim Nachtwey, Susan Meiselas, and
Scbastiao Salgado at a time when old magazine markets for their work has been dis-
appearing. While the Museum of Modern Art under the curatorial direction of John
Szarkowski emphasized the artistic side of the medium, Capa and the International
Center of Photography stressed photojournalistic work, including that of W. Eugene
Smith, Henri Carder-Bresson, David Seymour, Ernst Haas, and Eddie Adams.
Szarkowski's observation about windows applies to photographs in the explana-
tory category: Most explanatory photographs deal with subject matter that is spe-
cific to a particular time and place and that can be dated by visual evidence within
the photograph.22 Formally, these photographs usually use an angle of view that
places the subject in a social context; they are usually printed so that details are not Annlr I Hliovit/, Keith Haring, New York City, 1986.
I \nnicLcibovitz. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist and Contact Press Images, N c
lost in tones that are too dark; and they favor a contrast range that can be duplicated
clearly in the inks of offset printing. Explanatory photographs are often made to be
reproduced in books, magazines, and newspapers. Ron Gallea's and other papa-
razzi's stolen images of celebrities would also fit within this category. Most of Annie
Leibovitz's collaborative portraits of celebrities fit here, especially her montage of
"
photographs of Keith Haring preparing the set for his portrait by her.23
Some seminal projects of this explanatory type are from the early 1970s. In 1971
Larry Clark published Tulsa, a visually explicit book about young people and their
use of guns, sex, and drugs. He made the book from the point of view of an insider,
a participant-observer. In 1973 Bill Owens published Suburbia, which the photogra-
I tr •% l M I M I I I I11 | I i l | M n

pliw ili-si ribes as a photogiaplm study "in dm i m Aiueiii mis in Suburbia." I Its
photographs ol interiors, exteriors, paienis, i hililn n, mid pels in tliree California
suburbs are accompanied by comments liom the subjn Is I lis next project followed
in 1975—Our Kind of People: American Groups and RltlMil Alu-i photographing the
meetings of various civic and social clubs and organizations lor his newspaper,
Owens remained to shoot photographs for his book. He returned to meetings on
evenings and weekends and photographed more than three hundred groups ovei
two years. These photographs are captioned with statements from club members.
Mary Ellen Mark is a photojournalist whose work falls within this explanatory
category. Mark has photographed for a variety of magazines and the New York
Times. She also has produced books including Ward 81, about women in the psychi-
atric ward of Oregon State Hospital, where she lived for thirty-six days, and Falh
land Road, about prostitutes in Bombay, with whom she stayed for three months.
About Mark's work, critic Shelley Rice says:

Mark is a photographer who has been intensely, indeed passionately, involved with
only one theme during the 23 years of her career: people. The concept "people" is
only an abstract, a historical idea, but Mary Ellen has spent several decades giving
this idea flesh, showing us what it means in the most concrete possible terms. She
has sought out men, women and children of different nations, classes, beliefs, cus-
toms, lifestyles and circumstances; she has recorded their dreams, their realities, their
tragedies and their joys.24

According to Rice, Mark's work is rooted in "the particular, in the day-to-day strug-
gles, rituals and relationships that make up a life, however heroic or tragic." Raisa
Fastman's A Portrait oj American Mothers and Daughters is a book of photographs of
mothers and daughters in everyday situations, rituals, and sometimes struggles.
Subway, by Bruce Davidson, explores traveling on subways in New York, close-up,
in color, conveying danger and fear and self-protective postures of the travelers.
Both of these books belong in the explanatory category.
About Nan Goldin's photography, reproduced in her book The Other Side, 1993,
critic Elizabeth Hess writes that it is "a visual exposition of drag culture" that Nan
has explored since the early 1970s and adds that "there are few artists able to speak
Mill Owens, cover of Suburbia, 1973.
from and for a subculture." Hess credits Goldin with the ability to do this: "Goldin
i n|n iii'.lu Hi by Hill Owens. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
spent 20 obsessed years with transvestites, shooting queens in dressing rooms,
hotel rooms, bathrooms, and other private places. She traveled to Berlin, Manila,
and Bangkok, moving freely with the lives of her subjects in each location." 25 The
Other Side clearly fits within the explanatory category.
To be accurately placed in this category, a photograph should provide visual
explanations that are in principle verifiable on scientific grounds. Edgerton's pho-
tographs should provide valid data for other physicists, and Becker's exhibition of
photographs that explore society ought to provide valid information for social sci-
entists. Fastman's photographs, if they are explanatory, should be valuable to social
i Mark, Homeless Damm Family, Los Angeles, 1987.
> Mary Ellen Mark/Library. All rights reserved.

Nan Goldin, cover of The Other Side, 1993.

Copyright © by Nan Goldin. All rights reserved. Couitesy of Matthew Marks Gallery, New York ( ny
 "I' 'I'"'-

psychologists in I ciosl cd in moihci daughtei relationships Whereas the (l.ums to

truth that explanatory photographs make should be verifiable (01 refutable) with
further evidence of a scientific type, photographs in the next category, interpretive
photographs, cannot be verified or refuted with scientific evidence.

INTERPRETIVE PHOTOGRAPHS
Interpretive photographs, like explanatory photographs, also seek to explain how
things are, but they do not attempt scientific accuracy, nor are they accountable to
scientific testing procedures. They are personal and subjective interpretations, more
like poetry than a scientific report. They are usually fictional and often use the
"directorial mode" of photography defined by A. D. Coleman as one in which the
photographer caused "something to take place which would not have occurred had
the photographer not made it happen."26 Photographers working directorially stage
people or objects in front of the lens or intervene in real-life situations, directing
the participants, or they do both. Coleman traced this tradition from the beginning
ol photography to the present and identified the work of several in the past as di-
rectorial, including Anne Brigman, Clarence White, E Holland Day, and Gertrude
Kasebier.
Interpretive photographs are closer to Szarkowskis mirrors than to his windows.
They are self-expressive and reveal a lot about the worldviews of the photographers
who make them. They are exploratory and not necessarily logical, and sometimes
they overtly defy logic. They are usually dramatic rather than subtle and are gener-
ally concerned with formal excellence and good print quality. If a viewer questioned
Jerry Uelsmann, Untitled, 1969.
their claims, he or she would be hard pressed to find either confirming or denying
Copyright © by Jerry N. Uelsmann. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
scientific evidence. This is not to say, however, that interpretive photographs make
no claims to truth or that they do not have truth value. Fiction can offer truths
about the world.
Most of Duane Michals's sequences would be placed in this category, as would
the multiple exposures of Jerry Uelsmann; the trilogy of surrealistic photography
books by Ralph Gibson, The Somnambulist, Dcja-Vu, and Days at Sea; the work of
Japanese surrealist photographers such as Michiko Kon;27 the directed portraits and
self-portraits by Judy Dater; the highly manipulated, "phototransformation" self-
portraits with Polaroid prints by Lucas Samaras; the overtly fictional family studies
by Ralph Eugene Meatyard and the less obviously directed family studies by Emmet
(iowin and Sally Mann; the fictional environments that Sandy Skoglund builds and
photographs;28 Bea Nettles's Mountain Dream Tarot, /vents in the Shy, and The Else-
where Bird; Theatre of the Mind and The Teapot Opera by Arthur Tress; such works by
I.es Krims as Fictcryptokrimsographs and "Idiosyncratic Pictures"; Ernie and Stones
by Tony Mendoza; Joyce Neimanas's composites ol cultural icons made into Inkjet
Prints; William Wegman's renditions of his weimarancrs in Cinderella and Little Red
 to

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Michiko Kon, Octopus and Melon, 1989.

Copyright © Michiko Kon. Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery, New York City.

lals, Little Sylvester the Adult Molester, 1994

icy Janis Gallery, New York City.
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Riding Hood; works by Ircdcrick Sommer; the surreal staged pliolographs ol objects
by Jo Ann Callis;2" and the dysfunctional family characters In Nic Nicosia's pho-
lographs. Most of the work of Joel-Peter Witkin would lit here, as would Richard
Avcdon's book In the American West.
In Contemporary American Photography Part I, critic and curator Mark Johnstone
makes observations about the staged photographs of Eileen Cowin, which symbol-
ically address interpersonal relationships, and whose work is interpretive. His
remarks about her work apply to all the photographs in this category: "Her pho-
tographs, unlike documentary photojournalism that seeks the seizure of a 'decisive
moment,' are the creation of 'expansive moments.'"30 The emphasis here is on cre-
ating moments in a studio situation rather than finding decisive moments on the
street—a distinction between "making" photographs and "taking" photographs.
Like all photographs, interpretive photographs need to be interpreted. Many of
these photographs play with ambiguity and are open to a variety of readings. For
example, Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, the Russian emigre husband and
wife team who make larger-than-life self-portraits, conjure several associations with
their playful and ironic transformations of themselves: "beatific visions from
medieval and Renaissance art, dadaist puns, poetic theories of paradox, Jungian
images, graphics in the service of revolution, Russian constructivism, even the his-
tory of body art from ritual scarring to contemporary tatoos."31

ETHICALLY EVALUATIVE PHOTOGRAPHS

Ethically evaluative photographs describe—some attempt scientific explanations,
others offer personal interpretations—but most distinctively, they all make ethical
judgments. They praise or condemn aspects of society. They show how things
ought or ought not to be. They are politically engaged and usually passionate. Mar-
tin Sugarman condemns the war in former Yugoslavia with his book God Be with
You: War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Carolyn Jones passionately pictures
people living with AIDS in Living Proof: Courage in the Face of AIDS. Eugene
Richards shows the devastating effects of drug addiction in Cocaine True, Cocaine
Blue. "Homeless in America" is a traveling exhibition of eighty ethically evaluative
prints, including photographs by Eugene Richards and Mary Ellen Mark, which
depict the homeless; but more significantly, according to Andy Grundberg, "It aims
not only to show us what the homeless look like and how they live, but also to
move us to indignation and action. It is, in short, an exhibition with its heart in the
right place—if you believe that hearts should be worn on the sleeve."32
There are several important examples of ethically evaluative photographic
projects throughout the history of photography. Jacob Riis, an American "muck-
raker with a camera," was known at the end of the nineteenth century as the Wendy Ewald and Gerdien van Anen, Cerdien's Portrait, the Netherlands, 1997.
"Emancipator of the Slums." About his work, the Encyclopedia of Photography Courtesy of the artist.
declares: "His brutal documentation of sweatshops, disease-ridden tenements, and
- ' y|> ii i in 'I in p - i | H I

overcrowded schools aroused public indignation .mil helped elleel significant

rcloini in housing, education, and child-labor laws." ll I )oioihea l.angc in the ll> 10 •.
photographed migrant workers in California, and her work "helped establish the
style o( Farm Security Administration (FSA) photography as a compassionate lac
tual record of people suffering hardships and the conditions they endured.""
Although much of the work of FSA photographers Walker Evans, Lange, and others
is today collected as art, "art was not the intent of the FSA."
Preceding and during World War II the Nazis used photography as propaganda.
John Heartfield countered with photomontages of his own in politically persuasive,
satirical condemnations of Hitler and his regime.35 Both sets of work are forms of
political advertisements in photographic form. Other advertisements, for products
and services, also fit in the evaluative category. Advertisements for detergents,
deodorants, and dog food promote values, certainly about the products they sell but
also about lifestyles, attitudes, and aspects of what advertisers promote as "the good
life." Much of the work of Robert Heinecken, in copied and manipulated pho-
tographs, pokes fun at aspects of our consumer society.
The last book of the late W Eugene Smith with his wife Aileen, Minamata, is an
account of the struggle of Japanese village fishermen and farmers with the Chisso
Corporation over the company's willful polluting of the sea and the resulting
methyl mercury poisoning of the people who lived off the contaminated fish they
caught in their bay. It is a paradigm example of work in this category. The dust
jacket declares in bold type: "The story of the poisoning of a city, and of the people
who chose to carry the burden of courage." The first line of the prologue states,
"This is not an objective book," and later, "This is a passionate book."
Bruce Davidson was involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and
made passionate photographs of the struggle. He also produced East 100th Street,
which concentrated on living conditions in Harlem with the intent of improving
them. Danny Lyon also worked within the civil rights movement, and his Conversa-
tions with the Dead sympathetically investigated the dire living conditions of peni-
tentiary inmates. In pictures and interviews, Eugene Richards's Below the Line:
Living Poor in America "captures the hopelessness of urban youth, the struggle of
midwestern farmers, the squalor of day-to-day existence for Mexican-American
immigrants living in Texas border towns" and others while deploring the poverty
that exists in the United States in the 1980s. These books are clear examples of eth- LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR, THE BLACK WOMAN AS
ically evaluative projects. MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO'S THE FINEST OF T
Portraiture need not be limited to descriptive uses, and some portraits are clearly THE MIRROR SAYS, "SNOW WHITE, YOU BLACK Bll
made in the service of improving social relations. For many years as part of her art AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!"
in collaborative portrait projects, Wendy Ewald has been working with children,
many of whom have experienced physical and psychological violence and loss,
helping them turn their experiences and dreams into interpretive and poetic photo- Carrie Mae Weems, Mirror, Mirror, 1987.
graphic images, frequently accompanied by texts of their stories. She is committed ( iiinicsy nl ITOW, New York City.
to helping children around the world to recognize the worth of their own visions
• I V|""' "I I'IH>|CM|I , i | i h s

,ind themselvei and lias wm ked In remote villtgei In Ituliu, < olumblu, Mexico, and
the Nellie i lands.lh lor many years |im ( mid heir has also lieen photographing i lnl
dieii and teenagers: In a traveling exhibition Mid llic hook Raised by Wolves he
shows pictures of homeless youths on the Streets and in shelters ol American cilies,
and records their stories in their words, publicizing their plight.37
In the manner of Jacob Riis many generations before her, Margaret Morton, Iroin
1991 to 1995, photographed a 2.5-mile-long railroad tunnel under New Yorkt
Upper West Side for a book she called The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless o\ 1

n
New York City. In that space, fifty individuals had fashioned homes with facilities foi
cooking, eating, sleeping, and even art making; their decorations include Christmas
tinsel and paintings hung on rough concrete walls.38
Carrie Mae Weems is an African American woman who combines written
accounts and photographs that expose racial prejudice in society. She draws upon
autobiographical accounts, oral history, racial jokes, and appropriated images, one
of which shows a man and two women slaves stripped to the waist. According to
:
i • I
i
11
Vince Aletti of the Village Voice, "One of the women—so angry, so belittled—glares
at the photographer and, now, at us with a barely contained fury that needs no com-
mentary." Weems also makes what she calls "gender stuff"—portraying "the ten-
sions and the issues that exist between men and women, women and women, and
women and their children."39 Lorna Simpson uses metaphor, biography, and por-
traiture to resist racist acts of aggression, discrimination, and alienation. According Lorna Simpson, Practical Joke, 1992. 2 dye diffusion (Polaroid) prints, 26 X 43"
to Deborah Willis, a curator of photographic exhibitions, Simpson combines large © Lorna Simpson. All rights reserved. Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.
photographs with texts in museum installations dealing with black women as "sur-
vivors, protagonists, and victims" in "a society weighted with oppressive, repressive
and consumer-oriented behavior."40
In a series called "Night Swimming, NYC 1993-94," Stephen Barker surrepti-
tiously photographed porn theaters and sex clubs under available and very low
light, revealing tender pleasure between men in ethereal dark spaces. In a curatorial
decision, Mark Robbins placed the photographs in this ethical category, writing that
Barker did not make the photographs "to romanticize such exchanges, but, espe-
cially in the time of AIDS, to reveal the possibility of warmth and contact they
offer."41
In his exhibited and published textual and photographic works Fish Story and
Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes,42 Allan Sekula intends to raise these questions:
"How does photography serve to legitimate and normalize existing power relation-
ships? How is historical and social memory preserved, transformed, restricted and
obliterated by photographs?"43 According to critic Benjamin Buchloh, Sekula's
project is one of critical realism that details the political and economic transforma-
tions caused globally by advancing capitalist rule. The work is also an effort to
retrieve, through still photographs during an age of electronic media, memories of
the factual, social, and political while capitalism continuously shifts, changes, and
conceals them.
 I;recl I onidu-1, Connie Hatch, and Sieve I lagan also wiwk 0111 ol explicii Marxisi
bases to produce photographs that critique existing social conditions with the
intent ol radically changing them for the better.'1'1 Mosi ol iheii work Ins in this cat-
egory as do the visual condemnations of sexism in society by Barbara Kruger,
l.yiietle Molnar, and Laurie Simmons.45 In fictional dioramas utilizing dummies and
dolls, Simmons explores the psychological landscapes of women consumed by
home and family. Critic Nicholas Jenkins interprets Simmons's photographs of
hybrids of objects and dolls' legs to be exploring sexual exploitation in that they
suggest a perversely fascinating theater of humiliation and a sympathetic imagining
of degradation and vulnerability.46 Gilbert & George, working together as a team
since 1967, make very large, garishly colored photographic wall pieces, about
which Peter Plagens writes, "The work is both a plea for tolerance of sexual differ-
ence and a defiance of those who don't get it."47
Ethically evaluative photographs can also be positive, as in Brian Lanker's travel-
ing exhibition and book I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed
America. The photographs are portraits, but are clearly meant to praise the seventy-
five women pictured and to present them as inspirational people. About the project,
banker writes: "My hope is that this project will allow readers and viewers to see
something of those lives and feel the strength of those hearts for a brief moment,
and to be informed by them and inspired by them as I have."48

AESTHETICALLY EVALUATIVE PHOTOGRAPHS

Other photographs make judgments, not about social issues but about aesthetic
issues. The photographs in this category point out what their photographers con-
sider to be worthy of aesthetic observation and contemplation. They are usually
about the wonder of visual form in all its variety and how it can be rendered photo-
graphically. This is the kind of "art photography" most familiar to most people.
Phoiographs in this category are usually of beautiful things photographed in beau-
lifulways. The subject matters are infinite, but the most conspicuous and common I I
are the nude, the landscape, and the still life.
The nudes are usually faceless and nameless, sometimes only torsos, male and
ferrule, studies of the human form. They are carefully lit, posed, and composed for
max mum aesthetic effect. The selected bodies are often muscular as in the black
male nudes by Robert Mapplethorpe or youthful as in the nudes by Jock Sturges,49 • I
but sometimes they are aging and humorous as in the self-portraits by John
Coplans50 or obese as in some of the nudes by Irving Penn.M Sometimes the bodies • I
are distorted by lens and angle of view as in the surrealist nudes of Bill Brandt.
Sometimes the prints are cut up and rearranged as in the abstracted nudes of Tetsu I I
Oltuliara. Sometimes they are situated in vacant space, as are some of the nudes by
• .aurie Simmons, Deluxe—Redding House #5, llfochrome, 30" x 20", 1998.
Ruth Bernhardt 3 but often they are posed in the natural environment as are the
Curtesy Laurie Simmons and Metro Pictures, New York City.

• I
 7

».*»•''

jes, Marine; Aries, Plage de Beau Due, France, 1990.

A
5 by Jock Sturges. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.
S^K -,
.',. ,- . • • ••'

:
-.'**"u:-

• " ;• «''" ;

|ohn Coplans, Self Portrait (Torso, Front), 1985.

Akron An Museum.

II- I
 Ai".l l i r l l c .illy I v . i l u . i l I v r

iiinli •. in '..IIIII (limes by Edward Weston and Wynn Bullock's nudes in the lush
l"i. Hi M| the Noilhwest. 54 Sometimes the human form is clothed as in the porii.niI
by Imogen ( imiiingham of Martha Graham dancing and in the fashion work ol
I'eini Hut all of these photographs call our attention to the aesthetic appeal ol the
human font) as it is situated and as it is rendered photographically.
1 lie landscape has been and continues to be an endless source of fascination foi
artists of all types, especially photographers. Ansel Adams, in particular, built his
monumental opus on the natural landscape of the American West. Others follow
today in the tradition of Adams as he received it from Stieglitz and Weston before
him. Paul Caponigro has photographed Stonehenge and the landscapes of the
British Isles; Minor White, the New England landscape and close-ups of crashing
waves; Harry Callahan, landscapes in city and public beaches and cityscapes in the
United States and abroad. John Szarkowski sums up some essential characteristics
of this tradition in photography: "a love for the eloquently perfect print, an intense
sensitivity to the mystical content of the natural landscape, a belief in the existence
of a universal formal language, and a minimal interest in man as a social animal."''
Those working contemporarily with the landscape often include indications of
human co-presence or intrusion. William Clift visits the same territory as Ansel
Adams did, but whereas Adams minimized any suggestion of the human, Clift orga-
nizes some of his majestic western landscapes with dirt roads and barbed-wire
fences. Joel Meyerowitz's Cape Light and Bay/Sky attend to the delicacy of the light
and color on Cape Cod, but the photographs often include the oceanfront porches
from which they were shot. He also brought his large camera to the city and pro-
duced St. Louis and the Arch. Barbara Kasten starts with city buildings, usually new
buildings publicized for their architecture such as the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Los Angeles, and transforms them, with drastic camera angles, intense col-
ored lighting, and mirrors, into colored geometric spectacles. 56
The still life, another time-honored theme in art and photography, includes
objects as they are found and, more commonly, objects that are carefully selected
and arranged by a photographer for maximum aesthetic interest. Jan Groover's still
lifes discussed in Chapter 2 are aesthetically evaluative photographs in that she
shows the formal elegance obtainable from the simplest and most ordinary objects
with photographic materials and careful organization. Irving Penn and Marie
Cosindas are two other recognized masters of the still life. Irving Penn has pro-
duced still lifes since the early 1940s for advertising accounts and as fine art. He has
recently completed a series of animal skulls. Another series is also of platinum
l>i nits, of gutter debris "raised by isolation, enlargement, and tonal simplification to
the level ol formal art objects." 57 Cosindas's photographs are in richly saturated
Polaroid colors of complex patterns of fabrics, flowers, and other visually complex
objects. Aaron Siskind's are still lifes of another sort, made of close-ups of tattered
I ul II HI.ii (Is, peeling paint, or charred wood.
I V I " " ' <•' l'liol(H|i.i|ihs

A111 u > u j."J i I In- mule, iln- landscape, and (lie still lllr HIT I omnioii subjects in the
..csthi'lically evaluative category, the category is not subject specific and these sub-
jects do not exhaust the category. Nor are all landscapes aesthetically evaluative,
even if beautifully made. Richard Misrach's Violent Legacies: Three Cantos is an
example of color photographs, two-thirds of them landscapes, beautifully and poet-
ically rendered in a book published in 1992, but they belong in the ethically evalu-
ative category, not this one. The first canto, "Project W-47 (The Secret)," is a series
of twenty-two color photographs taken at Wendover Air Base, Utah, between 1986
and 1991. The base is located in a remote, sparsely populated section of western
Utah where atomic bomb components were modified, assembled, and flight-tested
for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of World War II. The second canto, "The
Pit," consists of seventeen color photographs of dead animals. Misrach explains that
"today, county-designated dead-animal pits can be found throughout the West.
They function much like trash dumps in which locals are encouraged to deposit
livestock that die suddenly. The causes of the animals' deaths are often unknown."
He also states that when 4,390 animals were killed in 1953, most likely by radi-
ation, the Atomic Energy Commission's public explanation was a dry year and
malnutrition. The third canto, "The Playboys," consists of twenty-one color pho-
tographs made between 1989 and 1990 of the pages of two Playboy magazines that
had been used for target practice by persons unknown in the northwestern corner
of the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada where Misrach found them: "Although the
women on the covers were the intended targets, all aspects of American culture, as
reflected inside the magazines, were riddled with violence." 58
Many of Mark Klett's photographs are formally exquisite views of majestic land
and at first glance look like the others in this category, but upon closer examination
it becomes obvious that they condemn the destruction of the land and fit better in Richard Misrach, Dead Animals #20, color photograph, 1987.
the ethically evaluative category. 59 l n|iyi l)J,lil <0 hy Richard Misrach. All rights reserved. Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery.
Eiji Ina, in a book called Waste, makes beautiful photographs of the ugly indus-
trial waste that modern Japanese society leaves behind in the production of new
goods—crushed glass, discarded printing plates, mountains of metal shavings and
wood chips—making pictures that are fascinating in their visual beauty. 60
Barbara Crane's and Ray Metzker's and Maria Martinez-Canas's cut-up and col-
lagcd mosaics of photographs, David Hockney's mosaics of Polaroid prints, Betty
Hahn's experimental gum-bichromate images on stitched fabrics, Linda Connor's
intentionally softly focused prints, and other explorations of fonnal possibilities of
the manipulated print can also be placed in this category. 61
Much "street photography" fits within this category, including a lot of the work
of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander.
Cartier-Bresson and Winogrand often photograph people who are identifiable, in
locatabie places. They are not arranged by the photographers except with their
viewfinders. Winogrand's book Women Are Beautiful, for example, is of crowds of
 I lirnirui

people on (lie street, at the beach, or in a park, quickly composed in Winogrand's

viewlindcr and dozen in visually harmonious relationships.
Whether waves, bodies, or pie tins are the subject of the photographs in this
category, it is not only the subject matters that are called to our aesthetic attention
but also the way they are photographed, printed, and presented. About Richard
Misrach's stunning color photographs of the desert, Mark Johnstone writes thai
"while they tell us something about the place, these pictures are also about what it
means to transform experiences of the world into photographs."62 Similarly about
the color work of Misrach, Meyerowitz, William Eggleston, and Stephen Shore,
Jonathan Green states that their photographs are "all testaments not only to the
beauty of existing light but to the range of color available to the medium. . . . These
photographs are experiments in pure color, a collaboration of the world and the
medium."63

THEORETICAL PHOTOGRAPHS
This last category includes photographs about photography. These photographs
comment on issues about art and art making, about the politics of art, about modes
of representation, and other theoretical issues about photography and photograph-
ing. Prime examples are Cindy Sherman's photographs, mentioned in Chapter 2,
with which she critiques how women are represented in different media.64 They are
photographs about films, photographs about photographs, art about art, and can be
considered a visual type of art criticism that uses pictures rather than words. Joel-
Peter Witkin's photographs about historical paintings and sculptures, also men-
tioned in Chapter 2, are clearly art about art. Mike Mandel's photographs are about
photography. His sardonic photographs, such as Emptying the Fridge, 1985, and
Dancing to TV, 1982, "analyze motions that have never been measured and don't
need to be" in the manner of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth who, during the 1910s,
devised means to create photographs that would improve worker efficiency by
showing them the consequences of their actions.63
Many of the photographers who make theoretical photographs are very aware of
and concerned in their picture making with the photographic medium itself, with
what it does and does not do, how it pictures and to what effect. Andy Grundberg,
in a catalogue essay about the work of Zeke Berman, writes that Berman's pho-
logiaphs carefully constructed in a studio are "sculptures squeezed into two dimen-
sions" and that Berman is "a deconstructionist critic of Renaissance notions of
space " Grundberg understands Berman's work to be a part of recent theoretical
attempts to "uncover the ideologies embedded in the optical traditions of Western
.in," namely, the codes of perspective passed on to us by Renaissance artists which
iria Martinez-Cafias, Piedras-Destinos [17], 4 1 " x 30", 1996. Imply that the viewer is "one who surveys a largely inert, submissive subject."'"
jrlcsy of Julie Saul Gallery, New York City. Since ll>77 Richard Prince has been systematically rephotographing photographic
 tills in magazines and exhibiting them in galleries. t7 Some ol his world aie Kpho
tOgtiphl from ads ol the heads of male models, or their wrisl watches, or I he eyes ol
femtle models, presented as a series and without the advertising copy. By photO
graphically clipping them from their contexts, he draws our attention to the visual
conventions of advertising and scornfully mocks it.
Vikky Alexander's work is similar to Richard Prince's.<l8 In the early 1980s
Alexander concentrated on fashion photography. In Numcro Deux, for example, she
alternated two close views of the face of a model six times in checkerboard fashion
Of this piece, Anne Hoy writes: "The repetition reveals the stereotyping ol cxprcs
sions popularly considered sexually alluring and the isolation suggests the use ol
women as sex objects generically, as multipurpose selling tools." 69
Photographers who work in this mode are also concerned with aesthetic—that
is, philosophical—issues not specific to photography. Sherrie Levine has pholo
graphically copied the work of such photographers as Walker Evans and Edward
Weston, and painters Piet Mondrian and Egon Schiele, and exhibits them. 70 These
appropriations have been understood to be attacks on such modernist beliefs as
artistic genius, originality, the preciousness of the unique art object, and the
expense of the art commodity.
Sarah Charlesworth has devoted her artistic career to making photographs that
would fit within the theoretical category, raising questions about the photograph's
status as knowledge and its effects on its subjects and its viewers. About her work,
critic Kate Linker writes that the core of Charlesworths artistic enterprise is not so
much about what photographs are or look like but what they do to all of us. 71 Writ-
nan, Untitled, diptych, 27" x 39", 1988. ing about Charlesworth's photograph Text, Dave Hickey notes that beneath the
5 by Zeke Berman. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist. white satin lies an open book, and through the satin, or on top of the satin or even
printed on top of the photograph of the satin, there appear lines of text. Hickey
says, "If reading a book, as the image implies, is to snatch the word-soaked satin off
the page and carry it away, just what does one carry? . . . The question applies, as
well, to the photograph." 72
I here are several theoretical photographs made before the postmodernism of the
l')80s. l.es Krims produced a whole book, Making Chicken Soup, in 1972 that make-,
lun of ethically evaluative photographs. Those who make them are sometimes
referred to as "concerned photographers." The International Center of Photography,
loi instance, uses "concerned photographer" in reference to such photographers as
Hi UCC I 'avidson and Eugene Smith who are concerned with social issues and right-
mi', the wrongs of society. Krims dedicated his book to "my mother, and also to all
Concerned photographers—both make chicken soup." The book shows Krims's
RlOthei (nude except for a girdle) making chicken soup, step by step. The book is
elaborate sarcasm directed at concerned photographers who, in Krims's view, do no
molt than serve up placebos to make us feel better about social issues, rather than
< hanging them, much as moms serve chicken soup to cure colds. Krims's is a whole
 book ol photographs about other photographs and thus fits within ibis category ol
ill. mi II« al photographs, even though the photographs Foi the book arc staged and
fictional, as are many photographs in the interpretive category, and even though Un-
hook makes biting political commentary as do many works in the ethically evalua-
tive category.
Between 1974 and 1976 Thomas Barrow completed what he calls his "Cancella-
tions" series.73 The photographs are straightforward, documentary shots ol iniiii
dane scenes of the land and buildings, in unimaginative compositions. Each
photograph has a large "x" from corner to corner scratched through its surface. I lie
"x" can be read in a number of ways: as a rejection of the goal of neutrally and
impersonally recording; as a rejection of the precious print; as a rejection of the
straight, unmanipulated aesthetic; as a cancellation of the illusionary properties of
photographs. In the early 1970s Ken Josephson made a series of photographs about
photographic postcards.74 In each photograph, a hand holds a postcard of the scene
being photographed. They are literally photographs about photographs.
Much of the "conceptual art" and "conceptual photography" of the 1970s also
lits in this category. Such photographers as John Baldessari, Robert Cumming,
William Wegman, Jeff Wall, Victor Burgin, James Casebere, Sarah Charlesworth,
and Live Sonneman explored issues about the medium of photography itself.75 Son-
nenian's book Real Time, for example, is forty-six pages, two photographs on a page,
a subject shot at different time intervals. She also did a series that shows four pho-
tographs of the same subject, two in black and white, two in color. Both of these
projects direct the viewer's attention to properties of the photographic medium,
how it is time specific, and differences between depictions in color and black and
sworth, Text, 1994. Silver Print. Edition of 25. 20" x 24" white. Of Cumming's work, which is elaborately set up to present the illusion of
sworili. reality, Jonathan Green writes: "Cumming's intervention into the observable world
makes the viewer constantly question the relationship between fact and fiction,
obje< nviiy and subjectivity, the camera as recorder of reality and the camera as the
lubricator of new information."76 Although other directorial photographers set up
situations to photograph, theirs are not necessarily about the camera or the objec-
tivity ol the camera as are Cumming's; thus, they might be placed in the interpretive
i atCgOl v. whereas Cumming's belong in the theoretical category.

• I
 5
know by looking at the photograph, and drawing upon out knowledge of draped
body shapes, police officers, medics, crushed wagons, and fatal accidents, that the
C MAIM I R phologiaph is about a child who has been run over by a vehicle. We would readily
and ( Directly place the photograph in the explanatory category.
We can also readily interpret many art photographs—any of Edward Weston's
photographs of peppers or seashells, for example—by considering what is shown
When we see Weston's Pepper No. 30, 1930, we know that we are to attend lo the
pepper's form, to enjoy the twists of its sensuous curves, to note the lighting that
makes it sculptural.2 We understand that we are to appreciate the photograph as an
Photographs and Contexts aesthetic object rather than as a botanical illustration of an edible vegetable. We
would readily and correctly place this photograph in the aesthetically evaluative
category. This understanding depends, however, on some general knowledge ol
contemporary Western culture, and especially on some familiarity with art of the
twentieth century, abstraction, and the notion of art for the sake of art. But if we
have gathered this knowledge, we can understand and appreciate Pepper No. 30
based on what Weston shows in the photograph.

ORIGINAL CONTEXT
IT is DIFFICULT to accurately place a single photograph of unknown origin in
one of the six categories presented in the previous chapter. This is another way of Although the Weston art photograph and the Seaman press photograph are under-
saying that it is difficult for viewers to arrive at a trustworthy interpretation if they standable on the basis of what they show, many photographs are inscrutable with-
don't have some prior knowledge of the photograph: who made it, when, where, out some information beyond that which can be gathered from simply observing
how, and for what purpose. This kind of information is contextual information, the photograph. Photographs in the theoretical category depend on knowledge of
which can be either internal, original, or external. art and the art world. Les Krims's Making Chicken Soup seems pointless humor if
the viewer does not know that it is making fun of "concerned photography." Sher-
rie Levine's copies of Walker Evans's photographs would be completely misunder-
INTERNAL CONTEXT
stood if the viewer didn't know that they were copies.3 They are not labeled copies;
To consider a photograph's internal context is to pay attention to what is descrip- they are titled "After Walker Evans," which probably would be misunderstood by
tively evident, as was discussed in Chapter 2: namely, the photograph's subject mat- casual observers to mean that they are "in the manner of" or "in homage to," rather
ter, medium, form, and the relations among the three. than exact copies of Evans's photographs. Even if one knows they are copies, an
Some photographs are understandable just by looking at them and thinking Uninformed viewer would still be perplexed as to why they are in a museum, why
about what is shown in them. If we are familiar with the culture in which some they are displayed as art. To be fully comprehended and appreciated, Levine's
photographs were made, we don't need to know much about the origin of the pho- images require knowledge of Walker Evans and his stature in the history of photOg
tographs to understand what they are about. The photograph by Bill Seaman that raphy, but especially knowledge of postmodernist theory and its rejection of such
won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for press photography is a good example of a photo- iioiiuus as the originality of the artist, the preciousness of the original art object,
graph that is interpretable on the basis of what is shown in it.1 At the bottom edge and artistic genius. Levine's images are irreverent challenges to a prior theory of art.
In the photograph's foreground is a crushed wagon on the pavement at an intersec- Su< h knowledge cannot be gathered by merely considering what is shown in the
tion of two streets in a residential neighborhood. In the middle ground of the pho- photographs.
tograph, about a third up from the bottom, there is a blanket or sheet draped over a Photographs made for the press also benefit from, and often depend on, knowl
small body shape. A policeman writing on a pad of paper stands next to the covered edge ol the contexts from which they merge. In 1973 Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut made
shape, and a medic is walking away from it. Some bystanders, women and children, ,i Inn i living photograph that shows children, crying and screaming, and soldiers,
are looking on from a distance. People in cars are also gazing as they pass by. We llri in)' with smoke behind them, running on a country road toward us. 4 The
 children are obviously I ran ma tiled A young Hill In the i etitei ol I lit* Irainc is HIII I 111 soi 1.11 and aesthetic vacuums. Like all artists and all people, 11 icy are inlhi
naked because ol the evidenl pain ol (he i liildreii, Mils Is .1 Itnrrilying image. Il is i in id li\ those around them and by their culture and cultural heritage. Knowledge
all ilie more horrifying when one knows dial llie i lilldicn have |usi been sprayed ol (he hiltory, the politics, the religious and intellectual milieu of the period in
wilb napalm from a jet above and thai die girl is naked because she lore off hci wliii It die photographer was working is important to a fuller understanding ol .1
cloibes Hying to remove the burning jelly from herself. I hey were bombed by mis- pliotogiaph. Much of the effect of Nick Ut's photograph depends on knowledge ol
take. Although they were on the same side in a war, the pilot mistook the group as Vietnam, the war, and napalm. Levine's photographs depend on knowledge ol an
the enemy. The photograph itself reveals litde. It is knowledge of the circumstances history and art theory. Original context is history: social history, art history, and the
surrounding the making of the photograph that makes it more than a picture of history of the individual photograph and the photographer who made it.
traumatized children. The photograph has been credited with helping to stop
American involvement in the Vietnam War.
EXTERNAL CONTEXT
Knowledge of context can also add richness to our understanding of easier pho-
tographs—those we can understand by looking at them. Photographs, by nature, External context is the situation in which a photograph is presented or found. Every
are always swatches cut from seamless reality. They are segments, shot from close or photograph is intentionally or accidentally situated within a context. Usually we see
afar, with a wide or narrow angle of view. By use of the viewfinder, photographers photographs in very controlled situations: books, galleries, museums, newspapers,
include and exclude. In a sense, all photographs are literally "out of context." They magazines, billboards, and classrooms. The meaning of any photograph is highly
are out of a spatial context, and they are also out of a temporal flow. They are one dependent on the context in which it is presented: How and where a photograph is
instant stopped in time. To understand and appreciate photographs, it is sometimes seen radically affects its meaning. Gisele Freund, a French scholar and photogra-
very useful to imaginatively put them back into their original contexts, to see what pher, relates how one of her countrymen's photographs was placed in various exter-
the photographer has done to make a picture, to study what was included, and how, nal contexts that radically affected its meaning. 5
and to imagine what was excluded and why. To consider their temporal element, we In 1953 Robert Doisneau, a French photojournalism made one of several pho-
can try to see them as if they were one frame from a feature-length film. We can tographs of French cafes, one of his favorite topics. In one cafe he entered he was
imaginatively consider what was physically available to the photographer at the charmed by a man and woman drinking wine at a bar and asked if he could photo
time the exposure was made. gl apt) them. They consented, and eventually the photograph appeared in Le Point, a
Knowledge of a photograph's original context includes knowledge of what was mass circulation magazine, in an issue devoted to cafes illustrated with his pho-
psychologically present to the photographer at the time the exposure was made. To tographs. He then gave this and other photographs to his agent. Some time later.
consider a photograph's original context is to consider certain information about .uid without the consent of Doisneau or the photographed man and woman, the
the photographer and about the social times in which he or she was working. The (.ilc photograph appeared in a brochure on the evils of alcohol published by a tem-
photographer's intent—what he or she meant to do by taking a photograph—can be |n i.nii r league. It had been sold to the league by Doisneau's agent. Still later, and
revealing when it is available and can aid in our understanding of a photograph. •till without the photographer's or the subjects' consent, and this time without the
Many photographers have written about their work. Julia Margaret Cameron, for agent's knowledge, the photograph again appeared, in a French gossip tabloid that
example, has written very personally about her work in portraiture. Her revelations had lifted it from Le Point. It appeared with the caption: "Prostitution in the
about herself add insight to her photographs. Knowledge of the photographer's I humps I iysccs." The man in the photograph sued the tabloid, the agency, and the
biography can also reveal much about influences, personal and stylistic, on his or photographer. The court fined the tabloid and also found the agency guilty, but
her work. ,1. quitted I >oisneau.
Original context includes knowledge of other work by the photographer. One I he presentational environments in which this cafe photograph appeared over-
close-up photograph of a gnarled green pepper might seem strange, but knowing I.KII I hi content of the photograph and overdetermined its meaning in ways unfair
that it is one of some thirty photographs of green peppers by the same photographer in tin photographer, the subjects, and the photograph itself, but that is the power ol
and that the photographer also made similar, close-up pictures of halved artichokes, • It in il. ontext.
cabbage leafs, toadstools, and halved and whole seashells, makes it less strange. Ill • tin I " ) 0 s Doisneau's cafe photograph has appeared in other notable exter-
Knowledge of the work of other photographers, musicians, and writers, as well- II il conii KIN dial further change how it is received. It frequently hangs in the
as knowledge of dance, painting, and sculpture, from the same period as the pho-
tographer in question may also provide considerable insight. Photographers do not
II • I Modern Art in New York, matted and framed under glass, with this
I il" I mi tin wall: "Robert Doisneau, French, born 1912, At the Cafe, Chez Fraysse,
 Mm id '.i mi, i'<iii\ 1958. 11% X 9 % " In this external context, it is not pan ol a
I it 11 > 111 >i i niti^it/iiic sptcad on cafes, it is not used to preach against alcohol, it is noi
null,iiiii}', mulcts about prostitution; it is hanging as a work of art in one ol the
inn.i | n i stlgious museums in the world.
I In. photograph also appears in John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs: 100
I'd Mm", jiniii /In' Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, with a one-page essay
S/aikowski interprets the photograph to be about the "secret venial sins of ordinary
Individuals," a sexual seduction:

I oi the moment she enjoys the security of absolute power. One arm shields her body,
her hand touches her glass as tentatively as if it were the first apple. The man for the
moment is defenseless and vulnerable; impaled on the hook of his own desire, he has
committed all his resources, and no satisfactory line of retreat remains. Worse yet, lit-
is older than he should be, and knows that one way or another the adventure is cer-
tain to end badly. To keep his presentiment at bay, he is drinking his wine more
rapidly than he should.6

Szarkowski backs his speculative understanding of the photograph with Informa-

tion from the photograph's internal context, or what is shown: The woman appears
younger than the man, he appears to be gazing at her longingly, she looks more
confident, and one of the two wine glasses before him is empty, although her two
are nearly full. Although these observations do not automatically add u p to an at-
tempted seduction, Szarkowski argues for his interpretation and tries to convince
us with evidence that his view is correct.
Szarkowski's treatment of the photograph is much more fair and reasonable than
are those given it by the temperance league and the gossip tabloid: He lets his read-
ers know that he is making an interpretation. The other two users ignore Doisneau's
intended purpose of the photograph as part of a photo essay on cafes and impose
their wills on the photograph to suit their purposes, without warning the viewer
about what they have done.

EXTERNAL CONTEXTS AND CONNOTATIONS

Doisneau's cafe photograph has appeared in at least six very different contexts,
including this book. Each context strongly affects how the photograph is under
stood. These examples of one photograph in different external contexts illustrate
how easily the meaning of a photograph can be altered, especially if text is added to
it. Photographs are relatively indeterminate in meaning; their meaning can be easily
altered by how they are situated, how they are presented.
Roland Barthes writes about the press photograph and how its meaning is heav
sneau, At the Cafe, Chez Fraysse, Rue de Seine, Paris, 1958.
by Robert Doisneau/RAPHO. All rights reserved. ily influenced by the publication that surrounds it, what he calls its "channel of
transmission":
 tPO
A'. Idi the i huniu'l <>l transmission, this is the ncwspupn HM II. OR precisely, • 1 |in lint', it. When a curator places a photograph in a museum, in a gallci y, in
i ORiplex nl i mil in inn meiMgei with the phologiaph us the i ruin and .surrounds .1 sci nun ui a show, under a heading such as "Mirrors," and with a label such as
constituted by llic text, tin- caption, the layout and, in .1 nunc abstract hut in no less "Koy I >c( aiava, Sell-Portrait, 1956, lOVs x 13u/i6 inches, Museum of Modern An,
111I01 iiiative way, hy the very name of the paper (lliis name represents a knowledge New York, purchase," that curator is interpreting it.11 A caption or a placement
that can heavily orientate the reading of the message strictly speaking: a photograph
of a photograph as part of a show may not be fully developed interpretations or
can change its meaning as it passes from the very conservative LAurore to the com-
munist I'llumanitf).7 reasoned arguments, but they are persuading us to understand an image in a cer-
tain way.
It is not hard to imagine the different connotations a photograph of a hunter Sometimes curators' misplacements of photographs prevent accurate interprets
beside a dead deer would receive in this country if it were printed on the covers of tions. In 1993, when selected to exhibit work in the prestigious Whitney Biennial,
both the Sports Afield and Vegetarian Times magazines. Pat Ward Williams submitted What You Lookin At, a large, 8- by 20-fool photo
Other writers have paid attention to how the art museum orients our interpreta- graphic mural with images and text. The images were offset photographs of African
tions of photographs, and some critics are especially concerned about the common American men greatly enlarged so that the dot patterns of the offset images, when
museum practice of placing photographs not initially made as art into artworld con- seen from a relatively close distance, are very apparent, almost obscuring the sub-
texts. Martha Rosier complains that the specific content of such photographs gets jects of the photographs. When the images are seen from a close distance, the ques-
transformed into content about the artists who made them: "More and more clearly, tion the artist asks, "What you lookin at?" might be answered with thoughts about
the subject of all high art has become the self, subjectivity, and what this has meant media representations of African Americans, specifically African American males.
for photography is that all photographic practice being hustled into galleries must The images in the photo mural are very apparently, by the large dots, photographic
be reseen in terms of its revelatory character not in relation to its iconographic sub- reproductions, media representations. The Biennial curator, however, chose to dis-
ject but in relation to its 'real' subject, the producer."8 She worries that the content play the mural in a window of the Whitney Museum facing a busy New York City
of the photograph is erased with concern about the artist. street where thousands of pedestrians and motorists passed daily. From a distance
This concern is sometimes called the "aestheticizing" of photographs, and viewers could not see the dots, just the subjects and text, African American males
although the term is recent, the warning is as old as the 1930s when Walter Ben- and "What you lookin at?" Rather than being asked to consider issues of photo-
jamin, the German Marxist critic, made a similar accusation. He complained that graphic representations and rather than seeing an artwork sympathetic to the plight
photography "has succeeded in turning abject poverty itself, in handling it in a of African American males, viewers were instead confronted with a hostile image of
modish, technically perfect way, into an object of enjoyment."9 More recently, Susan African American males posing a threatening question. By the placement of the
Sontag has voiced concern that the cultural demand for aesthetically pleasing pho- mural, the curator completely subverted the artist's intended message and pre-
tographs has caused even the most compassionate photojournalist to satisfy two cluded an accurate interpretation of the mural.
sets of expectations, one for aesthetic pleasure and one for information about the External contexts, or presentational environments, are forms of interpretation.
world. She argues that Eugene Smith's photographs of the crippled and slowly dying As such, they, like all interpretations, ought to be evaluated for accuracy, fairness,
villagers in Minamata "move us because they document a suffering which causes reasonableness, and for their consequences.
our indignation—and distance us because they are superb photographs of Agony,
conforming to Surrealist standards of beauty"10 She makes similar claims about
Lewis Hine's photographs of exploited child laborers in turn-of-the-century textile
mills: Their "lovely compositions and elegant perspective easily outlast the rele-
vance of the subject matter. . . . The aestheticizing tendency of photography is such
INTERPRETING BARBARA KRUGER'S
that the medium which conveys distress ends by neutralizing it. Cameras miniatur- UNTITLED ("SURVEILLANCE"), WITH
ize experience, transform history into spectacle. As much as they create sympathy,
photographs cut sympathy, distance the emotions." CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION
The point of these examples is that it is important to examine the context in Following is an interpretation of Barbara Kruger's Untitled ("Surveillance"). The
which a photograph has been placed, whether that be a newspaper, a magazine, a interpretation is based on internal, original, and externa! contextual information to
billboard, or a museum gallery. When an editor captions a photograph, that editor show how context can be used to understand photographs.
 SIMVCIII.UK c'and Internal Context
I Ins is I black and white photograph with words superimposed upon it—"Survcil
lance is your busywork." A man is peering at us through a photographers lupe, a
magnifying device for closely examining negatives, contact prints, slides, and plio
tographs. The lupe is a fixed-focus device, a cube, and he has it and his other hand
against something, perhaps a pane of glass, a window, or a light table used for view
ing negatives and transparencies. One of his eyes is closed, the other open. The light
source is directly in front of his face, and it is harsh, revealing pores of skin and
stubbles of whiskers. He looks to be in his forties or fifties. He is intent and, on i he
basis of the photograph, would be difficult to identify. The photograph in "Surveil
lance" looks dated, out of style, but vaguely familiar. It is dramatically lit and shol
from a dramatic angle and distance—reminiscent of black and white Hollywood
movies on late-night television, tough-guy cops-and-robbers movies.
The photograph is approximately square. It was shot either from a distance with
a telephoto lens or from very close with a normal lens. Halftone dots are apparent—
it is a halftone reproduction rather than a silver print made directly from a negative.
The word surveillance is larger than the other words, in black type on a white strip,
pasted at a slight diagonal above the man's eyes. The phrase "is your busywork" is at
the bottom of the image, in white type on a black strip. The words are a declaratory
sentence. They are accusatory. "Surveillance" is associated with spying, sneakiness,
futtiveness, unwholesome activities. "Busywork" is not something we want to be
accused of doing—we have more important things to do with our lives. Someone is
being ;u c used by someone of something, and there is an urgency about the Image

"Surveillance"and Original Context

llailuia Kruger was 38 and living in New York in her Tribeca loft when she made
thf "Surveillance" image. She was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945, into a
loWCI middle-class, Jewish family. Her father was the first Jew hired by Shell Oil in
is your busywork I liiion, New Jersey, and the family was harassed by anti-Semitic phone calls during
the yiai lie was hired. She grew up in a black neighborhood, graduated from a com-
jger. Untitled ("Surveillance is your busywork"), 1983. petitive high school, and attended Syracuse University, where she was a straight-A
by Barbara Kruger. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist. • indent She returned home after her freshman year when her father died and
riuolleil in I'arsons School of Design in New York, where she had classes with
I Itam \ilnis ("the first female role model I had who didn't wash floors 20 times a
iluy " ) She also studied with Marvin Israel, an art director and designer who
In i .inn In i mentor. She lost interest in school after a year and began working for
Miiili inniM'/lc magazine as a graphic designer and became its chief designer after a
\ < II In began making fine art in 1969, quit Mademoiselle, but continued to work
Ii I<- Nasi publications as a designer on a freelance basis.
 I n l < i | > i < i 111 (| r-. n i l . i i . i i' 11 M i < i -. [ P i i r i u n i V

In (lie mid IM/Os Knigcr joined a group called Ailisis Meeting lor Cultural image. Still another Untitled, 1981, shows the familiar image ol a mushroom cloud
Change and wilh llic group read and discussed social and cultural llieory by Walter alter the detonation of,an atomic bomb. "Your manias become science" is embla-
Benjamin, Roland Uarthes, Thcodor Adorno, and other social critics of leftist ide- zoned across it. "Your" and "science" are black on white and larger than "manias
ologies. She socialized with a group of artists, including David Salle, Ross Bleckner, become," which are white on black. The succinctness of the phrase, and the black
Eric Fischl, Ericka Bleckman, Barbara Bloom, and Mat Mullican. Marcia Tucker and white pattern, are reminiscent of a blinking neon sign. We can read it as "youi
included Kruger's art, which were then stitched decorative wall pieces, in the Whit- science / manias become" or "manias become / your science" as well as "youi
ney Biennial exhibition in 1973. Kruger began writing poetry and had her first manias / become science."
poetry reading in 1974. She could have carved out a niche as a painter but was more Thus, on the basis of these other images done by Kruger around the same time as
intrigued and challenged by her writing than her art making. 1 3 "Surveillance," we know that it is not an abnormality, not an idiosyncratic image,
Kruger began photographing and combining her writings with her photographs but part of a larger, consistent body of work. The other images inform this one and
around 1975. She eventually winnowed her texts to short phrases or a single word vice versa. They all bear the same typeface, in strips. But the photographic images
on top of a single photograph; for example, over a picture of a woman with folded are different from one another and not cohesive. She has images of an atomic explo-
hands, wearing a pristine wool sweater, she placed the word perfect (1980). She also sion, an adult's hand and a baby's hand, a wedding reception, and a glass of water
stopped making her own photographs and instead selected photographs from mag- and pills. The photograph of the mushroom cloud is an image embedded in public
azines and cropped and enlarged them. Most of the photographs she selects are consciousness. All the photographs Kruger uses are somehow familiar. They are
posed or set up: "She does not work with snapshots, in which the camera itself sus- "appropriated" images, taken from mass culture. In pieces done in the mid-1980s
pends animation, but with studio shots, in which it records an animation performed after "Surveillance," she uses the technique of plastic lenticular double images usu-
only to be suspended." 1 4 ally associated with kitsch religious icons. In these, one image is visible from one
Kruger begins a set of new work with a "demi-narrative" in mind and selects angle and another appears as the viewers shift the pieces or their angle of view.
photographs that might work with it. Once she has chosen her pictures she writes Kruger's images are similar to the "rephotographs" of Walker Evans's work by Sher-
several different phrases, working from her notes, books, or a thesaurus. Writing rie Levine and to Richard Prince's rephotographs of magazine ads. Kruger is work-
the phrases and making them work in richly meaningful ways with the photographs ing in the 1980s and 1990s, when postmodernist practice abounds, when many
is the hardest part for her. She plays with the words and pictures, relying on her artists are using other images rather than making all images anew. Postmodernism
experience and skill as a graphic designer. She crops, enlarges, and alters the con- questions the possibility and desirability of originality in art.
trast of the photographs in photostats and has the phrases set in different type sizes. Kruger is very familiar with mass media images. She says: "I grew up looking not
After arranging a total image to her satisfaction, she sends it to a photo studio for .ii .ui Inn at pictures. I'm not saying it's wrong to read art-history books. But the
enlarging and final printing. Her images are finally framed in bright red metal. 15 spectators who view my work don't have to understand that language. They just
In 1983 Kruger was again selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial and have to consider the pictures that bombard their lives and tell them who they are to
showed works similar to Untitled ("Surveillance is your busywork"), 1983. Untitled, sonic extent. That's all they have to understand." 1 6
1981, for example, shows six men in tuxedos, with boutonnieres, laughing, as they I lie phrases she writes, like the photographs she selects, also have a familiar ring
pull at another man in a tuxedo. He appears to be laughing too. Where they are can- to them, They sound like advertising, but they are more terse and biting. Kruger
not be determined definitely, but it is probably a wedding reception, and he is prob- says hci work is "a series of attempts to ruin certain representations" in language
ably the groom. "You construct intricate rituals which allow you to touch the skin and images by her use of photographs and text. She wants her work to expose and
of other men" is pasted over the photograph and to the right, in alternating white condemn stereotypes and cliches in advertising and throughout culture. Postmod-
on black, and black on white segments, at slight diagonals. ernist practice is politically motivated. The phrase "your manias become science"
A different Untitled, 1983, shows a short, clear glass with water, probably, and ten ovei the image of the mushroom cloud is overtly political, resonant with controver-
small pills on a cloth-covered surface, brightly lit from the above right corner. "You sial soi ill issues in the 1980s concerning atomic energy, nuclear warfare, and global
kill time" is printed over it, white letters on black strips. urn h ,II disarmament. In the 1980s many women artists became feminist in their
A different Untitled, 1981, shows a baby's hand reaching for the finger of an adult Ideologies and their art making. Barbara Kruger is known by her contemporaries as
hand. The photograph is contrasty with an evident dot pattern, and starkly lit from i Inntnisi aitist; and she acknowledges that she is a feminist, but she does not want
the front. It is a close-up. The background is black. "Your every wish" is in small io In inil io one feminist camp, saying that "there are a multiplicity of readings of
black type over the hands; "is our command" is in larger type at the bottom of the wli.n i mi similes feminism."
 l i l t l ' | |>M I I I I < | I' .11 l l h r IM | c i ' -. Unfilled ( " \ u i v i ' l l l . i m «•"), w i t h ( i n i l c x l m i l I

leu .in installation at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York City in 1994, Kruger
'.invcill.irico'ond External Context
used the Moors, walls, and ceilings of the space to install large images and texts on
the walls and bronze plaques in the floor. Stereo speakers filled the space with blar- liathaia Kruger has placed her images in several different presentational environ
ing sounds of voices delivering political and religious diatribes punctuated inter- nunis .iiul is acutely aware of the effect of external contexts on her work. She most
mittently with cheers and sounds of anguish. The overbearing texts proclaimed, often places her work in artworld situations, usually presenting them in galleries as
"Think like us," "Believe like us," "Pray like us," and in the window well of a sky- fine art, under glass, in red metal frames, with expensive price tags. But she has also
light in the ceiling, "My God is better than your God." Another text declares: made works for marquees in subways in New York and electric signage for I Imei
Square in Manhattan. In the winter of 1987 she placed eighty copies of a photo
I slap you because it makes me feel good. I punch you because you deserve it. I burn graph, a pigtailed little girl looking admiringly at a boy's muscle, with the text "We
you because you don't give me enough money. I mutilate you so you won't feel any don't need another hero," on billboards throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland
pleasure. I want you to have my babies, because it shows how powerful and manly I She saturated Las Vegas with fifty prominent billboards of twelve images. In l u H>
am, and you want to do it because that is all you're good for. she had "Surveillance is your busywork" enlarged for a billboard and displayed it in
Minneapolis. "Your manias become science" has been reduced and printed on
If we interpret the images as political and feminist, they become sharper. The matchbook covers. Sometimes she uses newspaper ads to deliver her messages, and
wedding-groom photograph, and the "you" in the phrase "you construct intricate several of her images are available as postcards; other images are printed on T-shirts
rituals which allow you to touch the skin of other men," might now be read as an and sold in boutiques and department stores.
accusation by a feminist woman against men. Given that men are pictured, that they About the various means she uses to distribute her work, Kruger says: "The
are in a ritual, and that men frequently exhibit fear of closeness with other men, it more visible I become in the artworld, the easier it is for me to place images outside
makes sense to interpret the image as accusing men. It is men, too, who have con- the artworld in secular sites." She adds: "Why just do one thing? . . . Why just do
trol of science and are responsible for inventing and using the atomic bomb. Proba-
posters? Or why just blow up pictures and put them in red frames for galleries?
bly it is they who are accused in the phrase "your manias become science" over the
Why not do posters, do billboards, do the galleries?" 20
picture of the mushroom cloud. The "you" in the image of the pills and water with
Kruger sometimes targets very specific populations for her messages, and when
the phrase "you kill time" may be referring to women who kill time with sedating
she does, she may make significant changes to an existing piece. She has displayed
drugs, or the "you" may be addressing the pharmaceutical companies who make
"Your manias become science," for instance, in subways, and translated the phrase
them or the doctors, often male, who prescribe them for women, keeping women in
into Spanish. When she did, she changed the pronoun so that in Spanish "Your
a controlled state and contented by means of chemical sedation rather than through
manias become science" reads as "their manias become science." This switch is an
meaningful work. The 1994 installation is more overt in its expression of anger
important clue to the meaning of this piece and her others. It is not Hispanics rid-
toward men, religions dominated by men which suppress women, and cultural
ing the subways of New York who possess the science and technology to militarily
practices which support the mutilation of women.
dominate the world. The Hispanic reader is addressed by the piece, but clearly it is
Kruger intentionally uses her pronouns in slippery ways: "With the question of not the Hispanic reader who is being accused.
You I say there is no You; that it shifts according to the viewer; that I'm interested in The question of who is addressed and accused by her statements, and particu-
making an active spectator who can decline that You or accept it or say, It's not me larly by her pronouns, is an essential question in viewing her work. Lynn Zelevan-
but I know who it is." 17 When she lectures about her work, she is often asked what sky writes in Artnews that "the voice generally seems to belong to a woman
certain pieces mean, but she answers those questions of meaning generally and commenting bitterly on a male-dominated society." 21 About Kruger's use of lan-
vaguely, placing the interpretive responsibility on the viewer. "Whenever they ask guage Carol Squiers writes in Artnews: "The words strike out at you . . . provoking
what a work means, I say that the construction of meaning shifts. And it shifts
a variety of visceral responses—fear, disgust, denial. But the question remains, arc
according to each spectator." She does admit, however, that she is "welcoming a
you (he victim or the victimizer? The position of the viewer remains ambiguous,
female spectator into an audience of men." She also freely admits her desire for
shilling between gender roles and power positions, alternately active and passive,
social change: "I want to make statements that are negative about the culture we're
receptive and rejecting." 22 Craig Owens, writing in Art in America, agrees: Her par-
in," but she wants her images to be attractive "or else people will not look at
ticular uses of pronouns force the viewer "to shift uncomfortably between inclusion
them." 1 8 The changes she hopes for are toward "pleasure and tolerance." 19
and exclusion." 23
ii>Mii|rflpn* Ann i n n i r x i i Hi' u i r.Mii|ri \ iiniiili'il l iiiivi-iii.ini r }, . i n n mr
:3
As an arlisl Kruger has chosen in display bet woik in scvcial dtllerenl external IWOCHlli N spei ideally mention Kruger's adioil use of humor. Shaun ( aley writes
conlexts, bul other people have also made chokes about v\ licit- ln-i work belongs in | liis/i Alls I he pleasure of Kruger's texi is the joy of the one-liner social com
and have placed it in presentational environments ol theii (boosing. Knowledge of im ni,u v thai tluows the carnivalesquc into perspective and capitalizes with a just
some of these external contexts adds to our understanding of her work, because by amount ol cynicism on the game of exploitation." 31 Carol Squiers thinks that
knowing these we gain information about how others in the art world understand Kruger's humor is black humor: "Although Kruger's work is always leavened by and
her work and how they situate it for the public and thus influence how it is under- lomettmes dependent on humor for its punch, it is usually humor of the blackly
stood by those who see it. Annina Nosei showed Kruger in 1981 in a group show corrosive variety." 32
titled "Public Address" with Jenny Holzer, Mike Glier, and Keith Haring. Hal Foster Kruger was included in an exhibition titled "Playing It Again: Strategies ol
chose to unite and compare Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger in a feature article for Appropriation" in 1985 along with several other artists who use images from the
Art in America.2* He understands both artists to be addressing concerns about mass mass media to critique the daily onslaught of images created by those who control
media and the art world through uses of language. Of both of them he says their film, television, newspapers, and advertising. Her work was also selected for Doc u
"images are as likely to derive from the media as from art history, and whose context menta 8 in Kassel, West Germany, in 1987, by curators who wished to rescue all an
is as likely to be a street wall as an exhibition space." He sees both artists using lan- from mere self-involvement: "Neo-Expressionism was about the relation of the arlisl
guage as a target and as a weapon. Both are "manipulators of signs more than mak- to himself. Documenta 8 is about the relationship of art to society." 33 Documenta K
ers of art objects—a shift in practice that renders the viewer an active reader of was curated to be full of work with social themes, art which is socially engaged, and
messages more than a contemplator of the esthetic." Kruger's work is seen by the curators to be an important exemplar of such socially
Le Anne Schreiber writes in Vogue: "Kruger has been building a reputation as a engaged art. Anne Hoy includes Kruger in her book Fabrications: Staged, Altered,
sharp-edged, sharp-tongued, critic of the consumer society." Once a graphic and Appropriated Photographs, situating Kruger in the section "Appropriated Images
designer, "she now uses her skills to unmask the hidden persuaders rather than to and Words" along with such artists as Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Vikky Alexan-
assist them." 2 5 Schreiber adds that Kruger "is the sworn enemy of cliche and stereo- der, Sarah Charlesworth, and Victor Burgin. About these artists Hoy states that
type, of those culturally reinforced images that tell us who we are and what we "their source remains mass culture and the power structure at its core."
want." Lynn Zelevansky adds that "Kruger is one of a number of artists who quote Hoy also states that the appropriated photographs of artists such as Kruger,
commercial art, an inversion of the traditional relationship in which advertising uti- Levine, and Prince have generated some of the most complex and challenging criti-
lizes the conventions and imagery of fine art because such connoisseurship denotes cal writing we have on photography to date. In discussing Kruger's work in Artnews,
wealth, sophistication and intelligence." 26 critic Hal Foster refers to Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, and
In an Artforum review of a 1984 show Kruger had at Annina Nosei Gallery, critic Roland Barthes, and in a feature article about Kruger in Art in America, Craig Owens
Jean Fisher contextually places Kruger's work in an area already mapped out by such appeals to the ideas of Jacques Lacan, Emile Benviniste, Roman Jakobson, Barthes,
artists as John Baldessari, Hans Haacke, and Victor Burgin, who were working in the Michel Foucault, and Sigmund Freud. By appealing to the work of such scholars to
1970s with the relationship between word and photographic image. Fisher credits make Kruger's work more understandable, critics Foster and Owens place her work
Kruger with adding feminist concerns, specifically concerns about inequitable divi- in a larger intellectual arena and into an external context of progressive European
sions of labor according to gender. 27 In an Artnews review of another Annina Nosei thought.
Gallery exhibition two years later, John Sturman writes that "Kruger has become
one of the leading feminist exponents of a form of contemporary photography that
is grounded in the principles of mass communication and advertising." 28
Fisher claims that Kruger's use of boldface type over images is reminiscent of
BARBARA KRUGER'S UNTITLED ("SURVEILLANCE").
design rooted in Russian constructivism and that her use of red frames reinforces the AND THE CATEGORIES
connection and suggests that the work is in the tradition of socialist propaganda. 29
Anne Hoy also thinks Kruger's style uses "the devices of Socialist propaganda to We will now consider how Kruger's "Surveillance" fits in the six categories—
counter what she considers capitalist ideology, one agitprop against another," and descriptive, explanatory, interpretive, ethically evaluative, aesthetically evaluative,
that it evokes the photo collages John Heartfield made for the Communist workers' theoretical—and in which categories it fits best on the basis of what we have
paper AJZ in the 1920s and the Soviet posters of the '20s and '30s. 30 learned by examining its internal, original, and external contexts.
I' I i • . I ... i i ,1|)||S ,111(1 ( . .ii I . I

il"iM| ilnii)', wiong. "Surveillance is your busywork" is an ethically evaluative

Descriptive Photographs i ,i inui.il condemnation. I he words and image mesh, reinforcing the
Allliough "Surveillance" shows a man liom i lose i.uigr, n i>, mil like an identifica- i mull inn,Minn
tion photograph, a medical X ray, or a photomicrograph I lie image ol the man was i rlVCtl the political nature of Kruger's work and her feminism, it seems likely th.ii
probably not originally made to accurately describe ihc man or whatever he is tlit-. Image is directed at men, particularly white men who have and exert DOWCI
engaged in doing. The way Kruger uses the image is not particularly descriptive OVtl Othtl people's lives. This image asserts that they control others through sin
either: She coarsens the image by adding contrast to it, severely crops it, and covers VCIII.IIK c I lei ause ol the photographer's lupe and the lighting that is probably from
part of it with the word surveillance. The photograph in "Surveillance" does a light table, photography is the suggested means of their surveillance.
describe, however, as do all photographs. It describes the man, portions of his Surveillance is not a wholesome activity. It is sneaky business, a defensive and
hands, and the lupe he is looking through. It describes frontally by means of harsh offensive activity directed at people who are declared enemies and suspect. Sin veil
lighting. And Kruger's use of the photograph is in a sense descriptive: She presents lance is usually engaged in by the military and police agencies and by those who
to us an image in circulation in the 1950s. She calls its qualities to our attention by have a lot of money, merchandise, and property. These are usually men, privileged
selecting it, cropping it, labeling it with her phrase, framing it, and distributing it. by race, gender, and class. This image accuses them of sneakily watching over oth-
But certainly this image is much more than a value-neutral description. ers to protect and maintain their privilege and status.
The surveillance that Kruger is addressing might also be men's voyeuristic sur-
veillance of women for sexual titillation and gratification. Photography is widely
Explanatory Photographs
used for pornography, the mainstay of Playboy, Penthouse, and other magazines, and
The text that Kruger uses, "Surveillance is your busywork," is not informational. for print and television advertising images that often exploit women. The man in
The phrase sounds neither scientific nor objective but instead emotional and angry. the image could be a picture editor for a magazine or an art director of an ad agency.
Even though the man in the photograph might be doing something scientific or
technological, the image of his doing it, especially with the phrase, is not explana-
tory in nature. It does not look like a Muybridge animal-locomotion study nor like Aesthetically Evaluative Photographs
a Bill Owens Suburbia photograph, even though both Suburbia and "Surveillance" In "Surveillance" Kruger uses a photograph that is harshly lit, visually compact, and
use pictures of people and words. In short, the image declares and accuses rather shot from a close range that reveals stubbles of whiskers and pores of skin. It is not
than explains. an appealing photograph of appealing subject matter.
Aesthetically evaluative photographs are sometimes made to comment negatively
on the lack of aesthetic appeal in the world. This image by Kruger might in part be
Interpretive Photographs
negatively commenting on the photograph of the man in "Surveillance," and per-
"Surveillance," like all of Kruger's images, is her interpretation of the way the world haps on mass media, journalistic photography of the 1940s and '50s. Because she so
is. It represents her worldview, her individual way of encountering and reacting to freely reproduces her work in so many different graphic formats, from matchbooks
and picturing her experience in the world. It is her subjective view in her personally to billboards, and widely circulates them in large numbers, we can infer that the pre-
refined and highly identifiable style. It is clearly meant to persuade us to see the cious, one-of-a-kind, classical "fine print" is not a criterion of hers for her art.
world as she does, and it uses photographic and linguistic rhetoric to do so. Because for her pieces she chooses photographs already existing in magazines and
Although "Surveillance" is subjective and interpretive, it is informed by her knowl- other sources, we can also infer that the originality of her photographic vision is not
edge of and experience in the world, her knowledge of art and political theory, and at issue. In her case it is not "the photographer's eye" that is paramount but rather
makes a claim to truth. Because it is an interpretive image it asks to be thought the artist's mind. Most photographs that fit comfortably into the aesthetically evalu-
about and considered seriously and not to be dismissed as "just Kruger's opinion." ative category, such as much of the work of Edward Weston and Ansel Adams,
exhibit concern for originality and fine printing and the photograph as a precious
object, archivally processed, matted, framed, and under glass. Clearly Kruger, with
Ethically Evaluative Photographs
her T-shirts and subway signs, is not concerned with such issues. In short, "Surveil-
There is a strong moral tone to the language in the image and negative connota- lance" does not fit well within this category, and this category does not inform us
tions in the photograph of the man. The photograph is not at all flattering: It is much about this image except to help us determine what the image is not about.
spooky, in harsh light and deep shadows. Someone is being accused by someone of
 i n r i m n | ii r 11 v r rimr^v

Theoretical Photographs lii t lupin -I, we ( onsidcrcd photographs according to the categories ol desci ip
:
live, explanatory, interpretive, ethically evaluative, aesthetically evaluative, and the
All images arc about other images in the sense thai images emerge from within a
orciical. I hose categories were introduced to emphasize that not all photographs
tradition. "Surveillance," like all postmodern images, is more directly about other
are made as art nor presented as art and should not be interpreted solely as aesthetic
linages. It quotes another image, appropriates it, and then transforms it by crop-
objects. The categories are also a means of interpretation: If we use the categories,
ping, contrast, reproduction, and especially by the addition of text. "Surveillance"
we have to consider how a photograph is functioning and what it is about. Placing
includes a photograph of an older photograph made by a photographer, probably
a photograph in one or more categories demands that we interpret the photograph,
anonymous, other than Kruger. Kruger's "Surveillance" is about representations
not merely label it.
generally and about photographs. Her use of others' photographs asserts again the
postmodern belief that there are enough images in circulation already and that these In this chapter, the importance of considering contexts—internal, original, and
need commentary. Kruger comments particularly on non-art images drawn from external—was discussed with the example of the Doisneau photograph and its v.u
popular media. ious placements and uses and misuses. These three contextual sources of inlot
mation were used to consider an image by Barbara Kruger, and based on the
"Surveillance" also comments negatively on the use of photography as a means
information gathered from these contexts, her "Surveillance" image was placed in
of surveillance. By using the photograph of the man with the photographer's lupe,
each of the categories to further determine how it functions and what it might
Kruger, along with others, targets photography as a means of control, intimidation,
mean. The interpretive, ethically evaluative, and theoretical categories were the
domination, and voyeurism.34 The world is spied upon by satellites with cameras;
most helpful in understanding "Surveillance." The consideration of external and
mug shots document criminals; suspected subversives in Third World countries are
original contexts requires that we look beyond what is shown in the photograph.
surreptitiously photographed and their pictures filed for future reference; people in
These contexts also reinforce the principle that interpretation is both a personal and
protest groups in street demonstrations are frequently photographed by police
a communal endeavor: It is usually possible and always wise to consider the views
agencies; cameras patrol the aisles of department stores and the lobbies of banks;
of other knowledgeable people when putting forth our own interpretations. Ulti-
and when we write a check in a discount department store we are likely to be pho-
mately, it is a community of people knowledgeable about art and photography who
tographed before the check is accepted. "Surveillance" connotes these practices.
formulate the meanings of images. In the short term, a critic is often the first one to
formulate a meaning about an image, but in the long run, interpretation is a collec-
THE INTERPRETIVE PROCESS: A SUMMARY tive endeavor that includes the thoughts of a variety of people working from within
a diverse range of perspectives.
The process of interpreting photographs is complex, and there is no one way critics
use to arrive at their understandings of images. In Chapter 3, for example, several
general approaches or perspectives toward interpretation were mentioned with
examples quoted from critics: psychoanalytic, formalist, semiotic, feminist, Marxist,
stylistic, biographical, intentionalist, and technical. Each of these approaches has
advantages and limitations. This list is not exhaustive, and some critics combine
these approaches. Each of them could be tried to see how they fit an image or how
comfortably they fit the critic. What is most important to remember is that inter-
preting a photograph is a matter of building a reasonable understanding based on
demonstrable evidence. Good interpretations are not willy-nilly responses, nor are
they dogmatic pronouncements. They are reasonable arguments built by critics, and
they are always open to revision. Some interpretations are better thari others
because they better fit the photograph, offer greater insight, and are more com-
pelling. Because there are so many critics with so many worldviews and ideological
persuasions, there will be multiple interpretations that are reasonable and com-
pelling, even though different. Our lives are enriched by diverse interpretations of
the same photograph.
 6
llirlllllili n 'I I lIn- m m ill tin- ail she practiced." (Hilton Kranu-i, New Ymk (lines
M.n-.i llll |
< IIAI'll R
\ i IMI will I li.r. I i.id -.in li an influence on other photographers llial it is already
Inilil in ii iininliri how original it was." (Robert Hughes, Time)'1

AIIHI-.'. work "ihowi people who are pathetic, pitiable, as well as repulsive, but it
dot I n"i trouse any compassionate feelings. . . . The insistent sameness ol Arbus's
s\ HI I., however far she ranges from her prototypical subjects, shows that her sensibil
ily, ai nii'd with a camera, could insinuate anguish, kinkincss, mental illness with any
Evaluating Photographs subject." (Susan Sontag, On Photography)5

"Bui clearly [Garry] Winogrand made not just good pictures; he made extraordinary
ones." (Andy Grundberg, New York Times)6

"Fully clothed or not, the women in Winogrand's photographs are victims of an

obscene attention." (Arthur Danto, Mapplethorpe)7
•
"[Henri] Cartier-Bresson's fame is based on four decades of incomparable camera
reporting. . . . [His] genius lay in his recognition that unretouched reality was already
tractable enough, that the world was most intoxicating when served straight up."
(Richard Lacayo, Time)8
W HEN CRITICS CRITICIZE photographs they sometimes but not always judge
them. When critics do judge photographs, they usually praise them but Cindy Sherman "is the first artist working in the photographic medium to have fully
sometimes condemn them. The terms evaluation and judgment are synonymous. infiltrated the 'other' art world of painting and sculpture. . . . She has accomplished
When critics evaluate an artwork they make statements of appraisal, stating how what other photographers have been pursuing for a century—true parity with the
good it is or isn't. other two arts." (Lisa Phillips, Cindy Sherman)9

"Not all of [Sherman's] images are successful." (Deborah Drier, Art in America)10
EXAMPLES OF JUDGMENTS
"[Robert] Heinecken, one of the most important and influential photographers in
The following several examples of statements from published criticism are clearly America today." (Mark Johnstone, Contemporary American Photography)11
judgmental.
"Heinecken has consistently failed to embody his concerns in anything but superfi-
Irving Penn is "a major talent, by most if not all standards, and at least arguably a cial ways." (Jonathan Green, American Photography)12
genius, a maker of some of the most awesomely handsome photographs in the his-
"Using unerring tact and impeccable focus, Sarah Charlesworth sums up a genera-
tory of the medium." In Penn's photographs, "there is more pure sensual pleasure
tion's concerns with a whisper." (Kate Linker, Art in America)13
per square inch than can be found in the work of any other living photographer" and
"anyone fortunate enough to see [his photographs] will find among them the most
beautiful physical entities photography can produce." (Owen Edwards, Saturday
Review)1
JUDGMENTS AND REASONS
A judgment is a what that demands a why. Judgments, like interpretations, depend
Irving Penn's "imperial eye can turn African villagers into caricatures and, when he on reasons. Judgments without reasons are not particularly beneficial. To declare
transforms a motorcyclist from the Hell's Angels into a delicate study in gray, the eye something "good" or "bad," "original" or "remarkable," without giving reasons as
is seduced—but the mind gags." (Mark Stevens, Newsweek)2
to why it is thought to be so is merely to offer a conclusion, and however well
Diane Arbus is "one of the most remarkable photographic artists of the last decade." founded or thought out that conclusion might be, it is not very revealing or helpful
And she is "as rare in the annals of photography as in the history of any other if the reasons behind it are not offered in its support. The positive and negative
medium—who suddenly, by a daring leap into a territory formerly regarded as conclusions about the work of various photographers cited above have been quoted
 tm
without the reasons the critics oflcrcd to support iheli ludginenis. Hut the critics Also, like interpretations, judgments aie neithei definitively nor absolutely right
who wrote llicm do liavc reasons, some ol whu h lit provided In-low.
< 3 or wrong. Rather, judgments, like interpretations, are more or less convincing, per-
When Hilton Kramer declared Diane Arhus lo he "one ol the most remarkable suasive, and compelling, depending on how well or poorly they are argued.
photographic artists," he offered several reasons, one ol which was that Arbus
invited her subjects to participate in her photographs and thus they "face the cam-
JUDGMENTS AND CRITERIA
era with patience and interest and dignity; they are never merely 'objects.'" Robert
Hughes also provides several reasons supporting his admiration of Arbus's pho- Complete and explicit critical judgments have three aspects: appraisals that arc-
tographs: Her work is "very moving," and "Arbus did what hardly seemed possible based on reasons that are founded in criteria. Hilton Kramer's statement that Arbus
for a still photographer. She altered our experience of the face." is "one of the most remarkable photographic artists of the last decade" is an ap-
praisal. Statements of appraisals are about the merits of the work being judged, thai
Nevertheless, there is serious disagreement on Arbus's work. In a review of the
same exhibition that Kramer and Hughes praise, Amy Goldin in Art in America spe- it is "remarkable," "strong" or "weak," "good" or "lacking." Reasons are statements
cifically derides their views and claims that "for us her people are all losers, that support an appraisal. One of the reasons Kramer provides for his positive
whether they know it or not. . . . Her subjects must not seem to feel too much, lest appraisal of Arbus's work is that she gave her subjects dignity and never reduced
they destroy the delicate superiority we gain from knowing more of their vulnera- them to objects.
bility than they do. Nor can they be heroic; we must admire ourselves for respect- Criteria are rules or standards for greatness upon which appraisals are ultimately
ing them."14 Susan Sontag is also especially negative about Arbus's work and based. One of Kramer's criteria for judging Arbus's work extraordinary is that it
devotes a whole chapter to it in her book On Photography. Sontag argues that Arbus changed the history of the medium: She effected "a historic change in the way a
makes everyone look the same—that is, monstrous—and that she takes advantage new generation of photographers came to regard the very character of their
of their vulnerability and their compliance, "suggesting a world in which everyone medium." In other words, Kramer is arguing that an artist is great if, among other
is an alien, hopelessly isolated, immobilized in mechanical, crippled identities and things, her work positively affects the work of those around her and after her;
relationships." Arbus's work has done this, and therefore her work is great.
In supporting Cindy Sherman's work, Lisa Phillips argues that Sherman's use of Critics do not always, however, provide arguments for their judgments. Evalua-
photography for her content is an apt match: "To Sherman the secondary status of tions, particularly positive evaluations, are sometimes assumed to be obvious and
photography in the art world forms a perfect corollary to the status of women in a not explicitly argued for. In a review in Newsweek of an exhibition by Henri Cartier-
patriarchal society, and she uses each situation to question our assumptions of the Bresson, Douglas Davis expends little effort defending the greatness of Cartier-
other." Deborah Drier also admires most of Sherman's work but expresses reserva- Bresson's work.15 He assumes that we are willing to accept its greatness and writes
tions about two pieces in Sherman's 1985 exhibition at Metro Pictures gallery in to give us more information about the man and his work. But he clearly implies
New York: "the bearded lady is saved from cliche only by the evidence of her positive evaluations throughout the review by using such phrases as "the king of
wretchedness and the disgust engendered by the most horrid orifices erupting near photographers," "the master," and "his magnificent pictures."
her eye, and I could have lived without the girl-into-Miss Piggy trick." In an intro- Criteria are usually based in definitions of art and in aesthetic theories of what
ductory catalogue statement, the work of Robert Heinecken is praised because it art should be. In published and casual art criticism, it is easy to find statements of
"simultaneously questions and expands our notion of 'what is a photograph.'" But appraisal. In casual art criticism, appraisals are abundant but reasons are rare and
Jonathan Green rejects the work as "simplistic" and claims that in deviating from criteria rarer still. In published art criticism, reasons are usually offered but criteria
straight photography "Heinecken lost his way in a maze of pictorial alternatives." can be difficult to locate. Sometimes they are hinted at or suggested, but it is not
In important respects, critical judgments or evaluations are similar to interpreta- often that critics explicitly state their criteria. It is easier to find clear, though often
tions or explanations. Both are statements that need reasons in their support; both complex, criteria in the writings of aestheticians, artists, and critics attempting to
are arguments that require evidence. Judgments without reasons are similar to opin- define what art is or what art should be. More often than not, in published criticism,
ion polls: They tell us that some people hold a certain position, but they fail to criteria are implied.
reveal why. If we are given reasons for judgments, we are better able to agree or dis- In a New York Times review of a 1985 exhibition of then new work by Duane
agree with them and thus further our own thought, discussion, and knowledge Michals, critic Gene Thornton offers clear judgments of Michals's photographs.
about photographs and deepen our understanding and appreciation of them. 1 hornton opens his review by claiming that the work Michals exhibited was "as
 * i
sluing Mini moving as anything he has rvri dunt* "'" llioinioii was especially ought to have "a real respect for the thing in front of him"—namely, reality—and
inipicsscil wiih a scc|uence liilccl Chil\t in Nciv Yoili Ucasons lor his praise ol thai "the very essence" of photography is an "absolute unqualified objectivity."" 1
Miclials's work and this sequence in particular come lain in llic review. Thornton Weston agreed: "The camera should be used for the recording of life, for rendering
explains dial picturing Christ as a contemporary person is difficult and that Michals the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel
has clone it convincingly, so much so that his visualization is the "most convincing or palpitating flesh. . . . I feel definite in my belief that the approach to photography
one" Thornton knows. Thornton also praises Michals for his lyrical use of words is through realism." 19
accompanying his photographs. But Thornton's major reason for lauding Michals's Life magazine reaffirmed the primacy of realism in photography throughout its
work and especially his sequences is the quality of Michals's ideas: "Each was the long and influential history. Henry R. Luce, founder and publisher, introduced the
visualization of a good idea, and good ideas are few and far between, especially
first issue of Life (November 23, 1936) with this statement:
good ideas that can be expressed in pictures." Thornton's review, then, offers clear
statements of appraisal, that Michals is very good at what he does, and reasons for To see life; to see the world, to eyewitness great events; to watch the face of the poor
the appraisal—namely, that he works with difficult subjects convincingly, that his and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things—machines, armies, multitudes,
use of text is effectively poetic, and especially that his photographs are based on shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man's work—his paintings, towers
good ideas. Thornton never explicitly states criteria for his positive judgments of and discoveries, to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls
the work, but an implied criterion is that for a photograph to be effective it needs to and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many
be based on a good idea. As a critic writing an evaluative review, Thornton has done children; to see and be instructed.
his job. He has provided clear judgments and has supported them with reasons
based on implied and discernible criteria. Realism is also upheld as a criterion by contemporary thinkers. In The Phologra
pher's Eye, Szarkowski writes: "The first thing that the photographer learned was
that photography dealt with the actual; he had not only to accept this fact, but to
DIFFERENT CRITERIA treasure it; unless he did photography would defeat him." 20
Based on realist criteria, Charles Hagen judged a 1992 exhibition of nude pho-
Critics judge photographs by many different criteria, most of which can be grouped
tographs made by Lee Friedlander "challenging and ultimately thrilling" and
into clusters derived from common theories of art: realism, expressionism, formal-
"breathtaking in their acceptance of the facts of the scene." According to Hagcn,
ism, and instrumentalism.
Friedlander rejects idealized notions of women and instead concentrates on speci-
ficity: "body hair, bruises, dirty feet and sagging flesh in sometimes excruciating
Realism detail." Friedlander's "matter-of-fact nudes" are "intensely photographic, deeply
voyeuristic in a way that only photography can allow." The exhibition is the last one
Realism is one of the oldest theories of art, upheld by the ancient Greeks, backed by
curated by John Szarkowski before his retirement as curator of photography at the
the authority of Plato and Aristotle, rejuvenated in the Renaissance, and upheld
Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Hagen acknowledges that the show
later throughout the history of photography. In aesthetics, realism is also referred to
affirms Szarkowski's criterion that photography should be "a means of discovery, of
as "mimesis" and "mimeticism." In his exhibition and accompanying book Mirrors
proposing new ways to see the world." 21
and Windows, John Szarkowski contrasts the realist tradition ("windows") in art
Hilton Kramer summarizes realistic criteria in this statement:
and photography with the expressionist tradition ("mirrors"). He states that the
basic premise of realism is that "the world exists independent of human attention,
What we admire in the great modern photographers is, more often than not, the
that it contains discoverable patterns of intrinsic meaning, and that by discerning
quick pictorial eye that wrests from this heterogeneous public scene an arresting con-
these patterns, and forming models or symbols of them with the materials of his art,
junction of detail. . . . It is essential that the subject be "caught" from the outside,
the realist is joined to a larger intelligence." 17 For the realist, because the world is trapped, so to speak, in a given instant that can never be repeated. In that unrepeat-
the standard of truth, and because it is incomparably beautiful, the most noble goal able point in time, the photographer composes his picture, the quickness of his eye
of the artist is to attempt to accurately portray the universe in all its variations. and the lightning sensitivity of his emotions joined in the flash of the shutter, and
Paul Strand and Edward Weston are two historically prominent photographers from that moment the reality of the subject inheres in the composition, for it can no
who advocated realism in photography. Strand believed that the photographer longer be said to exist "out there."22
V M I I I (I I l l l l | | I -I | I I I

traditional photographic ivalisls also nilvcx ale < ritaln in hnlqttes as proper and |inii|» i it )'n.iidun angel consoles a woman in I he Heart oj the Stoim, circa 101 2, a
reject others. Realism is closely associated with "straight photography," some ol the phuliigiitph iii.idc in ( aliloinia by Anne Brigman that looks like a charcoal drawing.
principles of which were articulated by Sadakichi I larlmami in I'KH: I'u tin i,ill,t images olien utilized soft-focus, textured paper, hand touching with
blushes, allegorical stories, costumes, and props; and sometimes they were collaged
Rely on your camera, your eye, on your good taste and your knowledge ol composi- images made Iroin several negatives. The end was art and the means were whatever
tion, consider every fluctuation of color, light and shade, study lines and values and
the photographer could use to attain that end. C. Jabez Hughes staled the pictorial
space division, patiently wait until the scene or object of your pictured vision reveals
ist position in 1861:
itself in its supremest moment of beauty.23
[The] photographer, like an artist, is at liberty to employ what means he thinks ncc
Both Strand and Weston advocated realistic criteria and the straight approach in essary to carry out his ideas. If a picture cannot be produced by one negative, let hiin
making photographs. Strand held that the photographer should express reality have two or ten; but let it be clearly understood, that these are only means to an end,
"through a range of almost infinite tonal values which lie beyond the skill of human and that the picture when finished must stand or fall entirely by the effects produced,
hand . . . without tricks of process or manipulation [and] through the use of straight and not by the means employed.28
photographic methods." 2 4 Weston derided photographs that relied on soft focus
(what he called "dizzying out of focus blurs"), textured printing screens and papers, Many pictorialists were particularly influenced by the paintings of Turner,
and handworked photographs as "photo-paintings" and "pseudo-paintings." 25 Whistler, Degas, and Monet. The pictorialist tradition includes such historically
Minor White and Ansel Adams continued the straight, realistic tradition in photog- influential photographers as Alvin Coburn, F Holland Day, Frederick Evans,
raphy they inherited from Strand and Weston. White wrote: "I have heard Edward Gertrude Kasebier, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Clarence White. Stieglitz
Weston say that he strove to eliminate all accidents from his work and I copied his championed the movement in Camera Work and Gallery 291. Pictorialism declined
striving. . . . I now see like a lens focused on a piece of film, act like a negative pro- by the mid-1920s and was largely overtaken by the "straight" aesthetic, but interest
jected on a piece of sensitized paper, talk like a picture on a wall." 26 Dorothea Lange in pictorialist aesthetics and techniques ("manipulated photographs") emerged
had these words, quoted from the empirical philosopher Francis Bacon, hung on her again in the 1970s, and the tradition vigorously continues today. The Starn twins,
darkroom door: "The contemplation of things as they are, without substitution or for example, intentionally and obviously undermine the realistic look of the photo
imposture, without error or confusion, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole har- graphic medium, insisting on
vest of invention." 27 Ansel Adams devised the zone system of exposure and devel- the material life of their medium, images on paper; for they are determined to undo
opment to enhance the abilities of the straight photographer. the scientific look usually associated with photography's techniques of laboratory
precision, cleanliness, impersonality. The fact and the illusion of accident and of the
handmade are everywhere. Fragments are scotch-taped together; edges are furled and
Expressionism torn; black tape defaces images; photographic surfaces are crumpled or, at times, seen
Expressionism, or expressivism, is also time-honored in photography but is not as through the transparency of ortho film; push pins pierce ragged holes into paper and
old as realism in the history of art theory. Its basic premise is a respect for the indi- wall; frames look haphazardly chosen in shape or style.29
viduality of the artist and the potency of the artist's inner life as vividly expressed in
visual form. Expressionists believe the artist's intense experience is the basis of art
Formalism
making and that viewers should judge art according to the intensity of the feelings it
provokes in them. They emphasize the artist rather than the world; and for expres- Formalism is an aesthetic theory of the twentieth century. It is closely associated
sionists, intensity of expression is more crucial than accuracy of representation. with modernism and is rejected by postmodernists. Formalism insists on the auton-
omy of art—that is, "art for art's sake"—and on the primacy of abstract form rather
The term expressionism is more common in the literature of art and aesthetics
than references to the physical or social world.
than in photography. The term pictorialism, however, is common in photography,
and the pictorialist movement in photography fits within expressionistic criteria. Formalism is a theory of art—it should not be confused with a concern for form
in art. All art, realistic and abstract, representational and nonrepresentational, has
Pictorialism preceded straight photography, which was a reaction to pictorialism.
form. All artists, whether they be realists, expressionists, postmodernists, or of some
Pictorialists upheld photography to be art and strove to have it as honored as paint-
other aesthetic persuasion, are concerned with form. Both straight and manipulated
ing. In their struggle, they often mimicked the subject matter and stylistic con-
photographs have form. Expressionists want form that is vividly engrossing; realist-.
ventions of the paintings of their day. For example, under rugged wind-twisted
 •.Hive hit form that is consistent wiih ijiitiitii.il>J• laws "I naiuic; instrumentalists from .in exhibition catalogue, AIDS: The Artists' Response, by Jan /.ita diovci and
seek form that will elicit social change. 1 yiu'tii' Molnar, the curators of the exhibition of the same name. Instrumentalists
IIK- theory of formalism upholds the sovereignly ol lonu and considers subject reject the notion of art for art's sake and instead embrace art for life's sake. They ate
matter and references to religion, history, and politics aesthetically irrelevant, or concerned with the consequences of art. Instrumentalist criteria hold that art is in
"nonartistic," concerns. Art should be judged by its own criteria—that is, by service of causes that go beyond art itself, goals larger than "significant form," 011)'.
whether or not it embodies "significant form." Roger Fry and Clive Bell, the origi- inality, and unique artistic expression. Artwork made about AIDS has generatetl
nators of formalism in the 1930s, unfortunately did not, perhaps could not, specify debate that centers on the conflicting criteria for art and illustrates how inslnimrn
criteria for formal excellence.30 Their influence was in denial: Art should not be talist criteria operate in judging art.
judged by its narrative content, historical references, psychological associations, Michael Kimmelman states an instrumentalist criterion in a New York Times .in i
emotional connotations, or imitation of objects and surfaces. cle about art about AIDS: "The goal is not to produce museum masterpieces hut to
Although formalism supports abstraction, nonrepresentational imagery, and save lives, by whatever means at an artist's disposal."32 Kimmelman sees several
minimalist art, it is not limited to these. Representational painters such as Poussin artistic shortcomings in some activist art about AIDS: Some of it is "dictatorial,"
and Cezanne are highly regarded by formalists because of their harmonious organi- and it can be simple-minded and "condescending" and "even counter-productive
zation of trees, hills, or figures. That the subject matter happens to be fruit in a bowl in its eagerness to provoke," and most of it will not last except as a relic of an era.
or a sun-bathed hillside is not of interest. If Picasso's Guernica, for example, is to be But he defends the work by arguing that "most of these works don't pretend to he-
honored, it is because of its superb formal organization; its references to the horror great art in the way traditional art historians use that phrase. To be heard above a
of war and the suffering of victims, for formalists, are aesthetically irrelevant. roar of misinformation and in the face of so much indifference, shouting may he
Formalism and modernism gave rise to concern for the individuality of media, necessary."
the uniqueness of a medium, and the distinct visual contributions different media Instrumentalist criteria play themselves out in reaction to Nicholas Nixon's pho-
could make. Straight photography came of age during the period of formalism and tographs of people with AIDS exhibited in 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art in
modernism and in turn influenced it. Edward Weston, for example, was concerned New York. Nixon photographed the final months of life of several AIDS patients.
about identifying what the medium of photography did best or did uniquely and The photographs were clearly meant to elicit sympathy: "I hope my pictures hu
then made photographs according to these distinctions. Group J/64, founded in manize the disease, to make it a little bit less something that people see at arm's
1929 by Weston and including Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham, strove to length."33 For the most part his photographs were received positively by critics. But
make pictures that were "photographic" rather than "painterly." Thus, these pho- they also produced very hostile reactions on instrumental grounds from activist
tographers abhorred handwork and soft focus and championed crisp focus with a critics. One stated that "personally, I think the only proper response to these pho-
wide depth-of-field. tographs is to walk into museums and rip them off the walls."34 Those who attacked
Formalism also influenced art criticism. Just as references in artworks to real- the Nixon photographs objected that they made people with AIDS look like freaks,
world concerns were considered aesthetically irrelevant, criticism that relied on his- and sickly, helpless, fatalistic victims, barely human. Robert Atkins, a critic for the
tory or biography or the psychology of the artist was also eschewed as aesthetically Village Voice, bitterly complains about photojournalism's penchant for the exotic
irrelevant. Context was ignored. In Aperture, founded in the 1950s by Minor White, and melodramatic. If an editor of a popular magazine has a choice between using a
photographs were presented as the sole matter on pristine white pages; information photograph of a person with AIDS shopping in a supermarket or a photograph of a
about photographer, title, date, and so forth, was put in the back of the magazine so person with AIDS being fed intravenously in the hospital, the editor will likely
as not to distract from the image itself. The art object itself, and only the art object, choose the more dramatic hospital photograph because it will sell more magazines.
was the locus of critical attention. Formal description of the object itself, in Thus, Atkins argues, we have received mostly "negative" rather than "positive"
painstaking detail, became paramount in art criticism. images of people with AIDS.35 During Nixon's Museum of Modern Art exhibition,
gay activists distributed leaflets that demanded images of "vibrant, angry, loving,
Instrumentalism sexy, beautiful" people with AIDS, "acting up and fighting back."
Instrumentalist criteria, then, encourage an examination of art based on social,
"It was never our intention to curate an exhibition on the basis of conventional cri- moral, and economic purposes of art, how art is used in society, and its conse-
teria—that is, work selected as rarest, most unique, formally most inventive, or techni- quences. Instrumentalist criteria insist that art is subservient to, rather than inde-
cally most polished."31 This statement, based on an instrumentalist view of art, is pendent of, social concerns.
 ZD
Other Criteria types ol art may be unacceptable to some critics, and a viewer might want to adhnc
more rigorously to a particular set of criteria that are consistent with his or her acs
I he preceding criteria are not exhaustive. Originality, fol example, is a commonly
thetic or moral beliefs. The pluralist runs the risk of being wishy-washy.
used criterion. llans-Georg Gaclamer describes his reaction when he faces a new
and creative element in a work of art: We can accept a particular set of criteria and apply them to all art, whether the
criteria fit the art or not. The risks here are dogmatism and rigidity ol experieni <
I simply am not able to keep on walking. Time comes to a stop. I no longer know The risk of a very narrow range of acceptance is particularly great for a naive viewer
how much time I've spent in reading the work, and I don't know how long the things who has not had much exposure to the variety of artforms. If a viewer adheres
I have read will continue to remain alive in me. The experience of something new strictly to a set of realistic criteria, for example, much art of the world and of our
throws you off atfirstinto sort of a state of confusion. Ifindmyself in a dialectic rela- times will be dismissed.
tionship with what I have seen. When I see something new, it opens my eyes, both A viewer who has carefully and thoughtfully sampled many kinds of art, how-
with respect to what I have already seen and with respect to what I will later see.36 ever, may want to champion certain kinds of art and dismiss others. Some activist
critics, including feminists and Marxists, take an informed and narrow stance about
Specific criteria such as originality, craftsmanship, and good composition are art they critically uphold and art they vehemently reject.
usually subsumed by larger clusters of criteria. Specific criteria may be in conflict We can mix criteria and insist that an expressionist image adhere to certain non-
with the larger and more inclusive criteria of realism, expressionism, formalism, negotiable formalist criteria, for example. But some criteria are incompatible, even
and instrumentalism identified above. Originality, for instance, might not be impor- contradictory. It would be logically inconsistent to adhere to both formalism and
tant to an instrumentalist critic who is interested in raising consciousness about instrumentalism: Art is either autonomous or heteronomous, transcendent or sub-
sexism and racism in society: If the image is effective in improving society, whether ordinate to other values.
it is derivative or original will likely be considered irrelevant. Different criteria illuminate different aspects of a work of art. All of the preceding
There are other cautions about using specific criteria. The criterion of originality criteria can be applied to a single photograph in order to draw attention to its dif-
can only be used with confidence by someone who knows the history of photogra- ferent aspects. Trying different criteria can also broaden our critical perspective,
phy and who has seen a very wide breadth of contemporary work. What seems orig- allowing us to see an image from multiple points of view. By knowing different cri-
inal for a newcomer to photography might well be an established practice in the teria, we have more standards of excellence to apply to photographs; and through
medium. them we may find more to appreciate in a photograph.
Craftsmanship is a time-honored criterion that seems easy to apply, but a well-
crafted image for an expressionist might be different from a well-crafted image for a
realist: A "dizzying out of focus blur" for Edward Weston might be a dynamic, inno- DIFFERING JUDGMENTS
vative expression for Duane Michals. A good print for a formalist might be a waste
Because there are different criteria for judging art, inevitably there are different
of silver for an instrumentalist because the photograph lacks social content. A fem-
judgments of the same work of art. Major exhibitions and new showings of promi-
inist critic would likely reject a photograph that encourages violence toward
nent photographers' work receive multiple evaluations from a variety of critics.
women no matter how well composed, well crafted, or original the image.
Sometimes critics agree that the work is good, but they may find it good for differ-
ent reasons and by different criteria. Sometimes critics disagree over the worth of
the work, with some upholding it and others rejecting it. Such disagreements can
CHOOSING AMONG CRITERIA
happen when critics use different criteria to judge the same work and when critics
Each of these sets of criteria is appealing, and deciding among them is difficult. hold ilit- same criteria but differ in their decisions about how the artwork holds up
There are some alternatives. We can let the work influence the criteria by which it to s< i ntmy under those criteria.
will be judged. Such a decision presumes an interpretation; and based on our I (liferent evaluations of the same exhibition are interesting to read and compare
understanding of an image, we would choose criteria that are most favorable to the I" i lute they show that critics' evaluations of the same work can vary, sometimes
image. A formalist image would be measured against formalist criteria, a realistic .nil i.ilily The different reasons that critics offer in praising or faulting an exhi-
image by mimetic standards. This is a pluralistic acceptance of art. Such a stance IHIi,HI ire valuable and stimulating because they give us several alternative view-
gives primacy to the art and keeps viewers open to a variety of artforms. But some point-, to ( onsider in forming our own critical decisions about the work in question.
r vmiifliini) i'nnioi|i.11>I• -.

JUDGMENTS ARE ARGUMENTS Also, statements of preference tell us more about the person making the statements
ill.in about the object in question. When engaging in criticism we are seeking to
( i itical judgments, like interpretations, are arguments. Ivalualing a photograph or IIIHI mil about the art object, not about the persons engaging in criticism. More
an exhibition requires formulating arguments. Not all judgments are equal. Judg- bluntly, whether someone "lifces" the photograph is not particularly relevant; what
ments, like interpretations, are more or less convincing depending on how they are IS relevant Is whether or not someone thinks it is good or bad and for what reasons.
argued. Judgments are not so much right or wrong as they are reasonable, convinc- Strategically, it can be beneficial to begin to formulate our judgments of pho-
ing, or enlightening. Critical judgments themselves can be judged according to tographs based on strong, immediate responses of liking or disliking them. Carrie
whether or not, and how well, they increase our understanding and appreciation of Rickey, an art and film critic, chooses, when she can, to write only about works she
artworks. Evaluative arguments are always open to dispute and invite counterargu- leels passionately about. She uses her strong personal reactions to films or art as
ments. Seeing how critics differ in their appraisals of an artwork is one of the motivation to write, but she transforms these reactions into argued positions. To
aspects of criticism that makes it interesting and informative. engage in responsible criticism we need to transform preferences into judgments
That critics disagree, however, does not warrant the claim that evaluative judg- that are based on more than personal likes and dislikes. A strong, personal, positive
ments are totally subjective and "mere opinions" or that all critical appraisals are or negative reaction to a photograph can be critically valuable if we decipher rea-
equally legitimate. Critical judgments are arguments with reasons, and these argu- sons for reactions, try out the reasons, and begin to posit criteria for what we con-
ments can be looked at objectively and then be evaluated. We can choose among sider to be good in a photograph.
judgments, reasons, and criteria and agree with some and disagree with others in rea- The distinction between preferences and values can be personally liberating
soned ways. The most convincing judgments are better grounded and better argued. because the distinction allows us to dislike certain things even though it is under-
stood that they are good; and to like and enjoy certain things even though it is
REAPPRAISALS understood that they are not particularly worthwhile from a critical standpoint.
John Corry utilized the distinction between preference and value in his review of
Judgments, like interpretations, are not conclusive, definitive, and final pronounce- Hollywood Wives for the New York Times. From the outset he refers to this made-for-
ments. Judgments can and do change. "The Family of Man," a major exhibition that television movie based on a best-selling novel as "trashy" but also admits that "this
traveled internationally, was curated in 1955 by Edward Steichen of the Museum of critic enjoyed it."38 He says it is not the kind of movie one would recommend to
Modern Art in New York. It is the most successful photography show in history if friends but that "everyone watches stuff like this, anyway, and then pretends they
measured by attendance and audience appeal; and it was generally unchallenged by haven't seen it." In his review he thoroughly explains the movie's flaws, but with
critics in its time. More recently the show has been written about extensively, reap- some sarcasm he humorously concludes that "trashy fun is trashy fun, and if you
praised, and harshly judged by several writers, including John Szarkowski, Allan
want to be uplifted you can always read a book." As an informed critic, Corry
Sekula, and Jonathan Green.37 In 1984 Marvin Heiferman curated a new show, "The
knows the difference between the value of quality drama and his occasional prefer-
Family of Man: 1955-1984," at ES.l in New York. This new show was based on the
ence for the fun of enjoyable entertainment, and in this case he opts for the latter.
original 1955 exhibition and rebuked it. Heiferman's exhibition was visual art criti-
cism of Steichen's exhibition.
"Revisionist" history and criticism are about revising past interpretations and INTENTIONALISM AND JUDGMENTS
evaluations of works. Some historians and critics are deeply concerned that art by
I he Hawed critical method of "intentionalism," discussed earlier in relation to inter-
women, for instance, has been unfairly ignored or given too little critical attention.
prctation, also comes into play in evaluation. A critic can evaluate a photograph
These historians and critics are attempting to right the wrongs of past scholarship
according to whether or not it meets the intent of the photographer: If the photog-
by rediscovering lost work, reinterpreting it, and reevaluating it, showing that it
deserves a more prominent place in history. raphcr tried to do "x," and succeeded in doing "x," then the photograph is good.
ISui tins is a weak method of critical judgment. As was said earlier, photographers
do mil always make public their intents. Also, because a photographer makes a
JUDGMENTS AND PREFERENCES photograph that matches his or her intent does not make it a good photograph. The
Intent Itself may be weak. There are also cases when a photographer tries to make
Critical judgments are different from preferences. Preferences do not require rea-
urn 1<IIKI of picture but ends up with another that may be as good as or better than
sons, and preferences are rarely disputed. Critical judgments, however, do require
the photograph intended.
reasons and do invite counterargument because their consequences are important.
 Ii is beneficial loi photographers lo carclully considci wliai n is they intend to PriOl to the Cincinnati ordeal, the ( OtCOtin Gallery ol Ait in Washington, D.<
cxpivss and lo consider whether they have achieved their intents and whether their canceled its scheduled exhibition ol " 1 he Perfect Moment," an exhibition partially
intents are wortli achieving; and it is appropriate for teachers to critically consider funded by the National Endowment of the Arts. The decision to cancel came amid
students' intents. But critics ought to work with the images photographers make, some furor over another piece of art financed by the endowment, Andres Serrano's
not with the minds of the makers. Piss Christ, a large Cibachrome of a plastic crucifix submerged in the artist's urine.' 0
Controversy about these photographs still lingers, and debates continue about the
desirability of federal government support for any art, particularly art that many
THE OBJECTS OF JUDGMENTS find controversial. About the controversy, arts advocate Schuyler Chapin wrote,
"Congress, art critics, enraged civil libertarians, religious fanatics, pro- and ami
The objects of critics' judgments are individual photographs, portfolios, exhibi- censorship groups—all are having a field day, leaving the arts communities in dc
tions, the entire life work of a photographer, movements, styles, and historical peri- fensive positions."41
ods. Critics usually criticize new work but occasionally reevaluate older work that
has already received critical attention, especially when it is presented in a new
exhibition. Hilton Kramer's and Grace Glueck's
Whenever possible, critics work with original objects and not reproductions. Views of Mapplethorpe's Work
Some photographic works printed in offset that look like reproductions, are not.
On two consecutive Sundays, the New York Times published two opposing articles
Tony Mendoza's Stories, for example, is a book, and critics have properly evaluated
about the controversy, the first by Hilton Kramer, who argued against government
it as a book, not as a bound set of reproductions. If the photographs from the book
funding of art like that of Mapplethorpe's.42 The following Sunday, Grace Glucck
are exhibited, then they become the objects for judgment. Similarly, The Deerslay-
ers, by Les Krims, is a limited edition, offset portfolio, not a set of inexpensive defended the funding of Mapplethorpe's work, and work like it, and opposed the
reproductions substituting for more expensive, original silver prints. The offset Corcoran's cancellation of the exhibition.43
folio ought to be judged as an offset folio. It would be inappropriate and unfair, In the following pages, Kramer's and Glueck's arguments are presented for and
however, to critically appraise photographs made for exhibition on the basis of against the Corcoran's decision to cancel the Mapplethorpe exhibit. We will also
reproductions. consider various critics' judgments of Mapplethorpe's work, looking for reasons lor
their judgments and the implicit or explicit criteria on which they based their
judgments.
Kramer is dramatic in his refusal to even describe the work in the show: "I can-
JUDGMENTS OF ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE'S PHOTOGRAPHS
not bring myself to describe these pictures in all their gruesome particularities, and
In 1993 a newspaper reporter wrote that "an exhibit of the works of photographer it is doubtful that this newspaper would agree to publish such a description even il
Robert Mapplethorpe is breezing through Europe this year, with barely a whisper of I could bring myself to write one." Clearly, his lack of description is a negative judg
discontent. Yet, at the Beaux-Arts Palace, there is no escaping the pictures of oral ineni of the work—he suggests that it is too disgusting to merit the dignity of lan-
sex, homosexual fondling, bondage and sadomasochism lacing the prints of pristine guage (llueck has less difficulty in describing the contents of the exhibition:
flowers and ornate portraits."39 In Brussels the exhibition was sponsored by the city
I hf Mapplethorpe show is a retrospective of the artist's work that contains images
government, and in Denmark it was sponsored by Unibank, the nation's largest
depicting homosexual and heterosexual erotic acts and explicit sadomasochistic prac-
bank. The show was also seen without controversy in Hamburg; Venice; Stockholm; i II i". in which black and white, naked or leather clad men and women assume erotic
Lisbon; Barcelona; Turku, Finland; and Turin, Italy. poses. Along with these photographs are fashionable portraits of the rich and trendy,
In Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 7, 1989, however, as 1,000 protesters chanted elegant lloral arrangements and naked children—images that might not necessarily
"Gestapo, go home!" sheriff's deputies and Cincinnati police officers closed the In- i onsidercd indecent if viewed singly but that in this context seem provocative.
Contemporary Arts Center where Robert Mapplethorpe's photography exhibition,
"The Perfect Moment," had just opened. A grand jury indicted the museum and its ( Hlici potentially offensive pictures that neither mention in detail are a man uri-
director on obscenity charges: pandering obscenity and illegal use of a child in nating Into another's mouth, a close-up of a fist and forearm penetrating an anus,
nudity-related activity. Six months later a jury delivered an acquittal in the land- i he handle of a bull whip protruding from the artist's rectum, and a close-up ol
mark obscenity case. mutilated male genitals. Glueck admits that some of Mapplethorpe's photographs
are ollensive: "I lomosexualily is a suhjei i ili.it has dri |i i motional resonance loi
many people, lor some, the show was certainly disiaslclul Kill she argues that art
is sometimes "hideous, even depraved," and cites Goya's painting ol cannibalism
and Picasso's explicitly erotic paintings and etchings, all ol which are firmly
enshrined as art. She asserts that the public does not want to be "saved" from view-
ing them and, likewise, that the public should not be "saved" from viewing Mapple-
thorpe's work.
In defending Mapplethorpe's work, Glueck adheres to expressionist criteria:
"Artists are important to us, among other reasons, because of their ability to express
what is deep or hidden in our consciousness, what we cannot or will not express
ourselves." She argues that his photographs are art by appealing to an institutional
definition of art; namely, they are art because those who know about art honor them
as art: "Whatever one thinks of Mapplethorpe as an artist—and there are critics on
both sides—his images are intended as art, presented as such and are judged to be
art by those qualified in such matters. They have been chosen by well-established
art institutions." Finally, she argues that "museums are traditionally the neutral
sanctuaries—entered voluntarily by the public—for this expression. What we see
there may not always be esthetic, uplifting, or even civil, but that is the necessary
license we grant to art."
Kramer, however, strongly objects to the use of taxpayers' money to support art
that flaunts standards of decency and civility: "Or, to state the issue in another way,
is everything or anything to be permitted in the name of art? Or, to state the issue in
still another way, is art now to be considered such an absolute value that no other
standard—no standard of taste, no social or no other standard—is to be allowed to
play any role in determining what sort of art it is appropriate for the Government to
support?" He clearly is rejecting the autonomy of art. He also supports the public's
right to have strong influence in decisions about art that is supported by their taxes.
1 le argues that there was no public outcry about the exhibition of Mapplethorpe's
photographs in private commercial galleries, but there was when taxpayers' money
was to be used in their public display.
He identifies what he finds so offensive about some of the Mapplethorpe pho-
tographs. For Kramer, it is not that they depict male nudity. He asserts that no one
has made a fuss about Minor White's male nudes on display at the Museum of Mod-
ern Art in New York City. What he finds so offensive in Mapplethorpe's images is "so
absolute and extreme a concentration on male sexual endowments that every other
attribute of the human subject is reduced to insignificance. In these photographs,
men are rendered as nothing but sexual—which is to say homosexual—objects."
But for Kramer, these are not the most troubling: "That dubious honor belongs to
pictures that celebrate in graphic and grisly detail" a sadomasochistic theme. "In
this case, it is a theme enacted by male homosexual partners whom we may pre- Robert Mapplethorpe, Embrace, 1982.
sume to be consenting adults—consenting not only to the sexual practices depicted I ,.|, v i Ighl © The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe. All rights reserved.
but to Mapplethorpe's role in photographing them." Kramer also finds it extremely
offensive that Mapplethorpe made these pictures as a sympathetic participant.
 | l l l l l | l l l l ' l l l '. <>| K l l l l l ' l | M.l|.|.l. I I , . ., , , ,

k i . m u i argues dial "to exhibit phologiapliH images ol this son, which are llioipe acslhelicizes all that lie sec. "A Mapplcthorpe photograph is a voluptuous
designed !o aggrandize and abet erotic rituals involving coercion, degradation, visual experience, an ecstasy of details, lioin the erotic terrain of dark belly skin to
bloodshed, and the infliction of pain, cannol be regarded as anything but a violation the luii on the stem ol a swollen, tesliclelike poppy bud." She explicates lurllui
of public decency." He goes on to argue that the images are pornography and, as "Mapplcthorpe pursues a state of ferociously aestheticized desire—directed not just
such, have a right to exist, but belong in a private, not a public, realm. He also at men he is interested in but at all beautiful surfaces, whether skin or marble. I ovc,
grams them the status of art: "I know of no way to exclude them from the realm of which might make room for the less than beautiful, is not part of this horizon."
art itself. i : ailed art, even pernicious art, still remains art in some sense." He argues Ultimately she praises the work because "he has caught the spirit of his times with
[hat "not all forms of art are socially benign in either their intentions or their uncanny accuracy and crushing honesty."
effects," and when the government supports this kind of art, opposing citizens have Stephen Koch's understanding of Mapplethorpe's photographs is consistent with
a right to be heard, not to deny artists freedom of expression, "but to have a voice in
Larson's. 47 Writing in Art in America, Koch explains that "Robert Mapplcthorpe is
determining what our representatives in the Government are going to support and
an esthete. . . . Mapplethorpe is devoted to artifice: he brings an exceptionally gifted
thus validate in our name."
graphic intelligence to his photographs in order to render what he sees as part of a
The New York Times published several letters of response to the articles by Grace kind of esthetic Utopia, formed from his own tastes and identity." Koch accepts tin-
Glueck and Hilton Kramer. One response defending Mapplethorpe's photographs work as "phallus worshipping, homosexuality, transvestism, sadomasochism, racial
was from Veronica Vera, an artist and a model in one of the sexually explicit pho- fetishism," and explains that
tographs in the exhibition: "I see them as debunking the whole idea of pornogra-
phy—helping society to get rid of that self-hating concept that ghettoizes sex, that from flowers to phalluses to whips and chains and unhappy Manhattanites trussed up
implies that some parts of our sexuality are too unspeakable to mention, too private on torture racks, Mapplethorpe carries his audience step by probing step deeper into
to be public." 4 4 Two arts administrators wrote: "Attempts to insure that artwork his Utopia of anonymity, testing not only the audience's willingness to follow, but also
supported by public funds conforms to the beliefs held by some deny the cultural the power of his own exceedingly elegant graphic imagination to reconcile the audi-
ence (and his own eye as an artist) to the shameful and nasty preoccupations which
plurality of our country and infringe on the freedom to express different views
rule in that realm.
through artistic creation." 45 Many of the letters objected to any censorship of the
arts, but others applauded the Corcoran's decision and Kramers position.
Most of Koch's feature article on Mapplethorpe's work is interpretive rather than
judgmental, but the article is clearly complimentary. Koch praises the work because
it elegantly and convincingly pursues a Utopian aesthetic world and because Map-
Other Critics' Views of Mapplethorpe's Work
plethorpe is working within an artistic tradition with other aesthetes and "holds an
Most published criticism of Mapplethorpe's photographs was positive, with some important place in that company."
reservations. Kay Larson, writing for New York Magazine, doesn't hesitate to describe Stuart Morgan has also written a mainly interpretive article in Artforum on Map-
Mapplethorpe's images: "Some are very hard to look at: men in leather and chains, plethorpe's work. 48 It, too, is positive and complimentary, but in it he expresses
sometimes hung upside down, often subjected to grim and tortuous sexual indigni- reservations:
ties." 46 She cites one particular example of a difficult photograph: "Man in Polyester
Suit is the kind of picture you could warn your children against: Out of an anony- Harder to tolerate is the easy passage from, say, flowers to people. We accept that
mous, unzipped fly comes a brutally surprising penis, like the life force erupting in (lowers are placed in pots, but what are we to make of an event such as the pose of a
nude male on a pedestal, like an object? . . . a procession of comparatively unknown
the midst of a Victorian garden party." In addition to acknowledging the trouble-
young men, often black, whose relationship to the photographer and to the web of
some nature of the photographs, she puts her emotional reactions into language:
other sitters brings up issues of power, of master and slave. This is the aspect of the
"The shock of Mapplethorpe's images is a belly flop into dark ice water. You reexpe-
work that has bothered viewers more than any other; the black man posed as an
rience the sexual uproar and physical mystery usually concealed behind the zipper." object, a person who serves the purposes of another.
Before explicitly praising the photographs, which she eventually does, Larson
offers her interpretation of them. She puts them in a context of other photography, Andy Grundberg provides a characteristically reserved overview of Mapple-
social documentary photography and formalist photography: "He's an unsparing thorpe and the controversy surrounding his imagery, but Grundberg, too, is
observer of the lower depths, like Weegee; he's a classicist enraptured with perfect ultimately positive in his appraisal. 49 In a 1988 New York Times review of Mapple-
form, like Edward Weston." Her main interpretive claim, however, is that Mapple- thorpe's exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Grundberg places
• • I V, llll, II in.| I" 11. > • ... 11 ,|.l.

Mapplethorpefc work in historic context: "Llk( icorei ol photographers before

him -lewis I line, lirassai, Wcegcc—Mr. Ma,)|>lc-| IKH |K- < hose in depict a subculture
seldom photographed before, or at least seldom seen in the contexts ol line-art plio
tography. In his case, the subculture is a sado-masochistic, male homosexual one."
Grundberg also provides some recent historical context: "Roundly condemned 10
years ago as unsuitable viewing for adults, much less children, it has since been
admired, collected and valorized by Susan Sontag, Holly Solomon, the late Sam
Wagstaff, and other influential cultural figures." Grundberg especially admires Map
plethorpe's mastery of the photographic surface and manner of presenting subject
matter: "The conjunction of perfect technique and perfect form gives his pho-
tographs a rarefied beauty that would seem anachronistic were it not for its obvious
contemporary appeal."
Grundberg provides other critics' views in his own review by citing the essays
from the catalogue that accompanies the Whitney exhibition. Grundberg presents
Richard Marshall's understanding that equates Mapplethorpe's vision with abstract,
lormal considerations and idealized beauty; Ingrid Sischy credits the photographer
with transgressing borders and foraging in areas of renegade subject matter; and
Richard Howard persuades us that Mapplethorpe balances forces that uplift with
those that pull down. Grundberg agrees with Sischy's "observation of the disruptive
power of Mapplethorpe's work. . . . His pictures do serve to rupture the conventions
of polite esthetic discourse." But he finds it difficult to accept that Marshall "can
manage to talk about pictures of men bound in leather and chains in purely formal-
ists terms."
Thus, Grundberg criticizes the criticism of Mapplethorpe and adds to the criti-
cism by concluding that Mapplethorpe's work is about style. Grundberg argues that
style has its own substance and that Mapplethorpe has shown us that "the world is
comprehensible through the mediation of taste but not by the imposition of moral
values. This is the real and quite remarkable message of his pictures, and it makes
them central to the issues of our times."
In another article, following the furor over Serrano's photograph and the Corco-
ran's cancellation of the Mapplethorpe exhibition, Grundberg took a stronger posi-
tion and wrote in the New York Times: "Mr. Serrano's now-notorious image of a Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-portrait, 1980.
crucifix floating in a field of yellow can be interpreted as an attempt at exorcising Copyright © The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe. All rights reserved.
the artist's Roman Catholic upbringing. . . . It is a work of art in part because it is so
uncomfortable to look at, and because it bears the stamp of authentic conflict."50 He
defended Mapplethorpe's work this way: "[His] work is predicated on trespassing
the boundaries of conventional mores. That trespass is, one could say, the ultimate
subject of his art, and it makes even his most unsettling images something more
than pornography."
Ingrid Sischy in the New Yorker and Arthur Danto in an essay published with a
recent comprehensive collection of Mapplethorpe's photographs, offer defenses of
Mapplethorpe's sexual photographs based in part on truth and knowledge.51 Danto
 :to

declares die sadomasochistic homosexual pliologuplis in he "dis< losurcs of sexual i rllli •• write persuasively, perhaps especially when they are trying to cotivim e us
truth." Sischy writes that "the conieni ol his most conliovi'isial work has an infor- nl ilu wiiithni wiuililessnessof an artwork or an exhibition. II we really love some
mational usefulness, The pictures provide views ol sexual activities that are a puz- ihiii)', HI someone, we would usually like to convince others important to us to
zle to many people. He makes up for sex education most of us didn't get." She sliair inn positions or at least understand and accept them. Passionate critical writ
continues: in;', (.111 l» very good critical writing and very engaging to read.
finally, issues of theory overlap with issues of critical judgment because criteria
Of the subject of sex, it's as though Mapplethorpe had picked up a shovel, not a cam- lor judging art are so tightly linked to theories of art—or what one believes art is or
era, and dug up what was buried. His most infamous imagery—the all-male S & M
should be. If a critic is arguing about whether the government should fund "offen-
pictures—has angered many, including homosexuals who believe that these dark
scenarios weaken the argument that homosexuality is as healthy as heterosexuality sive art," he or she is probably engaged in theorizing about art and the role of an in
(and who remind us that sadism and masochism are not unknown in the heterosex- society rather than, or in addition to, judging the art in question. Theory is the topti
ual world). of the next chapter.

Sischy acknowledges that "the pictures are inarguably upsetting; but upsetting is no
reason for banishment."
Writing from a gay perspective, critic and photographer Doug Ischar expresses
appreciation for some of Mapplethorpe's photographs, especially because they pro-
vide "representational visibility" for gays, "constructing a productive gay presence
in contemporary art, that keeps us visible," countering "a long tradition of homo-
sexual invisibility." He cites as examples of representational visibility three of Map-
plethorpe's self-portraits: him "butch in leather," "fern in heavy makeup," and in
"full drag":

I like and respect these pictures a lot. I like what they do to a genre, portraiture, that
has been so unkind and useless to queers and gay men by being unable to recognize
and index our invisible difference; by sparing for history only a few of our stars.
What these pictures do together is refill the portrait of a man with everything
that's not supposed to be there: makeup, dress-up, ornament, pleasure in these; femi-
ninity, taunting defenselessness, contempt for maleness, woman.52

CONCLUSION
Judgment presupposes interpretation, and interpretation presupposes description.
We need an understanding—hopefully a defensible and convincing understand-
ing—of what a photograph is about before we judge it. This does not mean,
however, that the process of judgment can never be the starting point. It is counter-
intuitive and somewhat unnatural to walk into a gallery and to describe, and
describe only, before we form a judgment. It is more likely that we first judge
whether or not we even want to take the time to carefully describe and interpret the
work. But a judgment without the benefit of an interpretation is irresponsible.
Ratings without reasons are also irresponsible. Many judgments are tossed about
casually in conversation with passion and finality but with no reasons provided or
requested. Responsible judgments can and should be argued, not pronounced.
 value rising rapidly since the |9()0s, llic question about whether photography is ail

C IIAI'll K 7 eventually became irrelevant.

With the work of such artists as Mike and Doug Slam, which combines pho
tOgrtphfl with cellophane tape in constructions of large wall pieces and lias been
exhibited and accepted as art, the question in the late 1980s shifted to "Is it pho
tography?" Prior to the 1990s the Museum of Modern Art in New York had noi
given an exhibition to John Baldessari, Gilbert & George, David Hockney, Robert
Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince, Laurie Simmons, William Wegman, Joel-Peter
Wilkin, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine, or the Starns. These artisls
Theory: Is It Art? had widespread support in other museums but had not been sanctioned by tin-
Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. For the Museum ol
Modern Art, presumably, the work of these people might have been art, but not
photography. Or if photography, not the type supported by the theory that under-
pins the large and extremely influential collection of photographs of the Museum ol
Modern Art.
Other consequences of theoretically defining something as art rather than pho-
tography are directly related to the economics of the art market. Charles Desmarais,
Former director of the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, California,
says, "I'm not sure why it is that when you call yourself a photographer you charge
P ERHAPS THIS CHAPTER should have been the second of the book, before De-
scription, rather than the last. It is here because the book proceeds from simpler $300 for a picture, but if you're an artist it's O.K. to ask $3,000 or $30,000."4 David
Hockney's large photo collages, sometimes produced in editions of twenty, are
to more complex critical procedures in the order of describing, interpreting, evalu-
ating, and then theorizing. This sequence is also suited to teaching criticism. The- priced between $10,000 and $60,000. A Barbara Kruger billboard piece sells for
ory, however, pervades all of art criticism and all of art teaching, art making, and art $30,000. The Starns can earn $50,000 for a photograph. Hockney is known as a
exhibiting. ptlnter; Kruger and the Starns are promoted by their galleries as artists, not photog-
raphers. Their prices for single images are well above the price of a single photo-
In a review of a Cindy Sherman exhibition, Eleanor Heartney wrote in After-
image: "These days, we seem to prefer our art obedient to theory. Cindy Sherman's graph by living photographers, which are much closer to the $300 figure.
rise to fame has been inextricably linked to the ease with which her work could be A different definitional dispute arose in the late 1970s when the New York City
assimilated into a feminist-poststructural framework."1 Public Library took a look at all its books containing photographs and discovered
several books that were illustrated with old photographs by now famous photogra-
If this is true today, it is likely true of photography in the past, but under dif-
ferent rubrics, terms, and theories. Alfred Stieglitz exhibited in Gallery 291 and phers. These books had been catalogued under various topics, such as history, geog-
published in Camera Work those photographers whose work fit his theory of pho- raphy, and science. The administration formed a new department of photography
tography and political agenda for photography. and appointed a librarian to oversee the department. Books on the Civil War that
Contained photographs by Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner, and books
In a feature article discussing recent photographic work, Richard Woodward
wrote in the New York Times Magazine: "It isn't clear anymore how photography mi Egypt with photographs by Beato, have all been recatalogued under the single
should be valued or looked at, where within our museums it should be exhibited— category of "photography."
even what is or is not a photograph."2 This is also true of the past, with debates rag- Douglas Crimp wrote an essay objecting to the recataloguing.5 He argued that
ing in the late 1800s about the status of photography as art or not art, and in the the decision was a misguided one in that it was based on the new economic value
1920s with Edward Weston accusing pictorialist photographers of making "pseudo- photographs received because of their newly acquired status as high art. Crimp
paintings" instead of "photographs."3 .ngues that recataloguing the books under "photography" changes the content ol
(Iii- books from history and geography and science to art and to photography. He
mi iirtcntiori 31
leais that an accurate understanding of the books will be befuddled by their new
Photography?" This is ironic because the debate has shifted, come full circle: With
label and that their contents will now be restricted to a limited understanding of
the acceptance of photography into museum collections, and with its economic
 them as aesthetic objects: "What was ligypt will become lieato, or chi ( a m p , 01
h u h ; I'II- -(Columbian Middle America will be Desire Charnay; the Anient an ( ivil
War will now be Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, and others . . . ilie horse
in motion will be Muybridge, while the flight of birds will be Marey . . . urban
poverty and immigration become Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine." His argument is I lie
oretical, having to do with a definition of photography. He is arguing against delin
ing, in words and in practice, all photographs as "art."
Other photography writers agree that definitions of photography have been loo
narrowly aesthetic and have broadened the definition of photography by wIm li
photographs they have chosen to examine: Sally Stein has turned her attention i<>
the photography and layout of women's magazines, Carol Squiers has examined the
photography of annual corporate reports, and Allan Sekula has written about
French police photography. These critics, and others, are anthologized by Richard
Bolton in The Contest of Meaning, a book he assembled around these four theoreti-
cal questions that can yield very practical answers: "What are the social conse-
quences of aesthetic practice? How does photography construct sexual difference:1
How is photography used to promote class and national interests? What are the pol-
itics of photographic truth?" 6
Theory also affects the teaching of photography in colleges and universities. It
largely determines where departments of photography are located (within depart
ments of journalism, engineering, or art) and whether photography is offered sepa-
rately or in conjunction with printmaking, painting, or film and video. Theory also
determines, in part, whether photography is taught as art or as journalistic commit
nication, whether commercial photography is included, and whether the history of
photography is taught as part of art history, through history of art departments, or
apart from art history and by its own photography faculty.

AESTHETIC THEORY
Aesthetic theories apply to art, its making, and its distribution and acceptance in
society. Aesthetic theory most prominently attempts to define what art is and the
consequences of such definitions. When writers theorize about photography, they
generally attempt to define what photography is—that is, what it should be and
how it should best be considered. Most definitions of art try to persuade us to view
an 111 a certain way and to make certain kinds of art. New definitions are often put
forth in reaction to prior definitions.
Definitions of photography may be given in a sentence. In a catalogue essay to an
exhibition, Max Kozloff writes: "A photograph, with its two-dimensional surface, is
and Doug Starn, Judith (Blue Concave), toned silver print on polyester, pipe clamp, the inert, flattened light trace of certain external maneuvers that once occurred." 7
le, plexiglass, wood, 4OV2" x 31 'At" X 9y2", 1993. 11c oilers this definition of photography, but almost in passing, in his development
iglit © by Mike and Doug Starn/Artists Rights Society (ARS). New York City. All rights reserved. ol mother thought.
 Allan Sckula opens an article with thil MntCDCI "Suppose we regard ail as a In ihr opening paragraph ol a review ol the photographs ol |ohn ( oplans, Andy
mode ol huinan communication, as a (list muse am limed in > OIK rete social rela- Ciiundheig slates "1 Inlike other methods ol representation, Including drawing anil
lions, rather than as a mystified, vaporous, ami ahistoridl realm ol purely affective p.iiiiiing, pluiiogiaphy cannot claim to be an art of line, stroke, or louch."1" lie,
expression and experience."8 His definition is clearly persuasive. That is, he wants claim is theoretical, It is about photography in general, as a means of representing,
lhe reader to accept photography as a "mode ol communication anchored in con- lie distinguishes photography from painting and drawing. Grundberg slates ihe
crete social relations." His definition of photography is in opposition to a definition claim in the service of his review of Coplans's photographs, and he builds on ihe
ol photography as art, which he dismisses as "mystified, vaporous, and ahistorical claim throughout the review, partly as a literary device and partly as a means to illu
affective expression." In the remainder of his article, "Dismantling Modernism, minate the photographs of Coplans's that he is considering.
Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Politics of Representation)," Sekula ex- Sometimes critics set out to write more fully developed theory. A. D. Coleman,
plains his definition, argues for its acceptance, and offers examples of photography whose definition of photography criticism is "the intersection of photographs wiih
that fit within it. words," wrote the influential theoretical article in 1976 titled "The Directorial
Some definitions of art, or photography, take the length of a book to fully expli- Mode: Notes Toward a Definition." His article is theoretical because his purpose is
cate. Such books are Aristotle's Poetics, Arthur Danto's Transfiguration of the Com- to define an approach to photography, one that he termed "directorial." In addition
monplace: A Philosophy of Art, and Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida: Reflections on to recognizing this mode of working, naming it, defining it, and identifying its prac-
Photography. titioners, Coleman discusses how directorial photography differs from other ways
of working photographically and its relation to differing theories of photographic
Writers who theorize about photography are not inquiring about a particular
art. This article and the ideas in it are now established and may seem self-evident,
photograph, although they use particular photographs for examples. They are ex-
but they weren't until Coleman specified the genre in his writing.
ploring photography in general, attempting to answer how it is like and how it is
Some critics consistently write from a theoretical point of view because they are
different from other forms of picturing. They are contributing to what Andy Grund-
more interested in photography generally than in individual photographs or indi-
bcrg calls "theoretical criticism." The long-standing questions that have received
vidual photographers. They seek to know about photography as a cultural phe-
many different answers are typical theoretical questions: What is photography? Is
nomenon and to understand how photographs are used in a society and how they
photography art? What are the consequences of calling photography "art"? Is pho-
affect the society. Allan Sekula's writings about photography are critical and histori-
tography different from painting? Does photography get us closer to reality than
cal investigations consistently dealing with theoretical problems he identifies and
painting does? What does photography do best?
addresses from a particular concern, namely, "a concern with photography as a
Theories can also be partial, incomplete, and fragmented. We move through the
social practice."11
world with such theories and may not be cognizant of them until questioned about
Recently, photography theory has increasingly come from outside of the photo-
them. Such theories are probably better understood as assumptions about reality,
graphic community. Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes are two writers who have
life, art, photography, and so forth. Whether consciously held or not, they affect
contributed significant literature to the field of photography although neither of
how we make photographs and how we understand them. The theories of our
them are trained in photography. Sontag's On Photography is an observer's view that
teachers, whether fully developed or a loosely held set of assumptions, certainly
is extremely critical of photography. Aestheticians are writing about photography
inlluence the way they teach about photography, the way we learn about photogra-
more frequently than in the past,12 and writers in the psychology of art such as
phy, and the kinds of photographs we are encouraged to make.
Rudolph Arnheim and E. H. Gombrich are also contributing literature on photogra-
phy. Both Arnheim and Gombrich are concerned, from a psychological perspective,
THEORIES AND CRITICS with theorizing about how photographs mean, how they communicate, and how
viewers decipher and understand them.
When criticizing a particular exhibition or the work of a photographer, critics
sometimes interject theoretical points. For instance, while reviewing the work of
Irving Penn, Owen Edwards writes: "The purpose of the still life is to allow us time THEORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHERS
to contemplate the beauty of objects by holding them aloof from time."9 Edwards's
statement is theoretical because it is a large claim about a group of images, still Photographers sometimes write theory. Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and August
liles. He is attempting to elucidate all still lifes by stating what he thinks is their Sander are notable examples of prominent photographers who have written theo-
purpose. iciical pieces that define what photography is and what it does best. Weston and
i ntory n n AM r

Sit;mil pointedly implemented their theories m llieli phoiogiaphs and significantly mi which ii was made." finally, photography has taught us to see horn ihe
inlhieiu-ed all ihe photography that followed. Vlctoi Uuigin, Martha Rosier, and urn Kpi i led view ("vantage point").
Allan Sekula are three contemporary photographers who write theory, reflect their '. ill ,.u I r. attempt at defining photography as a unique medium, however, is
theories in their work, and influence other image makers through their writing, II i II by hi'' I i n n s as a modernist attempt, and they reject such attempts in lavoi ol
exhibiting, and teaching. postmodernist theory
Iwo more recent exhibitions with different themes are other examples ol curato
rial theorizing: "Cross-References: Sculpture into Photography" and "Vanishing
THEORIES AND HISTORIANS I'reseiK e."
All historians of photography are influenced by their theories of photography—by "Cross-References: Sculpture into Photography" was an exhibition ol Interna
their assumptions of what a photograph is, which photographs are the most impor- tional scope featuring the work of Bernard Faucon of France, Ron O'Donnell ol
tant to consider, and which ones should be ignored. Beaumont Newhall has been Scotland, Boyd Webb of England, and the Americans James Cascbcre, Bruce
faulted by others for too narrow a view of photography and for diminishing the Charlesworth, and Sandy Skoglund. The exhibition was curated by Elizabeth Arm
contributions of those who favored approaches to photography other than the strong, Marge Goldwater, and Adam Weinberg and shown at the Walker Art Cen-
straight approach. 13 Jonathan Green built his history, American Photography, around ter in Minneapolis and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. All the
a theoretical question: What is American about American photography? works in the exhibition were new pieces commissioned by the curators. The theo-
retical thrust of the exhibition was imagery created by artists for the camera. Each
of the artists makes large-scale, room-size constructions, which they usually
THEORIES AND CURATORS destroy after photographing them. Their imagery has been influenced by film, tele-
As a curator of photography in a prestigious institution, John Szarkowski influenced vision, and literature.
theory about photography in many ways: by offering shows to certain photogra- In the introduction of the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, the curators
phers and not others, by choosing which photographs to purchase for the museum state: "These artists have little interest in photography as documentation of visual
and which to accept from donors, and by conceptualizing, organizing, and circulat- fact; rather, they prefer to arrange events to create their own realities. . . . By fabri-
ing several exhibitions. His major exhibitions have included catalogues of the work cating their own subject matter, these artists maintain an unusual degree of control
in the exhibitions and essays explaining and defending his views of photography. over the resulting photographs." 1 4
One such exhibition and catalogue of the same name is The Photographer's Eye, For the exhibition, Bernard Faucon created a large, clear, sealed glass case par-
introduced in 1966. The exhibition is an attempt to provide in language, and by tially filled with white granulated sugar. The piece is titled The Wave of Snow. The
means of photographic examples, a definition of photography. In The Photographer's curators make explicit Faucon's suggested parallels between the crystals of sugar in
Eye, Szarkowski investigates what photographs look like and attempts to explain the sculpture and the crystals of silver on a sheet of photographic paper: "The crys-
why they look the way they do. His concerns are with photography in general, and tals of sugar in The Wave of Snow constitute a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of photo-
he uses individual photographs to explicate and illustrate his understanding of pho- graphic paper." The sculpture, like the photograph, is also frozen, immutable and
tography. In the introductory essay to the catalogue, he seeks to decipher how the timeless. "It is a container that holds its subject sealed off, separated from the world
medium of photography differs from other media. He identifies five distinguishing like a photograph in which everything must be enclosed in a square piece of paper."
characteristics of the medium: "the thing itself," "the detail," "the frame," "time," This exhibition was a good example of theory influencing practice and practice
and "vantage point." being clarified by theory. The curators identified and defined a conceptual direction
In the essay, Szarkowski's major claims are that photography is best when it deals III photography, selected representative artists who they thought were working in a
with the actual ("the thing itself"), even though the photographer's picture is very •.miliar manner, and commissioned new works that illustrated the curators' con-
different than the reality from which it was made. He argues that photographs are cepis. This conception of photography owes its debts to Coleman's theory of direc-
very adept at giving us isolated fragments ("the detail"), and elevating them to sym- tOI ial photography, and furthers it.
bols, but not very good at telling stories. The central act of photography is one of "Vanishing Presence" was a traveling exhibition organized by Adam Weinberg for
selecting ("the frame")—that is, choosing what will be in the photograph and de- the Walker. It gathered photographs already made, rather than photographs com-
ciding what will not. He identifies the medium as inherently time-related ("time"): missioned specifically for the exhibition as in "Cross-References." The exhibition
"Uniquely in the history of pictures, a photograph describes only that period of was guided by a conception of photography that contradicts what is traditionally
considered good photography ili.H is, crisp and sharply locused images of decisive Kc.iliMu «incl Conventionalism
monu'iils. Ii included ilic photographs ol Iwelve artists: Dieter Appclt, Bernhard I lot i photography get closer to the truth than do painting and other forms ol re pre
Illume, Mary Beth Hdelson, Joseph Jachna, William Klein, Ralph liugene Meatyard,
ml ai ion' 1 his question, around which theory has been recently built, receives dil
Duane Michals, Lucas Samaras, Michael Snow, Patrick Tosani, Anne Turyn, and
Fl KIII answers. This debate is sometimes called the "ontological" debate, because n
l-'rancesca Woodman.
has lo do with the ontology of the photograph, its philosophic nature or being. I IK
The photographs in "Vanishing Presence" utilized a variety of techniques to blur differing answers can be grouped into two major camps, "realism" and "conven
reality and distort time by photographically expanding it and making it indecisive, tionalism." Photography grew up with claims of having a special relationship lo
implying continuous flow rather than frozen segment. In his catalogue essay, Wein-
reality In 1839, the year the invention of the fixed photographic image was
berg writes:
announced, Dominique Francois Arago, claiming the invention for France, pio
They are evolutionary images and their subjects are vaporous. They do not describe moted photography on the basis of its "exactness," its "unimaginable precision,"
parcels of time corralled in a frame and clearly denoting the past. They are pictures and faithfulness to reality. 16 Daguerre himself wrote that "art cannot imitate |thc
suspended in the perpetual process of becoming and concerned with change itself. daguerreotype's] accuracy and perfection of detail," 17 and Edgar Allan Poe, an early
They urge us to consider the experience of time not as interchangeable, digital seg- enthusiast of the medium, wrote "the Daguerreotype plate is infinitely (we use tin
ments but as a continuous, disturbing, overwhelming, and wondrous whole. These term advisedly) is infinitely more accurate in its representation than any painting
photographers have used ghost images, blur, lack of focus, and other intrinsically made by human hand." 1 8 He also attributed to photography "a more absolute truth"
photographic means to free themselves from the chains of photographic exactitude than ever before possible with pictures.
and to shake up our pedestrian and complacent views of reality.13
Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine tn7.de photographs in the cause of social reform and
knowingly used the medium to give their writing more credibility. Hine stated," Ihe
According to Weinberg, the images in this exhibition were counterpointed by main-
stream photography: "Beginning with Stieglitz, American photographers favored a average person believes implicitly that the photograph cannot falsify," but he was
transcriptive approach to the medium, that is, photography's capacity to represent quick lo add that "you and 1 know [that] while photographs may not lie, liars may
all the minute details of a subject exactly as they appear before the lens." The photograph." 19 Although Hine knew that photographs could lie, he also knew thai
images selected for "Vanishing Presence," however, "seek to free the mind—and the l lie photograph was more persuasive and effective than the journalistic illustrations
camera—from rational control and, most importantly, to evoke other levels of visual common in the early 1900s. Paul Strand, a student of Hine's, believed in the realism
reality." ol photography but took the idea into an aesthetic direction—namely, the "straight"
aesthetic discussed in Chapter 6. Strand declared that the "very essence" of photog-
Theorizing was involved in both of these shows. The curators of "Cross-
References" and "Vanishing Presence" considered how photography was being laphy is an "absolute unqualified objectivity." 20 This position, of course, was fur-
defined or had been defined and then sought to expand these definitions with new lliered by Weston, Adams, and many others of the straight aesthetic.
work and new considerations that the work made apparent. The steps they took in A belief in the trustworthiness of the photograph was fostered by the news
making theory were several: They articulated existing definitions of the medium, media, especially Life magazine in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, which was very influ-
decided that they were too narrow, expanded them with new examples, and put i niial in society and in journalism. Gisele Freund, photographer and writer aboul
forth a broader definition or conception of what photography is and how it should photography, claims that "what gave so much credibility to Life was its extensive
be considered. use ol photographs. To the average man photography, which is the exact reproduc-
lion ol reality, cannot lie." 21 She explains that "few people realize that the meaning
nl .i photograph can be changed completely by the accompanying caption, by its
A SURVEY OF THEORETICAL POSITIONS |iixiaposiiion with other photographs, or by the manner in which people and evenls
Theoretical positions about photography are abundant today, much more so than in .IIi' phuiographed." The electronic news media today also rely on the credibility ol
the past. The positions are multifaceted, complex, full of specialized terms, and the images recorded by cameras.
often difficult to understand. They are interesting in themselves as ideas and are Advertisers have long been knowingly using photographs. David Ogilvy per-
ver>' important because they directly affect the photographs we make and see and II nli s lus colleagues in his book Confessions of an Advertiser to use photographs
how we receive them. The following pages offer an overview of the major theoreti- I" i in.c ol their credibility: a photograph "represents reality, whereas drawings rcp-
cal positions affecting photography today. I.uilasy, which is less believable."
 If) Is It All '
=D
Susan Sontag comments cuttingly on sin h uses til photographs Aiioiliei contribution to theories of realism is the concept of "transparency."
Kendall Walton, an aesthetician who does not usually write about photography,
A capitalist society requires a culture based on images li needs in Iwinish vast klcntilics transparency as a unique and distinguishing characteristic of the medium
amounts of entertainment in order to stimulate buying and anesthetize the injuries of
ol photography. ' In Walton's account, photography is special and signilicani
class, race, and sex. And it needs to gather unlimited amounts ol Information, the
because ll gives us a new manner of seeing—a manner of "seeing through" pho
better to exploit the natural resources, increase productivity, keep order, make war,
tOgraphs to the thing photographed. He is not claiming that the photograph gives
give jobs to bureaucrats.22
us the impression or illusion of seeing reality but rather that the photograph allows
Roland Barthes, in the last book he wrote before his death in 1981, Camera us "to see things which are not in our presence" and that "the viewer of the phOtO
Lucida: Reflections on Photography, also placed himself in a realist mode regarding graph sees, literally, the scene that was photographed." In an argument similai to
photography. He theorizes about photography in a very personal manner: "Now, Barthes's, Walton argues that because the photograph is caused by objects in the
one November evening shortly after my mother's death, I was going through some photograph, it allows us to see what was there. Paintings are not caused by what
photographs." 2 3 He reflects upon a single photograph of his mother as a young girl, they depict. In cases of doubt about the existence of things painted, we have to rely
standing in a garden. He wanted "to learn at all costs what Photography was 'in on the painter's belief about what was seen; regardless of what the photographet
itself,' by what essential feature it was to be distinguished from the community of believes, however, the photograph shows what was before the lens.
images." Ultimately, Barthes declares photography to be "a magic; not an art." The Although, for Walton, photographs are transparent, they are not invisible; that is,
magic of photography, for Barthes, is that the photograph emanates past reality and we can notice them. Also, they are often subjective and expressive, rather than
authenticates the past existence of what it represents. Its power of authentication bound to an objective realism. Photographs also rely on conventions borrowed from
exceeds its power of representation. He declares the essence of photography to be other media, such as painting. Nevertheless, for Walton, they are unique because
"that which has been"—"what I see has been here." they are transparent.
Barthes explains that photography is different from other systems of representa- Theoretician Joel Snyder opposes realist theories of photography:
tion, because the thing that is photographed has really been there. In painting or
The notion that a photograph shows us "what we would have seen had we been
writing, however, the things to which the words or strokes refer are not necessarily
there ourselves" has to be modified to the point of absurdity. A photograph shows
real. But in photography, because of the way photographs are made, because pho-
us "what we would have seen" at a certain moment in time, from a certain vantage
tographs result from light reflected from objects to light-sensitive material, he "can point if we kept our head immobile and closed one eye and if we saw things in Agfa-
never deny that the thing has been there." No writing or painting can give Barthes the color or in Tri-X developed in D-76 and printed on Kodabromide #3 paper. By the
certainty of photography: "Photography never lies: or rather it can lie as to the time all the conditions are added up we are positing the rather unilluminating propo-
meaning of the thing . . . never to its existence." sition that, if our vision worked like photography, then we would see things the way
Barthes's method of building theory is phenomenological. His writing in Camera a camera does.26
Lucida is in the first-person singular, and he draws u p o n his direct experience in
looking at photographs. The following quotation elucidates his interesting and Snyder agrees that photographs seem like natural phenomena, but they are not, and
insightful subtheory of portraiture, which he derives from his experiences of being he directs our attention to how we ever came to think of photographs as natural
photographed: phenomena. 2 7 In opposition to Barthes and others, Snyder insists that photography
is no more privileged than painting or language in getting us to the "really real." He
In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one 1 think I am, the one I want others argues that we have falsely come to believe that the camera gives us privileged access
to think 1 am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to to the world because of our ignorance of the historical developments in the inven-
exhibit his art. In other words, a strange action: I do not stop imitating myself, and
tion and refinement of photography. The camera was invented to match the ways ol
because of this, each time I am (or let myself be) photographed, I invariably suffer
picturing developed by Renaissance artists—namely, drawing in Western, Renais-
from a sensation of inauthenticity, sometimes of imposture (comparable to certain
sance perspective. The standards for rendering developed by Renaissance artists are
nightmares). In terms of image-repertoire, the Photograph (the one I intend) repre-
sents that very subtle moment when, to tell the truth, I am neither subject nor object invented, not natural; they are conventions for depicting the world. Snyder points
but a subject who feeis he is becoming an object: I then experience a micro-version of OUI thai cameras themselves have been made to conform to standards of painting:
death (of parenthesis): I am truly becoming a specter.24 I he round lens of the camera obscura that "naturally" creates a circular image was
r • I III'OI y I '. II All' m
EB
modified by Renaissance painters and draftsmen lo .1 n< langulai format to meet tra-
ditional expectations lor paintings and drawings,
Snyder and coauthor Neil Allen Walsh point mil some common conventions
operant in supposedly realistic photography. In photographing a horse running,
photographers ordinarily choose one of three conventions. By keeping the camera
stationary and using a slow shutter speed, they render the horse blurred and the
background stationary. By panning the camera with the horse, they render the horse
sharp against a blurred background. By using a fast shutter speed and stationary
camera, they freeze both horse and background. Each of these pictures, the authors
argue, might seem natural enough to us now, but remember that photographers had
to invent these ways of conveying motion in their still photographs and that we had
to learn their conventions for representing motion in order to accurately under-
stand their photographs. 2 8
Snyder's conventionalist arguments owe much to the theories of Ernst Gombrich
and Nelson Goodman. Gombrich writes about the history of art to reveal how dif-
ferent people in different cultures and time represent the world and understand
their representations. Goodman is a philosopher also interested in the different
ways we represent our world through symbol systems such as graphs, maps, charts,
and paintings. Both Gombrich and Goodman argue that pictorial realism is cultur-
ally bound. That is, what was realistic for the ancient Egyptians is not realistic for
us; and perhaps more important, our version of realism, to which we are so accus-
tomed as convincingly realistic, would not be decipherable to them. Styles of repre-
sentation, realistic and otherwise, are invented by artists and draftsmen in a culture
and learned by viewers in that culture. Styles of picturing are made up of invented
codes that become conventional. Realism, for Goodman, is a matter of a picture's
codes being easily decipherable, readily readable. Ease of information retrieval from
a style of picturing is mistaken by a culture for pictorial accuracy because the view-
ers are unaware of the representational system within their own culture; they are
too familiar with it to notice it. A style becomes so easily readable that it seems real-
istic and natural—it seems to be the way the world is.
The capabilities of computers to enhance and alter photographic images to real-
ist positions reinforce conventionalist positions. Fred Ritchin, picture editor for the
New York Times from 1978 to 1982, describes computerized pictorial alteration as

translating a photograph into digital information (a numerical code that can be read Messier Grid Map, 1999.
by the computer) by using a device called a scanner. An image then appears as the © Paul ditto, The Arcturus Observatory.
sum total of many tiny squares, called pixels, or picture elements, each of which rep-
resents information as to the brightness and color of that sector of the image. Once
digitized, an image can be subtly modified pixel by pixel. The entire image can be
altered in a variety of ways: colors can be changed, the apparent focus sharpened,
some elements can be taken out, and others replicated. The process also allows lor
the original images to be combined with another.29
•I / I llruiy Is II A l l /

I lie advent ol llit- digital camera allows photogiaphcis lo bypass the process photographs, however, do pose a serious threat to photographic veracity. I he
dl scanning conventional photographs by directly rendering reality as pixels. tabloids at the checkout lanes of grocery stores are abundant with bizarre examples
Astronomers, for example, make digital images by using charge-coupled devices of supposedly true and accurate photographs, which we usually laugh about oi
sneer at, but other uses of digitized journalistic photographs are more prohlcmain
(CCDs). CCDs are light-sensitive chips that produce small regions of electrical
Ritchin cites several examples: On the February 1982 cover of National Geogiaphii,
charges when struck by light. The light-induced charges can be read as an image
editors visually shifted two pyramids closer together to better fit the vertical formal
and can be greatly enhanced with the aid of a computer. CCDs are much more sen-
of the magazine; in 1985, Rolling Stone's editors removed a holster from the shoul
sitive to light than film is: A two-minute exposure with a CCD is equivalent to a
der of Don Johnson, television star of Miami Vice, for a less violent looking image,
thirty-minute exposure with conventional film. CCDs provide images of 16,000,000
Ritchin himself, in a demonstration for the New York Times Magazine, added tin-
pixels, 4,000 X 4,000 square, and have largely replaced photographic film in pro-
Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and TransAmerica Pyramid to a photograph ol tin-
fessional astronomy. A new camera tested in 1999 increases the 16,000,000 pixels
New York City skyline; and picture editors of Time, April 20, 1987, made a CORI
of CCDs to 67,076,064 pixels. It has a field of view larger than the moon. The cam-
posite picture of a United States Marine done in a studio and one of the American
era, a wide-field imager (WF1), utilizes a mosaic assembly of CCDs linked to com-
Embassy in Moscow for a lead picture on a story about Marine espionage. More
puters and telescopes, sometimes located in different parts of the world, and
recently, Time's cover, June 27, 1994, about the arrest of O.J. Simpson for the mur-
renders images with levels of detail exceeding what the naked eye is able to see by
der of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman, featured a digitized version of the Los
a factor of 10,000.30
Angeles Police Department's mug shot of Simpson. Time's illustrator, however,
Messier Grid Map by astronomer Paul Gitto is a composite of 110 CCDs of celes- darkened the skin of Simpson, to the outrage of many readers who interpreted the
tial objects in the Northern Hemisphere that he made from dawn to dusk on the gesture to be racist. The following week, Time published an apology. The ability to
first day of spring with a CCD camera and a telescope. The images replicate a hand- convincingly alter photographs undermines image authentication in courts of law,
written list of objects made by Charles Messier, an eighteenth-century French the enforcement of missile-verification treaties, and other documentary uses of
astronomer. Gitto's grid, based on Messier's astronomical catalogue, has eleven rows photographs.
and ten columns in numerical order, beginning in the upper left with Ml, the Crab
Regardless of what a person thinks about the nature of photography, whether it
Nebula, and ending in the lower right with MHO, a small elliptical galaxy in
is more accurately thought of as a unique medium or as a medium of conventions it
Andromeda. The image was made not to be reproduced in a book or to hang on a
shares with other media, most critics agree that photography is accepted by the
gallery wall, but to be displayed on the Internet as an interactive image that coexists
public as believable. "People believe photographs," Coleman wrote,32 and Andy
with the other 109 images to which it is linked.31
Grundberg reiterates the point: Photography "is the most stylistically transparent of
CCDs are enhanced electronically so that features of objects that could not be
the visual arts, able to represent things in convincing perspective and seamless
seen otherwise are made visible through a range of operations called image pro-
detail. Never mind that advertising has taught us that photographic images can be
cessing. These extensive operations are not possible with film. The CCD camera
marvelous tricksters: what we see in a photograph is often mistaken for the real
first subtracts electronic noise—unwanted electrons caused by factors other than
thing."33 The transparency that Grundberg mentions is allied to the transparency
light hitting the chip material—from the image. Usually a number of images of the
that Walton discusses and also to cultural tendencies to see through the photograph
same object are taken and electronically merged into a single calibrated image that
to what is photographed, to forget that the photograph is an artifact, made by a
then undergoes further processing. The processes are designed to reveal or hide, human. Too often people wrongly accept the photograph as a natural phenomenon
sharpen or soften, lighten or darken, and color different facets of the image's details rather than a human construct.
otherwise hidden in the electronic data. Using an unsharp mask, one can also
enhance small- and medium-scale detail; log scaling enhances weak signals by
increasing the pixel values of the fainter pixels; histogram equalization makes the Modernism and Postmodernism
brightness of all the pixel values the same. These image-enhancement processes are
Modernism in art and photography is a small part of a much larger era known as
a combination of art and science used to turn digital data into images of scientific
modernity temporally ranging from the Enlightenment (about 1687 to 1789) to the
and aesthetic value.
present. Early modernity is characterized intellectually by a belief that science could
Artists making obvious or subtle manipulations of photographs with digitized
save the world and that, through reason, a foundation of universal truths could be
images for artistic purposes furthers the tradition of manipulated artistic photogra-
established. Through the use of science and reason, which yield truth, political
phy. Digitized photographs presented and accepted as journalistic or evidentiary
i iiI'IIi y i •. ii /\ri r

leaders thought they could produce a |usi am! rgalltui i.ui soi i.il on lei I liese beliefs impossibility ol constructing a theory or method ol inquiry dial will answer all llir
fed the American and I tench democratic revolutions I lie ma|oi movements and questions or the impossibility of fully comprehending weighty matters, like death.
events ol modernity arc democracy, capitalism, industiializalion, science, and
For Derrida, and other postmodernists, deconstruction guards against the mod
urbanization. Modernity's rallying Hags are freedom and the individual.
ernist belief—
I here is no discrete beginning of postmodernity, but some scholars look at the
Student revolution in Paris in 1968 as its symbolic birth. Postmodernists react a belief that has led to much violence—that the world is simple and can be known
against modernism: Postmodernity does not simply temporally succeed modernity, with certainty. It confronts us with the limits of what is possible for human thought to
it largely rejects it, and antimodernism is a clearer term for the wide-ranging phe- accomplish.33
nomenon. The French postmodernist writer Jean-Francois Lyotard explains the dif-
Postmodernists see all kinds of things as texts, including photographs, and insist
ference between modernism and postmodernism:
that all texts need to be read critically. For postmodernists a text is different from
Even though the field of the postmodern is extremely vast, and even though the modernists' notion of a work. A work is singular, speaking in one voice, that ol the
word can sometimes be applied to things that are diametrically opposed to one author, which leads the reader to look for one meaning, presumed to be tin-
another, it's based fundamentally upon the perception of the existence of a modern author's. A postmodernist text, however, implies that any piece of literature or woi k
era that dates from the time of the Enlightenment and that has now run its course; of art is not the product of a free and unique individual but rather a field of citations
and this modern era was predicated on a notion of progress in knowledge, in the arts,
and correspondences in continual permutation in which many voices speak, blend,
in technology, and in human freedom as well, all of which was thought of as leading
and clash. For postmodernists many readings (interpretations and understandings)
to a truly emancipated society: a society emancipated from poverty, despotism, and
of a text are desirable—no single reading can be conclusive or complete. Further,
ignorance.34
reading should not simply be seen as consumption but as production. Reading is "a
Social critics object that modernists fell far short of producing a just and egalitarian productive activity, the making of meaning, in which one is guided by the text one
society. Postmodernists criticize modernists for producing the suffering and misery reads, of course, but not simply manipulated by it; [one should also] perceive writ-
of peasants under monarchies, and later the oppression of workers under capitalist ing as an activity that is also guided and sustained by prior texts. The writer is
industrialization, the exclusion of women from the public sphere, the colonization always reading, and the reader is always writing." 36
of other lands by imperialists for economic and religious reasons, and ultimately the The poststructuralist text is an elaboration of the structuralist's notion of the
destruction of indigenous peoples. Postmodernist artists and photographers draw sign: "Every meaningful action—wearing a necktie, embracing a friend, cooking a
on these social themes in their work. Consider Barbara Kruger's work, for example. meal—is meaningful only to the extent that it is a sign in some interpretive code." ' 7
Postmodernists are much less optimistic about the possibility of progress and Roland Barthes deciphered the interpretive code of a photographic print advertise-
our ability to positively affect the future than modernists are, and they are much ment for a tomato sauce in Chapter 3 of this book.
more skeptical about freedom of the individual and the power of reason to solve Structuralism and poststructuralism are coexisting and opposing ways of making
social problems. Michel Foucault, the late French cultural critic who has pro- meaning of the world. Both influence current theory about photography and criti-
foundly influenced postmodern thinking on such diverse disciplines as criminology, cism. Structuralism is modernist in the sense that structuralists, in their search for
philosophy, and literary criticism, argued that knowledge is power that is too often underlying codes, systems, or structures, believe they can attain ultimate truths
used by a powerful few to impose their ideas of what they consider to be right and about the world and social interactions. Claude Levi-Strauss, for example, devel-
true on the majority. oped structuralist anthropology to uncover systems embedded in social codes. He
Jacques Derrida, the influential French postmodernist who uses deconstruction as sought scientific truths. Poststructuralists, such as Derrida, however, are skeptical
his critical methodology of deconstructing texts, explains his sense of deconstruction ol any ultimate truths, believing that truth is historically dependent and always par-
and text: tial. I bus, poststructuralists are postmodernists.
Postmodernists influenced in their beliefs by Jacques Lacan, the French psycho
To deconstruct a "text" (a term defined broadly enough to include the Declaration of
analytic scholar, also are wary of the notion of a self. Rene Descartes's dictum, "I
Independence and a Van Gogh painting) means to pick it apart, in search of ways in
which it fails to make the points it seems to be trying to make. Why would someone think therefore I am," is an Enlightenment foundational belief in the existence of a
want to "read" (defined equally broadly) like that? In order to experience the impos- Unified rational being. Later, Existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre added that
sibility of anyone writing or saying (or painting) something this is perfectly clear, the "existence precedes essence"—that is, individuals are free and undetermined. James
 »iy 11 I I Ml I r

11 lignum, a photography critic, summarizes I acauK ilu-oiy ul the sell, which si rains anil ti.iir.. indent y ("art for art's sake"); a bcliel (hat an primarily refers to otlici art,
against modernist notions: lailin than the social world; a desire to be judged by formalist criteria and how the
.111 win k further* the history of art; a disregard for context in interpretation; .1 pre
For lacan, the Self is not the unitary ego of the < artesian Cogifo cr%o sum. That sense occupation wilh the purity of a medium ("flatness" in painting, for example);'" I
ol a unitary Self is, according to Lacan, an illusion, an effect of ideology; rather, the rejection of narrative content as appropriate for serious art; a belief in the individual
subject only exists as if it were a unitary subject. It is actually a misrecognized Self
genius of the artist; a desire for originality; a thirst for the new; and reverence loi
formed from an idealized image which it forms of itself in the mirror of the idealized
the precious, unique art object.
Other, be that one's family, Big Brother, or cultural forms of reflection like film, televi-
sion, and literature.38
MODERNISM IN PHOTOGRAPHY Modernism in photography is known for po-
This theory of the self, not coincidentally, is very similar to critics' interpretations of sitions parallel to the ones given earlier for painting and sculpture. Modernists
what Cindy Sherman has fashioned with her self-portraits discussed earlier in this believe that art photography is different from and superior to commercial photogra-
book. Modernists place the individual at the center of the universe; postmodernists phy. For several decades color photographs, popular in mass media, were consid-
decenter the individual and claim that the self is merely an effect of language, social ered trivial by the photographic art community, and black and white was held to be
relations, and the unconscious. serious. Modernists hold fashion photography in lower esteem than art photogra-
Using examples from daily experience, Todd Gitlin, a sociologist, offers this list phy; Richard Avedon and Irving Penn still fight, whether they need to or not, to be
of persons, places, and things he considers postmodernist, and in need of critical recognized as artists. The commercial work of Diane Arbus and Duane Michals, lor
readings: example, has not been treated equally with their art photography. Li/e magazine
offered copious context for its photographs through captions and articles, whereas
Michael Graves's Portland Building, Philip Johnson's AT&T, and hundreds of more or Aperture magazine during the same years, under the editing of Minor White, did nol
less skillful derivatives; Robert Rauschenberg's silk screens, Warhol's multiple-image even publish the name of the photographer under an image so as not to distract
paintings, photo-realism, Larry Rivers's erasures and pseudo-pageantry, Sherrie from aesthetic and spiritual contemplation of the image. The desire of modernists to
Levine's photographs of "classic" photographs; Disneyland, Las Vegas, suburban
have photography a pure medium fueled debates throughout the history of photog-
strips, shopping malls, mirror-glass office building facades; William Burroughs, Tom
raphy, with Edward Weston, for example, rallying against what he derogatorily
Wolfe, Donald Barthelme, Monty Python, Don DeLillo, Isuzu "He's lying" commer-
called the "pseudo-paintings" of photographers who visibly hand-brushed their
cials, Philip Glass, "Star Wars," Spalding Gray, David Hockney ("Surface is illusion,
emulsions. John Szarkowski's defining characteristics of photographs as the thing
but so is depth"), Max Headroom, David Byrne, Twyla Tharp (choreographing Beach
Boys and Frank Sinatra songs), Italo Calvino, "The Gospel at Colonus," Robert Wil- ltKlf, the detail, the frame, time, and vantage point sought to make the medium
son, the Flying Karamazov Brothers, George Coates, the Kronos Quartet, Frederick Unique, and especially different from painting. Modernists favor symbolist rather
Barthelme, MTV, "Miami Vice," David Letterman, Laurie Anderson, Anselm Kiefer, 1 ban narrative photographs, and realism over instrumentalism. Modernists believe
John Ashbery Paul Auster, the Pompidou Center, the Hyatt Regency, The White Hotel, llie straight photograph to be the embodiment of what photography does best.
E. L. Doctorow's Book of Daniel, Less than Zero, Kathy Acker, Philip Roth's Counterlife Modernist prints are precious, signed, numbered, and archivally processed.
(but not Portnoy's Complaint), the epilogue to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Berlin Photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunning-
Alexanderplatz," the "Language of poets"; the French theorists Michel Foucault, ham, Minor White, and Ansel Adams, and historian Beaumont Newhall, and curator
Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard; television morning shows; news I oh 11 SzarUowski are preeminent modernists in photography. Szarkowski, over the
commentary gluing us in to the image-making and "positioning" strategies of candi-
pasi 1 wenty-five years, has had a major role in shaping modernist theory in art pho-
dates; remote-control-equipment viewers "grazing" around the television dial.39
lography. According to critic Richard Woodward, "He is one of the great figures of
Modernity and postmodernity imbue all aspects of society and are apparent in its American art; and the Museum of Modern Art has shown a longer, deeper regard for
cultural forms, including fiction, architecture, painting, and popular culture. This 1 In ail ol photography than any institution in the world." 41 Woodward credits
chapter, however, is particularly interested in distinctions between modernist and S/aikowski with cutting "the photograph's ties to journalistic themes and captions
postmodernist manifestations in photography. an, I I leiiingl work stand on its own, without relying on subject matter for its impor-
Modernism in art is known for such tenets as these: a superior attitude toward tMM e " I citing the work "stand on its own" is a modernist theme, that of transcen-
and opposition to popular culture; an emphasis on high art and superiority to the 1I1111 y and independence. Letting the work stand on its own "without relying on
crafts; an objection to art as entertainment; an insistence on its own self-sufficiency lUbJet 1 matter" is also a modernist tenet that looks to form, rather than subject, as
 the Important element, Poi more than twenty-five years, Woodward adds, both statements by Solomon Godcau and drover reiterate principles ol mod
Szarkowski has "done more than anyone lo analyze how a photograph differs from emism that they reject: "the autonomy, self-referentiality, and transcendence ol the
any Other kind of art." Szarkowski's analysis is a typically modernist project, one of work of art"; "individual genius, the object as unique and precious, art as the new,
soiling characteristics of photography from those of painting and other media, the violate." Those embracing postmodernist art generally recognize that an exem
establishing its uniqueness. plifies the political, cultural, and psychological experience of a society; they l i t
Modernism in photography has its own tradition different from the tradition of aware of and make reference to the previously hidden agendas of the art market and
hue ait. Modernism in photography and in fine art are based on the same beliefs, lis relation to art museums, dealers, and critics; they are willing to borrow widely
but the photographic community, desiring to have photography accepted as a legit- from the past; they have returned to the figurative in art; they embrace content over
imate and respected fine art on a par with painting, defensively developed its own form, and they represent a plurality of styles.
history books, its own departments in universities, its own journals, and favored
Walter Benjamin is an early and influential figure who has contributed to post-
educational separatism from other artists at the same time it was seeking acceptance
modernist practices and particularly to photography's centrality in postmodernism.
in the art community.
He is a German cultural theorist who in the 1930s wrote two essays on photography
Today photography is not only recognized as a legitimate artform, but it is also that are frequently cited by recent theorists, especially those of postmodernist
collected and displayed in museums all over the world. The J. Paul Getty Museum and leftist persuasions. The essays are "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
in Los Angeles, for example, bought nine private collections, 65,000 photographs, Reproduction" and "A Short History of Photography." In these essays Benjamin
in 1984, for an estimated $20 million. 42 stressed aspects of the photographic medium different from those that Strand and
Critic Abigail Solomon-Godeau sees such acceptance of photography as art as a Weston were emphasizing in the United States. While Strand and Weston herald the
"dubious reward":
honesty of the medium and the infinite detail of the negative and the beautiful pho-
tographic print, Benjamin stresses that, unlike the painting, the photograph is infi-
Today art photography reaps the dubious reward of having accomplished all that
was first set out in its mid-nineteenth century agenda: general recognition as an art nitely reproducible. Photography could also reproduce the painting. So while the
form, a place in the museum, a market (however erratic), a patrimonial lineage, an modernists were promoting the precious image, Benjamin's notions suggested pos-
acknowledged canon. Yet hostage still to a modernist allegiance to the autonomy, sibilities for a mass-produced image in the age of mechanical reproduction.
self-referentiality, and transcendence of the work of art, art photography has system- Photography is at the center of postmodernism. As critic Woodward writes, "In
atically engineered its own irrelevance and triviality. It is, in a sense, all dressed up the last few years, as neo-conceptualism—an art of ideas, riddles and barbed queries
with nowhere to go.43
m which the inner life of the artist is irrelevant—has replaced neo-expressionism in
critics' conversation, photography has moved from the margins toward the center of
She also addresses educational consequences of the modernist photography influ- the art world's interests." 46 With an implicit nod to Benjamin's thought, Woodward
ence in the college education of photography students:
I Itei reproduction as photography's main contribution to postmodernist practice:
The teaching of photography tends to be cordoned off from what goes on in the rest I Inlike a painting, a photograph is an infinitely reproducible image. (Paintings can
of the art department. So while young painters are reading art magazines and as often be it-produced only by means of photography.) A photograph is also readily adapt-
as not following developments in film, performance and video, photography students able It can be blown up, shrunk, cropped, blurred, used in a newspaper, in a book,
are reading photography magazines, disputing the merits of documentary over self- on .i billboard." Similarly, Abigail Solomon-Godeau lists the formal devices "serial-
expression, or resurrecting unto the fourth generation an exhausted formalism that Ity and repetition, appropriation, intertextuality, simulation or pastiche" as the pri-
can no longer generate either heat or light.44 iii,ii v means of such artists using photography as John Baldessari, Victor Burgin,
I till,i and Bernd Becher, Dan Graham, Sarah Charlesworth, Barbara Kruger, Louise
POSTMODERNISM IN PHOTOGRAPHY Postmodernism, in the views of I ,iw In, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, and
Solomon-Godeau and other critics, has rightly replaced modernism. Jan Zita Grover lamtJ Welling.47
writes: "Individual genius, the object as unique and precious, art as the new, the Postmodernism is not immune to criticism. Some fear that postmodernists'
violate (yet the pearl beyond price) had run smack into a highly persuasive, hugely rldli ule ol a search for truth fosters a cynical nihilism, and others fear that post-
pervasive mass culture that obscured the differences between original and repro- in, II I .is' emphasis on the impossible, on what we can't know, threatens to leave
duction, high and low art, entertainment and information, art and advertising." 45 U paralyzed and unable to react to the world's injustices. 48
n i n n y n ll f\\ 1 r

Marxist Theory and Criticism Anollici liadilional assumption is that the photograph is transparent, that is, 11
bides its own ideology and presents itself, and is easily received, as the thing Itself,
Allan Sekula criticizes photographic postmodernism as a "cynical and self-referential
Marxism and postmodernism reject these assumptions of traditional documentary
mannerism," which he calls "a chic vanguardism by artists who suffer from a very
as naive and posit that traditional, humanistic, concerned photography makes
real isolation from larger social issues." 49 Sekula instead embraces a critical social
social comments that merely evoke sympathy rather than encourage resistance.
documentary in his photography and his writing: "I am arguing, then, for an art that
Further, photography deals with surface appearances, and surfaces obscure ratlin
documents monopoly capitalism's inability to deliver the conditions of a fully hu-
than reveal the actual complex social relations that underlie appearances.
man life." He adds:
Victor Burgin insists that when Marxist cultural theory is applied to photography
Against violence directed at the human body, at the environment, at working people's theory, it "must take into account the determinations exerted by the means ol rep
ability to control their own lives, we need to counterpose an active resistance, simul- resentation upon that which is represented." 53 Through his writing and phologra
taneously political and symbolic, to monopoly capitalism's increasing power and phy he is interested in determining how representation affects what is represented.
arrogance, a resistance aimed ultimately at socialist transformation.50 Part of this project is to make visible ideologies operant within society and rein-
forced by all images, including photographs. Marxist cultural theory sees ideology
Sekula discusses his own work and the work of Philip Steinmetz, Martha as a system of representations, including images, myths, beliefs, which exist in a
Rosier, Fred Lonidier, and Chauncey Hare as working against the strategies of society at a certain historical time and have a role within the society; these repre-
"high art photography." These photographers, like the postmodernists, refuse to sentations act on men and women by a process that escapes them. Burgin credits the
treat the photograph as a privileged object and instead use it as an ordinary cul- women's movement as initially and continually critically examining how women arc-
tural artifact. They add language to their photographs to "anchor, contradict, rein- represented and exposing the detrimental consequences of those representations.
force, subvert, complement, particularize, or go beyond the meanings offered by
the images themselves."
Their work is also very different from "liberal documentary work." Sekula Feminist Theory and Criticism
writes: A Guerrilla Girl sets the context for feminism in the art world: "In 1984, the
Museum of Modern Art opened with an international painting and sculpture show.
For all his good intentions, for example, Eugene Smith in Minamata provided more a There were 166 people in that show, and only about 16 were women—so that was
representation of his compassion for mercury-poisoned Japanese fisherfolk than one
10 percent or less, and we knew we were in deep shit. So we started the Guerrilla
ol their struggle for retribution against the corporate polluter. I will say it again: the
Girls." The women took on the gorilla, the animal, by wearing great hairy masks
subjective aspect of liberal esthetics is compassion rather than collective struggle.
and waving bananas, and guerrilla, the term referring to freedom fighters' actions.
Pity, mediated by an appreciation of "great art," supplants political understanding.51
The name works imagistically—the angry gorilla image combined with the female
Sekula is arguing for political understanding of the corruption of capitalism, and body. They use humor strategically: "I think there is something very empowering,
then radical change. Mere compassion, through art photography, is not enough, and and also very positive, about targeting people with a lot of humor and addressing
worse, it distracts understanding and deflects rage. He insists that "the expression- issues that we have a vested interest in—not apologizing for it, but being very overt
about it." One of the women (they are all anonymous to protect themselves from
ist liberalism of the find-a-bum school of concerned photography" is not a solution.
reprisals) says that "to actually change the system is so unbelievably complex that at
Critic James Hugunin groups Sekula, Rosier, and Lonidier with Marshall Mayer,
this point, our interest is in getting women more access to it. So that's our attitude
Steve Cagan, Connie Hatch, Victor Burgin, Carole Conde, and Karl Beveridge under
about change, as opposed to breaking down the system." 54
the term "Marxist Realism." 52 Hugunin differentiates these Marxist realists from
"traditional documentary" or "concerned photography" in the tradition of Lewis Iwo other key ideas propel feminist theory: Sex is different from gender, and
Hine, Eugene Smith, and Roy DeCarava. According to Hugunin, traditional docu- feminism is instrumental. Sex refers to the physical features that make us female or
mentary photography is based on assumptions that the photograph represents a in.if , and gender to the cultural ideas of what it is to be a man or a woman. Accord-
one-to-one correspondence with reality which is nearly accurate and adequate and iii)', to Sally llagaman, a scholar of feminist theory in aesthetics and art education,
that the photographic image is capable of conveying information, needing language gendcri are the political constructions of what it means to live in a world where we
only as a verbal aside. Traditional documentary believes the viewer to be a receptive aie not merely human, but always man or woman. 5 5 Genders are several. Gender.
subject taking in the objective information of the world through the photograph. .11. .1I1 rd. Gender is how a culture expects and tries to ensure that men SCI a
/ • I ncory h It Art?

i CII.IIII way and women another, or a gay man this way and a lesbian thai way. Of
COUnc there are many ways one could act, but cultures specify which ways one
should think, feel, and behave if one is of a certain gender. Genders are usually hier-
archically constructed: Power, usually male, would have it be that it is better to be
male than female, masculine than feminine, "straight" than "queer." According to
I lagaman, gender is a meta-level phenomenon—it is something to think about, not
just something we do on a nonconscious level. As we become more conscious of
behavior, our judgments change, and our conscious acts also change. Gender in a
hierarchical society can be very constraining. In a nonhierarchical society, gender
might merely be a matter of choice.
Feminism is instrumental in that to be a feminist is a political choice, a choice
toward action to resist and to change the status quo. One is not b o m a feminist, but
rather one chooses to become one. All women are not feminists, and all women do
not make feminist art; nor do all feminists make feminist art, although feminists
refuse to believe that art and politics are separate.
Abigail Solomon-Godeau reveals how feminist theory is concerned with how
women are represented: "Central to feminist theory is the recognition that woman
does not speak herself: rather, she is spoken for and all that that implies: looked at,
imagined, mystified and objectified." 56 Barbara DeGenevieve is a feminist photogra-
pher committed to changing oppressive representations of women (and other mi-
nority groups) in society. She writes:

Photographic images carry ideological messages which cumulatively shape the cul-
ture's ideas, values, and attitudes. They are the bearers of cultural mythologies. If we
see enough pictures of a certain type (women being brutalized by men, minorities as
ghetto residents) we can conclude that such imagery is valuable to the culture. Espe-
cially, if certain aspects of society are not represented, it is most likely due to the fact
that no importance is given to them or that they have a negative value for the culture
(vulnerability in male sexuality, nonstereotypical images of women and people of
color).57

Griselda Pollock and Deborah Cherry, two feminist art historians, make a related
point about how women have been positioned in fine art: "Representing creativity
as masculine and circulating Woman as the beautiful image for the desiring male
gaze, High Culture systematically denies knowledge of women as producers of cul-
ture and meaning." 5 8 Solomon-Godeau explains how feminist theory is embodied
in the work of two feminist artists who use photography, Silvia Kolbowski and
Vikky Alexander. Both deal directly with images of women in the fashion industry. Lynette Molnar, Talking Back, 1990.
Both appropriate fashion imagery in mass circulation sources to subvert them. Kol- C Opyrighl © by Lynette Motnar. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.

bowski exposes how the fashion image constructs the female as different, as other,
and therefore estranges and oppresses her by making her the voyeuristic object of
the male gaze. When fashion imagery is presented for women, the female viewer
must project her own sexual identity as existing by and lor the eyes of men. 5 9 In her
 i i i i AW I r

I heoretical questions receive different answers, as do interpretive and evaluative

work Alexander exposes how women in fashion imagery arc presented as ritual
que,nous. Theorizing about photography, like interpreting and evaluating pho
objects and as commodities. In Solomon (lodcati's analysis, "By de-naturing such
tographs, results in conclusions that are more or less enlightening, more or lets
images, Alexander unmasks them." About these two artists, and others like them,
informative, more or less helpful in making photography, photographs, and the
she concludes:
world understandable. Theories or theoretical points, like interpretations and eval
Differences in emphasis, tactics and degree of appropriation notwithstanding, uations, are offered, considered, modified, and accepted or rejected. Some arc dis
Alexander, Kolbowski, Kruger, Levine and Prince are artists whose concerns are missed as misguided; others are saved and mulled over and altered over tunc
grounded in the cultural, the political, the sexual. Viewed individually, collectively, or through argument.
as sample representatives of postmodernist art practice, their work contrasts vividly Critics and theoreticians frequently take issue with each other's ideas. Rudolph
with parochialism, insularity, and conservatism of much art photography.60 Arnheim rejects Barthes's notions of how photographs signify as "too lexical," cor-
responding too closely to verbal language. 62 Susan Sontag's book is extremely criti
Feminist production in writing or art making, however, is not restricted to how
cal of photography, and it particularly upset several photographers. Sometimes the
women are represented. On an image appropriated from Newsweek of two police-
debates become quite heated. Bill Jay, a photography historian, resorts to name call
men dragging a pro-choice woman away from a rally, Lynette Molnar superimposes
ing ("pseudo/marxists" who are "pernicious and vicious") in objecting to the inllu
these words: "Keep your self-righteous right wing fundamentalist Christian male
ence of the Women's Caucus of the Society of Photographic Education on the field
laws off my body." The image is about two feet by three feet, an assemblage of color
of photography. 63 Nevertheless, these debates and conflicting views contribute to an
photocopies, and was made as a placard for street demonstrations to oppose Right
ongoing, interesting, and informative dialogue about photography and photographs
to Life demonstrators who are attempting to repeal laws that allow abortion. Mol-
that enlivens the viewing of photographs as well as their making. Theories of pho
nar's work is socially activist, direct, and accessible to a wide audience; it is
tography are important and valuable, even if they are sometimes contradictory.
intended for the street rather than the museum. Feminists in the field are also work-
They arc important because they affect practice. They are valuable because they
ing to achieve full participation in the art world, including equality in arts funding
help us understand more about photography and photographs and increase out
and representation in galleries and museums, and to improve the number and sta-
understanding and appreciation of the medium, individual pictures, and the world.
tus of women on photography faculties. An allied project is the recovering of lost
Knowing some of the issues and theoretical assumptions allows us to better join the
and unknown women artists in history, exemplified by Naomi Rosenblum's A His-
discussions and to be better informed about what we are doing in making and in
tory of Woman Photographers. In art criticism, some feminists have interjected a per-
criticizing photographs.
sonal voice and style of writing and have eschewed the notion of objectivity—Lucy
Lippard's activist criticism discussed in Chapter 1 is a clear example.
In a critical view through a feminist lens, Laura Cottingham summarily credits
feminist photographers and scholars for restructuring our sense of photographic
representation by their "claiming the personal as political, rewriting the art-historical
canon against the patrilinear unwriting of female contributions, introducing autobi-
ography, reclaiming craft and domestic labor, and centralizing female subjectivity
against the universalization of male experience." 61

CONCLUSION
There is no single Marxism, no single feminism, no single, universally accepted post-
modernism. Instead, there are many variations of each and much cross-pollination—
for example, Marxist feminisms and humanistic feminisms. Nor do these various
theories merge to form a comprehensive, unitary theory of photography. Some theo-
ries complement and supplement others, but some are incompatible. Modernism is
at odds with postmodernism. Marxist realism rejects humanistic liberalism.
 1IIM| ni'iMM I II

cthcD
sure your notes are accurate, especially when consulting written material. Sloppy

( IIAI'IIR 8 note taking can result in unintended plagiarism, which is using another's words or
ideas as if they were your own. When taking notes, enclose another author's words
in quotation marks, and carefully cite all bibliographic information: author, title,
publisher, place of publication, publication date, page numbers. If you use another's
words in your writing, you must put them within quotation marks. If you use
another's ideas but not the person's exact words, you must still credit the source ol
the idea within the text or in a footnote. Plagiarism, whether intended or not, is a
serious matter that can result in serious consequences.
Writing and Talking Obtain a writer's style manual. A professor, academic department, or publisher
may have a preferred style. If a style manual is not specified, choose one from a
bookstore and follow it. Style guidelines, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, Tura-
About Photographs bian, Modern Language Association Handbook, Strunk and White's The Elements oj
Style, and others provide you with information on good writing, how to footnote
and construct bibliographies, and other technical matters, and they provide consis-
tency. Without them you will be unnecessarily and inefficiently inventing your own
style guide.
To learn more about the photographs you will write about, follow the activities
of description, interpretation, and evaluation. Describe both subject matter and
form. Also note the presentational environment of the work, or its external context.
Are you writing about one piece or a show? Where did the one piece originate; why
WRITING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHS is it being shown here and now? If it is a show, who organized it and why? Are there
You should be well equipped now to write about photographs. We have identified useful statements by exhibiting artists or the curator? Recall what you know about
lour main questions that can be asked of any photograph: What is here? What is it the photographer and the time and place the photograph was made. This external
about? Is it good? Is it art? Answering any of these questions will give you some- information will inform your interpretation of the work.
thing significant to write about. While you are observing a photograph and deciding what to write about and
To write well you need to want to write. Choose a photograph, a book, or an how, listen to your feelings and determine what in the work has triggered them.
exhibition that interests you and about which you care. You may be interested Freely write down phrases and words that come to mind; the more phrases you
because you like the work or because you object to it. You may be intrigued for rea- write now, the fewer you will have to construct later. Afterwards you can arrange
sons you haven't yet identified or because the work appeals to you but you don't yet them logically and discard the irrelevant. Allow yourself the time to set aside your
feel you understand it. If you don't care about the work, however, you will have dif- work for a while and come back to it later to check your initial reactions. Write
ficulty writing about it. If you have been given an assignment in which you are not down new thoughts. Decipher why you care about the work, and determine whai
interested, think of an alternative and comparable assignment that does interest you want someone else to know about it and your reaction to it.
you, and ask your professor if you may switch. If permission is not granted, the bur-
den will be on you to find motivation, and you might even start your paper with An Interpretive Paper
reasons for your reluctance about the assigned topic.
The following student paper is a good example of a primarily interpretive paper that
uses descriptive information as needed to inform readers and to support the writer's
Observing the Work and Taking Notes understandings of the work. It was written by Kendra Hovey when she was a
Study the photograph or exhibition intently, and jot down notes as you reflect on continuing-education student, equivalent to a first-year master's student. Her under-
graduate degree is in philosophy. She wrote the paper while taking a course in pho-
the work. Be sure your notes are complete. If they are not, you may have to return
tography criticism from the author using this book. Her paper is in response to an
to the gallery or library to get what you could have obtained during the first visit. Be

r i n i
w i m n i | ,111.1 i. 11K11111 A I i« H I I l' 11111 < i < 11.11 > 11 s
cjb
KSSignmenl for a Iwo to three page interpretive papei mi ,i i onicinporary photog- really believe this is real, but why an- you so ready to accept the reality ol olhet
rapher. The assignment specified her audience to he the university community, images ?"
<
including both Ireshmen and professors, many ol whom would not be previously The piece Frog/Frog II. With Man Ray directly questions this distinction
aware ol the work ol Wegman. between identity and image, or put differently, it comically mocks the assump
tions of the real. On one side of the frame is a frog, smallish, green, and perched
on a lily pad. Sitting across is Man Ray with bug eyes and green flippers. The title
REVIEW William Wegman Kendra Hovey refers to both as frogs of some kind. But we are likely to identify one as a dog
dressed as a frog and the other as a frog. The frog, though, may be a frog or it may
A nude female model lounges seductively on a chair. Captured in a photographic be a plastic replica of a frog, all we really know is that it is a frog-looking image on
print, her sultry eyes glance sidelong at us. This is not Marilyn Monroe or Linda Polaroid material. The portrayal of Man Ray as a frog is, of course, absurd and we
Fvangclista, but a new singular beauty with a singular name—Battina. Not just are not led to question his identity but the absurdity combined with the mimicry
another French model, Battina is a creature of Germanic heritage. She is recog- does ask us to question other assumptions of authenticity. Wegman's images ask
nized by her dark features, smooth and shiny hair, slender legs, floppy ears and us to take a second look at our accepted notions about the world.
that ever so prominent snout. This bird is a bird chaser. Beautiful Battina is a A number of Wegman's photographic images contain references to photogra-
Weimaraner, of the genus canine. A dog. phy. Tri-X is a brand of film; it is also the title of one of his pieces in which the
William Wegman is the prankster behind the camera, and pictures bearing his word is ascribed a different meaning as three dogs stand with their legs crossed
signature contain some of the funniest visual jokes available on photographic forming three Xs. Another piece is titled Matted (Diptych). With Fay Ray. In a ref-
material. This one, titled Lolita. With Battina, amuses by portraying the Playboy erence to the standard method of presenting photographic prints Fay Ray stands
prototype in the body of a dog. Wegman's canine models also roller-skate, watch with four paws firmly positioned on the four corners of a door mat. Other images
TV bedside, mimic a Stonehenge arch, and engage in a number of other anthro- use standard scenes of photographic attention—the portrait, the studio baby pic-
pomorphic activities. The images poke fun. They are playful and comical. The ture, and the fashion shot. Accurate or not, photography has a reputation for
incongruity of a dog exercising on a stationary bike solicits laughter, but it is the being authentic. Early on the camera was referred to as a machine that would
seemingly self-aware expression of the dog that adds another dimension to this
allow nature to paint itself. Wegman uses this realistic medium to turn a derisive
work. Humorous and silly it no doubt is. But boundary breaking it also is. Weg-
eye on our common notions of the real, and at the same time mocks our common
man, in presenting the normal with an element of the ridiculous, is creating an
notion of the real-ness of photographic imaging.
opening for us to rethink the normal. His whimsical images mock rationality; they
extend and reinterpret common thinking.
In Wegman's photographs it is not just the dress or the surrounding props that An Evaluative Paper
bring to life these unlikely scenarios, but the expression of the model and the title II you arc judging the work, be clear in your appraisal and offer reasons for it. Your
that serves to define that expression. A cocked head looks ponderous in Stills
c niciia lor judging work ought to be implicitly available to your reader, if not
from a Spelling Lesson (Reel 4). With Man Ray. A sideways stare is read as a forlorn
explicitly stated. Remember that criticism is persuasive writing. Be persuasive by
glance in Arm Envy. With Alexander Edwards and Eay Ray. In Wegman's pho-
ollei ing reasons and evidence in support of your interpretations and judgments and
tographs the dogs look as if they know what they are doing. The title acknowl-
in yoiu use of language. It is easy to be persuasive to someone who already agrees
edgments, "With Man Ray" and "With Battina" for example, give credit to the
wnli VIIIII positions. Is your argument and manner of stating it persuasive enough
model's role as actor. They almost ask us to imagine Battina "losing character"
when the spotlights are turned off and Wegman says "Relax, we're done for the to ( HIISC leaders who oppose your positions to stop and reconsider their positions?
day." We can imagine it, but we don't believe it. Likewise, though we don't know I In following two student papers are both about Sally Mann's Immediate Family.
whether or not Man Ray is pondering we doubt he is pondering how to spell. Fay I In pupi'is MIC in response to an assignment which asked for judgments of Mann's
Ray may be forlorn but it is not Alexander Edwards' arms that she covets. Know- WOrV I he participants saw the photographs in class and later had the pictures
ing this, we create a distinction between identity and imaging; it looks like this IVlillblc i" them for individual viewing. They understood that some people find
but it is really something else. Importantly, this is a distinction that is often ili. %%..i 1 i ontroversial. When she wrote the following paper, Rina Kundu was a
blurred when looking at photographs. Recognizing this distinction becomes a I i iu,I, m majoring in art education and the history of art and was enrolled in
challenge to our perceptions, as if these images are saying "OK, so you don't i . inn .i mi photography criticism using this book.
I • Wt 1111 >. i iind 1 ! 11- iii.) AI I I' 111 > I c > 111.11111 •.

S.illy M.mn's Immediate family Rina Kundu

Sally Mann's photographs are stunning. Twenty-live beautiful, H X 10-inch, black

and white photographs line the wall of an exhibition space. Their vitality is
instrumental in pulling the viewer into a world—an intimate world of the Imme-
diate Family—where Mann's children romp, play, pose, and pretend. The tensions
are there as well because it is a complex world where children grow up. It is about
their relationship with their mother.
Mann's photographs of her children, Jessie, Virginia, and Emmett, reveal a
mother's gaze. She takes pride in the delicacy of their youth, captured before her
camera. The obvious lack of self-consciousness among the unclothed children, as
they play, reveals a non-traditional, but healthy atmosphere. Mann captures the
spontaneity of their nakedness as they read, skate, and sleep. Often, her gaze turns
to concern as she records the everyday mishaps that make up a child's life—
bloody noses, cuts, bruises, and bed-wetting. The pictures express a mother's love
and fear—and they are always carefully crafted.
Sally Mann makes pictures. She uses a large format camera, and she aestheti-
cizes her compositions by contrasting tonal values, utilizing soft-focus, framing
her subjects, and creating arresting juxtapositions. In Sunday Funnies the light
from an open window dances across the children's bodies, creating interesting pat-
terns against the shadowed recesses of their curves. In Kiss Goodnight the blurred
focus and strong light produce an image of sketch-like quality, all of which add to
the delicately tender moment. In Jessie at 5 the child is framed between two
friends, and her body creates a bold S-curve. Lastly in Night-blooming Cereus, soft,
full blossoms are juxtaposed against the immature breasts of a child. Mann's inter-
est in craft makes these photographs dynamic and vital, pulling the viewer in to
examine the deeper implications of their content.
Sally Mann, Jessie at 5, 1987.
A child's world is never wholly innocent. They imitate and model themselves
Copyright © by Sally Mann. All rights reserved. Courtesy of Houk Friedman, New York City.
after adults. Mann captures these unsettling but compelling moments in her story.
The photographs reveal the bridging of childhood and adulthood. Virginia and
Jessie often pose as if they were fashion models; they wear make-up and jewelry,
and they copy adult behavior. This unsentimental look into role playing culmi-
nates in Candy Cigarette, where seven-year-old Jessie holds a candy cigarette
between her fingers and poses provocatively. Although these pictures are disturb-
ing, they are an unsparing depiction of the real world of children, not some ideal-
ized version.
Not all the pictures are a social document of children growing older, but some
are allegorical in nature. Popsicle Drips, Hayhook, and The Terrible Picture allude to
the pain of the Crucifixion—the contortion, the elongation, and the stillness.
They are, indeed, striking images, but they also reveal Mann's ultimate control
over her children. She takes over. The children no longer posture to imitate com-
mercially packaged heroes; they are positioned. The allegorical scenes have noth-
ing to do with a child's life; however, they do reveal a mother's' control. Thus, even
 v v i i i 11111 n i ' n M i I
Wnlimi ,1M(I I ill in.| Allolll I' 11 • > I i > < 11 .1 1111 S

hope ol guiding children safely through puberty with caring, responsible leelings
I lie process ol image-making draws oui attention In 11 if c lnld's world —the nature
about themselves and others.
ol a child's relationship with his mother. Ilayhook distresses me the most. Pre-pubescent Jessie hangs, nude, from a hay-
Although Mann's images are breathtakingly heautilul, their significance lies in hook while a spattering of clothed adults loiter in the area. Her lithe little body,
their social content. Through her subjects and her process, Mann captures the stretched out like a plucked chicken in the butcher's window, looks suspiciously
psychological relationship between parent and child. Her gaze is loving and con- like it is about to be abused. This might not be the intent at all, but even the him
cerned, she allows her children to role play, and she also takes control. Immediate that it might possibly be makes me wonder why Mann would ever shoot such a
Family is ultimately an ongoing story between a mother and her children, cap- pose of her young daughter.
tured here for just a moment. The photographs draw our attention because they Emmett, Mann's young son, fares no better at escaping his mother's probing
are not a sentimental view of children but a real relationship between an artist and camera lens. In Popsicle Drips his nude front torso becomes the entire focal poini
her subject. Children are not altogether innocent; they model their behavior after of the photograph. Here, so-called popsicle drips smear only his groin, exposed so
adult figures. A mother watches as her children grow up, and she will learn that delicately yet publicly flaunted. The drips a child endures while sucking a popsi-
she must negotiate control. cle usually run down the arms, chin and neck, so it's hard to imagine this photo-
graph as anything but a contrived view designed to shock and titillate.
Anne Quilter took a view opposing Kundu's. At the time she wrote the following Virginia at 3 shows the little naked girl leaning provocatively against a bed. Her
paper, Quilter was a returning student, a senior majoring in art education. She is the demeanor is sullen and pouty, with a "dare me" look in her eyes. Little-ones do acl
mother of five children. this way, but usually a teddy bear or toy truck accompanies the look, not a rum-
pled bed.
Sally Mann exploits her young children's trust in her judgment as the parent
Sally Mann's Immediate Family Anne Quilter and does them no favors publishing this collection of casual moments of their
childhoods. The photographs, technically and artistically, are just so-so. The light-
Childhood spins far too slowly for those growing through it and much too
ing is unimaginative; the compositions are ordinary; and the focus in several pho-
quickly for us facilitating the process. Hurled into the world from the whirling
tographs blurs. Even the subject matter itself would not be controversial—if left
dervish ride after just a few short years, youthful adults face the incongruities of a
in the protection of the family photo album. Paying her children to pose and then
sometimes not-too-nice-society with only those messages of trust, integrity, and publishing prematurely, before her children are of age, sends the wrong messages
autonomy that we, as parents, caretakers, and educators, manage to convey. When about the value of children and their privacy.
one of these memos gets soiled, ripped, chewed, the child's perception of how the
world works becomes distorted. Sally Mann in Immediate Family shreds her own
children's notions about worthy societal values by exploiting both their innocence
The Process of Writing
and their trust in her with the publication of their portraits in the nude.
This work chronicles the ordinary lives of her three young children as they go llelorc you begin to write, it is important to determine who you are writing to, how
about the business of childhood—playing, sleeping, eating—coupled with those much background information your reader will have, and what information you
extra-ordinary moments in each child's life such as trips to the hospital emergency will have to supply. Organize how you are going to proceed with your essay. Think
room. Given the common quality of these occurrences, the photographs in them- iboul Ml opening that will draw your reader in—that will make someone want to
selves would not be disturbing, but rather, touching looks at some of childhood's read (he rest of what you have written. Although we have studied criticism in the
sweetest memories. The children's nudity, coupled with their provocative poses, logical order of description, interpretation, evaluation, and theory, remember that
however, presents a disturbing reality of childhood sexuality pushed and pro- < i it if s lately write in such a sequence. They write to be read with some enjoyment,
voked to the surface by an unkind, unthinking, adult world. in ,t way that will involve the reader in what they have to say. What do you want to
In Candy Cigarette, Jessie mimics a sophisticated Hollywood starlet's pose with tell V"iu leader, and how do you want to tell it? What will be your main point, and
her right arm casually supporting her left which holds a cigarette. Her look of what evidence do you need to establish it?
wanton defiance denies her tender grade school age. This same attitude repeats in Nexi sort and resort your notes, arranging them in a way that is logical and inter-
Jessie at 5 where the young girl poses with just a string of pearls about her neck. ( i in)', h may help to make a one-page outline or some other organizational pattern
Childhood nudity itself doesn't necessarily disturb, especially if the innocence of
.11 i hat you can see all that you want to include and in what effective order. Then
the child is protected, but the air of blatant sexuality in Mann's work defiles all
I • ' M i n i . | ,1||(l I.ill 11 M | AI..111I r l l l l l l l ( | l . l | l h s
da I .1 I I I I 1. I / M l l l l l I I

si.ii 1 writing! If you have difficulty getting Itirtcd, In gin wllli whatever section is • Do you provide evidence for your interpretations?
(lie easiest lor you to write and then add the otliei sections. II you have a good • Do you provide reasons for your judgments?
organization for your essay, it does not matter where you begin, as long as you even- • Have you been clear without being redundant?
tually put all the pieces into a logical and effective order. • Do you get your reader's attention right at the beginning of your essay?
Keep your reader in mind as you write, and as you read what you have written,
• Have you created the tone you want? Have you refrained from being
read it through the eyes of your imaginary reader. First imagine a friendly reader
sarcastic or insulting?
who will be sympathetic to what you think. Then, for a second reading, imagine a
• Have you been fair in your judgments?
reader who would be difficult to convince, so that you will build a strong case
lor what you believe. Don't assume too much of your reader: Describe the work • Is the final paragraph a clear and forceful conclusion?
sufficiently so that the reader can form a good mental picture of what you are writ- • Have you refrained from being and sounding dogmatic about your views?
ing about.
Proofread your writing for proper grammar and correct spelling. Reading your
Convey your enthusiasm for the photograph with your choice of words. Once
paper aloud to yourself will help you discover errors, clumsy language, and poor
you've described it in sufficient detail, don't assume that the photograph's meaning
transitions. Once you have done what you can to strengthen your essay, ask others
is now evident. Provide your reader with your interpretation, and give reasons why
to read what you have written and to tell you what they think about what you have
you think it is a valid interpretation. Be sure that your judgment of the work is
done. Then reconsider your paper. Every writer can benefit from an editor. Polish-
clear—that your reader knows that you strongly approve of it and why, or that you
ing your writing at this point is similar to matting and framing a favorite photo-
have reservations and what they are. If you are using specific criteria for evaluating
graph, presenting it in the best way possible.
the work, you may want to make them explicit. Be persuasive by your choice of lan-
If you enjoy writing and are good at it, consider writing for a publication. An
guage, and be convincing by the evidence you cite to support your claims.
increasing number of campus, local, and regional publications on art and photogra-
Each paragraph should focus on one major point with evidence to support the
phy are in need of writers. Browse the periodical sections of libraries and bookstores
point. Your ideas should progress logically from paragraph to paragraph: If your
and peruse publications. When you find a periodical you would like to write for,
paragraphs can be rearranged without loss of effectiveness, your essay is probably
locate the name and address of the editor in the first several pages. Write to the edi-
not as logically constructed as it ought to be. Provide your reader with transitions
tor and ask for writer's guidelines, or make an appointment to visit the editor of a
from one paragraph to another. Sometimes the whole first sentence of a new para-
local publication to discuss your possible contributions.
graph will provide the transition from one idea to another; other times a simple
bridge like "however" or "moreover" will suffice.
Your conclusion should be brief, clear, and forceful. In a short essay it is not nec-
TALKING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHS
essary to review your argument. Avoid the error of making the conclusion into a
beginning of another essay by introducing a new idea or further evidence. Also Talking about photographs is different from writing about them, although the criti-
avoid double endings. cal questions one should consider are similar for both activities. When we talk about
Consider your completed paper to be your first draft, and read it over critically. ,1 photograph or an exhibition of them, we should entertain similar questions to
The following questions may help you to consider what you have written and per- thOM already asked in this book by the author and the critics quoted. When we are
haps to improve it. in the presence of a photograph, we still need to describe it to one another because
description is a way of noticing in words and a way of getting others to notice. Each
• What is your main point? Do you state it soon enough and reinforce it ol us may notice different things in different ways. We still need to interpret and to
throughout your essay? nllci evidence for our interpretations. In casual conversations about photographs we
• Does each paragraph have a topic? teem in have no trouble judging them. We tend to make readily apparent what we
• Do you proceed logically with your argument, with one point leading to the like and don't like. Too often, however, we do not offer sufficient reasons for our
next? statements, and rarely do we state our criteria. Our conversations about pho-
LJU VOU UlUve s n i O u i n i y dllU C11CI_UVC1)< UUIU \JLL*~ p c i m g i n p n lO w l i w l l i t i .
tographs would likely be more informative and more interesting if we did more than
thrOW out casual judgments. We would have better conversations if we offered care-
• Do you provide enough internal and external descriptive information for
Ittl descriptions, full interpretations, and reasons and criteria with our judgments.
your reader to visualize the work you are discussing?
W l l l l M , | .Hill K i l l I I I . ! A I M III 1 | ' | l l ) | l ) ( | l i l j l l l V

We all wander through exhibitions ol photographs wilh assumptions about pho think is his or her best? We can ask the artist about these matters. Inlornialion
lOgraphy, art, and life, 11 we were to articulate these assumptions, we would be about some or all of these matters may help us '.o better understand and apprcc iale
engaging in discussions of aesthetic theory and knowledge and social reality. Theo- the work we are considering. Ultimately, however, we don't want to be solely depen
retical discussions built on particular images or exhibitions, even in casual conver- dent on the artists' views of their own work.
sations, could be interesting, enjoyable, and valuable to each of us and those with The position offered in this book concerning artists' thoughts about their own
whom we talk. work is that, although they are sometimes enlightening and can provide us with
insights, other times they seem irrelevant to what we see in the work. We gel lo
A significant difference between talking and writing is that writing is usually a
decide. Artists make the work, and we interpret and judge it. The artist may greatly
solitary activity, with an imagined reader in mind, and talking usually involves lis-
aid us in interpreting and judging it, but the artist doesn't own both the work and
teners. When writing, one's audience is distant; in conversation the audience is
its meaning. Artists may and do try to direct and set parameters around what they
present. Reactions to what we have written, when there are any, and often there are
think their work is about and how it should be understood. A few of the artists
none or few, come long after our thoughts have been articulated on paper. It may be
whose work is reproduced in this book requested a copy of the text that would
a year or more before the author of a book gets a response from a reader, and
accompany their work before they would grant permission to reproduce it. Sonic
months before the author of an article gets a response. Responses from listeners to
times artists refuse an author permission to reproduce their work when they do not
our articulated thoughts in conversation are often immediate. There can be quick
agree with the author's view of it.
give-and-take between speaker and listener. The writer of published material is
sometimes allowed to revise after hearing others' reactions, but this is a long process An artist's interpretation of his or her work should meet the same criteria as any-
of communication drawn out over months and years. In reaction to a listener, a one else's interpretation of that same work: Does it make sense? Does it oiler
speaker can revise immediately. insight? Is it interesting? Does it engage other interpretations? Is it reasonable and
backed by evidence? Is there sufficient reason, in addition to the fact that it comes
To benefit from the advantage of being able to have quick responses in conversa-
from the artist, to accept it as a good interpretation and a worthy judgment?
tions, we need to welcome responses to what we say and sometimes to ask for
responses when none are volunteered; and we need to listen to them, consider
them, and acknowledge them. Monologues are not conversations, nor does talk Studio Critiques
without a response constitute a conversation.
In critical discussions about photographs, we can engage in formal and informal
talk. Formal, directed talk is usual in studio critiques, group discussions by pho-
Discussions of Art in the Presence of the Artist tographers about the images they have made. Often it is the professor who leads the
discussion, and sometimes the artist whose work is being critiqued. Studio cri-
The presence of the artist who made the work that is being discussed changes the
tiques are a special kind of criticism. Most of the information in this book about
discussion. Without the artist being present, when interpreting and judging the
description, interpretation, judgment, and theory can be brought to bear on studio
work we appeal to evidence in the work, to what we know about the world, and
critiques. Critiques would probably be better if they included description, interpre-
perhaps to what others have said, including what that artist said if we have access to
tation, and consideration of theory. Usually, however, the main point of a critique is
that information. When the artist is present, we may censor what we think for many
lo judge the work and to suggest ways to improve it. Thus critiques are often overly
reasons—we might be awed and thus silent, we might be self-conscious because we
limited.
think we don't have anything of interest to say, we may disapprove of the work but
Critiques can be broadened if we consider the purpose of having a critique.
don't want to offend the artist by saying so. Perhaps we mostly want to hear what
There can be more than the single purpose of judging a photograph and telling the
the artist says about the work rather than tell the artist what we think about it.
photographer how to make it better. One purpose may be to have the photogra-
From artists we can learn things about their work we can't learn from other
phers improve their ability to articulate their thinking about the images they make.
sources. We can sometimes learn of the artist's motivations, state of mind when
Attention should then be given as much to the photographer's talk as to the pho-
making the piece, intended meanings, methods of working, sources of inspiration,
tographer's work and how the two relate. A different purpose for a critique might be
beliefs about art and the world, attitudes about other artists and movements; we can
to bring closure to a course or an assignment in a course; and still another purpose
learn about the artist's personality and the way he or she relates to viewers of the
may simply be to have an interesting and engaging discussion about the pho-
piece. Does the artist's understanding of the work differ from that of the viewer or
tographs that were made. In such cases, merely judging the photographs would be
from that of critics who have written about the work? Which artwork does the artist
H • W i 11 i • > 11 .111(1 I .ill- l • i • 1 Alllllll ril(Jlni|l ,l|ih I .11 | Alllllll I'

unnecessarily limited. II ihc purpose ol .i critique Is lo li.ivt- llic viewers Income simple Interpretive equation subject matter + form = content can yield rich
more arlieulale about images, then ii might make sense lo <hsi uss the photographs meanings.
wilhoul benefit ol the thoughts ol the photographei who made them. /.c( vein tntainflation be a communal endeavor. When talking about pho-
II the purpose is to help photographers make belter images, then it might be tographs casually or in organized critiques, people often neglect interpreta-
good to hear what the photographers are trying to do. This kind of critique is based tion altogether or treat it very superficially. This is especially true when the
on intcMiionalism—interpretation or judgment based either on the stated intent ol photographer is present. Often the photographer will supply the meaning hy
the photographer or on the intent the professor stated when giving an assignment. telling what the work is about. What the photographer thinks the image is
Both the intent and the success or failure of meeting it can be judged, and several about should be one among several competing interpretations, and it is not
outcomes are possible. The intent might be weak, and even though it is met, the necessarily the best, even though he or she may pronounce the meaning of
photograph may still be deemed shallow. The intent might be very good but not the photograph with great confidence and authority.
met—or very good and well met. The intent might be weak but the photograph If you are in a group that is interpreting a photograph or body of work,
strong despite the weak intent. Regardless, remember that intentionalism in profes- you are part of an interpretive community. Individuals in the group of inter-
sional published criticism has limitations: The photographer may not have an preters should build on one another's thoughts about the work in question.
intent, may be consciously unaware of it, or may not make it available to the critic. You can work communally to arrive at a consensus interpretation or agree to
Critiques sometimes become spontaneous lectures by professors. Sometimes this have diverse interpretations. To be part of a group and not to listen to and
is by the professor's choice because the professor wants to reinforce something build on one another's interpretations, however, defeats the advantages of
being taught or to explain the bases for grades. Other times it is by default, because being in a group.
too few students are talking, and the professor jumps in out of nervousness to fill
Suggest that the photographer be silent. When conducting critiques with
the void of an uncomfortable silence. The following suggestions are offered to
people who make images, I find the discussions to be most productive if the
enliven any discussion about photographs, with and without the artist present who
photographer whose work we are considering does not contribute to the
made the image, formal or informal, and directed or spontaneous, including studio
discussion of his or her pictures. This way, the photographer is much less
critiques. likely to tell nervous jokes or irrelevant anecdotes, make defensive state-
• Describe what you see. To describe a photograph to a group when everyone ments, or verbally justify his or her images. Without the responsibility to
can see the image may seem silly; we tend to believe that everyone can see talk or defend, the photographer is better able to absorb what is being said
what we see, so we feel awkward in describing what we perceive to be obvi- about his or her photographs. The silence of the photographer also puts the
ous. But what is apparent to you might be overlooked by someone else. If responsibility for criticism on the viewers rather than on the photographer,
a group of twenty people describe a photograph, each will attend to differ- and this is where it should be.
ent aspects of it, with different points of emphasis and varying degrees of Interpret the photograph by questions it raises. Let your interpretation be
enthusiasm. guided by questions the photograph seems to pose. Conversely, ask ques-
• Consider subject matter. Photographers tend to discuss photographic form tions about the photograph that the photographer seems to ignore. What is
and shy away from considering subject matter, thinking it too obvious to excluded in the photograph? What does the photographer take for granted?
discuss. But considerations of subject matter in professional critics' writing These questions do not direct you to ask the photographer—ask about the
about Avedon or Mapplethorpe, for example, are essential to their criticisms. photograph itself, and provide your answers since you are the interpreter.
The act of description also extends the time a group will actively attend to Avoid hasty judgments. When judging photographs, we should avoid impul-
a photograph. Descriptive discussions can be very enlightening, to the group sive judgments and premature evaluative closures. If we do begin an evalua-
and to the photographer. You will be surprised by what others notice and tive conversation with a hasty judgment, we should back it up with reasons
what they ignore. and appeal to criteria on which our judgments are based. We should also be
• Consider how form relates to subject matter. When discussing the formal willing to listen to views that challenge our own.
properties of a photograph, seek to relate choices the photographer made Consider presentational environments. Where is the work being shown? Who
about density, contrast, focus, and other compositional elements in terms is sponsoring its showing? Why are we seeing it here and now in this envi-
of how those choices affect the subject matter of the photograph. The ronment? Answers to questions such as these can situate the work in a social
I ' . • W i l l l m i . 1 1 1 ( 1 I . i l l - • • • > | A l t . . M I I ' l l . . I i n | i , i | . I .

( o n l e x t . Now the interpretive equation ( an be expanded to subject matter +

loim'-t context = content.
• Ask how the photograph would want to be judged Does the photograph sug-
gest that it be judged by certain criteria? Does it resist certain criteria? To be
generous in spirit when judging a photograph or an exhibition, you may
judge the work by criteria it suggests. Under what criteria does the work best
succeed? Then you may want to consider the work with criteria that would
Notes
not be sympathetic to the work you are judging. Ultimately you may have to
decide whether you are going to let the photograph choose the criteria by
which you judge it or whether you will impose your criteria on it.
• Consider assumptions. Theories, either consciously or nonconsciously held,
about life, art, and photography affect our making of photographs and our
talk about photographs. Consider your assumptions about art and photog-
raphy and its relation to life. Consider what assumptions buoy the photo- Chapter 1 • About Art Criticism 11. Edmund B. Feldman, "The Teacher as
graph. What do you assume a photograph to be? What are you being taught 1. bell hooks, "Critical Reflections," Art- Model Critic," Journal of Aesthetic Edu-
about a photograph? forum, November 1994, p. 64. cation 7, no. 1 (1973): 50-57.
• Be honest and open. Attitudes of honesty and openness will improve critiques 2. Peter Schjeldahl, "Critical Reflections," 12. A. D. Coleman, "Because It Feels So
Artjorum, Summer 1994, p. 69. Good When I Stop: Concerning a Con-
and all discussions about photographs. If we resolve to try to express rather
3. Christopher Knight, quoted by Hunter tinuing Personal Encounter with Pho-
than to impress, the discussions will be much livelier and will include more tography Criticism," in Coleman, Light
Drohojowska, "Christopher Knight,"
participants. Avoiding dogmatic responses will also further discussions. Dog- Artnews, September 1992, p. 88. Readings: A Photography Critic!; Writings
matic pronouncements irritate people, cause nonproductive arguments, and 1968-1978 (New York: Oxford Univer-
4. Rene Ricard, "Not About Julian
end conversations rather than extend thinking and talking. sity Press, 1979). Originally published
Schnabel," Artjorum, Summer 1981:
in Camera 35, October 1975.
74-80.
In any discussion, it is important to actively listen, acknowledge to the speaker 5. Michael Feingold, "The Truth About 13. Weitz, p. vii.
that you have heard what he or she has said, respond to it, and build on it, even Criticism," Part I, Village Voice, June 16, 14. Harry S. Broudy, Enlightened Cherishing
though it may be by disagreeing. Speaking aloud is a risky act, especially in a group, 1992, p. 93. (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illi-
and the more comfortable we can make such situations for ourselves and others, the 6. Lucy Lippard, "Headlines, Heartlines, nois Press, 1972).
more enjoyable and productive the discussions will be. Criticism can be kind and 1 lardlines: Advocacy Criticism as 15. Cindy Sherman, Film Stills (New York:
Activism," in Cultures in Contention, Rizzoli, 1993); Robert Mapplethorpe,
critical.
ed. Douglas Kahn and Diane Neumaier Mapplethorpe (New York, Random
(Seattle: Real Comet Press, 1985), House, 1992).
pp. 242-47. 16. New Art Examiner, "Reviewer's Guide-
7. Morris Weitz, Hamlet and the Philosophy lines," editorial office, Chicago, 111.,
OJ I iterary Criticism (Chicago: Univer- 1988.
sity of Chicago Press, 1964), p. vii. 17. Dialogue: An Art Journal, "Writer's
0 S.hjeldahl, p. 69. Guidelines," editorial office, Columbus,
9 Michael Feingold, "The Truth About Ohio, 1987.
Criticism," Part II, Village Voice, June 18. Kay Larson, quoted by Amy Newman,
23, 1992, p. 101. "Who Needs Art Critics?" Artnews,
10 Abigail Solomcn-Godeau, interviewed September 1982, p. 60.
by Vince Leo, "What's Wrong with This 19. Ingnd Sischy, Afterword, in Nudes, by
I'n Hire?" Artpaper, December 1987, pp. Lee Friedlander (New York: Pantheon,
12-14 1991).
20. Infill Siscliy, "(Iood Intentions," An ( 1111< i',in, Slin/irs in Ail Education, I 2 Michael Brcnson, "Art: Whitney Showi 34. Chris, "Witkin's Others," p. 17.
New Yorker, September 9, I'WI, I .ill 1988, pp. 22-27. Cindy Sherman Photos," New York 35. Ibid., p. 18.
pp. 89-95. 38. Hilton Kramer, in I he New Criterion, Times, July 24, 1987.
36. Fischer, "Looking into Darkness."
21. Andy Grundbcrg, "Toward a Critical 1982, quoted by Lippard in "Headlines, 13. Eleanor Heartney, "Cindy Sherman,"
37. Gene Thornton, "A Gothic Vision ol
Pluralism," in Reading into Photography: Heartlines, Hardlines," p. 242. Afterimage, October 1987, p. 18.
Man Seen with the Camera's 1 ye," New
Selected Essays, 1959-1982, ed. Thomas 39. Terence Pitts, book review of Mining 14. Cynthia Chris, "Witkin's Others," Expo- York Times, August 24, 1986, p. 27.
Barrow, et al. (Albuquerque: University Photographs and Other Pictures 1948- sure 26, no. 1 (1988): 17.
38. Indiana, "Joel-Peter Witkin II Htrditon
of New Mexico Press, 1982), pp. 247- 1968, ed. Robert Wilke and Benjamin 15. Hal Fischer, "Looking into Darkness," Fine Arts," p. 175.
53. Originally published in Afterimage, Buchloh (Cape Breton: Nova Scotia Col- Artweek, August 13, 1983.
October 1980. lege of Art and Design, 1983), Exposure 39. Bill Berkson, Artforum, February 1984,
16. Chris, p. 17. p. 117.
22. A. D. Coleman, Critical Focus (Tucson: 22, no. 3 (1984): 48-53.
17. Van Deren Coke, Introduction, Joel- 40. Jim Jordan, "Chaplin in Hell."
Nazareli Press, 1994). 40. Stevens, quoted by Newman, p. 57. Peter Witkin (San Francisco: Museum of
23. Solomon-Godeau, interviewed by Leo, 41. Nicholas Jenkins, "Robert Hughes," Modern Art, 1985), pp. 6-18.
p. 12. Artnews, September 1992, pp. 84-86. 18. Edward Weston, "Seeing Photographi- Chapter 3 • Interpreting Photographs
24. Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Photography 42. Schjeldahl, p. 69. cally," in A Modern Book of Esthetics, 4th 1. Andy Grundberg, "A Quintesscntially
at the Dock: Essays on Photographic 43. Marcia Siegel, quoted by Irene Ruth ed., ed. Melvin Rader (New York: Holt, American View of the World," New York
Histoiy, Institutions, and Practices Meltzer, "The Critical Eye: An Analysis Rinehart & Winston, 1973), p. 207. Times, September 18, 1988, p. 35.
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, of the Process of Dance Criticism as 19. John Szarkowski, Looking at Photo- 2. Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion
1991). Practiced by Clive Barnes, Arlene Croce, graphs: 100 Pictures from the Collection (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960),
25. Solomon-Godeau, interviewed by Leo, Deborah Jowitt, Elizabeth Kendall, of the Museum of Modern Art (New York: pp. 297-98.
p. 12. Marcia Siegel, and David Vaughan" Museum of Modern Art, 1973), p. 134. 3. Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art
(Master's thesis, The Ohio State Univer- (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976), p. 7.
26. Kay Larson, quoted by Margot Mifflin, 20. Kismaric, Introduction, Jan Groover.
sity, 1979), p. 55.
"Kay Larson," Artnews, September 21. A. D. Coleman, "Bea Nettles," in Light 4. Hans-Georg Gadamer, quoted by Klaus
1992, pp. 87-88. 44. Coleman, "Because It Feels So Good," Readings (New York: Oxford University Davi in Art and Philosophy, ed. Gian-
p. 254. Press, 1979), p. 105. carlo Politi (Milan, Italy: Flash Art
27. Grace Glueck, quoted by Newman,
"Who Needs Art Critics?" p. 56. 22. Weiley, "Avedon Goes West," p. 87. Books, 1991), p. 20.
28. Coleman, "Because It Feels So Good," Chapter 2 • Describing Photographs 23. Kismaric, Introduction, Jan Groover. 5. Roland Barthes, "Rhetoric of the
p. 207. 1. Richard Avedon, In the American West Image," 1964, in Image-Music-Text, ed.
24. Gary Indiana, "Joel-Peter Witkin at
(New York: Abrams, 1985). Roland Barthes (New York: Hill &
29. Ibid., p. 208. Hardison Fine Arts," Art in America,
Wang, 1971), pp. 32-51.
30. Mark Stevens, quoted by Newman, 2. Douglas Davis, "A View of the West," September 1983, p. 175.
Newsweek, September 23, 1985, p. 82. 6. Ibid.
"Who Needs Art Critics?" p. 58. 25. Fischer, "Looking into Darkness,"
3. William Wilson, Review, Artjorum, Artweek, August 13, 1983. 7. John Szarkowski, Looking at Photo-
31. Lippard, "Headlines, Heartlines, Hard-
September 1985, p. 7. graphs: 100 Pictures from the Collection
lines," p. 243. 26. Jim Jordan, "Chaplin in Hell," Artweek,
of the Museum of Modern Art (New York:
32. Peter Schjeldahl, "Critical Reflections," 4. Susan Weiley, "Avedon Goes West," November 10, 1984.
Museum of Modern Art, 1973), p. 202.
p. 69. Artnews, March 1986, pp. 86-91. 27. Andrew Perchuk, "Uta Barth, Bonakdar
Jancou Gallery," Artforum, September 8. Sally Eauclaire, American Independents:
33. Kay Larson, quoted by Newman, "Who 5. Wilson, p. 7.
1998, p. 152. Eighteen Color Photographers (New
Needs Art Critics?" p. 59. 6. Weiley, p. 91. York: Abbeville Press, 1984), p. 219.
7. Davis, p. 83. 28. A. D. Coleman, "The Directorial Mode:
34. Stevens, quoted by Newman, p. 59. 9. Shelley Rice, "Mary Ellen Mark," in
Notes Toward a Definition," in Light
35. Christopher Knight, quoted by Hunter 8. Wilson, p. 7. 4 X 4: Four Photographers by Four
Readings, pp. 246-57.
Drohojowska, "Christopher Knight," 9. Weiley, p. 86. Writers (Boulder: University of
29. Jonathan Green, ed., The Snapshot
Artnews, September 1992, p. 88. 10. Richard Bolton, "In the American East: Colorado at Boulder, 1987).
(Millcrton, N.Y: Aperture, 1974).
36. Michael Feingold, "The Truth About Avedon Incorporated," Afterimage 15, 10. Jonathan Green, American Photography:
SO Weiley, p. 87.
Criticism," Part II, p. 101. no. 2 (1987): 14. A Critical History (New York: Abrams,
II Davis, "A View of the West," p. 83. 1984), p. 163.
37. Terry Barrett, "A Comparison of the 11. Susan Kismaric, Introduction, Jan
Goals of Studio Professors Conducting Groover (New York: Museum of Modern 12. Weiley, p. 89. 11. Edward Bryant, Introduction, Picture
Critiques and Art Education Goals for Art, 1987). 11 ( okc, Introduction, Joel-Peter Within. Windows: Photographs by John Pfahl, ed.
 John Plahl (New York: New York 27. Mtnoi Winn-. "<rttliIMU," Aperture 2, 2. C.Jabez Hughes, "On Art Photography," 16. Edward Curtis, Native Nations, FlnM
Graphic Society, 1987), p. I. no •' (1937) M W 1891, The American Journal oj Photogra- Americans as Seen by Edward ( urtis
phy, quoted by Beaumont Newhall, (Boston: Bullfinch, 1993).
12. Ronald Dworkin, "Law as Interpreta- 28. Monroe (.. Beardsley and William
The History oj Photography (New York: 17. James Van Der Zee, Van Det Zee Photog
tion," in The Politics of Interpretation, Winisalt, Jr., "The Intentional Fallacy,"
Museum of Modern Art, 1982), p. 73. rapher: 1886-1983 (New York: Abi.inr.
eel. W.J. T. Mitchell (Chicago: Uni- in Philosophy Looks at the Arts, 3rd ed.,
versity of Chicago Press, 1983), pp. ed. Joseph Margolis (Philadelphia: 3. Sadakichi Hartmann, "A Plea for 1993).
249-70. Temple University Press, 1987), Straight Photography," American 18. Lauren Greenfield, Fastforwanl
pp. 367-80. Amateur Photography, 1904, quoted (New York: Knopf, 1997).
13. Eleanor Heartney, "Cindy Sherman,"
by Newhall, History of Photography, 19. Tina Barney, Theatre of Manners
Afterimage, October 1987, p. 18. 29. Cindy Sherman, quoted by Jeanne
p. 167. (New York: Scalo, 1998).
14. Szarkowski, p. 166. Siegel in Artwords 2: Discourse on the
Early 80s (Ann Arbor: UM1 Press, 4. Edward Weston, quoted by Newhall, 20. For a good selection of press pho-
15. Green, pp. 66, 67.
1988), p. 275. History of Photography, p. 188. tographs, see Sheryle and John Lcekley,
16. Diane Neumaier, "Alfred, Harry, Emmet,
30. Jerry Uelsmann, Uelsmann: Process and 5. Beaumont Newhall, The History of Pho- Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photograph',
Georgia, Eleanor, Edith, and Me," Expo-
Perception (Gainesville: University Press tography: 1839 to the Present Day, 4th (New York: Crown, 1978).
sure 22, no. 2 (1984): 6, 7.
of Florida, 1985), p. 23. ed. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 21. Malcolm Jones, Jr., "The World in
17. Anne H. Hoy, Fabrications: Staged,
1978) pp. 196-97. Focus," Newsweek, June 6, 1994, p. 74.
Altered, and Appropriated Photographs 31. Sandy Skoglund, quoted by Jude
(New York: Abbeville Press, 1987), Schwendenwien, "Sandy Skoglund," 6. John Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye 22. Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows, p. 23.
p. 47. Journal of Contemporary Art 6, no. 1 (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 23. Annie Leibovitz, Annie Leibovitz: Photo
(1993): 87-88. 1966). graphs 1Q70-1990 (New York: Harper-
18. Kathleen McCarthy Gauss, New Ameri-
can Photography (Los Angeles: Los 32. Nathans Lyons, ed., Photographers on 7. John Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows: Collins, 1991).
Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985), Photography (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: American Photography Since I960 (New 24. Shelley Rice on Mary Ellen Mark, in
p. 30. Prentice Hall, 1966); Alan Trachtenberg, York: Museum of Modern Art, 1978), 4 X 4: Four Photographers by Four Writ-
19. Bill Nichols, Ideology and the Image: ed., Classic Essays on Photography pp. 18-19. ers (Boulder: University of Colorado at
Social Representation in the Cinema and (New Haven, Conn.: Leete's Island 8. Gretchen Garner, Six Ideas in Photogra- Boulder, 1987), p. 25.
Other Media (Bloomington: Indiana Books, 1980). phy: A Celebration of Photography's 25. Elizabeth Hess, "Family of Nan," Village
University Press, 1981), pp. 60-61. 33. Tom Anderson, "A Structure for Peda- Sesquicentennial, exhibition catalogue Voice, May 18, 1993, p. 101.
20. Linda Andre, "Dialectical Criticism gogical Art Criticism," Studies in Art (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Grand Rapids Art 26. A. D. Coleman, "The Directorial Mode:
and Photography," Exposure 22, no. 4 Education 30, no. 1 (1988): 28. Museum, 1989). Notes Toward a Definition," Artforum,
(1984): 8. 34. Hirsch, Validity in Interpretation, p. 62. 9. Andy Grundberg, "Photography," New September 1976; in Coleman, Light
21. Hoy, p. 16. York Times, Book Review section, Readings: A Photography Critics Writings
35. Ibid., p. 63.
December 4, 1988, p. 20. 1968-1978 (New York: Oxford Univer-
22. Van Deren Coke, Introduction, Joel- 36. Anderson, pp. 34-35. sity Press, 1979), p. 250.
Peter Within: Forty Photographs (San 10. Jonathan Green, American Photography:
37. Julia Kristeva, quoted by Catherine 27. Michiko Kon, Still Lifes (New York:
Francisco: Museum of Modern Art, A Critical History 1945 to the Present
Franchlin, in Art and Philosophy, ed. Aperture, 1997).
1985), pp. 6-18. (New York: Abrams, 1984).
Giancarlo Politi (Milan, Italy: Flash Art 28. Sandy Skoglund's work may be seen in
23. Monroe C. Beardsley, "The Testability of 11. The NASA Shuttle Web photo album:
Books, 1991), p. 63. Sandy Skoglund, Reality Under Siege:
an Interpretation," in Philosophy Loohs (http://shuttle.nasa.gov/current/images).
38. Michael Parsons, How We Understand A Retrospective (New York: Abrams,
at the Arts, 3rd ed., ed. Joseph Margolis 12. Mary Alpern, Dirty Windows (New York:
Art: A Cognitive Developmental Account 1998).
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, Scalo, 1995).
1987), pp. 466-83. of Aesthetic Experience (Cambridge, 29. Jo Ann Callis's work can be seen in
England: Oxford University Press, 13. Etienne Jules Marey Movement (Apple- Anne H. Hoy, Fabrications: Staged,
24. Joseph Margolis, ed., Philosophy Looks ton, N.Y., 1895), p. 127.
1987), pp. 84-85. Altered, and Appropriated Photographs
at the Arts, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: Tem-
14. Aaron Scharf, Art and Photography (New York: Abbeville Press, 1987), pp
ple University Press, 1987), p. 366.
(Middlesex, England: Pelican, 1974), 46-50, and in Contemporary American
25. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Validity in Interpreta- Chapter 4 • Types of Photographs
pp. 255-57. Photography, Part I (Tokyo: Gallery Min,
tion (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer- 1. Dominique Francois Arago, "Report,"
15. Howard S. Becker, Exploring Society 1986).
sity Press, 1967), p. 54. 1839, in Classic Essays in Photography,
ed. Alan Trachtenberg (New Haven, Photographically (Chicago: North- 30. Contemporary American Photography,
26. Dworkin, "Law as Interpretation,"
western University Press, 1981), p. 11. Part I.
p. 253. Conn.: Leete's Island Books, 1980).
 Iliily I lahn's photographs can be seen in (New York: Crown, 1978),
51. Jean I awlwci ( olicn, "Kimma ( HI I"> ll.iiII.H.I Kiugoi's woik i an be seen in
Hoy, lain nations, p. 148; Linda Con p. 46.
lovina and Valcny Gci lovm," Artnews, Kathleen Mc( ailliy Gauss, New Ameii-
nor's photographs can be seen in Con- 2. Edward Weston, The Daybooks oj
April 1994, p. 175. (Oil Pho/ogia/>hy (I os Angeles: Los
temporary American Photography, Part I. Edward Weston, Volume II: California
52. Andy Grundbcrg, "Homclessness al a Angeles County Museum of Art, 1985),
pp. 8 9 - 1 0 4 . 62. Contemporary American Photography. (Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture, 1973).
Remove: An Urge to Stare," New York
Times, September 25, 1988, sec. H, 46. Nicholas Jenkins, Artnews, January 63. Green, American Photography, p. 190. 3. A Sherrie Levine "After Walker Evans"
pp. 33, 40. 1992, p. 119. 64. Cindy Sherman's photographs can be photograph may be seen in Anne I loy,
seen in Hoy, Fabrications, pp. 9 0 - 9 3 . Fabrications: Staged, Altered, and Ap
33. The International Center ojPhotography 47. Peter Plagens, "Keeping a Stiff Upper
65. Mike Mandel, Making Good Time (Santa propriated Photographs (New York:
Encyclopedia of Photography (New York: Lip," Newsweek, February 15, 1993,
Cruz, Calif: Mike Mandel, 1989). Abbeville Press, 1987), p. 123.
Crown, 1984), p. 434. p. 56.
48. Brian Lanker, I Dream a World: Portraits 66. Andy Grundberg, quoted in Zeke 4. In Leekley and Leekley, Moments, p. 89.
54. The International Center oj Photography
Encyclopedia oj Photography, p. 189. oj Black Women Who Changed America Berman, Optiks (San Francisco: Friends 5. Gisele Freund, Photography and Society
(New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, of Photography, 1991). (Boston, Mass.: David R. Godine, 1980),
35. Douglas Kahn, John Heartjxeld: Art and
1989), p. 10. 67. Richard Prince's photographs can be pp. 1 7 8 - 7 9 .
Mass Media (New York: Tanam Press,
1985). 49. Jock Sturges, The Last Day oj Summer seen in Hoy, Fabrications, pp. 1 2 4 - 2 7 . 6. J o h n Szarkowski, Looking at Photo-
(New York: Aperture, 1991). 68. Vikky Alexander's photographs can be graphs: 100 Pictures jrom the Collection
36. Wendy Ewald, Catherine Chermayeff,
50. J o h n Coplans, John Coplans: A Selj- seen in Hoy, Fabrications, p. 135. oj the Museum oj Modern Art (New York:
and Nan Richardson, I Dreamed I Had a
Portrait, 1984-1987 (New York: P. S. 1 Museum of Modern Art, 1973), p. 172.
Girl in My Pocket: The Story oj an Indian 69. Hoy, Fabrications, p. 135.
Village (New York: Norton, 1996). Contemporary Art Center, 1997). 7. Roland Barthes, "The Photographic
70. Sherrie Levine's photographs can be
51. J o h n Szarkowski, Irving Penn (New Message," in Image-Music-Text, ed.
37. Jim Goldberg, Raised by Wolves (New seen in Hoy, Fabrications, pp. 1 2 2 - 2 3 .
York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984). Barthes (New York: Hill & Wang,
York: Scalo, 1995). 71. Kate Linker, "Artifacts of Artifice," Art
52. In J o h n Szarkowski, Mirrors and Win- 1977), p. 17.
38. Margaret Morton, The Tunnel: The in America, July 1998, p. 78.
dows: American Photography Since 1960 8. Martha Rosier, "Lookers, Buyers, Deal-
Underground Homeless of New York City 72. Dave Hickey "Sarah Charlesworth:
(New York: Museum of Modern Art, ers, and Makers: Thoughts on Audi-
(New Haven: Yale University Press, The Pleasures of Knowing," in Sarah
1978), p. 109. ence," Exposure 17, no. 1 (1979): 21.
1995). Charlesworth: A Retrospective (Santa Fe,
53. Ruth Bernhard, Ruth Benihard: The N.M.: Site Santa Fe, 1998), p. 109. 9. Walter Benjamin, a 1934 address deliv-
39. Vince Aletti, "Dark Passage," Village
Collection ojGinny Williams (Tallgrass ered in Paris at the Institute on the
Voice, December 22, 1992, p. 103. 73. One of Thomas Barrow's cancellation
Press, 1993). Study of Fascism, quoted by Susan Son-
40. Deborah Willis, Lorna Simpson (San photographs can be seen in Hoy, Fabri-
54. Wynn Bullock, The Enchanted Land- tag, On Photography (New York: Farrar,
Francisco: Friends of Photography, cations, p. 142.
scape: The Photographs oj Wynn Bullock, Straus & Giroux, 1978), p. 105.
1992). 74. Ken Josephson's work is shown and dis-
The Years 1940-1975 (New York: Aper- 10. Sontag, On Photography, p. 105.
41. Mark Robbins, "Participant/Observer," cussed in Green, American Photography,
ture, 1993). 11. J o h n Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows:
in Evidence: Photographs and Site, pp. 149-51.
exhibition catalogue (Columbus, Ohio: 55. Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows, p. 17. American Photography Since 1960 (New
75. J o h n Baldessari's work is shown and dis-
Wexner Center for the Arts, 1997), 56. Barbara Kasten's work can be seen in York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972),
cussed in Green, American Photography,
Hoy, Fabrications, pp. 1 0 5 - 7 . p. 30.
p. 93. pp. 224-26; Robert Cumming's photo-
42. Allan Sekula, Fish Story (Art Publishers, 57. The International Center oj Photography graphs may be seen in Wise, The 12. Carol Squiers, "Diversionary ( S y n t a c -
1995); and Geography Lessons: Cana- Encyclopedia oj Photography, p. 491. Photographer's Choice, pp. 100-107; tics," Artnews, February 1987, p. 8 1 .
dian Notes (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT 58. Richard Misrach, Violent Legacies: Wegman's work can be seen in William 13. Ibid., p. 82.
Press, 1997). Three Cantos (New York: Aperture, Wegman: Paintings, Drawings, Photo- 14. Craig Owens, "The Medusa Effect or,
43. Allan Sekula, "Photography Between 1992), p. 15. graphs, Videotapes (New York: Abrams, The Specular Ruse," Art in America,
Labor and Capital," quoted by Benjamin 59. The photographs of Mark Klett can be 1990). January 1984, p. 98.
H. D. Buchloh in "Allan Sekula: Photog- seen in Gauss, New American Photog- 76. Green, American Photography, p. 226. 15. Squiers, pp. 8 4 - 8 5 .
raphy Between Discourse and Docu- raphy, pp. 42-56.
16. Barbara Kruger, in Squiers, p. 85.
ment," in Allan Sekula, Fish Story, 60. Eiji Ina, Waste (Tucson: Nazareli Press,
Chapter 5 • Photographs and Contexts 17. Ibid., p. 80.
p. 190. 1998).
1. Sheryle Leekley and J o h n Leekley, 18. Kruger, quoted in Anne H. Hoy, Fabrica-
44. Fred Lonidier's work can be seen in 61. A Ray Metzker photograph can be seen
Moments: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs tions: Staged, Altered, and Appropriated
Jonathan Green, American Photography. in Green, American Photography, p. 151;
 Photographs (New York: Abbeville I'M •> SIISMII Soiling, (in 1'hotography (New i l l H.I Winliin, quoted by Beaumont catalogue (( ohimbus: I he Ohio Slate
1987), p, I H York I .iii.ii, Mi.ins <Sr Giroux, 1978), i. iii i hi lilifoi v i>/ Photography University Gallery of Fine Aits, 1989),
pp 13, M H I . . . ,...1 MiiM'iiiii ill Modern Art, p. 56.
I') Kruger, quoted in I.e Anne Schreibcr,
"Talking to Barbara Kruger," Vogue, 6. Andy Grundberg, "Images from Wino-
c=u> IMS), |. mi 32. Michael Kimmelman, "Bitter Harvest
October 1987, p. 268. grand's Mosaic of Life," New York Times, ,MI jnliii V.iil.mv.ki, I lie Photographer's Eye AIDS and the Arts," New York Times,
May 15, 1988, p. 45. (New Yolk Museum ol Modern Art, Arts and Leisure section, March 19,
20. Ibid.
I'Kid), p B 1989, pp. 1,6.
21. Lynn Zelevansky, "Barbara Kruger," Art- 7. Arthur Danto, "Playing with the Edge,"
in Robert Mapplethorpe, Mapplethorpc .' I ( II.II li •. I lagen, "Seeing Olympia 33. Nicholas Nixon, in AIDS: The Aifi\l>.'
news, May 1983, p. 154.
(New York: Random House, 1992), Afreth," New York Times, August 4, Response, p. 45.
22. Squicrs, p. 85. 1991, pp. 25-26.
p. 312. 34. Greg Bordowitz, in Douglas Crimp,
23. Owens, p. 98. "Art and Activism," in AIDS: The Artists'
8. Richard Lacayo, "Drunk on a World 11. Kramer, "From Fashion to Freaks,"
24. Hal Foster, "Subversive Signs," Art in p. 38. Response, p. 10.
Served Straight," Time, October 12,
America, November 1982, pp. 8 8 - 9 0 .
1987, p. 88. 23. Sadakichi Hartmann, "A Plea for 35. Robert Atkins, "Photographing AIDS,"
25. Le Anne Schreiber, p. 268. Straight Photography," 1904, in Ameri- in AIDS: The Artists' Response, pp.
9. Lisa Phillips, "Cindy Sherman's Cindy
26. Zelevansky, p. 154. can Amateur Photographer, 1964, quoted 26-27.
Sherman," catalogue essay in Cindy
27. Jean Fisher, review of Barbara Kruger at by Newhall, History of Photography, 36. Hans-Georg Gadamer, quoted by Klaus
Sherman (New York: Whitney Museum
Annina Nosei Gallery, Artforum, January p. 171. Davi, in Art and Philosophy, ed. Gian-
of American Art, 1987), p. 16.
1984, pp. 115-16. 24. Strand, in Lyons, Photographers on Pho- carlo Politi (Milan, Italy: Flash Art
10. Deborah Drier, "Cindy Sherman at
28. John Sturman, "Barbara Kruger, Annina tography, p. 136. Books, 1991), p. 28.
Metro Pictures," Art in America, January
Nosei," Artnews, May 1986, p. 129. 25. Edward Weston, "Seeing Photographi- 37. J o h n Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows,
1986, p. 138.
29. Fisher, pp. 115-16. cally," 1943, in A Modern Book of Es- pp. 16-17; Allan Sekula, "The Traffic in
11. Mark Johnstone, in Contemporary Amer-
thetics, 4th ed., ed. Melvin Rader (New Photographs," in Photography Against
30. Hoy, p. 131. ican Photography, Part 1 (Tokyo: Gallery
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973), the Grain: Essays and Photo Works
31. Shaun Caley, "Barbara Kruger," Flash Min, 1986).
p. 207. 1973-1983 (Halifax, Nova Scotia: The
Art, May/June 1986, p. 55. 12. Jonathan Green, American Photography: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art
26. Minor White, "Found Photographs,"
32. Squiers, p. 85. A Critical History 1945 to the Present and Design, 1983), pp. 7 6 - 1 0 1 ; Green,
1957, in Photography: Essays and
33. S. H. M., "Documenta: Making the (New York: Abrams, 1983), p. 157. American Photography, pp. 4 6 - 5 1 .
Images, ed. Beaumont Newhall (New
Pointed Pointless," Artnews, September 13. Kate Linker, "Artifacts of Artifice," Art York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980), 38. John Corry, "Hollywood Virtue, Holly-
1987, pp. 160-61. in America, July 1998, 7 4 - 7 9 . p. 77. wood Vice," New York Times, Arts and
34. See, for example, Susan Sontag, On Pho- 14. Amy Goldin, "Diane Arbus: Playing Leisure section, February 17, 1985, p. 1.
27. In Lyons, Photographers on Photography,
tography, and Allan Sekula, "The Instru- with Conventions," Art in America, p. 67. 39. Raf Casert, "A Different World," Read-
mental Image: Steichen at War," in March/April 1973, p. 73. ing, Pennsylvania Eagle, August 1, 1993.
28. C. Jabez Hughes, quoted by J o h n L.
Photography Against the Grain (Halifax: 40. Serrano's photograph may be seen in Art
15. Douglas Davis, "A Way of Seeing," Ward, The Criticism of Photography as
The Press of the Nova Scotia College of in America, September 1989, p. 43.
Newsweek, December 3, 1979, Art: The Photographs ofJerry N. Uels-
Art and Design, 1984), pp. 3 2 - 5 1 .
pp. 1 0 8 - 1 2 . mann (Gainesville: University of Florida 41. Schuyler Chapin, "An Advocate for the
16. Gene Thornton, "A Show That Reveals Press, 1970), p. 4. Arts," New York Times, July 24, 1989,
Chapter 6 • Evaluating Photographs an Artist at the Height of His Powers," 29. Robert Rosenblum, "Introduction," in p. 19.
1. Owen Edwards, "Small World in a New York Times, Arts and Leisure sec- Mike Starn and Doug Starn, Mike and 42. Hilton Kramer, "Is Art Above the Laws
Room," Saturday Review, October 1, tion, January 20, 1985, p. 29. Doug Starn: 1985-1990 (New York: of Decency?" New York Times, Arts and
1977. 17. J o h n Szarkowski, Mirrors and Windows: Abrams, 1990), p. 14. Leisure, July 2, 1989, pp. 1, 7.
2. Mark Stevens, "The Bad and the Beauti- American Photography Since 1960 H). Roger Fry, "Pure and Impure Art," 43. Grace Glueck, "Art on the Firing Line,"
ful," Newsweek, September 26, 1977. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1924, in A Modern Book of Esthetics, 3rd New York Times, Arts and Leisure sec-
1978), p. 9. ed., ed. Melvin Rader (New York: Holt, tion, July 9, 1989, pp. 1,9.
3. Hilton Kramer, "From Fashion to
Freaks," New York Times Magazine, 18. Paul Strand, "Photography," 1917, in Rinehart & Winston, 1965); Clive Bell, 44. Veronica Vera, "Letters," New York
November 5, 1972, p. 38. Photographers on Photography, ed. Ait (New York: Putnam, 1985). Times, Arts and Leisure section, July 30,
Nathan Lyons (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 11 fin Zita Grover and Lynette Molnar, in 1989, p. 3.
4. Robert Hughes, "To Hades with Lens,"
Time, November 13, 1972, p. 84. Prentice Hall, 1966), p. 136. AIDS.' The Artists' Response, exhibition 45. Ibid., p. 3.
 za>
Id Kay I arson, "(.<• 11111)\(iraphic," Nov 8 All.in Srkulu, "Dismantling Modernism, mil ii i In Photography (New Haven, Conn.; Yale University Press,
Voil; Mdgrtjinr, August I "5, l()HH, pp Reinventing I >o< unienlary (Notes on >• • i i HI II. '.n,lie. <Si Giroux, 1978), 1985), pp. 1-2.
(i(i-()7. the Politics ol Representation)," in Pho- p l,n 37. Ibid.
47. Stephen Koch, "Guilt, Grace, and togiaphy Against the Grain: Essays and ' i I'III.IIIII ll.iiilir'., ( (imcia Lucida: Reflec- 38. James Hugunin, "The Map Is Not tin-
Robert Mapplethorpe," Art in America, Photo Works 1973-1983 (Halifax, Nova tion: ini Photography (New York: Hill & Territory," Exposure 22, no. 1 (1984):
November 1986, pp. 146,150. Scotia: The Press of the Nova Scotia \V.ni|'„ 1981), p. 63. 11.
College of Art and Design, 1984), p. 53. ' I 11 .ii I . p II
48. Stuart Morgan, "Something Magic," Art- 39. Todd Gitlin, "Hip-Deep in Post
Jorum, May 1987, pp. 1 1 9 - 2 3 . 9. Owen Edwards, "Small World in a .''i Kendall Wallon, "Transparent Pictures," modernism," New York Times Review
Room," Saturday Review, October 1, an address delivered at The Ohio State of Books, November 6, 1988, p. IS.
49. Andy Grundberg, "The Allure of Map-
1977. University, Columbus, Ohio, June 2, 40. For a sarcastically critical trcalinenl ol
plethorpe's Photographs," New York
Times, Arts and Leisure section, July 3 1 , 10. Andy Grundberg, "Hands Pose for Their 1982. modernist painting, see Tom Wolfe, The
1988, pp. 2 9 - 3 0 . Portraits," New York Times, Arts and 26. Joel Snyder and Neil Allen Walsh, "Pho- Painted Word (New York: Farrar, Straus
Leisure section, January 29, 1989, p. 35. tography, Vision, and Representation," & Giroux, 1975).
50. Andy Grundberg, "Blaming the Medium
for the Message," New York Times, Arts 11. Sekula, p. ix. Critical Inquiry 2, no. 1 (1975): 152. 41. Woodward, "It's Art, But Is It Photog-
and Leisure section, August 6, 1989, 12. See, for example, Kendall K. Walton, 27. Joel Snyder, "Picturing Vision," in The raphy?" p. 42; see also Richard B.
p. 33. "Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Language of Images, ed. W.J. T. Mitchell Woodward, "Picture Perfect," an
Photographic Realism," Critical Inquiry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, article about Szarkowski, Artnews,
51. Ingrid Sischy, "Photography: White and
11 (December 1984): 2 4 6 - 7 7 ; and 1980). March 1988.
Black," New Yorker, November 13, 1989,
Roger Scruton, "Photography and Rep- 42. Ibid., p. 42.
p. 124; Danto, in Mapplethorpe, p. 314. 28. Snyder and Walsh, p. 156.
resentation," Critical Inquiry 7 (Spring
52. Doug Ischar, "Endangered Alibis," 29. Fred Ritchin, "Photojournalism in the 43. Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "Photograph)
1981): 5 7 7 - 6 0 3 .
Afterimage 17, no. 10 (1990): 8 - 1 1 . Age of Computers," in The Critical after Art Photography," in Art After
13. Jonathan Green, American Photography: Modernism: Rethinking Representation,
Image: Essays on Contemporary Photog-
A Critical History, 1945 to the Present ed. Brian Wallis (New York: New
raphy, ed. Carol Squiers (Seattle: Bay
Chapter 7 • Theory: Is It Art? (New York: Abrams, 1983). Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984),
Press, 1990), p. 28.
1. Eleanor Heartney, "Cindy Sherman," 14. Cross-References: Sculpture into Photog- p. 80.
30. http://www.eso.org/lasilla/Telescope/
Afterimage, October 1987, p. 18. raphy, exhibition catalogue (Minneapo- 44. Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "Winning the
2p2T/E2p2M/WFI/WFI.html
2. Richard B. Woodward, "It's Art, But Is lis, Minn.: Walker Art Center, 1987), Game W h e n the Rules Have Been
p. 4. 31. Arcturus Observatory, The Messier
It Photography?" New York Times Maga- Changed, Art Photography and Post-
Objects, http://cometman.com/
zine, October 9, 1988, p. 42. 15. Vanishing Presence, p. 74. modernism," Exposure 23, no. 1 (1985):
Messier.html, March 24, 1999.
3. Edward Weston, "Seeing Photographi- 16. Dominique Francois Arago, "Report," in 15.
32. A. D. Coleman, "The Directorial Mode;
cally," 1943, in A Modern Book of Esthet- Classic Essays on Photography, ed. Alan 45. Jan Zita Grover, "Introduction to AIDS:
Notes Toward a Definition," in Light
ics, 4th ed., ed. Melvin Rader (New Trachtenberg (New Haven, Conn.: The Artists' Response," in AIDS: The
Readings, (New York: Oxford University
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973), Leete's Island Books, 1980), pp. 11-13. Artists' Response, exhibition catalogue
Press, 1979), p. 248.
p. 207. 17. Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, (Columbus: The Ohio State University
33. Andy Grundberg, "Blaming a Medium Gallery of Fine Arts, 1989), p. 2.
4. Desmarais, quoted in Woodward, p. 46. "Daguerreotype," in Classic Essays,
for Its Message," New York Times, Arts
5. Douglas Crimp, "The Museum's Old/ p. 12. 46. Woodward, p. 30.
and Leisure section, August 6, 1989,
The Library's New Subject," Parachute, 18. Cited by Trachtenberg, p. 71. 47. Solomon-Godeau, "Winning the
p. 1.
no. 22 (Printemps 1981): 3 2 - 3 7 . 19. Lewis Hine, "Social Photography, How Game," p. 80.
34. Jean-Francois Lyotard, interviewed by
6. Richard Bolton, ed., The Contest of the Camera May Help in the Social 48. Stephens, "Jacques Derrida," p. 22.
Bernard Blistene, in Art and Philosophy,
Meaning: Critical Histories of Photogra- Uplift," in Classic Essays, p. 111. 49. Sekula, "Dismantling Modernism,"
ed. Giancarlo Politi (Milan, Italy: Flash
phy (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 20. Paul Strand, "Photography," in Photog- p. 74.
Art Books, 1991), p. 72.
1989), pp. xiii-xvii. raphers on Photography, ed. Nathan 50. Ibid., p. 60.
35. Derrida, quoted by Mitchell Stephens,
7. Max Kozloff, "The Etherealized Figure Lyons (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice
"Jacques Derrida," New York Times Mag- 51. Ibid., p. 62.
and the Dream of Wisdom," in Vanish- Hall, 1966), pp. 1 3 6 - 3 7 .
azine, January 23, 1994, p. 22. 52. Hugunin, p. 12.
ing Presence, exhibition catalogue (Min- 21. Gisele Freund, Photography and Society
36. Robert Scholes, Textual Power: Literary 53. Victor Burgin, ed., Thinking Photography
neapolis, Minn.: Walker Art Center, (Boston, Mass.: David R. Godine, 1980),
1989), p. 33. Theory and the Teaching of English (New (London: Macmillan, 1982), p. 2.
p. 149.
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54 Su.-i Gablik, "'Wc Spell It Like lite Iree V). Solomon < iiidcan, "Winning the
diuii Fighters': A Conversation with the Gsme," p I L
(.lieu ilia Girls," Art in Amcriai, January 60. Ibid , p, 15.
L994, pp. 43-47. 61. Laura Cottingham, "Re-Framing the
55. Sally llagaman, "Education in Philoso- Subject: Feminism and Photography," in
phy and Art in the United States: A Veronica!; Revenge: Contemporary Per-
Feminist Account," in Das Philoso-
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pp. 942-43. Wolfe, Tom. The Painted Word. New York:
White, Minor. "Criticism." Aperture 2, no. 2, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975.
1957. Woodward, Richard B. "It's Art, But Is It "After Walker Evans" (Levine), 97
abstraction, 124
. "Found Photographs," 1957. In Photography?" New York Times Maga- AIDS: The Artists' Response (Grover and
Acker, Kathy, 158
Photography: Essays and Images, edited zine, October 9, 1988, pp. 29ff. Molnar), 125
action painting, 30
by Beaumont Newhall, pp. 307-9. New . "Picture Perfect." Artnews, March AIZ, 110
activist critics, 127
York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980. 1988. Aletti, Vince, 80
Adams, Ansel, 32
Mirrors Messages Manifestations. Zelevansky, Lynn. "Barbara Kruger, Annina
aesthetically evaluative photography, 113 Alexander, Vikky, 111, 164, 166
Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture, 1969. Nosei Gallery." Artnews, May 1983,
Group f/64, 124 Numero Deux, 93
Willis, Deborah. Lorna Simpson. San Fran- p. 154.
landscape photography, 87 Alloway, Lawrence, 12
cisco: The Friends of Photography, 1992.
modernism, 159 Alpern, Mary, 61
Wilson, William. Review of Avedon's "In the
straight approach, 53, 122 American Photography (Green), 4, 41, 44,
American West." Artforum, September
Adams, Eddie, 64 58, 117, 146
1985, p. 7.
Adorno, Theodor, 106 The Americans (Frank), 32
Adrian, Dennis, 12 American West photography
advertisements Adams, 87
credibility of, 149-50 Avedon, 16-22, 28, 30, 32
ethically evaluative, 78 Curtis, 32
lsuzu, 158 Jackson, 32
Kruger and, 107, 110, 111 Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, 18
Panzani, 38-39, 45, 157 Anderson, Laurie, 158
political, 78 Andre, Linda, 46
rcphotographs from, 93 Annina Nosei Gallery, 110
advocacy criticism, 10 anthropology
aesthetically evaluative photographs, 56, structuralist, 157
82-91, 113 visual, 62
"aestheticizing" of photographs, 102-3 antimodernism, 156
aesthetics, realism in, 120 Aperture, 4, 124, 159
aesthetic theory, 143-44 Appelt, Dieter, 148
Ah uan Americans, 103 applied criticism, 6
Emancipation Day celebrations, 40 appraisals, 119-20
ethically evaluative photographs of, 64 appropriated photographs, 93, 107, i l l
explanatory photographs of, 64 Arago, Dominique Frangois, 149
Williams' What You Loofein At, 103 Arbus, Diane, 32, 105, 116, 117, 118,
Afterimage, 4,8,22,140 159
 A-.iii>.iis, |ohn, 138 " I he Work ol An in the Age ol Calvino, halo, 158
archetypal iiiU'rprclalion, II
A'.hum, 1 >i111-. I ] Mechanical Reproduction," Id I Camera Lucida: Rcfla lions on Chologidphv
argumentative aesthetic criticism, 6
assumptions Sec ihcoi u-s Bcnviniste, Emile, 111 (Barthes), 6, 144, 150
arguments, 6, 7
astronomy, 154 Berkson, Bill, 34 camera obscura, 151
evaluative, 128
Atkins, Robert, 125 Herman, Zeke, 91 Camera Work (Stieglitz), 123, 140
Interpretative, 41-42
At the Cajt, Chez Fraysse, Rue de Seine, Paris Untitled, 92 Cameron, Julia Margaret, 98
Aristotle, 120
(Doisneau), 9 9 - 1 0 1 Bernhard, Ruth, 82 "Cancellations" (Barrow), 95
Poetics, 144
Auster, Paul, 158 Beveridge, Karl, 162 Candy Cigarette (Mann), 172, 174
Ann Envy. With Alexander Edwards and Fay
authentication, 150 billboards, 109, 141 Canova, Antonio, 24
Ray (Wegman), 170
Avedon, Richard, 159 biographical interpretation, 47 Capa, Cornell, 64
Armstrong, Elizabeth, 147
black and white tonal range, 26 Capa, Robert, 64
Arnheim, Rudolph, 145, 167 Boyd Fortin, Thirteen Year Old Rattlesnake
Bleckman, Ericka, 106 Cape Light (Meyerowitz), 87
art Skinner, Sweetwater, Texas, 3/10/83, 19
Bleckner, Ross, 106 capitalism, 156
lor art's sake, 123, 125,159 celebrity photographs, 3 1 , 46
Bloom, Barbara, 106 Caponigro, Paul, 87
defined, 143-44 David Beason, shipping clerk, Derive?;
Blume, Bernhard, 148 Capote, Truman, 32
for life's sake, 125 Colorado, 7/25/81, 20
Bolton, Richard, 22 Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 64, 88, 117, 119
photography's status as, 140-43, "In the American West," 16-20, 21-22,
28,30,31,32,76 The Contest oj Meaning, 143 Casebere, James, 95, 147
159-60
"Avedon Goes West" (Weiley), 20, 2 1 , 30 Boone (Mary) Gallery, 108 Catlin, George, 24
pictorialism, 122-23
Boyd Fortin, Thirteen Year Old Rattlesnake causal environment, 33, 38, 51
press, 4 - 5
Skinner, Sweetwater, Texas, 3/10/83 cave paintings, 59
theories, 120-27 Bacon, Francis, 122
(Avedon), 19 celebrity photographs, 3 1 , 46
Set also artists; art photography; painting balance, 26
Brady, Mathew, 32 Cezanne, Paul, 124
art criticism, 3, 166 Baldessari.John, 95, 110, 141, 161
Brandt, Bill, 82 "channel of transmission," 101-2
influence of formalism on, 124 Balthus, 46
Brassai, 136 Chapin, Schuyler, 131
Arljorum, 4 Barker, Stephen, "Night Swimming, NYC
Brecht, Bertolt, 111 charge-coupled devices (CCDs), 154
Coleman, 7 1993-94," 80
Brenson, Michael, 22 Charlesworth, Bruce, 147
Fisher, 110 Barney, Tina, Theater oj Manners, 64
Brigman, Anne, 70 Charlesworth, Sarah, 95, 111, 117, 161
Morgan, 135 Barrow, Thomas, "Cancellations," 95
Barth, Uta, 30 The Heart of the Storm, 123 Text, 93, 94
Ricard,2
Barthelme, Donald, 158 Broudy, Harry, 3 Cherry, Deborah, 164
Wilson, 20, 21
Barthelme, Frederick, 158 Bryant, Edward, 41 The Chicago Manual oj Style, 169
Art in America, 4
Barthes, Roland, 106, 111, 145 Buchloh, Benjamin, 80 Chris, Cynthia, 24, 3 3 , 34
Drier, 117
Bullock, Wynn, 87 Christ in New York (Michals), 120
Foster, 110 Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photog-
Burgin, Victor, 111, 161 Cibachrome, 131
Goldin, 118 raphy, 6, 144, 150
conceptual photography, 95 Cinderella (Wegman), 70
Indiana, 30 and Panzani advertisement, 3 8 - 3 9 , 45,
and Marxist cultural theory, 162, 163 Cindy Sherman (Phillips), 117
Koch, 135 157
relationship between word and photo- Cindy Sherman 1975-1993 (Sherman), 4
Linker, 117 and press photographs, 101-2
graphic image, 110 civil rights movement, 78
Owens, 111 signifying practices, 38, 167
and theory, 146 claims, interpretive, 4 1 - 4 2
Zelevansky, 109 Baudrillardjean, 158
Burroughs, William, 158 Clark, Larry, Tulsa, 64
Art Institute of Chicago, 33 Bay/Shy (Meyerowitz), 87
Byrne, David, 158 Clift, William, 87
Artists Beardslcy, Monroe, 48
Coates, George, 158
biographical interpretations of, 47 Beato, 141
cafe photograph, 9 9 - 1 0 1 , 115 Coburn, Alvin, 123
critics' relationships with, 1 0 - 1 1 , 33 Beaux-Arts Palace, 130
Becher, Bcrnd and Hilla, 161 Cagan, Steve, 162 Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (Richards), 76
formalism and, 123
Wafer Towers, 56-57 Calas, Nicolas, 12 Cohen, Lynne, 61
intent of, 47, 5 0 - 5 1 , 129-30, 180
Becker, Howard, 62, 66 Calcy, Shaun, 111 coherence, of interpretations, 49
modernist beliefs about, 93
Bell, Clive, 124 California Museum of Photography, Coke, Van Deren, 24, 33, 47
and studio critiques, 179-80
bell hooks, 1 Riverside, California, 141 Coleman, A. D., 155
theories of, 145-46
Below the Line: Living Poor in America Callahan, Harry, 87 on artist-critic relationship, 10, 33
Artists Meeting for Cultural Change, 106
Eleanor, 43 background, 7-8
Artnews, 20, 2 1 , 1 0 9 , 111 (Richards), 78
Eleanor, Port Huron, 42-45 Critical Focus, 8
art photography, 56, 8 2 - 9 1 , 113, 159, 160 Benjamin, Walter, 102, 106, 111
( allis, Jo Ann, 76 definition of criticism, 3
Artweek, 4, 24, 30 "A Short History of Photography," 161
 Danlo, Arthur, 4, 136 digitized photographs, IVI V>
( nil-man, A D. (< oniiiniccl)
1 IK Dirci iiiii.il Mode Notes toward
( i.iin , l l . u l u i . i , HH
Crimp, Douglas, I I I . I M
c Mapplethorpe, 117 directional forces, 26
/rans/tguration of the Commonplace: "The Directorial Mode: Notes Toward a
.1 Definition," 6, 70, 145, 147
"Latent linage," 7
criteria, lot judgments, I 19-20
choosing among, 1 26-27 c A Philosophy of Art, 144
Daterjudy, 70
Definition" (Coleman), 6, 70, 145,
147
review of Ncttles's work, 28 craftsmanship, 126 David Beason, shipping clerk, Denver, directorial photography, 6, 31, 70, 95, 145,
stance toward criticism, 9 expressionism, 122-23 Colorado, 7/25/81 (Avedon), 20 147
on value of criticism, 13 formalism, 123-24 Davidson, Bruce, 93 Discovery, 59
collages, 110, 123, 141 instrumentalism, 124-26 East 100th Street, 78 "Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing
color, 26 originality, 126 Subway, 66 Documentary (Notes on the Politics ol
color photographs, 159 realism, 120-22 Davis, Douglas, 32, 119 Representation)" (Sckula), 144
commercial photography, 159. See also specific, 126 description of Avedon's "In the American Disneyland, 158
advertisements in studio critiques, 182 West," 16-21, 28 Doctorow, E. L., Book ol Daniel, 158
comparative interpretation, 42 Critical Focus (Coleman), 8 Day, E Holland, 70, 123 Documenta 8, 111
comparing, 31-32 criticism, 1 The Daybooks (Weston), 51 documentary photography, 53, 54, 162-63
composition, 126 advocacy, 10 Days at Sea (Gibson), 70 Doisneau, Robert, At the Cafe, Chez Fraysse,
computerized pictorial alteration, 152 applied, 6 Dead Animals #20 (Misrach), 89 Rue de Seine, Paris, 99-101
conceptual photography, 95 criticizing, 11-13 DeCarava, Roy, 162 dot, 26
concerned photography, 93, 97, 162-63 defining, 2 - 3 de Chirico, Giorgio, 46 Drier, Deborah, 117, 118
Conde, Carole, 162 ethics of, 11 deconstruction, 156-57 Duchamp, Marcel, Nude Descending a Stair-
Conde Nast, 105 and feminist theory, 163-66 The Deerslayers (Krims), 130 case, 62
Confessions of an Advertiser (Ogilvy), 149 kinds of, 5-7 Degas, Edgar, 123 Dworkin, Ronald, 41
connoisseurship, 7 and Marxist theory, 162-63 DeGenevieve, Barbara, 164
Connor, Linda, 88 revisionist, 128 Deja-Vu (Gibson), 70 Eastman Kodak Company, 59
connotations, 38-39, 101-3 school, 11 DeLillo, Don, 158 East 100th Street (Davidson), 78
constructivism, Russian, 110 sources of, 4 - 5 Deluxe—Redding House #5 (Simmons), 83 Eauclaire, Sally, 40, 41
Contemporary American Photography stances toward, 8-10 democracy, 156 The New Color Photography of the 1970s,
(Johnstone), 76, 117 theater, 3 denotations, 38-39 4,55
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, theoretical, 6 depth of field, 26, 124 Edelson, Mary Beth, 148
Ohio, 130 value of, 13-14 Derrida, Jacques, 156-57, 158 Edgerton, Harold, 62, 66
The Contest of Meaning (Bolton), 143 writing, 168-77 Descartes, Rene, 157 Self-Portrait with Balloon and Bullet, 63
context, 33 critics, 1-2 description, 2, 180 Edwards, Owen, 116, 144
external, 9 9 - 1 0 1 , 109-11 activist, 127 of Avedon's "In the American West," Eggleston, William, 91
external, and connotations, 101-3 backgrounds of, 7-8 16-21,28 Eleanor, Port Huron (Callahan), 4 2 - 4 5
historical and stylistic, 46-47 relationships with artists, 10-11 as criticism, 35 electronic noise, 154
internal, 9 6 - 9 7 , 105 responsibility, 10 defining, 15-16 The Elements of Style (Strunk and White),
original, 9 7 - 9 9 , 105-8 and theories, 144-45 and evaluation, 3 4 - 3 5 169
contrasting, 31-32 critiques, studio, 179-82 ol form, 26-28 The Elsewhere Bird (Nettles), 70
conventionalism, 149, 151-55 "Cross-References: Sculpture into Photog-
Importance to readers, 35 Emancipation Day, 40
Conversations with the Dead (Lyon), 78 raphy," 147
Intimal and external sources for, 32-34 Embrace (Mapplethorpe), 133
Cooper Union School of Art, 33 Cumming, Robert, 95
interpretation, 34 emphasis, 26
Coplans, John, 82, 145 Cunningham, Imogen, 87, 124, 159
oi medium, 28-31 Emptying the Fridge (Mandel), 91
Self-Portrait (Torso, Front), 85 curators, 103
111 studio critiques, 180 Encyclopedia of Photography, 76
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C vs. historians, 9 ol style, SI Enlightenment, 155, 156, 157
131 theories and, 146-48 "I lubjCCI matter, 20-25 environment
correspondence, of interpretations, 49 Curtis, Edward, 18, 32, 62 di HI nptivc photographs, 56, 5 8 - 6 1 , 112 causal, 33, 38, 51
Corry, John, 129 The North American Indian, 32 I ii in M us, Charles, 141 presentational, 103. 109, 181-82
Cosindas, Marie, 87 detail, 146, 159 equivalent photography, 53, 54
Cottingham, Laura, 166 Daguerre, Louis J. M., 149 I 'l.ll.'MI, I i | | Ernie (Mendoza), 70
Courbet in Rejlander's Pool (Witkin), 24 daguerreotypes, 30, 149 I lldlon, loan, 32 ethically evaluative photographs, 56, 57,
Cowin, Eileen, 76 Dali, Salvador, 32 digit il i .mill, i, 154 6 4 , 7 4 - 8 2 , 7 8 , 112-13
craftsmanship, as criterion, 126 Dancing to TV (Mandel), 91
c l l n c , ol < niic i s m , I I Fish SfoiV ('.('kill.0, HO Goldberg, Jim, Raised by Wolves, 80 I laas, Ernst, 64
evaluation, 2, ! Fla~.li Ally II 1 Goldin, Amy, Art in America, 118 llagaman, Sally, 163-64
ami description, 34-35 Flying Karamazov Brothers, 158 Goldin, Nan, The Other Side, 66, 69 Hagan, Steve, 82
writing about, 171-75 locus, degree ol, 26 Goldwater, Marge, 147 Hagen, Charles, 121
.See also judgments form Gombrich, Ernst H., 37, 145, 152 Hahn, Betty, 88
Evans, Frederick, 123 description of, 2 6 - 2 8 Goodman, Nelson, 37, 38, 152 halftone reproduction, 105
Evans, Walker, 54, 78, 93 vs. formalism, 123-24 Gould, Daniel H., 59 handwork, 122, 123, 124, 159
livents in the Sky (Nettles), 70 in studio critiques, 180-81 Portion of Histiocytic-type Cell with Hare, Chauncey, 162
Ewald, Wendy, 77-79 formal elements, 26 Budding Virus Particles, 60 Haring, Keith, 64, 110
Gcrdien's Portrait, 77 formalism, 45, 53, 54, 123-24, 126 government funding, of art, 132, 134 New York City, 65
existentialists, 157 Foster, Hal, 110, 111 Gowin, Edith, 44 Harlem Renaissance, 64
explanatory photographs, 57, 61-70, 112 Foucault, Michel, 111, 156, 158 Gowin, Emmet, 44, 70 Hartmann, Sadakichi, 53, 122
exploratory aesthetic criticism, 6 Fourment, Helena, 24 Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de, 24, 132 Hatch, Connie, 82, 162
"Exploring Society Photographically," 62 frame, 146, 159 Graham, Dan, 161 Hayhoofe (Mann), 172, 175
Exposure, 4, 24 Frank, Robert, The Americans, 32 Graham, Martha, 87 Headroom, Max, 158
expressionism (expressivism), 122-23, 126 Freud, Sigmund, 111 Grand Palais des Champs Elysees, Paris, Heartfieldjohn, 78, 110
external context, 99-101 Freund, Gisele, 99, 149 59 Heartney, Eleanor, 22, 42, 140
and connotations, 101-3 Friedlander, Lee, 6, 88, 121 Graves, Michael, 158 The Heart of the Storm (Brigman),
and Kruger's "Surveillance," 109-11 Frog/Frog IF With Man Ray (Wegman), 171 Gray, Spalding, 158 Heiferman, Marvin, 128
external sources, for description, 3 2 - 3 4 Fry, Roger, 124 The Great Themes (Time-Life), 55 Heinecken, Robert, 78, 117, 118
Green, Jonathan, 4 0 - 4 1 , 9 1 , 128 Helena Fourment (Witkins), 24
Fabrications: Staged, Altered, and Appropri- Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 37, 126 American Photography, 4, 4 1 , 44, 58, 117, Hess, Elizabeth, 66
ated Photographs (Hoy), 55, 111 146 Hickey, Dave, 93
Gallea, Ron, 64
Falkland Road (Mark), 66 on Callahan, 44 Hine, Lewis, 102, 136, 149, 162
Gallery 291, 123, 140
"The Family of Man," 128 on Cumming, 95 histogram equalization, 154
Gardner, Alexander, 141
"The Family of Man: 1955-1984," 129 on Heinecken, 118 historians
Garner, Gretchen, "Six Ideas in Photogra-
Farm Security Administration (FSA), 26, phy," 55 Greenfield, Lauren, Fastforward, 64 vs. curators, 9
54, 57, 78 gender, 163-64 Groover, Jan, 22, 26-28, 30, 87 theories and, 146
fashion photography, 38, 159, 164 Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes (Sekula), Untitled, 27 The History of Photography (Newhall),
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 158 80 Group f/64, 124 53-54, 55
Fastforward (Greenfield), 64 Gerdien's Portrait (Ewald and van Anen), Grovcr, Jan Zita, 160, 161 A History of Woman Photographers (Rosen-
Fastman, Raisa, A Portrait of American 77 AIDS: The Artists' Response, 125 blum), 166
Mothers and Daughters, 66 Gerlovin, Valeriy, and Rimma Gerlovina, 76 Grundbcrg, Andy Hockney, David, 141, 158
Faucon, Bernard, 147 Madonna with Child, 75 on approaches to photography criticism, Hollywood Wives, 129
The Wave of Snow, 147 Getty (J. Paul) Museum, 160 6,7 Holzer, Jenny, 110
feelings, and interpretations, 51 Gibson, Ralph on liechers' Water Tower, 56-57 Homeless Damm Family (Mark), 68
Feingold, Michael, 2 - 3 , 11 Days at Sea, 70 ou Herman, 91 "Homeless in America," 76
Feldman, Edmund, 3 Dija-Vu, 70 on < oplans, 145 homosexuality, Mapplethorpe and,
feminism The Somnambulist, 70 on "I loinelcss in America," 76 131-38
artists, 107 Gilbert & George, 82, 141 on Mapplclhorpe, 135-36 Hovey, Kendra, 169
critics, 127 Gilbreth, Frank, 91 on National Geographic photographs, 36 Howard, Richard, 136
interpretation, 44-45 Gilbreth, Lillian, 91 theoretical criticism," 144 Hoy, Anne
theory, and criticism, 163-66 Gitlin, Todd, 158 on transparency, 155 on Alexander's Numero Deux, 93
Fictcryptokrimsographs (Krims), 70 Gitto, Paul, Messier Grid Map, 153, 154 on Winogiand, 117 Fabrications: Staged, Altered, and Appro-
film contrast, 26 Glass, Philip, 158 (iutmtCd (1'icasso), 124 priated Photographs, 55, 111
film format, 26 Glenn, John, 59 i on mil.i Girls, 163 on Kruger, 110
Film Stills (Sherman), 4 Glier, Mike, 110 gum bit Inornate, 88 on Michals, 46
Fischer, Hal, 24, 30, 34 Glueck, Grace, 5, 8, 9, 11, 131-34 ( lypslcs, )<> 10 on Simmons, 45
Fischl, Eric, 106 God Be with You: War in Croatia and Bosnia- Hudson Review, 13
Fisher, Jean, 110 Herzegovina (Sugarman), 76 I l.i.i, | u , Mans, 110 Hughes, C.Jabez, 53, 123
Hughe*, Robert, 4,3, 7,12,116,118 seniioln, -l'i 46 ami reasons, 1 I / I1), I 18 Untitled, 1981 ("You construct intricate
llugunin, lames, 157-58, Hi2 in studio critiques, 181 of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs, rituals. . ."), 106, 107, 108
writing about, 169-71 130-38 Untitled, 1981 ("Your every wish"), IOo.
icleniilieation photographs, 58, 59 interpreters, community of, 52 See also evaluation 107
ideology, 163 interpretive photographs, 56, 57, 70-74, Judith (Blue Concave) (Starn), 142 Untitled, 1981 ("Your manias become
"Idiosyncralic Pictures" (Krims), 70 112 Jussim, Estelle, 55, 56 science"), 107, 108, 109
/ Dream a World: Portraits ojBlack Women "In the American West" (Avedon), 16-20, Untitled, 1983 ("You kill time"), IOo
Who Changed America (Lanker), 82 21-22, 28, 30, 76 Kase'oier, Gertrude, 70, 123 107, 108
Immediate Family (Mann), 171-75 "The Invention of Photographic Meaning" Kasten, Barbara, 87 use of humor, 111
Ina, Eiji, Waste, 88 (Sekula), 6 Kiefer, Anselm, 158 use of pronouns, 109
Indiana, Gary, 30, 34 Kilbowski, Silvia, 164 "We don't need another hero," 109
Ischar, Doug, 138
industrialization, 156 Kimmelman, Michael, 7, 125 Kundu, Rina, 171
Israel, Marvin, 105
innocent eye, 37 Kismaric, Susan, 26, 28, 30 Kuspit, Donald, 12
Issey Miyake Starburst, New York (Penn),
Kiss Goodnight (Mann), 172
instrumentalism, 124-26, 127, 159 86
Klein, Calvin, 32 Lacan,Jacques, 111, 157, 158
intent Isuzu, 158
Klein, William, 148 Lacayo, Richard, 117
interpretations of, 47, 50-51 "It's Art, But Is It Photography?" (Wood-
Klett, Mark, 88 Landscape as Photograph (Jussim and
and judgments, 129-30 ward), 140-41
Knievel, Evil, 32 Lindquist-Cock), 55, 56
and studio critiques, 180
Knight, Christopher, 1-2, 10 landscape photography, 55, 56, 87
intentionalism (intentional fallacy), 47, J. Paul Getty Museum, 160
Koch, Stephen, 135 Lange, Dorothea, 78, 122
5 0 - 5 1 , 129-30, 180 jachna, Joseph, 148
Kolbowski, Silvia, 166 Lanker, Brian, I Dream a World: Portraits oj
internal context, 9 6 - 9 7 , 105 Jackson, William Henry, 18, 32
Kon, Michiko, 70 Black Women Who Changed Amcru a. H.»
internal sources, for description, 32-34 Jakobson, Roman, 111
International Center of Photography, 64, 93 James, Charles, 32 Octopus and Melon, 73 Larson, Kay
interpretation, 2, 3 6 - 3 7 , 114-15 Japan, 78, 162 Koudelka, Josef, 39-40 on Mapplethorpe, 134-35
Kozloff, Max, 143 relations with artists, 10
archetypal, 44 Jay, Bill, 167
Kramer, Hilton sources of criticism, 5
arguments, 41-42 Jenkins, Nicholas, 12, 82
Jessie at 5 (Mann), 173, 174 on Arbus, 116-17, 118, 119 stance toward criticism, 8-9
and artist's intent, 47, 50-51
on Lippard, 11 Lascaux, France, cave paintings, 59
and the art museum, 102-3 Johnson, Philip, 158
on Mapplethorpe, 131-34 Last Supper (Neimanas), 74
of Barbara Kruger's Untitled ("Surveil- Johnstone, Mark
on realistic criteria, 121 Las Vegas, 158
lance"), 103-11 Contemporary American Photography, 76,
Krauss, Rosalind, 4 "Latent Image" (Coleman), 7
based on stylistic influences, 4 6 - 4 7 117
Krims, Les Lawler, Louise, 161
based on technique, 47 on Misrach, 91
The Deerslayers, 130 Leibovitz, Annie, 64
biographical, 47 Jones, Carolyn, Living Proof: Courage in the
l-ictcryptokrimsographs, 70 New York City, 65
claims, 4 1 - 4 2 Face of AIDS, Cocaine Blue, 76
"Idiosyncratic Pictures," 70 Letterman, David, 158
combinations of approaches, 48 Jordan, Jim, 30, 3 4 - 3 5
Making Chicken Soup, 93, 95, 97 Levine, Sherrie, 141, 158
comparative, 42 Josephson, Ken, 95
journalism Krislcva, Julia, 52 "After Walker Evans," 97
criterion of coherence, 49
KronOf Quartet, 158 original context, 99
criterion of correspondence, 49 vs. criticism, 3
Kruger, Barbara, 7, 56, 82 postmodernism, 161, 166
defining, 37-39 and digitized photographs, 154-55
appropriated pho images, 107 rephotographs, 93, 97, 107, 111
and description, 34 photojournalism, 64, 97
background, 105-6 Levi-Strauss, Claude, 157
and feelings, 51 Journal of Aesthetic Education, 5
billboards, 109, 141 Levitt, Helen, 88
feminist, 44-45 judgments
formalist, 45 as argument, 128 bmlniam, 108,109,110, 113 Life, 121, 149, 159
postmodernism, 107, 156, 161, 166 Life Library of Photography, 55
intentionalist, 47, 5 0 - 5 1 , 180 criteria for, 119-20
presentational environment, 109 light, 26
Marxist, 46 differing, 127-28
Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the Lindquist-Cock, Elizabeth, 55
objects of, 3 9 - 4 1 examples of, 116-17
World Appearances, 4 line, 26
and personal significance, 52 and intentionalism, 129-30
I hink Like Us," 108 Linker, Kate
perspectives, 4 2 - 4 8 and interpretation, 138
Untitled, 1983, ("Surveillance is your Art in America, 117
psychoanalytic, 45 objects of, 130
busywork"), 103-14, 115 on Charlesworth, 93
"right," 4 8 - 4 9 and preferences, 128-29
I ippard, I ucy metaphors, 38, 54 Mountain Dream larot (Nellies), 70
Mapplethoi pe i Danio), I I 7
criticism ol, I I Metzker, Ray, 88 MTV, 158
Mapplethorpe, Robert, 4, 82, 141
postmodernism, Kid F.mlnaie, I i 5 Meyerowitz, Joel, 91 Mullican, Mat, 106
on relation of critic to artist, 33 Bay/Sky, 87 Musees de France Research Laboratory, V)
Man In Polyester Suit, 134
stance toward criticism, 10 Self-Portrait, 137 Cape Light, 87 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,
The Tittle Fur (Rubens), 24 St. Louis and the Arch, 87 147
"The Perfect Moment," 130-38
/ title Red Riding Hood (Wegman), 70 "Miami Vice," 155, 158 Museum of Modern Art, New York, 14 I
Marey, Etienne Jules, 62
Tittle Sylvester the Adult Molester (Michals), Margolis, Joseph, 48 Michals, Duane, 46-47, 70, 119-20, 126, AIDS exhibit, 125
72 Marine: Aries, Plage de Beau Due, France 148 At the Cafe, 99, 101
Living Proof: Courage in the Face of AIDS, Christ in New York, 120 "Family of Man," 128
(Sturges), 84
commercial photography, 159 Szarkowski at, 64, 121
Cocaine Blue (Jones), 76 Mark, Mary Ellen, 40, 66, 76
log scaling, 154 Falkland Road, 66 Little Sylvester the Adult Molester, 72 women in shows, 163
mimesis/mimeticism, 120 museums
Lolita. With Battina (Wegman), 170 Homeless Damm Family, 68
I.onidier, Fred, 82, 162 Minamata (Smith and Smith), 78, 162 as context, 99, 101
Ward 81, 66
Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the minimalist art, 124 and interpretation, 102-3
Marshall, Richard, 136
Mirror, Mirror (Weems), 79 recognition of photographs as art, 160
Collection of the Museum of Modern Art Martinez-Canas, Maria, 88
Mirrors and Windows (Szarkowski), 4, viewers at, 13
(Szarkowski), 3 9 - 4 0 , 4 1 , 101 Piedras-Destinos, 90
/.os Angeles Times, 2 54-55, 70, 120 work at, 2
Marxism
Luce, Henry R., 121 Misrach, Richard, 91 Muybridge, Eadweard, 61-62
criteria, 127
lupe, 105, 112, 113, 114 and criticism, 162-63 Dead Animals #20, 89
Lyon, Danny, Conversations with the Dead, "The Pit," 88 Nachtwey, Jim, 64
interpretation, 46
"The Playboys," 88 narrative photographs, 159
78 "Marxist Realism," 162
"Project W-47 (The Secret)", 88 NASA, A Meeting with the Universe, 59
Lyons, Nathan, 51 Mary Boone Gallery, 108
Lyotard, Jean-Francois, 156-59 Masheck, Joseph, 12 Violent Legacies: Three Cantos, 88 National Endowment of the Arts, 131
mass, 26 modernism, 124, 155-56, 158-59 National Geographic, 36, 155
mass media Adams and, 159 Native American photographs, 32, 62
MacCrellish, Frederick, 61
and formalism, 123 Nazis, 78
Mademoiselle, 105 color photographs and, 159
medium and, 159 negative contrast, 26
Madonna with Child (Gerlovina and critics in, 1
in photography, 160-61 Neimanas, Joyce, 70
Gerlovin), 75 Kruger and, 107, 110-11, 113, 114
vs. postmodernism, 155-56, 161 Last Supper, 74
Magritte, Rene, 46 and photographic veracity, 154-55
realism and, 159 neo-conceptualism, 161
Mailer, Norman, 32 Matted (Diptych). With Fay Ray (Wegman),
Stieglitz and, 159 neo-expressionism, 3 1 , 161
Making Chicken Soup (Krims), 93, 95, 97 171
and straight photography, 124, 159 Nettles, Bea, 27
Mandan (Witkin), 24 Mayer, Marshall, 162
Strand and, 159 The Elsewhere Bird, 70
Mandel, Mike meaning
and subject matter, 159 Events in the Sky, 70
Dancing to TV, 91 and context, 9 9 - 1 0 0
Szarkowski and, 159-60 Mountain Dream Tarot, 70
Emptying the Fridge, 91 Kruger on, 108
Weston and, 159 Neumaier, Diane, 44
Man in Polyester Suit (Mapplethorpe), 134 surface and deep, 42
White and, 159 New Art Examiner, 4 - 5 , 11
manipulated photographs, 53, 55, 123, 154 vs. significance, 52
modernity, 155-56, 158-59 The New Color Photography of the 1970s
Mann, Sally, 70 See also interpretation
Modem Language Association Handbook, 169 (Eauclaire), 4, 55
Candy Cigarette, 172, 174 Meatyard, Ralph Eugene, 70, 148
Moholy-Nagy, Lazlo, 54 Newhall, Beaumont, 146, 159
Hayhook, 172, 175 medium
Molnar, l.ynctte, 82, 166 The History of Photography, 53-54, 55
immediate Family, 171-75 description of, 28-31
AIDS: The Artists' Response, 125 Newman, Arnold, 38
Jessie at 5, 173, 174 modernism and, 159
Utlkmg Hack, 165 New Republic, 7
Kiss Goodnight, 172 A Meeting with the Universe (NASA), 59
Mondrian, Piet, 93 Newsweek
Night-Blooming Cereus, 172 Meiselas, Susan, 64
Popsiclc Drips, 172, 175 Mendoza, Tony Monet, Claude, 123 Davis, 16,20, 119
Morgan, Stuart, 135 Molnar image from, 166
Sunday Funnies, 172 Ernie, 70
Motion, Margaret, The Tunnel: The Under- Plagens, 4, 5, 7
The Terrible Picture, 172 Stories, 70, 130
ground Homeless of New York City, 80 New York City (Leibovitz and Haring), 65
Virginia at 3, 175 Messier, Charles, 154
milium •.indies, 57 New York City Public Library, 141
Man Ray, 170-71 Messier Grid Map (Gitto), 153, 154
 manipulated, 53, 55, 123, 154 "Playing It Again: Strategies ol Appro
New Yoikci, (> Owens, ( i.ii)'., 109, I I I
as metaphors, 38 priation," 1 I I
New Yoik Magazine, '), 1 14
new categories, 56-58 Poe, Edgar Allan, 149
New York Observer, 7 painting
press, 64, 97-98, 101-2 Poetics (Aristotle), 144
New Vor); Review of Books, 7 action, 30 Le Point, 99
purist, 53, 55
New M>rh Times, 4 cave, 59 point of view, 26
surveillance, 58
Brenson, 22 formalism and, 124 Pollock, Griselda, 164
symbolist, 159
Corry, 129 and modernist view of photography, 160 Pompidou Center, 158
theoretical, 56, 57, 9 1 - 9 5 , 97, 114
Glueck, 5 and photographic realism, 151 Popsicle Drips (Mann), 172, 175
photographs, talking about, 177-78
Grundbeig, 135,136 pictorialism and, 122-23
in presence of artist, 178-79 Popular Photography, 7
Kimmelman, 7, 125 and postmodernist view of photography, pornography, 113, 130, 132-33
studio critiques, 178-79
on Mapplethorpe controversy, 131-34 161 Portion of Histiocytic-type Cell with Budding
photographs, writing about
Mark, 66 representational, 124
evaluative paper, 171-75 Virus Particles (Gould), 60
Thornton, 119 Panzani advertisement, 3 8 - 3 9 , 45, 157
interpretive paper, 169-71 Portland Building, 158
New York Times Magazine, 140, 155 paparazzi, 64
observing and taking notes, 168-69 A Portrait of American Mothers and Daugh-
Nichols, Bill, 45-46, 48 paper contrast, 26
process of writing, 175-77 ters (Eastman), 66
Nicosia, Nic, 76 parody, 24
photography Portrait of Nan (Witkin), 24, 25
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 111 Parsons, Michael, 52
commercial, 159 portraiture, 150
Night-Blooming Cereus (Mann), 172 Parsons School of Design, New York, 105
conceptual, 95 Cameron, 98
"Night Swimming, NYC 1993-94" (Barker), Penn, Irving, 32
concerned, 93, 97, 162-63 ethically evaluative, 78
80 Edwards' review of, 116, 144
definitions of, 141-43, 143-44 Lanker, 82
Nixon, Nicholas, 125 fashion photography, 159
directorial, 6, 3 1 , 70, 95, 145, 147 Simpson, 80
nonrepresentational imagery, 124 Issey Miyafce Starburst, New York, 86
equivalent, 53, 54 postmodernism, 156-59, 166
The North American Indian (Curtis), 32 nudes, 82
as a means of control, 114 Kruger's, 107, 156, 161, 166
Nosei, Annina, 110 still lifes, 87
modernism in, 160-61 Levine's, 161, 166
Nude Descending a Staircase (Duchamp), 62 subject matter, 22
and pornography, 113 Lippard's, 166
nudes, 8 2 - 8 7 Pepper No. 30 (Weston), 97
postmodernism in, 160-63 vs. modernism, 155-56, 161
Numero Deux (Alexander), 93 Perchuk, Andrew, 30
as propaganda, 78 in photography, 160-63
"The Perfect Moment" (Mapplethorpe),
surrealistic, 70 rejection of originality of artist, 97, 107,
objectivity 130-38
teaching of, 143, 160 114
of criticism, 10 "Performance Today," 7
traditional documentary, 53, 54, 162-63 Sherman's, 161
of photography, 149 persuasive writing, 171
Photography at the Dock (Solomon- social issues and, 156
objects, of interpretation, 3 9 - 4 1 P f a h l j o h n , 41
Godeau), 8 poststructuralism, 157
obscenity, 130 phenomenology, 150
photojournalism, 64-66, 101-2, 154-55 Poussin, Nicholas, 124
October, 8 Philadelphia Inquirer, 7
Photo Metro, 4, 7 preferences vs. judgments, 128-29
Octopus and Melon (Kon), 73 Phillips, Lisa, Cindy Sherman, 117, 118
photomicrographs, 57, 58, 59 presentational environment, 103, 109,
O'Donnell, Ron, 147 photographers. See artists
"photo-paintings," 122 181-82
Ogilvy, David, Confessions of an Advertiser, The Photographers Eye (Szarkowski), 54,
"phototransformation," 70 press
149 55, 121, 146-47 Picasso, Pablo, 24, 132 art, 4 - 5
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 32, 44 photographs
Guernica, 124 photographs, 64, 9 7 - 9 8 , 101-2
Okuhara, Tetsu, 82 aesthetically evaluative, 56, 8 2 - 9 1 , 113
pictorialism, 3 1 , 53, 55, 122-23 See also journalism; mass media
On Photography (Sontag), 4, 117, 118, 145 appropriated, 9 3 , 107, 111 Prince, Richard, 9 1 , 9 3 , 107, 111, 141, 161,
Piedras-Destinos (Martinez-Canas), 90
"ontological" debate, 149 as art, 140-43, 159-60 Pincus-Witten, Robert, 12 166
original context, 9 7 - 9 9 color, 159 Piss Christ (Serrano), 131, 134 The Prince Imperial (Witkin), 24
and Kruger's "Surveillance," 105-6 descriptive, 56, 5 8 - 6 1 , 112 "The Pit" (Misrach), 88 principles of design, 26
originality, 126, 159 ethically evaluative, 56, 57, 74-82, pixels (picture elements), 152, 154 "Project W-47 (The Secret)" (Misrach), 88
O'Sullivan, Timothy, 141 112-13 Plagens, Peter, 4, 5, 7, 12, 82 propaganda
The Other Side (Goldin), 66, 69 explanatory, 57, 6 1 - 7 0 , 11 2 plagiarism, 168 photography as, 78
Owens, Bill as h u m a n constructs, 35 platinum-palladium process, 30 socialist, 110
Our Kind oj People: American Groups and identification, 58, 59 Plato, 120 proportion, 26
Rituals, 66 interpretive, 56, 57, 70-74, 112 "The Playboys" (Misrach), 88 "pseudo-paintings," 122, 140, 159
Suburbia, 5 7 - 5 8 , 64, 66, 67, 112 landscape, 87
 =3
psychoanalytic interpretation, I) Roth, Philip, 158 and intent, 50 background, 8
psychology of a n , 14'5 Rubens, Petri Paul, (lie little Fur, 24 Phillips on, 117 critical agenda, 3, 6 - 7 , 8
"Public Address," 110 Russian constructivism, 110 postmodernism, 161 on feminist theory, 164
purist photographs, 3 5, 55 self-portraits, 22, 42, 158 on modernist photography, 160, 161
Pygmalion (Witkin), 24 St. Louis and the Arch (Meyerowitz), 87 theoretical photography, 91 Photography at the Dock, 8
Python, Monty, 158 Salgado, Sebasliao, 6, 64 Untitled Film Still #13, 23 Sommer, Frederick, 76
Salle, David, 106 "Untitled Film Stills," 22 The Somnambulist (Gibson), 70
Quilter, Anne, 174 Samaras, Lucas, 70, 148 The Shock of the New, 7 Songs of My People, 64
Sander, August, 32, 145 Shore, Stephen, 91 Sonneman, Eve, Real Time, 95
racism, 80 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 157 "A Short History of Photography" Sontag, Susan, 4, 136
Raised by Wolves (Goldberg), 80 scale, 26 (Benjamin), 161 on advertising photographs, 150
Rauschenberg, Robert, 158 Schiaparelli, Elsa, 32 Siegel, Marcia, 13 on "aestheticizing" of photographs, 102
Ray, Man, 54 Schiele, Egon, 93 sign, 157 On Photography, 4, 117, 118, 145, 167
realism, 53, 120-22 Schjeldahl, Peter, 1, 2, 3, 10, 12 significance, vs. meaning, 52 space, 26
and conventionalism, 149-52 schools signifying practices, 38 space exploration photographs, 57, 58,
and formalism, 123 criticism, 11 Simmons, Laurie, 45, 82, 141, 161 59-60
modernism and, 159 teaching of photography, 143 Deluxe—Redding House #5, 83 Spirituality of the Flesh (Skoglund), 28
Weston on, 53 Schreiber, Le Anne, 110 Simpson, Lorna, 80, 81 Sports Afield, 102
Real Time (Sonneman), 95 science, 156 Simpson, O. J., 155 Sports Illustrated, 4 5 - 4 6
reappraisals, 128 Seaman, Bill, 9 6 - 9 7 Sischy, Ingrid, 6, 136-38 Squiers, Carol, 109, 111, 143
reasons, and judgments, 117-19 Sekula, Allan, 128, 143 Siskind, Aaron, 87 Stanford, Leland, 6 1 - 6 2
Rejlandcr, Oscar Gustave, 24 criticism of, 11-12 "Six Ideas in Photography" (Garner), 55 Starn twins (Doug and Mike), 123, 141
relativism, 49 definition of photography, 144 Skoglund, Sandy, 70 Judith (Blue Concave), 142
relevancy, 3 2 - 3 3 "Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing in "Cross-References: Sculpture into "Star Wars," 158
Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the Documentary (Notes on the Politics Photography," 147 Steichen, Edward, 123, 128
World Appearances (Kruger), 4 of Representation)," 144 Spirituality of the Flesh, 28 Stein, Sally, 143
Renaissance, 9 1 , 120, 151 Fish Story, 80 on unintended meanings, 50 Steinmetz, Philip, 162
repetition and rhythm, 26 Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes, 80 Walking on Eggshells, 28, 29 Stevens, Mark, 8, 116
rephotographs, 9 1 , 93, 107, 111 "The Invention of Photographic Mean- The Wedding, 28 criteria for good criticism, 12
representation, and Marxist theory, 163 ing," 6 Smith, Aileen, Minamata, 78 relations with artists, 10
reproductions photographic theory, 145, 146 Smith, Ralph, 5 stance toward criticism, 9
of artworks, 58, 59 and postmodernism, 162 Smith, W. Eugene, 64, 93, 102, 162 Stieglitz, Alfred, 87
postmodernism and, 161 self, theory of, 158 Minamata, 78, 162 Camera Work, 123, 140
revisionist criticism, 128 Self-Portrait (Mapplethorpe), 137 "snapshot aesthetic," 31 equivalents, 54
Ricard, Rene, 2, 7 Sel/-Portrait (Torso, Front) (Coplans), 85 Snow, Michael, 148 Gallery 291, 123, 140
Rice, Shelley, 40, 4 1 , 66 Self-Portrait with Balloon and Bullet Snyder, Joel, 151-52 modernism, 159
Richards, Eugene (Edgerton), 63 social documentary, 162 photographs of wife, 44
Below the Line: Living Poor in America, 78 Seltz, Peter, 12 social issues pictorialism, 123
Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, 76 semiotic interpretation, 45-46 ethically evaluative photographs and, straight approach, 53
"Homeless in America," 76 Serrano, Andres, Piss Christ, 131, 134 76-82 still lifes, 38, 87
Rickey, Carrie, 7, 129 sexism, 82 explanatory photographs and, 66, 70 Stills from a Spelling Lesson (Reel 4). With
"right" interpretation, 48-49 sex vs. gender, 163 mstiumentalism and, 125 Man Ray (Wegman), 170
Riis, Jacob, 74, 77, 80, 149 Seymour, David, 64 Kruger and, 107-8, 109-11, 113, 114 Stories (Mendoza), 70, 130
Ritchin, Fred, 152, 155 Shahn, Ben, 26 postmodernism and, 156 straight photography, 53-54, 149
Rivers, Larry, 158 shape, 26 socialist propaganda, 110 Green on, 40
Robbins, Mark, 80 sharpness of grain, 26 sociology, visual, 62 manipulation and, 55
Rolling Stone, 155 Shepard, Sam, 32 •Oft l«xus. 122, 123, 124 modernism and, 124, 159
Rosenblum, Naomi, A History ofWoman Sherman, Cindy, 4, 141 Solomon, Holly, 136 realism and, 122
Photographers, 166 Cincfy Sherman 1975-1993, 4 Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, 4 Stieglitz and, 53
Rosier, Martha, 102, 146, 162 Film Stills, 4 on Alexander, 166 Strand and, 53, 122, 149
 delming i II.II.H lei isiu s ol photographs, lime, 4, 5, 7, 155 Van Dei Zee, James, 01
M i . M K I , Paul, l(>l
lime-motion studies, 62 "Vanishing Presence," 147-48
modernism, 159 139
losani, Patrick, 148 vantage point, 147, 159
realism, 120-21, 122 on Doisne.ui's At the Cajc, Chez Fraysse,
liachtenberg, Alan, 51 Vegetarian Times, 102
straight approach, 53, 122, 149 Rue de Seine, Paris, 101
on "Family of Man," 128 traditional documentary photography, 53, Vera, Veronica, 134
theory, 145-46
influence on photographic theory, 54,162-63 verbal metaphors, 38
Stravinsky, Igor, 38
146-47 Transfiguration of the Commonplace: Village Voice, 2,7,8, 125
street photography, 88
slroboscopic equipment, 62 on landscape photography, 87 A Philosophy of Art (Danto), 144 Violent legacies: Three Cantos (Misrach), 88
structuralism, 157 Looking at Photographs, 39-40, 41, 101 transparency, 151, 155 Virginia at 3 (Mann), 175
Strunk, William, Jr., 158 Mirrors and Windows, 4, 120 Tress, Arthur visual anthropology, 62
studio critiques, 179-82 modernism, 159-60 The Teapot Opera, 70 visual metaphors, 38
Sturges, Jock, 82 at Museum of Modern Art, 64, 121 Theatre of the Mind, 70 visual sociology, 62
The Photographer's Eye, 54, 55, 121, triptych, 16, 17 Vogue, 4, 8, 110
Marine: Aries, Plage de Beau Due, France,
Tucker, Marcia, 106 volume, 26
84 146-47
Tulsa (Clark), 64 Voyager 1 & 2, 59
Sturman, John, 110
The Tunnel: The Underground Homeless of
style, 31 Talking Bach (Molnar), 165
teaching, of photography, 143 New York City (Morton), 80 Wagstaff, Sam, 136
style manuals, 169
The Teapot Opera (Tress), 70 Turabian, Kate, 169 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 147
subject contrast, 26
technique, based on interpretation, 47 Turner, Joseph, 123 Walking on Eggshells (Skoglund), 28, 29
subjectivity, of interpretation, 49, 52
The Terrible Picture (Mann), 172 Turyn, Anne, 148 Wall, Jeff, 95
subject matter
of aesthetically evaluative photographs, text, 157 Walsh, Neil Allen, 152
82 Text (Charlesworth), 93, 95 Uelsmann, Jerry, 50, 70 Walton, Kendall, 151, 155
texture, 26 Untitled, 71 Ward 81 (Mark), 66
of "Cross-References" artists, 147
Tharp, Twyla, 158 unity within variety, 26 Warhol, Andy, 32, 158
description of, 20-25, 27-28
theater criticism, 3 Untitled (Berman), 92 Waste (Ina), 88
and form, 27-28
Theater of Manners (Barney), 64 Untitled (Groover), 27 Water Towers (Becher and Becher),
formalism and, 124
Untitled ("Surveillance is your busywork") 56-57
+ form + context = content, 181-82 Theatre of the Mind (Tress), 70
(Kruger) The Wave of Snow (Faucon), 147
+ form = content, 181-82 theoretical criticism, 6
theoretical photographs, 56, 57, 91-95, 97, and external context, 109-11 Webb, Boyd, 147
modernism and, 159
114 and internal context, 105 The Wedding (Skoglund), 28
in studio critiques, 180-81
theories interpretation of, 103-11 "We don't need another hero" (Kruger),
subordination, 26
aesthetic, 143-44 and original context, 105-8 109
Suburbia (Owens), 57-58, 64, 66, 67, 112
conventionalism, 149, 151-55 and photographic categories, 111-14 Weegee, 134, 136
Subway (Davidson), 66
expressionism, 122-23 Untitled (Uelsmann), 71 Weems, Carrie Mae, 80
Sugarman, Martin, God Be with You: War in
Untitled, 1981 ("You construct intricate Mirror, Mirror, 79
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 76 formalism, 45, 53, 54, 123-24
Sugimoto, Hiroshi, 61 instrumentalism, 124-26, 127, 159 rituals . . .") (Kruger), 106, 107, 108 Wegman, William, 95, 141
Sunday Funnies (Mann), 172 Untitled, 1983 ("You kill time") (Kruger), an interpretative paper on, 170-71
Marxism, 46, 127,162-63
surface meaning, 42 modernism, 155-56, 158-59 106, 107, 108 Arm Envy. With Alexander Edwards and
surrealistic photography, 70 postmodernism, 156-59 Untitled, 1981 ("Your every wish") Fay Ray, 170
"Surveillance is your busywork" (Kruger), realism, 149-51 (Kruger), 106, 107 Cinderella, 70
115 theorization, 2, 140-43, 166-67 Untitled, 1981 ("Your manias become Frog/Frog II. With Man Ray, 171
and critics, 144-45 science") (Kruger), 107, 108, 109 Little Red, 70
and external context, 109-11
and curators, 146-48 Untitled Film Still #13 (Sherman), 23 Lolita. With Battina, 170
and internal context, 105
and historians, 146 "Untitled Film Stills" (Sherman), 22-24 Matted (Diptych). With Fay Ray, 171
interpretation of, 103-11
urbanization, 156 Stills from a Spelling Lesson (Reel 4). With
and original context, 105-8 and photographers, 145-46
U.S. News & World Report, 7 Man Ray, 170
and photographic categories, 111-14 the thing itself, 146, 159
Ut, Huynh Cong "Nick," 97-98, 99 Weiley Susan, 21,31,32
surveillance photographs, 58 "Think Like Us" (Kruger), 108
symbolist photographs, 159 Thornton, Gene "Avedon Goes West," 20
value, 26 Weinberg, Adam, 147, 148
Szarkowski.John, 26 onMichals, 119-20
van Anen, Gerdien Weitz, Morris, 2, 3
on Callahan, 42 on Witkin, 34
Gerdicn's Portrait, 77 Welling, James, 161
criticism of, 11 time, 146, 159
Weston, Lidwartl, 9), 161 i .'iiihi'l In K'C/IIIIKIII S Pool, 24
.11 .IIH-lu ally evaluative photographs, 'id, HclCM liHiiiiii'iit, 24
II 1 Mniiddii, 24
(he Daybooks, 51 Portroll <>/ Nan, 24, 25
ethically evaluative photographs, 56 The Prince Imperial, 24
and form, 26, 134 Pygmalion, 24
modernism, 159 theoretical photography, 91
nudes in sand dunes, 87 use of the medium of photography, U)
Pepper No. 30, 97 Wolfe, Tom, 32, 158
photographic theory, 145-46 Women Are Beautiful (Winogrand), 88, 'i I
on "pseudo-paintings," 140 Women's Caucus, Society of Photographs
realism, 120-21, 122, 126 Education, 167
on straight photography, 53, 124 women's movement, 163
subject matter, 22 See also feminism
What You Lookin At (Williams), 103 Wood, Grant, 24
Whistler, James, 123 Woodman, Francesca, 148
White, Clarence, 70, 123 Woodward, Richard, 161
White, E. B., 158 "It's Art, But Is It Photography?"
White, Minor 140-41
Aperture, 124 on Szarkowski, 159-60
on artist's intent, 50 the work, 157
landscapes, 54, 87 "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
modernism, 159 Reproduction" (Benjamin), 161
on realism, 122 writing
subject matter, 22 about evaluation, 171-75
The White Hotel, 158 about interpretation, 169-71
Whitney Museum of American Art, 135 about photographs, 168-77
biennial exhibitions, 103, 106 persuasive, 171
wide-field imager (WFI), 154 process of, 175-77
Williams, Daniel, 40
Williams, Pat Ward, What You Lookin At, "You construct intricate rituals . . ."
103 (Kruger), 106, 107, 108
Willis, Deborah, 80 "You kill time" (Kruger), 106, 107, 108
Wilson, Robert, 158 "Your every wish" (Kruger), 106, 107
Wilson, William, 20, 21, 28, 30, 32 "Your manias become science" (Kruger),
windows, 54-55, 120 107, 108, 109
Winogrand, Garry, 117
Women Are Beautiful, 88, 91 Zelevansky, Lynn, 109, 110
Witkin, Joel-Peter, 24, 33, 36, 47, 76, 141 zone system, 122
as controversial photographer, 34