Modernism and Postmodernism

This lecture was about modernism and postmodernism in terms of photography.

Modernism occured in the late 19th and early 20th century and focused on different ways of expression in order to progress on shaping the world. Modernists believed that traditional culture was becoming outdated and wasnt moving on to anything better. The distinction between high and low culture (high culture for example being the theatre or galleries, low culture being the cinema or local showing of work) wasnt as clear as it was before. Before modernism, it was only work in galleries that could be classed as art, but this began to change when different things could be called art. The arts were beginning to improve, which was helped somewhat by the interest that artwork could be collectable, with emphasis on original pieces.

Walter Benjamin was all in favour of this idea of artwork. In his book 'A short history of photography', he argued that the original piece was important in the fact that its uniqueness creates an aura and atmosphere. This aura then forms a connection with the viewer. He also states that the aura deminishes every time we see it, so the more copies we see deminishes the artwork itself.

Benjamin also stated that the magic of the image can be lost due to the photographer trying to imitate a painting. Photography is about the 'spark of chance' i.e. capturing events that can possably only last for a second, and that may be totally random. Without this spark of chance, the aura is lost.

Douglas Crimp argues that a particular art piece has a universal importance, not just a local one. He said that painters seek to preserve their work as a high art culutre, as opposed to local significance.

Alfred Steiglitz - The Steerage 1907

This image shows the documentary expression style of the 1930s, which involves the view of the photographer on the event. This image sends a social message with the upper and lower deck.

Postmodernism occurred in the 1960s. It was the collapse of ideas of history and certainty. Anyone writing a history was thought to just be expressing their point of view. There was a lot of reproduction and circulation, so issues of authorship and the distinction between original and copy were raised.

Three key figures in postmodernism are Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson, and Jean Baudrillard.
Lyotard stated that postmodernism occurred because society had become so fragmented that theories explaining how society works cant easily be applied. He also believed that society had lost faith in big ideas: despite advances or promises, no progress had been made.

Jameson believed that the world was saturated with global capitalism and consumerism, and that older art works were just being made reference to.

Baudrillard also believed that the world was saturated with endless recycling and reproduction of images. Social and cultural processes were being represented, but we had no way of knowing the truth of those representations.

(Probert. D. AQA Advanced Media Studies, 2008, Phillip Allan Publishing)

Christian Boltanski French is a photographer who feels like a recycler. He admits there is a distance between creator and audience, and that the audience bring their own experiences to the work in order to interpret it.

Light, Magic, Chemicals - Photography and the emergence of the modern world

 In this lecture, the main discussion points were the history of photography and the processes used to enhance particular photographs.


We first need to define the terms 'history' and 'culture' and how they relate to photography.
History - continuous records of past events, or the study of past events. So photography can be part of history as a photograph can represent a certain time and place.
Culture - Intellectual and artistic achievement or expression, or customs and civilisations of a particular time and people. Photography can portray these cultures, or can be part of universal culture in every day life.


According to Steve Bezencanet: "We are locked into a limited and traditional perception of a medium developing from one master to another, marginally influenced by technical factors and with a minimal relation to anything else: the key point of analysis being the individual photograph…
(Stevie Bezencanet, „What a History of Photography‟, Creative Camera, April 1982).
I interpret this to mean that Bezencanet believed a photographer isn't as original as they first thought, that they only reproduce images from other photographers without bringing much to it themselves. I feel this statement is very pessimistic because photography should be seen as a creative outlet that is different for every photographer.

Joseph Nicephore Niepce, View from his window at Le Gras, c1827

This image is known as the first photograph to be made, created by Joseph Nicephore Niepce. It is a heliograph, with direct bitumen positive on a pewter plate.

Alternative Processes

Dageurretype - A silver plate process. Method = coat a silver plate, add iodine vapour, which forms silver iodide. Expose to light, which forms a latent image (cant see but can be developed). It is then developed in mercury vapour and fixed in sodium thiosulphate. A dageurretype produces a sharp, dark image, but cant be reproduced.

Calotype -  Fox Talbot created this negative / positive process. Method = coat paper with silver nitrate and silver iodide. Dry and expose to light. The latent image is developed in gallo nitrate of silver and fixed in hypo. The texture of the paper can be seen on calotypes.

Cyanotype - Ferric based not silver based process. Method = coat paper with an ammonium iron and potassium ferricyanide solution. Expose to natural or ultraviolet light which, when rinsed, produces a high blue image when oxidised.