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Some Notes About Photography
By MAX DUPAIN
Photography is an art form with a physico-chemical basis by which three dimensional objects are shown as plane projections. This latter factor is the only technical element it has in common with other graphic arts.
We think of the camera and its product the photograph as the art medium of the machine age. It is associated with the apparatus of the operating theatre and surgical cleanliness, the gleaming surface of modern aircraft and the steel and glass of modern architecture. It is well equipped to show clearly man's relationship to his environment and so stimulate his understanding of it.
For instance the horde of photographs produced of the last war brought war's reality to the home and industrial front in a vital way which had never before been experienced. A similar example is afforded by the documentary film which shows the manufacture of the products which sustain us and the lives of the men and women who operate the machines which make these products. Our knowledge is enlarged of the bridges we cross and the electricity we consume by virtue of the camera penetrating the engineer's organisation and the building of the hydro electric plant.
It is probably due to the machine (the camera) photographing the new forms thrown up by the machine and their application to human existence that a new aesthetic experience has been born. The new art form of the photograph is clearly objective and to a large extent impersonal. The only personal prerogative it possesses is selection. But in effect this is all important and does not mean do we point our lens at this or that but how deeply and sincerely do we feel the impact of this or that form on our consciousness and how clearly do we understand its function and in what light is its purpose best seen, and of knowing how it will photograph in that light and of what use or value it will be when it is photographed.
"They believe that beauty will come in good time to inhabit the statement which is honest and lucid and deeply felt and which fulfils the honest ends of citizenship. They are sensible enough to conceive of art as the byproduct (the over-tone) of a job of work done. The opposite attempt to capture the byproduct first (the self conscious pursuit of beauty, the pursuit of art for art's sake to the exclusion of jobs of work and other pedestrian beginnings) were always a reflection of selfish wealth, selfish leisure and aesthetic decadence."
John Grierson (on behalf of his colleagues)
IT IS STRANGE that in an age so alive with scientific thought we still have the spectacle of make-believe pervading the practice of photography. We attempt to idealise the subject instead of assessing its value as an objective fact. This is well illustrated by our "gutless wonders" the studio portrait photographers who have a specially prepared mask of make up and retouching ready to slip over the face of any creature who deigns to appear before their cameras. If the mask were relatively different for each face maybe they could get away with it, but displays of their work show a string of faces all alike with the same mask. Is this insufferable banality really necessary? Is our photography consuming public so indiscriminate as to demand this craven flattery of studio fabrication?
"The penalty for realism is that it is about reality and has to bother forever not about being beautiful but about being right."
John Grierson.
"The world is incredibly beautiful after a film studio."
Roger Manvell.
On the other hand the penetration of scientific thought into the field of production of photo machinery and materials has rendered available to the photographers some remarkable equipment. A prodigious number of camera men have been carried away entirely by this mechanical profusion, indulging the instrument for its own sake and not its use. The result is a million gadget-mad photographers shooting up the world right and left with their machinery and producing relatively nothing of any consequence; they are prize suckers for the propaganda of equipment manufacturers.
The photograph is still governed technically by two primary elements exposure of the sensitive emulsion to light and the development of the latent image. That's all. If we can concentrate on developing the refinements of this principle by learning to understand light and all its elusive and beautiful qualities and use it in terms reconcilable to the sensitive film, the simplest of equipment only will be found necessary for the production of fine photography.
"Rare though painting of the first order is, photography of the first rank is even rarer."
Lewis Mumford.
To look back to the days of the discovery of the negative process by Fox Talbot and contemplate the enormous strides taken by photography since then fills one with optimistic expectancy for the future. Admittedly this development is largely applicable to utilitarian purposes; aerial photography for instance has revolutionised cartography and survey work, the X-ray and micro cameras are vital instruments in science and medicine; press, advertising and industrial photography supply a tremendous demand for illustration; ultra violet photography is used in criminological work, all representing functional activities throughout our society.
Lastly, we think of the infant direct colour photography. This has had a flying start compared with black and white photography which evolved for so long on parallel lines to painting and drawing.
Colour photography is being used factually and to date is uncontaminated by the subjective arts. We must treasure it as a babe in arms and nourish it with healthy ingredients. There is probably no such thing as "natural colour" if we use the human eye as a gauge. We all have different interpretations of the same colour irrespective of the fact that colour varies continually as the sunlight changes.
We can probably standardise colour more easily in the studio under artificial conditions but this will place limitations on subject matter. The real marvel of colour photography today is the manufacture of the colour film itself. The greatest work has been done in the laboratory and has now to be exploited by the photographers.
Photography may be inherently a monotone art form and may never develop an important colour character; it remains to be seen.
"Light is the most enthralling of all photographic elements, possessed of endless excitements. Light is to the photographer what movement is to the dancer, the active principle without which there can be no photograph, as without movement there can be no dance. The reaction I get from light is of energy, vibrating, responsive, impersonal, tireless, tapping the inexhaustible dynamics of the universe. This cosmic force is everybody's workaday tool. Light has a real parallel with the dance, being itself a dance of frequencies."
Barbara Morgan.
Nearly all the photographs in this volume have been made with the intention of securing a fragmentary impression of passing movement or changing form; in the portraits and figures particularly I have tried to save the nonchalance and spontaneity of the mood. Photographs of water, land and "found things," where the motion has been slow, have been more carefully studied, perhaps too much so, and an appropriate viewpoint and moment of exposure been pre-selected.
This little collection is a cross section of that which I consider to be my best work since 1935. Many people will, I hope, derive ideas from them and some no doubt will be "amused," but that is not my intention nor ambition.
Modern photography must do more than entertain, it must incite thought and, by its clear statements of actuality, cultivate a sympathetic understanding of men and women and the life they create and live.
I profoundly believe it can accomplish this.
Cover Page | Introduction by Hal Missingham | Notes by Max Dupain | List of Photos | The Photographs | Max Dupain main page
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