Chapter Three: The Influence of Commercial Photography and Photojournalism
In 1950, A Portfolio of Australian Photography was edited by Le Guay and included works by Pictorialists: Dr Julian Smith and Harold Cazneaux; Modernists like Max Dupain; Fashion photographers like Athol Shmith; and younger photographers with photo-journalistic ambitions like David Potts and David Moore. The publication was compiled from approximately 5000 images which were sent in to Contemporary Photography by photographers over three years.
Le Guay introduced the book with a call for non-Pictorialist photographic art: 'photography still suffers unqualified abuse from many who regard it as an imitative medium best suited to restate the intentions of the painter or etcher'. It may be called an alternative to the official salons of the day, as well as an expression of Le Guay's belief about the standard and style of photography at that time.
Oswald Ziegler's publications, Australian Photography 1947 and Australian Photography 1957, functioned as photographic salons at a time when the traditional salons were being considered less relevant to the development of photography as an independent art form.118 They were important for the ratification of Naturalistic photography and commercial illustration, whilst also displaying other styles, including Pictorialism.119 It must be noted that this period was more about recognising photography as a vital medium with many uses, rather than a time for displacing one style with another. Photography was not yet fully recognised as an artistic medium, and its uses in commercial areas and magazine illustration were important for the transition in status in the coming years.
Australian Photography 1947 contained several short essays by the leading photographers of the day on varied photographic uses. It was reviewed in Contemporary Photography as containing a selection of prints following 'a factual-documentary outlook rather than the romanist [sic, romanticist?] theory of the bromoil and the hand-worked print'.120 In the Forward, Hal Missingham expressed his wish for such an annual to provide photographers with a fresh look at the medium, 'photography should proclaim its own technical statement quite unashamedly'121 rather than imitate other media.
He set photography apart from other graphic areas as a tool 'with the ability to reproduce images of the utmost sharpness in detail and texture, to present an analysis of movement, to make visible a whole new world of experience', and broadened its uses to include science, art, design, and everyday undertakings. Missingham announced that one of the selection criteria for this annual was that the photographs looked like photographs. He aligned the progress of photographic styles in the immediate past with those of painting, and believed that together Australians had begun to produce work of an unmistakably new character and vision, in contrast to the romanticism of the past.122
Max Dupain wrote about 'Factual Photography' with a lamentation that the Pictorialists tried to destroy the accuracy of the camera's vision in an attempt to produce artworks along the lines of paintings. In a mood of condescension, Dupain noted that even the salons at that time still devoted space to the processes that Pictorialists used:'the poor, shamefaced, self-conscious photographer so dearly wanted to rank as an artist. Instead of achieving this end he gave birth to probably the most odious and humorous objects in the lexicon of our disdain'.
He cited that period as one of revolution, in which the achievements of past photographic masters would be applied to contemporary works, and 'the aesthetic of the light picture' itself would be established. Dupain used the term 'factual' as a synonym for the "documentary" approach in the 1940s but distinguished this style (a 'carefully planned and considered factual shot'), nevertheless, from the candid shot.123 He rejected photomontage as a possibility in Grierson's definition of documentary, and slurred the majority of magazine and fashion photography as useless charlatanism, but praised the American photographers of Life magazine, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Weegee and Bill Brandt. Dupain also called upon the government to put Factual Photography to more uses, including the disclosure of wonders of this great nation.
In the next section, Harold Cazneaux defended Australian Pictorialist landscape photography as having broken away from the European look to present a truly Australian vision. Cazneaux formed the Sydney Camera Circle in 1916 as a reaction against European-styled Australian landscape photography, with the aim of developing a more appropriate style of Pictorialist photography for the Australian scene. He called W.H. Moffitt an 'individualist in bromoil', and defended his style of landscape work as 'photography plus control' against its criticism of imitating other media.124
Cazneaux warned against an adoption of the miniature camera and the new techniques that had come with the developments in technology, particularly in the landscape genre, and called for a revival of the old-style spirit of pictorial expression. This essay was the only one in Australian Photography 1947 which called for a return to a style of the past, but Cazneaux pointed out that he was concerning himself here with landscape photography exclusively.
Commercial uses for photography were not forgotten, as Russell Roberts wrote a section on 'Applied Photography', which praised the advertising photographs in American magazines. He believed the publication of Australian Photography 1947 was 'the first real attempt in Australia to set a standard for photography and help awaken an appreciation of the art, particularly of the photographic illustrator'.125 It included both amateur and professional works, and the selection committees were Hal Missingham, S. Woodward-Smith, and Oswald Ziegler for the professional field; and Max Dupain, Athol Shmith, and Russell Roberts for the amateur works. To mark the emphasis on the approach of photography adopted by this annual, the graphic for the "salon" medal, designed by Lyndon Dadswell,126 showed a photographer crouched on one knee with a miniature camera to his eye. Le Guay's portrait of Chips Rafferty won a silver plaque, and Powell's Family Group, one of the bronzes; both also appeared in CP. The data on all of the selected photographs was included at the back of the book.
In Australian Photography 1957, Laurence Le Guay explained that amateurs as well as professional photographers should stay away from depicting the uninhabited misty landscapes and character studies which were more characteristic of painting, and which dominated the photographic annuals of the pre-WWII period. Instead, photographers should try to produce more 'alive' images. This was a marked contrast to Cazneaux's call for a return to Pictorialist landscapes in Australian Photography 1947. Whilst believing in a more relevant-to-life role for photography, Le Guay did not want to see a return to the depressing photographs produced in the 1930s in the name of social reform, but instead placed photography as the best medium for 'illustrating contemporary life'.127 These views were published in 1957, but his time as editor of CP before that was also devoted to changing the outlook of Australian photography in this manner.
The 1950s was a period of change for the traditional photographic society salons, which were encouraged to adopt a more progressive policy as the new exhibitions started to appear on the photographic scene. The categories in the Australian Photography 1957 were wide-ranging, and included Portraiture, Industrial, Documentary, Landscape, Nature, and Colour photography. With the establishment of several international salons in the late 1950s, Australian photography standards were improving. A report on the 5th Sydney International Exhibition of Photography of 1962 expressed relief that Australian photographers were finally competing successfully with overseas entrants, and gave credit to the experience gained from international competitions.
The print quality and subject matter of Australian entries was no longer obviously distinguishable from overseas entries.128 In 1963 Australian photographers had a selection of international salons available to them in their own country, which included Newcastle, Maitland, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney. The technical standard of our photography was improving, and the range of applications that were valued as photographic art was also being extended. A new class for Photojournalism was announced for the 1964 Maitland International, in the hope of attracting entrants who had rejected the Pictorialist approach.
The Australasian edition of the American magazine Popular Photography was first published in November 1950.129 An emphasis on darkroom operations dominated the articles of the early issues, and most of the content was American. In March 1951 Australian readers' pictures were included for the first time, and the first Australian editorial in December 1952 promised that articles by Australians would be published henceforth.
February 1955 saw the first local cover photograph: a picture of Margot McKendry by Laurence Le Guay. In December 1961, Keast Burke (lately from AP.-R.) became Editor and Art Director, and it was announced that an all-Australian content policy would take effect from the next issue, and the name would be changed to Australian Popular Photography {APP). Laurence Le Guay was an Honorary Editor, and the magazine can be seen as a blend of the policies of A.P.-R. and C.P.—as the editors of those magazines both joined APP's ranks. The contents of A.P.P. reflected the eclectic trends of the period: photojournalism, Pictorialism, Modernism, Documentary, and commercial photography.
It was a slow start, and this magazine was better established by the early 1960s, when it was conducting photographic criticism. Maitland's 5th International was compared with Adelaide's Festival of Arts 2nd National exhibition in two articles in the March 1962 issue. Despite the rhetoric about "contemporary" photography being exhibited in salons, only 30 were reported to fit that description in the Maitland Salon.130 The judging panel of Adelaide's exhibition were reported to have favoured 'different' and 'modern approach' photographs, as long as they also displayed outstanding composition and imagination, but did, however, place less importance on print quality.131
There was still debate over the virtues and legitimacy of Pictorialism as photography's representative in artistic circles. A symposium on the issue of 'Conventional versus Contemporary' photography was reported in APP in 1962 in which there were two speakers each to discuss the virtues of Pictorialism and Modernist photography. Jack Clark reported that only in the past few years had a change been noticed in the content of international salons, and believed that there was room for both "schools". Len Richards jibed that 'new school' photographers probably could not produce good pictures in the traditional style, and he criticised abstract photography for being unintelligible, whereas the photographer's idea was expressed clearly in the narrative structure of "classical" photography. Despite the differing views between the two sides, the report ended on a positive note with a call for the appreciation of abstract art as a pure form which creates and suggests different things.132
The Documentary style of photography was still a matter for discussion, and a celebration of the late Damien Parer's photographic and motion picture work from WWII appeared in APP in 1963. His philosophy on the state of photography in the 1940s was published, and seemed to have resonances, still, in 1963. Parer believed photography 'had become inbred—instead of seeking our inspiration from life we have sought it from other photographers—frequently of doubtful value'.133 The need for a more vital depiction of life in photography still needed to be emphasised.
Le Guay's photographic work appeared in APP, and was often used to demonstrate different techniques and approaches to photography for the benefit of readers. His colour advertising image featuring the model Margot McKendry was displayed in the Professional Photographers' Association exhibition section in June 1962.
Keast Burke explained how the image was created and the difference between the professional and the amateur approach to photography—that a photographer must apply skill and adaptability to commissioned work, rather than waiting for conditions to be perfect.
Le Guay's Bull Ring Impression [Figure 19] was also featured in APP, and the colour montaged creation was posed as an alternative to picture stories where a sequence of photographs are used to depict an idea, the movement of an event, or the personal feelings of the photographer. In a single image, Le Guay believed he had successfully conveyed all of those things.134
By the early 1950s, the Australasian Photo.-Review had run its course, as its role was being filled by Popular photography—Australasian Edition.135
The new journal's content was a mixture of commercial, 'Documentary' and Pictorialist photography, which was described by Gael Newton as forming a coalition rather than addressing the issue of a common viewpoint for creative photographers.136 |
|
 |
| |
Fig 19: Laurence Le Guay, Bull Ring Impression, c1961, (Reproduced from Australian Popular Photography January 1962, p27) |
Several different approaches to photography existed at the same time, and those working for magazines like Contemporary Photography and Australian Popular Photography were more concerned with providing outlets for enthusiastic photographers, generating a general interest in the medium and elevating its status by demonstrating its virtues and myriad of uses.
The Institute of Photographic Illustrators' (formed in 1948) held exhibitions in 1949 and 1950 which consisted mainly of professional work by advertising and illustrating photographers, but more 'personal documentary' work by David Potts and David Moore also appeared, as did some of Max Dupain's and Laurence Le Guay's 'documentary and un-commissioned' prints.137 In 1954, Max Dupain and Athol Shmith formed separated break-away groups in Sydney and Melbourne from The Institute of Photographic Illustrators because they wanted to display more personal expression in their works.138 The Sydney group, which consisted of Max Dupain, Kerry Dundas, Hal Missingham, Gordon Andrews, David Potts, and Axel Poignant, held the week-long Six Photographers exhibition in May 1955 in David Jones' Blaxland Gallery. It aimed to emphasise the difference between the unstaged, spontaneous, and personal nature of Naturalistic photography, compared with commercial work.
The exhibition rated a mention in the Daily Telegraph,139 but Newton criticised the reviewer's statement—that these photographers had proved photography's potential as an art form—because it did not constructively critique the exhibition: 'the same old comments were brought out as had been said of Pictorial exhibitions, and of the earlier Contemporary Camera Groupe, in the refrain that photography in the right hands was undoubtedly an art'.140 No other critical approach to Naturalistic photography had yet been developed and it appeared to just be a question of whether photography was art or not.
The short review began with a disclaimer concerning the reviewer's lack of photographic knowledge and outlined the common views regarding photography at that time: that it was capable of being untrustworthy, unflatteringly accurate, or boring; 'that it can also be a vital creation, capturing the very essence of an unconscious gesture, expression, or fleeting movement with unrivalled piquancy, is abundantly clear in this show'.141 The article's sub-heading was 'No Trickery', and alerts us to the fact that there was widespread distrust of the camera's claim to absolute truth at this time, and acknowledged the use of manipulation techniques in photography.
The article mentioned the Pictorialist photographer's attraction to painting, which was dismissed by the reviewer, who was impressed by the unique power of the photographic images displayed in this exhibition: 'contrary to innocent belief photography has never overlapped into the painter's field. But here is the raw material that any painter with an absorbing interest in life and nature might well envy; or, rather, envy the power to carry so clearly in his memory'.142
The catalogue to the exhibition began with the notification that the Holtermann collection (of 5000 negatives of life on the goldfields in the 1880s) was presented to the Mitchell Library in 1954—hinting at the need for more photographic collections to be housed in such institutions. It also explained that artists in other media had been moving away from the depiction of the factual image since the camera's invention, whereas photography needed to concern itself firstly with the image, and the subject matter it depicts.
 |
|
 |
| Fig 20: David Potts, Henley Regatta, 1954, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, (Reproduced from Shades of Light, p127) |
|
Fig 21: David Potts, Buckingham Palace, 1953, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, (Reproduced from Australian Photographs ANG, p39) |
The camera was said to be 'an important means of recording contemporary life'.143 The Six Photographers were reacting against the lack of personal attitude in the majority of photography at that time, especially the commissioned work which had gained so much exposure. The exhibition did, however, include two groups of pictures from photo-essays by David Potts: of scenes of viewers at the Tate Gallery, and at the Royal Academy. Potts's Henley Regatta [Figure 20] is a humorous look at an old couple, almost in silhouette, keen to see the results of the race—a classic observation of human nature; and in his Buckingham Palace 1953 [Figure 21], Potts has captured in a split-second the amusing facial expressions of two girls looking at a passing guard.
Gael Newton explains that Documentary was not a style to be utilised only for propaganda with the aim of mending social problems, but encouraged a penetrating understanding of subject matter. This extension of what the term encompasses was necessary, as the photography of the 1940s and early 1950s was heavily influenced by the aesthetic produced by Documentary photographers and film-makers, but adapted it for more wide-ranging applications. Commercial photography flourished in the 1950s, and the Six Photographers exhibition in 1955 was a last-ditch effort to extend appreciation of photography beyond commercial applications and Pictorialism.144
The 1950s was an important era for photojournalism, influenced in style by the Documentary movement of the 1930s, though the subject matter of photo-essays and assignments was less reform-oriented than it had been in the heyday of the picture magazine. Versatility was the concept used to differentiate Documentary photography from photojournalism in an article published about Arthur Rothstein's move from FSA photographer to camera reporter for Look magazine: if Rothstein had continued to photograph national catastrophes—and nothing else—he would have been a documentary photographer, not a photo-journalist. By using the same zeal and talent in dramatising the natural scenic wonders of this country, its humors, its pretty girls, and luxuries, Rothstein has shown that he is a genuine photojournalist.145
In 1950 David Moore photographed the activities surrounding the Himalaya's arrival in Sydney Harbour to its departure for England ten days later, and P&O gave him unlimited access as he carried on a photographic 'romance' with the big ship.146 The series was not published in Australia, but when he went to England, he was able to sell the photo-essay to The Sphere magazine.147 Twelve pictures appeared on a three-page spread with a short text that Moore wrote—although he was given credit for neither.
Moore's pictures and text emphasise the contrast between the labour of the crew in preparation for the return journey, and the first-class passengers blissfully unaware of the hard work that was involved in providing luxury accommodation. From the time the passengers alighted upon arrival in Sydney, the Himalaya was 'transformed from a luxury liner...to a fast-moving boisterous working community'.148 Twenty photographs from the same event were reproduced in Moore's monograph of Sydney Harbour, with text written by Rodney Hall telling of European migrants arriving in Australia in huge numbers after a long journey packed into a crowded ship, although the images did not display any of this experience.
The extra images in the later reproductions also de-emphasised the crew's preparations (in comparison with the original photo-essay), whilst telling a story about the activities of a ship in dock, and several stunning images of the ship's massive form making its way in and out of the port. Straight-approach photography (whether it is called Documentary, Naturalism, or anything else) is far from being "objective".
A photograph is not "objective" since its maker is not. The camera is indifferent to its subject, the photographer can never be indifferent—every photograph is an expression of an opinion. Photographs in public print are as carefully chosen as are the words that accompany them and are as effective in presenting a point of view.149
Maren Stange has explained that the flexibility of photojournalistic images allowed editors to use them to express opinions which would sell more magazines. In this context, "objective", disinterested photography was more valued and sought after than the photographers' personal expressions about an issue. Editorial policy and magazine profits were considerations which could limit photographers' expressions, although the aesthetic of photojournalistic photography was beginning to be recognised.
There were few outlets for photo-essays in Australia, and Walkabout magazine shied away from the types of stories covered by overseas magazines like Life, Picture Post, and The Observer. Whilst in Britain, Moore wanted to shoot 'meaningful stories'. His Sydney slum pictures impressed the London Bureau Chief of Life, and he was offered an assignment on the depressed conditions in the Midlands, but it was considered too negative, and was assigned to informal portraiture instead.150 These photographs were regarded as Documentary photography , which aimed to expose poor living conditions, but people in the 1950s were not so interested in depressing images—a more positive outlook was preferred.
Moore was an advocate of realism and of producing prints of exactly what he saw: 'once you start altering facts within a picture, you undermine the strength of photography'.151 The influence of the Documentary philosophy is clear in Moore's work, although it is important to note, as he wrote in 1953:
Photography is the medium through which we are able to transform a fragmentary moment in time...into an internationally comprehensible historical document which will outlive us all...But we must do more than record the sensational, the bizarre and the tragic, the lens of the camera must probe, with absolute sincerity, deep into the daily lives of the ordinary men and women and show how we work and play.152
He believes a photographer must have a 'sympathetic understanding for their subject',153 and his photographs of children in Contemporary Photography certainly demonstrate this philosophy.
The Family of Man exhibition saw the first widespread recognition of "naturalistic" photography as art. However, there was still intense debate about what form an artistic photographic image should take.
Edward Steichen headed a photographic unit in the Navy during WWII, and also organised the photographic exhibitions Road to Victory (1942) and Power in the Pacific (1944) at New York's Museum of Modem Art (MOMA). He later became Director of the Department of Photography at that museum and in 1955 organised the monumental Family of Man exhibition, which later travelled the world. He believed photojournalism was the most vital and promising area of photography at the time and that photographic exhibitions like the ones he put together allowed the viewer to set their own pace for taking-in the message and dramatisation of life, allowing active participation in a way that cinema and television did not.154
His aim with the pre-Family of Man exhibits was to communicate the horror of war, but he used a negative approach and later realised that a more positive approach was needed to incite united action against war. He believed the solution was to show that the world was, in Lincoln's words, really a "family of man".155 The 1955 exhibition was very successful, and broke records for visitors to contemporary art exhibitions, because, Steichen believed, it 'appealed to all kinds of audience, the illiterate as well as the intelligentsia'.156 This presentation of photography has been described as a "universal language" because it appears that realistic images transcend the barriers of language.157
The exhibition consisted of the work of photographers from all over the world, solicited from magazines, camera clubs, photographic societies, and individual artists. Its display drew on the photojournalistic photo-essay tradition, in three dimensions, with large and different sized images freestanding or hanging in space accompanied by poetic captions and quotations about the human condition. Jonathon Green has pointed out that although the exhibition was a display of Steichen's ideology, and that viewers passively "experienced" the exhibition rather than contemplated the artistic efforts of photographers, it did contribute enormously to the public's conception of 'Documentary' photography as art.158 The audience left feeling optimistic, rather than taxed by a heavy political message. However, the exhibition has been criticised as American propaganda which depicted the global community as a nuclear family, used as a cold war public relations tool to promote American values.159
The fact that Steichen desired two editions of the Family of Man book to be published, one containing the best reproductions in hardcover to serve as a permanent record of the monumental event, and a cheap paperback that would appeal to the ordinary person, highlights the two-dimensional purpose of the exhibition and the audience at which it was aimed—art and propaganda; the gallery circle and the people. Jonathon Green noted that it would have appeared strange at the time for MOMA to put on such a salutary mass-spectacle event because of its reputation for modem, abstract art, but it must be remembered that it occurred in a period when the general public were suspicious of abstract art as unintelligible and freakish.160
The clash of ideologies in the cold war, and the longing for a safe and secure world after the horrors and struggles of the Depression, WWII, the Korean war and McCarthyism, led Steichen to try and reassure people of the inherent good of humanity by smoothing over the differences of race, culture and language.
The exhibition's display of straight-approach photography was opposed to Modernist abstract photography and Abstract Expressionist painting; whereas, previously, the debate about photography being accepted as an art form was mainly fought between Documentary and Pictorialism.
The Family of Man exhibition highlighted the fact that the kind of photography the general public were familiar with from photojournalistic magazines like Life was beginning to be accepted in art galleries, and the layperson could recognise their own cultural values and concerns in artworks.
The Family of Man exhibition toured Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide in 1959, and included a single photograph each from Australian photographers Laurence Le Guay and David Moore. The exhibition brought attention to photography as an art form on a worldwide scale, and facilitated rapid changes in the development of photography as an expressive medium.161
The exhibition had an 'enormous impact' when it came to Australia, as it was the first time many people had seen a display of "modernist" photography.162
Le Guay deemed the Family of Man exhibition as important for making memorable the human factor in photography, but described Australian photography as more natural in style than the high-impact photo-journalistic images which made up the exhibition.163
Le Guay's New Guinea Natives, Kanama Ceremony c.1945 [Figure 22], which depicted an event in which boys and girls of marriageable age got to know each other in preparation for selection, was used in the section on loving affection (a "universal" experience) in the Family of Man.
It also appeared in Contemporary Photography (Christmas 1949) with other pictures taken in New Guinea and information about some of the native rituals. |
|
 |
| |
Fig 22: Laurance Le Guay, Native love Ritual, c 1945
a.k.a New Guinea Natives (as it appeared in The Family of Man, 1955)
[Reproduced from
Contemporary Photography, Christmas 1949, p47] |
Moore's Redfern Interior 1949 was the other Australian image, but titles were not included in the Family of Man, only the photographer and the country in which the shot was taken. Steichen's purpose for Redfern Interior was different than when seen in its other contexts—in the Family of Man it was an example of a birth scene.
In Australia in the late 1950s and 1960s, a group of amateur photographers (originally from the Melbourne Camera Club) aspired to reinvigorate photography in a realistic manner that would contrast to the idealisation of Pictorialism and the slickness of commercial work—they eventually became known as Group M. They organised a series of annual photographic exhibitions called Photovision, which ran from 1959-66 as an alternative to the traditional camera-club salons.164
The sections open to entrants catered widely for photographic expression in sequences of prints and transparencies, with or without accompanying scripts and soundtracks, as well as individual images, and encouraged the use of large and mural-sized prints. The organisers wished Australian photographers to 'utilise the medium as an artform in the broadest sense, that is as a means of commenting on life, of expressing the emotions and values of the photographer, and to enlarge man's experience of the world'.165
In 1963 the group compiled a theme exhibition along the lines of the Family of Man entitled Urban Woman, and aimed to display the documentation of the modern woman's life in urban society. However, the exhibition was criticised in Australian Photography as having rejected any consideration of technique, with the picture apparently the main consideration. It was judged to be a good idea with interesting presentation, but the quality of the printing technique and selection was criticised.166
In 1962 Steichen organised one last exhibition—the photographs of the Farm Security Administration, called 'The Bitter Years: 1935-41'. The photography of the 1930s was newly valued as art, and the Pictorialists' concern with "pretty pictures" was now considered anathema to the serious photographer.167 The aesthetic of the FSA's social Documentary was recognised and contributed to the idea that photography had a separate aesthetic to painting.168
Martha Rosier has proposed two 'moments' of the Documentary image: the immediate one, where the image is used as evidence for or against a particular social ideology; and the second, when the viewer values the image for its aesthetic pleasure, and disregards its original context, nevertheless recognising its "past-ness" in a nostalgic way.169
Susan Sontag quotes part of a speech by Walter Benjamin from 1934 to explain the change documentary photographs have undergone in their consideration as art objects and the way their aesthetic has influenced the way we see: the camera is now incapable of photographing a tenement or rubbish-heap without transfiguring it. Not to mention a river dam or an electric cable factory: in front of these, photography can only say, "How beautiful"... It has succeeded in turning abject poverty itself, by handling in a modish, technically perfect way, into an object of enjoyment.170
As early as this, the aestheticisation of Documentary—or Naturalistic social images—was recognised. We came to see them in a different way.
The basis of categorising and finding meanings in photographs is based on our reading of them as signs. In the first half of the twentieth century, photography was considered to be polarised into Documentary—photography which was unmanipulated, and Pictorialism— photography concerned with the romantic and expressive quality of the print. Pictorialists viewed the photographer as a creative genius and valued works on the basis of the artist's individual crafting of the image. However, Sekula points out that the valuing of the photograph as superbly crafted object is at odds with the process's most significant feature of reproducibility.171
C. S. Pierce's concept of different types of "the sign" have been used to distinguish the way we regard Documentary photography from Pictorialism,172 In Documentary photography, the photograph's indexical relationship to the actual world determines its evidential role, but the style of Documentary also makes the image iconic for the real subject.
A Pictorialist photograph is predominantly an iconic sign of reality, and is not required to have an indexical relationship to the subject of which it is a sign. It may resemble an idea or impression of reality, but the image does not need to have been formed directly from that reality.173 This is how Documentary photography is given truth-value and has been set apart from expressive art photography.
The slow turn-around in the official recognition of photography as art can be seen in the development of a history of Australian photographic masters. The limited edition of Max Dupain's 1948 monograph, with 51 'art plates' was reviewed in Contemporary Photography and posed as an example of the masterpieces that have been produced by Australian photographers. Moreover, it was proposed that such works were worthy of collection by our national galleries.174
In addition to the revival of Cazneaux's 'Sydney of Yesterday' pictures in 1948, the 1970s brought about a rediscovery of past Australian photographic masters, which were then used to construct an Australian past for the Documentary-inspired movement of the late 1940s. In 1973, Keast Burke (rediscovered in 1954) published the Holtermann collection of photographs of life on the Australian goldfields titled Gold and Silver.
In 1976 Henri Mallard's photographs of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge were reprinted for an exhibition at the ACP and published in a soft-cover book. Le Guay explained that the new images were crisp and dramatic in contrast with Mallard's pictorialist style of soft-focused images, but questioned the evidence of a documentary spirit in his work. The subject matter was the value of and the skill involved in manual labour, but Mallard was still concerned with the beautifully crafted image.175
Obviously, this change in approach to photography (away from Pictorialism) was necessary for photography to be more highly valued as an artistic enterprise. The altering of the context of such photographs contributed to a change in status for the medium and the valuing of the photographic image on its own terms. 176
Three of these concepts are: the Index, which has a causal relationship to the object; the Icon, which is related to the object by resemblance and similarity; and the Symbol, which has an arbitrary relationship to the object and generates its meaning from a convention. [As outlined in Nigel Warburton, 'Varieties of photographic Representation—Documentary, pictorial, Quasi-documentary', in History of Photography, Autumn 1991,
vol.15, pp204-5. ]
In 1963, Le Guay was awarded a Commonwealth medal for his 'personal work, published papers, lectures, editorial contributions and work for professional organisations' in the first Australian Photographic Society Convention.176 In 1979 he was decribed as a leader of a 'movement to bring about the recognition of photography as art' which culminated in the establishment of the Australian Centre for Photography in 1975, of which he was one of the founders.177
The Whitlam government provided new funding for the development of the arts in Australia in the 1970s, and places like the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) were established, and brought a new emphasis to contemporary photography as art.178 Laurence Le Guay and David Moore were founding members and, in an extension of the aims of CP in the late 1940s, the Centre has been credited with bringing about a new vitality in photography by acknowledging contemporary avant-garde works.179
An exhibition of Le Guay's photographs was held in the Australian Centre for Photography in 1978 and titled 'Some Happy Snaps and Snippets', in which he aimed to show photography as a 'means of self-expression and visual communication'.180 He credited Cartier-Bresson's concept of the "decisive moment" with lifting the status of the unposed, naturalistic photograph to the realms of Art.
In a leaflet for the exhibition, Le Guay blamed the Pictorialists, with their painterly processes, for the 'hangover' photographic art had suffered. He compared photographic images to pages of literature, which may be read and enjoyed as works of art if they are considered vital, lyrical, and technically perfect. At this time, photography had come into its own.
- Gael Newton, 'Pictures In Print', Australian Photography—A Contemporary View, unpaginated.
- Newton, Shades of Light, p126.
- Author not named, Reviews in CP November-December, p51.
- Hal Missingham, 'Foreward*. Australian Photography 1947, p6.
- Missingham, 'Foreward', p7.
- Max Dupain, 'Factual Photography', Australian Photography 1947, pl 1.
- Harold Cazneaux, 'Landscape Photography', Australian Photography 1947, p15.
- Russell Roberts, 'Applied Photography', Australian Photography 1947, p22.
- Eric Riddler, Fine Arts IV thesis, University of Sydney, 1990, p13.
- Laurence Le Guay, 'The Modern Trend in Photography', in Australian Photography 1957, pp10-11.
- A. R. Andrews, APP August 1962, p26.
- James H. Coleman (the editor since the foundation of the Australasian editions, and owner since the fourth
issue) was officially named as Publisher and Editor in the November 1955 issue. In September 1963 the
magazine's name was changed to Australian Photography to emphasise its independence from its American
beginnings, and it has continued ever since. In April 1984 Australian Photography magazine celebrated its 400th
issue, and its editor from 1950 to 1961, James H. Coleman, compiled 'Selected Highlights and Landmarks from
Australia's Photographic Past as Recorded in the Pages of its Leading Magazine', from which the details of
APP's history have been cited.
- Keast Burke, 'Modem Trends at Maitland's Fifth International' in APP March 1962, p38.
- James Savage, 'Award Prints at Adelaide's Festival (National)', APP march 1962, p21.
- L.G. Clark, in 'Conventional versus Contemporary', APP July 1962, pp22, 50.
- Damien Parer, transcript from ABC Guest of Honour interview September 5, 1943, reproduced in 'The Eyes of Damien Parer', APP July 1963, pp32-3, 50.
- Laurence Le Guay, APP Jan 1962, pp16-7.
- Newton, Shades of Light, p130.
- Ibid., pl31.
- These terms were used by Gael Newton in Shades of Light, p130.
- Hall and Mather, Australian Women Photographers, p110.
- James Crook, 'Photos By Six in Show', Daily Telegraph May 30, 1955, p10.
- Newton, Shades of Light, p130.
- Crook, 'Photos by Six in Show', p10.
- Ibid, plO.
- Six Photographers exhibition catalogue, David Jones Gallery, May 1955,collected at the AGNSW Research Library.
- Newton, Silver and Grey, Introduction, unpaginated.
- Mildred Stagg, Ibid., p42.
- Moore, Australian Photographer vol.1, p25.
- 'Himalaya Turns For Home', The Sphere December 1, 1951, pp257-9.
- Ibid., p375.
- George B. Wright, 'Photography in Mid Century. American Photography, January 1951, p7.
- Moore, Australian Photographer vol. 1, p38.
- Ibid., pl5.
- David Moore, 'Thoughts on Photography' in 'David Moore—An Australian Photographer', Camera June 1953, pp288-9.
- Ibid., p289.
- Edward Steichen, A Life In Photography, Edward Steichen, Museum of Modern Art, W. H. Allen, London, 1963, chapter 13, unpaginated.
- From a speech by Abraham Lincoln, Cited Ibid., from a speech by Abraham Lincoln in Carl Sandburg's biography on Lincoln.
- Steichen, A Life in Photography, chapter 13.
- Newton, Shades of Light, p131.
- Jonathon Green, American Photographs, New York, 1984, pp37 and 47.
- Allan Sekula, 'The Traffic in Photographs' in his Photography Against the Grain, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1984, p89 and 93.
- Green, American Photographs, p49.
- Conversation with Candy Le Guay 30/8/96.
- Hall and Mather, Australian Women Photographers, pl 10.
- Le Guay, 'About The Pictures', Australian Photography—A Contemporary View, unpaginated.
- Newton, Shades of Light, p132.
- John reed, 'Museum of modem An, Photovision 1962', APT March 1962, p64.
- Author not named, 'Contrasts at Two Melbourne exhibitions', AP October 1963, p56.
- Steichen, A Life in Photography, Chapter 15, unpaginated.
- Willis, Picturing Australia, p217.
- Martha Rosier, 'In, Around and Afterthoughts (On Documentary)' in Richard Bolton (ed.), The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1989, p317.
- Susan Sontag, On Photographs, London 1978, p107.
- Allan Sekula, 'On the Invention of Photographic Meaning', p9.
- Three of these concepts are: the Index, which has a causal relationship to the object; the Icon, which is
related to the object by resemblance and similarity; and the Symbol, which has an arbitrary relationship to the
object and generates its meaning from a convention. [As outlined in Nigel Warburton, 'Varieties of photographic
Representation—Documentary, pictorial, Quasi-documentary', in History of Photography, Autumn 1991,
vol.15, pp204-5. ]
- Warburton, pp205-6.
- Author not named. Review section of CP March-April 1948, p58.
- Newton, 'Pictures in Print', Australian Photography—A Contemporary View, unpaginated.
- Australian Photographic Society Report in APP August 1963, pp58-9.
- Dust jacket of Australian Photography—A Contemporary View.
- Willis, Picturing Australia, p217.
- Hall and Mather, Australian Women Photographers, pill.
- Laurence Le Guay, 'Some Happy Snaps and Snippets' exhibition catalogue/pamphlet, Australian Centre for
Photography, 1978, in Le Guay's file, National Gallery of Australia, Research Library.