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MCMULLEN MUSEUM BOSTON COLLEGE • CRnilNIt This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibition Common Ground: Photographers on the Street, organized by the Charles S. and Isabella V. McMullen Museum ofArt, Boston College. Curated by Naomi R. Blumberg June 11-September 7, 2003 PHOTOGRAPHERS ON THE STREET MCMULLEN MUSEUM-BOSTON COLLEGE Naomi R. Blumberg Figure 1: GarryWinogrand, NYC, 1972, Silvergelatin print, ©Tufts University Gallery Permanent Collection — — 7 Introduction Although aesthetically rooted in a classic ed by social and economicchanges. The photographs exhibited in Common streettradition,these photographers take Atget rejected contemporarytrends in Groundexamine and record common- provocative and insightful detoursfrom it. art photography by practicing 'straight' place events, people, and objects. This photography, an approach that influenced street photography succeeds through the The photographer is always tryingto latergenerations. His images invoke still- split-second decisions ofartists colonize new experiences orfind new ness and silence, even as theydepicta because oftheir urban instincts and their ways to look atfamiliarsubjects dynamic city in physical and social disar- abilityto identify incongruities and sur- to fight against boredom. Forbore- ray. Instead of manipulatingthe chemical prisingcoincidences in public spaces. dom isjustthe reverse side offasci- process when developing his negatives, Photographs taken on the street exist as nation; both depend on beingout- he relied on his camera, usingthe visual documents both ofthe current side ratherthan inside a situation, expressive qualities oflight and shadow — — urban experience and by implication of and one leads to the other. to create images that moved beyond sim- the state ofa widerculture. Like words, -Susan Sontag ple description. With a purityofvision, these photographs actas "quotations” On Photography, 197 1 Atgetcaptured the city's unofficial reali- about life; theycan be "read" in many ties, its deteriorating infrastructure and ways, dependingon the contexts in which The Old Street: The 19th Century neglected populations. theyare viewed and the identityand pre- The street has longfascinated photogra- conception ofthe readers. phers. Since the development of photog- The Modern Street Common Ground: Photographers on the raphy in the nineteenth century,viewers The invention ofthe lightweight and Streetconnectsthe roots ofclassic recognized howthe medium's immediate portable Leica camera in the 1930s street photography ofthe 1960s and and indexical documentation could per- transformed picturetaking into a reflex 1970s NewYork school to the contempo- fectlygrasp and record the urban experi- as opposed to a ritual.2Timingwas now rary streettradition as practiced in cities ence. For many,this immediacygave pho- essential to the process. Accordingto all overthe United States. Works by tographyan advantage even overthe John Berger, “the contentofa photo- GarryWinogrand (1928-1984), Lee work ofmanycontemporary European graph is invisible,” relying “not on form, Friedlander(b. 1934), and Joel painters who also soughtto conveythe buton time.”3Thus,the subjectofa pho- Meyerowitz (b. 1938) illustrate the flux of vibrancy ofpublic life. tograph becomes the moment in which — public life its subtleties as well as its The nineteenth-centurystreetappears the photographerchoosesto releasethe theatrics. Quicklyand seemingly randomly mostnotablyintheworkofEugeneAtget shutter. Ratherthan choosing between taken images contain biting social com- (1856-1927), a chroniclermotivated bythe subject aor subject b, the photographer — mentary, humor, incoherence and unex- transformation ofthe public spaces and is choosingbetween moment aand pected clarity. Compositions often border- structural layoutofParis. In a keymoment moment b. Here the element ofhuman ingon the chaotic introduce multiple ofurban transition, Atget photographed choice plays its most definitive role. points ofinterestthatatonce disorient the old and the new,finding Berger's definition seems especially and compel a closer look. brilliance inthe mostmundane ofsub- appropriate with regard to street photog- The second section ofthe exhibition jects. He systematicallyrecorded thecity's raphy: the street photographerattempts examines the work ofcontemporary pastbychoosingsubjects destined for to capture a constantly movingtarget and street photographers, a group less often oblivion: buildings marked fordemolition thus is left atthe mercyof his subject's presented in the museum setting. andworkers in trades soonto be eliminat- pace and movements. Usingthe Leica's — capacityfor rapid, continuous shooting, a around usthrough ourdress, gestures, Like his contemporaries, Friedlander photographer’s idiosyncratic timing pro- gaze, and expressions. infused his images ofthe ordinarywith — duces a series of photographs taken Street photography is deeplyvoyeuris- monumentality even going so faras within seconds, each recordinga unique tic. The photographer acts as spectator, to devote an entire series of photographs content. Not knowing if he will seize his exposing his subjects in a variety ofdaily to American monuments.5 In Chicago, intended moment, the photographer life behaviors and activities. Winogrand’s for instance,the profile emergingfrom releases the shutter; his subjects and style was rife with contradictions: He was behind the large black pole is trans- meaning may change with a split-second physicallyconfrontational amid the public, formed into something like a Roman por- of indecision. but kept his subjects at a distance; he trait bust oran old master portrait in Because the tension between tradition was an urban voyeur, but unlike other profile (fig. 2). With the samefocus and and modernity has been historically most street photographers, made no attempt intensity, Friedlander highlights both visible in urban streets, Atget's succes- to remain invisible; his imagery illustrates the details within the man’s profile and sors, particularilyWalker Evans (1903- an empathy and affection for its subjects, the surface ofthe obstructing pole. 1975), Henri Cartier-Bresson (b. 1908), but can also appear invasive and threat- Each element bears significance in the and Robert Frank (b. 1924), were also ening (fig. 1). Workingcloselywith photograph’s compositional structure. drawn to the turbulence and changing Meyerowitz, he wandered the streets Meaning, however, remains inscrutable, face ofa public arena. Theirwork rejects each day photographing people en route as Friedlander imposes a mysterious the overt social and political agendas of orengaged in theireverydayactivities. qualityon this regularstreet corner. many documentary photographers ofthe Because Winogrand’s subjects rarely early-to mid-twentieth century. Evans, return the camera's gaze, his images are Bridgingthe Old and the New: Cartier-Bresson, and Frank sought notto portraits of life, ratherthan of people. Contemporary Visions change and improve theirenvironment by Observingthe unlikelyjuxtapositions and Contemporary street photography is now way oftheirvisual imagery; rather,these behaviors in Winogrand's and once again positioning itselfwithin an photographers attempted to understand Meyerowitz's images,we begin to compre- established museum world. Although and appreciate it.4These three masters hend the incredible—speed bywhich street identifiable groups of photographers com- influenced the work ofWinogrand, photographers work and the hyper-atten- parable tothose working in NewYork in Meyerowitz, and Friedlander. tiveness to detail which distinguishes the 1960s have not (yet) appeared, indi- GarryWinogrand is credited with the theirenterprise. vidual practitioners have returned the reinvention ofthe 1960s street move- Like Winogrand and Meyerowitz, Lee movementtothe forefront ofart photog- ment. His images bringto the foreground Friedlandermade the streeta primary raphy. Like their predecessors, manycon- the obvious things in ourenvironment subject in his 1960s and 1970swork. In temporary photographers in Common those ordinary objects and figures on the contrastto his contemporaries’ photo- Groundturn to the startlingjuxtapositions surface that might otherwise be ignored. graphs, however, Friedlander’s images are appearing before them as theytraverse His street pictures, presented without markedly personal, even self-referential, the urban streets. narrative, intend no moral or immediately simultaneously lookingoutward and inward Photographic compositions ofthe readable content. LookingatWinogrand’s and frequently referringto his photograph- streetencompassthe relationships body ofwork approximatesthe experi- ic process. Through self-portraiture or between people, between words and ence ofthe rovingeye on the street. In images ofhis own shadow, he inserts a signs, between colors, between the ani- his photographs we see whatwe create selfexplicitly into his photographs. mate and the inanimate. These contem- Figure 2: Lee Friedlander, Chicago, 1975, Selenium print, ©Tufts UniversityGalleryPermanent Collection Figure 3: Melanie Einzig, Sept. 14. 2001, C-print, Courtesyofthe artist Figure 4: Sylvia Plachy, Confetti. 1993, Silvergelatin print, Courtesyofthe artist — porary artists record the seemingly infi- of invisible “insider,” the point ofcon- reverential calm (fig. 4). Approximating nite variety ofconnections in the public trast in her ironic portrayal ofthe "out- stills from a silentfilm, her images read space around us. With an uncanny ability sider” tourist. Whetherfocused on the as arrested moments; they can verge on to capture subtly detailed visual corre- tragic, as in Sept. 14, 2001, orthe the abstract, requiringthe viewerto rec- spondences on the street, Constantine comic, as in Tourists, Einzig's discerning oncile the spatial relationships between Manos discovers elusive colors thatdic- eye discovers a universal human condi- forms. Her photographs contain the sto- tate compositional structure and expres- tion on the street. ries of how and whytheywere made, — sion.6 His brilliant images capture optical Gus Powell’s photographs likethose ratherthan explicit narratives or mean- parallels to create fluid tapestries of pat- of Einzig, Meyerowitz, and Winogrand ings. Plachy's varyingtechniques encour- tern and form: the longerwe focus on the reveal daily urban absurdities, aswell as age a personal and empathic representa- airborne form in Venice Beach, for exam- an intensityof livingand breathingamong tion, even when her photographs depict ple, the more thatform merges with the crowds of people.' Powell strivesto strangers or inanimate objects. Moving chaotic backdrop ofswirlinggraffiti. attach monumentality both to unusual and between various aesthetics and refusing The strangejuxtapositions making up typical moments arising in the human traf- to confine herselfto one mode of pho- Einzig's Sept. 14. 2001 yield meaning fic ofNewYork City. Despite the stillness tography or another, Plachy creates her when they are fixed on film (fig. 3). The ofhis images, he catches the dynamism images with the technique she sees fit. photographer's reaction to the events of ofconstantlychanging relationships, She deviates from the ’straight’ photog- three days previous appears on the two- thereby makingthe viewer privytothe role raphy often reserved forthe street and dimensional photographic surface each urban element plays in the construc- resists the picturesque and romantic — through a series ofrelationships estab- tion ofthe street's "theater." In StillLife: aesthetic ofPictorialism a movement lished: between the mysterious, bodiless Houston Street, each component ofthe also drawn to the urban spaces, but homeless figure,the loomingadvertise- composition creates correspondences, workingwith a calculated attemptto mentforthe US army, and the title ofthe making up a geometryofinterlocking sur- approximate painting. piece. Despite the specific date of its faces. Resemblinga high Renaissance Unlike Plachy’s calm images,Alice title, the image assumes significance for fresco in its careful arrayofaction and its Attie’s photographs of Harlem are unquiet — anygeneration. In the aftermath of classical use ofone-point perspective, communicatingthe concerns and trou- September 11, 2001,the image reminds SixthAvenue Frieze(fig. 6) makes deliber- bled anticipations ofan evolvingcommuni- thatwhereas tragedy struck randomly ate reference to classical art. Its figures ty (fig. 5). Living in upper Manhattan,Attie and catastrophically, one walks by are heroic,each playingan integral role explored the constant physical and social tragedyon the streets each day. within the layout ofthe scene. Powell’s changes transformingthe urban land- Aware, like Winogrand, ofthe role of anachronistic approach to this workfirmly scape ofher neighboring Harlem.8 Her the photographer’s gaze in constructing placesthe medium of photographywithin resulting photographic work, like color meaning, Einzigfocuses on expressive the discourse ofart history. meditations in a style recallingAtget’s, glances and body language to reveal Powell’s work reveals thatthe visually honor individuals directlyaffected bygen- human behavior. Without even portraying and aurally clamorous street offers no trification. These almostairless images an authentic New Yorkerfigure, Tourists respite from chaos. But Sylvia Plachy, the record the tension between thegoals of satirically comments on the obvious con- only contemporary photographer in urban renewal and the attemptto pre- trast between the native and the visitor. Common Groundworking in black and serve a dying neighborhood and its com- The photographer herself retains the role white, imbues her urban images with a munity. Attie’s subjects,whetherbuildings