Alfred Stieglitz《Miss S.R.》 1904 printed in 1905
With the recent spread of cell phones, photography has become more accessible, but it is still difficult to view a photograph as a “work of art,” even if you know what you are looking at. If a photograph is displayed reverently in a museum, it may seem like a work of art, but if it is purchased, people are hesitant to pay for it.
In Japan, in particular, people often hear that “photographic works do not sell in Japan” because everyone was taking pictures casually even before the spread of cell phones. As an aside, my mother was a photography enthusiast, and I have several photo albums from the time of my birth to adulthood, and more if you add my graduation album. When I visited a French friend of the same age, I found an empty A4-size box with about 10 or so photos in it, and I was truly surprised to hear that these were all the photos I had taken from birth to adulthood. France is one of the countries that actively supports photography as an art form.
The word “art” is generally thought of as something that is not easily accessible to everyone, as something that requires a special talent, unusual ability, or extraordinary effort to attain. In this sense, it is no wonder that photography is considered something that anyone can do.
In fact, this kind of thinking is not a recent phenomenon. It was the same 170 years ago, when photography first became popular. Photographs were “paintings” that were accessible to the middle class. When the photographer modifies the negative, the rough edges disappear, and the photograph becomes soft to the touch, like a painting. The technique could be described as an attempt to bring photography closer to painting in order to make it an art form. However, this would be nothing more than a “cheap version of painting” no matter how far one goes. There was a photographer, however, who considered photography as an independent art form and fully affirmed the characteristics of photography. His name was Alfred Stieglitz. Known as the “father of modern photography,” he was a pioneer in the field of artistic photography, elevating what had previously been a recording medium to a form of artistic expression.
Stieglitz (1864-1946) was born in New Jersey, USA. After returning to Japan from 10 years of study in Europe, where he studied photographic science in Germany, he settled in New York City. However, he felt unsatisfied with the conservative and socialized world of photography in the United States and became isolated. One day, on a snowy day, he came across a horseman giving water to his horse at a railroad carriage terminus, and captured the scene with a small hand-held camera, perhaps reflecting his own feelings. This incident led Stieglitz to pursue “straight photography,” a style of photography that, unlike painting, preserves the spirit of the subject. Unlike paintings, photographs can objectively capture what is in front of them without being distorted by the artists subjectivity, while retaining their spirituality. In this respect, he believed that photography could become an independent art form." Stieglitzs greatest characteristic of photography is its symbolism: "In order for straight photography, which presents what is photographed as it is, to have value as an art form, the subject must be symbolic of an idea or philosophy.
August Sander《Boxers》 1928 printed by Gerd Sander in 1988
August Sander (1876-1964), who is about 10 years younger than Stieglitz, is another photographer who broke away from pictorial photography and pioneered a unique photographic expression. Xander was born in Herdorf in what is now the Federal Republic of Germany. In the early 1920s, he joined the “Gruppe Progressiver Kunstler” (Society of Progressive Artists) and decided to work on a project to "document the society of the time through portraits. He decided to work on a project to "document the society of the time through portraits.
The project, “People of the 20th Century,” was to present the social structure of Weimar Germany by compiling a photographic inventory of portraits of people from all professions, classes, and spheres of life.
We in the 21st century have become so accustomed to photography that it is difficult to see what was so revolutionary about Xanders photography. To understand why Xander is considered one of the pioneers of modern photography, we need to know what portrait photography was like before that time.
Until then, portraits were taken by the bourgeoisie (middle class) to preserve their own image. The painstaking, painted portraits were reserved for the aristocracy and the wealthy, but with the spread of photographic technology, the bourgeoisie could also preserve their portraits. Studios were lavishly furnished and equipped with a papier-mâché background that would look good in a photograph. Photographers brushed and rubbed the prints as they developed to correct facial imperfections. The result is a “painterly” portrait of a beautiful moment. The subject does not look at the camera, seemingly oblivious to its presence. The averted gaze diminishes the sense of reality and intensifies the painterly element.
Xander begins to take the farmers outdoors, separately from the studio shots. The young men in their one-piece suits must have been excited about having their portraits taken. The fact that they would not be wearing field clothes to have their pictures taken could also be considered natural. From there, Xander went on to photograph people living in the city, circus performers, boxers, and other members of the petty bourgeoisie and the working class. The fact that he photographed the “masses” of society “as they are” in the “open air” was an epoch-making Copernican turn from photographing “celebrities and the working class” in the studio and then correcting the images to "make them look like paintings.
Between 1920 and 1921, Xander abandoned once and for all the technique of blurring photographs to give them a painterly look. He came to believe that painting and photography were two different things, and that photography was not a substitute for painting, but rather, in his own words, "strictly photographic. He was convinced that photography itself had its own value. In painting, it is inevitable that the subject is distorted by subjectivity and technique. On the other hand, a photograph can present the subject as it is. In this respect, the uniqueness of photography stands out.
The goal of “Men of the 20th Century” was to create an inventory of the entire social structure through unadulterated photographs, but the book was not printed during Xanders lifetime.
Xander had this to say about “Humans of the 20th Century”:
"Photography is the process of reproducing things in all their splendor and beauty.
Photography can reproduce things with great beauty, but it can also reproduce them with terrible veracity, and it can also deceive tremendously.
Forgive me if I, as a healthy person, irreverently see things not as they are or could be, but as they are. After all, I can only do so.
There is nothing I dislike more than a sugar-coated picture of bluff, pretense, and deliberateness. So let me speak the truth in an honest way. About our times and about
the humans."
His influence on leading German photographers, such as Diane Arbus and the Bechers, is significant.
I should add that Xanders name is also the name of a crater on Mercury. The crater of Mercury, the god of art, is named after various artists from all over the world and all periods of time, including Japanese artists such as Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Basho Matsuo, Eitoku Kano, and Hokusai Katsushika.
References
Gunther Sander [ed.]; translated by Chizo Yamaguchi, August Sander: Portrait Photography in the 20th Century: 1892-1952, Tokyo Libroport, 1991.5
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Photography 1953-1995, 1995
Alfred Stieglitz Exhibition, Odakyu Grand Gallery, 1985.
text： Song Wei
関連ページ
Alfred Stieglitz Miss S.R.
August Sander Boxers
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