Centuries ago a Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niecpe began to experiment by coating pewter with light sensitive substances to copy superimposed engravings in sunlight. In 1816 he made the first attempts at photography. which was the view from his workroom window. This was the first fixed image of nature. This was the birth of the first photomechanical reproduction process. So from the pinhole Camera, to Still to moving pictures all the way to your IPhone, we may be committing a crime in the eyes of many cultures who say taking a photograph robs the soul of the subject.
Many of us have album or boxes filled with this devotion to memory and history. Now it is the files of images stored in ICloud and our phones. Many souls have been stolen and kept as markers of a life lived. Memory is filled with treachery as it even fails with age but that square of photographic paper remains, turning brown with age and adding to its value. When Madonna was asked about her pre-occupation with selfies she replied
“ I am curating myself.”
The Pope was not happy the rest of us were seduced by her bold sexuality and glossy limbs. Canadian novelist Katherine Govier wrote a book of short stories “the immaculate conception Photography Gallery ‘ and a riveting story was based on the inventive conundrum of a photographer who erased unwanted subjects from his clients photographs. The past was erased to suit the present. Divorce of sparring partners comes to mind.
I studied Photography and Darkroom techniques decades ago. The magic I realized quickly rested in the Darkroom where so much could be done with exposures and light. Choice Photography remaining a form of high art. Man Ray , American surrealist and Dadaist Photographer who spent two decades in Paris wrought the sort of magic with portraiture which posed questions. Alfred Stieglitz , master Photographer who married American artist Georgia O’Keefe created a vital discourse between The American and European movements. The transition between a painterly pastoral approach towards direct straightforward depiction. of life. Now we have the Leibovitz touch with mostly portraiture which leaves the viewer breathless with the lifelike quality of her lush subjects. The late Yusef Karsh did this with the Portrait of Winston Churchill where the placement of a hand on the waist and the thrust of the pugnacious jaw was to capture his spirit for the world to observe. In reality, Churchill, a Politician, struggling painter and decidedly anti social ,gout plagued solitary man, remained troubled most of his life.
This is speculative knowledge as is the titillation of new videography coming through digital technology. This is the high Art also posing questions with a surfeit of sensorial stimulation. It is not the eye of the camera but the politics and personal perspective of the photographer. The effect is to both numb and mislead the senses. It is the fashion of our age. Honesty be damned! Yet we cling to these images as history and reality.
Yesterday, imbued with a sense of innocence, becomes heroic in photography. We seem to require memory markers to convince ourselves that joy has brushed our lives. The challenges of our brave new world bludgeoned with the horror of wars, food deprivation, Corporate greed, miraculous Inventions and the soaring heights of Medical frontiers does not form image libraries which we will cherish or keep.
When I had a large garden and grew Hybrid tea roses, I photographed choice blooms to capture hue and form but i could never depict fragrance. The heady notes of pure rose intermingled with earth and mown grass. Or the taste of salt in the blood shed by a finger shredded by a punishing rose thorn.
Another photograph from the memory markers of my life is a portrait. It is a large black and white photograph posterized a la Warhol. Over the years it draws favorable comments from all viewers. Yet, although I was somewhat tricked into having it taken ,it is my anger which appears as some brooding element which has been dubbed by all as beautiful and worthy of preservation.?
I keep it on a wall until a child of mine equally besotted by the image claims it as it has been promised to her.
Is the trick question here that perhaps photography is guided less by Art and historical records and more by narcissism? Works of biography are illustrated by photography. I should know as I recently created a short story a form of speculative fiction woven around the portrait of a female ancestor. I always had my misgivings about the pose and ornamentation so I made the woman simply walk out of the frame of the photograph. The editor of the bespoke literary magazine was entranced and immediately published it in the fiction section. The payment was a handsome sum and I had an audience who was willing to follow both my obsession and speculation.
There are people who are aging and sporting symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Later the progression is to the dreaded Dementia where most essential detailed knowledge flits in and out in a broken brain circuit. Will Photography, which has been reduced to a collage of meaningless images for them, become a rapidly discarded item? Who will become the reluctant keeper of pictorial records? More importantly are life markers all our yesterdays?
With all the emphasis of meditative Life Gurus “ stay in the moment” which means live, think and feel precisely where you are at the moment is at war with psychologists who exhort “ go back to your childhood and remember” These are two conflicted ideas of a mindful life. In the middle is the real culprit which is that Kodachrome moment caught on camera which is captioned ‘happiness’ ‘Joy’ “Beauty” and “Family” blasted away by changing histories but still retaining a lopsided integrity.
Astutely chronicled history of the study of light. The Lumière Brothers and the early French film industry were the ultimate outcome. Loved the Madonna reference.
Brilliant article, Nazneen. Thank you!!