PART 1.1 A CONTEMPORARY COMPENDIUM

PHOTOGRAPHY

A CONTEMPORARY COMPENDIUM

PART 1.1

1

PHOTOGRAPHY AS A LITERARY ART

Camera October 1970

Up till the twentieth century, all forms of art have existed in combinations of two or three dimensions. Today, however. a new dimension has emerged to penetrate the arts and sciences and confuse and ultimately change the very pattern of contemporary art. In order to understand this fourth dimension, time, it is necessary to create new premises and to think in a new terminology. A simple premise of mobile and stabile sculpture is Mobile-you (the viewer) are stabile. Stabile-you are mobile. The quality of being either stabile or mobile is necessarily calculated by the element of time, or duration, which is an inherent part of sculpture and can be divided into sequential and non-sequential time. A simple example of this is the novel. or biography, which covers a period from birth to death and employs both chronological sequence and flash-backs. i. e. non-sequence.

Time Sequence + Non-Sequence.Both the period of creation and the period in which the individual views a work of art evolve into sequential or non-sequential time.Basically. the time element is non-sequential in visual creation and sequential in tonal creation. As re-gards the time dimension, the various art forms may be defined as follows:

Music-Mainly time (sequential) as it is based on a sequentially ordered time structure.

Painting-Non-sequential. Time is not as predominant as it is in sculpture due to its two-dimensional nature. The time element is stronger in collage and relief.

Dance-(Modern dance. as opposed to classical ballet.is Non-sequential-although stemming from music it is more closely allied to sculpture and is in reality a mobile improvisation to music.

Architecture-Non -sequential. comprised of space and time.

Space well-designed creates a variety of time. and variation creates a slower observance. a slower digestion. The life of the plan and the need for a change of plan is prolonged in a planned area of thought x space x time. The time element has an important function in architecture, as in sculpture.

Photography-Non-sequential and/or sequential. This comparatively new medium is largely based on the aspect of time. The birth of the medium coincided with the industrial, technical and scientific revolution and it has played a considerable part in the development and expansion of both science and technology. Photography has long been accepted by critics and academicians as a visual art and its development compared with the evolution of the other arts.

ADDENDA:

Transition into Electronics and Computation

A.From Phototype to Digital Type

B.From Analogue Imagery to Digital

C.From Guttenberg to Hypertext

The medium is still young. and it is probably not yet possible to review it objectively from a point far enough removed to allow a true understanding of its place in history. Unlike the other visual mediums, photography is basically a

Literary art. It is a freak medium which appears to be one thing but is in reality another. Unlike today's painting and special arts. it has many aspects related to the written word. and it is no coincidence that the name itself reflects the idea of writing with light: Photo= Light, Graph=Write. When we consider the parallels in literature, the relationships immediately become clear, i. e. poet. prosaist, essayist. novelist. journalist and historian are also terms which may be applied to the photographer.

SIGN

Camera May 1968

This issue of 'Camera' deals with a fundamental aspect of all visual methods of communication: the concept of 'sign' and its meaning in photography.To begin with. let us turn to the dictionary for the immediateand exact definition of the word 'sign'. Since 'sign' and 'symbol' are used in all languages to describe each other's meaning. we also include the definition of'symbol·.

Sign

Written mark conventionally used for word or phrase. Symbol,

thing used as representation of something.

Symbol

Thing regarded by general consent as nafurally typifying or

representing or recalling something by possession of analogous

qualities or by association in fact or thought. Mark or character

taken as the conventional sign of some object or jdea or

process.

A definition is sometimes not adequate in itself and requires

illustration to elaborate its meaniny. It is clearly not possible to

go into the concept af 'sign' within the limits of this issue, but

our intention is to awake the fundamental awareness of the

term in its relationship to photography. Pedagogical it may be.

but most definitive methods of exploration tend to set forth a

teaching system or method. The dialogue which is presented in

Part One of this issue between St. Augustine. who was born in

Tagaste, Roman Africa, near Tunis in 354 A.D. and died in

430 A.D.. and his lS-year-old son Adeodatus deals with this

theme whjch has been analyzed and discussed throughout the

centuries.

'Certain things can be taught without signs. Things themselves

are not learned through words.'

Our modern worid is full of signs and symbols such as road

signs, railway signs. airport signals. red. yellow and green traffic

signals. There are combination signs of sound and picture and

individual picture and sound signs which confront us each day

in our work and leisure. Man has constructed signs and

symbols throughout the years, and in the western world he has

created written languages based on the Roman alphabet. The

Cyrjllic alphabet is based on the Greek concept. and they are all

based ultimately on Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. This. though

not alphabetic, bore a germ of phonetic writing in the phono-

gram. A similar development led to Persian cuneiform syllabary.

Western and Eastern languages deveioped a means of commu-

nication through audio-visual signs in relation to one another,

and there are even languages consisting solely of siSns, as

developed for example by deaf-mutes. Trappist monks or Plains

Indians.

You may ask why it is necessary to relate all this in a magazine

which deals with photography. The answer is that in our time

art and science are closer to each other than ever before, and

the one helps and influences the other in unseen ways.

The bridge between science and art is clearly evident in the

young medjum of photography which has grown up in the time

of a technical revolution. Photography has affected all art forms.

yet its catalytic nature allows it to play its own role as well as

helping and assisting others. The artist and scientist are em-

ployed tagether to co-ordinate projects. and communication thu·

becomes simplified and exact.

SILENCE AND SOUND

Camera July 1968

Photography is a visual medium possessing the potentiality to

evoke almost any of the five senses: see. taste. touch. smell and

hear. Of course. in the commercial areas of this medium the ideas of sense are utilized to their complete saturation point. Of all the above mentioned senses the least employed is the audible sense.

Let us begin with the inaudible, which, of course, is the most

obvious to the medium of photography. Although all photo-

graphic images do not purvey sound, one cannot assume that

these images are silent. We are not speaking of the audio-visual

areas of modern photography or cinematography which adopts

sound as an accessory, rather we are primarily speaking about

the sound or silence evoked or emitted from the still photo-

graphic image either published or unpublished. An image has the potential to arouse an excitement or a quietude and these particular traits are a combination of senses entwined from memory and perception. Activity or inactivity provokes a sense of sound or silence. Here we can compare images that we remember. We must realize we connect visual images with senses that are not actual. rather stored in our memory bank. There are things that make us think of noise such as a dripping water faucet in the stillness of the night or the tranquility of a bubbling brook in the heart of the forest. This can be portrayed inaudibly by visual photographic images. Words of course when read can evoke images and bring about every sense lucidly before us. but this usually is a two step process from

the written word to the visual image previously constructed and

stored in our memory bank in the brain. Even though the visual

image is silent, the message conveyed is a more pregnant and

pronounced image by its translation from visio to the audio. It is not necessary to have a sound track or a caption to make an image work-the image must smell. taste. fell, see or speak for itself.

ANOTHER SENSE

Camera July 1969

Photography is growing and, as with all things which grow and

develop, there arises a need for identification-for recognition,as it were, of the psychological and sociological role which the young medium of photography plays in our lives. In the process of identification. two important questions arise:'Where do we go from here?' and is it possible to do something new?' Both questions have their concrete answers, but the answer at the time the question is asked may be very different from that oftomorrow.

There are more photographers being trained today than ever before. and tomorrow there will be still more. Like the sciences, the arts are growing all the time; the medium of photography combines themboth. and the potential is infinite. In the past we have had three dimensions to contend with, and now.through the onset of the technical revolution we are also confronted with the fourth dimension of time. Einstein's theory of relativity opened up this new path and the fourth dimension is gradually becoming an accepted element of our existence.The five senses have also increased to six to include para-psychology, metaphysics and astrology\. and acceptance of whatwould at one time have been considered witchery is becoming

more and more widespread. Our dimensions and our senses are

extended; they have become more refined and cultivated. We accept that nothing is really new. but an extension and variation

of that which already existed. and although we may encounter something we think is new. the time will come where we realize that it has in fact been done before in a different way. Newness in itself is not impotant: what is important is considered intellectual adaptation And adaptation is the inevitable future of photography

The tools of our profession are young. and our minds and our

knowledge ever younger. This leaves time to grow and expand. and the rate of growth is increasing all the time. The future of photography Possibilities incalculable with ideas untouched within the framewark of the Six senses and four dimensions.

MCMLXX

Camera August 1969

The nineteen-sixties are drawing to a close. In a few months we shall be faced with the start of a new decade. and with it new scientific· achievements. new extensions of art. new socia structures and new politics. In the decade we are soon to leave behind. science and technology advanced of a pace unprecedented in the history of man. and the arts especially painting and sculpture progressed along the of the Pop and Op movements. The real significance of the sixties lies not in LSD and the psychedelic cult not in the racial and radical

politics. not in the wars and assassinations. but in the reaction of the world's youth to the establishment. It was the decade of youth. of the emergence of a new energy which rejected the nihilistic. apathetic attitude of the fifties.'We want a modern education. we don't need any hand-me-downs We are living now and we want to learn now, was the cry. and in France. America. Prague. Ireland. Spain. Switzerland and many other countries the youth of the world protested and rebelled against the Victorianism of the last century. the

Calvinism and the Catholicism of many centuries ago. and turned slowly to Hegelianism and pre-socialist doctrines. It was the battle of science versus the arts. society versus the individual. the students versus the teaches and the sons versus the fathers. Nationalism is dead in the majority of our youth. The universe is drawing near and ever nearer. With transplants and the pill. we are achieving a degree of control over birth and death. and fear of the atom bomb and war is practically nonexistent·. All in all. the search of youth is for personal freedom and the rights of man. and this means the destruction of national. racial and political boundaries. It may be that the youth of the sixties also overstepped some social and moral boundaries. but in even) revolution that. must be a negative exaggeration in the creation of a positive solutionn. And although there have been people hurt and killed. humiliated and insulted. the proportion of evil and brutality was less than it has often been. Here in this issue we present some member of the new generation. the future spokesmen of the nineteen-seventies. Photographically. they appear to have a new direction and a new search. Sensationalism is a thing of the past. Their approach is different. their means of expression are different and slowly the manner of photography itself is becoming

different. Many of them are unaware of photography's history.

which is the history of their predecessors. and they take their

skepticism. lethargy. apathy and loneliness and incorporate it in their images. Science fiction. the world of H. G. Wells, Gore Vidal, Arthur C. Clarke and Jules Verne, is becoming a reality. and the

reality of Life is becoming more complete and more accessible

The photographers of the new generation are concerned with the interpretation of the unseen. with their own personal connection and attachment to the image. At times it may be hard to discover what they see. and their images may seem commonplace and trivial. These are ordinary pastures. places and individuals. unadorned and totally lacking in extravagance. Ordinariness is exaggerated.triviality overstated. This ultra-banality. to give if a name. is present in all corners of the world: perhaps it is one of the first indications·ions that communication has succeeded in breaking through our national.

geographical and political boundaries.What is happening in New York and San Francisco is also happening in London, Zurich. Tokyo, Prague and other parts of the world. This is the new generation-and yet what they are doing is not altogether new. But we are no longer interested in newness for newness' sake. and the young photographers are well aware that what may be new to them has often been done before. In a sense, this ultra-banality is no longer banal or ordinary. it has more or less achieved the status of the anti-theater. the theater of the absurd. anti-art and the anti-novel. To be 'ultra' or anti' is never enough in the long run. and new elements and components have had to be found. These components are subtle. and it is beginning to be hard to recognize the nuances which appear in this new ultra-banality. The most important aspect of this generation is their dedication and intensity. and I feel sure that you, the reader. will detect this in these pages, and perhaps also in your own work.

MAN AND HIS LONELINESS

Camera April 1970

This is a theme which has been pertinent to mankind through the decades, centuries and millenniums: a theme which began with the humble Job in the Bible. continues through the world's philosophies. religions and sects and becomes manifestly evident in the present catastrophic population explosion. In 1960. the world's population stood at three billions, a billion higher than it had been 35 years earlier. By the end of the decade the figures had soared to 3% billions. and it would seem that we are headed for a total of four billions by 1975--an increase of a billion in only fifteen years. At the present rate of expansion, the fifth billion will be reached by the end of the decade. The population explosion has resulted in an increase of the complexity of man's diversity, placement and position-and in his disconcert for man. The problems of communication and identification increase in proportion to the increase in popular- ization. and their solutions become more and more remote and indirect. The increase in man·s numbers leads directly to a breakdown in communication both with his fellow men and with his own soul, and to an intensification of his loneliness. 'There was a man in the land of Uz. whose name was Job and that man was whole-hearted and upright. and one that feared God, and shunned evil. There were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.'

Thus begins the story of Job in the Old Testament. a dramatic

dialogue concerned with the problem of good and evil in the world which may well represent the first attempt to explain man's loneliness on earth through God and faith. A plan is made to test Job. and his property, family and health are taken from him. Friends come to comfort him and instead accuse him of great sin; he protests his innocence and learns that God's judgment is beyond man's understanding. 'Know now that God hath subverted my cause', he protests, and has compassed me with his net. Behold I cry out:

"violence" but I am not heard. I cry aloud. but there is no justice. He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass and set darkness in my paths. The three main developments relating to the problems of

human existence in existentialist philosophy are the following:

1. Reason by itself is an adequate method of explanation.

2. Anguish is an emotion common to men confronting life's problems.

3. Morality demands participate·n.

It was Sören Kierkegaard who developed the Christian existentialist philosophy in which anguish is relieved by transcendent faith in God, whereas Martin Heidegger and Jean-

Paul Sartre denied the existence of God and stressed man's

absolute freedom of choice and resulting anguish and despair.

Existentialism grew out of theology, by means of which man

sought to relieve his anonymity and anguish.

In the late 19th century Dostoevsky began writing of poignant-

ant aspects of existentialism and man's place in the world.

Philosophy ceased to rest entirely with theology and religion.

and literature abounded with man's plight and his problems with himself and society. Writers began both to explain and to create spiritual problems in poetry and prose. The film was born, and through photographic motion story-telling became an empathetic adventure in cinema houses and, later. on television sets. Photography itself became a medium for expressing and explaining man's ways and actions. his pathos and comedy, his anguish and relief. depicting his social and psychological fight with life and his time in exact studies which hold a moment of time up to the viewer.

Here, by means of selection and restriction of the wider view. photography expresses and interprets aspects of our theme:'man and his loneliness'.

PHOTOGRAPHY AS A LITERARY ART

Camera October 1970

Music-Mainly time (sequential) as it is based on a sequentially ordered time structure.

Painting-Non-sequential. Time is not as predominant as it is in sculpture due to its two-dimensional nature. The time element is stronger in collage and relief.

Dance-(Modern dance. as opposed to classical ballet.is Non-sequential-although stemming from music it is more closely allied to sculpture and is in reality a mobile improvisation to music.

Architecture-Non -sequential. comprised of space and time.

ADDENDA:

Transition into Electronics and Computation

A.From Phototype to Digital Type

B.From Analogue Imagery to Digital

C.From Guttenberg to Hypertext

ULTRABANALITY

Camera August 1970

THE TABLE

He had been coming to the table now for twelve years, taking his place in front of his knife, fork, spoon, plate, dishes and cup and saucer. He had been doing this, as he distinctly remembers, since the age of six.This was his view:mother to the right, brother to the left,another brother to the right of mother, and, supreme at the head of the table,father.The view of the room was always the same in front of him and behind his father. Silence had permeated this table arrangement for ten of the twelve years.

One day he decided to rearrange the placing of the dishes and glasses, and even the chairs. For some time it was startling and disconcerting, but it led to conversation and discussion. He changed the places further in the months which followed, and eventually everyone participated in the rearrangement.

THE FLOWER POT

He had known her for several months, and their relationship was platonic and satisfactory. When he first arrived in college he had been alone and afraid and in need of communication and discourse.When they met, they discovered they had many mutual interests and ideas, and these forwarded their relationship. There were few topics and problems which they could not discuss together, and their platonicism grew with the growth of their relationship.

One day he entered her modest quarters on the opposite side of the campus, walked through the small hall-way with the kitchen and bathroom on either side, and stopped at the edge of the rug to watch her standing by the window sill.

He studied her female form and searched her body with his eyes, perceiving her sensually and desiring her carnally for the first time.

Perturbed and flustered by the realisation of this new male female instinct , he was at a loss for words and stared at her salaciously, watching her every movement, before he found the words to ask her formally for a date.

She continued watering the plant by the righthand window without responding, and the water overflowed onto the dish beneath the flower pot. onto the window sill and the radiator to the floor, where it formed a puddle.

Suddenly aware of the situation, but unaware of the question, she replied with an impartial NO!

NOTE

These two stories are related to the theme ULTRA BANALITY in that they are parables dealing with two of youths most important themes, THE TABLE symbolising the force of rebellion and the FLOWER POT the mental masturbation prevalent in our society. The rebellion is that of trying to live a different way and yet change only minor details which have become dated and monotonous. The second story, THE FLOWER POT deals with mental masturbation , the prominent sickness of a mature society which entails satisfying one's own thoughts while listening to others and states that the concentration is a lost art in our modern attitude towards mass communication.

EROTICA COMPLICIA

An Every Day Experience

It is not uncommon for individuals to fantasise in every way, method or unique manner during the passing of seconds in the brightest or dullest of days. Imagine walking across the street or boulevard and approaching you from the opposite direction is this very special beautiful woman, if you are a man and a handsome man, if you are a woman.This particular type of fantasy is sexually equal.We have but seconds after the approaching figure comes toward us and passes us with the scent of the person predominant and erotic.Actually this time element is not the normal time experience. During the approach we are undressing, perusing, and studying every minute detail of the sexual elements of this figure. We have not only undressed the figure, scented the figure, felt the figure but we had an imaginary sexual and social intercourse with the person. We are on the other side of the street and we know that the other party had the same reaction and the same erotica complicia. We need not turn to look ,we need not know who they were we had accomplished our true erotica complicia. Our mental orgasm is complete and we are again on our way.This is not the only manner of accessory, this can be done or has been done on the train, the bus, the aeroplane, or some waiting room somewhere somehow we are accomplishing our erotica with an unknown partner in front of us or next to us,standing or sitting. After all, erotica could not take place without an accomplice.

SEQUENCE

Camera February 1971

A picture enclosed in a small frame shows a man talking to a girl beside a car; in the next frame. a villainous character approaches from behind a tree with evil intent: frame three shows the villain with a brutal hold on the girl's arm and her friend lying unconscious on the pavement: in frame four, the innocent victim is shown Lying abandoned on the pavement while the car speeds off into the distance This is a comic strip showing a sequence of events in a form in which the entire action is reduced to the bare essentials necessary to an understanding of the story, a visual scenario such as is still used by television and cinema creators today in their planning of a scene or a sequence of scenes. But still photography has yet a function other than merely relating events and sequences like television and cinema. for it is capable of acting upon the imagination and stimulating it to construct the latent images which could have existed, or perhaps will sometime exist. between the 'frames'. Whereas cinema and television show everything in its sequential order, the still sequence may be perused and re-seen in an undefined order. This fact opens up new possibilities. new patterns of story telling', and new means of communication. As opposed to the comic strip. there are no captions or word balloons. as opposed to the cinema. no voices or music. There are silent printed presentations, different even from slide presentations which define the order of viewing. This whole aspect of sequence is an offshoot of many previous ideas and movements in the history of photography. Marey, Edgerton. Edward Muybridge and Thomas Eakins, all experimented with images of movement in sequential form, either in multiple or in single frame imagery. Most of these experimental- lists. and their successors. were involved with the time element and the single movement which made up the plural movements by virtue of the various positions in a given period of time. These elements of time and sequence are not exactly related to our theme, but both elements do in fact occur in some of the images presented here. We have grown and matured with photography itself. and a give and take has arisen between cinema and photography over the past 75 years. The new underground movement has incorporated many of the elements of slide show·. split frames, multi-exposures and still ·sequences in its motion·n-picture sequences. Most of the new film directors are hen who are not only thoroughly familiar with c¥camera· shooting but who also understand the importance of the still image. One of the great masters of cinema, Sergei Eisenstein, has written one of the most important explanations of montage in the chapter entitle 'Methods of Montage' in hi· book Film Form. Montage falls under five headings: metric, rhythmic, tonal. over tonal and intellectual. The following is an extract from Eisenstein's text:

Methods of Montage

1. Metric montage. The fundamental criterion for this construct-

tic;n is the absolute lengths of the pieces. The pieces are joined

together according to their lengths. in a formula scheme corresponding to a measure of music. Realization is in the repetition! of these measures.

2 Rhythmic montage. Here. in determining the lengths of the

pieces'-'. the content within the frame is a factor possessing equal

rights to consideration. Abstract determination of the piece if lengths gives way to a flexible relationship of the actual lengths. Here the actual length does not coincide with the mathematically determined length of the piece according to a metric formula. Here its practical length derives from the specifics of the pieces, and from its planned length according to the structure of its sequence.

3. Tonal montage. (This term is employed for the first time.) It

expresses a stage beyond rhythmic montage. In rhythmic montage it is movement within the frame that impels the montage movement from frame to frame. Such movements within the frame may be of objects in motion, or of the spectator's- eye directed along the lines of some immobile object. In tonal montage movement is perceived in a wider sense. The concept of movement embraces all effects of the montage Piece. Here montage is based on the characteristic emotional sound of the piece--of its dominant The general tone of the

piece.

4. Overtonal montage. In my opinion. over tonal montage is

organically the furthest development along the line of tonal montage. As I have indicated, it is distinguishable from tonal montage by the collective calculation of all the pieces. The characteristic steps up the impression from a melodically emotional coloring to a directly physiological perception. This, too, represents a level related to the preceding levels. These four categories are methods of montage. They become montage constructions proper when they enter into relations of conflict with each other-as in examples cited.

5. Intellectual montage. Intellectual montage is montage not of

generally physiological over tonal sounds. but of sounds and

overtones of an intellectual sort, i. e. conflict juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual effects.'(Sergei Eisenstein. Film Form. Chapter: Methods of Montage.

Harcourt, Brace & Company. 1949.)

These are extracts from Eisenstein's discourse on montage in

which he cites examples from his own films, and in which the

essential concept of each of the five methods of montage is

clearly set forth. It is important to realize the influence of film

upon still photography as well as the reverse. To understand

photography today and all of its inherent traits. we must explore

a mountain of facts and information concerning the allied arts and sciences. It is not surprising that training in photography is rapidly expanding to take in subjects of a wider interest. since creation and the understanding of certain problems sometimes calls for a wider academic knowledge. The montage is a creation of order as opposed to the normal flow of life. time.and movement. It Is a man-made phenomenon, just as man invented-or at least defined-the element of time itself.in his book Art and Visual Perception. Rudolf Arnheim explains the psychology of the creative eye in the chapter on motion:

Movement:

It is understandable that such a strong and automatic response

of motion should have developed in animal and man. Motion implies a change in the conditions of the environment. and change may require reaction. It may mean the approach of danger. the appearance of a friend or desirable prey. And since the sense of vision has developed as an instrument of survival.is keyed to its task.Happenings, then. attract us more, and the prime characteristic of a happening is motion. We call the the railway station a thing; the arrival of the train a happening. We distinguish between an orator and his gestures !

1 painting or statue is a thing; the performance of a dance is a i

happening. The distinction depends not only upon movement·

'but also upon other kinds of change-the lobster and its getting

red. the potato and its getting tender. Actually. we do not see happenings as such. but rather we see things undergoing change. There are exceptions for example when the action is very fast. Wertheimer found in his experiments on stroboscopic motion that what his observers perceived under certain conditions was not an object moving from one position to another. Rather was there "pure movement", taking place between two objects and unrelated to both. More commonly. however. happenings are seen as the performances of objects. The world is made up of things that are changing

and others that are not."

(Rudolf Arnheim. Art and Visual Perception. A Psychology of

the Creative Eye. Chapter VIII: Movement. University of California

Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1954.)

Over the past few years,'Camera' has presented various images

in the sequence style, including pictures by Ray Metzker. Duane

Michals, Larson and others. The work of these three photographers- like that of all the contributors in this issue, is not

necessarily related in any way or derived from the same aspects

of imagery. Some of the photographers are more literal in their

interpretation of sequence. while others have taken the concept

as a starting point and developed it freely. In trying to give an

overall picture of the phenomenon of sequence in photography.

we approached as many countries as we could in order to provide the reader with a cross section as representative as possible. There remain. however, a great number of variations on the concept of sequence which have not yet come to light, and it may be that some of our readers will take this issue as a starting point and begin to create their own personal images in this style.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), who was affiliated to the

Bauhaus and worked predominantly in photographic collage, once wrote an interesting observation on sequence Series (Photographic Image Sequences of the Same Object) There is no more surprising, yet. in its naturalness and organic sequence. simpler form than the photographic series. This is the logical culmination of photography. The series is no longer a "picture". and none of the canons of pictorial anesthetics can be applied to it. Here the separate picture loses its identity as such and becomes a detail of assembly. an essential structural element of the whole which is the thing itself. In this concatatination of its separate but inseparable parts, a photographic series inspired by a definite purpose can become at once the most potent weapon and the tenderest Lyric. The true significance- of the film will only appear in a much later, less confused and groping age than ours. The prerequisite for this revelation. Is. of course. the realization that a knowledge of photography Is just as important as that of the future will be ignorant of the use of camera and pen alike.'

(Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Photographers on Photography. published by Prentiss Hall. U.S.A., edited by Nathan Lyons. Camera

No. 4, 1967.)

INFORMATION

Camera May I971

l.We are one generation away from the twenty-first century.

2. We are closer to the future-i. e. the twenty-first-than to the past-i. e. the nineteenth century.

3. We exist in the last third of this century.

4. We exist in the last thirtieth of this millennium

This is information. a compilation of facts to explain an idea.

The first two points are relative according to the Individual's own time of birth and to the question. which decade is more important for him. As the first two points vary as much as our individual names, point three and four are relative to all at this moment of time Information has expanded at such a rate in the first two Thirds of this century that is now only a matter of minutes for news of international importance to be relayed to all corners of the earth.

The last decade has also seen a new development of the arts

and the advent of new art forms which relied on photography or the transmission of its ideas. It was not only land art. arte povera. conception art, earth art, happenings) and fluxus which thought in terms of photographic recording: the pop artists also utilized the medium in their serigraphs. lithos and etchings which constituted a renaissance of the graphic arts. In addition, the propagation and reinvention o/f Dada's 'objects' and the creation of 'ready mades'' forced many artists to employ photographic reproduction techniques. The

multiple art forms are in reality a normal development stemming from Gutenberg's movable type influence on our communications and series reproduction techniques. Many artists were trained in painting and sculpture by means of reproductions in books and by one by two meter large slide reproductions of paintings and other works of art projected in darkened rooms. the originals of which were thousands of miles away. Size and scale became lost in this second- and third-hand information presentation. The necessity for two-dimensional surfaces forced the artists to avoid textures and

seek materials which would convey their message in flat planer surfaces. The contact with photographic enlarging equipment enabled the artists to reproduce objects and images in gigantic proportions, and the dissemination of information in the art world underwent changes equivalent to the great metamorphosis that Picasso's Demoiselles· d'Avignon perpetrated in the early part of this century. (Or will future history be more influenced by the transition of art represented by the .ready mades'' of Marcel Duchamp!) In reality, 'Information' has existed in all forms of art since the ·time of prehistoric man and, whether in Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics or the configurations of Renaissance and modern

culture, it has always been innately important.

The communication of the modern artist has become more cerebral, and in our new art forms it often happens that the actual product is of less value than the execution and the preparatory stages used in developing a more all-encompassing work of art. The environment. problems and events become both the studio work and the work of art or execution and finished product combined.

The cultural stresses and political demands made on society and the individual have resulted in a rejection of provincial art by younger creative persons and the emergence of a more all-encompassing reality and a new sense of seeing and evaluating. This new sense may result in minimality. in banality of approach, and in a formulation bordering on the incomprehensible; be that as it may, this new style of expression may well be necessary to the creation of a new information and a new formulation and approach of the basic

need to inform.This phenomenon has been present in photography from its early embryonic stages, and it may be that too much time

has been wasted on the definition of the medium. In the first

informative images created by Niepce. and later by FoxTalbot our world began to be recorded by photographic means. and a new information was born. As time went on.men sought to record the phenomena of movement. travel.war. etc., and all through this evolution there have existed photographers who have quested for new ways of seeing and recording with the camera. It was not so much a style for which they searched as a new formulation of perception, for an intrinsic activity or inactivity of the image before them.

Atget, Riis. and Hine were among these searchers for information. then Stieglitz. Steichen. Weston, Renger-Patzsch. August Sander. and Cartier- Bresson became aware of the total technique and use of information in this medium. Important personalities such as Walke· Evans, Otto Steinert, Robert Frank. Aaron Siskind, Minor White. and Harry Callahan evolved\ still other ways of seeing. and now that we are in the second third of the fifth generation of photography.

new signs are appearing which in their turn branch out and change again the information concept in photography.

It is an interesting fact that, despite the shortness of its history. there exists at the present time an undoubted interrelation between photography and art, an interrelation which.although it has been apparent over a decade has been overlooked as if it did not exist.

photography was marking time in preparation impetus which was to result in photographic museums and exhibitions on an .,I·V. the public was indoctrinated the twentieth century). and flourished in all previous and new mass media communication structures. Thus new ways of seeing became imperative

, and the medium of photography was equal to the task.

Young men sought new ways based on their ability and the

short history of the medium in which they worked. observing

what had gone before in museum's galleries and publications,

digesting what they saw and responding to the new needs and the new forms of information.

But is there really a new form of information ! No· actually it

is not new, but merely different. The fact is that we are so used to seeing newness and change that even slight nuances create the impression of newness in our minds.It is a strange but indisputable fact that that which seems new today often appears tomorrow as a mere nuance of the times. Critics as well as editors may sometimes be to blame for the extremeness of their presentations, but it ;s their duty to create an excitement which arouses an interest in the public. The 'oneupmanship' of the editor or critic often keeps him ahead of what is taking place and enables him to feel the pulse of what is shortly to come. The form of information presented here is not a cross section of what is happening. but the work of five younger photographers working in various aspects of photography within

the framework of today's meaning of information. This form of information will no doubt predominate in the coming years. and new searches will result in new approaches and eventually in new introductions to seeing. A few issues ago, we presented the number entitled 'Sequence' (Camera No. 2, 1971) which contained many of the conceptual elements included in this issue. The issue 'Signs'

(May 1 968) and 'Another Sense' (July 1969) both contained the beginnings of this new form of information which we now present in this number. In a sense, what we have before us is a new reality and a new realism as perceived and conveyed by these young photographers, a reality and a realism which are significant enough to affect portraiture. landscape and other aspects of photography in the near future if they are not already doing so today.

All these photographers provide us with visual information. and in each case we are confronted with a new experience of information which relies not only on the factual image but also on the presentation of the images as regards color, form. style, and placement. This is visual informationvague, perhaps, or new to us at the moment. but which nevertheless tries to inform us visually and in which each photographer has accomplished his search. There is a new way of seeing, and photographers are creating new visual concepts throughout the world. For they are by no means alone in their pursuit of this new information. but are part of a new and international development. Although they are not mentioned in books in the history of photography or represented in commercial journals or advertising, these photographers all over the world are making a great contribution to photography, and there can be no doubt that their influence will be felt and absorbed in due course.

There is a different form of information in the making. and this is natural enough: for information will always change with the times and with the knowledge of mankind.

End Part 1.1

Part 1.2