[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

shapes and patterns he captured into their
own creations.
While Callahan and Siskind became
heralded for the artistic qualities they
Minor White.Windowsill imaginative use of multiple exposures to
Daydreaming, 1958.
brought with them, another mid-20th-
combine several views into a single picture.
White once defined his photographs as
century photographer, Robert Frank,
And he became a master of modern color
mirages,meaning that they were not
gained acclaim for a very different type of
photography.
what they appeared to be.His images
photograph. Frank began his career as a
Callahan s photograph of a weed reveals
challenge each viewer to bring his or
fashion photographer and then entered the
his fascination with line and form. It is a
her own interpretation to the picture.
field of photojournalism, carrying out
striking example of the way in which he
assignments for such magazines as Life,
was able to produce an intriguing image
even when training his camera on the sim- Look, and Fortune. Frank, however, who
was endowed with a passionate sense of
plest of objects.
individuality, came to dislike working for
Like Harry Callahan s, the work of
others, particularly corporate-minded mag-
Aaron Siskind has had significant influence
azine publishers.
on scores of modern photographers.
Siskind s career was marked by the com- In 1955, with the aid of his friend Walk-
er Evans, he applied for and received a
plete about-face he took in his approach to
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship,
the medium. Early on he concentrated on
which enabled him to undertake a two-
capturing starkly realistic images of such
year photographic tour of the United
subjects as life in New York City s Harlem
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
P H O T O G R A P H Y / A N I L L U S T R A T E D H I S T O R Y " 1 3 4
Harry Callahan.Detroit,
about 1947.
In the hands of a masterful
photographer,even the sim-
plest object can be made to
represent something beyond its
States. Using a 35mm camera he criss-
natural form.In this Callahan
crossed the nation capturing images of
photograph,a weed takes on
an appearance both human
roadside bars, parades, automobiles, high-
and abstract.
ways, gas stations, and billboards. Many of
his pictures included the presence of the
American flag hanging on buildings,
Image Not Available
adorning parade reviewing stands, and
waving above large outings.
In many ways Frank s photographic jour-
ney was similar to that undertaken earlier by
Evans for the Farm Security Administration.
Both men were sensitive to how much the
artifacts with which people surrounded
themselves revealed about their way of life.
But whereas Evans celebrated various
aspects of American life,Frank s images were
Aaron Siskind.Jerome,
a far less positive portrayal. Arizona,1949.
In 1958 Frank s photographs were pub-
When they first appeared,
Siskind s images disturbed
lished in Paris in a book titled Les Ameri-
many photographers who felt
cains and the next year as The Americans in
they were more like abstract
the United States. Regarded by most
paintings than photographs.It
reviewers as downbeat, the book at first
was not long,however,before
elicited a negative reaction from much of they came to be appreciated for
what Siskind intended them
the public as well.What those who railed
to be works of art and
against it failed to recognize was that in
design that remain within the
Frank s portrayal of loneliness and despera-
realm of photography.
tion there was also beauty and tenderness.
Frank s own evaluation of what he had dis-
covered and photographed was contained
in his explanation of why he had taken his
Image Not Available
pictures in black and white instead of color.
 Black and white, he stated, is the vision
of hope and despair.
In the next decade a dramatic turn-
around took place. The Americans became
nothing less than a bible to many of the
thousands of those caught up in the youth-
ful rebellion against the corporate culture,
social inequity, and certain long-held values
that was a major part of the 1960s. In the
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MO D E R N P H O T O G R A P H Y " 1 3 5
Diane Arbus.King
and queen of the ball,
about 1967.
Arbus s images of sub-
jects not commonly pho-
tographed include
pictures of older people
trying to appear younger
than they are.This is her
photograph of a couple
who had been crowned
they really look.They have self-images that
king and queen of a
Image Not Available
to a large extent only they themselves see.
senior citizens ball.
 I really believe, she wrote,  there are
things which nobody would see unless I
photographed them.
Over the years, many people have been
disturbed by the content of Arbus s pho-
tographs. Some viewers, for example, were
upset when her picture of a man and
woman who had been awarded the title of
king and queen of a senior citizens ball was
process, The Americans became a book that
published. They felt that Arbus had
has had a profound influence on scores of
demeaned the couple by making them
today s photographers.
look foolish. Others who encountered the
Robert Frank.Political rally,
Another photographer whose work has
photograph, however, praised the image for
1956.
inspired the approach of many modern
its honesty. As one critic evaluating Arbus s
Frank believed that a photograph
cameramen and women captured images
pictures as a whole has written, [They are
should be able to stand on its own
that were not usually the subject of the
photographs] very difficult to stay out of....
without any text.Many of his
camera s eye. Her name was Diane Arbus.
What disturbs people more than the sub-
photographs,such as this one of a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]