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  • imagehttps://fourcornersarchive.org/asset/2996/image.jpg
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  • titleCamerawork Magazine - Issue 03
  • typearticle
  • descriptionIssue 3: Victor Burgin Robert Golden Ralph Gibson Terry Dennett Manuel Alvarez Bravo
• descriptionIssue 3: Victor Burgin Robert Golden Ralph Gibson Terry Dennett Manuel Alvarez Bravo
• title_for_layoutCamerawork Magazine - Issue 03
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    • archiveFour Corners Bishopsgate
    • vimeo_link
    • authorSee sections X to AC
    • author_editorTony Bock, Terry Dennett, Mike Goldwater, Dave Hoffman, Marylin Dalick-Noad, Tom Picton, Joanna Spence, Paul Trevor
    • author_writerTom Picton, Jo Spence, Victor Burgin, Marcos Valdivia, Ron McCormick
    • author_photographerManuel Alvarez Bravo, Robert Golden, Ralph Gibson, Robert Frank, Keppler, Diane Arbus, Laurence Migdale, Sue West
    • author_designerVictor Burgin
    • author_intervieweeManuel Alvarez Bravo, Robert Golden, Ralph Gibson
    • author_organisationMartini (Advertising), Psychology Today (Magazine clipping), Clouds Jeans (Advertising)
    • tagssemiotics,photography as art,advertising,working class,visual language,roland barthes,walter benjamin,bertolt brecht,mexico,manuel alvarez bravo,trade unions,strikes,surrealism,robert golden,sarah cox,workers,socialism,marxism,documentary,ralph gibson,'quadrants',exhibitions,photography dealers,leo castelli,pinhole,south island workshop,lambeth,alternative technology,developing,processing,amateur,sue west
    • titleCamerawork Magazine - Issue 03
    • subtitleIssue 3: Victor Burgin Robert Golden Ralph Gibson Terry Dennett Manuel Alvarez Bravo
    • dimension13 pages
    • ocr1
    • copyrightFour Corners/Half Moon Photography Workshop/Camerawork, Tom Picton, Jo Spence, Victor Burgin, Marcos Valdivia, Ron McCormick, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Robert Golden, Ralph Gibson, Robert Frank, Keppler, Diane Arbus, Laurence Migdale, Sue West, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Robert Golden, Ralph Gibson, Robert Frank, Keppler, Diane Arbus, Laurence Migdale, Sue West, Victor Burgin, Martini (Advertising), Psychology Today (Magazine clipping), Clouds Jeans (Advertising)
    • credits
    • relatedTony Bock http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/02/25/tony-bock-at-watney-market/ Tony Bock http://spitalfieldslife.com/2013/03/04/tony-bock-on-the-thames/
    • locationBethnal Green, London, UK (pg 3, 8, 9) Mexico. New York, USA. California, USA. (pg 10) Lambeth, London, UK
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    • origination_date1976
    • origination_year1976
    • origination_month0
    • created2018-06-04 14:57:29
    • created_by(null)
    • modified2025-09-17 22:36:29
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    • pdf_textLaurence Misdate 'Circus Travelling* - Ju ly Half Moon E x h ib itio n Victor Burgin Robert Golden Ralph Gibson Terry Dennett Manuel Alvarez Bravo No 3 Half Moon Photography Workshop 25p Art, Common Sense and Photography BY VICTOR BURGIN The main thrust o f photographic criticism these days is tow ards the consideration of photography as Art. CAMERAWORK, on the o th e r hand, has raised the issue o f p h o ­ tography as an instrum ent of ideology. Many people believe th a t these tw o ap p ro ­ aches are incom patible. Art is thought to have nothing to do w ith politics, 'political’ art is thought to be irretrievably com prom is­ ed as A rt. But the tw o may n o t be quite as m utually exclusive as these people like to think. Work w ith an obvious ideological slant is o ften condem ned as ‘m anipulative’; that is to say, first, th a t th e photographer m anipu­ lates w hat com es over in th e image; second, th a t as a result his or her audiences b e ­ liefs ab o u t the w orld are m anipulated. Not m uch is know n ab o u t how the m edia influ­ ence opinions, although we can be fairly sure th at people aren ’t sim ply led by the nose by photographs. Whatever the case, b oth charges can be sim ilarly answ ered; m anipul­ ation is o f th e essence o f photography; photography w ould n o t exist w ith o u t it. In p hotography, certain physical m ater­ Fig. 1 fairly be bought for wages is a m ystification ials are technically handled so that meanings w hich conceals the fact th a t, as the value of are produced. Photographers are people w ho m anipulate the physical means o f p ro ­ a com m odity depends on the labour invested du ction o f photography; cam eras, film, light­ in it, the ow ner is appropriating as p ro fit w hat belongs by right to th e labourer: p ro ­ ing, objects, people. Using the productive fits are unpaid wages. The idea o f false­ capabilities o f p hotography to reproduce the w orld as an object o f aesthetic contem pla­ consciousness is an o th er im portant aspect tio n , and nothing else, is no less ‘m anipula­ o f the m eaning o f the term , ‘ideology.’ The politically ‘L eft’ p h otographer wants tive’ than is any o th e r use o f photograph: to tu rn away is an act, to tu rn away from sit­ to help correct so ciety ’s false picture o f its uations o f im m ediate social relevance is a p o ­ actual conditions o f existence, to raise such questions as: Why this practice? What does litical act, and to perform such acts in every What interests does it serve? w orking m om ent adds up to a political it m ean? Such a photographer w ants to help people policy. T he only imaginable non-political being is becom e conscious o f th e forces which shape a totally self-sufficient herm it. The p h o to ­ their day-to-day lives; to realise th at the social order is n o t a natural order, and thus grapher w ho has chosen to live in a society and enjoy its benefits, even though he also beyon d all change, b u t is made by people chooses to p u t on blinkers w hen he squints and can be changed by them . The political­ in to a viewfinder, is willy-nilly an acto r in a ly dissident photographer however is involv­ ed in an apparent parad o x , th at o f seeking to political situation. So how is it th a t so m any people can genuinely believe th a t they lead penetrate appearances w ith an instrum ent designed specifically to record appearances a-political lives and th a t it is others ‘m ilitants’ and ‘extrem ists’ — w ho ‘have’ and appearances alone. ideology, n o t themselves? We m ust first say w hat we m ean by ‘ideology.’ When we look at the day-to-day life o f a d istan t culture — behaviour, custom s, dress, diet — we arc im m ediately struck by its strangeness: Why do they do th a t? Why do they eat those? What docs it all mean? Few such questions trouble us as we pursue our ow n lives in our ow n culture, and if they were asked, they w ould probably get short shrift. Why does a man generally let a fe­ male stranger precede him w hen he is going in to a shop, b u t n o t w hen he is boarding a bus? Why do m en hang ties around their necks when they wear a shirt, b u t n o t when they wear a roll-neck jum per? The ques­ tions appear silly, the answers obvious. . . . This is ideology as ‘w orld-view,’ a com m onsense understanding o f ‘th e way things are’ which is unquestioningly ‘taken for granted.’ What we do ourselves seems so natural to us th a t we even cease to notice w hat we do. ‘H abitualisation,’ said the critic V iktor Shklovsky “devours w ork, clothes, fu rn ­ itu re, o n e ’s wife and the fear o f w ar.” E_ Through habitualisation, w orking m en and w om en accept lives o f tedium , or even mis­ Fig. 2 ery, as their natural lo t, while others accept Bertold Brecht fo u n d the cam era a p o li­ the social cost o f their ow n greed as being tically-deficient instrum ent: a photograph ju st as unavoidable. The m edia by which we o f a facto ry , he poin ted o u t, tells us nothing are inform ed characteristically reinforce o f th e econom ic forces governing the lives of such attitudes: “ U nem ploym ent is expected those w ho w ork in it. Roland Barthes made to rise next m onth. . . . More rain is expect­ a sim ilar p o in t when he reviewed The Family ed in the south-w est” — bo th facts appear o f Man exhibition: o f course babies are equally to belong to the natural order of b o m and nursed by their m others all around things, acts o f G od against which there can the w orld, b u t photographs o f them tell us be no insurance. nothing o f th e ch ild ’s life expectancy or of The sort o f habitualisation which leads the likelihood th a t its m o th er might have millions to collude in their ow n repression, died giving b irth . and w hich allows th e rich and privileged to Such w riters, notably including Walter continue to act selfishly “ in all good faith ” Benjamin, have concluded th a t as language Marx called “ false consciousness.” For e x ­ itself is the instrum ent best ad ap ted to m ak­ am ple, in order th a t the institutions o f the ing a politically-specific statem en t, then the S tate should continue to serve the interests photograph can only serve the te x t. But, o f a ruling oligopoly, it is necessary that although the premise here is correct, the m ost people should continue to believe th a t conclusion does n o t necessarily follow from such institutions serve everyone equally. Or it. In his essay on The Family of Man, again, th e belief com m on to b o th those who Barthes condem ns the failure o f p h otogra­ ow n the means o f production and those phy to m ake a political statem en t, y et in this w ho do productive w ork th a t labour may same essay he condem ns the exhibition p re­ cisely for making such a (m ystificatory) political statem en t. A photograph o f a baby at the breast o f a w om an in a private nursing hom e in Sw itzer­ land may be placed alongside a photograph o f a sim ilarly-com posed m o th er and child group in a village in rural India. Assuming th a t there are no obvious signs o f depriva­ tion on the one han d , o r o f privilege on the o th er, the tw o images together will p ro ­ nounce: “ M others and their babies are the same everyw here.” Such a smugly reassuring message was indeed com m unicated by The Family o f Man exhibition. The cap tio n , the title o f the ex h ibition, served mainly to u n ­ derline w hat had already been said. In this case, the te x t served the photographs. Here, an ideological co n ten t is produced by a formal device. The message: “ T he c o n ­ dition o f m o th erh o o d is the same all over th e w o rld ,” w ould n o t have been conveyed so readily by either o f the photographs alone. Only th e ju x tap o sitio n of the tw o creates such a co n ten t, in such clarity, and w ith all th e im m ediacy o f an observed n a tu r­ al tru th . (The message is ideological n o t simply because it is wrong in w hat it says — simply to be m istaken is n ot necessarily to be in a state o f false-consciousness — it is ideological because it m isrepresents the actual m aterial condition o f the w orld in the service o f specific vested interests.) Because we have separate w ords for ‘fo rm ’ and ‘c o n te n t’, we are easily misled in ­ to believing th at they stand for totally dis­ tin ct areas o f experience. But there is no co n ten t w ith o u t a form, and no form .which does n o t shape a co n ten t. In that they b o th have been misled by a picture o f the world given to us by language, ‘artists’ and ‘acti­ vists’ alike tend to inhabit the same aesthetic ideology. A rtists believe th a t they can p re ­ sent a totally content-free world o f pure form s. Activists believe in th e autonom ous pow er o f ‘the tr u th ’ which will im pose itself regardless o f form al considerations. It will pay us, if we arc concerned with w hat photographers ‘say,’ to exam ine the devices which enable photography to say things, d e­ vices so familiar to us they may pass unnoticed. Popular photography magazines p erio d i­ cally carry articles advising their readers to look for ‘co n tra st.’ Such articles generally begin w ith a directive to look for contrasts o f light and dark tones, rough and sm ooth tex tu res.............and then move from formoriented to content-oriented oppositions such as young/old, happy/sad, etc. Such contrasts are indeed p art o f the stock-intrade o f the professional — take, for exam ­ ple, th e picture o f ‘victory and d efeat’ in Fig. 1. Most active photographers arc aware of th e phenom enon the ‘th ird effect’: tw o images side-by-side tend to generate m ean­ ings n ot produced by either image o n its ow n. This effect may be produced by bring­ ing together tw o physically-distinct prints (from tw o separate negatives), or by ju x ta ­ posing tw o distinct elem ents w ithin a single fram e. In the la tte r case, the jux tap o sitio n may be brought about by chance (happy coincidence) or by design; if by design, then cither ‘n atu ral’ means (casting, posing, etc.) or ‘technical’ means (darkroom m anipula­ tio n , collage, etc.) may be used. For exam ple, take th e picture o f George V on Derby Day in Fig. 2: in this image, we believe th at the co n trast o f rich and p o o r is m ade on the basis o f a coincidence — the p h otographer ju st happened to be there w hen. . . .; b u t it is equally possible, al­ though perhaps less likely, th a t the tw o main elem ents of the image were assem bled in the darkroom from separate negatives. Or, again, it is n o t b eyond possibility th a t the situation depicted was ‘set u p ’ for the cam ­ era — for exam ple, th e p h otographer could have directed a suitably-cast and dressed p er­ son to run up to the coach at a p red eterm in ­ ed spot. F urther to all this, the co n trad ic­ tion o f rich and p o o r could have been com ­ m unicated by juxtaposing tw o separate p h o ­ tographs, taken at different times and places from one another. O f the above possibilities, we w ould p ro ­ bably conclude th a t th e picture we have here is in actuality the m ost effective. The p h otojoum alistic ‘snap’ has an au th o rity which o th er forms o f picture-m aking lack; it presents itself as factual evidence of. an actual state o f affairs. In photojournalism , a particular m om ent may som ehow com e to signify a general tru th . This ‘som ehow ’ is generally considered to be unaccountable except in term s o f such things as ‘luck,’ ‘ta le n t’ or a com bination o f the tw o. Cer­ tainly the p h otographer o f George V was lucky, and he may very well have been ‘talen ted ’ (w hatever that m eans), b u t while the picture before us may have depended on luck for its existence, it does n o t depend upon luck or ‘ta le n t’ for its meaning — its m eaning is som ething we can account for. All com m unication takes place on the basis o f signs, m ost predom inately on the basis o f visible and audible signs. To say th at one person has com m unicated with an o th er is to say th a t each o f them has u n ­ derstood how to use an d in terp ret th e signs which m ade up the message betw een them . If you speak to me in G reek, 1 have no p ro b ­ lem hearing the noises you are making, b u t if I do n ot ‘know G reek’ in com m on w ith you, then 1 cannot understand w hat you are saying. Fig. 3 The photograph is a sign, o r m ore co rrect­ ly speaking, a com plex o f signs, used to com ­ m unicate a message. If you show me a p h o ­ tograph o f a pile o f stones th en , at an im ­ m ediate level, my eye receives visual ‘noise’ ju st as my car received verbal noise w hen you spoke to me in Greek. We can suppose th a t 1 have seen photographs since I was a child and so have no problem in ­ terpreting these irregular patches of light and dark tones as representing stones. (When African bushm en were first show n photographs, they had to be taught to read them ). But w hat b eyond this? If I go on to rem ark th at the photograph depicts a tem ­ ple, th at the tem ple is ruined, and th a t is G reek, then I am relying upon knowledge th a t is no longer ‘n atu ral’, ‘purely visual’; 1 am relying upon knowledge th at is cultural, verbally tran sm itted , and in the final analy­ sis, ideological (I might think ‘cradle o f civil­ isation’ or ‘dam ned G reeks’ according to when and where I happened to be born). Most photographers are aw are o f using some sort o f system o f effects in th eir w ork, b u t such system atisation as may be achieved is generally believed to concern only the purely formal — th e ‘visual.’ C o n ten t, it is believed, is ju st there in the w orld, and therefore in the p icture, w hether lined up w ith the frame or com posed on th e diagonal. But once we reject the idea o f photography as a “ purely visual’ language, understood equally by everybody everyw here, then we may begin to consider the possibility that c o n ten t, to o , may be p roduced as deliber­ ately as one may plan the form al com posi­ tion o f the photograph. To retu rn , th en , to ‘co n tra st.’ All c o n ­ trasts are ju x tapositions, b u t n ot all ju x ta ­ positions are contrasts. The ‘Derby D ay’ and ‘Boxing’ pictures are based upon a c o n ­ trast; th a t is to say. a dissimilarity o f c o n ­ tents (rich/poor, v ictory/defeat). The wellknow n Diane Arbus picture o f identical twins, on th e o th er hand, (Fig. 3) is based upon a sim ilarity o f b oth form and co n ten t. The fashion picture beside it (Fig. 4) is based upon a ju x tap o sitio n o f similar forms which have dissimilar co n ten ts (e.g., anim ate/inanim ate). L ooked at m ore closely, the p h o to g rap h ­ er’s stock-in-trade o f ‘co n trast’ may be seen to consist o f a num ber o f distinct com m uni­ cative devices, devices which nevertheless seem to evolve upon the com m on basis of the various relationships into which tw o or 2 Art, Common Sense and Photography sense o f which its usual sense is only a p art, e.g., “ Give me y o u r h e a rt” (when the entire body is being sought). Advertising is the m ost obvious place we m ight expect to find rhetorical figures (of which there are literally hundreds). In the first place, there is no d o u b t th a t som eone is setting o u t deliberately to persuade, in the second place, there is little d o u b t th a t every­ thing in the advertisem ent has been most carefully placed for m axim um effect. Com ­ mercial publicity, obviously, endorses and perpetuates the com m odity values central to our capitalist ideology. On the left, the p re­ vailing view o f advertising tends to be sim p­ ly one o f disapproval. From one p o in t o f view in ‘classic’ sem iology, how ever, the structure o f advertising may be disengaged from its co n ten ts: the rhetorical structures o f advertising are ‘in d ifferen t’ to the em o­ tional and ideological value o f the contents they handle; m uch as, for exam ple, an arith ­ m etical stru ctu re like 2 plus 2 equals 4 ‘doesn’t care’ w hether we are adding up tax i­ cabs o r tom atoes. In this view, therefore, there is no reason w hy, once the devices of advertising have been isolated by sem iotic analysis, they may n o t be ‘re-cycled’ in counter-ideological message-making. A n o th ­ er opinion to be derived from semiotics argues against this, b ut there is insufficient space here to discuss the apparent contradiction. Fig. 4 m ore visual elem ents may enter. The nub of such a system is form ed by relationships of sim ilarity and dissimilarity o f form and of c o n ten t, with additional m anipulations in the form o f substitutions and perm utations o f elem ents. The w orking o u t o f such a system in its entirety is one o f the tasks which might be undertaken w ithin a ‘sem io­ tic ’ study o f photography. Sem iotics, or sem iology, is the science w hich studies signs. We recognise th a t some photographers are m ore successful com m uni­ cators than others. The sem iotician is in ter­ ested in the reasons for their success or failure — n o t, o f course, in term s o f the p h o ­ tographer’s personal history, b u t in term s of the photographic sign itself. The sem io­ tician w orks from the assum ption that wherever we recognise ‘m astery’ o f an art, we also implicitly acknowledge the existence o f some system which has been m astered w hether the ‘m aster’ is conciously aware of the system or not. In the early days o f ‘stru ctu ralist’ sem io­ logy (R oland Barthes’ E lem ents o f Sem io­ logy first appeared in France in 1964) ex­ clusive atten tio n was paid to the analogy b e­ tw een ‘n atu ral’ language (the phenom enon o f speech and writing) and visual ‘language.’ It had long been com m on for people to speak loosely o f ‘th e language o f . . .’, this or th a t activity, including, o f course, ‘the lang­ uage o f p hotography,’ but it was n o t until Fig. 5 The rhetorical analysis o f advertising may the 1960’s th a t any system atic investigation o f forms o f com m unication outside o f n a tu r­ be con d u cted along three main ‘planes’: the al language was conducted from th e stand­ image plane; th e plane o f the te x t (headline, caption, body-copy); and the plane o f the p o in t o f linguistic science. There were tw o main reasons fo r ap p ro ­ text/im age bond. For exam ple, an image aching visual com m unication through ling­ which show ed a b o ttle o f milk as big as a uistics: first, language is the most elaborate house w ould present a figure o f hyperbole and com prehensive form o f com m unication (overstatem ent). If we th en added the head­ ever evolved, and it seem ed at least a reason­ line “ Pour Some More, M um ” , the tex t able w orking hypothesis to assume that w ould be based in rhym e, and we would o th e r forms o f hum an com m unication might have established a figure o f lito te (under­ have evolved along basically similar lines; statem ent) in th e relationship o f the te x t to second, m odern structural linguistics was it­ the image. self a sufficiently-established science to p ro ­ vide the necessary ready-m ade theoretical models o f com m unication to sta rt the new science o f semiology on its way. One aspect of natural language use which was found to have a particular bearing on the topic o f visual com m unicative devices is rhetoric. Simply speaking, rhetoric is the artful use o f language in order to persuade. In rhetoric, language draws atten tio n to it­ self in order to a ttra c t and retain the a tte n ­ tion o f the listener o r reader — form is m an­ ipulated to engage interest in the contents. R hetoric first evolved in the Classical period, and one o f the difficulties in stu d y ­ ing rhetoric today is th a t the ancient term s are still in use to label its ‘figures’: terms such as antanaclasis, chiasmus, synechdoche, . . ., etc. However, th e m eaning o f m ost of these term s becomes clear once examples arc provided: In antanaclasis, a single w ord is repeated w ith different senses, e.g., “ Learn a craft in y o u r y o u th so that in your old age you can earn your living w ith o u t c ra ft” ; in chiasmus, w ords are repeated b u t inverted in their order in the course o f a single sentence, e.g., “ You should eat to live, n o t live to e a t” ; in synecdoche, a w ord is used in a Fig. 6 L et’s take som e fu rth er, actual examples: Fig. 5 is a visual hyperbole much like o u r h y ­ pothetical exam ple except that in this case the exaggeration is doubly charged through sexual allusion; Fig. 6 is an exam ple of chiasmus in the plane o f the te x t; Fig. 7 p re­ sents a paradox in the text/im age plane. . . . and may be w orth considering in some more detail. It’s all in the mind. krCM<rin.iiiMrc-^al la .Jra.ilux IWyw m piafcwimh W fialM ** PsychologyToday Fig. 7 The image in this exam ple draws upon the iconography o f poverty — the bath in a zinc tu b , the squalid ‘back y a rd ’, the w ash­ ing on a line (as opposed to in a spin-dryer). These rem arks suffice to show th at this is ‘p o v erty ’ in th e definition o f a particular cul­ ture at a particular historical ju n ctu re — the same assembly o f signs might con n o te rela­ tive affluence in a ‘third w orld’ co n tex t. The striped T-shirt is associated in the Brit­ ish m ind with the iconography of France and th e sea, its co n n o tatio n of ‘St. Tropez-ness’ establishes a figure of irony w ithin the image. It is likely th a t the people in the p h o to ­ graph will have been chosen for their — in B arthc’s expression — ‘canonic generality;’ th a t is to say, each individual represents his or her own ‘ty p e ’, each individual stands for a class o f individuals. In rhetoric th e figure o f antonamasia is th e one in which the p ar­ ticular stands for the general. Nearly all ad ­ vertising images contain this figure. Thus, the w oman in our exam ple represents all econom ically-disadvantaged m others (there is no evidence in the picture which proves she is the m o th er o f these children, b u t the very wide use o f images o f the family dic­ tates th a t she represent one). The scene d e ­ picted here should cause no offence to cither th e p o o r or the com fortably-off: there arc no to m clothes o r m atted hair, th e children are being washed and (im m inently) fed; this is a ‘p o o r b u t h o n est’ milieu. The rem arks I have m ade so far concern w hat is actually to be observed in the image; more observations could be added along these lines. Beyond w hat is to be seen in the image, how ever, there are m any stories to be construed from w hat is seen. This p h o to ­ graph could serve equally well to illustrate a variety o f stories. For exam ple: ‘one-parent families’; ‘health in the ho m e’; ‘dom estic life in industrial tow ns’ . . . and so on. The photographic image can carry a large num ber o f different meanings. It is ‘polyscm ic.’ G enerally, the polysem y o f the image is controlled by its ju x tap o sitio n with a verbal text. Roland Barthes has identified two differ­ ent functions which the verbal message can adopt in relation to the image, these he calls anchorage and relay. The tex t adopts a function o f anchorage w hen, from a m u lti­ plicity o f co n n otations offered by the image, it selects some and thereby implicitly rejects the others. Thus, in a cigarette advertise­ m ent, the contradictory connotations ‘cigarettes give pleasure’ and ‘cigarettes give cancer’ arc selectively handled in such a cap­ tion as ‘cool as a m ountain strea m ’, a simile which endorses the suggestion o f pleasure while rejecting th a t of unwholcsomeness. In relay, the image and the lingusitic te x t are in a relationship o f com plem entarity: the linguistic message explains, develops, e x ­ pands the significance o f the image. (Fig. 8 is a particularly clear an d simple exam ple of relay). In our previous exam ple, the cap­ tion is in a relationship o f relay to th e image. ‘I t’s all in the m ind’ is n o t am ongst the co n ­ notations we might expect to be sum m oned by the image alone. It is n o t therefore ‘anch o red ’ from am ongst the connotations already available. The rhetorical stru ctu re of the text/im age relation in this case is th a t o f paradox. The dom inating co n n o tatio n of the image may be labelled (but n o t co n tain ­ ed) by th e linguistic term ‘p o v erty .’ Sub­ stituting this term for th e image gives us the statem ent: “ Poverty. I t’s all in th e m ind.” However, we know the poverty depicted in the image to be a m aterial poverty, hence the paradox, and hence th e effect gained by the ju x tap o sitio n o f such a caption with such an image. The sem iotician Jacques Durand made these rem arks in the course o f his 1970 study o f rhetoric in advertising: “ The m yth o f ‘inspiration,’ o f ‘the idea,’ reigns suprem e in the creation o f advertising at th e present tim e. In reality, however, the m ost origin­ al ideas, the m ost audacious advertisem ents, appear as transpositions o f rhetorical figures which have been indexed over the course o f num erous centuries. This is explained in th a t rhetoric is in sum a repertory o f th e var­ ious ways in w hich we can be ‘original.’ It is probable then th a t the creative process could be enriched and m ade easier if th e creators w ould take account consciously o f a system w hich they use intuitively.” Fig. 8 Typical o f the nineteenth century Rom antic aesthetic attitu d es which prevail in present-day writings on photography is the n o tio n th a t there are unique essences w ithin things and people which are ordinar­ ily concealed from us b u t which artistic genius can reveal. This is an idea w hich photographers had handed dow n to them from the ‘Fine A rt’ they originally sought to em ulate (and o ften still wish to em ulate, al­ beit they in the position o f people rowing o u t to jo in a sinking ship). Largely, this idea is a projection o f th e m arket relations which characterise our com m odity society: th e co n ­ cept o f ‘genius’ guarantees the investm ent value o f th e p ro d u ct; the concept o f trans­ cendental ‘essences’ protects the p ro d u ct against practical interrogation. Brecht to o k th e view th a t w hat essences there are behind appearances are to be reached through investigation rath er than through in tu itio n . Photography has tended to tre a t us to an interm inable rhetoric of ‘hum anity — its jo y s, its sorrow s.’ The m aterial forces which cause such em otions and, fu rth er, shape o u r entire lives, may be described. It rem ains to be seen w hether photography will becom e effective in show ­ ing them . What is certain is th a t if it is to do so, we need to treat th e photographic image as an occasion for scepticism and q uestion­ ing —n o t as a source o f hypnosis. REFERENCES V iktor Shklovsky A rt as a Technique, in Russian Form alist Criticism , University of Nebraska. Roland Barthes The Great Family o f Man, M ythologies, Paladin, 1973. -----------------------------Elem ents of Semilogy, Jo n a th an Cape, 1967. ---------------------------R hetoric o f th e Image, Working Papers in Cultural Studies, Spring, 1971. Jaques Durand R hetorique et Image Publicitairc, C om m unication, 15, 1970. 3 BRAVO BRAVO! M anuel Alvarez Bravo is a confusing photographer. His pictures o f th e dead w orker and the naked wom an wrapped in bandages are totally convincing. B ut others share the artiness o f E isenstein’ Mexican s film . (In E isenstein’s case, you suspect that the Sun illum inating his pictures also addled his brain.) To m ake one great picture in a lifetim e can be an achievem ent. M anuel Alverez Bravo has managed three or fo u r. Bravo was b o m in M exico C ity in 1902. H e to o k up photography seriously in 1924 b u t continued to work as a govern­ m en t accountant until 1931. In the same year he sold his fir st p rin t to the M useum o f M o d em A r t in N ew York. A s well as “personal” photography, Bravo recorded murals and others w orks o f art. He also taught part tim e. Edw ard Weston to ld him photography was “fo rtu n a te in having som eone w ith your view point. ” In 1934 Bravo ex h ib ited with Henri Cartier-Bresson in M exico C ity ’ Palace o f s Fine A rt. From 1943 he w orked fu ll-tim e as a photographer and cameraman w ith a film studio in M exico. In 1959 he co-founded a fo u n d a tio n fo r M exican plastic arts. When Bravo came to L ondon f o r his show a t th e Photographers Gallery, Tom Picton and Marcos Valdivia talked to him fo r CAMERAWORK. Odile Bertin translated the tapes. We asked him i f his fa m o u s pic­ ture o f the dead striker had a political meaning: o f w inter” w hich show ed a branch of a w ithered tree and a stained glass window in a rath er art nouveau style with a wom an. Picton: H ow did yo u work as a p h o to ­ grapher and fo r whom ; fo r what kin d o f audience? Bravo: It is a difficult question. My p h o ­ tography has regularly gained approval both in and o ut o f M exico, and in the exhibitions in which 1 have been, my w ork has been liked, b u t th at is all I can say. More, I w ould not know. Picton: D id yo u ever work with a group o f photographers or usually by yourself? Bravo: By myself. Valdivia: C ould yo u describe fo r us the atm osphere in M exico when yo u , Buhuel, Weston, Diego Rivera and others were w o rk­ ing there? Bravo: It was a period of struggle in w hich every person had to look after him ­ self and w ork as he could. Relations b e­ tween all of us were friendly, b u t we did not form w hat could properly be called a group. There were simply affinities and relationships. Valdivia: What can yo u tell us a bout the tradition surrounding death in M exico? Bravo: People believe that there is a love o f d eath , b u t they do n o t understand that it is n o t simply th a t, and that w hat in fact there is in M exico is an ancient awareness o f the duality o f life and d eath, death being the end result of life, and th a t it is im pos­ sible to treat the tw o term s separately. This concept o f duality we Mexicans receive as children, when in November, on th e Day o f the Dead, we are taken to the fair and buy toys of death and skulls o f sugar, which we eat. Eating is an activity which sustains life, and this life is sustained by a skull. Picton: In Painted Walls o f M exico (1966) yo u w rote: “Popular A rt is the art o f the people. A popular painter is an artisan who, as in the M iddle Ages, remains anonym ous. His w ork needs no advertisem ent, as it is done fo r the people around him. . . " I agree very m uch with that; could yo u say so m e­ thing a bout it? Bravo: I think th a t w hat is said here about popular art can be applied to art in general. A ctually in my opinion, and I said this in a lecture in Mexico at the Museum o f M odern A rt, it is very strange to go on talk- Valdivia: A n d so they are transform ed into m y th ? Bravo: Yes, o f course. If one is concerned w ith the object-subject relatio n ­ ship, the co untry is bound to emerge. It is n o t th at one w ants to create a national art, b u t th at national art arises when one res­ ponds to the heartb eat o f a nation. Picton: Are you still taking photographs, or what kin d o f w ork are yo u involved in at the m o m en t? Bravo: When a photographer is involved in an event, he is so involved and so much a p art o f it that he is not aware o f his involvem ent. Picton: Has “the m urdered w o rker" ever been used as a poster? Bravo: Since it was a com m ission for the catalogue for a surrealist exhibition, I w orked — w ithout really planning to do it th at way — as autom atically as possible. I sent som eone to buy the kind o f cactus called abrojos in Spanish, or, “ open eyes” and borrow ed a blanket from the caretaker. 1 spoke on the telephone to a d o cto r friend and told him: “ Come here and bring some bandages.” He came very quickly, and I bandaged the girl and took the photographs. T hat is the way it happened. If you w ant to know why it happened th a t w ay, 1 think th a t the question o f the bandages came about through an experience I had with a group o f ballet dancers w ho came to Mexico. 1 saw the rehearsals and saw that they ban­ daged their feet, so I bandaged the feet and som ething m ore. At th a t tim e it was not allowed anyw here to circulate photographs showing bodily hair. And I did not have a personal interest in it. The original photograph was a little m ore cut than as it is know n now . It was going to be reproduced in three strips on the fro n t cover with th e same b u t in negative on the back. I thought it was an interesting form at. But it was n o t published. Instead, an o th er one was — called “ The consecration Bravo: It w ould be exactly th e same — it is n o t my fault th at som ebody suddenly got interested in my photographs. I did them as a means o f self-expression for show ing on a small scale, rather like the way in which things are m ade in a village o f artisans. But as I said before when talking ab o u t the individuals from a group, their w ork is anonym ous w hether' it is signed or n o t, b e­ cause the individual is unknow n. But there com es a m om ent w hen others becom e in ter­ ested, and then the photographs becom e o b ­ jects in themselves. They are no longer p u re­ ly the expression of an event to be seen on a wall or to be reproduced in a magazine, b ut have been transform ed in to objects, and as objects they can be bought, w hether they get sold or not. Valdivia: Q uite right! However, I personal­ ly think that the work o f M anuel Alvarez Bravo is the expression o f a people. Valdivia: Did you personally fe e l involved in the event ? Picton: Could you tell us how you happened to m ake “the wom an in the bandages"? Picton: H ow does this apply in yo u r own photographs ? For exam ple, i f yo u had been an an o n ym o u s photographer yo u w ould n o t have had the same impact. Bravo: No, rath er into m erchandise. The m yth is created afterw ards aro u n d the au th o r, w ith th e purpose always o f enhanc­ ing his com m ercial value. Bravo: Yes, o f course. The political question at that tim e was the struggle for a m inim um wage. W orkers were very badly paid, they w ent on strike, and this man was killed. But w hen one secs the photograph by itself for the first tim e, I do not think one needs any more explanation, because in the background a p art o f th e strikers’ banner can be seen, and th e a ttitu d e o f the dead w orker is not a general statem ent o f violent death b u t of one heroic death. Bravo: Yes, several tim es, for a political purpose. In fact, it was n o t used as a poster b u t appeared in left-wing magazines. I rem em ber oth er occasions when it was p ub­ lished n o t in a political, co n tex t, and it is interesting to see how it has been associated with the nude. a person w ho keeps a shop where he does passport photographs or w edding p h o to ­ graphs is practising a craft b u t n o t creating art. A rt is created by the individual and n ot th e m aterial which he is handling. Striking w orker murdered, 1934 Valdivia: But such a frien d ly atm osphere m ust have been very stimulating. Bravo: C ertainly. T hat is why I consider that my w ork is derived from precisely those m ovem ents — essentially the m ovem ent in wall painting. Valdivia: It is said that M exico is essentially a surrealist country. Bravo: T hat is w hat Breton says. In fact, Mexico can be a dram atic c o u n try , a countryfull o f contrasts, even bordering on th e fan­ tastic, which docs n o t precisely fit in the concept o f surrealism which like any o th er “ ism ” is an academ ic term . Perhaps 1 can understand w hat Breton said as m eaning a country where th e artist can produce fan­ tastic or surrealist art. In the case o f my own w ork, for instance, I do n o t think it can be considered as surrealist except for three or four photographs like “ the woman in the bandages,” b u t all the others arcfantasy-inspired by the co untry itself. Valdivia: B ut “the wom an in the bandages” was done with a surrealist fu n c tio n fo r a surrealist exhibition, and very successfully so. Bravo: T rue, b u t you m ust see the basic difference which exists betw een that p h o to ­ graph and “ the m urdered w orker.” O ne is all spontaneity as opposed to the other, which is the pro d u ct o f com plicated mind games and heaven-knows-what oth er subtleties. ing ab o u t the art o f painting, or o f painting as an art, or photography as an art. I was asked o u t o f the blue if p hotography was an art, b u t I shall com e back to this later. Pop­ ular art is anonum ous art m ade for some ex ­ isting group of people, b ut naturally as time passes, this group is going to develop relationships with o th er groups, and th e vari­ ous co n tacts betw een groups will produce a change, or changes in the art in general n ot only in popular art, b ut in all the arts. A fter a tim e, th e nam es o f the authors begin to be know n, and even if they do n o t sign, it is know n that such and such a w ork is the w ork o f so and so; anonym ity begins to be lost. From these relationships a group eco n ­ omy evolves which entails an even bigger change because as the natural laws o f b u y ­ ing and selling com e in to play, it becom es necessary for the authors o f works to invest less time and less m oney for greater reward. This phenom enon is bou n d to occur in any system o f p ro d u ctio n . Thus, art is trans­ form ed and loses its meaning of popular art to becom e, at least in my opinion, a craft — which in reality it always was. So, when I was asked if photography was an art, I replied, “ n o .” Photography is n ot an art, any m ore than painting, sculpture or engraving. Art does not exist because m ater­ ials for painting, for sculpture or w hatever it may be are bought. A rt is created by the individual, and it is the artist who exists. But th e general term cannot be called art; it is craft. An individual can be purely and simply a craftsm an. In photography there is much more craftsm anship than art. A rt has ano th er dim ension from craft. For instance. Bravo: A t the m om ent I am p u ttin g my records in order. I have got at least forty years of w ork, and during those forty years, I have taken no care o f my negatives. When I am asked for a copy o f such and such a negative which was published a long tim e ago, it has to be looked for and a lo t o f time is w asted in finding it. T hat is why I am p u t­ ting my records in order, to fulfill a respon­ sibility w hich I did n ot realise 1 was taking on at the tim e. But afte r th a t, w hat am 1 going to do? Generally w hat has happened in the past is th at there arc periods in which I do absolutely nothing. Then I begin again w ith great difficulty and failures until suddenly I get in to the rhythm again, and my capacity for w ork returns. 1 hope that the same thing is going to happen this tim e, otherw ise. . . Picton: Are yo u apart fro m that? Bravo: records. No. doing any N othing apart work now from the Picton: What will happen to all those negatives in the fu tu re , in, say, f i f t y years? Bravo: Only tim e will tell. The have-nots are m o st easily approached i f y o u try to com e dow n to their level, a t least in every way b u t the camera yo u use. D o n ’t go o u t photographing wearing yo u r Pierre Cardin blazer over a gaudy Florida-bought sportshirt and sh uffling around in Gucci shoes. I always dress in, or take along, an old pair o f blue jeans w ith m atching attire, dow n to a worn pair o f sneakers, when I fe e l have-nots are to be encountered. I f you're with a load o f n ifty dressers, ditch ’em, p reten d yo u d o n 't kn o w 'em. Y o u ’ll see how the atm osphere improves. Keppler on the S L R fr o m Popular Photography April, 1976 4 GOLDEN RULES OK? Trained throughout childhood in painting and drawing, Am erican photographer, R o b ert G olden, turned to the camera at the age o f 12. A fte r studying history at univer­ sity, he sp e n t one year at the L ondon School o f Film Technique. He then w orked in N ew York fo r three and one h a lf years as a fr e e ­ lance photographer on p h o to essays and a variety o f social issues. Before returning to live in England, he was introduced to M arxism and the '/.one S ystem . B oth these interacted together and opened up whole new areas o f understanding. S ettling to live in L ondon, he began to concentrate on docum enting work, initially approaching children’ b ook publishers with s an essay on boxing. A s a result o f this, Kestrel books invited him to work on a series o f books fo r children. The first fo u r were M ineworker, Carw orker, Farm w orker and D ockw orker. These were all done in conjunction w ith writer, Sarah Cox. They work together on all aspects o f the p h o to ­ graphs, te xt, layout, presentation. Six more titles are scheduled fo r publication. R obert G olden is at present docum enting U nem ploym ent with Sarah Cox, and som e o f this work will be on exhibition. J o Spence talked to R o b ert Golden fo r CAMERAWORK. means th a t I have had to con cen trate heavily on the w ork experience. I have p h o to ­ graphed many o th e r areas o f life in the past few years as well. Is it im portant to align y o u rself to a parti­ cular party ? If a photographer chooses to involve him / herself in social questions, then intellectual clarity is as im p o rtan t as em otional com ­ m itm ent and good intentions. There arc so many m om ents in an event to photograph, so many events to choose from , so many angles, filters, tonal ranges, printing m ethods and controls, grain structures, depths o f field ranges, etc. to select from , th a t w ith o u t a clear-sighted view, one is lost. The socialist photographer w orks in a cultural and critical wilderness. Primarily th e photographer m ust realise his/her re­ lationship and com m itm ent to the w orking class and to th e revolutionary p arty . Once this is realised, either w ith or w ith o u t the aid o f a particular revolutionary group, the newly-developed view o f the photographer will tend to prom ulgate an association with th e group which m ost closely holds that view. In a non-revolutionary period, it is per­ haps m ore necessary for photographers and o th er artists to be clearly aligned to and in ­ volved with the m ore general problem s of th e w orking class than to be deeply involved w ith the program m e o f a specific left group as sectarianism in a non-com bat situation is as likely to close as many avenues o f aw are­ ness and turn away as m any eyes o f th e p o ­ tential audience as non-com m itm ent in a period o f struggle is likely to render o n e’s w ork meaningless. The stu d en t o f th e medium learns o f it through books, from teachers in state or private institutions, or by w orking for a photographer. In each case, the unity of form , co n ten t and technique exists and is ex ­ pressed in the transm ission o f the ideas, w hether consciously or n o t, by the w riter, teacher or boss. Underlying these ideas will be class-biased assum ptions, personal obses­ sions, prejudice and some consciously th ought o u t political views. All o f these things which influence the w ork o f th e m as­ ter will influence the w ork o f the student. In my experience, the student w ould do b etter to be in stru cted by a m ediocre p h o to ­ grapher o f Marxist views than a highly-ac­ com plished photographer o f conventional views. The technical and form al conceptions will at least be form ulated w ithin a progres­ sive fram ew ork, and in the end, the passion for a particular set o f values and ideas will carry the photographer into a thorough search for a sym pathetic technical and fo r­ mal vocabulary. Does a photographer know when their ow n level o f social awareness is relevant to the problem s o f w orking people? Most contem porary photographers are from middle class backgrounds. The em pha­ sis o f contem porary middle class cu ltu re, as m ost culture o f Western Europe since the Renaissance, is placed on individual experi­ ence and values; therefore, m ost c o n tem p o r­ ary ‘a r t’ photographs m anifest these individ­ ualistic concerns. As the m ajor experiences o f w orking people arc collective, the p h o to ­ graphs are, in th e m ain, meaningless to them . The following subject m atter dom inates the w ork: landscapes — usually in the ro ­ m antic tradition o f Weston o r th e mystical Do you think the way in which you learn tradition o f Minor White; reportage o f poor, to be a photographer is im portant? homeless or o th er politically-w eak sections o f the p o p u latio n ; w omen in various stages I th in k the way in which a person o f undress in ‘n atu ral’ situations; English encounters the craft is o f secondary im por­ festivals — which seem so o ften to sneer at tance to the cultural and political environ­ m ent in which th a t person develops intellect­ the people pictured and to dismiss the ually. These influences co u n t for m ore than subtleties o f form and technique; portraits the tiny w orld o f photographic craft and o f people peculiar in appearance o r awkward aesthetics in defining the nature o f a in a situation — often in the dem ented style o f Diane Arbus; and a host o f quasi-surreal p erso n ’s w ork. Coal picking, farrow , 1976 Who is yo u r audience? I wish the w orking class to be my au d i­ ence. Which sector or group depends on the project at hand. In the children’s books, the audience is specifically the children o f the class, and to a lesser degree, their parents and teachers. In the unem ploym ent project th a t we arc w orking on presently, the audi­ ence is w orking people in general, b u t speci­ fically, shop stew ards, m ilitant w orkers, p oli­ ticals, as well as the unem ployed. In my ex ­ hibitions, I hope to reach the same people by making the w ork available as essays on walls to be used by Trade Unions and their branches, Trades Councils, w orking peoples’ institutions and political groups for w eekend conferences, in w orks canteens, union halls and o th e r meeting places. Because o f the political co n ten t o f my w ork, I believe th a t it can be em braced as a whole only by w orking class people and by middle class people o f leftist views. But the scarred urban landscapes, the lined and weary faces, and the m om ents o f exhilara­ tion and anger are sights and experiences which m ost people are aware o f in their daily lives. It is through these m ore general elem ents o f the subject m atter th a t any per­ son may enter the spirit of the work. What are you trying to show ? I wish to reflect back to viewers their ow n experience and hum anity and provide an outline o f their struggles. In the chil­ d ren ’s books, we specifically attem p ted to create a broader class awareness and sense of self-pride in the children, while revealing to them both the skills necessary and the hazards encountered in production. In the unem ploym ent book, we hope to clarify re ­ lationships betw een past and present events, an d betw een present everyday life and the forces which determ ine its shape, especially concerning the tragedy o f unem ploym ent. Is the ‘political photgrapher’ m ore than a mirror? A m irror image is tw o dim ensional, flat and lifeless. Russian and Chinese socialist realism along with some form s o f Western advertising are ju st th a t. The term , ‘political photo g rap h er’ implies a com m itm ent; once there is a com m itm ent, one does n o t m irror, one refracts. It is in this refraction process, as a picture is being m ade, th a t the web o f subjective factors inform s the objective phenom ena. Experience, perception, preju­ dice, technical and form al expertise and in ­ tellectual com prehension all play a part in defining the nature and success o f the final p rint, b o o k or exhibition. H ow much o f yo u r work is done because you think it is politically im portant, as opposed to requests fro m publishers? I make a living by doing com mercial work. U n fortunately, it dom inates too m uch o f my tim e. The children’s books are a way in which I may earn m oney while p ro ­ ducing books and photographs o f value, to o , to me. O therw ise, as in the unem ploym ent project, the com mercial w ork pays for the political w ork. I do the la tte r when I can — evenings, w eekends, days when there is a lull in my com m ercial w ork schedule. Why do yo u concentrate on work? I have n o t decided to concentrate on w ork b u t rath er on th e w orking class experi­ ence o f my life. The fact th at peo p le’s posi­ tions in life arc largely defined by their rela­ tionships to the means o f p ro duction (are they bosses, bankers, politicians, selfem ployed, w orkers? ), and th at the central experience o f th at relationship is rigorously defined by the daily grind o f w ork (w hether caring for hom e and children, or w orking in the mill, mine, factory, farm or office) Old-age hom e, L ondon It is true th at we have no stage to present our subject m atter upon until we know how to use the tools to saw th e tim ber, hang the drapery, etc., b u t while learning technique is a prim ary step in a ph o tg rap h er’s education, it is m ore im p o rtan t to know w hat is to be presented. A fter all, the nature o f th e sub­ ject m atter may dictate one sort o f stage or curtain as opposed to another. or com m onplace (snapshot like) subject m a t­ ter. While these images may at times be in ­ ventive and appealing to m iddle class audi­ ences, they are by and large neither en ter­ taining to w orking people, nor concerned with their social or personal problem s. The subject m atter isolates the w ork from all b ut aesthetes, literateurs and students. The underlying co n ten t o f this subject 5 matter describes autobiographical observa­ tions, mystical or well-intentioned but unanalytical political thoughts. Unfortunately, the autobiographies are only as interesting as the lives they reflect; the mysticism has little meaning to people who must day by day confront the real power of the world and their representatives in the guise of man­ agers, police and foremen and women; and the politics are irrelevant to working class re­ lationships. Thus, the content isolates the work as well from the mass of the people. Because of the class nature of this work, and because the ruling class no longer occu­ pies the centre of the historical stage, but is slowly being pushed aside by a new main character, their culture generally and their photographic art specifically, like their poli­ tical and economic system, is effete. Their culture is out of step with the most impor­ tant undercurrents of this period, and though this photographic work is foisted upon the people as the true representation of the ‘art’ of photography, it remains out­ side and will continue to remain outside the interests of the 19,000,000 wage earners and their families in Great Britain. But the condition is not all negative. For the last several years, there have been dy­ namic egalitarian trends revealing them­ selves. Some community photographic pro­ jects have helped to bring otherwise isolated people together, presenting images to be dis­ cussed and ideas to be discovered through the exhibition of photographs from the com­ munity; the women’s movement has produc­ ed a volume of work which has reported, analysed and revealed to people ideas which have helped in the struggle for identity and Receiving permission, Dagenham partial liberation; the left-liberal photojournalists’ documentation of the black lib­ “ Recognition of the struggle for the right eration and anti-war movements in the of workers at the point of production to States helped to reveal the injustices and tra­ find a way to make public the true nature of gedy of those two struggles; and now in their working conditions through the use of Great Britain, several groups of photograph­ film is long overdue. ers are intentionally documenting the class British Leyland shop stewards at a struggle. Coventry plant, faced with the demand from Eventually out of these documentarist their work force to break through the barrier trends will develop the strands of a truly of misrepresentation and silence, called in proletarian cultural photographic expression Cinema Action to film their work-in. which will command the interest and serve Whilst in the factory, Leyland security the needs of the working people. men called the police, who arrested and Photography is today an accepted part of jailed the film crew, later releaseing them our cultural vocabulary, and as such, photo­ without charge. graphers should be concerned — not with Two weeks later, the Leyland manage­ photography — but with thoughts, social ment picked out one of the many stewards experience and problems which are central involved Jack Sprung and sacked him. This to contemporary life. Only then will photo­ act of flagrant victimisation was backed up graphy break out of the narrow aesthetic by the regional and national press and tele­ tendencies in which it is trapped to the outer vision, who launched a trial by media with world of human life, and only then will pho­ headlines reading ‘Leyland Row over Mr. tographers win a larger audience for their Sprung’s Spies.’ (The fact that Jack Sprung work. was not the senior steward who invited Cinema Action into the plant was ignored in “The location of the action in Coronation favour of a vicious and libellious personal Street is mainly the enclosed world of the attack against him, his family and against street itself. The community contains no Cinema Action.” children, and its members are rearely seen at work. In fact, the work that we do see going Excerpt from letter to ACCT Journal, on could be loosely described as Film and Television Technician, petit-bourgeois: shopkeeping, the running June, 1976 of a public house, Len Fairclough (a selfemployed builder) banging a nail into a wall. The ‘world’ of Coronation Street (and we “Tape recorders, ordinary cameras and are encouraged to think of it as a microcosm cine cameras, are already extensively owned of the world, a representative sample — by wage-earners. The question is why these witness for example the title sequence means of production do not turn up at showing the street as just one among many work places, in schools, in the offices of the thousands of similar streets) is safe, secure, bureaucracy — in short, everywhere where ‘apolitical,’ a place where nothing more than there is social conflict. By producing petty bickering, gossip and the occasional aggressive forms of publicity which were feud is allowed to disturb the nature and their own, the masses could secure evidence structure of the characters’ lives. They are of their daily experiences and draw effective essentially locked into, and resigned to, their lessons from them. position and role in society. The families, Naturally bourgeois society defends it­ apparently lacking children, relatives and self against such prospects with a battery employment, lead insular, isolated, static of legal measures. It bases itself on the law lives. Their dynamic potential for any of trespass, on commercial and offical action that might transform their own or secrecy. While its secret services penetrate anyone else’s existence is entirely absent. . . everywhere and plug into the most intimate the structured absences are deliberate and conversations, it pleads a touching concern significant. Their significance lies in the for confidentiality and makes a sensitive negative and paralysed protrayal of the display of worrying about the question of a working class, a portrayal that is reinforced privacy in which all that is private is in the by the occasional ‘social realist’ TV docu­ interest of the exploiters. Only a collective, mentary, where the images depict a sad and organised effort can tear down these paper acquiescent group of people.” walls.” Manuel Alvarado in Eight Hours are Not a Day, published in British Film Institute’ s Fassbinder, edited by Tony Rayns. Extract from Mass Media and Mass Society by Hans Magnus Enzensberger translated by Stuart Hood. End o f the shift, London depot Overleaf: Kellingley colliery, Yorkshire discussion before the shift. 8 Driving down Park Aven Ralph G ibson’s pictures are becoming as graphy since the 1950’ . He spent three s simple as semaphore flags. In his Q uadrant years in the U.S. Navy as a photographer’ s exhibition, 16 x 20 prints o f photographs mate. A fter attending San Francisco A rt taken 18 inches fro m the subject are his Institute, he worked fo r one and a half years equivalent o f abstract expressionist painting. assisting D orothea Lange. Before beginning his rise to fam e (see Q uadrants deals with the problem o f ex­ hibiting photographs in an art gallery. So interview), he did advertising shots fo r Eli many photographs which look good in a Lilly Pharmaceuticals, book covers fo r photographer’ hand die on the gallery wall. Bantam and Dell books, fashion pictures fo r s Ralph Gibson has faced this problem right L ook magazine and essays fo r New Y ork and A rt Forum . He also occasionally worked as on and h it it with a meat cleaver. Marxists believe that the means o f pro­ a 16mm cameraman, making a documentary duction determine the ideology, but dis­ fo r CBS and working with R o b ert Frank on tribution is equally demanding. When Conversations in V erm ont. Gibson began publishing books in 1967 painters produce an exhibition, they have to think very clearly about the problems o f with The S trip, 55 photographs from the where they are going to be shown. Ralph Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The Hawk fo l­ Gibson is the first photographer who has lowed in 1968 with 50 photographs from a thought about these problems intelligently. play o f the same name. Robert Frank wrote Ralph Gibson photographed his the foreword fo r his third book, ACLU 1969 Q uadrants fo r the Castelli A rt Gallery in A ppo in tm en t, published by American Civil New York. A fter it was p u t up, he said that Liberties Union. the impact focused in the middle o f the gal­ As is apparent in the interview, Ralph lery. Perhaps Gibson’ best contribution to Gibson took a clear, close look at his life s photography has been his realisation o f this in 1970, and his photographs became very phenomenon. different. Since then he has published three The central problem o f our time fo r pho­ books — The Som nam bulist, Deja V and ’u tographers ceases to be political or social but Days at Sea. rather o f how their pictures will look on a Ralph Gibson came to Britain fo r the first gallery wall. Gibson solves these problems workshop held at the Photographers Place, with a painterly intelligence. Working close Derby shire,-this Easter. This was jointly run to his subjects, Gibson solves the problems by Paul Hill and Thom as Jo sh u a Cooper. o f out o f focus edges by using a depthless Everybody who was there voted it a great black. He has invented a painterly photo­ success. One o f the participants, Ron graphy. His photographs solve the academic M cCormick, interviewed Ralph Gibson fo r problems o f 20th Century painting — not CAMF.RAWORK. those o f photography. Gibson takes his pictures at 1/250 second Ralph Gibson has been working in pho to ­ at f l 6 . I rem em ber one day I was driving dow n Park Avenue with R obert (Frank), and I was telling him that 1 w asn’t happy w ith my career — 1 was in love with this girl and all these things — he was driving and I was in the passenger seat, and he said: “ Well, you have tw o choices, y ou could probably make it com m ercially, becom e successful rather q uickly.” Because 1 w ould occasionally get jobs, I had the ‘chops,’ I had the technique to do just ab o u t anything, b u t I d id n ’t have the interest in it. He said: “ You could m ake it com m ercially p retty fast if you w anted to, or you could be an artist and w ait — and then later becom e fam ous like me! ” And then he turned around and lo o k ­ ed at me and said: “ Actually y ou only have one choice! ” And th a t was enough to make me really break all interest with the notion of being a professional photographer and d o ­ ing good w ork on assignm ent. Which is one o f the biggest m yths th a t ever came dow n the road — th a t y ou can do good stu ff on assignment. So about th a t tim e, I entered in to a p er­ iod o f p ro tracted to rp o r in which I ju st slept all day and did very little w ork, was deeply in debt, had a lo t o f m y cameras paw ned and stu ff like th at. But 1 was reading a lot, people like Alain Robbs-G rillet, people like th at. And then one w eekend I w ent o u t into the country and I shot quite a lot o f film, I felt rather inspired, and I made in one w eekend w hat was to becom e the first eight­ een pages o f The Somnambulist; the float­ ing nude, th e head in the doorw ay, many o f the photographs th a t were later to becom e widely published. But at the tim e I totally co u ldn’t stand them ; I hated those pictures w hen they first cam e o u t o f my head. They ju st seem ed to fly off the contact sheet; 1 d id n ’t even know w ho had taken them ; I co u ld n ’t rem em ber w hat I was thinking of or w hy I was taking them . I printed them — 1 recognised th a t they had a certain pow er, b u t they caused me great anxiety because they had nothing to do w ith the previous twelve years’ w ork, they did n ’t seem to re ­ late to anything 1 had attem p ted to do or to the m oods th a t I was trying to generate through my docum entary w ork. I was liv­ ing in the Chelsea Hotel (New York) at the tim e, in a very small room , and w ould have them tacked up on a piece o f board at the foot o f my bed. R obert was in M exico, and he wired me to com e and join him , so I m an­ aged to get the price o f ticket and off 1 w ent. When I came back from M exico, after the cultural shock and all th a t, I rem em ber walking into my hotel room and seeing the photographs and all o f a sudden realising th a t m y cam era, because o f the speed o f its sh u tter and m any o th er things had, I believed, co n tacted a dream reality. The m inute it occurred to me th a t those p h o to ­ graphs were going to be w hat I call dream images, I then had my p o in t o f departure. I very quickly w rote the prologue for The Somnambulist in which I stated that while sleeping a person reappears elsewhere on the planet, becom es tw o people and then per­ haps chooses to do so as a voluntary idea. I w rote th a t prologue in ab o u t fifteen m in­ utes, 1 then very quckly generated a 32-page version o f the book which 1 then set about trying to‘ get published. People were very interested b u t they w ould w ant to change it, to make their own m ark on it. Somehow th a t b o o k had com e to represent an a u to ­ nom y, a sort o f reaction against all the sub­ servience o f freelance w ork. I had to have satisfaction this w ay, 1 w asn’t able to let people change it, I d id n ’t w ant to pass the buck, I d id n ’t w ant to blame anybodv for its failures. I w anted to take all the bow s and all the responsibility. F ortunately, nobody was going to adhere to those term s, and it to o k me three years while 1 was trying various ways o f getting the book published, and I was utterly obsess­ ed with getting it published. I used to wake up in the m iddle o f the night chewing my teeth , thinking ab o u t it. It was a period of great pressure and anxiety because it was as usual a highly-im poverished period, and I rem em ber th at one night 1 made a p act, and I d o n ’t know who it was w ith, b u t I p ro ject­ ed my thoughts as far o u t to the universe as 1 could, and I sim ply said in som e kind o f an arcane prayer th at I was willing to die if I could get th a t book published. T hat would be a fair bargain, my life w ould have cer­ tainly fulfilled itself and that was all I w an t­ ed! But at th at m om ent I becam e rather desperate, I realised at a certain p o in t th at w hat 1 should do is publish it myself. Som e­ how th a t notion daw ned on me, and I very quickly form ed a lim ited partnership. I ju st w ent to a lawyer, and he drew up a piece o f paper. I sold som e shares in th e venture to the graphic designers and the art directors
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      • essay_titleTowards a New Politics of Photography
      • essay_authorFrances Whorrall-Cambell
      • essay_extract<p style="text-align: justify;">In the first issue of <em>Camerawork </em>Jo Spence sought to explore what she called ‘the politics of photography’. For Spence, images had an ideological content, expressed through a ‘series of visual signals and short cuts’ which needed to be unpicked by reading the context from which the photographs sprung and the intentions of their creator.</p>
      • essay_content<p>The question of how photographs might be political, and how one might decode (or even produce) these messages, dogged <em>Camerawork </em>throughout its existence. This thorny issue was never fully resolved, and the contradictory responses raised within the magazine’s pages track the shifting attitudes buffeting British photography during the 1970s and 80s. </p> <p><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">In her article, Spence proposes that photography’s visual shorthands create a kind of limited understanding: producing ‘stereotypes’ of the world around us. The camera might not lie, but it flattens; draining shades of nuance from the situation to render an issue black and white. In this proposition, Spence brings together an interest in signs developed by the recently-fashionable study of semiotics, and an understanding of photography’s ability to divide the world into ‘types’ present since the Victorian era.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Spence’s concern is the photograph as re-presentation: a regurgitation of isolated appearances with no attempt at critique. She posits that the mimetic quality of photography works in the interest of the capitalist media, who commodify these fragments of truth in order to nullify their potential to disrupt false consciousness. Spence was reacting to a world in which photojournalism was still prominent, with the photo-essay delivering the news in illustrated magazines and papers. The proximity of these often-harrowing images to advertisements, with their shiny parade of commodified objects and (particularly female) bodies, was concerning. News photographs took on this sheen, whilst the messages in the adverts, seen alongside ‘objective’ documentary, became naturalised.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Camerawork </em>sought to disrupt this process and reveal that both sets of images were political: i.e. the product of a particular agenda. Today, it might seem that we no longer need to be told not to be so naive. We are more suspicious of things that purport to be true than ever before. The idea of truth itself seems up for grabs. We know western media is not to be trusted; it has become commonplace to point to fake news, but the increasing presentation of content through algorithms ensures that even images that have not been fakes, edited or otherwise doctored are still suspect for their very existence in a structure so obviously plugged into corporate capitalism.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">What, then, can <em>Camerawork’s </em>warnings add to our dealings with the media? Perhaps the answer can be found in Victor Burgin’s essay for the third issue<a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/view/0000003">, ‘Art, Common Sense & Photography’</a>. Burgin states that manipulation of the world, far from being an aberration, is the basis of all photographic practice. Photography is an alchemical process of transformation, rather than a mirror, and recognising this is a vital step in being able to unmask the politics of images. Although Burgin’s chemical metaphor no longer holds, photography is still a distortion of the world, albeit digital, reducing it to pixels and binary code. An awareness of this could enliven us to the ways in which technology reconstitutes media and presents a certain picture of events through its highly subjective networks.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Burgin’s most striking point, however, is his identification of the central paradox of the camera. The issue that has long troubled artists, so much so that Brecht felt it necessary to call the instrument ‘politically-deficient’, is that in order to enact political change the camera must be able to penetrate appearances, but it is only able to record them, parroting back the dominant order and reproducing inequality. This is what Spence warns against in Issue One.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">However, Burgin suggests that this is actually what makes photography so powerful: it enables us to turn the weapons of the master against him. Creating contrast and comparison is for Burgin the way to animate the inherent contradiction between image and reality. This advice might stand for photographers today: expose the irrationality in the world through a medium we know to be much more irrational than we previously allowed for.</p>
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      • essay_titleCritical engagements with documentary photography
      • essay_authorFrances Whorrall-Cambell
      • essay_extract<p>The subheading to <em>Camerawork </em>8, a special issue on the ‘Battle of Lewisham’, proclaims: ‘What are you taking pictures for?’. <em>Why photograph?</em> was a central concern of Half Moon Photography Workshop. In many ways the ‘why’ was easy to answer (although, as this issue showed, the reasons were many): what was more difficult was the issue of who - who could be a photographer, and what being a photographer meant. </p>
      • essay_content<p>In order to answer these questions, HMPW framed a radical reinvention of the medium and its practitioners, advancing a new concept of ‘community photography’. This was first outlined by Jo Spence in <em>Camerawork</em> 1 and elaborated on in Issue 13, which was dedicated to ‘Photography in the Community’. What Spence discusses in this first issue is a three-pronged attack on the mechanisms of mainstream image production and circulation in Britain. </p> <p><meta charset="utf-8" /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The first weapon in this war was alternative or community presses, which offered photographers control over the fruits of their labour. Such publications could show solidarity and promote community action, providing an antidote to the individualism and sensationalism of traditional journalism. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The power was in having control over the means of image production: Spence recommends the use of photography as a tool by social activists. Through workshops and equipment loans, groups could encourage community feeling and help marginalised people represent themselves - gaining the skills to be critical of images and demand different depictions. Those who attended these workshops then became community documentarians, going out into the places in which they lived and worked to photograph the other residents and build a picture of a life from the inside contrary to popular stereotypes and ignorance. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Community photography, then, was about providing alternatives: alternative images, alternative photographers, and alternative channels of publication and distribution. Half Moon Photography Workshop attempted to provide for all three: in their gallery and magazine, their workshops, and promotion of photographers such as<a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/index?keyword=derek+smith&format%5B%5D=4&format%5B%5D=8&format%5B%5D=16&format%5B%5D=15&format%5B%5D=13&format%5B%5D=14&format%5B%5D=1&format%5B%5D=3&format%5B%5D=5"> Derek Smith</a> and <a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/index?keyword=george+plemper&format%5B%5D=4&format%5B%5D=8&format%5B%5D=16&format%5B%5D=15&format%5B%5D=13&format%5B%5D=14&format%5B%5D=1&format%5B%5D=3&format%5B%5D=5">George Plemper</a>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">These ideas were radical in the Britain of the 1970s, where social documentary photography had fallen victim to its own success and become co-opted into mainstream imagery. However, in their suspicions and desire to create new photographers, HMPW were drawing on doubts already seeded within certain corners of the English documentary tradition.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Bill Brandt was a pioneer of British social documentary photography. His 1936 book ‘The English at Home’, a pictorial survey of British domesticity between rural and urban settings and across classes, appears a classic of the genre. However, this work was actually highly innovative, as Brandt responded to increasingly ambivalent feelings towards his claim to objectivity. Brandt mobilised a technique of juxtaposition drawn from the surrealists, in which commentary was produced in the collision of the photographs on facing pages. In this, Brandt directly intervened in the images, exposing the mechanics by which photographic meaning was produced, and foregrounding not only his creative role but his subjectivity. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Brandt’s suspicion of the photographer’s supposed ‘objectivity’ was also felt by the members of HMPW. They transformed this doubt into a new manifesto. It was not enough to recognise and acknowledge one’s limitations as a photographer: those biases still existed. Instead one needed to encourage more people to document themselves in order to counter the stereotypes of others.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">In this community-based photography, HMPW found precedent in Mass Observation. Founded in 1937, and another surrealist-inspired endeavour, Mass Observation aimed to record everyday life in Britain through a network of volunteer observers who kept diaries, answered questionnaires, and took photographs of daily occurrences. Over 1,500 people were recruited from all social classes; ordinary people were given the necessary tools and encouraged to record their own lives and the lives of their communities.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">In its desire for an ‘insider’s perspective’, Mass Observation chimed with HMPW’s ambitions, and the collective themselves were interested in this earlier project, dedicating an issue of <em>Camerawork </em>to the observers. Many of the photographers HMPW chose to exhibit also sat within this ethos: from Derek Smith’s photographs of his Teeside home, to George Plemper’s sensitive portraits of his pupils at Riverside. But HMPW differed from Mass Observation on two vital points. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">While Mass Observation had aimed at an objective record comprised of a great number of data points, many of HMPW’s photographers shared the tacit assumption of their subjectivity, even if the rhetoric of objective investigation was still present. Daniel Meadows’ <a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/index?keyword=Shuttles%2C+Steam+and+Soot+-+Daniel+Meadows%C2%A0&format%5B%5D=4&format%5B%5D=8&format%5B%5D=16&format%5B%5D=15&format%5B%5D=13&format%5B%5D=14&format%5B%5D=1&format%5B%5D=3&format%5B%5D=5">Shuttles, Steam and Soot</a>, was billed as a ‘serious investigation’ of the Lancashire cotton industry, but what actually enlivened the images for Meadows was the strangeness of the encounters - the interpersonal aspect. </p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Mass Observation had been instigated to create an archive of everyday life, but HMPW had far greater aspirations. As stated in their special issue: ‘to document alone is not enough - the process must be taken further and used to effect social change’. Change was always the purpose of HMPW’s projects, and social change relied upon a fundamental transformation of tradition. Suspicion of the photographer was transformed into a vision of community documentary, and community documentary was transformed into political action. Why take pictures was obvious, but HMPW’s chance of achieving that goal relied on a complex understanding of who (photographer and subject) gained by looking to the past as much as to the future.</p>
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      • essay_titleFour Corners' Young People Cinema Workshop
      • essay_authorFrances Whorrall-Cambell
      • essay_extract<p style="text-align: justify;">The Young People Cinema Workshop ran at Four Corners from 1980. As a project providing training and filmmaking opportunities to young people from Tower Hamlets, it perhaps has the closest resonance to the community work Four Corners does today. The early Workshops were radically experimental: pushing the boundaries of arts and technical education, and testing the ethos of collaborative filmmaking upon which Four Corners had been founded.</p>
      • essay_content<p style="text-align: justify;">Wilf Thust was the Workshops originator. He had a background in art and education as a teacher in Germany, and brought methods developed in the German avant-garde. During his teacher training, Thust had studied the pedagogy of the Bauhaus and Joseph Beuys, whose proclamation ‘teaching is art’ inspired Thust’s own professional practices. As a teacher in Bremen, Thust handed out Super 8 cameras to be shared around his classes, and when his time as an educational researcher in Bielefeld University was disrupted by student protests, he made the documentary <em>The School Strike OS 77</em>.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Thust saw the seriousness with which these working-class students approached politics and the self-organisation they were capable of, and he took these experiences back with him to London, and to Four Corners. Along with Ron Peck, Mary Pat Leece and Jo Davis, Thust had been one of the founding members of Four Corners during their time at the London Film School. By the time Thust returned to England with Jo, who had become his partner, Four Corners was undergoing a period of transformation.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The premises on Roman Road was converted into a cinema accompanied by a regular programme of public screenings, allowing the group to combine production, consumption and discussion of films all in one space. Out of this dynamic context, the Young People Cinema Workshop was born. Thust’s intention was that young people could actively respond to films seen at Four Corners, and then make their own work from and out of their reactions. He conceived of it as a ‘media research group’ with young people learning and working outside of a formal institution.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">There were benefits to working outside of the system: it allowed the Workshop to engage the most ‘unapproachable’ young people. Despite the presence of many progressive groups in Tower Hamlets, real social problems persisted alongside the brutal reality of the National Front. Thust wanted to reverse the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality experienced by many of the students: testing out his own prejudices whilst attempting to enter into their experiences, narrowing the gap between student and teacher.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">The form of the Workshop grew out a programme organised by Jo Davis and Mary Pat Leece called ‘<a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/view/0001169">In Front of the Camera</a>’. Here, participants would view work by established filmmakers and feedback their comments, before projecting their own slides and film interpretations. The young participants became the motor of the Workshop, driving projects forward and determining the group’s course. <a href="https://www.fourcornersarchive.org/archive/view/0003830">Lisa Warren</a> in particular was remembered by Thust as a lynchpin. Warren had joined the Workshop from Davis and Leece’s group in Oxford House: she produced a script for the Workshop and brought a gang of friends to meetings.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">This script became the film <a href="https://vimeo.com/334864112"><em>Don’t Think So</em>,</a> a rough and ready tale about East End youth and their fraught interactions with family, teachers, and each other. Unlike the more polished films the participants were responding to, such as Derek Jarman’s <em>Jubilee</em> and Ken Loach’s <em>Up The Junction</em>, <em>Don’t Think So</em> registers the process of its own making and is a vital document of the learning and thinking that went on in the Workshop. The group used scrapbooking and wall charts to map out ideas. Part account of progress, part guest book, and part space for critical comments, these sheets spilled out into the film itself in hand-drawn intertitles and sets. The final film is fun and more than a little anarchic: charmingly clumsy at points as you see the participants learning on the job.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Funding from the Channel 4 Workshop Agreement allowed Thust to undertake more ambitious projects. Between 1982 and 1985 <em>Is That It? </em>was under production at the Workshop. Thust devised it as a film made solely by the young people of Tower Hamlets, with Four Corners providing only the technical means and training, with no conceptual guidance. The project soon evolved to become a diary of work, recording Thust’s interactions with the young participants alongside media statistics about the lives of youth in the borough. Although the final film was not well received, it was groundbreaking in its foregrounding of young voices, and as a record of the Workshop resonated throughout the years.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">At a screening of <em>Is That It?</em> held at Lux in 2002, one of the Workshop’s members was in the audience. Anthony David attended the group when he was 15, and the radical pedagogy he experienced at Four Corners influenced him in the creation of the archive of social movements May Day Rooms, and in his work in the Experimental Teaching Unit he established at Central Saint Martins. The impact of the Young People Cinema Workshop can be found in unexpected places, but its legacy is also channelled still at Four Corners, in our ongoing commitment to providing education and training in film and photography.</p>
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      • nameCamerawork Magazine
      • essay_titleA brief history of the publication
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      • essay_extract<blockquote> <p>Camerawork as a magazine had a quality about it - when I first saw a copy in 1976 I'd never seen a publication like it and I still haven't. It stopped me in my tracks. The A2>A4 folding format, the print quality - amazing for single pass litho - the picture spreads and the articles, they all set it apart from any other photo-magazines of that period – Ed Barber</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Camerawork is designed to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, views and information on photography and other forms of communication. By exploring the application, scope and content of photography, we intend to demystify the process. We see this as part of the struggle to learn, to describe and to share experiences and so contribute to the process by which we grow in capacity and power to control our own lives. – Camerawork magazine masthead, issues 1-19</p> </blockquote>
      • essay_content<p>A key part of Half Moon Photography Workshop’s programme was the publication of a magazine.<i> Camerawork</i> was first published in February 1976, using a broadsheet format – sheets of A2 paper folded to A3, then to A4. Stencil bold, the only large typeface that they had, was used for the title. Expression Printers’ stark black and white printing was highly effective. Tony Bock, Terry Dennett, Roger Eaton, Mike Goldwater, Janet Goldberg, Marilyn Noad, Tom Picton, Jo Spence, George Solomonides and Paul Trevor produced the first issue of <i>Camerawork</i>, put together at a marathon all-night session in Goldwater’s studio in Chalk Farm, fuelled by coffee and beigels. After the first issue they drew Ed Barber, who was recruited to work on the accounts but quickly joined the magazine collective, along with Shirley Read, Liz Heron, Richard Platt and Jenny Matthews and many others. </p> <p>The early magazine had a pluralist, open and improvisational approach, encompassing articles on renowned photographers including Bill Brandt, Paul Strand and Brassai alongside alternative histories of photography, grassroots practice and DIY pages on photographic processes. Regular critiques by leading writers such as John Berger, Victor Burgin and John Tagg explored the ideological constructions shaping photographic practice. <i>Camerawork</i> rapidly established itself as a forum for critical debates on the politics of documentary representation, the role of the photographer and the use of the medium in oppositional politics. As the use of larger images increased, a centre spread was added that could be pulled out as a poster. The first was Robert Golden’s photograph of miners waiting for their shift at Kellingley Colliery, Yorkshire. The second, Richard Greenhill’s dramatic image of his wife Sally minutes after giving birth to their daughter. </p> <p><i>Camerawork</i> included visually compelling, thematic issues such as <i>Lewisham</i>, the <i>Picture Story</i>, <i>Portraits</i>, <i>Photography in the Community</i> and <i>Reporting on Northern Ireland</i>. The magazine became a key platform for photography addressing left-wing oppositional politics. Reports of anti-racist demonstrations highlighted community action whilst shedding light on police brutality.  Issue 14 on Northern Ireland proved highly contentious at a time of significant press censorship. Coverage of anti-nuclear protests helped to galvanise support for the revival of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.</p> <p>The magazine’s emphasis changed in the later issues, focusing more on broader politics of representation rather than solely photographic practice. Content expanded to include film, video, tape/slide and television with an increased emphasis on analysing mainstream media.</p> <p>Alongside this <i>Camerawork</i>’s focus became explicitly political from issue 20 (1980) in response to the election of Margaret Thatcher. The magazine’s a new masthead stated that it was ‘a journal of the politics of photography’. The editorial read: ‘We must pursue this politics of the image into all the struggles that affect our lives: struggles over class, patriarchy, power knowledge, communication and education’. This went too far for the Arts Council, who reminded Camerawork that its subsidy was ‘on the basis of its attention to photography and not as a platform for political comment’. By issue 25 the masthead had changed to the neutral statement that: ‘Camerawork aims to promote debate and discussion on politics, photography and representation’. </p> <p>Thatcherism marked a crisis for left cultural approaches. Black and white photography no longer felt like a connection to a radical past. ‘The Fight to Work’, a four-page spread in <i>Camerawork</i> 18, showed vivid images of the steel workers strike, and called for photography that was neither mass media representation of intimidating pickets, nor abstracted images of heroic workers. It was one of the last articles of its kind. In ‘Loves Labour Lost’, <i>Camerawork</i> 29, Kathy Myers argued that Labour’s posters helped lose them the 1983 election with their use of outdated images of working-class men in flat caps. Visual artists should ‘combine the visual sophistication of advertising with the social insight needed to provide new visions and fantasies for the future’. In her interview with Stuart Hall he also called for a new kind of imagery: ‘The left has to look around and see the language that consumer capitalism speaks to people in’. These arguments reflected the left’s seeming inability to combat a Thatcherite world in which there was ‘no such thing as society’.</p> <p>Increasingly the concerns of many artists and photographers moved away from social struggle towards a focus on post-modern theories of representation and popular culture. The last four issues of <i>Camerawork</i> are noticeably different. The design of issue 29 is reminiscent of <i>City Limits</i>, with articles on video exhibition, graphic design of album covers and cable music television by Malcolm McLaren. Later issues of<i> Camerawork</i> changed direction several times. From issue 29 the format was altered to an A4 magazine style, with, for the first time, an editor: first Kathy Myers, then Liz Wells. But production faltered with lack of funding, and a loss of organisational direction. The magazine folded after issue 32 in 1985. </p> <p>During its ten years, <i>Camerawork</i> made a profound impact on debates about the politics of photography and representation, and brought an extraordinary range and breadth of documentary and photojournalistic work to audiences worldwide. The role and influence of the magazine has often been historically overlooked within the canon of established British photographic history. The aim of this digital resource is to open up the understanding and appreciation of this renowned publication for a new generation.</p>
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  • ArchiveItemsCollection(empty)
  • ArchiveItemsOrganisation(empty)
  • TagObject(empty)
• Loaded Helpers(array)
  • 0Cache
  • 1AppTable
  • 2Form
  • 3Asset
  • 4AdminPreview
  • 5CookieCompliance
  • 6Frontpage
  • 7FrontpageSitemap
  • 8Html
  • 9Js
  • 10Pager
  • 11Text
  • 12Time
  • 13Number
  • 14Avatar
  • 15Antispam
  • 16Menu
  • 17SimpleGraph
  • 18DebugTimer
  • 19Toolbar
  • 20AppJqueryEngine
  • 21HtmlToolbar

App Constants

CakePHP Constants

PHP Environment

Included Files

Include Paths

• 0/var/www/vhosts/fourcornersarchive.org/httpdocs/live/Plugin/App/Vendor/htmlpurifier
• 1/var/www/vhosts/fourcornersarchive.org/httpdocs/live/Vendor/pear/numbers_words
• 3/opt/plesk/php/7.4/share/pear
• 4-> /var/www/vhosts/fourcornersarchive.org/httpdocs/live/Vendor/cakephp/cakephp/lib/Cake/

Included Files

• core(array)
  • Behavior(array)
    • 0CORE/Model/Behavior/ContainableBehavior.php
  • Cache(array)
    • 0CORE/Cache/Cache.php
    • 1CORE/Cache/Engine/FileEngine.php
    • 2CORE/Cache/CacheEngine.php
  • Component(array)
    • 0CORE/Controller/Component/SessionComponent.php
    • 1CORE/Controller/Component/RequestHandlerComponent.php
    • 2CORE/Controller/Component/CookieComponent.php
  • Config(array)
    • 0CORE/Config/config.php
  • Configure(array)
    • 0CORE/Configure/ConfigReaderInterface.php
    • 1CORE/Configure/PhpReader.php
  • Controller(array)
    • 0CORE/Controller/Controller.php
    • 1CORE/Controller/ComponentCollection.php
    • 2CORE/Controller/Component.php
  • Datasource(array)
    • 0CORE/Model/Datasource/CakeSession.php
    • 1CORE/Model/Datasource/DboSource.php
    • 2CORE/Model/Datasource/DataSource.php
  • Error(array)
    • 0CORE/Error/exceptions.php
    • 1CORE/Error/ErrorHandler.php
  • I18n(array)
    • 0CORE/I18n/I18n.php
    • 1CORE/I18n/L10n.php
  • Log(array)
    • 0CORE/Log/CakeLog.php
    • 1CORE/Log/LogEngineCollection.php
    • 2CORE/Log/Engine/FileLog.php
    • 3CORE/Log/Engine/BaseLog.php
    • 4CORE/Log/CakeLogInterface.php
  • Model(array)
    • 0CORE/Model/Model.php
    • 1CORE/Model/BehaviorCollection.php
    • 2CORE/Model/ModelBehavior.php
    • 3CORE/Model/ConnectionManager.php
    • 4CORE/Model/ModelValidator.php
    • 5CORE/Model/Validator/CakeValidationSet.php
    • 6CORE/Model/Validator/CakeValidationRule.php
  • Network(array)
    • 0CORE/Network/CakeRequest.php
    • 1CORE/Network/CakeResponse.php
  • Other(array)
    • 0CORE/bootstrap.php
    • 1CORE/basics.php
    • 2CORE/Core/App.php
    • 3CORE/Core/Configure.php
    • 4CORE/Core/CakePlugin.php
    • 5CORE/Event/CakeEventListener.php
    • 6CORE/Event/CakeEvent.php
    • 7CORE/Event/CakeEventManager.php
    • 8CORE/Core/CakeObject.php
  • Routing(array)
    • 0CORE/Routing/Dispatcher.php
    • 1CORE/Routing/Filter/AssetDispatcher.php
    • 2CORE/Routing/DispatcherFilter.php
    • 3CORE/Routing/Filter/CacheDispatcher.php
    • 4CORE/Routing/Router.php
    • 5CORE/Routing/Route/CakeRoute.php
  • Utility(array)
    • 0CORE/Utility/Hash.php
    • 1CORE/Utility/Inflector.php
    • 2CORE/Utility/ObjectCollection.php
    • 3CORE/Utility/Debugger.php
    • 4CORE/Utility/CakeText.php
    • 5CORE/Utility/ClassRegistry.php
    • 6CORE/Utility/Set.php
  • View(array)
    • 0CORE/View/HelperCollection.php
• app(array)
  • Config(array)
    • 0APP/Config/core.php
    • 1APP/Config/bootstrap.php
    • 2APP/Config/config.php
    • 3APP/Config/routes.php
    • 4APP/Config/database.php
  • Controller(array)
    • 0APP/Controller/AppController.php
  • Datasource(array)
    • 0APP/Lib/Model/Datasource/Database/Mysql.php
  • Model(array)
    • 0APP/Model/ApplicationModel.php
  • Other(array)
    • 0APP/webroot/index.php
• plugins(array)
  • Admin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Admin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Admin/Config/routes.php
  • App(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0App/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1App/Config/routes.php
    • Configure(array)
      • 0App/Lib/Configure/YamlReader.php
    • Model(array)
      • 0App/Model/AppPreference.php
      • 1App/Model/AppModel.php
      • 2App/Model/AppPreferenceExpanded.php
      • 3App/Model/Tag.php
      • 4App/Model/TagObject.php
    • Behavior(array)
      • 0App/Model/Behavior/ExpandableBehavior.php
      • 1App/Model/Behavior/SluggableBehavior.php
      • 2App/Model/Behavior/IncrementalBehavior.php
      • 3App/Model/Behavior/AppSerializeBehavior.php
      • 4App/Model/Behavior/PurifyBehavior.php
      • 5App/Model/Behavior/TaggableBehavior.php
      • 6App/Model/Behavior/UniqueKeyBehavior.php
    • Component(array)
      • 0App/Controller/Component/AppComponent.php
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0App/Vendor/htmlpurifier/HTMLPurifier.auto.php
      • 1App/Vendor/htmlpurifier/HTMLPurifier/Bootstrap.php
      • 2App/Vendor/htmlpurifier/HTMLPurifier.autoload.php
  • Asset(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Asset/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Asset/Config/routes.php
    • Model(array)
      • 0Asset/Model/Asset.php
      • 1Asset/Model/AssetAppModel.php
      • 2Asset/Model/AssetCategory.php
    • Behavior(array)
      • 0Asset/Model/Behavior/UploadBehavior.php
  • AssetAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0AssetAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1AssetAdmin/Config/routes.php
  • Blog(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Blog/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Blog/Config/routes.php
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0Blog/Lib/Routing/Route/BlogPostRouteView.php
      • 1Blog/Lib/Routing/Route/BlogPostRouteIndex.php
  • BlogAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0BlogAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1BlogAdmin/Config/routes.php
  • DebugKit(array)
    • Component(array)
      • 0DebugKit/Controller/Component/ToolbarComponent.php
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0DebugKit/Lib/DebugMemory.php
      • 1DebugKit/Lib/Panel/HistoryPanel.php
      • 2DebugKit/Lib/DebugPanel.php
      • 3DebugKit/Lib/Panel/SessionPanel.php
      • 4DebugKit/Lib/Panel/RequestPanel.php
      • 5DebugKit/Lib/Panel/SqlLogPanel.php
      • 6DebugKit/Lib/Panel/TimerPanel.php
      • 7DebugKit/Lib/Panel/LogPanel.php
      • 8DebugKit/Lib/Log/Engine/DebugKitLog.php
      • 9DebugKit/Lib/Panel/VariablesPanel.php
      • 10DebugKit/Lib/Panel/EnvironmentPanel.php
      • 11DebugKit/Lib/Panel/IncludePanel.php
      • 12DebugKit/Lib/DebugTimer.php
  • Frontpage(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Frontpage/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Frontpage/Config/routes.php
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0Frontpage/Lib/Routing/Route/FrontpagePageRoute.php
    • Component(array)
      • 0Frontpage/Controller/Component/FrontpageComponent.php
      • 1Frontpage/Controller/Component/AntispamComponent.php
    • Model(array)
      • 0Frontpage/Model/FrontpagePage.php
      • 1Frontpage/Model/FrontpageAppModel.php
      • 2Frontpage/Model/FrontpageRewrite.php
  • FrontpageAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0FrontpageAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1FrontpageAdmin/Config/routes.php
  • Opauth(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Opauth/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Opauth/Config/routes.php
  • Project(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Project/Config/routes.php
    • Controller(array)
      • 0Project/Controller/ArchiveItemsController.php
      • 1Project/Controller/ProjectAppController.php
    • Model(array)
      • 0Project/Model/ArchiveItem.php
      • 1Project/Model/ProjectAppModel.php
      • 2Project/Model/Collection.php
      • 3Project/Model/Organisation.php
      • 4Project/Model/Theme.php
      • 5Project/Model/Medium.php
      • 6Project/Model/TimelineItem.php
      • 7Project/Model/ArchiveItemsTheme.php
    • Behavior(array)
      • 0Project/Model/Behavior/HabtmCounterCacheBehavior.php
  • ProjectAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0ProjectAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1ProjectAdmin/Config/routes.php
  • Search(array)
    • Component(array)
      • 0Search/Controller/Component/FilterComponent.php
  • Sentry(array)
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0Sentry/Lib/SentryErrorHandler.php
  • Story(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0Story/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1Story/Config/routes.php
    • Plugin(array)
      • 0Story/Lib/Routing/Route/StoryPostRouteView.php
      • 1Story/Lib/Routing/Route/StoryPostRouteIndex.php
  • StoryAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0StoryAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1StoryAdmin/Config/routes.php
  • User(array)
    • Behavior(array)
      • 0User/Model/Behavior/LoggingBehavior.php
  • UserAdmin(array)
    • Config(array)
      • 0UserAdmin/Config/bootstrap.php
      • 1UserAdmin/Config/routes.php