U3 Personal Study
Rationale:
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Alfred Stieglitz:
Early Modernist Photography:
Alfred Stieglitz http://nga.gov.au/CameraWork/index.cfm
August Sander
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Eadweard Muybridge
http://smarthistory.org/early-modern-photography.html
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/early-modern-photography.html
http://www.photography-news.com/2011/05/remembering-early-20th-century.html
Alfred Stieglitz http://nga.gov.au/CameraWork/index.cfm
August Sander
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Eadweard Muybridge
http://smarthistory.org/early-modern-photography.html
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/early-modern-photography.html
http://www.photography-news.com/2011/05/remembering-early-20th-century.html
Floris Neususs is a German artist who devoted his entire career to exploring the potential of camera-less photography through the photogram. Neusüss brought renewed ambition to the photogram process, in both scale and visual treatment, with the Körperfotogramms (or whole-body photograms) that he first exhibited in the 1960s. Since that time, he has consistently explored the photogram’s numerous technical, conceptual and visual possibilities. His works often deal in opposites: black and white, shadow and light, movement and stillness, presence and absence, and in the translation of three dimensions into two. By removing objects from their physical context, Neusüss encourages the viewer to contemplate the essence of form. He creates a feeling of surreal detachment, a sense of disengagement from time and the physical world. Collectively, his images explore themes of mythology, history, nature and the subconscious.
"In the photogram the viewer distinguishes the fragmentarily fixed object as a quotation of reality. But this perception is kept from sticking to the portrayal, because the picture includes as a decisive message a certain action, a dealing with reality, not letting it appear as given, but as potentially variable, and encouraging the viewer to contemplate the very essence of form."
"A photogram produces a feeling of mental unease by subverting familiar visual patterns like perspective and turning the visual space on its head. Photography works as a comfort, as Man Ray said, because it reproduces what is known. The photogram denies the observer this immediate familiarity and perhaps for that reason, it’s difficult for it to find popular success. The photogram also fails to pander to one of the major contemporary concerns, the representation of the superficial details of a subject, what Moholy-Nagy ironically called ‘surface embellishment.' "
"In the photogram the viewer distinguishes the fragmentarily fixed object as a quotation of reality. But this perception is kept from sticking to the portrayal, because the picture includes as a decisive message a certain action, a dealing with reality, not letting it appear as given, but as potentially variable, and encouraging the viewer to contemplate the very essence of form."
"A photogram produces a feeling of mental unease by subverting familiar visual patterns like perspective and turning the visual space on its head. Photography works as a comfort, as Man Ray said, because it reproduces what is known. The photogram denies the observer this immediate familiarity and perhaps for that reason, it’s difficult for it to find popular success. The photogram also fails to pander to one of the major contemporary concerns, the representation of the superficial details of a subject, what Moholy-Nagy ironically called ‘surface embellishment.' "
Christian Schad, a German painter, was associated with Dada and the New Objectivity movement. In 1918, Schad began experimenting with camera-less photographic images inspired by Cubism. He created prints by placing objects directly on the photographic paper and then exposing the paper to sunlight. He created these photograms from random arrangements of discarded unimportant objects he had collected, such as torn tickets, receipts and rags.