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Abstract
“Photography vs. Visibility” presents methods of producing documentary photography with aspects of visibility and invisibility in images of cities. In referring to texts by Bertolt Brecht, Walter Benjamin, John Szarkowski, Walker Evans, and Abigail Solomon‐Godeau, I elucidate my artistic documentary approach, exemplified by presenting two art projects photographed in Bangkok, Thailand, and Manila, Philippines. This article links theoretical reflection to the images and to the experience of the actual cities, suggesting that the most important aspects of cities are invisible. Despite the term “documentary,” which indicates a claim for objectivity, the subjective role of the photographer as stranger is essential for the artwork presented.
Notes
1 John Szarkowski, The Photographer’s Eye (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966), 6.
2 Szarkowski, Photographer’s Eye, 9.
3 Bertolt Brecht was a renowned German author, playwright, and poet. In the source for the quote, Der Dreigroschenprozeß [The Threepenny Lawsuit], Brecht reflects on a copyright lawsuit he was involved in concerning the film adaptation of his drama Die Dreigroschenoper [The Threepenny Opera], linking the difficulties that led to the lawsuit to the relationship between film and art, to the role of the artist, the role of art, and more; see Bertolt Brecht, “Der Dreigroschenprozeß. Ein soziologisches Experiment,” in Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, ed. Werner Hecht, Band 21, Schriften 1 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), 448–514.
4 Quoted after Walter Benjamin, One Way Street and Other Writings (London: New Left Books, 1979), 255, cited in Esther Leslie, “Interrupted Dialogues of Realism and Modernism,” in Adventures in Realism, ed. Matthew Beaumont (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), 129. Benjamin (1892–1940) was a German literary critic, essayist, translator, philosopher, and author of The Work in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) and Little History of Photography (1931).
5 Bernd Stiegler has analyzed the sources of the quote and its use in photography theory in his essay “Die eigentliche Realität ist in die Funktionale gerutscht. Kapitalismuskritik und Fototheorie. Zur Karriere eines bestimmten Zitats,” Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie 27, no. 10 (2007): 36–43.
6 Solomon‐Godeau links back documentary approaches from the 1970s and 1980s by artists such as Allan Sekula, Martha Rosler, and Sally Stein to Brecht’s and Benjamin’s idea that truly political photographic practice cannot rely on mere reflection but has to be planned out and constructed as in John Heartfield’s photo montages. These documentary approaches use, for example, text in addition to photography and also work with montage within pictures. See Abigail Solomon‐Godeau, “Who Is Speaking Thus? Some Questions about Documentary Photography,” in Photography at the Dock: Essay on Photographic History, Institutions, and Practices (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), 169–83.
7 Evans did not feel comfortable with the term “documentary” in relation to his work. He explicitly characterizes himself as an artist and his work as art. He says: “Documentary? That’s a very sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear. …The term should be documentary style. An example of a literal document would be a police photograph of a murder scene. You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless. Therefore art is never a document, although it can adopt that style.” Leslie Katz, “Interview with Walker Evans,” Art in America 59, no. 2 (1971): 87.
8 Richard Reichel and Karin Topper, “Prostitution: der verkannte Wirtschaftsfaktor” [Prostitution: The Underestimated Economic Factor], Aufklärung und Kritik. Zeitschrift für freies Denken und humanistische Philosophie 10 (2003).
9 Photography was invented in the nineteenth century, when European powers were expanding their dominion overseas. In his report about the daguerreotype before the French Chamber of Deputies in 1839, Dominique François Arago already mentions the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt as a possible field of application for photography—the Egyptian Campaign being an (unsuccessful) attempt of French expansion in the Mediterranean. See Dominique François Arago: “Bericht über den Daguerreotyp (1839),” in Theorie der Fotografie I. 1839–1912 (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1980), 51–55; for photography as appropriation, see Solomon‐Godeau, “Who Is Speaking Thus?” (see note 6); for the balance of power between those photographing and those being photographed, see Martha Rosler, “In, Around, and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography),” in The Photography Reader, ed. Liz Wells (New York: Routledge), 261–74.
10 New Topographics: Photographs of a Man‐Altered Landscape, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, January 1975, curated by William Jenkins. Participating artists included Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, Henry Wessel, Jr., Bernd and Hilla Becher.
11 Szarkowski, Photographer’s Eye, 8–11.
12 Brecht’s quote is mostly known as quoted by Benjamin, seen in the context of Benjamin’s text, Little History of Photography. See Walter Benjamin, “Kleine Geschichte der Photographie,” in Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. Drei Studien zur Kunstsoziologie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963). In his text, Benjamin mainly attacks German photographer Albert Renger‐Patzsch (1897–1966) and his book Die Welt ist schön [The World is Beautiful], which is associated with the art movement New Objectivity [Neue Sachlichkeit]. Benjamin accuses the photography of the New Objectivity of not being able to comprise human conherences, lacking context, and being stuck in aestheticism. As examples of photography that works well in a social context, Benjamin mentions Germaine Krull, August Sander, and Karl Bloßfeldt. Concerning photographic construction, Benjamin points out Surrealism and Russian film as positive examples. In Brecht’s original text, photography itself plays only a minor role. It is not clearly distinguished from film or art. Brecht writes about the necessity of actuality in art and about the insufficiency of the old, outdated art. He favors a new art that has social relevance. See Bertolt Brecht, “Der Dreigroschenprozeß. Ein soziologisches Experiment.”
13 The demonstrations against Estrada are called E.D.S.A. Revolution of 2001 or E.D.S.A. II. Four months later, supporters of Estrada gathered on E.D.S.A.; this failed attempt to reinstate Estrada as president is called E.D.S.A. III.
14 In this respect, I find it very interesting that the E.D.S.A. Revolution and E.D.S.A. II are perceived as movements of the middle and upper classes in contrast to E.D.S.A. III as an uprising of lower classes who were mainly supporting President Estrada. Thus even the power of the masses, expressed in the street as a very accessible place, is separated by social status in the Philippines.
15 “Panorama” may be a misleading term in this context since I am not aiming at an all‐encompassing overview. Altogether, the panoramic sequences in the book do not provide a complete view of E.D.S.A. The technique of the panorama and elevated vantage points suggest a comprehensive representation, but the subjective determination of the beginning and the end of each sequence, which does not align with the wholeness of a motif and the selection of sequences that are shown, undermine this notion.
16 Benjamin, Kunstwerk, 62.
17 Bertolt Brecht, “Durch Fotografie keine Einsicht,” in Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe (see note 3), 443; translation quoted from Richard Dienst, “History Lesson on the S‐Bahn: Brecht’s Cartography of Capital,” in Confronting Mass Democracy and Industrial Technology: Political and Social Theory from Nietzsche to Habermas, ed. John P. McCormick (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002), 98.