Reinventing History: Warren Neidich, Photography, Re‐enactment, and Contemporary Event Culture

Abstract

The role of the historian and the notion of what constitutes historical evidence have become more unstable in recent decades, particularly with digital imaging technology. In Warren Neidich’s project (and 1989 book) American History Reinvented, the photographer anticipated the myriad current art practices that engage with re‐enactment, where artists restage past events to investigate current political and social condition. Rather than simply perpetuating a complacent nostalgia for the past, a re‐enactment as an art project may have the potential to prompt a critical reevaluation of historical narratives. A consideration of additional, more recent, photography suggests how Neidich’s American History Reinvented can be understood as a precursor to the work of contemporary practitioners negotiating the territory of re‐enactment, particularly the UK artists Jeremy Deller (b. 1966), who won the Turner Prize in 2004; Tom McCarthy (b. 1969) and Rod Dickinson (b. 1965) in their collaborative projects; and photographer Jim Naughten.

Keywords:

• Re‐enactment
• Historical Events
• Authenticity
• Contemporary Photography
• Archives

Notes

1 Warren Neidich, American History Reinvented: Photographs (New York: Aperture, 1989).

2 Warren Neidich, Blow‐Up: Photography, Cinema, and the Brain (New York: D. A. P., 2003).

3 Pavel Büchler, “The Blind Train Spotter: A Delirium of Doubt,” in Where is the Photograph, ed. David Green (Maidstone: Photoworks, 2003), 88.

4 Lew Thomas, “Picture Intimidation and the Return of the Vanquished,” in Warren Neidich, American History Reinvented, 7.

5 Vilém Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography (London: Reaktion Books, 2000), 73.

6 Beaumont Newhall, The History of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1949).

7 As in Alain Jaubert, Le Commissariat aux archives (Paris: Barrault, 1986). See also David King, The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1997).

8 Allan Sekula, Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works, 1973–1983 (Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984).

9 Daniel Boorstin, Image: A Guide to Pseudo‐Events in America (New York: Athenaeum, 1978).

10 See Richard Schechner, Between Theater and Anthropology (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), as well as his Performance Theory (London: Routledge, 2003).

11 Rebecca Schneider and Gabrielle Cody, eds., Re:Direction: A Theoretical and Practical Guide (London: Routledge, 2001).

12 Peggy Phelan, “Hinckley and Ronald Reagan: Reenactment and the Ethics of the Real,” in Life, Once More: Forms of Reenactment in Contemporary Art, ed. Sven Lütticken (New York: D. A. P., 2005).

13 Baz Kershaw, The Radical in Performance: Between Brecht and Baudrillard (London: Routledge 1999).

14 Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks, Theatre/archaeology (London; Routledge, 2001).

15 “The Battle of Orgreave recreated,” Historical Film Services, http://www.historicalfilmservices.com/hfs%20gallery%202.htm (accessed 24 January 2010).

16 Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent: A Simple Story (Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1907), 38.

17 Greenwich Degree Zero, Beaconsfield, http://www.beaconsfield.ltd.uk/projects/greenwichdegreezero/greenwich-degree-zero.html (accessed 24 January 2010).

18 Bill Kouwenhoven, “The Secret Life of Jim Naughten,” HotShoe (October–November 2009): 46.