Writings
In today’s modern society, the public is bombarded by massive amounts of images through various forms of media. The outer presentation or image of a person has become the focal point of everyday life. Human beings are reduced to their physical appearance at every level of life. This heavy weight placed upon the physicality of other perception of who each and every person is has caused a greater sense of self consciousness. Perfection has created its own icons through the digital abilities of alteration and the incensement of plastic surgery, physically changing the body to conform to these unnatural measurements of what beauty is. The evolution of the medium of photography has enabled this concentration of the perfect ‘public image’ to grow to a massive international phenomenon.
Photography’s first use in the field of advertisement in mass form started as a spun off from Dada. The political critiques expressed in the new art from of the photomontage lead way to the use of photographic images in propaganda campaigns throughout Europe. The political charged image of Under the Banner of Lenin- To the Second Five Year Plan, by Sergei Senkin is just one illustration of the technique of the photomontage as a new form of communication for the masses . Photomontage gained appeal in the productions exhibited by the Circle of New Advertising Designers or known as the ring founded by Kurt Schwitters in 1928 . The group of artists “energetically propagated advertising” in the formal constructivist tradition . “By the late 1920’s it [photomontage] was widely used in the mass media and had become a sign of the modern style in graphics” . The formal structure that compiled these montages enabled the viewer to clearly read the intended message which caused the method to be characterized as “rationalized production and communication technique” of the post WWI society . The successful communication of intended meaning initiated the commercial use of the photomontage. Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky both produced large amounts of new imagery from news paper clippings to formulate a new image for the masses. Jan Tschichold held great enthusiasm for the standardized form of montage and praised it for the ability of the masses to “analyze the formal aspects if modern design and new typography” . This extended to his commercial use of the photomontage exemplified by the image of Die Frau ohne Namen .
The art form of photomontage created the snowball that rolled photography in to the world of advertisement. By the end of the Great Depression, photography had made its way into the world of the domestic magazine. Initially aimed at the female spectator, advertisement used photography’s ability to take real objects and change the context and perception to as seen in Women and Carrots . The use of photographs in magazines and the news press increased the public’s interaction with the media of photography. Photographic images began to dictate to the world the current fashions and ideal of beauty. Fashion magazines came into circulation, delivering to each door what the ideal feminine female should emulate. Images of advertisement and fashion shots such as Untitled (beauty shot) from Vogue or Fashion Shot, Pairs . As our society grew to its capitalism maturity the dependence on images heighten. Images from the media tell each human how they should look, dress, and display themselves.
Each person has a self projected image/ personality that they wish the rest of society to see . The self designed public image of how that person wishes to be categorized. “A sign to the world to think of us in a certain way but there’s a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can’t help people knowing about you” . Some artists use the self created an alternative image of themselves to their advantage. The “self-portrait…is a subjective record of a bohemian life style” that avant-garde artists strive to maintain; to insure their credibility against the bourgeois society . The use of photography in this self produced brings to the public a since of truth as photography only captures the image directly in front of the lens not any alternative reality, though one can be constructed by the manipulation of perceived perception. This is amplified in the self portraits of Claude Cahun . The use of self alternation and estranged perceptive renders the image to present a bisexual print; the image displaying elements traditionally seen in both feminine and masculine but her it is the same person just a mirror of difference. Even her public artistic name is a mirage. Claude Cahun is only a pseudonym for Lucy Schwob . This conscious selection of what or who the public world sees can also be seen in the portrait taken of Marcel Duchamp as Rose Selavy, his alternative personality, by Man Ray . The manipulation of public image produces the sentiment of self recreation.
Through the self selection of physical signs that each human chooses a daily bases, control every aspect that another person will preserve can not be obtained. This causes the “casual snapshot to be both an extremely self-conscious representation and a moment of helplessness vulnerability” . This sense of inadequacy comes from the icons of perfection that are in full optical display at every corner of life. The media, magazines, television, and the internet are all source of this self bodily awareness through the overabundance of the photographic image of human idealism. In this sense, photography has feminized the rest of society within the relationship of self. With in the world of art and visual depictation, the female holds the role to be looked at by the male surveyor. She only sees herself in the perspective of how a male might see her. In this sense, today’s public now surveys him/herself as other might; turning the self from a being to an object . In the photographic portrait of Edward Hussey, by James Stone , The man has placed himself as the object of the spectator’s gaze. This shift to the male form as an object is most present in fashion magazines and women magazines. The female takes the active role in surveying the male form as obtainable sexual object. The female viewer is able to the sexually potent spectator, taking the role that traditional within the world of art that is reserved for the male dominated figure. The mannerism the male from is presented in the image of Luchino Visconti, Paris expressed an openness feminizes his form, placing him in the female role . The viewer’s eye extends to the male counterpart but is also heightened its focal on the female form. Traditional display of femininity and shyness can be seen in Lotte Jacobi’s portrait of Anna Seghers as well as the new modern society’s product of the bolder female form of that seen in the portrait of Lotte Lenya .
In traditional photography, manipulation of the actual image’s form of the human body is a long and difficult process that is limited in its possibilities. Entering the era of digital photography the possibilities of photographic alterations to a single image is endless. The combination of real figures and fantasy foreground is within grasp of today’s artists as seen possible in Mariko Mori’s Nirvana . “Mori skillfully mingles the sugary whimsicality and self-consciousness coyness with the stark reality of her own form . As digital photography has become greatly accessible to the public, the masses have become “aware of the ease with which photographs can be altered by computer digitization” . The age when photographic imagery could be taken a face value as depicting some form of truth is at an end.
“Photography…is the primary image-maker of our society” . The rate that the conscious mind is exposed to forms of photographic images is uncountable. The photomontage opened the door to photography for the world of advertisement and mass media. The media, magazines, television, and the internet are society’s source for information regarding how they should be through a self bodily awareness brought on by an overabundance of the photographic image of human idealism. This has caused photography’s feminization of society within the relationship of self. The manipulation of public image produces the sentiment of self recreation. Entering the era of digital photography the possibilities of photographic alterations to a single image is endless. Each person has a self projected image/ personality that they wish the rest of society to see . The self designed public image of how that person wishes to be categorized. The “last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed a rapid growth of what one can only call photographic self-consciousness” .
Appendix
Cahun, Claude. Self-Portrait, (reflected in mirror) 1928. As appeared in Claude Cahun Gallery. Jersey Heritage Trust Collection. www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/collections/fame/fame.html
Fashion Shot, Paris, 1936 as appeared on page 27 in Kazmaier, Martin. Horst: Sixty Years of Photography. Ed. Richard J. Tardiff & Lothar Schimer. Thomas & Hudson: London, 1991
Harrison, Martin. Untitled (beauty shot) as see in Harrison, Martin. Beauty Photography in Vogue. Stewart, Tabori & Chang: New York, 1987
Harrison, Martin. Luchino Visconti, Paris, 1936 as see in Harrison, Martin. Beauty Photography in Vogue. Stewart, Tabori & Chang: New York, 1987
Jacobi, Lotte. Anna Seghers, November 1930 as appeared on page 90 in Jacobi, Lotte. Berlin-New York: Portrats van Lotte Jacobi. Marbach am Neckar, 1982
Jacobi, Lotte. Lotte Lenya, 1930 in Berlin as appeared on page 86 in Jacobi, Lotte. Berlin- New York: Portrats van Lotte Jacobi. Marbach am Neckar, 1982
Man Ray. Marcel Duchamp as Rose Selavy, circa 1921 found at Jed, Perl. Man Ray: Portfolios. Blowup www.deighnautopsy.com/blowup/portfolios/n-r/Ray/index.asp?link_id=26
Mori, Markio. Nirvana, 1997. Video still from 3-D video courtesy Deitch Projects, NY and Pen Yu, Soul Killing as seen in Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
Senkin, Sergei. Under the Banner of Lenin- To the Second Five Year Plan, 1931 as appears on page 90 of Tupitsyn, Margarita. “From the Politics of Montage to the Montage of Politics”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
Stone, James. Edward Hussey, 1971 as appeared on page 125 in Stone, James. Thinking Faces. Chatto &Windus: London, 1988
Tschichold, Jan. Die Frau ohne Namen, 1927. As see on page 47 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919- 1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
Women and Carrots, advertisement for National Association of Ice Industries in McCall’s. vol. 68, no.10, July 1941, inside front cover
See appendix for full image of Senkin, Sergei. Under the Banner of Lenin- To the Second Five Year Plan, 1931 as appears on page 90 of Tupitsyn, Margarita. “From the Politics of Montage to the Montage of Politics”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
From page 36 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
From page 36 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
From page 40 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
From page 41 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
From page 46 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
See appendix for full image of Tschichold, Jan. Die Frau ohne Namen, 1927. As see on page 47 of Lavin, Maud. “Photomontage, Mass Culture, and Modernity”. Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942. Ed. Matthew Teitelbaum. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Boston, 1992
See appendix for full image of Women and Carrots, advertisement for National Association of Ice Industries in McCall’s. vol. 68, no.10, July 1941, inside front cover
See appendix for full image of Untitled (beauty shot) as see in Harrison, Martin. Beauty Photography in Vogue. Stewart, Tabori & Chang: New York, 1987
See appendix for full image of Fashion Shot, Paris, 1936 as appeared on page 27 in Kazmaier, Martin. Horst: Sixty Years of Photography. Ed. Richard J. Tardiff & Lothar Schimer. Thomas & Hudson: London, 1991
Taken from Van Gogh, Vincent. Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh. Ed. Irving Stone. Golden City, New York: 1950
From page 10 of Dijkstra, Rincke. Portraits. Hatje Cantz Publishers: Boston, 2001
From page 252 of Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
See appendix for full image of Cahun, Claude. Self-Portrait, (reflected in mirror) 1928. As appeared in Claude Cahun Gallery. Jersey Heritage Trust Collection. www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/collections/fame/fame.html
Claude Cahun. Jersey Heritage Trust Collection. www.jerseyheritagetrust.org/collections/fame/fame.html
See appendix for full image of Man Ray. Marcel Duchamp as Rose Selavy, circa 1921 found at Jed, Perl. Man Ray: Portfolios. Blowup www.deighnautopsy.com/blowup/portfolios/n-r/Ray/index.asp?link_id=26
From page 8 of Dijkstra, Rincke. Portraits. Hatje Cantz Publishers: Boston, 2001
Taken from chapter 3 of Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books & BBC: London, 1977
See appendix for full image of Edward Hussey, 1971 as appeared on page 125 in Stone, James. Thinking Faces. Chatto &Windus: London, 1988
See appendix for full image of Luchino Visconti, Paris, 1936 as see in Harrison, Martin. Beauty Photography in Vogue. Stewart, Tabori & Chang: New York, 1987
See appendix for full image of Anna Seghers, November 1930 as appeared on page 90 in Jacobi, Lotte. Berlin-New York: Portrats van Lotte Jacobi. Marbach am Neckar, 1982
See appendix for full image of Lotte Lenya, 1930 in Berlin as appeared on page 86 in Jacobi, Lotte. Berlin-New York: Portrats van Lotte Jacobi. Marbach am Neckar, 1982
see appendix for full image of Mori, Markio. Nirvana, 1997. Video still from 3-D video courtesy Deitch Projects, NY and Pen Yu, Soul Killing as seen in Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
From page 271 of Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
From page 254 of Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
From page 247 of Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001
Taken from Van Gogh, Vincent. Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh. Ed. Irving Stone. Golden City, New York: 1950
From page 247 of Lucie-Smith, Edward. Movements in Art Since 1945: New Edition. Thames & Hudson Inc: New York, 2001