Re: First define "post-modern" photography, dammit
Once again Judy, you are up late . . it's 11 PM here in CA and you're slaving away in the NY dark. Post Modernism (PM), as I see it, was a way to say God is dead as was proscribed by Time magazine in 1966. Many photographers felt it had all been done so it came time to appropriate (to use the kind, and intelligent term) already-done material and put it in context for both subversion and comment. An educated art milieu knew what a metaphor was and how it worked a subject into meaning. Cindy Sherman began to side with, say Betty Friedan and made visual comments on how a woman was interpreted by the visual society of cinema. Richard Prince (and I agree with you) did something similar in turning inside out the advertisement. In one sense these artists were pissed at and so dissed our society. Look at the decadent, fearful, morass we are now in due to quasi religious fear-mongering conservative greedy men and you can easily dig Ms. Sherman and laugh along with Jeff Koons of R. Prince. Another for instance, not photographic, was the about 40' tall bronze casting by Paul McCarthy of Santa Claus holding a butt plug. Taking the PM stance one could think, and agree with, that Christmas has lost its meaning as it has been usurped by commerciality. To me, the unfortunate aspect of this is art which is banal and boring and is so for there is no proscription for improvement, just continued condemnation and in that one sense is not much different than our present government saying they are protecting us from terrorists but they have not seemed to have protected us from them: the real terrorists. In a way, Robert Frank is a PM person if you look at his later work . . . text, crudely constructed by more guts and emotion than technical singularity specific to the image. But PM is more about anger, perhaps suffused with punk rock's anger. Anarchy is the game. Theft is not for the poor anymore. Look at Sheri Levine. She sold a Walker Evens to a museum for more than an original Walker Evans cost . . . and you cannot tell the difference but for the author. Here is a snippet of a review of that Santa Claus piece . . . . . "And my favorite (and crowd pleaser) was undoubtedly Paul McCarthy’s rendition of Santa Claus holding a butt plug that may or may not resemble a Christmas Tree. Some have said that the work, an edition of 3, sold for a mere €800,000" On Sun, 11 Nov 2007, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:I can't pick my top five but I will give you some ideas. Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, Thomas Ruff, Jeff Wall, Candida Hofer, New Topographics, I love Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Christenberry, Stephen Shore. Also Nan Goldin, I love Gursky's work, Mike and Doug Starn, Loretta Lux, Simen Johan, Malerie Marder, a bunch of the women out of Yale, it goes on, but this is a start.I agree with Chris about many (tho NOT all) of these photographers... tho I cannot stop myself from saying that I lack words to say how dumb dumb dumb R. Prince... but that's not why I'm writing, which is to wonder why Robert Frank, William Eggleston, William (?) Christenberry and even Stephen Shore are considered Post-Modern.
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