Week 10: Enter The Academy
In the final week of my CRJ I am going to look at Photography as Art, and in what context it can be displayed.
The first question I challenge myself with is ‘Is photography art’? to which I would irrevocably respond ‘yes’. In fact I would go so far to say that if you consider yourself an artist, pick up a camera and take a photo - that photo is art. So maybe it is the conductor of the orchestra, and not the players or instruments that delivers ‘art’ in its most qualified sense.
Perhaps for a more definitive analogy we should look at the meaning of art in the OED (Oxford English Dictionery). It defines art as;
“The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form”.
Now, if that isn’t photography then I don’t know what is.
How we present art is also a contentious issue. The most common and accepted location for viewing art is of course in a gallery or museum. French writer Andre Malraux’s theory of the ‘museum without walls’ first published in 1947 looked at modernist applications like Photography, moving out of the confines of institutionalised art houses. It is the museum he argues that transforms of piece of work into art, and we can see a more modern example of this with the ‘Death by Gun’ installation by Gonzales Torres, where the art in question is a takeaway leaflet depicting victims of gun crime. This represents photography (in this case) leaving the walls of a gallery and becoming a more fluid and personal object, made freely available.
In Emma Barkers book ‘Contemporary Cultures of Display’ she analyses how we perceive and view art, and whether art itself is defined by its location and medium. Technology has evolved to the point where a virtual space can exist alongside a physical space, and perhaps this is where we find photography more often at home in the digital era in the 21st century.
I think if my work were to find a home in a physical setting, then the V&A in London would be an ideal location and in particular their Theatre & Performance galleries. Here we find many examples of work from the creative arts, and those of recent years which have interested me are the collections and displays of David Bowie and Pink Floyd. As my practice normally sits within the music business obviously the kudos of having work displayed here would be a professional high. Sadly I doubt that will ever happen, but a lot of photographers whom I greatly respect such as the late Terry O’Neill have had wonderful images on display there. It would be nice to think that one day I might have something hanging amongst such luminaries.
I started this 3 month journey with a completely different plan of where I intended to finish up. I was sure my project would be centred around the creative arts such as performance, specifically within theatres. I interviewed a couple of prominent contemporary photographers working in those fields and had various permissions in place. So here at the end of my module I find myself in a very different place, albeit a very good one. Working on the subject matter of abandonment, decay and loss from the context of a restoration project has been a new and interesting angle for me. It will not form part of my next module as I look to once again try new themes (having covered social distancing and communication in my first Positions & Practices module). I have thoroughly enjoyed the weekly lectures and forums, and of course working alongside my peers.