Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus
Retrieved from Wikipedia.

Sometimes, it is what lies on the periphery, on the fringe, that is truly worth taking the time to examine. Diane Arbus (neé Diane Nemerov) took that concept and built a photography career around it. Sometimes seen as exploitive, crude, or controversial, her photographs of giants, circus performers, dwarfs, and more could fetch for thousands of dollars, regardless. Her back-story isn’t terribly unusual, however: she was the daughter of an affluent New York Jewish couple, attended a prep school, and married her high school sweetheart. Her violent suicide (slashed wrists) at the relatively young age of 48 suggests a darkness which will forever color her body of work in the annals of modern photography.

With the core of her classic work having been created in the 1960s, Arbus’s choice to use these people as the subjects of her photographs is an important historical step in the evolution of the medium. In this course, we have seen photographs of aristocrats, dead children with their living parents, beautiful landscapes, and images of war. The aforementioned subjects each filled a valuable societal niche: the documentation of people’s lives, their vocations, their families, the land around us, etc. Throughout human history, we have sought out various ways to preserve our culture and important events (although we sometimes manipulate our images for effect, as we see fit). When presented with “unsavory” images (besides photos of dead bodies and the like), how do we react? Does a photo of a family of dwarfs in their living room make us laugh? Feel uncomfortable? If so, why should it? The value of Arbus’s work lies in her idiosyncratic mission to bring these people who reside on the fringe, these oddities, to the forefront via stark photographic images. One critic, Max Kozloff wrote in 1967 that Arbus's photographs have 'an extraordinary ethical conviction' because they were taken with the subjects' consent and thereby challenge the viewer.Some of her subjects gaze into the camera as if to silently say: “Here I am, warts and all – take it or leave it. I’m not going anywhere.”

Take for example this photograph of this family in a Pennsylvanian nudist camp. Objectively speaking, these are not classically attractive people – they are not likely to be most people's first choice for nude models. However, their poses evoke a quiet self-assuredness and a peaceful pride that trumps any judgment that the viewer may initially cast upon them. In a sense, they represent the commoner, the everyman – we are certainly not runway models, so our silent shunning of these doughy people is a mere reflection of our own insecurities and our own social-conditioning. These people have nothing to prove. They are confident in their skin and challenge you to rattle their sense of self-worth.

A family one evening in a nudist camp, Pa.,
1965. Retrieved from http://masters-of-photography.com

This portrait of a stubbly young man with his hair in curlers, cigarette in hand is another example of a confident eccentric who challenges the viewers preconceptions. Taken in 1966, this was not a time where unconventional sexual expression was championed, let alone accepted. Once again, this is not the most comely of subjects, and one gets an almost voyeuristic feel when looking at this photograph. His cigarette hand almost seems to beckon us into his underground world, where edgy, taboo explorations of sexual identity are the secret handshake of an elite New York social club. In 2013, this image is hardly shocking, but in the '60s, I am sure it confounded many people.

A young man with curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C.
1966. Retrieved from http://masters-of-photography.com

The final photograph of Arbus's to examine in this post is one of a Mexican dwarf. With a hat on his head, a sleek mustache on his lip, a bottle of whiskey on his nightstand, and with a tangle of sheets about him in what could be a post-coital capture, this particular image speaks volumes. The man seems to really ham it up for camera, and he exudes an enviable kind of charisma. What this photo successfully does is make the extraordinary into something ordinary. Dwarfs, marginalized members of society, like the rest of us enjoy stylish hats, vices, sex, and other indulgences – and why shouldn't they? This photograph forces the viewer to accept this societal oddity as one of our own.

Mexican dwarf in his hotel room in N.Y.C.
1970. Retrieved from http://masters-of-photography.com

As stated before, the value and power of Arbus's work is its ability to bravely confront viewers with subject matters that may reside outside of our comfort zones, while all the while documenting unusual people in an uncompromising, yet somehow elegant fashion. Her photographs teach us to think outside of the box, to set aside our preconceptions about the abnormal and strange, and to take these people on their own terms. While Arbus's career and life were short-lived, her legacy in the context of photography will not soon fade away.

Works Cited

Lubow, Arthur. "Arbus Reconsidered." New York Times, September 14, 2003. Retrieved February 7, 2010.

DeCarlo, Tessa. "A Fresh Look at Diane Arbus." Smithsonian magazine, May 2004. Retrieved February 4, 2010.

Kozloff, Max. "Photography." The Nation, volume 204, pages 571-573, May 1, 1967.

The Self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc

Courtesy of Malcolm Browne / AP / Wikipedia

The June 10, 1963 photograph of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation (or setting oneself on fire in protest) in response to South Vietnamese and Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem’s ongoing oppression of the nation's Buddhist majority is a jarring image indeed. Although the practice of self-immolation is centuries old, this particular image struck a chord. U.S. President John F. Kennedy was famously quoted as saying that, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." It is a stark and profound image that has the power to not only indelibly imprint itself onto the viewer’s brain, but also to inspire and provoke enough dialogue and thought to last a lifetime.

The event took place at an intersection, a stone's throw from the Presidential Palace, in Saigon. Present were hundreds of Buddhist monks and nuns, some reporters, a sedan, and a can of gasoline. After assuming the lotus position in the middle of the intersection and saying a prayer, a fellow monk doused Duc in gasoline, and with the strike of a match, history was made. "In the air was the smell of burning human flesh ... Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think ... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him." Such was a recollection of American journalist David Halberstam, an eyewitness.

I think that what resonates the most about this image with people is the stillness and composure that Quang Duc possesses, as previously recounted by Halberstam, as he is engulfed in flames. His conviction and integrity are evident just from the photograph, so I can hardly fathom how eyewitnesses might have felt at the scene. Historically, the photo represents an act of defiance that should shake viewers to their core. Photographed by American journalist Malcolm Browne, who would later win the Pulitzer Prize for his image (and rightfully so), it was only appropriate that this image shook the world. What we have here is a single photograph that single-handedly represents violence, compassion, peace, grace, sadness, and an array of other human qualities that transcend words.

Courtesy of http://www.quangduc.com/BoTatQuangDuc/09tieusu.html

In the wake of Quang Duc's death, it should be noted that despite self-immolation and even after a cremation of the remains afterwards, the man's heart refused to burn. At once chilling and beautiful, Buddhists hold this heart relic as an utmost symbol of compassion and regard Quang Duc as a bodhisattva, or in English, an "enlightenment-being." 

Quang Duc's last words before his self-immolation were documented in a letter he had left:

“Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organise in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”

It is with these words that Quang Duc's philosophy and intent are truly revealed. With the persecution of minority groups still rife throughout today's world, and with rampant miscommunication between people ever-pervasive, the basic tenets of human goodness can seem to be forgotten. American rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine appropriated and cropped Browne's image of Quang Duc for the cover of their 1992 debut album. An outspoken leftist political group, I imagine that Rage's use of Browne's photograph was a statement of solidarity with the oppressed and that they felt it helped to represent the fiery message of their music. While Quang Duc's act of self-immolation is shocking to many people, it is sometimes acts like these that cause us to re-examine our actions, our practices, our perceptions of the world around us, and to shake off the chains of complacency that can bind us. For even that much, this man's self-sacrifice pays off in dividends.

Courtesy of http://quangduc.com

References:

Zi Jun Toong, “Overthrown by the Press: The US Media’s Role in the Fall of Diem,” Australasian Journal of American Studies 27 (July 2008), 56-72.

Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire. New York: Random House, 1965. p 211.

Nhi Tuong (2005), Tieu Su Bo Tát Thích Quang Duc (in Vietnamese), Fawker: Quang Duc Monastery (published 1 May 2005), retrieved 20 August 2007

Digital Collections Assignment

Courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin offers a wealth of digital photo collections for perusal. The Harry Ransom Center includes the Helmut and Alison Gernsheim collection, which proudly features Joseph Nicephore Niépce’s first attempt at photography. Having learned about Niépce in this course, this certainly piqued my interest. In addition to owning the first ever photograph, the Ransom Center’s holdings boast millions of prints and negatives, as well as an array of books, journals, and more.

Let’s take a look at the Niépce collection record. For fields, it includes the collection name, the creator(s) (here, it’s “various photographers”), the number of items (26), the dates it spans (beginning at 1826), the description of contents, accession number(s), cutter number (not applicable), and location(s). At the bottom, it also refers to the Visual Materials Database for additional access and under “See Also,” it refers to the Larry J. Schaaf Niépce Collection. The meat of the record, appropriately, is in the description.

Courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas

The description field details the visual content of what is known as the world’s first photograph, as well as technical information. There is so much information in the description of the photograph that one could possibly draw up their own interpretation of it just by reading the description. For example: “It represents the view of the courtyard of Niepce's house at Gras, France, taken from the window of his workroom. On the left side of the image is the pigeon-house (an upper loft in the Niepce family house), to the right of it is a pear-tree with a patch of sky showing through an opening in the branches.” 

Next, the contents of the three boxes in the collection are described in great detail. For example Box 1’s contents are described as such: 

“964:0000:0002-0003 Two portraits of Niepce: one ink, pencil, and watercolor drawing by C. Laguiche (ca. 1795), and one gelatin silver print, from 1913, a copy of a drawing. 

964:0000:0004 One photoetching of Cardinal d'Amboise, printed from a heliograph plate, . The original heliograph plate as well as the other surviving print of Cardinal d'Amboise are owned by the Science Museum, London. 

964:0000:0005-0010 Six gelatin silver prints taken by Helmut Gernsheim on September 7, 1952, of Chalon-sur-Saone, St. Loup-de-Varennes, and the Niepce estate.” 

In my opinion, this collection-level record succeeds in that it avoids the vagueness (or outright blankness) that plagues some archival collection titles, descriptions, and other fields. Here, the user knows exactly what to expect when considering delving further into the Ransom Center’s digital collections. This all sounds well and good, but the clincher of all of this is that this database lets users find photographs not to view online in a digital format, but to find and request desired photographs, and then to go and view them in person in the Reading and Viewing Room in the center -- clearly not a luxury we can all enjoy.

Courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas

For my item-level record entry, I went to University of Miami Digital Collections. Here, I was able to peruse digital photographs at the item level. The Historical Photograph Collection, according to its site, showcases hundreds of thousands of photos, negatives, and slides. I opted to look through the 'UM Historical Photographs - Miscellaneous' collection. The preface states that the bare-bones image descriptions are very much a work-in-progress, and that all pertinent information was culled from either the reverse side of the photos or from folders they were stored in. The university hopes to remedy this and fill in any data holes in the years to come. As a visitor to the site, I must admit that I was a bit relieved that they were so forthcoming about their descriptive shortcomings. I tend to cut slack, so to speak, to people or organizations who are self-aware in regards to their limitations, but are striving for the best work they can hope to achieve.

I decided to look at a photo of famous artist Andy Warhol. Sadly, the university wasn't kidding when they admitted to the lack of information to go with their photographs. It seems that they are simply working with what they were given, which doesn't seem to be much. The title (simply "Andy Warhol") and photographer credit (Mike Tighe) both appear at the bottom of the photo (this fact appears in the 'Note' field. The genre field lists it as a photograph, and honestly, this field probably doesn't need to be here at all (I think we all know what we're looking for here). It is located in Coral Cables, Fla., and the physical description provides dimensions and states that it is a single black-and-white photograph, but doesn't indicate the developing process used. Other fields include the owning repository, the collection title and number, its series, the box it is contained within, copyright information, digital ID, and the date that the digital image was created.

In comparison to the Ransom Center collection description, this Miami University item record certainly pales. I fully understand that MU have limited means and information at their disposal, and that it is for our benefit that some of these wonderful images have been digitized at all, but I still found the entry lacking. I hope that they can flesh out their item records as more information becomes available, because they do seem to have quite a formidable set of collections in their hands. Overall, I was quite impressed by the Ransom Center's Niépce Collection's description, I just wish I was able to actual view the works online. In a perfect archival world, we would always have the digital access that MU provides users with the painstakingly documented information that the Ransom Center offers. I suppose it's a good thing to strive for!

Courtesy of University of Miami Libraries

References:

Harry Ransom Center
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/photography/

University of Miami Historical Photograph Collection
http://merrick.library.miami.edu/digitalprojects/photographs.php

Midterm: Letterpress Halftone Printing

Popular for nearly 100 years (c. 1875-1970), the letterpress halftone process is one of the earliest printing methods and has been used for the printing of everything from postcards, pamphlets, and magazines. This method is characterized by a distinctive halftone pattern of dots. Upon closer inspection of a letterpress photograph using a magnifying device, one can easily discern ink rims, or “squeeze-out,” in these dots. Essentially, these dots, which vary in terms of proximity and size, are what make up the printed solid images. At a distance, the image seems to have a continuous tonal range, but this is merely an illusion.

The origins of the letterpress halftone process can be traced back to the beginning of the 1850s, when prolific British inventor William Fox Talbot conceived the concept of combining intaglio (or surface incision) techniques with photographic screens or like materials to create a halftone image. The very first instance of newspaper halftone printing was achieved by Stephen Horgan while working for the New York Daily Graphic in the early 1870s, but it was not until years later that the newspaper proudly gave the world "A Scene in Shantytown" which was "the first reproduction of a photograph with a full tonal range in a newspaper" in 1880. The beginning of this decade would see the earliest known halftone plates for this process, which were made and patented by Frederick E. Ives. At about the same time, Max and Louis Levy were responsible for developing the first halftone screens for commercial use; the two brothers would later join forces with Ives, using higher quality screening processes to bring halftone printing to a new level of success.

Traditionally, how was it done? First, a glass, grid-lined screen was put inside of a camera. With this screen close (but not too close) to the high-contrast emulsified surface inside the camera, light would then penetrate the screen through each grid square, resulting in the image being reduced to a series of dots of various sizes. It's important to note that halftone printing does not fall under the "permanent" photograph process category; that is, classic halftone reproductions lack the relief image and stability that characterize processes that eschew photographic chemicals (like emulsions). Nowadays, with the advent of digital technology, we can replicate this process using computers, yielding full-color prints.

A magazine from 1953

That same magazine, under 50x magnification

References:

Gupta, Sia R. "Identification of Letterpress and Halftone Printing." The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 57.1 (1966): 112-14. Web.

Ferguson, Lorraine, and Douglass Scott. "A Time Line of American Typography." Design Quarterly 148 (1990): 23-54. Web.

Ritzenthaler, Mary L, Diane Vogt-O'Connor, and Mary L. Ritzenthaler. Photographs: Archival Care and Management. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006. Print.  

Encyclopedia Britannica: The Halftone Process
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457873/photoengraving/36801/The-halftone-process

Ted's Photographics: The Science of Photography -- Halftone Reproduction
http://www.ted.photographer.org.uk/photoscience_halftones.htm

Graphics Atlas
http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=45

Appraisal for Photographs

As someone who is new to the world of archival processes, these readings really opened my eyes in terms of what appraisal entails in the context of archives. I’ve been accustomed to think of appraisal in terms of the monetary value of objects, but dedicated archivists must weigh many factors when it comes to prospective acquisitions for their repositories.

For example, the Calvin Coolidge Museum at Northampton’s Forbes Library (where I work) has a very specific concentration for its collection, and it must adhere to a rigid collection policy if it is to meet its archival and budgetary requirements.  Having good relationships with donors, historians, and the community at large has opened up many doors for new acquisitions, and while photography is just one facet of the collection, the provenance, condition, and historical context of the photos are key determining factors. As tempting as it may be to accumulate as many photos as possible, repositories must be selective if they are to maintain legitimacy, structure, and focus. Also, the space available on-site must be considered – where are all of these things going to go?!

Photographs are more than just mere objects; they connect us with history via the processes in which they are created, as well as with the subjects that they represent. While the Calvin Coolidge Museum has niche popularity, those who wish to visit it are expecting to be educated about Coolidge and his life; therefore, only high-quality, information-rich, and historically relevant sources should be available to the public if it expects to be viable as an institution.

- R. Duffy

The Ramones - 1976

Creator	Roberta Bayley
Title	The Ramones
Work Type	Photographs
Date	1976
Location	Exhibited at Mary Boone Gallery, Spring 2006
Material	gelatin silver print
Measurements	16" x 20
Description	Photographer: Larry Qualls
ARTstor Collection	Contemporary Art (Larry Qualls Archive)
Source	Image and original data provided by Larry Qualls

This iconic image of The Ramones was later cropped and used as the front cover of the debut album. It's a great shot that captures the grit of '70s New York as well as the rag-tag assortment of eccentric personalities that comprised the band. There's an innocence and toughness present here that is idiosyncratic and very pure.