Modernist Inspiration

Ilse Bing

Alexander Rodchenko

Modernist Assignment: by Caroline Green

               My series entitled "City Seats" is composed of ten black and white photographs of various chairs and benches around the city of Stirling.

               This project has been influenced and inspired by two modernist photographers in particular: Ilse Bing (1899-1998) and Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956).  Both of these artists photographed everyday objects and situations, but made them interesting and compelling using different composition techniques.  Like Rodchenko, I used dynamic diagonals and exaggerated depth of field.  However, in my photographs, the light is softer and more similar to Bing's work.  I wanted to portray a balance between the hardness of the city streets and the softness of the light.

               I chose to photograph chairs and benches in the city because they are mundane, everyday objects that most people overlook.  I wanted to bring more attention to the simple beauty of the seats that hundreds, maybe even thousands of people occupy.  While the occupants of these seats change and continue on with their separate lives, the chairs are constant.

               As a viewer, one might see this project as merely a series of random chairs that have no connection.  I would implore this viewer to look again.  These seemingly random chairs actually connect us to other people.  Countless others have sat in the same seat, and have visited the same place and had a similar experience.  It only takes one common experience for two people to connect, however different their lives may be.

               "City Seats" looks at the simple beauty of the places that we sit and rest using the modernist style.  On a deeper level, it represents the connection we have to other people who have sat in the seat before us.  In the end, I hope this series makes the viewer take a second look at the mundane, everyday objects that make up our lives.

Pictoralism Assignment: by Caroline Green

            Pictoralism is, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, “an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.”  It originated in the second half of the 19^th century from the photographers’ desire to move away from the hard science and realism of early photography.  They wanted photography to be seen as its own art form and the photographer as a craftsman and artist (Hostetler, 2004).  Pictoralism emulates painting in that it focuses not on the reality of the subject, but the emotion behind it.

            There are many great pictoralist photographers, two of which are Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882 – 1966) and Josef Sudek (1896 – 1976).  Coburn makes use of soft focus and interesting shadows and reflections in his photographs in order to portray a certain tone or emotion.  Much of Sudek’s work uses light, and shows sunbeams, which is the inspiration for several of my photographs, as you will see below.  Both of these artists did not merely photograph the world around them, but captured the story and emotion behind everyday situations.  This is what distances pictoralism from snapshot photography.  It makes the viewer feel something when looking at the photograph and imagine the story behind it.

            My photographs are similar to pictoralist photographers in that they focus more on the light and tone of the picture rather than the reality of the subject.  My subject was the Old Logie Kirk in Stirling and the pathway just north of the university that leads up to the kirk.  These are historical sites and have a timeless quality about them that is similar to what pictoralist photographers often portrayed in their work. 

             As you can see in the first half of my photographs (Fig. 1-5), I make use of light and sunbeams, which is the main focus of the pictures.  The effect seen in Fig. 1,2,4,5 was achieved by covering the lens with a mesh fabric, which caught the light as it was coming into the lens.  These “light lines” lead up to and frame the main structures of the photo.  In my third picture (Fig. 3), it looks as though light is coming over the wall and through fog.  In reality, there was no fog.  This was achieved with a fold of the mesh fabric in the filter.  These are all similar to Sudek’s photographs (Fig. 6-8), in that the main focus of the picture is the light.  One big difference between my pictures and Sudek’s work is that mine are less realistic and have a softer focus.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

          

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

  My sixth picture (Fig. 9) is similar in many ways to Coburn’s House on the Hill (Fig. 10).  It has a similar subject, composition, and light.  The main similarity is that the house is silhouetted and there is an interesting texture to the bottom of the photograph.  Although Coburn’s photograph is much better than mine, it evokes a comparable tone and feeling as my picture.

Figure 9

Figure 10

            In the next photograph (Fig. 11), there are also similarities to some of Coburn’s work.  The main focus of this picture is the skyline and the clouds behind it.  This is the same as Coburn’s photograph of St. Paul’s Cathedral and Waterloo Bridge (Fig. 12).  In my photograph, however, the structure (Old Logie Kirk) is more silhouetted and has a softer focus.  A lot of Coburn’s work was focused on clouds and included smoke and fog.  This was a subject that photographers before the pictoralist era were not able to capture because the technology of the camera was not advanced enough.  With the advancement of the camera, however, photographers were able to capture clouds, smoke, fog, and reflections, which enhance the moodiness of the photographs.

Figure 11

Figure 12

            The effect in my last two pictures (Fig. 13, 14) was achieved by using shampoo as a filter.  This created a soft focus and distortion that makes for an interesting tone and quality. 

Figure 13

Figure 14

            The pictoralism movement sought to bring photography forward and use it to make an artistic statement, which would make it a legitimate art form (Encyclopedia Britannica).  All of my photographs represent pictoralist ideas in that they are not hyper-realistic, and they use light and shadow in a way that creates more of an emotional tone than a snapshot would.  I used light and sunbeams in a similar way to Sudek, and clouds and silhouetting in a similar way to Coburn.  Although they are not professional photographs, my pictures represent and portray my feelings as I was taking them.  They are more expressive than a snapshot would be.  That is what pictoralism is. 

Pictoralism. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia Britannica online. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Pictorialism

Hostetler, Lisa. "Pictorialism in America". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pict/hd_pict.htm (October 2004)

My pictoralist filter set was made from several materials including mesh fabric, shampoo, and colored plastic.

Camera Obscura Assignment: by Caroline Green

 Pearce Lodge at University of Glasgow

 The Wellington Church at University of Glasgow

 North Front of the Quadrangle at University of Glasgow

 The Quadrangle at University of Glasgow

 The Quadrangle at University of Glasgow

note: left side of image appears distorted due to movement of the trees

 The Cloisters at University of Glasgow

 South Front of the Quadrangle at University of Glasgow

Lion and Unicorn Staircase at University of Glasgow

“This it is that guides the human discourse to the considering of divine things.  Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point.  O what a point is so marvelous!” –Leonardo DaVinci (b. 1452 – 1519)

            DaVinci’s comments on the camera obscura personify just how amazing and technologically advanced it was at his time.  Even now, when photography is so digital and automatic, the fact that an image can be produced with only a lens, some cardboard, and a plastic bag seems almost magical.  The science behind the magic, however, is fairly straightforward.

            The camera obscura was used to further both art and scientific discovery.  This, as well as the fact that the construction requires both scientific and artistic principles, proves that it truly is a fusion of the two fields.  Both artists, such as Canaletto and Rembrandt, as well as scientists, such as DaVinci and William Hunter, employed the camera obscura.  In constructing the camera obscura, the builder must have a basic idea of the optic principles behind producing an image.  They also must use artistic principles in order to capture the world around them in an interesting and aesthetically pleasing way.

            Many renaissance painters used the camera obscura as an aide to their work.  For example, Johannes Vermeer (b. 1632 – 1675) is thought to have used a camera to trace parts of his paintings.  Some of the aspects of his paintings that have come to be known as his distinctive style could be a result of optical effects.  These include the accentuated perspective and the heightened sense of light and color, especially the halation of highlights (Groen, 2007).  An example of Vermeer’s possible use of a camera obscura is the softness of contours especially seen in Girl with a pearl earring, which could be the result of an incorrectly focused lens (Groen, 2007).  Other painters who are thought to have used the camera obscura include Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (b. 1571 – 1610), Cannaletto (b. 1697 – 1768), Rembrandt van Rijn (b. 1606 – 1669), as well an many other lesser known artists.

            Painters during this time were fascinated by the camera obscura because of its ability to produce such sharp images with rich colors.  In addition, it could be used to trace the subject in order to achieve a heightened sense of realism in the painting.  The camera obscura was especially used to record the built environment with a higher level of accuracy as well as to copy or rerecord historical works of art. 

            In using my own camera obscura to observe the built environment, I have developed a greater appreciation for painters who used the device, as well as those who didn’t.  Before the camera obscura was invented and widely used, the only other ways of drawing or painting were by using the Cartesian grid, which was a lengthy process, or by eye.  Comparing the accuracy of those pieces done by eye to those done with the aid of a camera obscura, they would seem to be much less skilled.  However, when you consider how hard it is to achieve that amount of accuracy by eye, it is really quite impressive.  Similarly, the artists who did use the camera obscura must have invested huge amounts of time and effort to achieve the amount of hyperrealism that they did.  I certainly would not have that much patience and attention to detail, even if I was tracing an image.

            The camera obscura began as a purely scientific device that evolved into an artistic aid and eventually, an artistic object itself.  It was the forerunner of the camera as we know it now.  The camera obscura had a huge impact on painting and the visual arts, as well as many social implications, both good and bad.  But, as DaVinci said, it prompts us as human being to consider and discuss ‘divine things’, which can only lead to the improvement of the human experience.

Karin Groen. (2007). Painting Technique in the Seventeenth Century in Holland and the Possible Use of the Camera Obscura by Vermeer. Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projected Image. Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.)