Photo 1 Lecture 16

May 12
The Death of Photography?

1990	Four artists apply for grants and are denied when works deemed "indescent" by Congress	Andres Serrano. Piss Christ. 1987.
	NEA decides to cease funding for individual artists
1991	Perfect Moment exhibition at Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center
	Senator Jesse Helms rips a copy of Serrano's Piss Christ on Congressional floor
	Transcripts of Senate debate on Serrano's photo
	Sister Wendy on Serrano's Piss Christ
1996	Congress cuts funding of NEA by 30%
	Congress votes to phase out federal funding of the program in two years
	House plans to eliminate the Endowment
1998	Supreme Court determines that the statute mandating the Endowment to consider “general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public” in awarding grants is constitutional
	"NEA Four" compensated with money equal to grant money they would have received
2008	NEA has $144.7 million budget

Andres Serrano. Madonna and Child. 1989. http://www.answers.com/topic/madonna-and-child-ii-cibachrome-print-by-andres-serrano-1989-corcoran-gallery-of-art-washington-d-c-jpg	Andres Serrano explains:

	"I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious."

	"As a former Catholic, and as someone who even today is not opposed to being called a Christian, I felt I had every right to use the symbols of the Church and resented being told not to."

	"I think if the Vatican is smart, someday they'll collect my work."

Semen and Blood

Andres Serrano. Semen and Blood III. 1990.
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

Andres Serrano. The Morgue (AIDS related Death II). 1992.
Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen, Koln. 1999.

Andres Serrano. Hacked to Death . 1992.
Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen, Koln. 1999.

Andres Serrano. The Morgue (Fatal Meningitis II). 1992.
Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen, Koln. 1999.

Andres Serrano. Klansman (Imperial Wizard III). 1990.
http://www.artnexus.com/images/content/webimages/2006/u0006293big.jpg

Andres Serrano. Nomads (McKinley). 1990 - 2006.
http://www.collectionlambert.com/pages/librairie-obj-an.htm

Andres Serrano photographing Klansman
http://www.inthesetimes.com/images/28/17/kkk.jpg

Robert Mapplethorpe
1946 - 1989

Robert Mapplethorpe. Calla Lily. 1984.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/M/mapplethorpe/mapplethorpe_calla_full.html

Robert Mapplethorpe. Charles. 1985.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/M/mapplethorpe/mapplethorpe_charles_full.html

Self-Portrait as a Woman

Robert Mapplethorpe. Self-Portrait as a Woman. 1980.
20th Century Photography Museum Ludwig Cologne. Taschen, Koln, 2005.

Robert Mapplethorpe. Self-Portrait. 1986.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/M/mapplethorpe/mapplethorpe_self86_full.html

Robert Mapplethorpe. Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter. 1979.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/full/mapplethorpe/mapplethorpe_chains.jpg

Robert Mapplethorpe. Self-Portrait with Bullwhip. 1978.
Warr, Tracey. The Artist's Body. London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 2000.

Robert Mapplethorpe. Self-Portrait. 1985.
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Image-Library/Mapplethorpe/RM-selfportrait-1985.jpg

Joel-Peter Witkin
1939 -

Poet

Joel-Peter Witkin. Poet: From a collection of relics and ornaments. 1986.
Koetzle, Hans-Michael. Photo Icons: the Story Behind the Pictures. Volume 2. Koln: Taschen, 2002.

Joel Peter Witkin. Le Baisier (New Mexico). 1982.
http://silencio.weblog.com.pt/images/eyes/Joel-PeterWitkin-LeBaisier.GIF

Un Santo Oscuro

Joel-Peter Witkin. Un Santo Oscuro. 1987.

Cindy Sherman. Untitled #261. 1992.
Fuku, Noriko. "A woman of Parts." Art in America. June 1997. 74 -81, 125.


Hans Bellmer. The Doll. c. 1934.	Claude Cahun. Self-portrait. c. 1929. Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.

Cindy Sherman. Untitled #263. 1992.
Cruz, Amanda and Elizabeth A. T. Smith. Cindy Sherman: Retrospective. Chicago: Thames & Hudson, 1998.

Robert Mapplethorpe. American Flag. 1987. http://www.matthewlangley.com/blog/uploaded_images/artwork_images_909_179946_robert-mapplethorpe-759862.jpg	"Culture Wars" in the 1990s and their effects on the National Endowment for the Arts
	NEA mission - "to enrich our Nation and its diverse cultural heritage by supporting works of artistic excellence, advancing learning in the arts, and strengthening the arts in communities throughout the country."

Identity Politics

"the personal is political"

Identity politics formed as a strategy to counter social inequity

Considers the structures by which we define ourselves

Questions the idea of "normal"

Catherine Opie
1961 -

Catherine Opie. Self-Portrait. 1993.
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/upload/2006/06/SelfportraitCutting1998.jpg

Catherine Opie. Self-Portrait/ Pervert. 1994.
http://www.regenprojects.com/files/db15e039.jpg

Catherine Opie. Self-Portrait Nursing. 2004.
http://www.regenprojects.com/files/bec09099.jpg

Assorted definitions of "pervert" =

to lead astray morally

to turn away from the right course

to turn to an improper use; misapply

to bring to a less excellent state; vitiate; debase

Pathology. to change to what is unnatural or abnormal

Sally Mann
1951 -

Sally Mann. Jessie and the Deer. 1985.
Mann, Sally. Immediate Family. New York: Aperture, 1992.

Sally Mann. Last Light . 1989.
Mann, Sally. Immediate Family. New York: Aperture, 1992.

The work is "about everybody's memories, as well as their fears." - Sally Mann

Sally Mann. The Terrible Picture. 1989.
Mann, Sally. Immediate Family. New York: Aperture, 1992.

Sally Mann. Flour Paste . 1989.
Mann, Sally. Immediate Family. New York: Aperture, 1992.

"This is the stuff of which Greek dramas are made: impatience, terror, self-discovery, self-doubt, pain, vulnerability, role-playing and a sense of immortality." - Aperture Magazine

Sally Mann. Candy Cigarette. 1989.
Mann, Sally. Immediate Family. New York: Aperture, 1992.

Len Prince. Jessie Mann. 2004.
http://www.edelmangallery.com/prince11.htm

More Len Prince

Historic Context
1990	Germany reunited
	Kodak unveils first comercially available digital camera
	Adobe Photoshop software marketed
1991	USSR dissolved
1994	Advent of World Wide Web
1999	Camera phone invented
2001	Attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon
	U.S. bombs Afghanistan
2003	U.S. and Britain launch war on Iraq
2004	Tsunami in South Asia
	Kodak announces it will no longer produce black and white paper or slide projectors
2005	Hurricane Katrina and massive flooding in New Orleans
2008	Global economic crisis likened to the financial down turn that caused the Great Depression
	Barack Obama elected the first African American President
	Tribune Co. (LA Times and Chicago Tribune) files bankruptcy

What is the difference between film and digital modes?	Thomas Struth. Louvre IV. 1989. Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen. 1999.
In the analogue era, we could assume that the manipulated image was the exception to the rule
In the digital era, we must assume the opposite because the digital image is infinitely malliable

“People are much more willing to believe that pictures lie than that they can express any kind of truth.” – Laurie Simmons

National Geographic February 1982
http://cgi.ebay.com/National-Geographic-February-1982-MINT_W0QQitemZ280112826291QQihZ018QQcategory
Z280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

A Sudden Gust of Wind

Jeff Wall. A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai). 1993.
Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen. 1999.


Hokusai. A Sudden Gust of Wind. 1831. Sayre, Henry M. A World of Art. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.	Jeff Wall. A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai). 1993. Riemschneider, Burkhard, and Uta Grosenick. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Taschen. 1999.

Time Magazine. O.J. Simpson. 1994.

Unknown. John Kerry and Jane Fonda. 2004.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp

Anonymous. Tourist Guy. 2001.
http://z.about.com/d/urbanlegends/1/0/m/2/missing.jpg

As we move into the digital age we are confronted with a pressing question - Is photography dead?

Have we entered into a new phase of image history?

Is the meaning of the photographic image now being mediated by the invention of digital systems in the way that painting was modified by the invention of photography?

Are the concerns of the digital age different from those of the analogue age?

“It may be premature to say that we are living now in a ‘post-photographic’ age, despite the digitization of photography, for the illusions that the image can render have not yet been rendered irrelevant by the advancing picture-making technology of the computer. Nevertheless, it is a growing part of our contemporary consciousness that photography’s function within our culture is at a crisis moment whose outcome is not yet certain.” – Miles Orvell

Andreas Gursky. 99 Cent. 1999.
Museum of Modern Art. Postcard. New York: MOMA, 2003.

Richard Prince's Cowboy sold at Christie's Art auction for $1,248,000 on November 8th, 2005, setting world auction record for photography	Andreas Gursky. 99 Cent Diptychon. 2001.

This record was broken during a 2006 auction of two works from Georgia O'Keefe's collection
An image by Stieglitz of Georgia nude sold for $1,360,000
Another image by Stieglitz taken of Georgia's hands sold for $1,472,000

Andreas Gursky's 99 Cent Diptychon sold in 2007 for $3,346,456

Alfred Stieglitz. Georgia's Hands. 1918.

Ken Gonzales Day. Erased Lynching. 2005.
http://kengonzalesday.com/projects/erasedlynching/01.htm

Yasumasa Morimura. Self-Portrait (Actress)/White Marilyn. 1996.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2005.

Yasumasa Morimura. To My Little Sister: for Cindy Sherman. 1998.
http://membres.lycos.fr/morimura/art_history/ym_cindy01b.jpg

Every image is staged. No image is trustworthy.
Nadar. Sarah Bernhardt. 1865. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb /7/7f/Nadar_2.jpg/482px-Nadar_2.jpg	Yasumasa Morimura. Self-portrait After Marilyn Monroe. 1996. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0a/%27Self_Portrait%2C_After_Marilyn_Monroe%27%2C_--Gelatin-silver_process-gelatin_silver_print--_by_--Yasumasa_Morimura--%2C_1996%2C_--The_Contemporary_Museum%2C_Honolulu--.jpg

Alfredo Jaar . Gold in the Morning. 1985.

Alexander Gardner. Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter, Gettysburg. 1863.	Alfred Stieglitz. The Steerage. 1907.	Edward Weston. Pepper #30. 1930.
Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. 1936.	Joe Rosenthal. Raising Old Glory at Iwo Jima. February 23, 1945. Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.	Eddie Adams. Saigon. 1968.

Joel Meyerowitz. World Trade Center, Archive Project. 2001.
Orvell, Miles. American Photography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Flag Raising at Ground Zero. 2001.

Canal Street

John Mccusker. Canal Street, New Orleans. 2005.
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History. Second edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006.

And to end with a little joy...

Nicole Cawlfield. Anti-Atkins Thin-Up Girl Lacy. 2005.

Blue Period

William Wegman. Blue Period. 1981.
Fichner-Rathus, Lois. Understanding Art. Seventh edition. Austalia: Thompson Wadsworth, 2004.

Catherine Opie. Oliver in a Tutu. 2004.
http://mailer.e-flux.com/mail_images/1137801987aldrich.jpg