Andre Bazin’s The Ontology of a Photographic Image: Materiality and the Digital.
“I would say the question of a photographs materiality has now hit a new wave of questioning. The belief of a print being absolutely a representation of the image is only half full. Half full literally being it printed on one side. The other, blank side of the page exists in a purgatory.”
Bazin compares the photographic image, along with sculpture and painting to have similar practices of preservation to that of the ancient Egyptians and their practice of embalmment. Their aim was to beat death. Whereas instead of embalmment, Royals of the West such as Louis VIII had themselves painted to preserve there existence after their corporeal passing.
“Photography therefore in this conflicting relationship with the arts consequently represents our obsession with realism”.
The first attempts to depict the symbolic over the real was first explored by painters, then, they were hit with the conflicting invention of the Camera Obscura in the 1850’s. As a reaction artists’ symbolic interpretations became heightened. With a desperate attempt to separate the two mediums, it was believed Photography should be used objectively, to record, this style was called “The New Objectivity” illustrated here by Bernd and Hilla Becher’s ‘Tours d’extraction’, surroundings and was not suited, as the Fine Arts were to depict symbolically.
This competitively arose the style of Pictorialism in Photography. A style which didn’t necessarily exaggerate the camera abilities to create sharp real images, but were aesthetically blurry, painterly and depicted romanticism. Pictorialists such as Julia Margerat Cameron interpretted the spiritual through its medium but it also allowed them to make duplicates of them.
“only a photographic lens can give us the kind of object that is capable of satisfying the deep need man has to substitute for it something more than a mere approximation, a kind of recall or transfer. The photographic image is the object itself, the object freed from the conditions of time and space that govern it”. — Andre Bazins — The Ontology of the Photographic Image
Yes but what about the paper. As much as I appreciate Bazins observation in a time where the uses of painting and photography were blurred. I would say the question of a photographs materiality has now hit a new wave of questioning. The belief of a print being absolutely a representation of the image is only half full. Half full literally being it printed on one side. The other, blank side of the page exists in a purgatory. Even if it is printed on the other side flesh of the page, the insides are not being used by the image and therefore are wasted. We are taught this a lot in Graphic Arts, the medium should be the message. Granted, when Camerons exposures were being made, the choices a Photographer had were limited to a few options. Now, in the time of rexamination in Photography within its placement and interaction, what and where would Cameron plant her exposures on which can depict the 3D scene and enhance its romantic qualities. How can a print identify itself within in a space and be even more functional.
When speaking to my tutor about this, he described me as being “knitpicky”. But I really don’t think I am. The popular use of digital photography and online archiving is enough to notice the shift in Photography’s useage. A print, is a print. A print is a layered piece whereas at least pixels mutilate into what the image is and therefore there is more utilisation and clean use of materials. However, I appreciate if we were to only use digital it will sacrifice the promotion an image gained when promoted to paper.
The identity of a piece of paper, as an object designed to take on another meaning has yet to come into validity. The function of pixels has more concern with issues like waste than the practice of print. This is evident with its eclectic use in the modern day. However since pixels are regarded to have less actuality, or “body” than paper, the print will always be a photographers preference because it evolves the image with the partnership of paper.
“for photography does nor create eternity but embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption”
By “proper”, Bazin is referring to the decay of time.
Bazin states that photography surpasses art in creative power, describing the artists mind to be in a different place than the canvases, the camera and the object at least share the same world. Further, in the appreciation of process the camera produces work which stems from natural order, where as a painting acts as an object which is seeking to provide a substitute to that same object.
He views surrealist photography as being inherent opposite to the photographic medium, explaining that:
“every image is to be seen as an object and every object as an image…hence photography ranks high in the order of surrealist creativity because it produces an image that is a reality of nature, namely an hallucination that is also a fact. The fact that surrealist painting combines tricks of visual deception with meticulous attention to detail substantiates this”.
