Last week we discussed the work of Willie Doherty, and his photography based on the regeneration of Belfast.
In this lecture we will discuss photographic work by Martha Rosler, an American photographer we have come across before in a number of lectures held last year. These were the work's frequent traveller and xxx? Ex-mole.
Martha Rosler contrasts with Willie Doherty's view of post-conflict in Belfast. Willie Doherty has a particular take upon how post-conflict report Irish should be made. His work is the opposite of the classic news reportage which essentially is just an imagistic soundbite.
The relationship of photography in contemporary art is the, put to show in the adequacy of photographs. Martha Rosler explores this through the use of specific texts, which are juxtaposed with the photograph. The result is that each photograph is accompanied by a set of words, those words did not form a sentence, but are merely descriptive but not of the image itself but in some way relate to what could be found in the environment that the images have been taken in. What this results in, as an exercise for the viewer to choose which item to look at first, is it the photograph? Or is it the text? And if it is either one or the other separate meanings can emerge.
This particular exhibition and 26 images and accompanying texts. The title of the work and the exhibition as a whole, was only placed at the very end of the series of works, which required the viewer to look at all the pictures and all the texts before seeing what the title of the work actually was.
"The Bowery" is an area of down and out New York and is considered as the archetypal skid Row. To normal American sentiments the thoughts of these areas or people to react in ways that are veering between outrage and despair.
In essence the photographs are about mood. In the book "decoys and disruptions" in 2004, by Martha Rosler, her intent was to make a book that was a refusal to do documentary style photography. Her intention was to do the opposite of earlier photographers such as Jacob Rees and an example of his work would be "children in Mulberry Street New York City", taken from the book by Jacob Rees entitled "how the other half lives" 1890.
Jacob Rees was actually a forensic investigation police photographer, so what his work is showing to the general public is "what is dangerous, but also what was real".
Martha Rosler was more influenced by another famous American photographer, that being Walker Evans whose work can be found in the book "let us now praise famous men" (library of Congress).
Also in the United States another photographer, Adam Clark Vroman, an Ethno-photographer, took pictures such as "Hopi towns, grinding corn in Teiwa" 1895. Bristol at of photography object to find's differences between cultures.
If we now fast forward to 1964 and consider the other Belfast photographer Don McCullin and the photo "grieving woman and her family" 1964, this is a classic example where, whilst the photograph evokes huge emotion, at the time which was considered extremely skilled, it now attracts the label which is somewhat derogatory to documentary photography, of voyeurism and unethical or immoral reportage.
Again leaping forward in time to 1975 Michael be set in his photograph "the Bowery" has become the cover of Martha Rosler's book.
Martha Rosler once to create a "real view" and not the staged or exploitative photographs of for instance, Diane Arber's, 1967, and her rather freakish yet exploitative photographs of unusual and strange people of that era. Rosler hates the work of our bus because of this glorification of the unfortunate people and this has been written about extensively by Steve Edwards.
Coming back to the exhibition piece in question, after Rosler's text is interesting because she is actually describing a state of mind, of being drunk, being inebriated like the cramps would be in that area. The words describe the people, but the photographs describe the place. It is shut down and run down and in reality could be in any cities backstreets, there are signs of alcoholism, but also these later start to combine with the words to very subtle references of the backdrops of the photographs.
An interview of Martha Rosler can be found on vimeo at http:/vimeo.com/111924379
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