John Coplans (1920 – 2003) was a British artist, art writer, curator, photographer and museum director. Coplans is a veteran of World War II and emigrated to the US in 1960. He has exibitions in Europe and North America – including the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern Art, NY. He is known for his series of black and white self-portraits which are a study of the naked and aging body. He photographed every part of his body but never his face as his photographs would not focus on a specific person or identity. Coplans’ photographs questioned the taboo of age through the forward style in which he addressed his body. Coplans stopped making paintings in the early 1960s and in 1979 took up photography; he says he decided to become a photographer because “I wanted to go back to being an artist. I had had enough of art history, critics, museology… I chose photography because I could not go back to painting… photography… is a medium to build an identity out of a composite personality, to find an artistic identity”.

“I have the feeling that I’m alive, I have a body. I’m seventy years old, and generally the bodies of seventy-year old men look somewhat like my body. It’s a neglected subject matter… So, I’m using my body and saying, even though it’s a seventy year old body, I can make it interesting. This keeps me alive and gives me vitality. It’s a kind of process of energizing myself to my belief that the classical tradition of art that we’ve inherited from the Greeks is a load of bullshit”

Coplans shows through this explanation that he believes just because he is older his body is not inferior to what a conventional body in its prime is – he believes that an aging body should be celebrated and documented for everyone to see. Coplans began to think about the body as being able to express a language through shapes and lines. The photographs produced by Coplans were always cropped tightly and dramatically enlarged. To capture the photographs Coplans would use a video camera and monitor to view parts of his body. Once he has selected an area, an assistant would take a photograph using positive/negative Polaroid film which would create an instant image as well as a negative used for later printing in large scale. The fragmentation of the male body and the manipulation to create ambiguous shapes recalls artistic classical sculptures such as the Belvedere Torso as well as sculptures by artists such as Franz Xaver Messerschmidt who would explore extreme expressions to create something away from the ordinary in the way that Coplans does.

Coplans/Tim Booth and ‘Variance and Similarities’

The work of Coplans is similar to the work of Tim Booth in ‘A Show of Hands’ in which he photographed portraits of subjects through their hands to show an insight into the subjects lives and professions through markings and objects related to the subjects’ lives, such as a chess piece for Lord Carrington’s portrait. Booth’s work explores the body in detail in the same way that Coplan does and brings emphasis to the small details and flaws within the human body and celebrates the details that make everyone individual. Both photographers also use a black and white filter in order to highlight the blemishes and veins rather than the viewer focusing on colours. These projects fit into the theme of ‘Variance and Similarities’ because they look at how each individual has unique marks, likes and shapes within their body that makes their body individual and unique to them – these may be features that the owner of the body believes is private to them or may be individual but obvious lines such as a person’s fingerprint. I believe that this is what Coplans is trying to show through his focus on his body; he wants to show that everyone has flaws and quirks in their body and they should embrace these individualities rather than feeling ashamed because of them. I plan on responding to both Booth and Coplans by conducting my own photoshoot focusing on the hands of the subjects – I will do this in a style more similar to Coplans than that of Booth’s as I believe that a more macro and close-up/abstract approach to the shoot could be the better option but I will be experimenting with both.

Analysis

In this photograph of Coplans hands and knees it appears that he has used a strong studio lighting to create dark shadows behind the wrists and in the space between the knees below the fingers, resulting in dramatic and contrasting atmosphere within the composition. This dramatic use of light to create shadowing creates a wide tonal range within the photograph ranging from the deep black tones underneath his kneecaps to the light grey of the background. A deep depth of field will have been used when setting up the photograph which can be seen as the whole of the photograph is in focus and both the hands and knees are clearly in focus allowing the viewer to pay attention to details as small as the hairs on his thighs. A quick shutter speed with an ISO as low as 100 will have been used in this photograph as to capture the highest quality photograph possible with correct exposure Coplans will have ensured that he kept the ISO as low as possible whilst having the shutter speed slow enough to allow plenty of light to enter the lens from the studio to create a composition that is correctly exposed. There is a slightly cold colour cast to the photograph which reflects the fact that Coplans doesn’t want to create compositions that are friendly and familiar – his work is about pushing boundaries and comfort zones.

For the same reason as using a cold colour cast to the photograph, Coplans has used a black and white colour palette as he wants to create a cold-feeling to his work. This black and white colour scheme also allows the viewer to focus on the small details within the hands and body, such as the veins and hairs, rather than focusing on the colours within the composition. Although this is a self-portrait, Coplans doesn’t show his face as he instead focuses on isolated body parts such as hands and feet, showing them enlarged and close-up, so that they seem at once familiar and unfamiliar – this leads to an interesting composition that sets his work apart from other artists that have explored the body, such as Tim Booth. The photograph was taken at the level of the knees, viewing them directly from the front. The skin at the joint of his knuckles appears stretched and the wrinkles can be clearly seen throughout the photograph, creating a textured, deep and dramatic composition. The image is tightly cropped, ending at the artist’s wrists at the upper edge and the bottom of his knees at the lower edge. A narrow margin of white background on either side of the legs frames the body. Due to the narrow margin of white background and the framing of the hands and knees there is a slight 3D effect to the photograph which, when paired with the textures and shadows within the photograph, brings the details out to the viewer.

Coplans believes that an aging body should be celebrated and documented for everyone to see. Through photographs such as the one shown, Coplans began to think about the body as being able to express a language through shapes and lines whilst creating an unfamiliar composition using familiar body parts in an abstract way. Coplans would set up the photograph and composition using a monitor and then use an assistant to take the photograph once it was to his liking. By using this style of photography Coplans wants to show that even a body of a seventy year-old man can be extremely interesting as the marks and folds show the events and life that the person has been through. Ultimately, Coplans is showing how individual and abstract the human body can be and that everyone has flaws/marks that they are either proud of or try to hide; but Coplans believes that the way forward is to put these individualistic features on show for the world to see.

Typology and the Bechers

The definition of ‘typology’ is “a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences”.  Essentially it is the study of types.  The roots of Photographic Typologies is in August Sander’s 1929 portraits ‘Face of Our Time’ in which he documented German society between the two world wars.  Sanders’ aim was to create a record of social types and classes as well as the relationships between them.  Sanders was so successful in achieving this that the photographic plates were destroyed and his book was banned soon after the Nazis came into power.  Typology can be used to create a visual analysis of objects and the larger environment by extracting visual elements and presenting them in a consistent series and so forcing the viewer to compare the subjects.  The Becher’s and their style appeal to me because when exploring ‘variance and similarity’ I hope to create photographs that successfully show the differences and similarities in structures as the Bechers’ have done in a similar style whilst using the typology grids to emphasise the contrasts.

The term ‘Typology’ first came into use when used to describe the style of photography that Bernd and Hilla Becher were practicing.  The Bechers documented dilapidated German industrial architecture in 1959 – they described the buildings which they photographed as “buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style”.  Each photograph in their collection of work was taken from the same angle and the same distance from the subject with the aim to capture a record of the changing landscape as these dilapidated buildings began to disappear.  The Bechers influenced generations of photographic typologists, such as Jeff Brouws and John Cyr.

Bernhard Becher (1931-2007) and Hilla Becher (1934-2015) were German conceptual artists and photographers who would work as a collaborative duo.  They are best known for their topographic images of industrial buildings in Germany, as discussed earlier.  The photographs were often organised into grids to show differences and similarities between the subjects photographed.  They are the founders of the ‘Becher school’ or the ‘Dusseldorf School’.  They have received multiple awards including the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.  The Bechers’ worked outside of Germany as well including photographs of buildings in Great Britain, France, Belgium and the United States in 1965.

Their work on typology began as they first collaborated on photographing the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959 – they were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed, which is evident in their work.  After collecting thousands of pictures of individual structures they noticed that the different structures shared many qualities and were intrigued by the fact that so many industrial buildings were build with a focus on the design.  The Bechers would work with a large 8 x 10-inch view camera and would always use a straightforward point of view.  They would only shoot on overcast days in order to avoid shadows as well as only in the early morning during spring and fall.  A variety of subjects were photographed throughout their work including water towers, cooling towers, coal bunkers and gas tanks.  Often the Bechers would exclude any details that would detract from the central theme.  By photographing these structures the Bechers’ drew attention to the need of preservation of the buildings and some of them were designated as protected landmarks as a result of their work.

The Bechers decided to exibit their single-image gelatin silver prints grouped by subject, in a grid of six, nine, or fifteen and had come to the conclusion to present the images of structures with similar functions side by side to entice viewers to compare forms and designs based on the functions of the subjects.

The work of the Bechers were strongly influenced by the Weimar movement of New Objectivity in the 1920’s which was a movement in German art arising in the 1920’s as a reaction against expressionism.  The term ‘New Objectivity’ came to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art involved in it. It was meant to imply a turn towards practical engagement with the world and ended in 1933 with the fall of the Weimar Republic and rise of the Nazis.  Some artists included in the movement in which the Bechers’ took inspiration are Karl Blossfeldt, August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzch.

In the Becher school they managed to influence a number of photographers including Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff; the work of their students also minimizes human presence and explore landscapes in a documentary style. Their school and work has had an impact on both Minimalism and Conceptualism art.  Their legacy can be seen through the work of Lewis Baltz who takes a similar approach with a more modern twist to it.  Their legacy can also be seen in the change in attitude to vernacular architecture – the Becher’s actively campaigned for protection of the structures that they photographed which led to the protection of industrial spaces.

Analysis

In this photograph natural daylight will have been used to capture it. You can tell because of the soft tones and natural contrast within the photograph. A low ISO of 100-200 will have been used for this photograph as the Bechers’ would be trying to ensure that noise within the composition was kept to a minimum.  A shutter speed of 1/60-1/150 will likely to have been used in this photograph – a shutter speed that is not too slow but not too fast to ensure that enough light could enter the camera lens from the overcast condition that the Bechers’ would shoot in.  A deep depth of field has been used at the whole of the photograph is in focus.  There is a warm colour cast to the photograph even though the photograph is in black and white – the warm colour cast reflects the comfort of the countryside in which the structures are based in.

There is no colour in the image as it is a black and white photograph. This shows that the viewer should be looking at the details of the subject instead of colours. There is a wide tonal range, ranging from the contrasting shadows of the structure to the over-exposed background. There is clear texture in the structures which makes the photograph more realistic to the viewer and gives it a slight 3D effect.  There is pattern and repetition in the beams of the structures which makes the photograph more aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.  The structures are placed in the centre of the photograph rather than using the rule of thirds as this photograph is part of a documentative-style approach in which the intentions were to show the form of the structures rather than to be aesthetically pleasing.

Bernd and Hilla Becher would document architectural structures all over Germany. They took photos of similar typologies and would make compositions of them all together. This is just one example of the work that they would do. They captured the pleasing aesthetics in the buildings deemed ugly and showed the country that there is more to it if they look closely. The Becher couple documented all sorts of structures and worked to open the countries eyes to what was right in front of them.  They described the buildings which they photographed as “buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style” and aimed to capture a record of the changing landscape as these dilapidated buildings began to disappear.  The photograph is part of a collection of photographs intended to compare the structural qualities of different structures and would have been presented alongside another five or eight similar photographs of similar structures to allow the viewer to compare.