Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall is a Canadian born, Vancouver based photographer who specializes in back lit tableaux photographs of the city of Vancouver itself. Wall studied at the University of British Colombia and graduated with a masters degree in photography in 1970. In the same year he relocated to London to study for a post graduate degree at the courtyard institute, studying with Manet expert T.J Clark. He then went on to become the Assistant professor at Nova Scotia college of Art and Design from 1974-1975 and he then became the associate professor at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia from 1976-1987 whilst also teaching at The University of British Columbia.

Wall is renowned for his tableaux reconstructions of scenarios he had witnessed himself that were representative of the political environment at the time. His photos are always back lit and in a cinematographic style, Depicting more of a story through this means. Due to his tableaux style, His shoots often consisted of many people such as cast, crew as well as digital post production workers. Almost all of his shoots are centered around suburban Vancouver, world renowned for the relationship between the suburban environment and the rural environment. Many of the suburban areas have mountainous backdrops and are bordered by forests as well as having a substantial amount of urban architecture, which Wall finds to be a great way of providing contrast within an image.

Image Analysis

The lighting in this image is warm and dull which is diffused throughout the bright-walled room. All the colours within the room are neutrals apart from what the people are wearing; this contrast is showing the difference in interest during this candid conversation. Also, reflected within the images is the photographers decision to stand in the middle to make an emphasis on the split of connection. The overall composition of the image is an uncomfortable feeling of divide and the conflict of interest reflected in the lines and colours that oppose to the human figures.

Art Movements & Isms

PICTORIALISM

Time period : 1880s-1920s

Key characteristics/ conventions

From the 1880s and onwards photographers strived for photography to be art by trying to make pictures that resembled paintings e.g. manipulating images in the darkroom, scratching and marking their prints to imitate the texture of canvas, using soft focus, blurred and fuzzy imagery based on allegorical and spiritual subject matter, including religious scenes.

Pictorialism reacted against mechanization and industrialisation. They abhorred the snapshot and were also dismayed at the increasing industrial exploitation of photography and practices that pandered to a commercial and professional establishment. The Pictorialists championed evocative photographs and individual expression and they constructed their images looking for harmony of matter, mind and spirit; the first was addressed through objective technique and process, the second in a considered application of the principles of composition and design, and the last by the development of a subjective and spiritual motive.

Artists associated

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Julia Margaret Cameron (one of the first socially accepted photographers during this period) – Peter Henry Emerson ‘naturalistic photography’ – book he wrote on the romanticism of photography with rural landscapes and figures within landscapes – The Vienna camera club (Austria) – The brotherhood of the linked ring (London) – Photo secession (New York)

Key works

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Julia Margaret Cameron was a photographer in the Victorian era. The bulk of Cameron’s photographs fit into two categories – closely framed portraits and illustrative allegories based on religious and literary works. In the allegorical works in particular, her artistic influence was clearly Pre-Raphaelite, with far-away looks and limp poses and soft lighting. Cameron’s photographs were unconventional in their intimacy and their particular visual habit of created blur through both long exposures, where the subject moved and by leaving the lens intentionally out of focus. – Peter Henry Emerson – In 1889 Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936) expounded his theory of Naturalistic Photography which the Pictorialist used to promote photography as an art rather than science. Their handcrafted prints were in visual opposition to the sharp b/w contrast of the commercial print.

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1920s

Key characteristics/ conventions

Went back to photography origins, with detail and purpose not recreating paintings. (closely associated with ‘straight photography’) photography grew up with claims of having a special relationship to reality, and its premise, that the camera’s ability to record objectively the actual world as it appears in front of the lens was unquestioned. This supposed veracity of the photographic image has been challenged by critics as the photographer’s subjectivity (how he or she sees the world and chooses to photograph it) and the implosion of digital technology challenges this notion opening up many new possibilities for both interpretation and manipulation. A belief in the trustworthiness of the photograph is also fostered by the news media who rely on photographs to show the truth of what took place.

Artists associated

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Paul Strand – Walker Evans

Key works

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Dorothea Lange – Lewis W Hine

Modernism:

Modernsim was a movement in art, literature and architecture that reacted to the intense changes in technology, society and culture at the time. It rejected the dominance of older movements such as Naturalism and was in favour of new experimental ways of producing art.

Paul Strand was an American photographer who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. His pictorial studies followed by coolly seductive machine photographs helped define early American modernism.

Post-Modernism:

Postmodernism was created through the dismantling of the modernism movement. Modernism was generally based on idealism and a Utopian version of human life and society and a belief in progress, whereas Postmodernism was born of skepticism and suspicion of reason. It challenged the notion that there are universal certainties or truths. Most art which can be included in this movement refers to things outside of the art world such as social and cultural issues, and looks at the importance of context behind a picture. A photographer which can be related to this movement is Cindy Sherman.

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer best known for her socially critical photography and feminist artwork. She uses makeup, costumes and stage scenery to create tableaus of situations to challenge modern concepts, mainly about the roles of women within society. A lot of her work can be considered postmodernism as the context behind her images are just as important as the work itself.