Introduction

John Szarkowski opened an exhibition in The Museum of Modern Art in New York about photographs being either a Mirror or a Window.

(write a couple of sentences more where you explain Szarkowski’s theory of images being either mirrors or windows. Use a quote from his own text that explains the difference and comment on it, ie agree or disagree.)

The calotype process that Henry Fox Talbot invented in 1839 could be viewed as window, as it it an image that represent the view of the camera. It is a process where the image is captured on paper as negative, from which a positive image can be mass produced and made cheaply. The daguerreotype, on the other hand is a unique positive image that can not be reproduced. An image is captured on a silver nitrate solution on a metal plate that is then placed in a wooden box in a red velvet casing. because of its reflective surface a daguerreotype could be viewed as a mirror, not only will the reflection of the viewer be seen in the image, but often a daguerreotype were used for portraits as it had superior quality of detail. Unlike the calotype, the daguerreotype is very fragile and delicate. it is also an expensive process compared with a calotype. The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originally of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is. Is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world.

Mirrors

The mirror allows us as the audience to peer into the world and thoughts and feelings of the artist.

This is a mirror image because it reflects the persons life and gives an insight into what their life is like. This image is staged and planned to look like these three men are at war but it has been set up in a studio. John Szarkowski said. ‘mirrors are romantic expressions of the photographers sensibility as it projects itself on the things and sights of this world’. (Szarkowski 1978: pg no?) – ( and reference it using Harvard system)

This image reflects the quote by John Szarkowski because it projects the sights of the world in the image and shows what the men’s life life looks like as soldiers in combat at war. Jed Perl said. ‘this radically photographic style hinted at visual and cultural truths that were far removed from the stereotypes which gave form to the Victorian portrait. (Pearl 1978: pg no?) – In this quote Perl agrees with what Szarkowski said because his images of mirrors showed the hidden truths of peoples life’s and reflected them as a person.

This is one of Jed Perl’s images (are you sure Jed Pearl made this image? He wrote a review of Szarkowski’s exhibition) and it reflects the person’s life but it is staged in the way that each person is composed, posing and looking at the camera.

Windows

‘A window is through which one might better know the world.’ (Szarkowski 1978: ). A window shows more depth into a person’s life, so that people get a better insight into what the persons life is about. Window photography creates a barrier between the photographer and the subject. It almost blocks out the photographer from the subjects personal life. The photographer can literally be reflected in the window, which may bring the photographer into the images produced. The window allows an objective view which could show how the photographer is looking into a new or different world.

This image by Henri Cartier-Bresson is a group of “children playing amongst rubble” in Seville Spain 1936 (check date as I’m certain this image was made during the Spanish civil war). This image literally shows a window that’s been created from a destruction sight when a building was knocked down. It gives an insight into the children’s lives playing among the rubble. ‘the casual, snapshot photography of which Szarkowski is an advocate arrives in general at a similar effect of predictability —a reflection of current taste rather than an original vision —through a different route’. (Pearl 1978: page no?) This suggests that Pearl thinks that the image selected by Szarkowski for the exhibition are not original and they are just reflecting on current taste and aesthetics. Pearl has another opposing view on Szarkowski’s he said, ‘Szarkowski pays elaborate homage to the “stripped, essential camera vision” of Garry Winogrand which is suggesting he only does the bare minimum with his photography and that his work is very bland and uninteresting.’ (Pearl 1978: page no?) Szarkowski says though, ‘that a window is through which one might better know the world’ (Szarkowski 1978: page no?). Which is saying that the images that he creates do not have to be amazing and the most exciting images that anyone has seen but they have to give insight into the world and make you discover things in the images that you might not of realized before. This is what window photography does it gives a different view on the world to help you discover the world and get a better understanding of what peoples lives are like and what other places are like that you might not of known much about previously.

Conclusion

In conclusion photographs can be both windows and mirrors because in John Szarkowski’s theory he said, ‘whatever a photographers intuition or intention, they must be cut and shaped to fit the possibilities of his art’ (Szarkowski 1978: page no?), which suggests that images can fit any possibilities. Jed Pearl criticised Szarkowski’s exhibition and said, ‘yet few of the photographs are closely, richly detailed enough, or surprising enough, to be separated from the medium’s past and characterized as new’.(Pearl 1978: page no?) This suggests that Jed Pearl thought John Szarkowski’s curation of images selected for the exhibition were not exciting enough and lacked originality.

John Szarkowski

John Szarkowski’s own photography is very true to life and his work has elements of realism but some of his photography is staged. For example in the image above there is a man standing by a big wooden board pointing to it, which suggests that he has told the man how he wants him to pose for the image. However some of Szarkowski’s images are of the environment and landscapes, which is romanticised. Pearl also reviewd the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in an article called Romanticisms Unruly Hero, that was published 2019. (Read this text and select a quote from Pearl that you can agree/ disagree with and end the conclusion)