Exercise 1.2 : Photography in the museum or in the gallery

Notes on ‘Photography’s Discursive Spaces: Landscape/View.’ by Rosalind Krauss

Krauss begins by comparing two images, the first a colloidian photograph by Timothy O’Sullivan taken in 1868. The second, a lithograph copy of the same image produced in 1878. The first image has been slightly overexposed which adds to it’s mystical aesthetic whereas the lithograph has been ‘shopped’ to produce a more geological representation which Krauss describes as:

“..the lithograph is an object of insistent visual banality. Everything that is mysterious in the photograph has been explained with supplemental, chatty detail.”

(Krauss, 2019)

Krauss describes how these two images belong to two different “separate domains of culture” and therefore “operate as representations within two discursive spaces”. The lithograph occupies a geological and scientific discursive space whereas the photograph occupies an atheistic discourse. Krauss goes on to explain:

“And if we ask, then, what is it a representation of, the answer must be that within this space, it is constituted as a representation of the plane of exhibition, the surface of the museum, the capacity of the gallery to constitute the objects it selects for inclusion as art.”

(Krauss, 2019)

What we know of O’Sullivan’s work, is that his images were topological in purpose and the camera a scientific instrument. Whether he knew at the time that his work would be presented as ‘art’ is unknown or whether there was a certain aspiration towards his images as ‘art form’ but there inclusion on the gallery wall seeks to legitimise them as art. Peter Galssi’s quote:

“The object here is to show that photography was not a bastard left on the doorstep of art, but a legitimate child of the Western pictorial tradition.”

(Galassi, 1981)

Galassi argues against the notion of photography being “a child of technical rather than aesthetic traditions”, but perhaps derived from the same spirit of inquiry as the arts. Both have it’s roots in understanding the world and our place in it so to speak.

Stereographs – like wearing 3D glasses to view images. Seem to be a passing phase/fashion/fad in the nineteenth century. May be responsible for the term ‘view’ rather than ‘landscape’ to categorise these types of images due to it’s sense of perspective.

Photography struggled to enter the world of art. As a consequence, ‘Photographers’ such as Roger Fenton, Gustave Le Gray and Henry LeSeqc had short ‘careers’ which also brings into question how we view their oeuvre (body of work).

Eugene Atget 1895-1927 produced a huge body of work. What do we know of his goal other than to depict “the spirit of his culture” his intentions organised toward a socio-aesthetic and visual anthropology.

1. Krauss, R. (2019). [online] Eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu. Available at: https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/lklichfall13t/files/2013/09/Krauss.pdf [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
2. Gizmology.net. (2019). Notes on Stereography. [online] Available at: http://www.gizmology.net/stereography.htm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
3. Dictionary.cambridge.org. (2019). OEUVRE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oeuvre [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].