In the American West

Exercise 19 - read 'In the American West' by Richard Bolton and write a 200-word reflective commentary on its relevance to documentary practice.

Then look at the work of Charlotte Oestervang in 'Appalachia' (Foto8, Vol6:No1, June 2006).

Richard Avedon (1903 - 2004) - fashion photographer, people photographer, documentary photographer.

Bolton's paper reviews the creation and the impact of Avedon's project and subsequent book "In the American West" with regards to influencing the views and beliefs of the general public. He then takes this concept a step further and examines the knock-on effect and the more worrying move of the corporations, both commercial and governmental, to utilise imagery to sell services, products, politics, etc, etc.

Fundamentals discussed by Bolton are:

1. Avedon was a fashion photographer, rather than a documentary photographer, and approached the documentary project with fashion-eyes. 
The final images were very stylised, stark and sometimes shocking in their presentation of form and very controlled in terms of the information maintained for onward communication. Effectively. Avedon systematically striped away every piece of extraneous information to decontextualise the image, thus leaving the viewer only the 'surface' of the individual to use in forming opinions.
Bolton believes Avedon deliberately selected the more unusual looking characters to photograph, thus enabling him to emphasize ugliness, awkwardness and the general bad taste of the American West. This photography captured and magnified the exact opposite elements of his fashion photography; Avedon had become an anti-fashion photographer.

2. Avedon's fame not only enabled him to gain assess to people and businesses that would otherwise be indifferent to the project, but also enabled the tightest control in terms of how the project was communicated AND in how the public were forced to received it... 
The project was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum and whilst PR was under their control the messaging and advertising was tightly controlled and any negative rumblings very quickly quashed. The level of  editorial control exercised by Avedon was unprecedented for the time. It is generally accepted that you can't please all of the people all of the time, especially when it comes to art; however, in this case the feedback for the exhibition were unanimously glowing, that is, until the limit of Avedon's (and ACM's) reach was exhausted.

So, in summary: A photographic project, by a famous photographer, purported to be documentary, but where the images (by the photographers own admission) are his artistic representation of reality, receives universal documentary acclaim in the mass media!

Bolton is, quite rightly, troubled by: (1) this the degree of control over the media and (2) the medias ability to influence the views of the wider audience. Its hardly surprising that the project sponsors and other business-savvy individuals latch-on to this incredible power to manipulate.At the end of the day, people find it difficult to remember words - but a powerful image, skillfully created remains locked in the mind.

3. Fundamentally Bolton believed the project (Avedon) exploited the people he photographed.
A number of individuals (sitters) were interviewed about their involvement in the project and (allegedly) all of them found it a positive experience and appreciated being included; some even stated that it had given their life new meaning. Whilst this is all good propaganda, it doesn't make the situation less exploitative. This is especially the case if:

• People don't understand that they are being exploited - they may not be socially aware or sufficiently experienced or even emotionally mature enough ti understand
• They don't care - everybody deserves their 15 minutes of fame; thus the individual is even more easily manipulated because of a misguided personal agenda.

Putting all of these elements together, the project should not be considered to be documentary because of the significant degree of subjectivity intentionally injected into the images. 

When Avedon was challenged about exploitation, his response was as follows: "To say it in the toughest way possible and the most unpleasant way, what right do Cezanne's apples have to tell Cezanne how to paint them?" If we set aside the obvious ego and arrogance of Avedon at this point (put it down to a marvellously successful exhibition!) one must seriously examine the real reason for this project. Avedon, having been seriously ill, had a brush with mortality and (allegedly) wanted to give something back to society; to do something meaningful for the community; hence working with "the common people" rather than the rich, influential and famous.

Avedon tried to justify his approach to this project by explaining that the only way to influence big corporations was to bring them a realistic reminder of humanity (his stark, sterile, stylised photographs). Thus they would understand that there were problems in the world and could then re-focus their advertising to actually address those problems directly. "As an advertiser, one should try to make the statement - I respect your life and I think my product can make a difference and help you."

Bolton finishes by saying: "it would not be oversimplifying these remarks to say that Avedon is advocating using workers alienation to sell them product that come from the very system that caused this alienation." Bolton believes this project was just an experiment to trial an alternative advertising approach.

In summary:

Personally, when I look at Avedon's American West images I find them interesting (possibly, morbidly interesting), but I am at a genuine loss as to how they helped the people or the development of the American West. On the other hand I can absolutely see how they furthered Avedon's career and business. It would be nice to think that Avedon donated (some/all) the proceeds of the book or his exhibitions to development charities in the American West.

By comparison, I find Oestervang's work in 'Appalachia' equally as interesting, but much more striking because they maintain their context - the rural surroundings and the obvious under-development (poverty, by my standards). Nonetheless, the children look cared for in terms of clothes and cleanliness, but are a little over-fed. (Without wishing to offend) the disconcerting element of these images is the apparent inbreeding. Despite this, Oestervang's images do not have that harsh, over-processed feel about them and as such I find them more believable.

As Bolton stated in his paper, it little matters whether Avedon's subjects are common people or actors, he treats them like actors regardless. It would be interesting to know which set of images better represented 'realistic humanity' to the 'big corporations'.