Sunday 11 May 2014

Jeff Wall in Pluk magazine

Exercise 34 - briefly comment on the documentary value of Jeff Wall's work.


TATE on the different photographic styles of Jeff Wall:
'Jeff Wall glossary'

Documentary - straight photographs of everyday things that the artist has observed. They often depict inanimate objects or overlooked spaces.
Jeff Wall Diagonal Composition 1993



Diagonal Composition 1993 by Jeff Wall
Documentary photograph, Purchased from Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (General Funds) 2003
© The artist

Near Documentary - these pictures may be reconstructions of events that Wall has witnessed or they may be documentary photographs that involved a small degree of intervention by the artist. The resulting pictures occupy a middle ground between fiction and documentary.
Jeff Wall Man in Street 1995



Man in Street 1995 by Jeff Wall
Cinematographic photograph, Rijksmuseum Kröller Müller, Otterlo
© The artist
Also see TATE: Artists talk - Jeff Wall

Extract from an interview with Melissa Denes from The Guardian (Oct 15 2005):
'Picture perfect'
To start with, in the 80s, Wall thought his pictures should be about something. His 1982 picture Mimic, for instance, which looks like amazingly lucky street photography but was performed by actors in front of lights and a large-format camera, was "about" racism. To a modern audience, it might look as if the bearded man is on the phone, but in fact he is stretching the skin under his eyes and sneering or saying something to an Asian stranger, while his girlfriend squints in unconscious mimicry out of the frame. Today, though, Wall wants his pictures to be purely aesthetic experiences. "Twenty-five years ago I thought subject matter had some significance in itself," he says. "Mimic was about racism in some way, about hostile gestures between races, but I'm glad the picture itself is good and it doesn't need that to be successful. Now I try to eliminate any additional subject matter - those things are for other people, they're not my problem."
Since about 1990, Wall has been concerned with exploring the history of photography alongside that of painting (Michael Newman characterises this as a shift in Wall‟s „presiding genius‟ from Manet to Atget), making more works that have a documentary (or near-documentary) status, alongside large black-and-white prints some of which play with the limits of perceptibility in sepulchral tones (in a programmatic manner, these dark prints serve as a contrast to the lightbox works in which all is illumined in full detail). The use of black and white has also allowed a reflection on the conventions of the documentary tradition in photography. Nevertheless, the effects should not be over-stated, and Wall‟s recent work, including the monochrome pictures, is still discussed very largely in terms of painting, as is typical with museum photography, in which the history of photography is regularly downplayed.

Extract from an interview with David Shapiro from Museo Magazine (1999 - I think):
Shapiro: You don’t see yourself as a documentary photographer in any way?

Wall: Sure I do. I think that all photography contains an element of reportage, just by nature, and so everybody who practices it comes into relation with that aspect in one way or another. What's interesting is that there’s no one way anymore to come into that relationship. I think in 1945 or 1955, it was clear that if you wanted to come into relation with reportage, you had to go out in the field and function like a photojournalist or documentary photographer in some way; that was expected, and everyone expected it of themselves, and there was no very clear alternative. No other aspect of photography was really taken seriously, and that was great nevertheless because classic documentary photography really is photography; it really does connect to the nature of the medium. But still, it does not cover the horizon. There are other practices that are equally deeply connected to what photography is, and as well, there is no single way to satisfy the documentary demand. There’s no one way to come into this relationship with reportage. I think that’s what people in the 70s and 80s really worked on: not to deny the validity of documentary photography, but to investigate potentials that were blocked before, blocked by a kind of orthodoxy about what photography really was.

Extract from an interview with 'Prospero' from The Economist (Nov 30 2011):
'Many indecisive moments'
When talking about his latest exhibition at the White Cube gallery in London (2011) which consist primarily of large-scale prints in three modes that he refers to as documentary, near documentary (re-enactments of real events) and cinematographic (scenes constructed from the artist's imagination); Wall stated that "it's a pitfall to have a definition of photography".
Mr Wall's photographs are distinctive for the way they seem to capture a length of time rather than just a moment—as if time were frozen in crisp focus but then allowed to linger. It resembles the slow time evoked by painting more than that typically captured in a snapshot. Photographers have often pursued what Henri Cartier-Bresson called the "decisive moment". Mr Wall doesn't use the term because he finds the moment to be "so indecisive". He is not much interested in "having my finger on the pulse," as he puts it. Nevertheless, most of his work is set in the present or what he calls "a certain kind of now."

Interview with Maria Acciaro from Vice (Oct 14 2012):
'Floating in an emotional ocean of art with Jeff Wall'
Acciaro: What is your relationship with literature? If you were to compare your work to that of a writer, who would it be?
Wall: I've taken pictures that are explicitly inspired by the writings of other people, like Yukio Mishima or Franz Kafka, but I don’t think that this can define a relationship with an author. Those were incidents. It could have easily happened to someone other artist or with some other work of literature. So, my relationship with, let’s say, Ralph Ellison - because I took very elaborate pictures based on his book Invisible Man - was still incidental: one day I simply happened to be completely absorbed by the book and the image appeared. The relationship I have with literature is very important. I think that, somehow, all photographers are hybrid creators, novelists on one hand and, on the other, painters. And the photograph, the end result, acts like the combination of a painting and a novel. Walker Evans said: "There is no book that is not a book of photographs.” He thought that the task of a writer was to describe events that could exist as photographs. It is no coincidence that Walker Evans, in the beginning, wanted to become a writer. Many photographers have a very strong bond with the literature and consider themselves, in some way, writers. I think I'm one of them.

From TATE Volunteer 1996

This picture was based on Wall’s observations of homeless shelters and similar facilities, but was shot on a set. The mural on the right-hand wall, a precise replica of one in an actual shelter, was painted for the photograph. It emphasises the potential in black-and-white photography for registering subtle gradations of tone. The man sweeping the floor appears absorbed in his task, in a mood and world of his own. The impression is of a chance glimpse into someone else’s life.

Jeff Wall Volunteer 1996

Volunteer 1996 by Jeff Wall
Cinematographic photograph
Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel
© The artist

In summary:

With regards the documentary value of Walls work, it is not documentary in the classical sense of the term 'documentary', nor does it portray/communicate any particular event in a classic documentary way, that is, capturing the moment as it occurs. Wall commented that when he sees something interesting, he does not capture it in his camera, but rather in his mind. This enables his to take the 'scene' away with him and to reflect upon it, this reflection might take months or even years. Once completed, he then rebuilds the scene ensuring that every minute detail is correct - for example the mural in Volunteer - and then takes his photograph.

Thinking back to tutor feedback I have received on some assignment photographs, re changing the angle of my shot or my position or waiting for somebody to move completely out of shot; hasn't Wall achieved what we are all striving for? He is creating the perfect documentary photograph! Rather than having to 'cope' with an image that is not quite right technically or perfect in terms of composition, Wall sees the opportunity and then recreates the scene to create the document.

I would suggest that only real limiting factor in terms of his works documentary value is the time frame from him seeing the document to him creating the document!
If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_capa.html#RGODBgGceSSf15oD.99

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