DOCUMENTARY AND THE CITY! or! WHERE IS THE STREET?

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DOCUMENTARY AND THE CITY! or! WHERE IS THE STREET?"

DOCUMENTARY AND THE CITY! or! WHERE IS THE STREET?"

What is documentary?! What type of pictures are made under this name?! A crucial dynamic: picture or proof ?"

From the specimen here given it is sufciently manifest, that the! whole cabinet of a Virtuoso and collector of old China might be! depicted on paper in little more time than it would take him to! make a written inventory describing it in the usual way. The! more strange and fantastic the forms of his old teapots, the! more advantage in having their pictures given instead of their! descriptions.! And should a thief afterwards purloin the treasuresif the! mute testimony of the picture were to be produced against him in! courtit would certainly be evidence of a novel kind; but what ! the judge and jury might say to it, is a matter which I leave to the! speculation of those who possess legal acumen.! William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature"

From the specimen here given it is sufciently manifest, that the! whole cabinet of a Virtuoso and collector of old China might be! depicted on paper in little more time than it would take him to! make a written inventory describing it in the usual way. The! more strange and fantastic the forms of his old teapots, the! more advantage in having their pictures given instead of their! descriptions.! And should a thief afterwards purloin the treasuresif the! mute testimony of the picture were to be produced against him in! courtit would certainly be evidence of a novel kind; but what ! the judge and jury might say to it, is a matter which I leave to the! speculation of those who possess legal acumen.! William Henry Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature"

Eadweard Muybridge, Morning Call, 16th June, 1878"

Alphonse Bertillon, display stand in Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889; precision equipment! for the recording of data at crime scene!

What is a document?! What is documentary?! A question of the real and relation to representation: to giving an account.! Real / Realism! Document / Documentary / Documentary style"

What is a document?! What is documentary?! A question of the real and relation to representation: A question of giving an account.! Real / Realism! Document / Documentary / Documentary style"

What is a document?! What is documentary?! A question of the real and relation to representation: A question of giving an account.! Real / Realism! Document / Documentary / Documentary style"

What is a document?! What is documentary?! A question of the real and relation to representation: A question of giving an account.! Real / Realism! Document / Documentary / Documentary style"

What is documentary photography?

The term !documentary" was rst used on 8 February 1926, by the lmmaker John Grierson. He used the term documentary in the New York Sun to describe Robert Flaherty"s lm Moana, about the daily life of Polynesian Islanders. #

Grierson denes documentary as a kind of educational media:! the observation of the ordinary or the actual and the discovery within the actual of the patterns which give it signicance for civic education! Not a servile accumulation of fact but an emotional map! A search for what actually moves: what hits the spectator at the midriff: what yanks him up by the hair of the head or the plain boot straps to the plane of decent seeing! cited in John Tagg, The Plane of Decent Seing, The Disciplinary Frame"

John Tagg:! In the mutation from document to documentary, however, we are dealing with a new level of activity of the extended State The history of documentary is therefore the history of a specic management of representation that has to be located in the cultural strategy of a particular kind of governance: a hybrid of discipline and spectacle; a strategy of management of meaning and identity! document > documentary ! from surveillance to a rhetoric of recruitment! in his The Disciplinary Frame: Photographic Truths and the Capture of Meaning, 2009, University of Minnesota Press, p.xxxii "

Steve Edwards:! Four modes of documentary:! 1. Liberal documentary (1890s): Jacob Riis! 2. New Deal and FSA approach (1930s): Walker Evans / Dorothea Lange [Lewis Hine as key pre-cursor]! 3. New Documents (1950-60s) a subjectivised approach; Robert Frank / Diane Arbus! 4. Photo-conceptualism (1960-1970s): Ed Ruscha / Martha Rosler!

Martha Rosler: The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems, 2012

Jacob Riis, Bandits Roost, c.1890"

Lewis Hine! Making Human Junk! 1915!

Walker Evans! Sidewalk in Vicksburg, Mississippi! 1936"

Walker Evans, Negro Barbershop Interior, 1936"

Walker Evans:! Documentary? Thats a very sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear. You have to have a sophisticated ear to receive that word. The term should be documentary style. ! An example of a literal document would be a police photograph of a murder scene. You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless. Therefore art is never a document, though it certainly can adopt that style.! Interview with Leslie Katz, Photography in Print, ed. Vicki Goldberg"

Dorothea Lange! White Angel Breadline, San Francisco! 1933"

Dorothea Lange, Ex-Tenant Farmer on Relief Grant in the Imperial Valley, California, 1937 "

Helen Levitt! Untitled, New York! c.1942"

Robert Frank, From the Bus, New York, 1958"

Robert Frank! View from Hotel Window Butte, Montana! 1954-56"

Lee Friedlander! New York! 1963"

Diane Arbus, Tattooed Man at a Carnival, 1970"

Martha Rosler The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems 1974-5

Key principles of street photography (from Clive Scott Street Photography, 2007)! *Street photography is aligned to both documentary and art-photography! *It can be seen to move through a number of paradigms: ! from France in 1920s (Brassai, Andre Kertesz, Henri Cartier-Bresson) ! to the U.S. in the 1950s (Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, William Klein) ! via precursors (Eugene Atget, the Seeberger Brothers) ! and becoming an international form (Daido Moriyami, Raghubir Singh)! *A mode of photography that includes:! staccato, jotted style! a speed of gesture and glance (the eeting instant)! haptic impression and forceful expression (a question of types of attention and experience)! an interest in fringe areas (the criminal, the trash, the night)! posing a uniform (mass) against a multiform (chaos, the singular) the crowd and the street!

Andre Kertesz! Meudon, Paris! 1928"

Manuel Alvarez Bravo! Laughing Mannequins! 1930"

Manuel Alvarez Bravo! Optical Parable! 1931"

Bill Brandt! Footsteps Coming Nearer! 1933-36"

Robert Doisneau! Be-bop-en-cave, Vieux-Colombie! 1948"

Lewis Hine! I wanted to show things that had to be corrected. I wanted to show things that had to be appreciated.! Henri Cartier-Bresson! Poetry includes two elements which are suddenly in conict #a spark between two elements"

Lewis Hine! I wanted to show things that had to be corrected. I wanted to show things that had to be appreciated.! Henri Cartier-Bresson! Poetry includes two elements which are suddenly in conict #a spark between two elements"

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Trafalgar Square on the day of Coronation ! of George VI, London! 1937"

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Athens! 1953"

Elliott Erwitt! Las Vegas! 1954"

William Klein! Candy Store, Amsterdam Avenue, New York! 1954-55"

Daido Moriyama! Stray Dog, Misawa! 1971"

The street as a particular mode A way of experiencing urban life A way of traversing particular spaces

Eugene Atget! Au Griffon, 39 Quai de l'Horloge! c.1903"

Georg Simmel: Bridge and Door! The people who rst built a path between two places performed one of the greatest human achievements The will to connection had become a shaping of things, a shaping that was available to the will at every repetition, without still being dependent on its frequency or rarity.! Human activity is based on connections and separations as exemplied by two key structures:! *bridge that which connects that which otherwise was without relation! *door that which can allow access but also deny access a simultaneous connector and separator!

Eugene Atget! Bridge, Parc Monceau, Paris, France! c.1900"

Eugene Atget! Door, Htel de Goufer, Paris, France! &! Door, Htel de Chateaubriand, Paris, France! both c.1900"

Eugene Atget! The Cabaret of Hell, Boulevard de Clichy! c.1900"

Marcel Duchamp:! The question of the shop windows ..! To undergo the interrogation of shop windows ..! The exigency of the shop window ..! The shop window proof of the existence of the outside world ..! When one undergoes the examination of the shop window, one also pronounces one's own sentence. In fact one's choice is 'round trip.' From the demands of the shop windows, from the inevitable response to the shop windows, my choice is determined...! The Essential Writings of Marcel Duchamp: p.74"

Eugene Atget! Boutique automobile, avenue de la Grande Arme! 1924-5"

Eugene Atget! Boulevard de Strasbourg, 1912! Balcon, 17 rue du Petit-Pont, 1913"

Lee Friedlander! New York State! &! Baltimore, Maryland! 1965"

Photography:! window or mirror?! Lee Friedlander! Midwestern, United States! 1966! &! Las Vegas, Nevada! 2002"

Photography:! window or mirror?! Lee Friedlander! Midwestern, United States! 1966! &! Las Vegas, Nevada! 2002"

Eugene Atget! Organ-grinder, 1898-1899! Postman, 1899-1900"

Eugene Atget! Pavers! c.1900"

How is a street made?" What is the relation between its elements?" Is the street a collection of people, the production of people, the arrangement and relation of people to place"

To think of the street:! *an abstract space: one that is planned, designed! *a lived space: one that is inhabited and practiced! Two forms of producing space."

Henri Lefebvre and The Production of Space"

The street as a site for a number of different activities and functions:! *entertainment! *communication! *consumption! The street is a name for that which is not only a route for travelling, but also a particular mode of experiencing public life within an increasingly urbanized experience. ! The urban space [the street] is not just where we are, it predicates how we act and experience"

Brassai! Paving Stones! c.1930-2! The notion of a street as a physical space: a space that can be viewed askance! The surrealist street as a site not merely of everyday but also of the magical circumstantial a site where profane illumination might happen"

A question:! not merely where is the street! but, when is the street!

Brassai! Paris at Night! 1933"

And. What is a street called?! How does this specify a locale?!

Bill Brandt! A Snicket in Halifax! c.1937"

Andre Kertesz! Pavement! 1929"

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy! Gutter! 1925"

Daido Moriyami! front cover for Record no.1! 1972"

A SPHERE OF DISTINCT TRAJECTORIES! A SPACE OF DIFFERENT MOVEMENTS! AND TRAJECTORIES"

Wolfgang Tillmans! rat, disappearing! 1995"

Wolfgang Tillmans! rat on trash bags! 1995"

Bruce Gilden! 2013! shown online as ! Deep-Fried America on a Stick!

at! http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/ deep-fried-america-on-a-stick-0000144v20n11?Contentpage=-1! and as! Postcards from America! at! http:// postcardsfromamerica.tumblr.com"

Bruce Gilden! 2013!

Paul Strand! Blind! 1916"

Paul Strand! Wall Street, New York! 1915"

Paul Strand! From the El! 1915"

Donovan Wylie! Citizen, Miami, Florida! 2013"

Donovan Wylie! Citizen, Miami, Florida! 2013"

Jacob Aue Sobol! Milwaukee, Wisconsin! 2013"

Different movements! action or trace"

Lzl Moholy-Nagy Parking Lot, Chicago 1938 Jacob Aue Sobol Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2013

Jacob Aue Sobol! from I, Tokyo"

Jacob Aue Sobol! from I, Tokyo"

Jacob Aue Sobol! from I, Tokyo"

How is the street the carrier for things! A particular form of conduit! A site of conduction ! How is space is spaced, structured? ! What falls out?! Space is not continuous but rather is stratied"

How to look for that which falls out! of representation?! How to look into the underneath ! of the street! To search the gutter for a subject!

La Revolution Surrealiste! No.11, 1928"

Dora Maar! Untitled! 1935"

The city and dream-work! or, the dream-work of the city!

Brassai! Statue of Marshal Ney in the fog! c.1932"

The city and dream-work! or, the dream-work of the city!

Brassai! Statue of Marshal Ney in the fog! c.1932"

Wolfgang Tillmans! spread from Zacheta Ermutigung! 2011"

Tod Papageorge! Central Park! 1982"

Jeff Wall! Citizen! 1996"

Andre Kertesz! Quai de Bercy! 1926"

The object that is known but that is veiled / mysterious

Umbo" Uncanny Street" 1928"

The activity that is of the gutter

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Paris! 1932"

Daido Moriyama! Provoke, No.2! 1969"

Nobuyoshi Araki! Tokyo: A City Headed for Death! 1993"

Nobuyoshi Araki! Tokyo Lucky Hole! 1985"

The activity that turns a place into a space

Brassai, ! Grafti de la Srie III, Naissance du visage, ! c.1930"

Helen Levitt! New York! c.1939"

Paul Graham! New Europe! 1986-1992 "

Richard Misrach! from Destroy This Memory! 2010"

Richard Misrach! from Destroy This Memory! 2010"

The activity that turns a place into a space

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life Place is the which is defined by the proper: a distinct and stable location Space is intersections of mobile elements Space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalise it Thus the street geometrically defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers.

The activity that turns a place into a space

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life Place is the which is defined by the proper: a distinct and stable location Space is intersections of mobile elements Space occurs as the effect produced by the operations that orient it, situate it, temporalise it Thus the street geometrically defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers.

A key gure of the relational space of modernity: the neur! Walter Benjamin (on Charles Baudelaire)! *the neur typies modern experience of the city in relation to the crowd not just to architecture to plunge into the crowd to access a reservoir of electric energy! *a navigation of the shocks of modern life, but also a seeking out of new experiences hence the neur-as-detective that negotiates the crowd, an afrmation of the street-asrelational (yet also as that which connects-separates)! *modern experience of the street becoming a form of sensorial training: to become a kaleidoscope endowed with consciousness [Baudelaire]! On Some Motifs in Baudelaire, Illuminations"

Bruce Gilden! USA, New York City! 1984"

Bruce Gilden! USA, New York City! 1986"

Bruce Gilden! JAPAN, Tokyo! 1999"

Jacob Aue Sobol! Milwaukee, Wisconsin! 2013"

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Mexico City! 1934"

Jacques-Henri Lartigue! Au Sentier de la Vertu! 1912"

Jacques-Henri Lartigue! Avenue du Bois de Boulogue, Paris! 1911"

Jacques-Henri Lartigue! Losers at the Auteuil Races! 1911"

The straight-up! The street as site of fashionable display"

The straight-up! The street as site of fashionable display"

The Street as relational space! A place where people display themselves to others.! The development of the urban individual ! (Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life)! Street fashion as distinct from that which is planned not what! the designer produces, but about the manner in which it is worn!

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Rouen, France! 1929"

Wolfgang Tillmans! spread from Zacheta Ermutigung! 2011"

Wolfgang Tillmans! Circle Line! 2000"

Wolfgang Tillmans! Circle Line! 2000"

Richard Avedon, " American Harpers Bazaar, " September 1954 "

William Klein, American Vogue, July 1959 "

William Klein! French Vogue! 1960"

Alasdair McLellan! Together that summer we raised some hell, yeah!! 2013"

Alasdair McLellan! Together that summer we raised some hell, yeah!! 2013"

Alasdair McLellan! Vogue, March, 2014"

Alasdair McLellan! Vogue, March, 2014"

Henri Cartier-Bresson! Madrid! 1933"

Walker Evans! Torn Movie Poster! 1930"

Walker Evans ! Houses and Billboards in Atlanta! 1936"

Walker Evans! Penny Picture Display, Savannah! 1936"

Berenice Abbott! Newsstand, East 32nd Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan! 1935"

William Klein! Gun, Gun, Gun, New York! 1955"

Lee Friedlander! Galax, Virginia! 1962"

Richard Prince! Untitled (three men looking in the same direction)! 1978"

Where is the street here?! Is this an issue of public display?! The mediated nature of everyday life?! The street as a place to nd images! The street as a place where images circulate"

Guy Debord:! The spectacle is not a collection of images, ! rather, it is a social relationship between people that is ! mediated by images.! The Society of the Spectacle"

Paul Virillio:! The screen abruptly became the town square.! The Overexposed City"

Paul Virillio:! The screen abruptly became the town square.! The Overexposed City" Lee Friedlander" Monsey, New York, 1963" &" Wahington D.C., 1962"

Paul Virillio:! The Overexposed City"

Nina Berman! Hedge! 2010"

Nina Berman! Hedge! 2010"

Grafti from Tunisia 2011"