The Composite Photographic Image and the Composition of Consumer Ideology

Author(s): Sally A. Stein

Source: Art Journal, Vol. 41, No. 1, Photography and the Scholar/Critic (Spring, 1981), pp.
39-45
Published by: College Art Association
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Sally A. Stein
The

Composite

Photographic

Image and the Composition of

Consucmer Ideology

The author ofrecent essays on color

photography, Sally A. Stein
is a graduate student in American
Studies at Yale University.
I. The fact that the Art Journal has alloWe are now so accustomed to beingmedium, privileging as it does the aes-

cated an entire issue to the mediumaddressed

of
by these images that we scarcely
thetic component in photographic practice. This determined bias is in turn detertheir total impact. A person may
photography may in itself signify that notice
the

notice a particular image or piece of inforlong-standing question "Is photography

minant; the artistic criterion conveyed by
art?" has died a natural death-from
mation because it corresponds to some parthis usage narrowly delimits our comprehension of the relations between various
ticular interest he has. But we accept the
boredom, perhaps, with the repetitively
total system of publicity images as we accept
prescribed responses.' Thus, as in all
types of graphic communication, and even
an element of climate. For example, the fact
rags-to-riches stories, dogged ambition
more narrowly delimits our understandis rewarded in the end. That leaves, howthat these images belong to the moment but
ing of the logic of these innovative forms
in relation to social and economic deever, a still-moot question: how can art
speak of the future produces a strange effect
which has become so familiar that we scarcehistorical methods be most usefully apvelopments.

plied to the study of photographic culture?

ly notice it. Usually it is we who pass the In my own research on the changes in
the structural format of a mass circulation
At present, the intervention of art history
image-walking, travelling, turning a page;
on the tv screen it is somewhat different but
is usually confined to those instances in
women's magazine, I have deliberately
even then we are theoretically the active
the history of photography that bear closest
used the term montage in discussing new

resemblance to traditional art practice in

agent-we can look away, turn down the
forms of layout since I am primarily conintent, modes of production, stylistic affinsound, make some coffee. Yet despite this,
cerned with how changes in editing and

ity, and manner of presentation. This tendone has the impression that publicity images
assemblage may be linked to other forms

ency leaves aside critical consideration

are continually passing us, like express trains
of social engineering developed during
of the way we experience the vast majority
on their way to some distant terminus. We arethe same period around World War I.6

of photographs which are circulated for

static; they are dynamic-until the newspaThe research begins with the premise
that it is more than coincidental that
mass consumption and the way their anteper is thrown away, the television programme

cedents have been experienced in the

continues or the poster is posted over.4
patterns of graphic assemblage alter radpast. Perhaps what inhibits a broader,
ically at a time when industrial work
more rigorous examination is a false conYet-and surely it's another example of
processes are themselves being reorgaception of what we should be looking at
the politics of the past decade-even as
nized, and when emerging, competitive
and for. With the possible exception of
Berger's text has been adopted as a primer
forms of industrial culture (notably film)
of cultural criticism, there has been rela-are likewise engaged with developing new
those photographs consciously produced
for the modernist arena, responding to
tively little subsequent elaboration along
structures for representing and exploiting
the photograph as an autonomous artifactthese lines.5 Leaving aside the more comtime. Excerpting some this material for
misses or masks its functional collaboraan audience of artists and art historians
plex, multidimensional phenomena Berger
tion in more strictly social projects.2 Since
enumerates, I want to consider briefly an
gives me the opportunity to make a premost photographs were not made with
example of the operations of photography
liminary argument for an expanded applithe intention of being sealed in a vacuum,
within the simpler, two-dimensional struccation of the photomontage concept and

we may need to reorient our field of

ture of the photomontage or compositeagainst the more restricted usage that
vision to the "architecture of daily life" in
photographic image.

prevails in discussions of photography.

which photography figures, and figures The question of proper terminology,
as a principal landmark.3
photomontage or composite photo-II. There has always been some dispute
In effect, John Berger proposed such graphic
a
image, has more than academic
about who can rightfully claim to have
strategy in the concluding essay of his
implications for this discussion. Present
first discovered and explored the medium
book Ways of Seeing:
use of the term photomontage reflects
of photomontage during the World War I
directly on current historiography of the
era. There is of course considerable irony

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Spring 1981 39

porary
discussion advertising
of the philosophical
this discussion of an
early

in the debate concerning artistic origins

because this bastard form was conceived

determinants in imagery,
photomontage practice.
experiment with composite
the

as just that: an unwanted intrusion upon

description turns on
Reviewing
a phrase
in 1936 thethat
progress would
of Heart-

the legitimate art scene. Such is the assim-

field'sexample
career in this field,from
the Soviet writer
seem to exclude this
the

ilating power of bourgeois society that it

confers value and creates a field of con-

orthodox concept of Sergei

photomontage:
Tretyakov purposefully diminished
namely, the premium placed
the significance
on the
of extreme
"appearance
sensation or

flicting interests where none was intended.

of naturalness." The governing

special techniques and
impulse
concentrated his
in

Among the ensuing set of claims, the main

artistic contenders to the title of inventor

this advertising instance

was
novelty,
but
analysis upon
comparing
the transformanot at the expense oftions
seamless
available through
illusionism.
various types of

of photomontage are generally acknowl-

If, however, we were

to move
outside
manipulations
of the photograph:

edged to be Raoul Hausmann, Hannah

of the usual, restricted usage of the term

Hoch, Johannes Baader, John Heartfield,

photomontage to a consideration
of genHeartfield's first-Dadaist-photomontages

and George Grosz. Though the Berlin Dada

eral montage principles,

it
seems
clear
are still marked
by their
abstract nature.

group is thus established as the general

source for photomontage proper, recent
studies raise new objections to reserving
for Dadaists of various persuasions the
category of photomontage.

that any signifying Scraps

photographic
practice
of photographs and printed
text are

... The Dadaist period we

in Heartfield's
with this primary categorization,
might

In their separate essays on this art

form, Dawn Ades and Robert Sobieszek

then consider whether

work did
the
not continue
particular
for long. He soon
asto waste the
his artistic
talents in abstract
semblage reveals or ceased
hides
manner
of

have both pointed to earlier, nineteenth-

fireworks. categorization
His works became aimed shots....is
its making. A secondary

century images that resemble in technique

immediately suggested
between
the two
The photomontages
of Heartfield
the
Dadaist consisted of assemblage:
many small details; the
traditions of photographic
naturalistic and formalistic.
This
is the
more he developed, the
more laconic
his

and sometimes in spirit the work of these

twentieth-century artists.7 But the prehis-

that depends upon arranged

more
not so
than
much according
a single
to their
photographic imagemeaning
might
but according
be toprofitably
the aesthetic mood
the artist.
studied within this ofcategory.
Beginning

tory delineated by each of these historians

basis for Sobieszek'slanguage

bipartite
became, the discussion.
more economic be-

is peculiar for its emphasis on eccentric,

came the
construction of his photomontages.
Yet though this binary
treatment
appears

isolated experiments in combination im-

agery, a tendency that is especially pro-

... It is important
to note that a photomonto be a logical strategy,
an inclusive
poneed not
necessarily
be a montage
of a
larity is achieved tage
only
by
means
of

nounced in their selections of illustrations.

formally reductive analysis

photos. No: it canof
be a photo
theandgraphic
text, photo

In neither of these revisionist histories of

photomontage is advertising's more conventional and consistent use of photography in combination with other materials

work. The reductiveness

of and
this
route
is
and color, photo
drawing
...
obvious when Sobieszek
dulls
theinedge
of
The text
is indispensable
John Heart-

Heartfield's politically
motivated cutting
field's montages.
A texthim
which does
alter the
sense of
and pasting by returning
tonot
the
center

given more than passing note. Fantasy

of the modernist camp;

less
but
the photograph
doesobvious
not produce, together

inspired cartes de visite and turn-of-the-

as significant is Sobieszek's
with the photograph,
ready
a photomontage....
accept-

century postcards receive far greater atten-

But if the photograph,

under the
influence
ance of a "natural" logic
in more
imme-

tion in these studies, suggesting that the

of the text, expresses

not simply the On
fact
diately legible combination
images.9

unstated criterion for categorical prece-

which it shows but alsoideological

the social tendency
both sides of this dichotomy,

dence is essentially eye-catchiness-the

considerations have expressed

beenbyeffectively
disthe fact, then this is already
a

look of sensational disjunction.

It would be easy, if improbable, to deduce from these accounts that advertising

missed. What is also

dismissed is any
photomontage.12
substantive investigation of the likely interactions between naturalist
and Dadaist
The evaluation of Heartfield's
develop-

lacked the imagination to capitalize on

mentmoving
in terms of increasing
economy and
fabrications, thereby
us further

standard tricks of the nineteenth-century

effectiveness
is wholly consistent
the
away from the historical
question
of with
why

photographic trade; but this impression is

early Soviet
interestain resonant
efficiency as a
photomontage offered
such

quickly corrected when one leaves photo-

form of artistic work

in
1920s.
means
of the
producing
the most palpable

graphic history and turns to a history of

It remains a matter
ofinsome
interest
changes
economic and
social life.13

advertising. Frank Presbrey has written that

Within this framework,

Tretyakov still ofwhy none of the Dadaists
acknowledged

the combination photograph appeared in

fers a very
compelling analysis of comthe two
as a conceptual source
commercial
characteristics
that make photomontage
bination images which
abounded
in that

1897, when India Tea stripped photographs

of President McKinley, Queen Victoria and a

Hindu servant into a scene headed "The

a distinctive form of communication:

the
period along with vernacular
postcards
alteration
of meaning produced by interand private portrait
assemblages.'0
It is
and the "social tendency"
made
especially surprising vention,
and worthy
of reflec-

Regal Beverage" and ran it in two colors on

in the process. Tretyakov's

opertion that Heartfield explicit
in particular
failed
to

the back cover of the Ladies' HomeJournal.

definition
of the
photomontage
is even
cite current publicity ative
forms
as
tradition

This picture which had every appearance of

more expansive
than incited
Heartfield's, sugof ideology construction
that
his

naturalness created a sensation. It was prob-

gesting as it does that altered meaning

may
own inflammatory counterattacks.
Surely

ably the first instance in advertising of the

combining of photographs, which later be-

came the common way of making up a

even when
the photographic
image
Heartfield did not occur
accept
the
reality
of
remains fully
Consider
Tretyakov's
nature as reconstructed
byintact.
the
publicists
of the economic order. Yet he at least
list of possibilities-"it can be a photo

offered a quite elastic definition of the and text, photo and color, photo and

photographic illustration.8

operations that constituted photomontage: drawing"-alongside Heartfield's, which

Indeed, the device is so customary by 1929

"A photograph can, by the addition of an begins to sound slightly precious by com-

that Presbrey, having offered a starting

unimportant spot of colour, become a parison-"A photograph can, by the ad-

point for this advertising practice, quickly

moves on to other topics in his book of

photomontage, a work of art of a special dition of an unimportant spot of colour,

kind." " Moreover, Heartfield's work oc- become a photomontage, a work of art of

over six hundred pages. But, however brief

casioned the most penetrating contem- a special kind."

40 ArtJournal
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From translations of Soviet texts, I have

Accordingly, he stopped short of consid-

From this survey of available pertinent

been unable to discover whether Tretyakov

ever extended this brief discussion with a

ering the progress in montage communi-

literature, it seems that the Soviet discus-

cation after the advent of photomechanical

sion of the origins of photomontage was

more detailed examination of different ex-

reproduction processes, which occurred

almost as paltry as that found in bourgeois

amples of photomontage. But it seems clear

at the end of the nineteenth century in a

criticism. Almost, but not completely; for

from this one essay that Tretyakov was

context of increasing consolidation of the

these findings, though inconclusive, do

open to considering the commercial variant

marketing and media sectors of the Amer-

open up the subject in a number of signif-

icant ways. They begin to suggest that

there was some degree of consciousness
of the role of commercial developments

of early photomontage another precursor,

ican economy.17 It was, on Eisenstein's

like the Dadaist variety, of its refinement in

part, an exceptional lapse in an otherwise

revolutionary practice. Following the logic

methodical argument, because these latter

of the above commentary, one can imag-

events just preceded Griffith's own devel-

in the history of photomontage. Moreover,

ine that his critique would run as follows.

opment as a filmmaker; and Griffith's

the fact that only the Soviet writers pointed

In contrast with the Dadaist type of "abstract fireworks," which diffused the ex-

interest in still photography was well documented in his films.18

in this direction may shed some light on

the reasons for Heartfield's silence on

pression of facts, the commercial photo-

This lapse is especially frustrating be-

this issue, underscoring the differences

montage featured facts with unerring

cause the historic discussion of photo-

between his situation and that of his Soviet

precision; but this only amplified the un-

derlying logic of bourgeois society, rein-

montage would doubtless have benefited

from Eisenstein's bringing his analytic

bership in the German Communist party,

forcing rather than reflecting critically on

skills to bear on this topic, and from his

Heartfield was nonetheless immersed in

the conditions of commodity production.

examining photomontage in the context

bourgeois society; far from being uncon-

This theoretical elaboration, though

admittedly inferenial, is supported by

of other developments in communication

scious of forms of bourgeois publicity, he

forms. But though Eisenstein omitted con-

other Soviet texts, principally those con-

sideration of the intermediary position of

cerned with the theory of film, a field in

photomontage between nonoptical mon-

relatives of his own antifascist and anti-

which montage was historically understood to contain a broad range of applications. Within this separate discourse,

tage experiments and its various applications in film, another Soviet artist-writer

capitalist work.
other hand, felt sufficiently removed from,

the critique that the "structure that is

specifically cited American publicity as

one source for contemporary work in
photomontage. Raoul Hausmann has reproduced this contribution to the debate
over prior invention, which was written

reflected in the concept of Griffith's mon-

by Gustav Klutsis in 1931:

Sergei Eisenstein wrote about D.W. Griffith

with all the respectfulness of a grateful

heir, even as he followed his homage with

comrades. Despite his committed mem-

was probably too well acquainted with

them to want to claim them as even distant

Heartfield's Soviet colleagues, on the

and uncompromised by, bourgeois culture
that, at least in the first postrevolutionary

decade, they were rather more candid in

acknowledging the magnetic power of

these new capitalist forms. Even when
writing from a later, more critical, per-

tage is the structure of bourgeois society."14 Having commenced with the process

There are two general tendencies in the

spective, Eisenstein was able to recapture

of settling artistic debts, Eisenstein felt

development of photomontage: one comes

justified in trying to settle some of Griffith's

from American publicity and is exploited by

the excitement generated by initial contact

with American film as well as with other

overdue debts as well. What is especially

the Dadaists and Expressionists-the so-

examples of industrial innovations from

relevant here is the way he thought it

called photomontage of form; the second

the most advanced capitalist country:

proper to set the record straight.

tendency, that of militant and political pho-

As part of his essay "Dickens, Griffith

tomontage, was created on the soil of the

It was captivating and attractive, in its own

and the Film Today" (1944), Eisenstein

Soviet Union. Photomontage appeared in

way engaging the attention of young and

not only traced the sources for Griffith's

the USSR under the banner of Lef when

future film-makers, exactly as the young and

own pioneer montage work back to Dick-

non-objective art was already finished....

future engineers of the time were attracted by

ens, Griffith's acknowledged inspiration,

Photomontage in the USSR as a new method

but also examined Griffith's specifically

of art dates from 1919 to 1920.'9

the specimens of engineering techniques

unknown to us, sent from that same unknown, distant land across the ocean.21

American montage heritage. After touch-

concept," Eisenstein produced a relatively

As framed by Hausmann, the passage

could easily be dismissed as sheer po-

obscure example of mid nineteenth-cen-

lemic. Yet despite Klutsis's strident tone

"the boundless temperament and tempo

tury typographic montage; and he literally

and his transparent strategy of assailing

of these amazing (and amazingly useless!)

ing briefly on "Whitman's huge montage

III. At the time Eisenstein first experienced

"produced" it, incorporating within his

Hausmann's claim to priority by neatly

works"22 of American industry and cine-

text an enlarged detail of Lieutenant George

dividing the honors between the bourgeois

ma, the graphic montage practice of Dada

H. Derby's newspaper parody from 1853,

commercial sector (exemplified by Amer-

had already overshadowed any earlier

on which he proceeded to comment: "'By

ican media practice) and the Soviet avant-

transformation in modes of graphic as-

all the rules of art' of montage, John

Phoenix (Derby's nom de plume) 'con-

garde, we should not overlook the evidence that Klutsis was clearly conscious

semblage. But that does not mean that a

jures up the image.' The montage method

of Western commercial work in this field.

that represented a critical stage of develop-

is obvious: the play ofjuxtaposed detail

transformation had not occurred, one

Regrettably, Klutsis's militant chauvinism

ment (however consistently overlooked)

shots, which in themselves are immutable

did not allow him, in contrast to Eisenstein,

and even unrelated but from which is

in formal expression, one that like Griffith's

to admit any historical dialectic between

these two categories of expression. In a
similar vein, Hausmann countered Klutsis's

montage structure reflected, as it gave

novel expression to, dominant ideology.

created the desired image of the whole."'5

Eisenstein's pleasure with his typographic

find is unmistakable. The early evidence
of a montage principle at work so con-

statement by quibbling over dates in order

concretely embodied in these emerging

to disqualify the Soviet claim; he completely

graphic forms? And how can we begin to

clusively refuted "the premises of some

avoided, it should be mentioned, address-

study these forms both for their structural

incredible virgin birth of this art"'6 that

Eisenstein let his case rest on this note.

ing Klutsis's charge of Dada's indebted-

operations of an effective montage prin-

ness to American publicity.20

ciple and, consequently, for their ideo-

How was a distinctive engineering concept

Spring 1981 41

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Fig. 1 Illustration from

Mrs. Christine Frederick's

The New Housekeeping,

1913.

rzg. I
logical operations-speaking to people

the home, through new

of conacknowledged by in
Frederick
atforms
the
begin-

in new ways and inducing them to think

ning of her book where

ceptualizing housework
she reported
as a laborsaving, that

about their worlds according to radically

in 1910 only 8 percent

and liberating,
of
project
the
of consumption.
families in

different concepts of cause and effect?

the United States employed

Viewed from a contemporary
full-time
perspecdo-

Returning then to my original proposal

tive, the cultfundamental

of domestic efficiency had was
mestic help.26 Equally

within a larger matrix of socially organized

the inconsistency
of
talking
"scientific
many
attributes
of a spiritual revival
which
took hold
in direct relation
to the decline
management" when
money
was
excluded

communication, I want to consider here

as a form of worker
motivation.
Frederick
of actual
managerial work and autonomy

one example of a new organization of

graphic elements within the seemingly

like allstrenuously
spiritual conversions, depended
management, argued
that ef-

to study the reception of photography

disinterested genre of photographic illus-

tration. The accompanying reproduction

in the home.29
Born-again
housework,
Winslow Taylor, the
father
of
scientific

from be
the outset
on afor
complex
of
ficiency could only
had
aset
price27
the restoration of older
tradi-in effect buying desires:
offforworkers'
control
of

(Fig. 1) appeared in 1913 in one of the

tions as well
as for a utopian deliverance
the work process.28
Nevertheless,
the

earliest books arguing for the adoption of

to a bountiful
future. And as in many
question of pay was
unacceptable
to Mrs.
faiths that did not address
basic promote
contraFrederick, who continued
to

"scientific management" techniques in

the performance of housework. In a peri-

od when industrial efficiency was being

promoted as a general panacea, it was

inevitable that this ideology would also
surface in the growing debate over the
Woman Question.23
Within this context, Mrs. Christine
Frederick's 1913 tract, The New Housekeeping,24 represents an extraordinary
prototype of a new kind of double-talk
directed at women. Beyond the question
of alienation produced by degradation of

housework as an dictions,
act of
love
that
could
obscuring
what Betty
Friedan
later call "the
problem which has with
simply be more would
easily
expressed

no name"30
by giving
it other names (in
industrial technology
and
organization.
this case the
Woman Question
was transIn other words, the
recent
upsurge
in

women's discontent
was
beginning
lated into
a question
of efficiency), Signs to be
studied as a form of
were deemed
soldiering
a necessary form
on
of sustethe job;
nance on the road towas
salvation.such that
yet the job of housework

resistance needed to
be were
countered
The Signs
planted profusely with

different methods
of control
from
throughout
Frederick's book,
and they those

were designed
to have factory.
an irresistible ef- Fredthat promised success
in the
fect. The first is
edition,
by Douerick's book, however,
a published
pioneer
text

for reasons other bleday

than
its
in 1913,
hadattempt
interleaved withinto ex-

possible at the level of the nuclear family

the text eight

pages of glossy photographic
tend Taylor's domain
directly
into the
home: the limitsimages,
of arational
feature that couldargument
not have
to impress the average
reader. Few
along these lines failed
inspired
a second
line
general interest
of the period in- visual
of argument expressed
inbooks
symbolic
terms. It is this secondary
dulged in this form of
strategy
illustration and
that
needs to be considered in relation to
with good reason.31 Incorporating photo-

serviced by a solitary worker, a condition

subsequent techniques for keeping women mechanical reproductions within a text

traditional work processes, whatever ben-

efits such reorganization of work might

yield could not, in any case, be realized

within the conventionally structured

home.25 Specialization of tasks was im-

42 Art Jounal
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involved considerable cost and labor. If

terruptedly between drawing below, text

onymously, mutually dependent upon the

the photographic illustrations were to

of recipe, and photograph of the final

apparent absence of work.

retain fine detail, the halftone reproduc-

dish, the meticulous organization of the

The deliberate sequential juxtaposition

tion plates had to be printed on expensive,

file alone seems responsible for the full

of these two forms of representation, line

coated stock, as distinct from the conven-

flowering of the dish. As a symbolic rep-

drawing and photograph, both privilege

tional rough stock used for the letterpress

resentation of modern housework, what

printing of the text; if the illustration

you have in short order is a strict hierar-

the final product, the commodity, and

celebrate that modern, "scientific" mode

pages were to appear beside the relevant

chy, with an emblem of efficiency at its

of communication that made such privi-

text, they had to be separately cut, set in,

base and an emblem of the family feast at

and glued to the binding edges of the

its pinnacle. The middle term, which

leging possible. Mystification was thus

effected on two complementary levels:
literally, the montage obscured the actual

adjacent pages. It was hardly an efficient

properly belongs at the base, is relatively

method of book production and was there-

devalued by its lack of graphic emphasis;

cost and labor necessary to produce the

fore usually reserved for limited editions

even when the fine print is studied, the

photographically represented object; fig-

and specialty books-on art and photog-

text itself minimizes the elementary need

uratively, photography is made to appear

raphy, in particular. Yet the justification

for time and money.

for this extravagant measure (which, in-

I would argue further that in this con-

the logical (and "natural") form of expression for the commodity, rather than

cidentally, was not even publicized on the

struction not only has the file blossomed

the instrumental means by which the ar-

cover of the book) is easy enough to

by its own magical energy into the meal,

gument for efficiency is being promoted.

appreciate when the illustrations are ana-

but that the index headings themselves

have been reconstituted as paper petals

By this teleological parallelism, efficiency

lyzed for their ideological value. Assessed

according to that function, these photo-

to crown the actual dish, thus reinforcing

invested with the incontrovertible author-

graphic images more than compensated

for the added expense by superseding

the relation between the symbol of orga-

ity of objective science.34

altogether the need for logical argument.

ment. It is finally unnecessary, however, to

In Frederick's chapter on the new effi-

nization and the symbol of royal achieve-

debate the calculated consistency of fine

ciency as applied to cooking, an illustration was provided that exemplified the

suggestive power of "short-circuit appeals" as discussed by psychologists of
the Progressive era.32 This illustration
(Fig. 1) combined a schematic, perspectival line drawing of an open card file,
organized according to types of dishes,
and a frontal view of a "specimen recipe
card" which included both a sample rec-

details that contribute to this metaphor.

ipe and a photograph of an elaborate

lamb dish. Despite Frederick's avowed
interest in precision, however, the card
-which would logically be delineated by
a black rectangular frame, since other-

and the rhetoric of efficiency are each

IV. Despite the obvious investment of

thought, skill, and money embodied in
the montage, the book did not bring

When the montage is analyzed only for

attention to this work by crediting any

its broad strokes, a more significant un-

one other than the author. Though it is

derscoring of this magical process of

highly unlikely that Frederick herself had

a hand in the construction of the illustra-

transformation becomes apparent. This

semiotic magic occurs both at the level of

tion, it is safe to conclude that the under-

the "signified" (the idea of the things

lying motive behind the illustration con-

referred to) and at the level of the "signi-

cept was wholly consonant with her own

fiers" (the materialforms of representa-

arguments for efficiency. For that, we do

tion). Just as a recipe file gives birth to a

not even need to comb through her most

meal, so a schematic line drawing gives

birth to an infinitely richer and more
immediate photograph. Historical progress is thus reenacted in terms of a rhe-

famous text, Selling Mrs. Consumer,

published in 1929 and this time more
baldly defining the issue as one of manag-

torical shift, moving directly from an ear-

wise, it has no definite boundaries-in

ing housewives instead of housewives'

management.35 The evidence is already

lier stage of manual rendering of line (a

writ large in the blatantly rhetorical title

no way matched the relative dimensions

technique that historically made possible

of the file, nor did it contain the practical

the integration of black-and-white illus-

information-cost, number of servings,

trations with a text printed by letter-press)

and overall time of preparation-that

to a contemporary period when mechan-

Even in The New Housekeeping, there

is solid indirect evidence that Frederick

ical reproductions had eclipsed the man-

wholeheartedly welcomed the editor's

the facing page.

ual arts and thus made possible the trans-

investment in a supplementary form of

Frederick recommended in the text on

In all likelihood, these discrepancies

of her next book, published in 1915,

Meals that Cook Themselves. 36

mission of a seemingly unmediated object

sophisticated visual polemic. When ad-

would have been overlooked by the aver-

(so unmediated that it was often thought

dressing the ancient "servant problem,"

age reader, whose attention was probably

to obviate the need for any written text).33

the author proposed that a

focused on the contents of the photograph

The photographed thing rivets our atten-

(literally, a feast for the eyes), and who

was probably accustomed in any case to

tion and thereby orients us as consumers.

whole chapter might be written on the psy-

The selective application of photography

chology of suggestion and surrounding on

accept at face value a quasi-scientific

is as disarming to our critical reception

of the fetishized commodity (our mental

sanitary fittings and decorative utensils can-

style of documentation. And having over-

the worker. The light, cheery kitchen with

looked these discrepancies, the reader

was probably also unaware of, and thus
defenseless against, the distinct message
conveyed by this misrepresentation. For

work as viewers) as the original introduc-

it is hardly likely that these were inadver-

the productive value of photography be-

tent oversights; there is a pointed logic to

comes the justification for its use: quanti-

attributes in the maid. Imitation is one of

the construction of this montage, and it is

tatively, it is quicker, more instantaneous,

the strongest means of increasing efficiency

one that lent its own persuasiveness to

than the process of drawing; qualitatively,

in any line.37

the overriding theme of efficiency.

it delivers up the dish (in effect, it delivers

tion of photography was "disarming" (in

the sense of displacing) to a whole group
of traditional artisans. In both instances,

not fail to react cheerily and happily on its

worker. "Like mistress like maid" is an old

saying, but it is true to psychological laws

and we know that neatness, thrift and order
in the mistress will tend to evoke the same

Because the page is not clearly divided

us up to the dish) incomparably, i.e. by

In this rather early discussion of moti-

between the file in one half and the recipe

card in the other but instead flows unin-

reproducing it "good enough to eat."

vation psychology applied to work per-

Progress and pleasure are described syn-

formance, Frederick confined her analysis

Spring 1981 43
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to the motivation of the maid by means of

the immediate environment of the home.

delivered at University of New Mexico's

symposium on photography in 1980.

She said nothing about photography per

7 Dawn Ades, Photomontage, New York,

se, its special gestalt when properly exploited-but that would have been unbe-

agery and the Origins of Photomontage,"

1976; Robert Sobieszek, "Composite Im-

lievably farseeing. The argument as stated

Pt. 1: "The Naturalistic Strain," Artfo-

was in any case ahead of its time; indus-

rum, xvii: 1, 1978, 58-65, Pt. 2: "The

trial managers were only beginning to

consider the value of capitalizing on the
psychological effects of workers' envi-

Formalist Strain," Artforum, xvii: 2,

8 Frank Presbrey, The History and Devel-

ronments.38 Moreover, in the specific

opment of Advertising, Garden City, N.Y.,

1978, 40-45.

context of the servant problem, it would

1929, 387. I am indebted to Allan Sekula

have been inappropriate to extend this

for many discussions regarding this re-

argument to the question of manipulation

search and specifically for bringing this

by media, because the lower classes were

passage to my attention.

not expected to come in contact with

glossy books and magazines. They first
needed to have more money, for which
Frederick argued;39 when the working
class had achieved greater purchasing

9 Sobieszek's discussion surrounding Heartfield is such an intricate piece of encircle-

ment, managing to associate Heartfield's

work with every issue but the political,

that it is best reproduced verbatim: "Dur-

power a decade later, merchandisers were

ing the 1930s, John Heartfield's concern

by then prepared with media strategies

was certainly not with the probable when

designed to exploit the workers' needs

he illustrated the cover of the German edi-

and reshape their way of life.40 Regarding

new standards for the maid, Frederick at

this time quite sensibly focused upon the
critical example of the mistress.

Whereas Frederick could explore un-

Notes

tion of Upton Sinclair's Nach der Sinflut.

With any stretch of the imagination, how-

1 On the other hand, this death may not be ever, the possibilities of such a scene in the
so natural as it first appears; the question 'real world' are not unbelievable. The ediof photography's art status may have been tor of the Photographic News, in Septem-

inhibitedly supervisory techniques for the

quashed by the circumstantial evidence of ber of 1865, had stated that 'all which the

servant, she needed to be more circumspect when considering analogous modes

recent investment in the photographic eye of the camera might actually see
market. For a detailed discussion of this comprised in one group or scene in na-

of supervision for the solitary housewife.

phenomenon, see Martha Rosler's "Look- ture, it may legitimately render piece-

Writing in 1912 for an audience of middle-

ers, Buyers, Dealers, and Makers: Thoughts meal, if its appliances are unequal to the

class women, Frederick did not risk vio-

on Audience," aEposure, xvii: 1, 10- 25. rendering of the whole in one photo-

lating the assumption of equality with her

2 One of the more provocative arguments graphic operation.' A logical consequence

readers by stating outright that they, too,

along these lines appeared while I was of this statement might be extrapolated

might be kept in line by new standards of

writing this article, and it came neither into a sort of science-fiction of photogra-

light, cheeriness, and neatness. Only later,

when Frederick had found a different

from a photographic nor a social histori- phy whose objective correlative is totally
an but from an establishment art critic. mental, a sub-genre of photomontage

forum in the advertising community, where

Reviewing a recent museum retrospective that was quite popular in fantasy postcards

the housewife could be safely patronized

of a photojouralist, Hilton Kramer sensi-

in the third person, would she shift the

bly noted that the resurrected body of work Robert Sobieszek, "Composite Imagery and

focus of this argument: from direct intimidation of the servant to mediated intimida-

during the first decade of this century."

seemed to be lacking some vital organs: the Origins of Photomontage, Pt. 2: The

tion of middle-class consumers. But the

"Examining these bland pictures, one is Formalist Strain," 44. Likewise, in the first
reminded of the fact that between the part of this essay, "The Naturalist Strain,"

basic theory-that words and images might

pictures produced by photographers like Sobieszek continually dwells upon the

be jointly orchestrated to break resistance

Mr. Eisenstaedt and the layouts that ac- economy exercised in naturalistic mon-

and inspire new habits of thought and

action-had already begun to be spelled
out in the text, and was already being

crucial missing link that is omitted from political economy is also at work in the

quite subtly applied in the composite pho-

tors were, it seems, real collaborators in the self-promotion of a "natural" mode

tographic illustrations. End

tually materialized in Life there was a tages but without ever suggesting that a

shows like this.... The magazine's edi- promotion of a "natural" world and in

the photojouralistic process, shaping of reproduction.

10 The art-minded Dadaists, when addressphotographic materials to conform to
some idea or point of view or political ing the question of Dada's relation to
scenario." Hilton Kramer, "Photography: bourgeois publicity, would invariably
Eisenstaedt and Three Other Reporters," stress Dada's influence on subsequent

New York Times, 23 January 1981, C18. commercial developments. Hannah Hoch
3 The "architecture of daily life" is a phrase came closest to publicly acknowledging

borrowed from Stuart Ewen's Captains that this was a two-way street in an
interview with Edouard Roditi. In this

of Consciousness, New York, 1971, 111.

4John Berger, Ways of Seeing, New York, interview, published in 1959, Roditi's

1977, 130.

remark-"The montages of the Berlin

5 A notable exception is Judith Williamson's

Dadaists represent an extension, in the

DecodingAdvertisements, London, 1978.

realm of art, of the mechanical processes

6 Sally Stein, "The Graphic Ordering of

Desire: Modernization of the Ladies'

Home Journal, 1914-1939," paper

of moder photography and typography"

-was followed immediately by Hoch's

rejoinder-"That is why they continue

44 ArtJournal
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to De a source ot inspiration to so many

and by the physical structure ot the home.

tile in black-and-white and the dish in

photographers, typographical artists and

As Dolores Hayden has amply docu-

color. On the "raw" and the "cooked" as

advertising agents." Edouard Roditi,

"Interview with Hannah Hoch," Arts,

mented, many radical transformations

in housework were achieved in those

Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertise-

ments, 103-21.

a motive in current advertisements, see

1959, reprinted in Lucy R. Lippard, ed.,

exceptional instances when the nuclear

Dadas on Art, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.,

family and the single family dwelling

34 The connections between the widening

1971, 74.

were not held sacred. Dolores Hayden,

applications of photography and the rise

11 Ades, Photomontage, 9.

"Collectivizing the Domestic Workplace,"

of "scientific management" need to be

12 John Hearfield. A Monograph, Moscow,

Lotus, xii, 1976, 72-89. Efficiency argu-

further explored. Stuart Ewen outlines

State Publishing House, 1936, reprinted

ments made inroads in this debate exactly

this topic in Captains of Consciousness,

inJohn Heartfield, Photomontages of the

at a time when there was a "narrowing

103--09. See also Bruce Kaiper's "The

Nazi Period, New York, 1977, 26.

of vision" on the part of feminists who

Films and Photographs of the Gilbreths,"

13 For a basic discussion of Lenin's interest in

were focusing most of their energy on the

American industrial techniques of "scien-

question of political suffrage. See William

unpublished essay, 1978.

tific management," see Harry Braverman,

H. Chafe, The American Woman: Her

35 Mrs. Christine Frederick, Selling Mrs.

Consumer, New York, 1929.

Labor and Monopoly Capital, New York

Changing Social, Economic, and Polit-

36 Mrs. Christine Frederick, Meals that Cook

and London, 1974, 11-13.

ical Roles, 1920-1970, London, Ox-

Themselves and Cut the Costs, New Ha-

ford, New York, 1972, 3-22.

ven, 1914.

14 Sergei Eisenstein, "Dickens, Griffith, and

the Film Today," Film Form, trans. Jay

26 Mrs. Frederick, Neu' Housekeeping, 13.

Leyda, New York, 1949, 234.

27 Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles

15 Ibid, 231-32.

of Scientific Management (1911), New

16 Ibid., 232.

York, 1967, 94.

17 Michael Schudson, Discovering the News,

New York, 1978, 93-95.

28 David Montgomery, Workers' Control in

America. Studies in the History of Work,

18Griffith's interest in still photography

figures most conspicuously in The Birth

of a Nation (1915).

Technology, andLaborStruggles, Cambridge, London, New York, 1979, 122 - 27.

37 Mrs. Frederick, Neu Housekeeping, 17374.

38 L[illian]. M. Gilbreth, The Psychology of

Management, New York, 1914, 41 -42.

39 Mrs. Frederick, Neu, Housekeeping, 16366.

40 Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown,

New York, 1956, 158, 231-42.

29 Ruth Schwartz Cowan, "The Industrial

19 The Hausmann text in which this quote

Revolution in the Home: Household Tech-

appears is reprinted in translation in

nology and Social Change in the Twenti-

Lucy Lippard's Dada anthology. Raoul

eth Century," Technology and Culture,

Hausmann, "Peinture nouvelle et photo-

montage," from Courrier Dada, Paris,

xvii, 1976, 16, 21-23.

1958, trans. Mimi Wheeler in Lippard, ed.,

30 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique,

New York, 1969, 11.

Dadas on Art, 58 - 66. I have, however,

31 The only similarly illustrated contempo-

used the translation of the Klutsis quote

raneous book which I know is the six-

provided by Dawn Ades since it reads

volume Pittsburgh Survey, New York,

better and appears to be more accurate.

1911, which at the time of publication

Ades, Photomontage, 15.

was hailed as a landmark for, among

20 Raoul Hausmann, "New Painting and

Photomontage," in Lippard, Dadas on
Art, 66.

other things, its inclusion of reproductions of Lewis Hine's documentary photographs. In this case too, the inclusion

21 Eisenstein, "Dickens, Griffith," 203-04.

was clearly justified by the crucial ideo-

Two essays by Lev Kuleshov, Eisenstein's

logical function of these documents in

colleague, evidence the historical evolu-

relation to the text of the survey. For an

tion of a Soviet critique of American film.

extensive discussion of reproduction tech-

In "Americanitis" (1922), Kuleshov whole-

nologies with an emphasis on nineteenth-

heartedly defends the progressive contri-

century modes of book illustration, see

bution towards efficient expression in

Estelle Jussim, Visual Communication

American cinema; in "The Principles of

and the Graphic Arts, New York and

London, 1974.

Montage" (1935), Kuleshov revises his

earlier stance and offers a more critical

32 A. Michal McMahon, "An American Court-

appraisal of the same cultural phenome-

ship: Psychologists and Advertising Theory

non. The two essays are included in

in the Progressive Era," American Studies,

Ronald Levaco, ed., Kuleshov on Film,

xiIi, 1972, 9.

Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974, 127-30

and 183 - 95, respectively.

33 It is worth noting in passing that as the

currency of reproduction technologies

22 Eisenstein, "Dickens, Griffith," 204.

changes, the forms used to suggest this

23 Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English,

process of "blossoming" (what Levi-

For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the

Strauss has defined as a relation between

Experts' Advice to Women, Garden City,

the "raw" and the "cooked") also

N.Y., 1979, 162-64.

changes, but the dynamic is always the

24 Mrs. Christine Frederick, The New House-

same, with the most sophisticated repro-

keeping: Efficiency Studies in Home

duction form always situated at the end

Management, New York, 1913.

point. Thus, when four-color photome-

25 The limits of possible change in the

chanical reproduction techniques had

nature of housework were of course deter-

been refined in the 1930s, the same type

mined by the social structure of the family

of montage image would represent the

Spring 1981 45
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