Conceptual Photography in the Postmodern Era (1970s-90s)

• Mark Klett
• created the term re-photography
• recreated 19th century documentary photographs
• rephotographic survey project
• began in 1977
• time, memory, public intervention
• a delicate complexity of recovered human and geological narratives
• blur time and space
• collage with other art from the same time
• Cindy Sherman
• Untitled Film Stills 1970s
• puts together an image of "woman"
• theatrical representation mimicking films
• mostly pictures of herself
• not considered self potrait
• vehicle for discussing women's condition in media
• creates a fictitious character
• mixed messages about the role of "woman"
• looking for approval of her role
• domestic violence
• posed
• "Men watch women and women watch themselves being watched by men... ultimately women begin to present themselves in the way they believe men want to see them. The result is the loss of self.
• images go through so many reproductions and representations of woman
• photographs of herself in different occupations
• Conceptual photography
• the art isn't just the photograph but the entire concept and context
• every photograph is abstraction of reality
• Ken Josephson
• pioneer of conceptual photography
• experiments on how we see images
• 3D -> 2D
• pictorial illusion, flatness of the photograph
• doesn't represent reality
• pictures inside pictures
• changes in time and memory
• manipulation of reality
• challenges the way of seeing reality
• John Pfahl
• Altered Landscapes 1974-78
• he creates the entire landscape
• the oranges don't get smaller as they go back
• installation
• mathematically calculates
• connects two palms with a string
• drew on pillars
• Triangle, Bermuda 1975
• Zeke Berman
• was a sculptor, started documenting his work, gained an interest in photography
• illusory space
• believes photography is not taken, but made
• looks like a cocktail glass but is actually a table
• creating a flat surface with 3D
• Georges Rousse
• fascinated with abandoned buildings
• they would be destroyed after he finished his work
• painted onto surfaces to create illusion
• can only be realized when the camera is in the exact location
• no one else can recreate the image
• "questions the role of photography as a faithful reproduction of reality"
• David Hockney
• interested how to create photographs as an objective observation of the scene
• time, memory, spacial relationship in phtograph
• not a photographer, an artist using photography
• Bigger Splash 1962
• interested in man-made objects that copy nature
• took a bunch of polaroids and put them together to show movement
• talks about how photography is a realistic illusion of reality
• Pearblossom Highway 1972
• collage of prints
• right side is from the drivers perspective, left is passenger
• dichotomy of perspectives
• trying to capture what human eyes see
• Vic Muniz
• also addresses the representation of photography
• was a sculptor
• known for working with unconventional materials like sugar, dirt
• Valentine, The Fastest 1996
• from the Sugar Children Series
• children who are basically sugar cane slaves
• drew portrait with sugar on black paper based on picture he took, then photographs the sugar portrait
• sugar tastes good but makes you sick
• Big James Sweats Buckets 1996
• like media, the illusion is purely and often poorly crafted 
• to help develop defenses to deceptive images
• like a vaccine for media photography
• Jackson Pollok in chocolate syrup
• removes from the subject, reality
• Peanut butter and jelly mona lisa
• is it an abstraction or a description
• Yasumasa Morimura
• inserts himself into iconic paintings
• Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergere
• hand-drawn backdrop
• appropriation
• questioning how art history was created
• collapsing cultural boundaries in art
• why is western art seen as the most important
• wanted to create his own art history
• does the piece have the same value
• differences between looking and seeing
• not just appropriation
• Frida Kahlo and Marilyn Monroe
• questioning the male gaze
• gender roles
• who is the audience
• constantly transforming himself, identity
• Carrie Mae Weems
• uses photography and text
• how do they relate to each other
• Colored People series
• overlays black and white photos with a vibrant color
• how we use colors to describe people
• signifier
• squares are the same size bc ppl are equal
• From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried series 1995-96
• mimics daguerreotype
• words sandblasted into the glass
• red: anger, passion
• cataloging ppl
• simplifying an entire race to one color
• Lorna Simpson
• combines images and text to question class, race, etc issues
• breaking the boundaries of portraiture
• good twin, evil twin
• can't see the face, cant compare why one is good and one is bad
• Gillian Wearing
• Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say (1992-3)
• performance creates immediacy
• gives random person paper
• spontaneous
• could be considered documentary photography
• has been criticized bc ppl can choose how to present themselves
• vulnerability, trust in the photographer
• Shizuku Yokomizo
• Dear Stranger (1998-2000)
• sends a letter to strangers saying she's going to take a picture of them through their window, telling them to stand in front of the window and dress/pose how they want
• they can't actually see the photographer
• some people didn't take it seriously (underwear)

Cameraless Photography

• Ruth Thorne-Thomsen
• uses pinhole camera, no mechanical control
• fabricating the scene and the camera to create illusory images
• Alberado Morell
• uses camera obscura
• takes 8-9 hours for the image to appear on the wall
• documenting like for 8 hours
• Adam Fuss
• uses photogram to capture time
• we are conditioned by the mechanics of the camera apparatus
• My Ghost 1994
• evocative way of implying loss
• direct contact with the object, no lens
• Susan Derges
• uses flashlight, moonlight, and river to develop photo paper she carries through the woods
• dictated by chance