Re: Reading 2: Elkins Photography, Pages 51-62, 63-76, 77-86
Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:20 am
63-76
Darkness is the next technique analyzed by Elkins in his quest for formlessness. Painting with darkness is deemed qualitatively superior to photographing with darkness, because the latter is too easy to achieve and is employed by too many photographers. Elkins favors the use of the grid as a technique for achieving formlessness. He admirers the paradox between the rigidity of the scientific grid and the obscurity and suggestiveness of a blank, unfinished, or unclear grid. In his piece, Corpse and Mirror, Jasper Johns overlays two suggestions of a grid, but in such a dysfunctional way that neither us consistent or descriptive. It is almost as if the artists describe by Elkins have reclaimed the grid from scientists by stripping it if its functionality. To deprive the grid of its ability to describe and clarify is an epic win in the battle towards formlessness.
Elkins’ discussion of the anti-optical impulse is framed by the modernist distrust for the indexicality between photography and reality; this indexical relationship is taken for granted in the post-industrial world. Elkins points out that commodity fetishism has increased our love of the camera and this love is blinding us into heavy reliance and trust. Photographers like Marco Breuer are challenging this blind trust by experimenting with the medium in self reflexive ways. Breuer strives towards formlessness by avoiding ordinary photographic representation in any way possible.
Darkness is the next technique analyzed by Elkins in his quest for formlessness. Painting with darkness is deemed qualitatively superior to photographing with darkness, because the latter is too easy to achieve and is employed by too many photographers. Elkins favors the use of the grid as a technique for achieving formlessness. He admirers the paradox between the rigidity of the scientific grid and the obscurity and suggestiveness of a blank, unfinished, or unclear grid. In his piece, Corpse and Mirror, Jasper Johns overlays two suggestions of a grid, but in such a dysfunctional way that neither us consistent or descriptive. It is almost as if the artists describe by Elkins have reclaimed the grid from scientists by stripping it if its functionality. To deprive the grid of its ability to describe and clarify is an epic win in the battle towards formlessness.
Elkins’ discussion of the anti-optical impulse is framed by the modernist distrust for the indexicality between photography and reality; this indexical relationship is taken for granted in the post-industrial world. Elkins points out that commodity fetishism has increased our love of the camera and this love is blinding us into heavy reliance and trust. Photographers like Marco Breuer are challenging this blind trust by experimenting with the medium in self reflexive ways. Breuer strives towards formlessness by avoiding ordinary photographic representation in any way possible.