Blog 7: Chris Townsend- "Feminist Photography".

Townsend, Chris. "Feminist Photography". Francesca Woodman. Phaidon Press limited: New York, 2006: 38 – 45.


Chris Townsend seems to offer a formal and thematical approach to some of the works of Francesca Woodman in his writing Feminist Photography.

I found a paragraph at the end of the reading that was of interest to me because it made me think about the medium of photography in representing space and how the body, or a person can change the space in the photograph. He writes

"Woodman looks specifically at the domain of photography as a medium, how the space inside the camera relates to the space it represents, and how the medium proceeds from a discourse of mathematical rigour in which the body, and other subjects, disorder the time and space that photography would seek to analyse with such precision." (Townsend 2006:44)

I think the Townsend talks here about photography, as a medium that has been concerned with documenting the truth i.e. the space in the camera is a replica of the space it represents. This idea however has changed through the development of photography because it has become obvious that the body and other subjects such as people in the work, or viewing the work or in fact taking the work, cannot be separated from the reading or meaning of the photograph. For example, what the photograph represents is read differently depending upon the person analyzing it (their culture, time, and place).

In Kate Bush’s writing The Latest Picture, she talks about how photography was used by early Conceptual artists

"Who can be divided into those who utilized photography as a tool to document ephemeral actions or events or gestures and those who reflected more profoundly on photography’s inherent “anti-artistic” nature- its widespread functional applications; its descriptive precision; its non-unique, serial nature; and its stylistic neutrality." (Bush 2003: 262)

In the above quote, it seems that photography was looked upon as a sort of copying device. However in Woodman’s work Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1875 – 78 one can see that ones perception of space changes in the work when a subject is added, or a subject adds a gesture to the space (a drawing in this case). It makes me look at the flattening effect of the camera in the first two images and realize later in the series when the body is added that the photographed space is actually a room.


I find the idea of the body or subjects changing space interesting in relation to Amunsden’s artwork Garden Place. She too critiques the medium of photography. She states

"by engaging with how photography socially gathers meaning, Garden Place picks apart how space itself is culturally constructed. All of my previous series have systematically addressed space - the photographs have relied on the viewer's cultural investment in the depicted." (Amundsen, 2003 - 4: 1)

Amundsen here relates the meaning of the photograph as constructed by the viewer and the artist- the photograph gathers meaning in relation to those who interact with it. The spaces she uses, such as public areas, are also spaces that gather meaning by people interacting with them socially.

When looking at a photograph, I find it difficult to realize it as an un-bias copy of real space. As soon as people are involved in the artwork in any way (making, viewing, or featuring for example), it becomes an image or space to be perceived rather than a given space.


References:

Amundsen, F. "Garden Place (Artist Statement 2003 - 04)". Chartwell Collection. 3 Feb. 2008. http://www.chartwell.org.nz/art/featuredworks/fionaamundsen.asp

Bush, Kate. “The Latest Picture”. The Last Picture Show. D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.: Minneapolis, 2003: 262 – 266.

Ownes, Craig. “Toward a Theory of Postmodernism”. Appropriation, and Power. Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power and Culture. Oxford: University of California Press, 1992: 88 - 113.

Townsend, Chris. “Feminist Photography”. Francesca Woodman. Phaidon Press limited: New York, 2006: 38 – 45.