Andrew Cohen
Digital Photography
Professor Matthews
4/6/15
My visit to the Museum of Modern art was very inspiring and informative. The
third floor of the MOMA held an exhibit from the Thomas Walther Collection
dating between 1909 and 1949. A majority of the photographs were taken around
the time of World War one and two, where photographers started to have a taste
for creativity, abstraction and imagination. The collection holds over 300
photos from multiple photographers which all present a breathtaking expression
of visual stories that captured some key moments in history.
There were many eye catching photos in the gallery which really made me think
about what the photographer was trying to express and what their motives were
behind taking a specific photograph. There were multiple genres in the
exhibit and some were very eye catching. One of the first photographs that
caught my attention was Bernice Abbott’s Fifth Avenue’s houses. My attention
was drawn to the distinct contrast between dark verses light in the photo. The
left side of the building was a dark color, while the right side was a lighter
shade. I wondered why one part of the building was dark, and the other was not,
what did it represent? The house was originally built as a single family home
and was constructed out of marble that stood out against the red bricks of the
neighbor’s house. Usually, while taking a photo, generally a camera tends to
flatten out space. What is so incredible is that Abbott used a large format
view camera with adjustments for distortion to add the flatness of an image to
give this photograph the feeling it was cut out of paper, or graphically
designed. The sunlight in the photo creates a large shadow against the
apartment building, filling the foreground and reflecting off the marble
building, which gave the image the intense shadows creating black and white
contrasts between the two buildings.
Another photograph that I really felt compelled to was Humanly Impossible by
Herbert Bayer. This picture was a self-portrait of the photographer in the
mirror, but was so amusing was the fact that he made an illusion in the photo
to make it look like his arm was missing. It was very interesting because at
that time, photo editing was very different than it is today. We can edit and
change pictures with the touch of a button. In this photo, Bayer painted over
photograph paper with gouache, which is like chalk to create a white pigment as
if it were missing. After that, it was re-photographed and touched up. We can
see something that is nearly impossible; to hold a slice of your own arm. What
I like about this picture is the expression the artist has on his face. Emotion
can play a huge part in a photograph. It sets the mood and feeling that a
person gets while looking at an image.
In this photograph, Bayer portrayed an idea that has a relationship with the
culture at the time. This photo was created with the sense of Nazi art
and mass culture in the 1930’s. This was made in an effort to oppose the
Fascist Nazi propaganda at the time. Artwork created by Herbert Bayer, such as
Humanly Impossible made individuals thinks about who they are, and realize the
meaning that their own bodies had in relevance to society at the time. Everyone
was conforming to the Nazi ideas, but this showed people that they had their own
views and their own minds. To many, this photo was a historic part of our
culture.
A third photograph that was very amusing was called Detail of Kalkerfeld
settlement, Cologne 1938 by a German photographer named Werner Mantz. Mantz
began his career as a portrait and advertising photographer and soon became
famous for his modernistic photos of housing projects in Colonge during the
1920’s. Mantz focused on still-life photography. Still-life photography is
photos or artwork that focuses on an inanimate subject matter. I really enjoyed
two of his photographs. The first one shows a bunch of windows that go
horizontally down the frame. It’s interesting how the photo shows a pattern in
a sense of a zig-zag. As well, we can see the difference in the foreground and
the background. The foreground focuses on shadows of balconies which we don’t
see in the photograph. The second photo is very simple, is has a door and the
shadow of a lamp post on the left side. Mantz took advantage of the use of
shadows and lighting while he took his photographs. Timing is a very essential
key to his photography.
These two photos were taken at the same time of day because the
shadows are very strong and life like. They were taken as the sun was right
above during the middle of the day. If they were taken at different times, the
shadows in both photos would be at different angles. From these two photos, we
get a perspective of what life used to be like at the time. We see what the
housing looked like, and from that we wonder what the people who lived in these
houses were like.
After viewing the artwork on the third floor of the MOMA, I took
a walk over the Bjork exhibit. I was directed on a line, waited a few minutes
and I went into a dark sound proof room. I got the chance to experience a song
from Bjork’s album called “Black Lake.” This exhibit was very different because
of the mood it set for the audience. In my opinion, this music video seems
almost extraterrestrial, and out of this world. As well as the rest of the
exhibit. At one point in the video, the girl had blue lava pouring out from her
body. It seemed like blood, but had a different texture to it. We’re so used to
seeing blood in films, that when we see something blue we wonder what it
represents. The love and goodness represented the blue liquid coming out of her
body. It was leaving her, and she was being drained out of love. This was very
different from what I’m normally used to seeing. It opened my eyes to think
differently about the world and how art is expressed.
Links:
https://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1496
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