John Szarkowski’s two basic photographic tenets; a photograph as a Window (direct observation) or as a Mirror (introspective narrative). Robert Frank’s photograph is an example of direct observation and Minor Whites’s photograph is an example of introspective narrative.
Robert Frank, a Swiss immigrant to America produced his seminal work The Americans (4) in 1958 (i). It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this book, to turn its pages is to preview the work of some of America’s and Europe’s most influential photographers; Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Tod Papageorge and Garry Winogrand to name but a few and looking back we can determine the influence of Walker Evans’ American Photographs upon Frank.
Sun in Rock is typical of Minor White’s approach where he cropped the subject to detach it from the wider landscape, distilling it to an abstract form. His intent extended beyond creating the aesthetically pleasing composition shown here as he believed that this form of abstraction could, in Jaskot Gill’s words “metaphorically reveal inner states of mind and emotion” (3 – p. 336).
Assignment 1
Take 5 photographs per week that are examples of Szarkowski’s concept of the Window in photography.
Zosia
Kai
Assignment 2
Take 5 photographs per week that are examples of Szarkowski’s concept of the Mirror in photography.
Zosia
Kai
