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Explore the visual representations of the city in modernism through photography and art, examining the impact of industrialization, urban development, and social reform.
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PICTURING THE CITY PHOTOGRAPHY, MODERNISM AND THE CITY
What do we mean by Modernism? • What do we mean by ‘Industrialisation’? • What happened to the cities as a result of Industrialisation? • Population • Development and slum clearance
Today we are going to look at visual representations of ‘The City’ • We will see how the development and representation of the city reflects the spirit of the age (Modernism). • The city is a Modern phenomenon. But what do we mean by ‘Modern phenomenon’? • This lecture aims to show that images of the city can help with our understanding of the concept of ‘Modernism’. • Building on the previous presentation, this lecture will explain ‘Modernism’ more fully.
Representation • Representations of the city change, as the city itself changes and develops. • Photographers, artists and film-makers have represented the city in different ways, and they have different reasons for doing so. • The way the city is represented changes, according to the preoccupations and interests of the artist / photographer / film-maker.
The Modern City • 20th Century developments: • Great scientific discoveries • New images of the universe which affects the way we view our place within it • The industrialisation of production • The transformation of scientific knowledge into technology • The creation of new human environments • The destruction of old human environments • An increase in the speed of life – and the speed with which things can be done • New corporate power • Class struggle • Rapid urban growth • Mass communication, connections between communities and cultures • Challenges to political leaders and the ruling class • Capitalism
Hausmannization of Paris In the mid 19th C the architect Baron Haussmann rebuilt the centre of Paris. New boulevards and places of leisure were built. The middle class colonised the city centre, and in turn, the poor were displaced to the suburbs. The changes in the urban landscape and new social types provided rich subject matter for artists
The Modern City • New, wide boulevards • Eradication of old alleyways, narrow streets and ‘no-go’ areas for new middle class. • Slum clearance programmes • (Remember Thomas Annan – Glasgow City Improvement Trust work)
The Modern City • New middle classes emerged in the late 19thC, as a result of industrialisation • New emphasis on leisure • (Development of an urban underclass.) • (Concurrent rise in interest in social reform.) • (Remember Jacob Riis & Lewis Hine)
THE IMPRESSIONISTS • The city became a place where the middle classes lived and spent their leisure time • The city was celebrated and enjoyed by a group of painters called ‘The Impressionists’ who became part of the leisured middle classes • Photography often inspired painters and other artists working in a variety of formats.
Gustave Caillebotte Pont Neuf1876 How does this painting make you feel about the city? Gustave Caillebotte Pont Neuf1876 How does this painting make you feel about the city?
Claude Monet Boulevard des Capucines (View from Nadar’s studio)1872 How does this painting make you feel about the city?
Haussmann and Modernity • Haussmann modernised the city of Paris • Haussman’s Paris accommodated leisure activities – access to cultural buildings, parks and boulevards for evening strolls • Leisure and other cultural activity is encouraged • This was reflected in the Impressionist paintings • Impressionists painted the new, modern city
The Modern City • By the end of the 19thC photography was no longer at the forefront of technological developments: it was established • More exciting technological and scientific developments took its place • Manufacturing was expanding to become mass manufacturing • Urban life was changing. The middle class and working class are established • Change was fundamental to modern life, throughout the western world • Photography was used to prove / verify that change had taken place
Social Reform • Photography greatly aided the cause of social reform • Increased interest in social reform developed at the same time as the modern city • Awareness of the terrible living conditions the urban poor had to endure (in the new cities) was growing • Photography was used as proof of poor living conditions
Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives 1890 • Riis published this book in 1890 • It contained photographs and drawings of the American urban poor. • Riis was a journalist who lectured on the conditions in the slums. • He called for charitable donations from the wealthy – rather than political agitation for social reform.
Jacob Riis Bandit's Roost 1890On either side of the alley are stale beer dives where the stuff is sold for two or three cents a quart. After buying a round the customer is entitled to a seat on the floor otherwise known as a ‘lodging’ for the night’. Riis
Thomas Annan • Scottish photographer • Photographed the houses of the poor in Glasgow • Worked for the Glasgow Home Improvement Board • Documented slums prior to their demolition • After the city passed an act through parliament to demolish the slums of central Glasgow in 1866, Thomas Annan was asked to record the buildings that were coming down. He worked in conditions as bad for photography as they were for humans and took only about thirty successful photographs in the three years he spent on the commission. (National Galleries of Scotland)
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE • Influential French literary figure • Poet and critic • Interest in the city and urban life as his subject matter • Believed that the city and the ‘underclass’ were important subjects for artists.
Baudelaire asked artists to forget painting historical or biblical subject – the life of the city was rich in subjects. He said - paint the underclass – he meant the urban poor who had coped with the radical social upheavals of modernisation. c1863 Baudelaire calls for artists to change their subject matter, and paint the new city, the underclass, the new ‘urban poor’
Edgar Degas The Absinthe Drinkers 1880 By this time we are no longer only seeing pictures of the new middle classes out strolling on the boulevards. ‘The underclass’ and working people, are also being pictured. Edgar Degas The Absinthe Drinkers 1880 By this time we are no longer only seeing pictures of the new middle classes out strolling on the boulevards. ‘The underclass’ and working people, are also being pictured.
The Technological City • The city of the twentieth century was celebrated by artists and photographers as a place of high technology – as a soaring, geometric vision, a place of the future • The interest in geometry was a celebration of manufacturing • Alvin Langdon Coburn was an important photographer in documenting the new city, and he had an innovative approach, photographing from strange and unfamiliar angles, and stressing the geometry and angularity of the new cityscapes
The City bombards the senses • As the twentieth century opened, new technologies enabled rapid travel whilst new electronic communication enabled contact between continents. The experience of the modern city was described by many theorists as a collision, a bombardment of the senses from all sides. This was apparent in all the arts – painting, photography and the cinema.
Robert Delaunay The Eiffel Tower 1909
The City Bombards The Senses Film was an ideal medium to show this collision. It did this through the technique of film montage. Images were juxtaposed together in rapid succession rather than the slow panning of the camera over a scene. The following films show this technique. Fritz Lang Metropolis 1926 Vertov Man with a Movie Camera 1920s Eisenstein October 1920s Strike 1920s
METROPOLIS • Metropolis is a 1927 German Expressionist film film in the science fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. • Produced in Germany • Set in a futuristic urban dystopia ( which is a repressive state that looks from the outside like a well functioning, utopian society) • Explores the social crisis between workers and owners in the context of capitalist society.
METROPOLIS • Set in the future • Metropolis a city - home to a Utopian society • Wealthy residents live carefree lives. • Central character spots a beautiful woman with a group of children, who quickly disappear • He follows her and is horrified to find an underground world of workers, who run the machinery which keeps the Utopian world functioning above ground • He learns that the woman wants to help the workers. He joins her in this desire • Celebration of Modern city – but fear of the new
METROPOLIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PAdQ5anhZE
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA • Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 silent, documentary film, with no story and no actors by Russian director DzigaVertov. • Vertov's film presents urban life in Odessa and other Soviet cities. • Soviet citizens are shown at work and at play from dawn till dusk. • The characters interact with the machinery of modern life. • This film is famous for the range of cinematic techniques • These include double exposure fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, extreme close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards and stop motion animations
