California Modernists

1. California Modernists Looking at Modernism and the f/64 Group

4. Modernism Vs Pictorialism Paul Strand Alfred Stieglitz Modernism the Rejection of Pictorialism Modernism– Exploiting Photography’s strengths of detail, sharpness and tone range to intensify realism Pictorialism- Photographers would try to emulate, or straight up copy, the styles, and effects of contemporary painters, drawers, and etchers – soft focus, heavy manipulation in the darkroom

5. ModernismThe Straight Approach (America) Tonal Quality Unmanipulated Image sharpness Personal Vision Detail Documentary Rejection of the academic art movements Recognising the purity of the medium Recognising photography as an independent art form Not borrowing techniques from artists

6. Paul Strand Quotes: “It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” “Look at the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive, it will mean something to you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness. If you let other people's vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph.”

7. ModernismThe New Vision (Europe) Experimenting with the medium Manipulation of imagery Photomontage / Photograms To see the world in new challenging ways Anti–art traditions Political tool Developed out of the horrors of WW1 Composed of fragmented images Influenced Dadaist and Surrealist movements Combination of photographs with modern typography and graphic design

8. ModernismThe New Objectivity (Germany) Tonal Quality Unmanipulated Focusing on the formal elements Image sharpness Detail Documentary Intensify realism Rejection of the academic art movements Recognising the purity of the medium Recognising photography as an independent art form Not borrowing techniques from artists

9. 1931 Modernism & California Modernists Lineage of California Modernism This period was heavily influenced by Moholy-Nagy and Pure Photography Precisionism The New Vision (Europe): Photography between the World Wars The New Vision (America): Precisionism ‘absolute unqualified objectivity’ – Moholy-Nagy term Emphasized material qualities of the real world Aesthetics influenced by Strand, Kertesz, Moholy-Nagy, experimental photography of avant-garde in europe.

10. Precisionists - A Visual Style Artists were associated through common style and subject, not a unified group or manifesto (like Photo Secession) Highly controlled approach to technique and form Reduced compositions to underlying shapes and geometric forms Partially influenced by photographers like strand, using sharp focus, unexpected viewpoints, emphasis on form (sometimes abstracted) Distinctly American – subjects were American landscape and regional culture U.S was expanding communications technology, industrial production and urban construction

11. Images from the early Precisionists focused on industrialspaces, architecture, buildings, and overwhelming urban sprawl. Photographs had clear outlines, minimal detail, and smooth handling of surfaces. Sharp focus and lighting, unexpected viewpoints and cropping, with an emphasis on the abstract form of the subject Worked on films with Paul Strand Charles Sheeler, 1915

12. ‘Precisionist’ Photographers of the West Coast On November 15, 1932, at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, 11 photographers announced themselves as Group f/64: AnselAdamsImogen Cunningham John Paul Edwards Preston Holder Consuelo Kanaga Alma Lavenson Sonya Noskowiak Henry Swift Willard Van Dyke Brett Weston Edward Weston

13. f/64 Manifesto The chief object of the Group was to present in frequent shows what it considers the best contemporary photography of the West; in addition to showing the work of its members, it included prints from other photographer similar to that of the Group. The name referred to the smallest aperture available in large-format view cameras at the time and it signalled the group's conviction that photographs should celebrate rather than disguise the medium's unrivalled capacity to present the world "as it is."  Differentiate from the New York Art Scene – something going on else where Exploration of the West …. Heavily influenced by straight photography. In reaction to Constructivists: “These cheap abortions … have nothing to do with Art, nor Life, nor Photography … I am in the mood to stir things up.” – Edward Weston

14. The camera was able to see the world more clearly than the human eye - it didn't project personal prejudices onto the subject. The group's effort to present the camera's "vision" as clearly as possible included advocating the use of aperture f/64 in order to provide the greatest depth of field, thus allowing for the largest percentage of the picture to be in sharp focus Contact printing, (a method of making prints by placing photographic paper directly in contact with the negative, instead of using an enlarger to project the negative image onto paper) Glossy papers instead of matte or artist papers, the surfaces of which tended to disperse the contours of objects.

15. Striving for aesthetic beauty Maximum depth of field Sharp Images Depicting life ‘as it is’ Carefully composed images Photographed the world around them Contact printing on glossy paper Emphasis on form Straight photographic procedure

16. Imogen Cunningham 1883 - 1976 A founding member of Group f.64, Cunningham was a pioneer of sharp-focus “straight photography” — a style which would usher the medium of photography into the modernist era. Only founding female member of f/64 Group Started in Pictorialism Moved to modernist approach after the Pictorialist era Hired to photographic scientific botanical specimens while studying at University

17. Studied at University of Washington in Seattle Her earliest prints were made in the tradition of Pictorialism Went onto study at Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany, from 1909 to 1910 1920s Cunningham began to change her style, creating close-up, sharply detailed studies of plant life and other natural forms. Her experiments with form allied her with other Modernist photographers at the time, and in 1932 Cunningham joined the association of West Coast photographers known as Group f.64.  Rejected the soft-focused sentimental subjects that were then popular. Was in favour of images which convey a “sensuous delight” in nature. She ran a portrait gallery and taught at several California art schools

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28. “I was poor. When you’re poor you work, and when you’re rich you expect somebody to hand it to you. So I think being reasonably poor is very good for people.”

29. Edward Weston Quotes: “Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.” “I start with no preconceived idea - discovery excites me to focus - then rediscovery through the lens - final form of presentation seen on ground glass, the finished print previsioned completely in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure - the shutter's release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation - the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all that I saw and felt through my camera.”

30. Edward Weston 1886 – 1958 Consider to be one of the great Modernists A very versatile photographer: Happily worked in Colour A master darkroom printer Diverse and talented photographer Master of light and shadow Photographed in any light – not necessarily the soft, easy, light that many other photographers waited for. Portraits Still life Landscape Nudes

32.  Weston became successful working in soft-focus, pictorial style; winning many salons and professional awards. Weston gained an international reputation for his high key portraits and modern dance studies. Articles about his work were published in magazines such as American Photography, Photo Era and Photo Miniature. 

34. In 1922 Weston visited the ARMCO Steel Plant in Middletown, Ohio. The photographs taken here marked a turning point in Weston’s career. During this period, Weston renounced his Pictorialism style with a new emphasis on abstract form and sharper resolution of detail. The industrial photographs were true straight images: unpretentious, and true to reality.

35. 1936 marked the start of Weston’s series of nudes and sand dunes in Oceano, California, which are often considered some of his finest work. 

36. “The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh.”

37. He could photograph any subject matter – he said he could “find beauty in anything.”

38. After moving back to California in 1926, Weston began his work for which he is most deservedly famous: natural forms, close-ups, nudes, and landscapes. Between 1927 and 1930, Weston made a series of monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages, bringing out the rich textures of their sculpture-like forms.

39. Ansel Adams Quotes: “Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.” “The [35mm] camera is for life and for people, the swift and intense moments of life.”

40. Ansel Adams 1902 - 1984 Custodian in Yosemite Japanese internment camps Born and raised in San Francisco Work extensively in Yosemite and helped to preserve Yosemite and other wilderness areas as National Parks. Environmentalist – Sierra Club A visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. An environmental hero and a symbol of the American West Inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and a strong conservation ethic. “A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.”

41. Adams was often criticized for not including humans in his photographs and for representing an idealized wilderness that no longer exists. 

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50. “Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies: but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the rooms of human spirit.”