Street and Studio exhibition

Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood. (Susan Sontag – On Photography)

My older brother studied Sculpture way back in the mid-late 1970s. He took a course in photography. I used to be his model. Coming home from school my brother would sit me down and take mainly portrait shots with his Nikon camera of me grinning inanely at the camera and he would get all technical, which,  to an eight year old would be meaningless. I remember these pix being part of his general portfolio for his degree, me in various stages of toothy grin and indeed they did have a natural look about them as opposed to studio posed.

Why I am taking this celluloid trip down memory lane is that visiting the Street and Studio exhibition at the Tate Modern reminded me of this. Street and studio photographs are different ways of seeing. They also offer different interpretations of the world. The posed world of the studio to the more naturalistic world of the street and how these two mediums can overlap. How these ways of seeing have developed and evolved over the years, and a snapshot of the shift and changes in social and political conditions.

Though technology has vastly improved, similar techniques have been used over the century in capturing the gaze. One aspect of Paul Strand’s photography was his desire to take pictures of people who weren’t aware of the camera. In a similar way that Walker Evans hid a camera along a street unknown to passers by whose anonymous expressions are caught on celluloid. Again, taking pictures when unaware and which capture a realistic glimpse of the ordinary is reflected in the up-close and personal take, by Wolfgang Tillmans, on the physical intimacy and the sense of dislocation of the crowded tube train.

Cindy Sherman combined both the ideas of street and studio photography by setting her personal observations and impersonations to a studio enviroment of the people on the bus she witnessed regularly.

Laurie Anderson used her camera as a political tool to retake the power back as a woman. Turning the tables of power relationships between men and women, and the ultimate idea of the female gaze. Everytime Anderson was harassed on the street she would turn her focus on them by taking their picture. Their behaviour went from cocky self-assuredness to nervous defensiveness when she pointed the camera in their faces. This dissipation of power is clearly shown in her pictures.

Other photographs in the exhibition included early police and prison mugshots (and a potted history of the invention) along with photo booths pix. Street photography encompassed the global everyday living from homeless people to workers going about their everyday business. To the prettified, formal and studio like street picture of royalty favourite Norman Parkinson’s Wenda.

Again, the technology has advanced over the past 150 or so years, but the scenes are similar. The expressions on the Edwardian woman walking through the park is no different to the expressions captured on the faces of contemporary woman. The social and polical landscapes have shifted and changed but how we look and present ourselves hasn’t.

Photographers like Lisette Model, who worked for Harpers Bazaar. She wanted to reflect the real life outside that counterposed the posed perfect studio environment. Her work influenced Diane Arbus.

The street photos were juxaposed with the studio photography, which created tension and comparisons. Helmut Lerski, influenced by Soviet film makers, created beautifully crafted portraits of ordinary people as opposed to famous actors. To the highly stylised portraiture of Cecil Beaton,  Erwin Blumenfeld and the energetic Philippe Halsman. Other work includes Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Jeff Wall, Jurgen Teller and Gillian Wearing. These photographers encompass both the posed studio enviroment to creating a connection between the street and the studio.

The photography of Weegee made an impact by his macabre and grand guignol style of photo-journalism as he made his living by listening to the police radio then travelling to crime scenes and shooting the scenes of death. But what stands out is his photograph titled Their First Murder (1941) as there are an array of expressions ranging from grief, shock, and fascination but all are clammering to get a glimpse of murder and their faces on camera.

There is much to see at this exhibition and you can become a bit overloaded by the visual. But nonetheless it was a useful examination of the studio and the street.