In the 21st century digital age, it takes only two seconds to snap a picture on a cell phone or a digital camera. However, it was only about 50 years ago that photos required extensive time to process and develop.
At one of the Getty’s 10th anniversary exhibitions, “The Artist and the Camera,” which opened March 18, galleries of photographs from the Getty’s collection highlight the evolution of photography and the artist’s relationship with the camera.
While photographs now can be created by sleek, palm-sized, mini-computers, clunky square boxes were once the only means by which photographic art could be created. Although it is the lens that is the most important part of the camera, the Getty’s exhibit examines the importance of the camera apparatus in creating art.
“Cameras are different from the brushes used by painters or the tools used by traditional sculptors. They have a precise, but sometimes clumsy beauty that creates a special bond with their owners,” said Weston Naef, senior curator of the department of photography at the Getty Museum.
With the exhibit open through Aug. 10, “The Artist and the Camera” highlights the Getty’s photography collection and displays several old cameras donated by Los Angeles collectors Gloria and Stanley Fishfader. A main focus of the exhibit is one of Los Angeles-based photographer David Hockney’s most famous pieces, “Pearblossom Highway.”
“The idea of focusing on the artist and the camera (in this exhibit) was my answer to the challenge of being able to install our David Hockney “˜Pearblossom Highway’ in a suitable context that was also in keeping with the chronological survey approach for our “˜In Focus’ theme shows. I very much wanted to put “˜Pearblossom Highway’ on view as part of the 10 year anniversary of the Getty Center as it hasn’t been exhibited here since 1998,” Naef said.
UCLA professor of photography James Welling agrees that “Pearblossom Highway” creates a multi-layered photograph that is groundbreaking to the field.
“”˜Pearblossom Highway’ shows multiple points of view, which is actually closer to the way we see as humans,” Welling said.
While “Pearblossom Highway” serves as a highlight for modern art enthusiasts, the exhibit shows the evolution of photography with the display of rare daguerreotypes, or images created on a light-sensitive metallic plate, and paper prints dating from 19th century France and England through the 20th century. In the 1830s, photography’s birth meant the creation of experimental pieces, while the 20th century photography focused more upon how the photograph can visually document social change. The only common thread for all photographers really is their intimate relationship with the camera.
“I want the visitor to walk away, first, being amazed that cameras were once very much different than they are today and to marvel at how wonderful the pictures are that came from these simple boxes,” Naef said.
According to Welling, the power from the camera, however, comes not from the box itself, but from the lens.
“The basic lens design has pretty much stayed the same for hundreds of years,” Welling said. “I think the exhibition focused on how different types of lenses and the front side of the camera have changed. A Polaroid camera, for example, is a very simple little box and can make tons of separate exposures.”
Photographers, however, do not limit their artistic vision to just the photograph itself. Multimedia pieces, with negatives dissected and multiple photos layered on top of each other, are a form of expression used by artists with works on display such as Andy Warhol, David Smith and David Hockney.
“Another theme (of the exhibit) is the interplay between the processes of making something by hand and objects that couldn’t be created without a mechanical element,” Naef said. “A photographer often ends up having to use his hands to make the picture like a painter or sculptor does, while painters sometimes have a desire to simplify their process with the mechanical.”
With the progression of digital technology, however, the act of literally cutting and pasting has become less common.
“It’s become a lot easier to cut and paste with Adobe Photoshop. One idea embedded in the exhibition is that photographers and artists have always felt the desire to cut and paste photographs, which once was an elaborate manual process,” Naef said.
For Professor Welling, digital photography has not changed the photography field dramatically.
“Digital technology has one too many words. Technology is the basis of photography. Photography is only technology. From the beginning, the late 18th century, the early 19th century, it’s only been technologically based. Digital technology is just another wrinkle in how technology has evolved,” Welling said.
While this reduction of labor eliminates the connection between the photographer’s mechanical work and work by hand, the artistic integrity of the modern artist’s vision of multimedia works does not become compromised by the fact that a computer can now do what used to take the artist hours.
“Artists share one fundamental trait ““ being in control. There is no such thing as a great artist who does not want to be in control of the results,” Naef said. “So, what we will see in the digital era are people who become experts in the new technologies, whether it’s in using the scanner or in using digital output printing devices. They will learn how to use the new tools of picture-making to give shape to what they imagine.”
Witnessing the evolution of the Getty’s collection serves as a reminder that photography, no matter what era it’s from, has the power to transform that which is ordinary into something extraordinary.
“The reason that a curator organizes an exhibition is to make known what is unknown, to elevate perceptions about something that you think is beautiful, important and inspiring and do this for an audience that may have among them persons who previously may have had no idea that what you put before them even existed,” Naef said.