Street photography has a long and varied history, encompassing such artists as Walker Evans from the 1930s, Robert Frank from the 1950s, and Garry Winogrand from the 1970s, each of whom, along with other practitioners, siezed the medium as their own and extended it, creating something new. Open City brings together the work of 19 artists to examine the history of street photography over the course of the last half-century. It takes as its starting point photographers such as Lee Friedlander and William Klein, who were instrumental in the development of a radical new approach to documentary photography, aided by the increasing portablility of camera equipment. For these and subsequent artists, the street has continued to hold an inherent fascination as a theater of human activity. Open City reflects the diversity of the work stimulated by this revolution: from Terry Donovan's advertising and fashion photography, to Susan Meiselas's photographs of war-torn Nicaragua and Raghubir Singh's vibrant and colorful images of his native India. Color, now considered a key tool for photographers, has only in recent years been legitimized, in part thanks to the work of American photographer William Eggleston during the late 1970s. Open City also includes the work of a newer generation of photographers, including the Turner Prize-winning Wolfgang Tillmans, and examines the the way in which contemporary practice continues to react to and build upon the tradition of street photography.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Russell Ferguson is a respected curator and writer. Formerly Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, he is now the Chief Curator at the UCLA Hammer Museum.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Exhibit Catalogue is a Mixed Bag,
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Open City: Street Photographs since 1950 (Paperback)
Published as a catalogue to an exhibit that debuted at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, this coffee-table book gathers the work of 19 photographers under the somewhat hazy concept of "street photography." If you are familiar with Roberto Rossellini's groundbreaking 1945 film, which lends its name to the book and exhibit, cocurators Russell Ferguson and Kerry Brougher were attempting to bring together work that explores the notion of the camera liberated from the carefully controlled confines of the studio. And as Ferguson puts it in his accompanying essay, "The city offers itself as ready-made compositions constantly formed new patterns, an endlessly regenerating trove of pictoral opportunity." Both his essay and Brougher's rather ably and briefly explain the history of technology in photography that led to the photographer's literal freedom, as well as the shifts in the art world that led to the photographer's artistic freedom to wander the streets looking for material. In both cases, there is a lot of overlap with motion pictures, especially the neorealist movement, cinema verite, and the French new wave. The two essays also provide brief overviews of the photographers included and their respective careers (an appendix also offers additional biographical detail on each).
However, the whole notion of "street photography" remains rather ill-defined and broad. The book includes cityscapes cluttered with people and cityscapes devoid of people, aerial shots, ground level shots, unstaged shots of real people, staged shots of models, combat photojournalism from Nicaragua, and conceptual work by Nikki Lee that has pretty much nothing to do with cities whatsoever. Indeed, the only organizing principle seems to be that the photos are outdoors and not obviously rural -- although in the case of Raghubir Singh's Indian photos, even the latter is violated. Which is not to say there's not some beautiful work here. The best is from some of modern photography's big names, such as Robert Frank's William Klein's gritty candid shots from the '50s, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand's beautifully composed work from the '60s, and bunch of vivid Eggleston shots from 1985. Legends of Japanese photography are present as well, with several pieces from Nobuyoshi Araki's 1963 series "Satchin and Mabo" and 1988 series "Tokyo Story", and Daido Moriyama's menacing late '60s work. There are some very good photos from Britain, including two from Thomas Struth, some very campy magaziney Terrence Donovan stuff, and two very nice early '50s shots from Nigel Henderson. The remainder of the work was rather less impressive and/or out of place. Adam Secula's series of workers walking up stairs in the '70s left me unmoved. Philip-Lorca Dicorcia's early '90s series of pedestrians in various cities were pretty unremarkable save a nice one of a shambling rough character in Los Angeles. Jeff Wall's recreated scenes look as fake as they are -- and seem kind of pointless on top of it all. Tomas Struth's two shots from China come off like good amateur work -- the kind of photos where the subject matter does all the work. Catherine Opie's wide format empty streetscapes didn't do much for me. Nikki Lee's conceptual series is interesting but out of place. Wolfgang Tillmans seems split between fashion photography and more interesting abstract stuff, the selections here vary. Raghubir Singh's work is uneven and out of place. Susan Meiselas's coverage of street combat in late '70s Nicaragua is immediate but also out of place. Finally, Beat Streuli's series of New York pedestrians is utterly banal. All in all, the essays are better than average and it's a decent taster's menu of photographers that might turn you on to someone new. However, the overall concept and selection don't really hold together very well. Few are likely to truly love the entire book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshing break from the norm,
This review is from: Open City: Street Photographs since 1950 (Paperback)
Finally, an exhibition about street photography OUTSIDE of New York City. Although there was certainly a bias for American photographers, one can argue that, as far as the Western world is concerned, America essentially invented the "street" aesthetic (thanks, particulary to Robert Frank) as a decisive rejection of documentary photography (a la the FSA years) and photojournalism. Regardless, it was really refreshing to see street photography from India, Asia, and Africa, and the color works by Raghubir Singh were my favorite, hands down. The only aspect of the show that the catalog cannot convey is the scale of the works. There is just this wonderful interaction that occurs when one can peer closely at the grain of an 8x10 print or marvel before a photo-light box that stretches beyond human scale.
This catalog is a treasure to me and I often return to Ferguson's essay as a touchstone for my own research. It has also introduced me to new photographers and inspired me to look beyond a single, isolated photographer in order to grasp an entire genre and its multitude of diverse practitioners.
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