From family snapshots to magazine images of celebrities in their luxury homes, we can?t escape the power of the photograph. Helen Cadwallader explores the latest developments in photography as an artistic practice.
Since its invention in the 1830s, photography has become a ubiquitous medium of visual representation in both public and private life and for some, is considered quintessentially egalitarian. It has multiple uses and we engage constantly with it in our mass-mediated society. Photography is interwoven in newspapers, in the form of documentary reportage and social commentary; in magazines in many editorial applications; on billboards as a form of advertising; and through other mass-distributed publications. It is used as a mechanism to record and document in many industries and sectors including, for example, architecture, engineering and scientific imaging. Beyond these, photography is an essential part of our private lives where the family album and the snapshot are used to record the key moments of our lives. Given the panoptic scope and diversity of this medium, an understanding of photography as an artistic practice must address both the context of where and how we engage with it and the intention of the artist/photographer.
Digital revolution
Within the UK, the treatment and understanding of photography as a practice has undergone many changes within the funded visual arts infrastructure. In the late 1980s and early 1990s photographic practice was largely presented by a dedicated network of photography galleries, many of which have closed through loss of local authority funding. This period is also marked by the increased use of photography by contemporary visual artists and the opening up of the independent visual art gallery as a space to present work. The activity of photography and the photographic image as a means to represent the real world came under intense scrutiny through specialist critical debates. This was fuelled partly by the impact of digital imaging technologies which could replace all stages of the photographic process, from the moment of recording through to the final processing and manipulation of the image.
Digital imaging offers up endless possibilities for retouching, collaging and collating other visual and textual data to create multi-layered images and multi-media forms based on a still or fixed point of view. ?If photography is no longer linked to representing the ?real world? is this the end of photography as we know it?? was a key question at the heart of these debates during the 1990s. The private contemporary art market ? the dealer, critic, collector ? opened new opportunities for photography and selected artist photographers by placing value on the uniqueness of the photographic image and the limited edition. The German art market especially created a demand around and for the work of Anton Gursky, Bernd and Hilla Becher which influenced the British art market and the rise of leading artist photographers such as Paul Seawright, Peter Fraser, Paul Graham and Richard Billingham. The consolidation of a market around contemporary photographic practice also reinforced existing policy and encouraged new thinking in the development of photography collections held by leading institutions such as the V&A, the National Museum of Photography, Television and Film, and Arts Council England?s own collection.
An expanding field
The current context for the presentation of photography as a form of art practice incorporates both the independent visual arts galleries and the remaining dedicated photography galleries which have particularly addressed the expanded field of photographic practice to include the moving image and digital-based work such as Site Gallery, Sheffield. The Photographers Gallery, London and Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, have worked together on the very successful ?Year 1, Snapshot of Britain in the 21st Century?, in partnership with The Independent and Channel 4, broadcast during the summer of 2001 in five-minute slots following the seven o?clock news. The Photographers Gallery has developed new audiences through cinema exhibition, presenting slide programmes of relevant contemporary photographic work in the trailers before a film. Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, London, has worked in partnership with the Electronic Telegraph in presenting new work in a designated online gallery space. Impressions Gallery, York is pre-eminent in presenting challenging cross-cultural programmes which draw in a wide range of specialist interest groups. The recent solo exhibition ?Illustration of Life? by Max Kandhola opened up debates on diverse traditions and approaches to death.
Funding support
Many of these galleries have relied crucially on Arts Council funding for touring exhibitions. Grants for National Touring encourage the wider presentation of work, regional ambition and the development of curatorial skills. Recent examples include Focal Point Gallery in Southend on Sea, which has been able to promote new work by the emerging artist photographer John Timberlake.
Photographic practice has been further developed through Arts Council funds, for instance publications and magazines. Portfolio magazine, based in Scotland, is not only a space for specialist discussion of photography but also presents new work and emerging artist photographers. Photographic work utilising the Net and new media technologies has also been supported. For example, Roshini Kempadoo?s Virtual Exiles invites anyone who has moved from one country and culture to another to share recollections and memories by making contributions to this online space including photography, text, audio and digital video.
Alongside the galleries and magazines, agencies and networks play a crucial role developing new work and also promoting and advocating critical debate and discussion of photographic practice. A flagship promoter is Photoworks, Brighton, supporting artist photographers through commissions, residencies and publications. Photoworks was recently awarded Arts Council funds for a series of four monographs platforming for the work of emerging artist photographers. Autograph has an international remit with a specific focus on supporting Black and Asian artist photographers through residencies, publications and exhibition programmes in collaboration with art galleries. Seeing the Light in the West Midlands supports the professional development of artist photographers through portfolio review days in a mini annual festival: Rhubarb Rhubarb. This autumn, the Brighton Photo Biennial will present a major international festival of contemporary photographic practice including a touring exhibition, Make Life Beautiful, on the theme of the ?Dandy?. There will be new work by both emerging and established artist photographers, including Embassy Court, a publication by Phil Collins focused on his year-long engagement with political asylum seekers housed in a building which was once a leading example of Modernist architecture built during the 1930s.
Bold initiatives
The very success of photography makes it critical to consolidate what is a very specialised media with a very specific history. New curatorial talent is needed and new Arts Council England initiatives include the Photography Curatorial Fellowship in association with the University of Sussex awarded to Professor David Alan Mellor to work closely with the Hayward Gallery and the Arts Council Collection to establish a benchmark of excellence in photography curating. Arts Council International Artists? Fellowships in Photography are being established in association with the University of Sunderland to create opportunities for practice development for mid-career and emerging artist photographers.
Above all, we must establish centres of international excellence for photography in the UK. The future redevelopment and relocation of The Photographers Gallery, London is a high priority, as a dedicated venue for lens-based expanded photographic practice on a par with North American and European institutions. Likewise, there is potential to partner and maximise research resources through Higher Education and the new Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Photography in the 21st century is certainly not dead, but it has moved on. It is the chimera or shape shifter of Sci-Fi fiction. We must not underestimate its continual and profound significance in visual culture.
Helen Cadwallader is Visual Arts Officer: Media Arts at Arts Council England
e: helen.cadwallader@artscouncil.org.uk