Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly

Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana
Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly Revolutionary Image: The
Photographs of Mario Algaze, Juan Rulfo, and Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Author(s): Benjamin R. Fraser
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Chasqui, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Nov., 2004), pp. 104-122
Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana
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PROBLEMS OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CRIT?
ICISMAND THE QUESTION OF A TRULY
REVOLUTIONARY IMAGE: THE PHOTO?
GRAPHS OF MARIO ALGAZE, JUAN RUL?
FO, AND MANUEL ALVAREZ BRAVO
Benjamin
University
"To collect
is to collect
photographs
the world"
R. Fraser
of Arizona
(Susan
On
Sontag,
Photography 3)
"A capitalist
refurnish
society
vast
a culture
requires
amounts
based
of entertainment
on images.
in order
It needs
to stimulate
to
buy?
ing and anesthetize the injuries of class, race and sex" (178)
Introduction: A Case Study of Mario Algaze
the moment
In privileging
of photographie
capture
over
the moment
of photographie
interpre?
tation, the critical analysis of photographs has left seemingly invisible discourses of power
undeveloped.1
A
case
study
of Mario
Algaze
will
permit
a preliminary
exploration
of
the
idea:
the booklet is amodest collection of 22 photographs titled The Spirit of Place all taken from an
exhibition in theGallery atMiami-Dade Community College North Oct 7-Nov 7, 1983. Shoere
1981.
1981. Brooms,
1981. Cotton Candy, Mexico,
Orizaba, Mexico,
pair, Cordoba, Mexico,
1974. The subjects of the lens are often, but
Paco:
Mexico,
help me with the tacos, Guanajuato,
To introduce
Latin American.
class. They are often, but not exclusively,
not exclusively,
working
the works,
Ricardo
The
Pau-Llosa
kind
souvenir
writes
that:
which
of photograph
Algaze
a stay of mutability.
of flux,
pursues
These
than a frozen
image, the
the
reveal
spirit of a
photographs
is more
of la Sra. Clara
here are the property
and reproduced
taken by Juan Rulfo
photographs
Juan Rulfo.
The
of la Fundaci?n
with
the authorization
and are published
de Rulfo
Alvarez
are
Colette
la
Sra.
of
Bravo
the
Alvarez
Manuel
taken
Urbajtel
property
by
photographs
to repro?
refused to grant permission
Mario Algaze
are are reproduced
here with her permission.
here.
duce his photography
^he
Aparicio
104
Benjamin R. Fraser 105
in human
moment
walls,
space
rooms,
plazas,
are usually
(the "subjects
artifacts)
shops,
human
streets,
cities,
beings,
as the
workings
as much
of consciousness
that graps [sic] this spirit. [...] His is not a tourist's eye giddy with compassion
comes
What
places.
for fallen
is not
in his photographs
through
the ardu?
simply
ous predicament of life in Latin America, but the unique scenarios inwhich life
reveals itslef [sic] in this part of theworld. (Pau-Llosa no pag., my italics)
If one
takes
as merely
these
are
they
photographer,
To begin,
the words
of
inconsequential.
these words
they are
exhibit
a Cuban-exile
by
indeed more.
the problematic
encapsulate
effectively
for an obscure
introduction
Yet
hermeneutics
of photography.
An image captured on film is thought to reveal, yet I argue thatwhat the photograph "reveals"
a constructed
is always
meaning
the viewer
by
negotiated
and
a web
of
cultural
approaches
shaped by what urban geographerDavid Harvey describes as five loci of consciousness formation:
the individual, the family, institutions, the state, and class (232-36). Applying cultural geographer
Sallie Marston's (2000) idea of scale as a social construction further sculpts photography's
and thoroughly
constructed
socially
sense
makes
of
the photograph
the national,
the regional,
Paco:
Algaze's
-
negotiated
through
the global
and
help me with
please
at the moment
meaning
the falsely
and
the viewer's
the tacos
of perception,
imagined
the urban,
to these
position
an innocent
is perhaps
the viewer
of the local,
referents
ontological
constructs.
and whimsical
look at the
life of children inMexico City. One child exits from a city restaurantkitchen not visible in the
with
overloaded
photograph
and
tortillas
a step
takes
down
a common
into
service
as
alley
another struggles to help him support the cumbersome load.Yet, to sociologist Erving Goffman's
white
unblushing
a "frozen
"arduous
not
In serving
tance
and
life
in Latin
image,
an
of
our own
as a reflection,
extension
male
the "tourist's
than
of
the self
America."
as
image
The
shaped
the photograph
the mere
a recent
with
record
for fallen
compassion
but rather a mirror
reality,
predicament
to project
able
that evokes
image"
it "reveals"
middle-class
protestant
is indeed
time
in the "unique
the photo
at the same
scenario"
it presents
of pictures.
within
discourses
Postcolonial
we
of greater
studies
that
of the
is a mirror
into which
photograph
as is our very consciousness.
is constructed
discourse
in sports,2
places"
are
impor?
to the way
testify
inwhich a discourse delineates and even defines the object of study.More than just aWeberian
platitude regarding how we find what we look for, or Lucien Goldmann's idea that themethod
delimits the object, Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) and FrancesAparicio and Susana Ch?vez
Silverman's
looking
In this
but
a way
becomes
graph
rather
Gallery
Transcultural
Tropicalizations:
at the other is never
light,
are better
reports
to naturalize
the comments
the hegemonic
made
contextualized
of Latinidad
Representations
neutral?viewed
ideologically
of Mario
of
gaze
Algaze's
in institutionalized
(1997)
these
through
imperialist
photographs
jest. The website
demonstrate
cultures.
cannot
be
as praise,
taken
for the Peter
Fetterman
that:
Algaze
real and
has developed
the surreal,
Alvarez
Bravo
writers
such
his version
from
and from
as Gabriel
studying
reading
Garcia
of "magic
realism,"
the images
the works
Marquez,
a combination
of both
of
legendary photographer
of several of Latin America's
Octavio
Paz,
and Carlos
the
Manuel
eminent
Fuentes.
on page
idea appears
128 of Stigma;
notes on the management
of spoiled
In
to the multifaceted
attention
of stigmatization
(1963).
Goffman
drawing
simultaneity
that one must
be all of these things
in order to remain
The
socially
un-stigmatized.
seems
to beg for more
qualification.
2This
that
the photo?
frameworks,
[...]
identity
asserted
list
itself
Problems of Photographic Criticism and theQuestion of a Truly Revolutionary Image
106
photographs
Algaze's
He
features
the cattle
capture
the essence
shops
and balconies
the cafes,
being
a nearby
on
herded
it is to live
of what
of
or
plain
in the Latin world.
the Latin American
the crumbling
(http://www.peterfetterman.com/artists/algaze/algaze.html)
are all grounded
in an imperialist
view of a land caught
as
as well
city
walls
a remote
of
village,
comments
These
unreachable
modernity.
to crumbling
Latin
What
if not
to beasts
a reference
through
of a Latin American
description
reference
without
walls;
America
a
would
to literature
are people
How
of burden?
of "magical
a rock and an
between
artist be without
realism"
reference
to make
sense
of
its anti
that despite
imperialist intention has become "contrived exoticism for PC Americans" (Viveros-Faune 21).
Mario
Algaze's
void
but come
the photographer
of
that even
suspect
and not merely
our conception
that surround
is a reading
that there
time
is not
role
Algaze's
views
for hegemonic
The
neutral.
of the exotic whatever
"support,"
because
of the frozen
image.3
on Algaze's
imposed
in an ideological
do not exist
all photographs,
generally
evidence
have?"evidence,"
may
the same
At
to provide
ruminations
scientific
and more
photographs,
instead
intentions
the mythology
one may
work,
written
statement,
following
of
somehow
by Michael
Koetzle and taken from thewebsite for theCulturalDevelopment Group, implies that theremight
be
on his part:
self-tropicalization
Algaze's
no camera,
no television,
technology
[sic] rarely present
photo
or car. He
captures the condition appropriatelydescribed as "magic realisnTin the best Latin
American
tradition.
and quiet,
peace
the muse
of waiting
it is a world
In a way
a world
in which
governs.
what?
for
Mario
Algaze
not
does
of
and
tell.
italics)
my
(http://www.cdgfl.org/members/algaze,
the calmness
and where
walks
everybody
Waiting
a world
to industrialization,
prior
Leafing through his pictures, it is not hard to believe thathe consciously wants to present Latin
le's re-tropicalized
was
also
hand,
and having
happy
even
if he
What
the viewer's
to draw
perhaps
he
fun. Even
After
of modernity.4
interpretation
so, his pictures
to communicate
anything.
study
of, not
all, as Sontag
Once
the works
have Koetz?
notes,
Antonioni
realism"
realm of cultural
Latin America
apart from
of Mexican
now
the "magical
again
into a friendly
representing
take on a meaning
we
over which
an agenda
as enigma.
is not consciously
is a postcolonial
intends
follows
the trappings
for avoiding
appears
the other
past,
pre-industrial
of Latin America
description
reproached
denomination
On
of an idyllic
as evocative
America
but merely
that which
photographers,
he
politics.
trigger
intends,
but
the
of
study of those works. I will show how through seemingly scholarly research, photographs
we hear about, but doubt,
furnish evidence.
Something
"Photographs
the camera
of its utility,
of it. In one version
shown a photograph
murderous
in
the
use
Paris
the
with
their
record
roundup of the
by
police
Starting
states in the surveillance
became a useful tool of modern
in June 1871, photographs
Communards
In another version of its utility, the camera
mobile
and control of their increasingly
populations.
a given thing happened.
The
record justifies. A photograph
passes for incontrovertible
proof that
a presumption
that something
exists, or did exist, which
picture may distort; but there is always
3Sontag
seems
has written:
proven when
incriminates.
is like what's
in the picture."
paying
pulling
(On Photography
5)
was
for photographing
things that were old, or old-fashion?
reproached
discarded
and blackboard
walls
newspapers
long ago';
sought out and took dilapidated
in the fields,
to big and small tractors working
'no attention
[he] chose only a donkey
a stone roller" (On Photography
170).
4"Thus Antonioni
ed?'he
we're
Benjamin R. Fraser 107
Mexico by JuanRulfo andManuel Alvarez Bravo have been brought into a familiar framework
of marginalization
scholars.
by powerful
textual
Deconstructing
of such photography,
explanations
this paperwill attempt to dismantle not only the pernicious idea thatphotographymight capture
a truth, but also
that itmight
ly or discursively.
The
mean
of the context
outside
something
of viewing
problems
these photographs
in which
will
be
it is placed,
shown
to be
visual?
those
same
problems of the photograph generally. Attributing to a photograph the idea of truth is dangerous
because as a static image it does nothing to protest the discursive webs of power that find in it
their own reflection. Admittedly the problem here is not to be found only in photography, but
rather in all cultural products distributed in themarkets of late-capitalism.Antihegemonic songs
as the Beatles'
such
"Revolution"
may
be used
to sell
shoes.
Iggy Pop's
Vietnam
song
protest
"Search and Destroy" was likewise used for creating profit. The Dead Kennedy's "Holiday in
was
Cambodia"
force
to being
close
in a consumer
society
that are necessary
words
not much
help
used
where
in a jeans
commercial.
an
hides
image
in understanding
its meaning.
is to understand.
if the task
Yet
a thousand
Narratives
As
the photograph
and
words,
Sontag writes,
can make
acquires
it just may
"[P]hotographs
us understand"
a special
be
those
[...]
(Regarding
are
89,
italics).5 This metacritical paper will explore the application of this statement to what is
my
recognized
as "Mexican"
photography.6
As
I have
found
no other
studies
particularly
to
relating
the criticism of Mexican photography criticism, the following analysis will be largely unsupple
mented by secondary critical material other than that of the theoretical framework outlined
above.7
5Sontag
is writing
more
"Harrowing
photographs
if the task is to understand.
here of war photographs.
The
specifically
do not inevitable
lose their power to shock. But
Narratives
can make
us understand.
entire
reads:
quotation
they are not much
help
else:
do something
Photographs
they haunt us" (89). Her analysis, however, is just as valid for the relationship between all
photography and narrative. Bill Jay (1992) makes the samepoint "We constantly need reminding
are not narrative
that photographs
in function,
and when asked to perform
in this role, they need
In fact, an important point must be stressed: The source of much disturbance
words.
in photogra?
the image
with the image making
the words
phy is created by the words which
accompany
up
words always accompany
the photograph,
close, real and actual" (39). Furthermore,
with caption
or without,
in the sense that the moment
of photographic
an act of
is necessarily
interpretation
narrative.
6This paper
without
paying
fails
in the sense
attention
yield similarly
important
of Lola Alvarez
criticism
to issues
results.
Bravo's
that it looks at the construction
of "Mexican"
photography
of gender and sexuality.
I think, however,
that these issues will
A future study may
look at the representation
in the
of gender
photographs.
7For a thorough
look into the trends of photography
that critics
(1999). Bossen
Eisinger
(1976) shows inarguably
Yet neither his conclusion
that "What specifically
'triggers'
is not
the same
or Szarkowski
thing"
attempts
of
(164) nor his explanations
to shed light on the mechanism
criticism
in the United
are motivated
Status,
see
concerns.
by differing
each critic, clearly
within
meaning
the specific concerns
of Coleman,
Kozloff
of
interpretation
itself.
Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly Revolutionary Image
108
The Mexican Photograph
While
Manuel
are many
there
Alvarez
are
there
Bravo,
consistently
address
notoriously
avoid
Mexican
Bravo
and Juan Rulfo
studies
of Mexican
of those
hermeneutic
addressing
such as artistic
perhaps
concerns,
influences
composition,
none
attention,
that explicitly
on elements
instead
and models,
as
such
to photographers'
introductions
focusing
artists
the most
capturing
Photography;
The
images.
with
photographers,
panoramic
the interpretation
production
graph's
individual
Lola Alvarez
few
relatively
on
studies
and
works
of the photo?
and symbolism.8
themes,
Consider Rogelio Villareal's (1981) comment that
de
los pr?logos
tos y redundantes
There
y poetizadas
de entrada,
mina,
Pocas
real de
la obra
posibilidad
en que
las ocasiones
son congruentes.
one panoramic
is, however,
work
regalan
lo com?n
por
la obra
de
descripciones
cualquier
son
an?lisis.
nos
los libros fotogr?ficos
de valoraci?n
lo escrito
(7, original
cr?tica
concep?
elogiosos
en cuesti?n,
lo que discri?
de
o, simplemente,
en el pr?logo
y la interpretaci?n
emphasis)
of attention.
worthy
Fuga mexicana (1994) by Olivier Debroise, appearing inEnglish asMexican Suite: AHistory
inMexico (2001) is as translator Stella de S? Reg? notes "the first history of
Photography
of
to treat the subject broadly, from its origins in the nineteenth century to
in
Mexico
photography
the
last quarter
the
of
twentieth
"This
(ix).
century"
in English."
such history
the first
"becomes
Debroise's
she
book,"
ouvre
continues
in the translation,
a mile
is certainly
as
marker,
in
addition topresenting thehistory of photography inMexico through images, he iswell aware that
the lattermust be placed in context, implicitly acknowledging hermaneutic problematics through?
out
somewhat
the text, albeit
sporadically.
reiterates
He
Crimp's
Douglas
words
of caution
that
photography not be subordinated to the hegemony of "aestheticizing criteria" (4).Mexican Suite
is thus a mixture
of
those
taken by "pragmatic
those
label "photography."9
8The introductions
snapshots
camera
Following
of and
borne
operators"
a line from
to the works
labeled
as
as well
sensibility
of the
is that both are worthy
the artistic
(4), and the insistence
Bravo
of com
to the advent
in Mexico
the daguerreotype
and Alvarez
of Rulfo
by
listed here
at continuation
have
largely lived up to this statementwith the particularity of drawing out the Indigenist project of
These
common
to many
of the major Mexican
frameworks,
photographers.
representation
stand
instead of its interpretation,
of the photograph
of composition
the moment
in privileging
in the works of the photographers
for those interested
largely outside of my interest. Nevertheless,
cultural
discussed
(1983);
here,
Mario
it will
Algaze
suffice
portofolio
to mention
a few
Latinoamericano
collections.
(1991).
The Spirit of Place
Algaze:
Juan Rulfo:
Juan Rulfo:
homenaje
Mario
nacional (1980); Inframundo: elM?xico de Juan Rulfo (1983); M?xico: Juan Rulfo fot?grafo
Bravo: Dreams,
Alvarez
Visions, Metap?
letras e im?genes
Juan Rulfo:
(2002). Manuel
(200\);
su
Alvarez Bravo:
el artista,
Alvarez Bravo
hors: The Photographs
(1983); Manuel
of Manuel
For
sol
Mucho
Bravo
Alvarez
de
Manuel
sus
mirada
La
(1989).
(2002);
obra,
tiempos (1991);
Los inicios de la
American
studies of Mexican/Latin
in panoramic
those interested
Photography:
desde 1860 hasta nuestros
latinoamericana
en M?xico:
1839-1850
(1989); Fotograf?a
fotograf?a
d?as (1982);Mexican Suite: A History of Photography inMexico
Mexican
Contemporary
9
An
(2001); and Between Worlds:
(1990).
Sara Facio
by Argentine
camera
taken by "pragmatic
article
photographs
Photography
a prime example
In "Juan Rulfo:
operators."
provides
of
Sus
the aestheticization
fotograf?as"
we
of
find:
Benjamin R. Fraser 109
mercial studios throughmore modern image creation techniques, Debroise the photo-historian
pauses to supplement the tracing of importantfigures and periods with the acknowledgement of
broader
ties
'aesthetic
the outset
from
and criticism.
it to an emotional
the
"reconstitute
was
contexts
themes,
inMexico
His
sublime
moment'"
experienced
(56).
of landscape
the photographer
by
he does
Though
for exploratory
employed
of the emergence
discussion
discuss
how
and expansionist
purposes
who
photography
to
is "inspired"
landscape photography
moves
or
by Europeans
Americans inMexico itself, he ismore concerned with describing this approach to "the terrain
of the purely aesthetic" (59) instead of drawing attention to landscape photography as extension
of colonizing
insistence
His
activity.
most
lucid
remarks
and quotations,
has contributed...
that "photography...
as Luis
such
to the development
cited
Santamar?a's
of tourism"
(65) punctuate
the end of subsections instead of providing an analytical foothold to then pursuemore deeply the
connection
between
the reception
of
images
and colonizing
actions
and
ideas.
In a discussion
of
photographs of semiclothed Indianwomen from the 1800s he acknowledges that"[t]hese pseudo
ethnological portraits are related to a concept of primitivism and tropical exoticism thatwas
common throughout the nineteenth century" (114), yet his argument ultimately periodizes
primi?
tivism relegating its influence to thepast and ignoring its present forms, an error that this article
will correct. In the end, Debroise sidesteps the issue of interpretationby unequivocally affirming
the iconic
and
indexical
trast to the portrait,]
to a special,
direct
of
aspects
with
relationship
over
the photograph
the photograph?whether
produced
"reality"
the discursive
or
and negotiated:
electronically
generated?lays
"[in con?
claim
(243).
Mexican Suite, likemost photographic criticism, is fundamentally structured to privilege the
moment
of photographic
capture.
Nevertheless,
once
shot,
the negotiated
and discursive
aspect
of the photograph predominates, just as it does with other more overtly "fictional" cultural
products such as film and the novel. As I show with criticism of Rulfo and Alvarez Bravo's
photographs in the following sections, the failure to privilege themoment of photographic recep?
tion produces a fracture in the interpretationof images.Ultimately, in treating the
photograph as
a thing,
as how
in reifying
our
ideas of
its content,
it have
we
been
the path
neglect
shaped
by powerful
along which
discourses
it has
on
traveled
place,
to reach us as well
nation,
self and other.
The Photographs of Juan Rulfo and the Negotiation of Otherness
JuanRulfo, the celebrated author of El llano en llamas (1953) andPedro P?ramo (1955) as
well as other texts such as El despojo and La f?rmula secreta and even a film
scriptEl gallo de
oro, became known for his photographs in the 1980s with the publication of Inframundo: el
M?xico de Juan Rulfo (1983). His photos have been published as well inJuan
Rulfo: homenaje
Ante
paciencia
que tienen
Ten?a
tantas
para
consultas
esperar
los buenos
buena
terminante:
"Yo nunca
tuve
declar?,
[Juan Rulfo]
que un p?jaro se pare en una rama, ni ocurrencias
similares
Yo ten?a ojo, cuando
ve?a la foto disparaba.
fot?grafos.
eso es todo, no hay otra historia".
punter?a,
Creemos
es el conocimiento,
el amor, la necesidad
que la otra historia
de
"retratar" a su pa?s y a su gente. En palabras
y en im?genes.
(113)
We can see how in
Rulfo's
work Faci? also is easily led to
aestheticizing
photographie
explicitly
nationalize
his concerns
for "su pa?s" and "su gente."
In what follows
of this article I will
show
that these
concerns
are
intimately
related.
Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly Revolutionary Image
110
nacional, Juan Rulfofot?grafo (1995) andM?xico: Juan Rulfofot?grafo (2001).Numerous critics
have written
Fuentes,
Fraser,
tance
Alberto
Jorge
Jos? Emilio
Monsiv?is,
texts
Lozoya,
Eduardo
Fernando
Naranjo,
and Elena
Pacheco,
of the visual
the relation
regarding
the Rulfian
Jorge Alberto
Glantz,
Margo
Howard
between
the relation
of
and his photographs,
V?ctor
Rivero,
Billeter,
Carlos
invaluable
a discipline
to the study of literature,
image
Erika
M?rquez,
are of
studies
These
Poniatowska.
Garc?a
Gabriel
Benitez,
them Carlos
among
Jim?nez,
impor?
that for too
long has been isolated from the plastic arts.Yet looking atRulfo's photographs allows the viewer
of cultural
patterns
in a way
in voyeurism
to participate
political
Said's
In this vein,
relevant
and
grounded
is easily
image
that perhaps
scholarship
is viewed
that which
defines
and Ch?vcz-Silverman's
of the essentializing
critiques
The
as "other."
are well
Tropicalisms
that constructs
gaze
to
turned
conscious?
through
powerfully
and Aparicio
Orientalism
cannot.
fiction
domination
but nevertheless
unconsciously,
ly, perhaps
that his prose
and economic
the "noble
savage"
as
that
the
object of study.
considered
Said,
as one
by many
of
of postcolonial
the founders
noted
studies,
Orientalist "writes about"whereas theOriental "is written about" (92).With this inmind, it is
that Rulfo's
apparent
taking
a certain
involves
Mexico
and Ch?vez-Silverman
al gestures
of
social
status"
write
subjects
who
is in a sense
(10). Rulfo,
native
not specifically
write
about
a subaltern
region
of Jalisco
as "the
representation?
referring
to Rulfo,
'other'
those with
and
himself
of
and other parts
are best understood,
these photographs
of the other. Perhaps
"writing"
as Aparicio
subaltern
of his own
photographs
even
less power
subaltern
another
appropriating
and
other.
Nevertheless, his photos are easily incorporated intonational ideas of thatwhich isMexican. His
subjects
to use Said's
are,
on the Oriental,
words
as fixed,
"given
in need
stable,
of investigation,
and even in need of knowledge about [themselves]," (93) although this knowledge poses the
specific epistemological problems of photography and not traditionalhistoriography.
Border
G?mez-Pe?a
Guillermo
brujo
notes
of Latino
as
art that it "is described
terms
all euphemistic
cited in Tropicalisms
etc,
for
'colorful,'
irrationalism
'exhuberant,'
'baroque,'
'mysterious,'
'passionate,'
same ideas
and primitivism
51,
5). These
Paradigm"
("The Multicultural
can aestheticize
the
the
In
Rulfo's
of
out
in
discussion
them,
voyeur
viewing
photographs.
play
a
in
their
a
rural
of
sense,
possess,
landscape,
peasantry,
lifestyle
dignified
primitive
supposedly
in the past symbol?
rootedness
and ruminate on a backward
their vision,
people whose
appropriate
them to a "modern" people of the present.
ruins contrasts
ized by surrounding
Erika Billeter writes of Rulfo:
S?lo
en sus
lo que le suger?an sus ojos. Esta libertad se hace perceptible
captaba
de Tulantongo
en las imponentes
cascadas
en los paisajes
y San
heroicos,
y en los troncos de ?rbol gasta?
Potos?, en los cactos de formas extravagantes
tomas:
Luis
dos
el mar,
por
que
como
[?l] percibe
un signo
m?gico
de
la naturaleza...
(42,
my italics)
Talk
of magical
of the savage,
signs
and
of nature
the savage
is primitivizing
by extension,
double-speak
within
a hegemonic
for a discourse
dichotomy
that locates
of nature
the land
vs. culture,
term
neutral
in the apparently
encapsulated
spirituality,
"modern"
of
more
institutionalized
of
to
absent
is
patterns
accepted
categories
opposed
"magical,"
over the former.
ritual that are at once privileged
a sombre?
man wearing
en un pueblo
of an almost-profiled
shows a mid-shot
Rulfo's Hombre
and
as the background
the side of an old building
ro and standing,
his back to a wall,
captures
in the face of this man for exam?
In the faces of those photographed,
a mountain
in the distance.
of pre-modern
ple,
an
vs. modern
imperialist
gaze
The
savage
sees pure
aesthetics.
Fuentes
writes
of Rulfo's
captured
faces Xada
I
Si
o.
i
E
?
%
I
1
Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly Revolutionary Image
112
hombre,
o ni?o
mujer
se niegan
a reversal
suggest
or to admire.
to gawk,
the exotic
These
The beauty
is a rationalization
itself
beautiful
and
view
to
aestheticized;
status.
normative
supposedly
to
is invited
is the exotic
colonizing
que
photographer,
or she
He
of this gaze
privileged
a proper
befitting
las formas
as if this were
itself. The
to observe.
in the object
of the viewer's
in the manner
are,
figures
seen
de
the native
for
in the landscape
to contemplate,
is allowed
la belleza
posee
transcendent
entrenched
relationships
so the critic,
de fotos
colecci?n
is somehow
(15). Beauty
of the power
more
and perhaps
stare,
de esta maravillosa
ser olvidadas"
of the natives,
full
of dignity.
La maravillosa
a su estar
nes
enraizadas
a
itself
retrata Rulfo
que
han durado
en cincuenta
the noble
of
requisite
retratadas
transforma.
15, my
(Fuentes
is at once
savage,
que
Las construccio?
El rascacielos
siglos.
a?os.
no es ajena
por Rulfo
y el tiempo
configure
es ruinosa.
la novedad
el espacio
que
son eternas,
a desaparecer
est? destinado
of dignity,
humanas
las figures
las ruinas
y espa?olas
ind?genas
reciente
to speak
Yet
ante
de M?xico:
Paradoja
de
dignidad
m?s
italics)
to condescend.
The
concept of 'dignity'has the implicationof unmediated simplicity and is embedded in the imperi?
alist
false
makes
a contrast
explicit
a distinction
a sense
are more
structures
on
perfection
the perverse
escape
Perhaps
past
over
This
claim,
of modern
constructions
of a hegemonic
logic
of the past. The
even practical.
That
dyad.
in
accepting
denouncement
grandiose
of the structures
as well,
here,
skyscrapers,
His
present.
the part
thought-out.
Fuentes
totality.
and "modern"
and a transitory
an indigenous
to valorize
as it cannot
hollow
a
are better
pure. They
structures
indigenous
a solid past
to imply
in seeking
it does well
rings
between
between
seems
of the "modern"
vs. primitive/univocal
modern/multifaceted
dichotomy
older
though
capitalism,
may
skyscrapers
be destined to disappear in 50 years is not accounted for by their shoddy craftsmanship, or the
vation,
time and increase wealth,
turnover
on the search
for better
must
appear
of an intellectual
of
privileged
space
visit
existent
the
contrast
for reasons
that chooses,
change.
between
The
directly
document
and
de
inalienable
la ruina misma;
del acto meduzante
poseen
del fot?grafo"
las cualidades
but
the people
abandonado,
la piedra,
stripped
of value
by
This
ignored
Revolution.
stripping
the porfiriato,
right up to the present. Under
to have
This attitude was thought
and demonized.
last 500 years
Jos? Vasconcelos
advocated
for
change
the
on
this
implicitly
are its inhabitants,
"Sus
son
la expresi?n
a trav?s
y as? se han quedado
sino
The implication
emphasis).
the landscape
and linked with
the conquest.
geogra?
that attracts
who
land equated with the past
of it.
lives outside
graph just as they lead static unchanging
a
are
the
reaction
some
above
of
all
In
sense,
against colonization,
to a people
section,
to urban
elaborates
que
is that the inhabitants
(31, original
of an abandoned
in the gaze
at the start of the next
them. Rivero
de
preser?
is grounded
implies
and premodern,
modern
discussed
subsequently
and ties it together with
preservation
solo viven entre las ruinas de un mundo
no
are always
of historic
geography
Fuentes
contrast
latter. The
of historic
habitantes
to
In order
housing,
speculative
in contrast
of historic preservation,
an indigenous
past. Geographies
such is the money-making
but because
are frozen, not naturally,
game
to view,
of sustain?
space.
to valorize
phies,
"modern"
very method
reshaping
including
constantly
to fuel
in order
static
class
businesses,
These
implies.
whose
and
the shaping
must
capitalism
in an ontologically
then, not
of a late-capitalism
locations.
of urban
geography
as Fuentes
the road
down
further
formation
and destruction,
in the creation
lies
decrease
The
to think
are part of the landscape
itself
ing
their creators
of
inability
structures
was
culture
indigenous
in 1925 with
in the photo?
trying to restore dignity
has continued
the
through
of value
diminished
are static
some
La
raza
due
suppressed,
to the Mexican
c?smica.
Orozco,
Benjamin R. Fraser 113
Siqueiros and Rivera laudedMexico's indigenous past and present, conquering public space in
the name of the downtrodden. The Social Cinema of the 1940s and 50s also sought to valorize
the indigenous, with Pedro Infante playing the titular role in Ismael Rodriguez's film T?zoc
Yet,
(1957).
the intention
despite
work
change,
the muralists'
portrays
an "indio" who
Wild
one
to colonization
(relevant
state of relations
if not
of marginalization,
have
outright
is that "To the colonialist
here
offensive
is that these
social
for
T?zoc
Mexico.
cartoon
image
the Zapatistas
cultural
terms
in the very
of
the colonized
the veil,
against
and
government
problem
the colonized
catalysts
'authentic'
like the Saturday
grunts
The
violence.10
become
of an
view
the central
between
of
would
projects
in animal
to speak
had
always
artistic
a commodified
communicates
barely
current
The
Smurf.
that these
in a sense
has
is
reactions
the colonizers
the cult
opposes
of the veil" [From Fanon's A Dying Colonialism, qtd. Said 101]). In having to do so, this dis?
course has likewise linked the native to the land and the past while solidifying the oppressor's
over
claim
Rulfo's
the domains
Photos
The
of these
efforts
link rural peasants
Mexicos.
many
cuentan
"no
with
one
As
and future.
of present
nada"
intellectuals
are perhaps
the concept
of nation.
critic
notes,
Rulfo
yet are problematic
good-natured,
It has been
said
a certain
is capturing
view
as they
is not one Mexico
that there
of
try to
but
the nation:
no hace
Juan Rulfo
literarias. Sus fotos no cuentan nada. S?lo mues?
fotograf?as
a los hombres
los cam?
y su tierra. Rulfo expresa el M?xico
Indio,
su
en
vida
cotidiana
el
sus
le
salen
al
durante
y
campo; gentes que
paso
tran. Muestran
pesinos
caminatas
por
una tradici?n
los pueblos.
propia
Son esos mismos
en la
fotograf?a
temas atemporales
mexicana
[...] Lo ?nico
que ya cuentan
que var?a
con
es la pers?
pectiva con la que cada fot?grafo se aproxima a su pa?s. (Billeter 40, my italics)
Yet,
however
art attempts
much
to claim
in national
space
discourse
for the underprivileged,
this
space will always be dominated by those with power. If the photos don't tell a story, then the
story told by themwill be open to interpretation.Onls, both critics seem to be drawing attention
to general trends inRulfo's photos. The juxtaposition of these two visual
readings shows just how
much this type of analysis depends on the critic's preconceived notions about the
photographic
image.
then it can also
image is in some sense a mirror, a reflection of personal
opinion,
a
in fact necessarily
reflection
of
dominant
discourses.
The
of
Rulfo's
is,
subjects
photo?
at the national
scale only by their conflation with tourist narratives
graphs are imbued by meaning
of visual
These
observations
the subjects of Rulfo's
are predicated
spectacle.
regarding
photos
If the visual
be, and
on
the nature
of a certain
type of relationship
between
the viewer
and the object
viewed.
Sontag
writes:
As
photographs
also
help
an imaginary possession
of a past that is unreal,
give people
they
to take possession
of space in which
Thus,
they are insecure.
in tandem with
one of the most
characteristic
of modern
develops
people
photography
activities,
tourism.
[...] A way
a way
refusing
it?by
,0Digna Ochoa,
of
lawyer
of certifying
limiting
for the Zapatista
experience
cause was
tp://www.creatividadfeminista.org/especiales/digna_amenazas.htm)
is also
experience,
taking photographs
to a search for the
photogenic,
by
found murdered
on Oct
19, 2001.
(ht
Problems of Photographic Criticism and theQuestion of a Truly Revolutionary Image
114
converting
into an
experience
a souvenir.
image,
Travel
a strategy
becomes
for
accumulating photographs. (OnPhotography 9)
There is a further problem in that the image cannot dictate its interpretation."This is just as
problematicwith images of architectural references to the built environment as it iswith images
V?ctor
of people.
has
Jim?nez
the preponderance
noted
to architecture
of references
in Rulfo's
photos.12Yet how different can his pictures of theAztec temples be from pictures of those same
places in touristbrochures, on touristwebsites, or in family photographic albums that testify to
the bourgeois need to document their control over space? Consider that Sontag has written:
Photography is the only major art inwhich professional training and years of
do not
experience
confer
an
inexperienced?this
reasons,
over
advantage
insuperable
for many
them
among
the untrained
the large
role
and
the
that chance
(or
luck) plays in the taking of pictures, and the bias toward the spontaneous, the
rough, the imperfect. (Regarding 28)
of a picture
The meaning
that
iconically
represents
not
is dependent
something
on
the way
in
which the object is framed nor the degree of light/darkcontrast, but rather on the perceptions of
the viewer
sense
upon making
the culturally
of
constructed
embedded
meanings
therein.
This
an
perception is framed through negotiation of arbitrarilymotivated signifiers, the ideas that
uncritical use of language has formed about space and place (See Nemet-Nejat (2003), p. 51).
Yet, let one not think as did the Tart? School of Semiotics (I. Lotman and B. Uspenski
among others), that our interpretation of the visual is filtered through the primary modeling
of
system
that poses
tive scientists
to this view
In opposition
language.
as only
language
I cite
one
the semiotic
of many
model
more
that
sign-systems
accepted
inform
by cogni?
our perception
of reality, and definitely not themost important.Pier Paolo Pasolini, film director and philoso?
actions.
pherwrites inHeretical Empiricism that the first language of humans is the language of
Though
he is writing
his assertion
regarding
o? cinema
code
that the semiotic
is the semiotic
code
of reality, said assertion is still applicable to still photography. The still photograph represents
an action, albeit one frozen. The meaning of a photographic image of the temple of Ehecatl is
not
temple
necessitates
11
Sontag
of
the viewer
is "here,"
an understanding
These
perception.
that are necessarily
"Here
rather
as outside
and cognitively
visually
If the
but
of Ehecatl"
"temple
frameworks
predicated
of
is the temple
the immediate
must
the object
themselves
on historical
be
experience
"there."
viewed
is categorized
The temple
the photo.
of the one who views
of Ehecatl."
This
through
are institutionally
deictic
already
motivated
distinction
established
conceptions
is what
a priori
frameworks
of
of difference
violence.
is that, while
it can goad
of the world
limit of photographic
knowledge
or
The
be
ethical
it can, finally,
through
knowledge
gained
knowledge.
conscience,
political
Itwill
whether
will always be some kind of sentimentalism,
still photographs
cynical or humanist.
a
a semblance
of appropriation,
of knowledge,
semblance
at bargain prices?a
be a knowledge
of rape" (On Photography
semblance
23-24).
"The
writes:
never
tambi?n
la cantidad de
de fotograf?as
tomadas por ?l era notable
zonas
conventos
de
M?xico:
la
arqueol?gicas,
objeto
arquitectura
12"Entre las miles
que
ten?an
coloniales,
como
arquitectura
popular,
arquitectura
contempor?nea..."
(Jim?nez
1)
las mismas
e iglesias
Benjamin R. Fraser 115
The Photographs of Manuel Alvarez Bravo and the Rhetoric of National Difference
Manuel Alvarez Bravo is perhaps themost well knownMexican photographer.Born in 1902
inMexico City, his work has only little in common with that of Rulfo. Gone, for themost part,
are the windswept
of
documents
and rural peasants
plains
that in Rulfo
era farmers
the depression
Let Us Now
recalled
Praise
James Agee
Famous
and Walker
Men.
Rather
Evans'
his pictures
range from the indigenist landscape photo to touch upon class war explicitly: El d?a seis conejo
(1940) presents a barren landwith a solitary mound off in the distance composed of equal parts
sky and soil while Obrero en huelga, asasinado (1934) frames a mid-shot of the torso of an
assassinated worker lying boca arriba with a trail of blood leading towards the very viewer of
the photograph.
Once again, however, with Alvarez Bravo as with Rulfo, we find there is a need to fit his
pictures into the discourse of the essentializing colonizing gaze. In the introduction toRevelacio?
nes: The Art ofManuel Alvarez Bravo, a book version of photographs exhibited at theMuseum
of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California from July 12- September 9, 1990,Arthur Oilman
writes
of not
but
one,
worshipper
of bulls
prisoners"
(9). There
three Alvarez
and
is also
is purely
who
of
struggle
Bravos.
sacrificer
The
first
who
of virgins,
is the "pre-Colombian
dances
the second
Alvarez
Mexican
in the revolutionary
social
forces,
with
Alvarez
and Xipe
Chac
a
Bravo,
and
takes
no
of
the
Bravo:
spirit. A
in Mexican
steeped
a purveyor
Villista,
a comrade
history,
to the violence
that is a necessary part of life. This Alvarez Bravo is a trenchantworshipper of
justice,
and
lewd
trickster
a
of all oppressors,
enemy
on a cactus.
An
earthly
avenging
double-entendres.
outwitting
eagle
he
angel,
He
the Anglo
proud
is leery of
world.
the United
seems
He
a snake while
devouring
is a campesino,
innocent
speaking
even
States,
and playful.
perched
cheap
hostile
He
puns
-
a
giggles,
but the joke may be serious, and it's likely to be on you. (9-10)
Oilman
separates
a fierce
warrior
indigenous
from
a revolutionary
hero
and
in so
and
trickster
doing draws a line in the sand between pre-Colombian and twentieth centuryMexico. The third
avatar of theMexican photographer he describes is:
an educated
and urbane,
Europeanized
Alvarez
Bravo.
knows what the world thinks and needs Mexico
an illogical
free-association,
Euro-American
country,
so
This
fantasy.
loved
ancient
region, where
is an anything-goes
and believed
in by
the art world,
[...]
This Alvarez
Bravo
to be: a land of surrealism and
civilization
Mexico,
a Mexico
miscegenates
a saintly yet
for slumming
with
violent
grin?
gos. (10)
It is quite
apparent
that Oilman's
categorizations
correspond
with
the colonizing
trifecta
of
barbarism, savagery and civilization. Would it be desirable to attempt to purposefully include all
of
the Anglo
of the Mexican
stereotypes
a job as has Mr. Oilman. We have
in one
I do not think it possible
to do as
danger of the "violent"
pre-Colombian
so the unwritten
this violence,
past. Of course,
implicit contrast goes, has neither a contemporary
nor present-day
American
such as "trenchant"
and "proud" go far in
counterpart.
Adjectives
as
the
native
as G?mez-Pe?a
Mexican
itself a euphemistic
characterizing
notes,
"passionate,"
cover for irrational or
The
as a tourist memo?
Bravo
is
Alvarez
described
primitive.
revolutionary
a wallet was mysteriously
where
a
an "authentic"
after
ry of a street-encounter
chat
with
missing
good
Mexican
with
a vocabulario
callejero.
Mexican
flag
into an idea
that faithfully
all of
Oilman
introduction,
the exotic
errs by collapsing
the patriotic
of the
synecdoche
and represents
last person described
every
encapsulates
s
!
I
i
e
to
I
I
?'
m
i
i>
<
O
5
??
.o
o
!
%
I
o
I
!
<
fOQ
>
3
Benjamin R. Fraser 117
as Mexican.
The
vision
outsider's
of Mexico,
based
on nothing
that "there was
but the knowledge
a revolution there, right?" and "1 think I know what's on theMexican flag" is turned into a
faithful picture thatwill allow the viewer of Alvarez Bravo's photographs to connect themwith
the ontologically
nonexistent
that isMexico.
hostility
to see the violence
is encouraged
or to social
consciousness
lutionary"
of American
projection
the viewer
of the description,
that exist
struggles
outside
only
of
of the tone
Because
as tied to a "revo?
in the pictures
the United
States.
Elsewhere in the same book of Alvarez Bravo's photographs, the colonizing scholarship of
Nissan
resorts
Perez
to the familiar
of "magical
vocabulary
to describe
realism"
the former's
work:
In such a universe,
naturally
the senses
through
with mystery,
into a different
the viewer
transport
instinctively
are endowed
images
rather
than
and magic,
enchantment
dimension
one
where
the intellect.
through
and
navigates
(12, my
italics)
Here the opposition inherent in the text ismade more explicit.Mexico, through the iconic images
it, is a land of boorish
that represent
democratic
that views
constituency
instinct
contrasted
the photos
the enlightenment-formed
with
in San Diego,
California
pseudo
at the Museum
of Photo?
graphic Arts, 1990.
Alvarez Bravo is, however, perhaps conscious of theway inwhich his photographsmight be
used by the tourist to appropriate the landscape of the "other"as their own. Consider the photo?
de una
Sue?o
entitled
graph
turista.
A
tourist woman
young
sits on a bench
outside
of a rural
Mexican house that takes up almost the entire frame, leaving a thinrivulet of sky above the roof
that cascades
perhaps
same
down
taking
starting more
or
Alvarez
respite
in that we
creates
Bravo
them herself.
sits idly on her
have,
fusion
eyes
the ever-difficult
the camera
less toward
anyway,
is unique
shot
from
that she experiences
time
moment
to the right. Relaxed,
and off
a brief
Next
to her
and glancing
to capture
lap, failing
into one
collapsed
left. The
the scene
frame much
from X-rays
photographs
she dreams
closed,
away
task of documenting
her
to her, a peasant woman
and
leaves
tourist's
that Alvarez
images
at the very
her
camera,
Bravo
in the same way
standard
the afternoon,
travels
house
for
does.
the
This
that elsewhere
(See La mano
que
da ([1940]), top, also inRevelaciones, p. 119), both the bourgeois documenter and the object to
be documented. There seems to be a nod toward the viewer acknowledging the extent towhich
of the rural peasantry,
photographs
while
apparently
laudatory,
actually
meld
with
tourist
narra?
tives.
Perhaps this is the difference between the content of Rulfo's photos and that of Alvarez
Bravo's.
Rulfo's
photographs,
into tourist narratives,
at times
urban,
documenting
whereas
at times
they picture
rural peasants
Bravo's
Alvarez
the result
and crumbling
fit squarely
architecture,
more problematic.
They are
of violence,
at others, as above,
are
full of
they
seem
to be slightly
irony.Yet, ultimately, neither group of photographs can fend off the colonizing gaze residing in
interpretation.A photograph by itself can tell no story.
Suffering
as Image
ever form a
Can pictures
themselves
or it is merely
or sur?
the gaze of the viewer
critique,
context
that infuses
them with critical meaning?
I have agreed with Sontag
that they
rounding
cannot. Yet as images of suffering may nevertheless
seem a special case, I would
like to return
to Alvarez
Bravo's
tive for many
shot of the assassinated
reasons.
That
the dead worker
striking worker.
The photograph
lies face up is important given
certainly
the history
is provoca?
of
images
Problems of Photographic Criticism and the Question of a Truly Revolutionary Image
118
of the dead, at least for American audiences. Sontag (2003) notes that "The photographs taken
by Gardener and0'Sullivan still shock because theUnion and Confederate soldiers lie on their
backs, the faces of some clearly visible" (70). Following her analysis, it seems the convention
of not showing the face of the dead ismeant to protect the audience from dealing with death,
from
as something
the death
seeing
real
of a mere
instead
aestheticization.
Bravo
Alvarez
con?
seem
At first, pictures
that is plainly
of suffering
sickening.
are easily gulped up by a ravenous
a way to get away from pictures
that
imperial dis?
perhaps
same
cannot
construct
tired
course on pictures.
around
its
discourse
meaning
Surely colonizing
class war head
fronts
a picture
on, in an image
of pain.
can a picture
Yet what
of
really
suffering
In 1977,
accomplish?
Susan
Sontag
that:
argued
To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of
which
suffering,
conscience
strengthen
transfix.
Images
[...]
compassionate.
not necessarily
does
An
anesthetize.
Images
and
to be
the ability
event
known
through
photographs certainly becomes more real than itwould have been if one had never
seen
[...] But
the photographs
after
to images
exposure
repeated
it also
becomes
less real. (OnPhotography 20)
of suffering
Pictures
not be
may
are they necessarily
but neither
commodified,
easily
affective.
They create the "illusion of consensus" (Sontag 2003, 105). Photographs of suffering, without
a politically progressive narrative inwhich to be located, are problematic. Sontag (2003) locates
the
root
of
Sebastiao
from
photos
sympathetic-style
in that the pictures
Salgado,
detached
alities,
of
the problem
encourage
nature
the place-bound
the underclass,
of
to interpret
the viewers
of
those
specifically
them
of
in terms of gener?
suffering.13
The critiquemade in her 1964 essay "Against Interpretation" is still strikingly relevant.
Certainly content has become linked to interpretation in a way that effectively ritualizes the
act. Yet
hermeneutic
for an erotics
of art from ritualized
product,
a static
it is here
of art over
from
interpretation.
the protective
container
that I depart
irrespective
from
Rather,
lines of force,
of and
conclusions.
the essayist's
of art, yet no erotics
an interpretation
safe
we must
free
the photograph,
given
credence
from
the menacing
Her
of art is needed
through
social
cultural
final words
to free
as we must
praxis,
attitudes
call
the object
any cultural
that reify
that
shape
it as
its
exhibi?
rhetoric that feathers Salgado's
unfair
this may be. (There
however
of the pictures,
admirable
made by some of the most
to be found, and ignored,
in declarations
is much humbug
to the
have also been sourly treated in response
of
conscience.)
Salgado's
pictures
photographers
are seen. But the problem
of misery
in which,
situations
commercialized
typically, his portraits
13She writes:
tions
and books
"The sanctimonious
has worked
Family
to the detriment
of Man-style
in their focus on the power?
not how and where
is in the pictures
themselves,
they are exhibited:
are not named
in the
that the powerless
It is significant
to their powerlessness.
less, reduced
in the
if
to name
becomes
its
declines
A
that
inadvertently,
complicit,
subject
portrait
captions.
to grant
sort of photograph:
for the opposite
that has fueled an insatiable appetite
cult of celebrity
of their occupations,
instances
the rest to representative
their names demotes
only the famous
their plights. Taken in thirty-nine
group
their ethnicities,
countries,
pictures
migration
Salgado's
causes
of distress. Making
a host of different
and kinds
under
this
single
heading,
together,
It
to feel they ought
to "care" more.
loom larger, by globalizing
it, may
spur people
suffering
too epic
are too vast, too irrevocable,
and misfortunes
also invites them to feel that the sufferings
on this scale,
a subject conceived
With
intervention.
to be much
changed by any local political
of
like
is concrete"
But
all
abstract.
make
can
and
flounder
history,
politics,
only
compassion
(78-9).
Benjamin R. Fraser 119
creation and eternal recreation. Like photography itself, the idea of the study of photography is
problematic as it is already subject to the specialized and divisive nature of bourgeois consump?
tion.
Conclusion: Photography Criticism, Time and Space
The
is a tool.
photograph
notes,
Sontag
It can be used
such as an argument
for war
to illustrate
the assumptions
or an argument
of any
against
as
narrative,
it. Yet ultimately
is little
there
a photograph-object itself can do to disrupt colonizing discourses. Rulfo's photographs can be
as privileging
the rural peasantry
as Sontag observes
of Salgado's
seen
also,
of Mexico
and denouncing
convey
photos,
class
an abstract
and yet can
stratification
sense
of poverty
that quickly
becomes essentialized into the landscape. Imust concur with Carlos Monsiv?is that photographs
de una fuerte
"se contagian
existir
ansiedad
[...]
a una fotograf?a
algo parecido
'ontol?gica,'"
nacional"
(these
that ultimately
come from
quotations
and
"No existe
an
ni podr?a
article
eight-page
insertedout of numerical sequence between pages 48 and 49 of the Revista de la Universidad de
M?xico that as such has no pagination). Nothing prevents Rulfo's photographs from being a
convenient
tourism.
see
those who
for
way
Manuel
or the colonizing
stratification
them
Bravo's
Alvarez
to visually
are also
gaze,
and participate
in optical
a
of class
frequency
critique
seen as representative
of Anglo
in some
though
photographs,
bourgeois
the other
capture
easily
ideas about the construction of Mexicanness. Although Elena Poniatowska (1991) may say that
"OnlyManuel has photographed the invisible, the thing that is not there, norwill ever be" (12),
the invisible is not there in the photograph or there in themoment of photographic capture, but
rather is to be found here in themoment of interpretation (Jussim, in the title essay of the book
The Eternal
exists
Moment
always
that the photograph
argues
[1989],
cannot
a previous
represent
then as
it
now).
An approach to photography that concerns itself with what the pictures mean will always
how meaning
ignore
is attributed
to them,
how
they
are
as part
shaped
of
social
processes.
Putting photographs in an historical context is not much of an improvement
one has merely replaced the dangers of reifying the photograph with those of
reifying the past.
Debroise
an
such
performs
[p]hotography
it aided
inMexican
Suite:
operation
was used for geographical
the efforts
of a social
reconnaissance
the nineteenth-century
class,
and scientific
research;
to raise
bourgeoisie,
its
status and situate itself within a historical perspective. [F]inally?and this is its
broadest
the one which
and
function
concerns
us
served
has
here?photography
to write history. (164)
We must
resist
the tendency
how
Understanding
being
historical,
the cultural,
oir?
has
photography
constantly
past
to think of
produced.
and
the past as finished,
to write history
served
from
Indeed,
the philosophical.
just as do other cultural products?essays,
and even memories
themselves.
Yet
Henri
present.
which
one moment
stretching
duration,
Bergson
he
has
termed
was
fond
stretches
saying
into another
"duration."
its counterpart
of
Moreover,
in an extended
the merely
to see history
as already written.
no light on how
is
history
there is no great leap to the
photographic
A photograph
that past moment
that the past
and
into
spatiality.
persists
another
and
from
the
a mem?
novels,
is merely
this extended
to be a remnant
purports
films,
portraits,
sheds
songs, buildings,
in its appropriation
by
part of an eternal present
into yet
another
moment
the
in
-
temporal
aspect of the photograph,
Just as the image is part of a relational
a
Problems of Photo graphie Criticism and theQuestion of a Truly Revolutionary Image
120
it is a part
time,
of
relational
as a grouping
space,
of points
in geographic
space,
and
is thus
subject towhat Waldo Tobler in 1970 called the First Law of Geography: "everything is related
to everything else, but near things aremore related thandistant things" (for an enlightening forum
on Tobler's First Law of Geography?a series of seven authors' comments including a reply by
the Annals
to consult
wish
reader may
himself?the
Tobler
the Association
of
of American
Geographers 94.2 [June 2004]). Privileging themoment of photographic interpretationover the
moment
of photographic
capture
is more
that the photograph-object
recognizes
to the
related
place and to the discursive webs inwhich it is viewed and appropriated than to the place it
over
of a photograph
is moved
an extended
through
"represents"
away
indexical
the discursive
more
makes
aspects
it was
in which
the place
from
time. To affirm
and distant
and
the iconic
taken
and negotiated
and more
sense
"a photograph
(note Guibert:
aspects
the further
it
value
acquires
only through a displacement in time and space" [69]). Seen in this light, both the discourse of
artistry that permeates discussions of photography and the deictic distinction of the photographic
there serve
to draw
only
from
attention
nature
the place-bound
of photography
criticism.
In Creative Evolution (1907), Bergson writes that our very language separates the flux of
experience, duration, into qualities (adjectives), things (nouns) and actions (verbs)when there is
itself
only movement
In doing
(298-304).
so, language
extends
only
of the human
the tendency
intellect.
that
in order
Now,
it may
accomplished,
being
as unmovable
represent
the intellect must
the result
of the act which
as also unmovable,
perceive,
is
the surround?
ings in which this result is being framed. Our activity is fitted into thematerial
If matter
world.
to us as a perpetual
appeared
flowing,
we
should
no termi?
assign
nation to any of our actions.We should feel each of them dissolve as fast as it
was
and we
accomplished,
that our activity
action
for
an ever-fleeting
not anticipate
to an act,
an act
leap from
to a state,
a state
from
pass
may
should
it is necessary
into a state of
it is only
But
so as to be accomplished.
can fit a result,
future.
In order
that matter
the material
should
world
is it thus that matter
that
presents
itself? (303)
His
answer
no. Matter
is, of course,
presents
itself
as movement,
flux.
the
Though criticism may be structuredby language, itmust not be bound by the categories
intellect
imposes
to fragment
in order
and overpower
movement.
is related
Everything
to every?
the object of study, and
thing else. Any criticism whose manner of analysis begins by reifying
thus severing it from themoment of its interpretation, is predicated upon an intellectual illusion.
This
illusion
concepts
of past,
this article
photography
capitalist
not be
of nation,
seen
criticism.
society
from
attention
in turn diverts
of self, of other,
relational
social
to continually
instead
processes
and reify
modify
only
for a specific photographic
project, but rather
time has come to revisit the Sontag epigraph with which
as a call
The
static
creating
them again. Let
for a project of
a culture
requires
to stimulate
based
on
images.
It needs
to refurnish
vast
I began,
amounts
"A
of enter?
race and sex." It is
injuries of class,
vice.
Yet for the criti?
that they fall prey to capitalist
themselves
perhaps no fault of the images
will
a
this
error.
that
a
It
is
far greater
to do so is
open up a space
paper
cism of images
hope
their
and
America
Latin
of
other
for discussing
incorporation
in discourse
projects
photographic
there are
on nation,
discourses
into existing
class, gender and sexuality. Ultimately,
pernicious
moment
of photo?
of
the
actions.
no revolutionary
go
Letting
only revolutionary
photographs,
of there and past. Focus on the
from the reifications
frees the creative processes
graphic capture
tainment
in order
buying
and anesthetize
the
Benjamin R. Fraser 121
moment of photographie interpretationenables that nebulous object "photography" to properly
serve
as a vehicle
to challenge
the categories
of
the intellect.
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