Exercise 2.3: Typologies.

Typologies.

ty-pol-o-gy

The study or systematic classification of types that have characteristics or traits in common.

The above definition seemed a good place to start this exercise. It meant that when I looked at the work of the named photographers I had ready made hooks on which to hang  my immediate thoughts.

Frank Gohlke: Stark. Devastation. Patterns. Bleak.

Robert Adams: Street photographer. Traditional landscapes. Urban landscapes.

Stephen Shore: Pure USA. Finely balanced.  Colour.

Lewis Baltze: Few people. Symmetric or internally balanced. Stark. Strong use of white.

Nicholas Nixon: Faces without context. Families rephotographed.

Bernd & Hilla Becher: Industrial. Repeat patterns. Same lighting. Stark. 

Ed Ruscha: Abandoned gas stations displayed a la Becher. Stark  Signs. Words.

Walker Evans: Cold. Unsympathetic. People within context.

Andreas Gursky: Large scale. Patterns and repeats.  Aerial. 

Paul Graham: Street. Candid urban.

Candida Hofer: Stunning interiors. Balance. Lighting.

Each of these photographers brings something different, and with the exception of Candida Hofer and Andeas Gursky the word that comes up most often is stark. There is a detached feel to many of their pictures.  Even where people appear the photographer  seems rarely in communication or have any connection with them. In the Tate piece Lewis Baltz states that the only people he wants in his photographs are the viewers.  The pictures are unsympathetic to their subject as though the aim is always to show the worst of a scene.  

Their photographs are extremely political, highlighting the impact man has had on his environment and on his fellow man.  The use of monochrome gives then impact but has prematurely dated them.  

They are, without doubt, a  conscious break from the earlier school of landscape that is typified by the likes of Ansel Adams with its large sweeping vistas and open skies.  These are earthy, urban and edgy, getting close to what is now called street photography.  Where the likes oh Michael H. O'Sullivan showed the impact of man upon the New World  these photographers show us the finished product in all its miserable glory. 

Frank Gohlke.

Frank Gohlke's images fit well into this genre.  They are superbly framed and executed with each taken for a purpose.  The subject, be it a tree, silo, house or mountain is usually the only argument in the picture and is placed in the centre.  His horizons vary.  Sometimes high, sometimes low but more often than not, straight through the centre of the shot.  Gohlke's world is one shorn of people and that gives that stark feel to which I alluded above.  His bleak world looks forlorn and abandoned as though any previous inhabitants have given up and moved on.  These scenes are not just temporarily devoid of people, they look as though the people will never return.  

There is one image that includes a figure The picture, AfterMath: The Wichita Falls Tornado of 1979, features a small girl on the pavement surrounded by the total destruction of her town.  The fact that this child is the only person in frame makes the destruction all the more devastating.  Take the girl out of the picture and it's just a wrecked town but have the girl there and it becomes a tragedy.