All_Interior-04-17-2012

THE PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE

US $10 CAN $16 U.K. ₤7

CHEMA MADOZFROM PAGE 4 TO PAGE 19

SOMETHING UNTOLD IN THE QUOTIDIAN

SELECTED WORKS 1990’S

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARDFROM PAGE 20 TO PAGE 33

NO FOCUS


WALKER EVANSFROM PAGE 34 TO PAGE 52

THE MESSAGE AND THE BUILDING


ISSUE NUMBER ONE

Chema madoz (born 1958) is a SpaniSh photographer. he is known for his black and white SurrealiSt photographs. the work contains a sort of smiling poetry in which objectS enter into relations that are not so much absurd as a unique encoding. he considers himself an object sculptor who works from a photographer’s viewpoint, yet he also insists that for him photography is little more than a record of memory which allows him to capture an idea. Walker evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an american photographer. there was a kind of photography that was so plain and common, so free of personal handwriting, that it seemed almost the antithesis of art: the kind of photography that was seen in newspapers and newsreels, on picture postcards, and in the windows of real-estate dealers. perhaps this blunt and simple vocabulary could be used with intelligence, precise intention, and coherence: with style. evans’ wanted his work to be “literate, authoritative, tranScendent.” the photographer must define his subject with an educated awareness of what it is and what it means; he must describe it with such simplicity and sureness that the result seems an unchallengeable fact, not merely the record of a photographer’s opinion; yet the picture itself should possess a taut athletic grace, an inherent structure . . . ralPh eUGene meaTYard (may 15, 1925 – may 7, 1972) was an american photographer, from normal, illinois. meatyard suffered a fate common to artists who are very much of but also very far ahead of their time. everything about his life and his art ran counter to the usual and expected patterns. he was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the parent-teacher association, and coach of a boy’s baseball team. he lived in lexington, Kentucky, far from the urban centers most associated with serious art. his images had nothing to do with the gritty “street photography” of the east coast or the romantic view camera realism of the west coast. his best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with . . .

TO 52 WALKER EVANS THE MESSAGE AND THE BUILDING

PAGE 4 TO 19 CHEMA MADOZ SOMETHING UNKNOWN IN THE QUOTIDIAN / SELECTED WORKS 1990’S

CONTENTS:

PAGE 20 TO 33 RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD NO FOCUS / SELECTED WORKS 1950’S

Bird

Fall

Book

UnjUst

Frog

divorce

HUnger

WHite

cHild

attend

Pencil

sad

PrUne

Marry

HoUse

dear

glass

disPUte

FUr

Big

tUrniP

Paint

Part

old

FloWers

Hit

Box

Wild

FaMily

WasH

coW

Foreign

HaPPiness

lie

decorUM

close

BrotHer

to Fear

stork

Wrong

anxiety

kiss

Fiance(e)

PUre

door

cHoose

Hay

satisFied

scorn

sleeP

MontH

Pretty

WoMan

scold

taBle

dark

MUsic

sickness

Man

deeP

soFt

eating

MoUntain

HoUse

Black

MUtton

coMFort

Hand

sHort

FrUit

BUtterFly

sMootH

coMMand

cHair

sWeet

WHistle

WoMan

cold

sloW

WisH

river

WHite

BeaUtiFUl

WindoW

roUgH

citizen

Foot

sPider

needle

red

sleeP

anger

carPet

girl

HigH

Working

soUr

eartH

troUBle

soldier

caBBage

Hard

eagle

stoMacH

steM

laMP

dreaM

yelloW

Bread

jUstice

Boy

ligHt

HealtH

BiBle

MeMory

sHeeP

BatH

cottage

sWiFt

BlUe

HUngry

Priest

ocean

Head

stove

long

religion

WHiskey

cHild

Bitter

HaMMer

tHirsty

city

sqUare

BUtter

doctor

loUd

tHieF

lion

joy

Bed

Heavy

toBacco

BaBy

Moon

scissors

qUiet

green

salt

street

king

cHeese

BlossoM

aFraid

Wood

Hit

to idle

deligHtFUl

dreaM

stUdies

angry

i aM not

dance

year

1904

coPy-Book

Pen

FaMily

PaPer

line

take care

i sHoUld

Pencil

Big

at last

it Will end

scHool

BencH

PeoPle

very WortHy

sing

cHoir

MUrderer

in c

FatHer

Walk

Head

ink

cHeMaMadoz

oBjetos1990 to 2001

Madrid

1996

cook

Water

needle

dance

Bread

laMP

tree

dark

MoUntain

Heart

Hair

Bird

salz

dreaM

PaPer

WHite

Wood

gaMe

Book

Pencil

tHirteen

scHool

sing

strange

goWl

rUde

coFFee

FrUit

sacriFice

False

HelM

Wedding

Misery

Hay

asylUM

grandMotHer

angry

rasPBerry

need

year

HoMe

tHreaten

vinegar

traP

soUr

tHroat

yoUtH

Hit

ring

zaHn

WindoW

Frog

like

FloWer

son

Wild

Warder

tears

Fern

War

oven

FaitHFUl

once

Wonder

Bloody

MUst

rigHts

revenge

HoPe

lock

sMall

arM

Play

liBerty

BlUe

Wrong

sorroW stern

take care

stroke

natUre

grand

Folk

sWeet

FaMily

MUrderer

Friendly

everyWHere

Hover

coUnt

rank

skUll

roW

Warn

analyse

Prison

Head

green

Water

sing

deatH

long

sHiP

coUnt

WindoW

Friendly

taBle

qUestion

village

cold

steM

dance

sea

sick

ProUd

cook

ink

evil

needle

sWiM

triP

BlUe

laMP

sin

Bread

ricH

tree

stick

syMPatHy

yelloW

MoUntain

die

salt

neW

Moral

Pray

Money

stUPid

Magazine

desPise

Finger

exPensive

PG. 6

By analyzing the hazardous map of signals that things emit from the places they occupy in the world, Madoz individualizes, disrupts, confronts and manipulates until he is able to show a new order, the hidden face of sense, a new symbolic truth that by its impact highlights the disorder of logic. The things, the objects, transferred to a new location and stripped of the natural environment where they performed their functions, now emit different signals in front of the camera. Converted into signs, they are now literally talking. Or even better, they are images that are literarily talking. Because by basing himself on the aesthetics of similarity and the proximity of points of reference, Madoz displaces the natural sense of concepts to other forms of comprehension, fully exploiting their symbolic potential and resolving their discourse with figures and tropes closely related to language: visual analogies, metaphors, paradoxes or metonymies that invite viewers to a game of poetic perception and demand their active participation.

Madoz’s work, therefore, has many literary neighbors. His compositions approach minimalist poetry and the contrast of poetic images that produces a metaphorical explosion with evocations ranging from the Mallarmé of “A throw of dice will never abolish chance,” to oriental haiku, which combine two different images that are finally related in the third verse. They may also recall the greguerías of Ramón Gómez de la Serna : “The giraffe is a carpeted animal,” or “Suicidal flowers grow amidst the railroad tracks,” or, what is perhaps my favorite: “Know yourself too well and you’ll refuse your own handshake.”Here is also a line connecting Madoz’s work with artists who express themselves using the irony of objects, such as Marcel Mariën or the Marcel Broodthaers of, for example, “Casserole et moules fermées”, which Broodthaers himself explains in a way very reminiscent of Madoz’s work: “The bursting out of the mussels from the casserole does not follow the laws of boiling, it follows the laws of artifice and results in the construction of an abstract form.” Madoz’s encounter with Joan Brossa is also well known. They worked together on a book (Fotopoemario) before Brossa’s death in 1998, and Madoz’s work has also been compared to the visual poems of this Catalan poet with whom he obviously shared a fine sense of humor and the ability to establish associations between objects to produce evidence, although Madoz, as Castro Flórez has pointed out, focuses his lens

beyond the mere presence of the object and its semiotic displacements to contribute the ultimately photographic dimension of his work.

Photography is inherently the capture of a fleeting instant. All of Chema Madoz’s work shares this clear relationship with the ephemeral. The conjunction achieved does not need to exist either before or after being photographed. The materiality of the idea is not the final goal of the work performed, but merely its frame, its portrait or, as in the traditional snapshot, its exact moment.

His black-and-white format also lends a melancholy distance. The scale of grays turns things into shadows which, faded within an unreal world, express themselves as ghosts. They preserve their iconic identity but are absorbed into an abstract metalanguage. We recognize them although they no longer belong to this world. Madoz works with the shadows of things to obtain a plastic elegance that blends his entire work together, giving it formal coherence and enabling him to perform a technically accurate surgical exercise.

Sense and precision are decisive elements in articulating an idea. Madoz collects ideas whose trail can be followed perfectly by observing the strange objects scattered around his studio, now unattached machines. His system of accumulation can recall the cabinets of curiosities held in such esteem by the surrealists: André Breton’s workshop or Gómez de la Serna’s El Torreón. As in Arman’s “Accumulations” or the objects trapped in Joseph Cornell’s boxes, Madoz has searched all over the world for meaningful material, but the objects he finds, orders and builds are not essential to his work; they are just the subsidiary elements he uses to photograph an idea.

Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and the imaginary. In his work he proposes to us a split between what exists and the long shadow of what is possible, a counterpoint between the essence of things and their latent meanings. The poet Pierre Reverdy, quoted by Eduardo Cirlot in his A Dictionary of Symbols, says: “An image is a pure creation of the spirit. It cannot be engendered by a comparison

C H E M A M A D O Z

crack!

the EGGCUP is asmall cup or bowl for serving a boiled egg.

1. Place the raw egg in a saucepan.

2. Run water into the sauce pan until the water is 1 inch above the egg.

3. Place the saucepan on stove and cook over medium heat until the water boils.Reduce the heat to low.

4. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes for soft-boiled eggs or 10 to 15 minutes for hard boiled eggs.

5. Remove the egg with a spoon or ladle and let it cool slowly, or run cold water over it to cool it more quickly.

HoW to

Boi la egg:

Use a

sPoon!

a round reproductivebody produced

by the female of certain animals,

like birds and some reptiles.

an egg is

1994

UN HOME

ESTERNUDA

Un home

esternUda.

Passa Un

cotxe.

Un botigUer

tira la Porta

de ferro

avall.

Passa Una

dona amb

Una garrafa

Plena d'aigUa.

me'n vaig a

dormir.

això és tot.

KINDS OF EGGS

cHicken eggs FroM

varioUs cHicken Breeds

eMerge in diFFerent

sHades BecaUse oF

PigMents WHicH are

dePosited as tHe eggs

Move tHroUgH tHe

Hen’s ovidUct. tHe

PigMent dePositions

are deterMined By tHe

cHicken’s genetics, WitH

soMe Breeds ProdUcing

ricH dark BroWn eggs,

For exaMPle, WHile

otHers lay snoW WHite

eggs. tHe eggs inside are

essentially identical;

tHere are no Major

Flavor diFFerences

BetWeen cHicken eggs

FroM diFFerent Birds, as

tHe Flavor is deterMined

By tHe cHicken’s diet.

tHere are tHree Main

colors For cHicken

eggs. Most eggs in tHe

store coMe in WHite or

sHades oF BroWn. it is

also PossiBle to Find

BlUe to green cHicken

eggs, WHicH coMe FroM

tHe aracUana, a Breed

oF cHicken develoPed

in cHile. araUcanas

Have also Been crossed

WitH otHer Breeds to

ProdUce tHe aMericaUna,

soMetiMes called tHe

“easter egg cHicken”

in a reFerence to its

MUlticolored eggs.

originally, all cHicken

eggs Were ProBaBly

BroWn. over tiMe,

PeoPle selectively

Bred cHickens WitH

Progressively ligHter

eggs, UltiMately

ProdUcing WHite cHicken

eggs, WHicH caMe to Be

tHe norM. BroWn eggs

Were reintrodUced to

tHe Market in tHe late

20tH centUry, altHoUgH

PeoPle on FarMs Were

already qUite FaMiliar

WitH tHe tHeM. soMe

classic WHite egg

laying Breeds inclUde

andalUsians, Faverolles,

dorkings, legHorns,

and lakenvelders.

Barnevelders, rHode

island reds, jersey

giants, delaWares, and

orPingtons are Well

knoWn For tHeir BroWn

eggs, WHicH vary in

color FroM ligHt creaM

to dark BroWn.

M y r E l a t I O N S h I p w I t h p h O t O G r a p h y w a S a S E r E N D I p I t y . p h O t O G r a p h y w a S N O t

S O M E t h I NG I w a S p l a N N I N G t O D O . I j u S t b O u G h t a c a M E r a b y p u r E c h a N c E .

El cUlTO Al HUEvO Estalla la Primavera, llega la Pascua y las aves, en pleno celo, ponen huevos sin parar. Se ponen cluecas y los incuban. Y los cestos rebosaban. Tortas y pasteles, mercados y ferias, regalos amistosos y tributos feudales se satisfacían en docenas de huevos. Hasta los años setenta, por estas fechas, se alegraba a los maestros de escuela con un presente ovario y todavía se paga la Salpassa del Miércoles Santo con pares o docenas de huevos.Protagonizan la gastronomía y la

liturgia. Serán comida ritual de los Pelegrins de les Useres, a finales de abril. Y eran colgados en las macetas de los maigs, formenteres o grills, las plantaciones de gramíneas, regadas a menudo y cultivadas por mujeres en la oscuridad para obtener brotes espesos, largos y blancos y ornar los monuments de las iglesias; las matronas griegas y romanas sembraban los mismos granos, en parecidos tiestos, a fin de engalanar las tumbas de Adonis, el dios joven que muere y resucita para procurar el

despertar primaveral de la natura. Esos huevos adquirirían extensas virtudes curativas y mágicas, las mismas que poseían los puestos por las gallinas desde el Jueves Santo al Domingo de Gloria, tenidos por eficaces talismanes contra todo mal y desventura; sintomáticamente, se creía que ayudaban a las doncellas a encontrar amante y, una vez encontrado, procuraban un parto en buena hora. DOMINGO, 15 DE AbRIl DE 2001 / El PAíS

bR

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PG. 8

but by the coming together of two distant realities. The more distant and accurate the relationships between the two realities brought together, the stronger the image and the more emotional power and poetic reality it will possess.” Curiously, Cirlot offers us this quotation to analyze the symbolic power of the Equivocal. What is equivocal intrinsically contains the possibility of error, with the consequences that implies. An error produces the instantaneous perception of what is correct. It calls for order or equilibrium to be restored. But in itself it is a road without return; its effects remain and create reality. According to Reverdy, creating equivocal images forces you to err only in the exact measure required.

Chema Madoz plays in this field by using many tones; tones that vary from pop humor to a deep revelation of the hermetic language. This range, which Madoz expresses very naturally, must have something to do with the spirit of the things themselves which also have their own language.

There are objects in Madoz’s work that demonstrate a unique metonymic ability for showing transformations. Thus he uses one stone for drawing (a track, an exclamation mark, a thought), for sculpting (a cactus, a tree) or for manipulating (a globe). In all cases, the stone contributes its weight and apparent insensitivity.

The chessboard and its pieces also appear frequently in the artist’s images. He uses them to prepare a refined variety of games within the game or, by simply placing the board on the piano, he establishes a perfect analogy between geometry, complexity and music. The board is equal to the challenge. Water, matches, maps, clocks, books, spoons, musical notes and various tools also appear regularly and offer enigmatic senses filled with symbolic power. In some cases, it is a single object that has been slightly transformed: with a simple oblique movement, a small pair of scissors becomes a jet plane, or a somewhat deformed hairpin turns into a weeping eye. In other cases, the object is a patient subjected to a serious operation: a drain embedded in the planisphere offers a dizzying visualization of the universe. On occasion, however, Madoz offers us

lA vEU EScRITA

Passen les hores,

els dies, les

setmanes.

el mes Passat ja

és molt de temPs.

el rellotge toca

contínUament

l’hora.

el sol de març

tot ho adoba.

(no estem amb Un

lleó qUe trePitja

els ocells

i té Un lloro a

l’orella.)

ara m’arrePenjo

en Una Paret.

he fet servir

d’escombra

aqUests Poemes

Per netejar

racons del

Pensament.

algUna vegada

m’he Pintat de

negre,

Però les frases

han sortit

directes

i s’han convertit

en Una eina

de la tenacitat

contra la Pega.

a Partir d’Un cert

graU de Poder

el jUdici moral

ja no és Possible.

els interessos de

les nacions

veiem qUe PUgen

sobre els drets

hUmans.

venen com fan les

coses

i no les coses qUe

fan.

la millor sort

dels daUs és no

jUgar-hi.

mUntanya avall

tothom entra a

la dansa.

no hi ha ningú

qUe traci Una

mUralla.

els catalans

PregUntem

i els forasters

no contesten.

Per això sóc dels

qUi creUen qUe

l’aigUa és trista.

veig en els

sorolls

la Prolongació

de les ParaUles.

encara som llUny

d’Un cel sense

núvols

i a la terra els

déUs estan en

males mans.

la santa

obediència al

servei de qUi

no és sant Poc

sembla Una

virtUt.

als llibres

sagrats hi sUrten

cUcs

qUe s’alimenten

de lletra morta.

qUan estic

PensatiU

m’agrada tenir

obert.

no PUc afegir

res més

a la veritat qUe

Porto dintre.

stemThe part that connects the shank with the bit.

a PiPe is Used For sMoking

toBaccooPiUM or

otHer sUBstances

bowl

draft holeshank

ferrule

mortise

tobacco chamber T H E 1 9 9 9 E l E C T i O n s T O T H E M A D r i D A s s E M b ly w E r E T H E

f i f T H E l E C T i O n s T O T H E M A D r i D A s s E M b ly, T H E u n i C A M E r A l

r E g i O n A l l E g i s l AT u r E O f T H E A u T O n O M O u s C O M M u n i T y

O f M A D r i D , s i n C E T H E s pA n i s H T r A n s i T i O n T O D E M O C r AC y.

Q1: Y O U R W O R K R E Q U I R E S A S C U L P T U R E - L I K E P R E P A R A T I O N O F A N O B J E C T .W H Y P H O T O G R A P H T H E M A S O P P O S E D T O J U S T P R E S E N T I N G T H E M P H Y S I C A L L Y ?

W H A T D O E S P H O T O G R A P H Y C O N T R I B U T E ?

It GIVES It DIStaNcE, It taKES thE ObjEct tO a INtaNGIblE tErrItOry aS thE ONE

whErE It cOMES FrOM, thE IMaGINatION.

*1999The national museum art centerreina sofía dedicates thesolo exhibit“objects 1990 - 1999”. Firstretrospective that the museum dedicates to a spanish photographer.

sculptures built on purpose to obtain a specific result: wire that becomes a transparent cactus or a barbed-wire cage. Sometimes objects are linked to other objects by forms and sometimes by concepts.

Madoz constantly revisits certain concepts: Time with its measurements and fears; Feelings, which are strangely hardened in his work as shown by the playing card containing a five of hearts made with fish hooks or the violent couple TU (you) and YO (me), or his caustic allusions to Consumption, where he ironically uses the well-studied and forceful tools of advertising photography.

Many of the moments photographed have been prepared to exist only for the instant the camera records them, particularly those obtained in nature (raindrops on sand or water, the cloud caught in the bird cage, the musical notes hanging from branches like fruit, the grass crosswalk...). Nature is alive; it is active. Anything built on nature becomes transformed. The ephemeral nature of these works recalls the earthworks of Andy Goldsworthy or Richard Long which once photographed are abandoned to the vagaries of the climate and gradually become blurred until all traces of them are erased.

The works made with ice cubes also belong to this category and Madoz uses their short existence as a metaphor for success, good fortune or gifts.

One very important part of his work comprises sculptures or installations that could perfectly well be shown in an exhibition space in their true physical condition. Madoz presents them to us as photographs. Many of the pieces composed of musical instruments or scores belong to this concept: the cymbals and hi-hat from a set of drums that have been resolved with vinyl records, the score installed on a church portico, the cello-oar... they all belong to a universe parallel to that of Christian Marclay, an artist who centers his work on music and sound and who, unlike Madoz, produces his work indiscriminately in photographs, installations, sculptures, video and even live actions.

The sets that Madoz builds in which light is reflected on a plane also belong here: the delicate piece where Tanizaki’s

C H E M A M A D O Z *

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PG. 9

poem “In Praise of Shadows” appears illuminated by the light from a window, the moon reflected on the stage curtain or the strips of negatives that stop light from entering. These are mysterious images imbued with suspense and evocation. And the ladder leaning on the crutch. They are all photographed scenes, captive in their informative frame.

It is usually true that our information about the current state of contemporary art is mainly photographic. We learn about it through photographs. Whatever the technical resources and format of the exhibition space, the documentation that we receive about all works and that ultimately becomes available to everyone is their photographic reproduction. Therefore, although occasionally we have been able to see for a few minutes Robert Gober’s pieces containing shoe-clad, cut-off legs spread along a wall with candles or tattoos adorning the thighs or his Madozian deformed playpens, the final result is the photograph of an object that expresses for subjective understanding this idea of misery, trauma or wounds. Photographed symbolic power.

Many artists work as if they were at the ping-pong table, successively playing on both sides, confronting the poles between the icons of the prosaic and the high cultures. Today a good deal of art responds to the words of Georges Bataille: “It is clear that the world is pure parody. All we see in it is the parody of something else; it is even the same thing with an even more misleading form.” This is true of Vik Muñiz or Wim Delvoye among others who, like Madoz, insist in their constructions on the effect of appearance and its ironic visual result. Delvoy proposes, for example, a floor made apparently of old tiles decorated with complicated arabesques, whereas in reality it turns out to be a delicate drawing made out of bologna sausages and ham (Marble Floor). But next to Delvoye and his lovely baroque constructions, Madoz seems a contemplative monk. I have the same sensation when I try to consider his work within his generation in the international art scenario. There are many artists who work with images according to the objectives proposed by Pierre Reverdy and

*1996

within Bataille’s perspective, but Madoz alone does so from a Stoic viewpoint. Madoz always performs a balanced exercise of self-control. He tries to appear as little as possible in his work and lets things and objects speak for him. That’s why he places them in a neutral space at the precise distance.

To illustrate his way of working, Chema Madoz attempts a risky experience for the first time in this exhibition: he has installed a physical piece in the exhibition before photographing it. And this is risky because it is unusual for Madoz, accustomed as he is to the time and silence of both his studio and nature, to have to do his work under such close circumstances: while his exhibition is being mounted and in time to include a photograph on the cover of the catalogue. The ghosts of all his ideas and images, which for some reason or another never came to life, meet there.

The piece is composed of 28 wooden ladders joined together at a 15º angle to form a large circle. It will remain installed throughout the exhibition and afterward, once its goal has been reached, only the photographic image will remain.

The large circle of ladders is converted forever into something else: spider web, radiant sun or a metaphysical metaphor of life and death. The circle contains steps that all lead to the same point, which is the center and also the end.

This collection of Chema Madoz’s photographs invites us to participate in a game of perception. The images speak to us; they suggest we take a stroll through understanding. But this is not a question of finding the solution to a hieroglyph. The enigma has been resolved existed in potential before the artist found its plastic resolution and revealed the unfathomable sense of the things that calmly and silently spend their time talking in the places we have assigned them. This collection of Chema Madoz’s photographs invites us to participate in a game of perception. The images speak to us; they suggest we take a stroll through understanding. But this is not a question of finding the solution to a hieroglyph. The enigma has been resolved

C H E M A M A D O Z

a paIr OF

shoes

the knot

thEOry

-12

-10

11

-4

9

2

6

1

7

8

35

In topology, knot theory is the study of mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life in shoelaces and rope, a mathematician’s knot differs in that the ends are joined

together so that it cannot be undone. In precise mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, R3. Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of R3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy); these transformations correspond to manipulations of a knotted string that do not involve cutting the string or passing the string through itself.

considered

a visUal Poet, He

develoPs associations

FroM sUcH

coMMon iteMs

as a key, a stone or

a ladder in iMages tHat

overFloW WitH a rUsH oF

creativity.

sPanisH FilMs released in 1996: Un AsUnto PrivAdo — d i r ec t e d by imanol arias,

tierrA — d i r ec t e d by julio medem, esPosAdos — d i r ect e d by j.c. fresnadillo,

ActriUs — d i r ec t e d by ventura pons, LibertAriAs — d i r ec t e d by vicente aranda,

tAxi — d i r ec t e d by carlos saura, tesis — d i r ec t e d by alejandro amenábar,

eL Perro deL horteLAno — d i r ect e d by pilar miró, ÉxtAsis — d i r ec t e d by mariano barroso

relationshiP with images is what makes me focUs

on objects, and this is a kind of way that allows

me to sPeak aboUt my own emotions, my own

feelings, my ideas… bUt this is something i’ve gone

aboUt discovering over the years.

In 1996 the Publisher mestizo, a. c., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “mixtos – chema madoz”.

sHoesHinershoeshiner or boot polisher is a profession in which a person polishes shoes with shoe polish. they are often known as shoeshine boys because the job is traditionally that of a male child. While the role is deprecated in much of Western civilisation there are children that earn an important wage for their family in many countries throughout the world. some shoeshiners offer extra services, such as shoe repairs and general tailoring. Many well-known and high profile people started their working life as shoeshiners, including singers and presidents.

PASSEIG

hi ha

asPectes Parcials

de la realitat

qUe

deslligats

del conjUnt

deformen

el sentit dels

fets.

cUrioUsly, WHen PeoPle

aPPeared in My PHoto-

graPHs, tHere caMe a

MoMent WHen it stoPPed

Being interesting to

Me. i Was leFt WitH tHe

Feeling tHat i Had to

take HUndreds oF tHe

saMe PHoto, and tHen

it lost its Mystery, it

stoPPed aPPealing to

Me. in tUrn, Working

WitH oBjects continUes

to Fascinate Me.

PHotograPHy alloWs Me

to Work WitH tHese

oBjects FroM

very diFFerent angles.

tHere’s tHe PUrely

PHotograPHic angle,

tHere are otHers

in WHicH it Has a More

graPHic cHaracter,

otHers tHat are alMost

scUlPtUres, and otHers

tHat are MUcH closer

to installations. it’s

a terrain tHat alloWs

Me to Work FroM

Many angles and

diFFerent directions.

By PHotograPHing sUcH

diFFerent exPressions,

i endoW My Work WitH

a certain HoMogeneity

tHat in tHis case

coMes FroM a ForMal

aPProacH to tHe saMe

tecHniqUe.

bR

OS

SA

, J

OA

N

19962001

Q4: W i t h t h e p r o l i F e r a t i o n o F p h o t o g r a p h y , d o y o u t h i n K i t i S b e c o m i n g m o r e d i F F i c u l t t o

S t a n d o u t i n t h e a r t W o r l d ?

It IS truE that thErE arE Much MOrE pEOplE uSING phOtOGra-phy but, FOr EXaMplE EVEryONE haS papEr aND pENcIl aND that ISN't MaKING thE SItuatION MOrE cOMplIcatED FOr wrItErS.

tHey say Faith is believing WHat

We don't see. Poetry is creating

WHat We Will never see. g e r a r d o d i e g o

Poesia Visual åå

CHEMA

C H E M A M A D O Z C H E M A M A D O Z

LA FOTOGRAFIA ME HACE DISFRUTAR

i Worked at a Bank and i Hated it, tHe only tHing i Was also doing at tHat tiMe Was taking PHotograPHs and i decided to FocUs on tHat

i recall an anecdote FroM My cHildHood... i arrived late on tHe First day oF class. all tHe otHer cHildren Were already seated aroUnd a large taBle in tHe kitcHen and tHere Was no sPace For Me. tHe teacHer said, don't Worry, We'll PrePare a Place rigHt aWay, and sHe oPened tHe door oF tHe oven so tHat i coUld Use it as a desk. i sat doWn on My stool WitH My noteBook lying on tHe oPen door and looked into tHe Black interior oF tHe oven.S h e e t M u S i c

a n d B o o k S

Q2: W H A T H A P P E N S W I T H T H E O B J E C T S A F T E R T H E Y H A V E B E E N P H O T O G R A P H E D ? H A V E Y O U E V E R E X H I B I T E D T H E M ?

thE ObjEctS ONcE uSED pIlE up IN thE StuDIO lIKE StuDIO MatErIal that caN bE

rEuSED IN OthEr cOMpOSItIONS.

Q3: I N Y O U R C A S E , P H O T O G R A P H S A R E N O T J U S T A S I M P L E C L I C K A N D I T ’ S A L R E A D Y C L O S E T O B E C O M I N G A R T , H O W D O Y O U C O M F R O N T T H E F E A R E D “ B L A N K P I E C E O F P A P E R ” ? H O W D O Y O U R P H O T O G R A P H S H A P P E N ?

FrOM thE SaME pErSpEctIVE aS aNy OthEr crEatOr, wIth thE lOSS OF balaNcE that EMptyNESS prOVOKES. thE IMaGES DON’t happEN FrOM a SpEcIFIc prOcESS. SOME OF thEM arE purEly INtuItIONS that I try tO MatErIalIZE thrOuGh ObjEctS, thErE arE alSO OccaSIONS whEN thErE IS alrEaDy a cONcEpt aND what yOu NEED tO FIND IS thE Ob-jEctS that IN SOME FOrM alrEaDy haVE aN ESSENcE OF thE IDEa that yOu waNt tO rEFErENcE. IN SOME OccaSIONS thE IMaGE caN cOME FrOM cONtEMplatING thE ObjEct.

tHe aBsence oF

PHotograPH

titles, titles

can Be Used in

diFFerent Ways.

Magritte’s

Work coMes

to Mind

as an artist

WHo Had

fantastic

titles

tHat ended UP

adding anotHer eleMent

to tHe iMage,

and added More disorder

to tHe

disorder

already

ProdUced By

tHe iMage

itselF. i FoUnd it

Hard to

enricH

tHe iMage WHen i added

a title.i saW tHat

WitH tHe

titles i Was

considering

ended UP giving

a clUe, a line oF

interPretation

For tHat

iMage. so i decided

to do aWay

WitH tHeM

and leave

tHe door

oPen.

Q5: yoU tend

to caUse a

iMPression

of sUrPrise

WitH yoUr

PHotograPHs.

WHat does it

take to sUrPrise YoU?

tHe saMe

tHat it WoUld

sUrPrise

any otHer

Person, Finding

soMetHinG

UnknoWn in tHe

everyday.

�

THe SCeNeS oF THe PHoTograPHS : aT The BeGGInInG The oBJeCTs WoUld aPPear In a

seTTInG ThaT Was UsUal. IF IT Was a Book, I WoUld do IT In a BookCase, The eX-

PeCTed PlaCe Where YoU WoUld FInd IT.

My first camera was a Olympus OM-1

With time the relation between the setting and the object started to become blurred. the sight started to focus on the object itself and the backgrounds started to play a different role. they became more neutral, more light, cleaner and helped the object take the lead in the image.these naked settings isolate the object in time, there is something intangible about that, it's a different kind of understanding, it becomes more grafic and it focuses on the little alteration. some objects can still keep appear-ing in their physical location, but for the most part it's a process of elimanation, and there is times that i feel that it's getting harder to take things away and that the next step would be complete emptyness.

Black and White / colorthe mechanism of the body of work is to always work with the same rescources if possible. if we compare color with black and white we are ending up with the "reduced" option. Black and white takes the image somewhere else, it is much more obvious that what you are looking at is a representation of something else. Black and white is harder to establish in time. With color it's simpler to establish a determined time period.For example the color of each decade is different than the other. a photograph from the sixties or from the eighties is different to the ones now. We aren't conscious of the conditions that color has in a decade until you are able to look back. When time goes by the color changes and the idea that we had of color has changed. it's a kind of convention. By the passing of the years you can tell that the color is different. it only tells to situate the image in a specific period of time while a photograph in black and white could be from the start of the century or from many years later. it's much more ambiguous and thats something that interests me.

I N TA N G I B L E

COLOR

TIME

chema Madoz — My name is chema Madoz and i take pho-tographs. i started doing this around the early 1980s. it was quite a discovery for me to find the possibility of working with something that i truly enjoyed and that let me tell stories and that gave me the opportunity to create a different reality. it's been 30 years since i started and i'm not yet tired of it.

Objects P H O T O M E T E R

photometer

ADVERTISING

phOtOGraphy uSED tO haVE a VEry DIrEct rElatION wIth

"thE truth", wIth bEING a wItNESS. but I waS aMaZED

wIth thE IDEa that I cOulD play aND FalSIFy rEalIty.

OnE HAs TO DO sOMETHing nEw, in OrDEr

TO finD sOMETHing nEw . Lichtenberg

it only Makes

sense to PHotograPH tHe invisiBle

or tHat WHicH

coMPletely escaPes oUr

PercePtion,

excePt WHen tHe key

oF tHe gaze

Finally oPens UP an

iMPassaBle

landscaPe. distUrBingly or

HUMoroUslY

and PreFeraBly

tHroUgH

visUal PoeMs

ratHer tHan

ocUlar

eFFects and

By sPiritUal

exercises ratHer tHan

oPtical tricks,

Madoz is never

distracted By

conFUsion BUt

FocUses His

attention

on WHat is

MerGinG,

WHicH is oFten

tHe senses oF sigHt and

Hearing

as in His MUsical

Pieces. He

is solely devoted to doing

soMetHing neW

in order

to see soMetHing neW,

to creating

in order to

Believe in

WHat We Will

never see.

tHe History

oF tHe

Universe

Began soMe

tHirteen

tHoUsand

Million

years ago

WitH tHe

start

oF an

exPansion

tHat Has

not

stoPPed accelerating

since tHen. in tHe

year 2004, tHe galaxy

FartHest

FroM tHe

eartH Was located

tHirteen tHoUsand

Million

ligHt

years FroM

oUr Planet.

tHe drain

oF tHe

UnknoWn is FoUnd

in tHe dePtH oF

aPPearances

and tHe

cUtting edge oF tHe

inconceivaBle

aMidst tHe

Pages oF tHe

knoWn. WitH yoUr

toy BUcket yoU eMPty

tHe ocean.

reality, tHat laByrintH WitH no escaPe For reason, is a FaBric Woven oF enigMas, sPecters and Mirages tHat MUtUally oPPose, sUPeriMPose and interPose tHeMselves. as We learn to see, We learn to tHink aBoUt WHat We see. or tHe oPPosite. tHe identity oF tHe gloBe is reversiBle. "natUre

Moderates tHis World-kingdoM WHicH yoU see By cHanging." seneca

he focuses his eyes straight ahead and they go two squares forward and one sideways

the hidden face of the thingsthe hidden face of the thingsthe hidden face of the thingsthe hidden face of the things

199119801987

1983 200119851995 1989

198019881992

1998

19881991198620012001

2001

2001

20011985

In 1996 the Publisher mestizo, a. c., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books.

MADOZIn 1996 the Publisher mestizo, a. c., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “mixtos – chema madoz”.

Chema madoz looks at things

the way the chess knight moves

To cross one's fingers, is an apotropaic hand gesture, used to superstitiously wish for good luck or to nullify a promise.

The gesture is referred to by the common expression "fingers crossed", meaning "let's hope for a good outcome".

The 1787 Provincial Glossary of popular superstitions by Francis Grose records the recommendation to keep one's fingers crossed until one sees a dog to avert the bad luck attracted by walking under a ladder.

clapping with one hand:First, Make your fingers very firm.

And then quickly loosen and whip your middle and thumb fingers together. The result should be a whipped sound, but will sound enough like a clap.

Pulling your thumb off:First, put your left hand out so all your fingers are touching and straight and your thumb is tucked so if you looked at your knuckles, you would only see half of your thumb.

Second, bend your right thumb so it’s at a right angle and put it so it looks like the other side of your thumb. Cover the crack that shows that you are putting your thumbs together with your pointer finger.

And then, move your pointer finger with your right thumb, without showing that you are using two thumbs.

PG. 16


Madoz’s work, therefore, has many literary neighbors. His compositions approach minimalist poetry and the contrast of poetic images that produces a metaphorical explosion with evocations ranging from the Mallarmé of “A throw of dice will never abolish chance,” to oriental haiku, which combine two different images that are finally related in the third verse. They may also recall the greguerías of Ramón Gómez de la Serna : “The giraffe is a carpeted animal,” or “Suicidal flowers grow amidst the railroad tracks,” or, what is perhaps my favorite: “Know yourself too well and you’ll refuse your own handshake.”Here is also a line connecting Madoz’s work with artists who express themselves using the irony of objects, such as Marcel Mariën or the Marcel Broodthaers of, for example, “Casserole et moules fermées”, which Broodthaers himself explains in a way very reminiscent of Madoz’s work: “The bursting out of the mussels from the casserole does not follow the laws of boiling, it follows the laws of artifice and results in the construction of an abstract form.” Madoz’s encounter with Joan Brossa is also well known. They worked together

*1996

on a book (Fotopoemario) before Brossa’s death in 1998, and Madoz’s work has also been compared to the visual poems of this Catalan poet with whom he obviously shared a fine sense of humor and the ability to establish associations between objects to produce evidence, although Madoz, as Castro Flórez has pointed out, focuses his lens beyond the mere presence of the object and its semiotic displacements to contribute the ultimately photographic dimension of his work.Photography is inherently the capture of a fleeting instant. All of Chema Madoz’s work shares this clear relationship with the ephemeral. The conjunction achieved does not need to exist either before or after being photographed. The materiality of the idea is not the final goal of the work performed, but merely its frame, its portrait or, as in the traditional snapshot, its exact moment.



Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and

C H E M A M A D O Z

crossing Fingers

Hand tricks!

#1T H U M b

Pollex

#2I N D E x

Digitus Secundus Manus

#3M I D D l E

Digitus Me’dius

#4R I N G

Digitus Annula’ris

#5P I N k y

Digitus Mi’nimus Ma’nus

Guantes Luquec/ de esPoz y mina, 3, 28012 madrid, sPain + 34 915 22 32 87

all meTHodS are valid oNeS. i doN’T Have a

CoNCreTe SySTem To arrive aT a CoNCluSioN,

iF we uNderSTaNd THe PHoTograPH To be a

CoNCluSioN. THe ProCedure CaN be very

diFFereNT, ariSiNg From THe relaTioNSHiP To

aN objeCT or From CoNTemPlaTiNg SomeTHiNg.

oTHer TimeS i Have a SPeCiFiC FeeliNg aNd

look For THe objeCT THaT deFiNeS iT, wHiCH

demoNSTraTeS THe FeeliNg i’ve Had.

ON OthEr OccaSIONS, thErE’S thE caSE OF IMaGES I StuMblE acrOSS, NOthING ElSE. thESE IMaGES I FIND

arE clOSE tO a DIScOVEry aND caN bE abSurD Or MaKE SENSE. I DO aN EXErcISE tO rEFlEct ON thEM aND

SEE IF thEy rEally MaKE SENSE, what arE thE pOSSI-bIlItIES OF rEaDING thIS IMaGE, Etc… aND that’S what

puShES ME tO EIthEr lEaVE It aSIDE Or taKE It up.

In 1996 the Publisher mestizo, a. c., from Murcia publishes one of Chema’s photography books. The book is titled “mixtos – chema madoz”.

INDIVIDual EXhIbItIONS IN 1996

- Palacio de los

condes de gabia,

granada

- galería P.P.o.w.,

nUeva york, Usa.

- galería omr,

méjico d.f., méjico.

- - x encUentros de

la imagen, braga,

PortUgal.

- galería dieciseis,

san sebastián.

- galería berini,

barcelona.

- galería siboney,

santander.

(catálogo)

hIDDEN aMONG DaIly

thINGS arISES NEw

wOrlDS. NEw DIMENSIONS

lED by MEtaphOr

altErS thE pEr-

cEptION OF

aN IMMEDIatE rEalIty.

thE abSurD, thE paraDOX,

thE huMOr arE tO bE

FOuND at thE phOtOGraphErS

StuDIO.

ROMANçA

és Un Petit

detall, Però

no antePoseU el

senyor

al meU cognom

qUan

em dirigiU la

ParaUla.

gràcies!

bR

OS

SA

, J

OA

N

PG. 18


Madoz’s work, therefore, has many literary neighbors. His compositions approach minimalist poetry and the contrast of poetic images that produces a metaphorical explosion with evocations ranging from the Mallarmé of “A throw of dice will never abolish chance,” to oriental haiku, which combine two different images that are finally related in the third verse. They may also recall the greguerías of Ramón Gómez de la Serna : “The giraffe is a carpeted animal,” or “Suicidal flowers grow amidst the railroad tracks,” or, what is perhaps my favorite: “Know yourself too well and you’ll refuse your own handshake.”Here is also a line connecting Madoz’s work with artists who express themselves using the irony of objects, such as Marcel Mariën or the Marcel Broodthaers of, for example, “Casserole et moules fermées”, which Broodthaers himself explains in a way very reminiscent of Madoz’s work: “The bursting out of the mussels from the casserole does not follow the laws of boiling, it follows the laws of artifice and results in the construction of an abstract form.” Madoz’s encounter with Joan Brossa is also well known. They worked together

*1996

on a book (Fotopoemario) before Brossa’s death in 1998, and Madoz’s work has also been compared to the visual poems of this Catalan poet with whom he obviously shared a fine sense of humor and the ability to establish associations between objects to produce evidence, although Madoz, as Castro Flórez has pointed out, focuses his lens beyond the mere presence of the object and its semiotic displacements to contribute the ultimately photographic dimension of his work.Photography is inherently the capture of a fleeting instant. All of Chema Madoz’s work shares this clear relationship with the ephemeral. The conjunction achieved does not need to exist either before or after being photographed. The materiality of the idea is not the final goal of the work performed, but merely its frame, its portrait or, as in the traditional snapshot, its exact moment.



Chema Madoz works on the delicate border existing between the real and

C H E M A M A D O Z

dog Walking advertising:

Use phrases that grab people and make it feel like it is addressing them. For example-

‘Jobs, kids, responsibilities, or just want some time to yourself? Try (insert name or ‘company’ name here), a new dog walking service that will cater to you! For a low price, we will (enter services here) and allow you to take a break whilst being assured your dog is in safe hands!’

Then contact details, and add some pictures for effect, either Clipart ones or photographs you’ve taken of dogs etc.

The key thing to make it stick out is nice colour, not clashing and not over the top, but eye-catching, and ditto with photographs. Then for the words, don’t use too many, but make sure you appeal to them- use words like ‘you’, and refer to busy lifestyles/jobs etc.

Good luck!

dalmatian puppies are born with plain white coats, and their first spots usually appear within a week after birth. after about a month, they have most of their spots, although they continue to develop throughout life at a much slower rate. spots usually range in size from 30 to 60 mm, and are most commonly black or brown (liver) on a white background. other more rare colors include blue (a blue-grayish color), brindle, mosaic, tricolored (with tan spotting on the eyebrows, cheeks, legs, and chest), and orange or lemon (dark to pale yellow). Patches of color appear anywhere on the body, mostly on the head or ears, and usually consist of a solid color.

a liver-spotted dalmatian

the dalmatian coat is usually short, fine, and dense. although smooth-coated dalmatians occasionally produce long-coated offspring which shed less often. they shed considerably year-round. the short, stiff hairs often weave into clothing, upholstery and nearly any other kind of fabric and can be difficult to remove. Weekly grooming with a hound mitt or curry can lessen the amount of hair dalmatians shed, although nothing can completely prevent shedding. due to the minimal amount of oil in their coats, dalmatians lack a “dog” smell and stay fairly clean.

the PhotograPhs are not only the reflex of what

was there bUt also related to conscioUs of disaPearing.

that their PhotograPhic metaPhorisations inframe

things of singUlar symmetry or make Us focUs in simPle

items, in Points of view modifying real.

Woof

I DON’t END up EXplaINING MySElF VEry wEll whEN cOMMuNIcatING wIth OthErS ON a

Day-tO-Day baSIS. IN SOME way, It’S harDEr FOr ME tO wOrK wIth NuaNcES whEN I EXprESS

MySElF VErbally, whErEaS I haVE OthEr abIlItIES whEN wOrKING wIth VISual laNGuaGE.

tHere are Five tyPes oF Bones

in tHe HUMan Body: long, sHort, Flat,

irregUlar, and sesaMoid.

HÀlit

trec el

regtle, la

caixa de

compassos,

i començo

a traçar

i dibuixar.

Passa

un ocell

i acaba el

poema.

it’s harder for me to work with nuances when i express myself verbally, whereas i have other abilities when working with visual language. i can be more blunt or subtler… i have the sense i control different planes and different possibilities of reading better than if i only reflect on the verbal aspect. for me, photography has always been a kind of support. on the other hand, i’m aware that a viewer is going to see these photographs, and when constructing the images, i try to see how it’s going to be seen through different eyes other than my own. my images are very elemental, very simple, but there’s somewhat of a clock mechanism in them, something in which the image is endowed with a kind of gear that starts up when you’re in front of it.

1996 collective exhibitions Colección Ordóñez-Falcón, IVAM, Valencia. Mirages, Chateau d’eau, Toulusse, Francia. Espaces construits... Espaces critiques. Caen, Francia. ARCO 96. Galería Moriarty. Galería Angel Romero.

R alph EugEnE MEatyaRd’s death in 1972, a week away from his 47th birthday, came at the height of the “photo boom,” a period of growth and

ferment in photography in the United states which paralleled the political and social Upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. it was a time of

ambition, not reflection, a time for writing resUmés, not thoUghtfUl and inclUsive histories; in the contest of repUtation, dying in 1972

meant leaving the race early.1 it was left to friends and colleagUes to complete an apertUre monograph on MEatyaRd2 and carry

throUgh with the pUblication of the family albUm of lUcybelle crater (1974) which he had laid oUt and seqUenced before his death. while

he lived MEatyaRd’s work was shown and collected by major mUseUms, pUblished in important art magazines, and regarded by his peers as

among the most original and distUrbing imagery ever created with a camera. he exhibited with sUch wellknown and diverse photogra-

phers as edward weston, ansel adams, minor white, aaron siskind, harry callahan, robert frank, and eikoh hosoe. bUt by the late 1970s, his

photographs seemed consigned to appear mainly in exhibitions of “soUthern” art. in the last decade, however, thanks in part to eUropean

critics (who since at least the time of de tocqUeville have forged early insights into american cUltUre), MEatyaRd’s work has reemerged,

and the depth of its geniUs and its contribUtions to photography have begUn to be Understood and appreciated. in a sense MEatyaRd

sUffered a fate common to artists who are very mUch of bUt also very far ahead of their time. everything aboUt his life and his art ran

coUnter to the UsUal and expected patterns. he was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the pta, and coach of a

boy’s baseball team. he lived in lexington, kentUcky, far from the Urban centers most associated with serioUs art. his images had nothing

to do with the gritty “street photography” of the east coast or the romantic view camera realism of the west coast. his best known

images were popUlated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictUred in abandoned bUildings or in ordinary sUbUrban

backyards. at the same time he often tUrned from this vernacUlar focUs and, like sUch photographers as henry holmes smith, harry cal-

lahan and others, prodUced highly experimental work. these images inclUde mUltiple exposUres and photographs where, throUgh delib-

erate camera movement, MEatyaRd took fox talbot’s “pencil of natUre” and drew calligraphic images with the sUn’s reflection on a black

void of water. however, where others Used these experiments to expand the possibilities of form in photographs, MEatyaRd consistently

applied breakthroUghs in formal design to the exploration of ideas and emotions. finally—and of great importance in the development

of his aesthetic— MEatyaRd created a mode of “no-focUs” imagery that was distinctly his own. “no-focUs” images ran entirely coUnter to

any association of camera art with objective realism and opened a new sense of creative freedom in his art. in short, MEatyaRd’s work

challenged most of the cUltUral and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art

photography coUld and shoUld be. his work sprang from the beaUty of ideas rather than ideas of the beaUtifUl. wide reading in litera-

tUre (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially zen) stimUlated his imagination. while others roamed the streets searching for ameri-

ca and trUth, MEatyaRd haUnted the world of inner experience, continUally posing Unsettling qUestions aboUt oUr emotional realities

throUgh his pictUres. once again, however, he inhabited this world qUite differently from other photographers exploring inner experi-

ence at the time. MEatyaRd’s “mirror” (as john szarkowski Used the term3) was not narcissistic. it looked back reflectively on the dreams

and terrors of metaphysical qUestions, not private argUments of faith or doUbt. MEatyaRd’s early life offered no hint of the artist he

was to become. it was his Ucator, who showed artistic talent. where jerry was qUiet, gene was oUtgoing, the center of a social set, a boy

who enjoyed mUsic, dancing and good times. dUring world war ii at age eighteen, he enrolled at williams college as part of the navy’s v-12

pre-dentistry program, bUt he so enjoyed working on stage plays and other extra-cUrricUlar activities that he let his grades slip and was

dropped from the program. however, as he revealed in an oral history interview in 1970 his conflicts at williams had as mUch to do with

his stUbbornly independent intellect as with his yoUthfUl energies.4 essentially MEatyaRd’s williams experience defined him as an aUtodi-

dact, and for the rest of his life he edUcated himself throUgh his diverse and voracioUs reading. perhaps, given the powerfUl interest he

showed in dramatics dUring these years, it is not coincidental that masks, props and other tools of the theater woUld later become

vital elements in his photography. after the war, MEatyaRd retUrned to bloomington, illinois near his birthplace, a town called normal.

he was twenty-one and, like many retUrning servicemen, eager to get on with his life. he soon met and married madelyn mckinney, a strik-

ingly beaUtifUl blonde destined to become the hag, “lUcybelle crater,” taking her place in photo history alongside stieglitz’s georgia

o’keeffe, callahan’s eleanor, and emmet gowin’s edith (who appears as one of lUcybelle’s friends). the newlyweds moved to chicago where

MEatyaRd took apprenticeship training as an optician. dUring that time, MEatyaRd (who’d played the accordion in high school) began a

jazz collection that grew to over 1,500 phonograph records. indeed, for MEatyaRd photographic practice became an art closer to mUsic

and poetry than to any of the other arts,5 many of his most memorable images lend themselves to being read as poems are read, and a

silent mUsic animates many others, especially the “light on water” series and the mUltiple exposUres he called “motion-soUnd.” in 1950,

MEatyaRd took a job with a large optical firm in lexington where he worked Until he opened his own shop, eyeglasses of kentUcky, in 1967.

while hardly a major Urban center, lexington was home to the University of kentUcky and attracted an UnUsUal collection of writers

and intellectUals to the area especially dUring the 1960s. in time, MEatyaRd joined their circle and coUnted the poets, critics, and schol-

ars wendell berry, gUy davenport, james baker hall, and jonathan williams among his friends. he became close friends as well with the

trappist monk, poet and critic thomas merton, who shared MEatyaRd’s strong interest in zen. so, althoUgh he lived and worked in a qUiet

college town, MEatyaRd traveled in very creative and well-read company. friendships with that company developed some years after

MEatyaRd discovered his native artistic geniUs. that discovery came in his encoUnter with another UnUsUal featUre of lexington—the

lexington camera clUb. thoUgh camera clUbs R alph EugEnE MEatyaRd’s death in 1972, a week away from his 47th birthday, came at the

height of the “photo boom,” a period of growth and ferment in photography in the United states which paralleled the political and

social Upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. it was a time of ambition, not reflection, a time for writing resUmés, not thoUghtfUl and inclUsive

histories; in the contest of repUtation, dying in 1972 meant leaving the race early.1 it was left to friends and colleagUes to complete an

apertUre monograph on MEatyaRd2 and carry throUgh with the pUblication of the family albUm of lUcybelle crater (1974) which he had

laid oUt and seqUenced before his death. while he lived MEatyaRd’s work was shown and collected by major mUseUms, pUblished in impor-

tant art magazines, and regarded by his peers as among the most original and distUrbing imagery ever created with a camera. he exhib-

ited with sUch wellknown and diverse photographers as edward weston, ansel adams, minor white, aaron siskind, harry callahan, robert

frank, and eikoh hosoe. bUt by the late 1970s, his photographs seemed consigned to appear mainly in exhibitions of “soUthern” art. in the

last decade, however, thanks in part to eUropean critics (who since at least the time of de tocqUeville have forged early insights into

american cUltUre), MEatyaRd’s work has reemerged, and the depth of its geniUs and its contribUtions to photography have begUn to be

Understood and appreciated. in a sense MEatyaRd sUffered a fate common to artists who are very mUch of bUt also very far ahead of their

time. everything aboUt his life and his art ran coUnter to the UsUal and expected patterns. he was an optician, happily married, a father

of three, president of the pta, and coach of a boy’s baseball team. he lived in lexington, kentUcky, far from the Urban centers most associ-

ated with serioUs art. his images had nothing to do with the gritty “street photography” of the east coast or the romantic view camera

realism of the west coast. his best known images were popUlated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictUred in

abandoned bUildings or in ordinary sUbUrban backyards. at the same time he often tUrned from this vernacUlar focUs and, like sUch

photographers as henry holmes smith, harry callahan and others, prodUced highly experimental work. these images inclUde mUltiple

exposUres and photographs where, throUgh deliberate camera movement, MEatyaRd took fox talbot’s “pencil of natUre” and drew calli-

graphic images with the sUn’s reflection on a black void of water. however, where others Used these experiments to expand the possibili-

ties of form in photographs, MEatyaRd consistently applied breakthroUghs in formal design to the exploration of ideas and emotions.

finally—and of great importance in the development of his aesthetic— MEatyaRd created a mode of “no-focUs” imagery that was distinct-

ly his own. “no-focUs” images ran entirely coUnter to any association of camera art with objective realism and opened a new sense of

creative freedom in his art. in short, MEatyaRd’s work challenged most of the cUltUral and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not

fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photography coUld and shoUld be. his work sprang from the beaUty of ideas rather

than ideas of the beaUtifUl. wide reading in literatUre (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially zen) stimUlated his imagination.

while others roamed the streets searching for america and trUth, MEatyaRd haUnted the world of inner experience, continUally posing

Unsettling qUestions aboUt oUr emotional realities throUgh his pictUres. once again, however, he inhabited this world qUite differently

from other photographers exploring inner experience at the time. MEatyaRd’s “mirror” (as john szarkowski Used the term3) was not narcis-

sistic. it looked back reflectively on the dreams and terrors of metaphysical qUestions, not private argUments of faith or doUbt.

MEatyaRd’s early life offered no hint of the artist he was to become. it was his Ucator, who showed artistic talent. where jerry was qUiet,

gene was oUtgoing, the center of a social set, a boy who enjoyed mUsic, dancing and good times. dUring world war ii at age eighteen, he

enrolled at williams college as part of the navy’s v-12 pre-dentistry program, bUt he so enjoyed working on stage plays and other extra-

cUrricUlar activities that he let his grades slip and was dropped from the program. however, as he revealed in an oral history interview

in 1970 his conflicts at williams had as mUch to do with his stUbbornly independent intellect as with his yoUthfUl energies.4 essentially

MEatyaRd’s williams experience defined him as an aUtodidact, and for the rest of his life he edUcated himself throUgh his diverse and

voracioUs reading. perhaps, given the powerfUl interest he showed in dramatics dUring these years, it is not coincidental that masks,

props and other tools of the theater woUld later become vital elements in his photography. after the war, MEatyaRd retUrned to

bloomington, illinois near his birthplace, a town called normal. he was twenty-one and, like many retUrning servicemen, eager to get on

with his life. he soon met and married madelyn mckinney, a strikingly beaUtifUl blonde destined to become the hag, “lUcybelle crater,”

taking her place in photo history alongside stieglitz’s georgia o’keeffe, callahan’s eleanor, and emmet gowin’s edith (who appears as one

of lUcybelle’s friends). the newlyweds moved to chicago where MEatyaRd took apprenticeship training as an optician. dUring that time,

MEatyaRd (who’d played the accordion in high school) began a jazz collection that grew to over 1,500 phonograph records. indeed, for

MEatyaRd photographic practice became an art closer to mUsic and poetry than to any of the other arts,5 many of his most memorable

images lend themselves to being read as poems are read, and a silent mUsic animates many others, especially the “light on water” series

and the mUltiple exposUres he called “motion-soUnd.” in 1950, MEatyaRd took a job with a large optical firm in lexington where he worked

Until he opened his own shop, eyeglasses of kentUcky, in 1967. while hardly a major Urban center, lexington was home to the University of

kentUcky and attracted an UnUsUal collection of writers and intellectUals to the area especially dUring the 1960s. in time, MEatyaRd

joined their circle and coUnted the poets, critics, and scholars wendell berry, gUy davenport, james baker hall, and jonathan williams

among his friends. he became close friends as well with the trappist monk, poet and critic thomas merton, who shared MEatyaRd’s strong

interest in zen. so, althoUgh he lived and worked in a qUiet college town, MEatyaRd traveled in very creative and well-read company.

friendships with that company developed some years after MEatyaRd discovered his native artistic geniUs. that discovery came in his

encoUnter with another UnUsUal featUre of lexington—the lexington camera clUb. thoUgh camera clUbs sprang Up all over the United

states after the photo-secession, most focUsed on the gadgetry and technical aspects of photography. from its foUnding in 1936, the

lexington camera clUb had followed a different coUrse, one defined by artistic concerns.,6 when MEatyaRd joined in 1950, van deren coke

was the clUb’s dominant member. coke, who was soon to go on and become a noted art historian, photographer and cUrator, had already

worked with edward weston and ansel adams. thUs he was already well versed in photography and visUal aesthetics. he qUickly saw

indications of MEatyaRd’s geniUs and began to encoUrage its development. as coke recalls, his relationship with MEatyaRd soon became

one of peers rather than teacher and stUdent as they went oUt photographing together on sUnday afternoons.7 by 1954 MEatyaRd had

begUn to stUdy photography serioUsly, and in 1956 he and coke attended an Unprecedented photographic workshop at indiana University

organized by henry holmes smith. together with the private tUtelage he’d had from coke, that three-week-long workshop opened the

floodgates of MEatyaRd’s creativity. thoUgh more technical matters like the zone system were discUssed, the workshop’s emphasis fell

on analytic, historical, and personally expressive aspects of the mediUm, instead of its craft. smith, an inflUential theorist and photo

edUcator, had gotten his start at moholy-nagy’s “new baUhaUs,” (later renamed the institUte of design) in chicago.8 shaped by moholy-

nagy’s inflUence, he had long approached photography as a means of knowing. at the time of the 1956 workshop, smith drew particUlar

intellectUal inspiration and direction from i.a. richards’ practical criticism and translated richards’ ideas aboUt reading literatUre

into a series of analytic experiments in “reading” photographs. the workshop exposed MEatyaRd to two other important figUres in addi-

tion to smith—aaron siskind (then part of the facUlty at the institUte of design along with harry callahan) and minor white (then criss-

crossing the coUntry giving workshops when he wasn’t cUrating or teaching). siskind, a seasoned edUcator, had foUnd major inspiration

for his photography in the abstract expressionist paintings of franz kline. thUs, seeing painting and photography as sister arts, he

stressed what photographers coUld learn from painters and painting. as part of his contribUtion to the workshop, minor white offered

an eclectic list of materials serioUs photographers oUght to read. among them were györgy kepes’s the langUage of vision, richard

boleslavsky’s acting: the first six lessons, works on zen bUddhism by EugEnE herrigel and d.t. sUzUki, and material on andré breton’s con-

ception of sUrrealism9. MEatyaRd read these materials closely, Underlining extensively and copying oUt the Underlined passages into a

notebook. his stUdy of these books was perhaps the most intense of his life. throUghoUt his markings in boleslavsky, for example, he cross-

es oUt the words “actor” and “play” and inks in “photographer” and “photograph.” likewise his reading on the religioUs philosophy zen

introdUced him to ideas whose importance increased throUghoUt his life. when van deren coke left lexington that same year (1956) to

begin his academic career, MEatyaRd became the dominant personality in the lexington camera clUb. his energy fUeled the critiqUes of

new photographs that were the center of every clUb meeting. as coke had done, MEatyaRd began to meet weekly in his home with a hand-

fUl of especially interested and promising clUb members, teaching them what he had learned in indiana as well as what he was formUlat-

ing in his own mind from his reading and artistic practice. more than once MEatyaRd declared, “i never will make an accidental

photograph.”10 dUring this period, MEatyaRd stripped image making down to a set of essentials and began to experiment with them. the

architectUre of pictUres engaged him, bUt how this architectUre served emotional expression remained his primary concern. a diary he

kept for several months early in 1958 shows how powerfUlly committed he was to his inner dialogUe, a dialogUe that fUlly forged him as

an artist. never does the diary sUggest that MEatyaRd had the slightest lack of confidence in his own expressive capacity. he describes

the photographs he’s making, reveals his critical perspective by assessing the progress of his private stUdents, allUdes to the thinking of

a few photographers— stieglitz, weston—bUt draws his greatest stimUlation from painters: matisse, klee, morris graves, mark tobey,

larry rivers, charles bUrchfield. photography had opened the world of art to him, bUt his deepest commitment was to making pictUres. to

explore that process, MEatyaRd began to paint and photograph simUltaneoUsly. he painted on glass and then photographed the paintings

Under different lighting conditions. he constrUcted ephemeral collages of paint, dead birds and other objects, allowed them to freeze

in white porcelain trays and photographed them in varioUs stages of freezing and thawing. at times he foUnd painting a sUperior mediUm;

at others, photography. “painting is the toUgher of the two mediUms to Use at first,” he writes, “bUt photography becomes the hardest

after yoU have been at it.”11 how did photography differ from painting? from poetry? from mUsic? what did it share with them? how might

photography participate, not jUst in the almost inescapable world of self expression, bUt in the world of ideas? if photographs coUld

record and comment, coUld they also pose qUestions and elaborate thoUght? MEatyaRd wanted to know, and he saw from the start that

the sUpposed realism associated with the camera’s capacity for optically sharp focUs did not define photography’s special expressive

power. the fUndamentals of visUal grammar and emotional expression excited MEatyaRd’s imagination more than external sUbject mat-

ter. he saw in this grammar of perception, as described by kepes and others, new ways of probing experience, new ways of knowing. thUs,

while he sometimes described his work—especially his early work—as abstract sUrrealist, he was qUick to clarify that to him that meant

“sUr-real” or “more real than real.”12 for MEatyaRd, what he called the “believability” of photography represented both a powerfUl tool

and a dangeroUs trap. viewers broUght presUmptions of trUthfUlness to photographs that they did not bring to paintings, bUt he knew

those presUmptions coUld be Used to lead viewers to new, “more real than real,” experiences. before 1958 he had been calling his efforts to

create sUch experiences “nonrepresentational emotionalism.” what he meant becomes clear in the context of the diary where he differ-

entiates “sentiment” from “sentimentality.” “sentimentality” was particUlar, localized, representational; “sentiment” was abstract, Uni-

versal, bUt nonetheless “felt.” thUs MEatyaRd woUld pUt halloween masks on his family and friends to release the “aroma of having a

person, a hUman being in the pictUre, which stands for an entirely different thing than having a particUlar hUman being in the pictUre.”13

the nonparticUlarized hUman being presents an enigma at once grotesqUe, comic, mysterioUs and engaging, an enigma both attractive

and repellant, one as likely to evoke a sympathetic response as apprehension. in the very process of destroying anonymity by denying

particUlarity, the masks refUse to let Us dismiss these figUres as anonymoUs “other people.” they become instead effigies of oUrselves.

comic and tragic, grotesqUe and beaUtifUl simUltaneoUsly, MEatyaRd’s images pose the kind of persistent and Unanswerable qUestions

that animate existence. whether MEatyaRd acqUired this philosophical perspective from his extensive stUdy of zen or whether he merely

foUnd his natUral inclinations confirmed in what he read remains Unclear. certainly bUddhist thinking offers more profoUnd insight

into his work than do sUch notions as “the soUthern gothic.” when MEatyaRd pictUres children in an abandoned hoUse, he is pictUring life

in death, the past present, both immanent in the moment. when he deliberately displays a blUrred figUre, he represents mortality by

dwelling not on decay, bUt on movement, animation, life. his shadowy walls marked with graffiti (plate 58) or covered with newspapers

from long ago (plate 55) bear witness to a host of long departed soUls and forgotten events still present and perhaps meaningfUl, as

history is always present and always rewritten. in all these ways MEatyaRd locates his photographs not in frozen or in time-less moments,

bUt in moments that implicate all of time. everywhere in MEatyaRd hUmankind appears merged with natUre, not separate from it. bUried

behind branches and a dark pole, we see a man peeking oUt, his hands holding his place in the darkness (plate 40). a child lies in the shadow

of a forked tree, her legs spread in imitation of the shadow (plate 10). natUre appears as a cold, powerfUl fact. MEatyaRd’s skies are white

voids UnclUttered with cloUds. a spire may hint at piercing the firmament, bUt only hint (plate 77). the forest appears complex, perhaps

impenetrable; MEatyaRd fills his frames with thickets of dark, criss-crossed branches, creating a view of natUre as intrigUing and fear-

some as the le carceri of piranesi’s imagination. (switch rizzoli 106 for plate 29) in an optical toUr de force like plate 34, MEatyaRd tUrns an

innocent garden path into an Unsettling vortex of possibility.14 is this the way throUgh alice’s rabbit hole15? a portal to another imag-

ined world? it is emphatically a photograph whose formal design invites viewers to ponder its meaning. MEatyaRd developed no code, no

system of private metaphors that woUld redUce his enigmatic dramas to mere pUzzles. like poems, his images can be read Using the rich,

pUblic langUage of metaphor and association foUnd in the libraries of world literatUre he consUmed. consider his image of a boy sitting

on the floor of an old hoUse holding a reflective shard of glass in front of his face (plate 23). the graffiti on the wall above his head

offer monUments of others’ halloween bravery left in their own handwriting—”a. j. tUrner, oct. 31, 1948, soUth irvine, ky” we know the

names, the date, the addresses of the past visitors, bUt the men and women who scratched them here remain occlUded by the passage of

time jUst as the face of the present, living figUre sits occlUded by light itself. thUs we see the past and the present together, and yet

dimly, jUst as the shard of window pane masks, reflects, and remains transparent simUltaneoUsly. here among these reminders of “all

hallow’s eve,” MEatyaRd reminds Us that “now we see throUgh a glass darkly.”16 the formal constrUction of the photograph sUpports and

extends its metaphorical contents. the arch in which the figUre sits rises heavenward jUst as the shard seems to point Up. and—as in the

famoUs image of the one-armed man with the dress-maker’s dUmmy, plate 42—the center of the pictUre sUmmarizes the enigma in its re-

fUsal to mirror anything bUt the silent infinity of light. to appreciate MEatyaRd’s singUlar and complex originality, one might compare

his Use of graffiti with that of other photographers well-known for incorporating it in their images—helen levitt, john gUtmann and

aaron siskind, for example. seldom if ever does their formal invention elaborate sUch an exploration of ideas. bUt one finds this kind of

rewarding complexity throUghoUt MEatyaRd’s imagery. argUably, no american photographer dUring MEatyaRd’s lifetime combined the

intellectUal strengths of sUch allUsive and metaphorical content with the formal strengths of a fine-art aesthetic so consistently

and so powerfUlly as he. always, his excUrsions into metaphysical territory carry MEatyaRd’s hUmor into the adventUre—his celebration

of paradox. indeed, one cannot escape MEatyaRd’s comic sense. he takes the ordinary and expected and tUrns them inside oUt, not mocking,

bUt re-visioning them Unsentimentally. his “madonna” (plate 67), for example, takes the conventions of italian madonnas and literally

reverses them. the child does not look oUt at the viewer or adoringly at the mother; the mother does not look adoringly at the child.

instead the child looks directly, somewhat rUdely, at her mother’s belly, her place of origin, and her mother looks straight off into the

darkness, perhaps into her own past. the lighting reverses the expected as well. we see the figUres in silhoUette against dilapidated

venetian blinds, blinds whose name, “venetian,” provides another level of appropriate hUmor in the kind of wordplay MEatyaRd very mUch

enjoyed, for it, too, points toward “italian” art. yet, even while carrying all this wit and hUmor, the image never denies its own sensUoUs

beaUty. the light creates a loving halo; the profile of the mother, a disarming dignity; the darkness, a qUietUde as radiant as titian’s

color. if MEatyaRd’s photographic sensibilities developed rapidly and soon after his introdUction to the mediUm, his sense of the mediUm’s

UniqUe qUalities was also challenged and confirmed early. in 1958 MEatyaRd encoUntered abstract paintings by University of kentUcky

art professor frederic thUrsz (paintings which defined space throUgh sharp and, to MEatyaRd, “photographic” line). at the same time

MEatyaRd was wrangling with the old criticism that photography was a mere mechanical craft defined by point of view and occasion as

mUch as by the photographer’s vision. together, these experiences led MEatyaRd to completely re-examine his work and his thinking

aboUt photography. in stUdying the backgroUnds of his photographs (always an important element in his constrUction of pictUres), and

especially the oUt-of-focUs backgroUnds, he again conclUded that “the photographically sharp line” of nominal optical realism offered

the only groUnd on which the “mechanical craft” criticism coUld stand. immediately the idea of destroying that line, of creating “no-

focUs” photography came to him, and he Undertook to discover if aesthetically satisfying camera images might be created by merely

bringing tone masses together (plate 28). “i foUnd oUt that i coUld not choose a sUbject, throw it oUt of focUs, and then have a good pic-

tUre,” he wrote.17 “i foUnd that i had to learn to see no-focUs from the beginning.” when he showed his sUccessfUl efforts, he foUnd that

most photographers did not like them, bUt painters did. photographers, still locked to the lens as a means of focUs and photographs as

dependent on sUbject matter, wanted to know what they were pictUres “of.” thoUgh he made relatively few “no-focUs” images and they are

not the images most often associated with him, MEatyaRd regarded these as his most original contribUtion to the development of the

mediUm. for him the aesthetic qUestion and his personal resolUtion of it were central. now fUlly freed in his own mind from the tyranny

of optical realism, he coUld begin to retUrn focUs and the sharp edge to his pictUres on his own terms. the “zen twigs” (plates 15, 25, 35, 75)

and certain other images (for example plate 73) plot his Use of “no-focUs” as an element within his image making. toward the end of his life,

MEatyaRd had evolved some sixteen different themes he was pUrsUing photographically. each noUrished and refreshed the others. in the

final two years of his life, aware that he was dying of cancer, he had so orchestrated his sensibility that he coUld, on the one hand,

adopt a rigoroUsly formal and sharp-focUsed style in the lUcybelle crater series and at the same time pUrsUe a “camoUflage” series where

figUres in the woodland fight with blotches of sUnlight for recognition and where focUs seems almost irrelevant (plate ?? add 107 aper-

tUre or similar? sUbstitUte for 2nd hUbcap plate 52? or trees/fence plate 76?). he had mastered his visionary geniUs: like the most accom-

plished of mUsicians, he coUld compose in any key. indeed, he coUld and did invent new approaches to visUal harmony in photography.

throUghoUt his life, MEatyaRd viewed himself as following in the tradition of those he called “the earliest and most sincere workers of

the camera,”18 —stieglitz, weston, strand—the tradition of “straight” photography. MEatyaRd made “straight” photography a credo, bUt

for him it represented not an aesthetic choice, so mUch as an obligation owed to the mediUm. images might be oUt of focUs, mUltiply-

exposed, blUrred, bUt whatever the effect, it had to have been achieved in the camera in the moments of exposUre. why? becaUse for

MEatyaRd the camera was a theater in which he enacted his search for trUth. the scene might be staged, filled with props; that did not

matter. the moments of creation were moments of performance, and for MEatyaRd—as for boleslavsky— they reqUired the highest integ-

rity. only that integrity of intention, that connection with “believability,” coUld achieve fUll artistic freedom. and freedom of vision is

what MEatyaRd soUght. it is the claim he makes for the breakthroUgh he felt he had made in no-focUs: “it is an art of visUal acrobatics

which resUlt in acrobatic emotions and misgivings.”19 like a socrates, MEatyaRd harries Us with insistent qUestions in his search for trUth,

raising doUbts and misgivings rather than offering assUrances. in the end, for MEatyaRd, the sanctity of “straight” photography

contains and resolves these perceptUal acrobatics. we are left with powerfUl works of imagination which sUggest that, as in

poe’s “pUrloined letter” or in maeterlinck’s l’oiseaU bleU, both the dream and the fact of trUth lie before Us, available in plain sight.

Untitled [Zen Twig], 1963

Untitled [No-Focus: three figures with dark band on right edge], 1963Page 27

Page 26

Untitled [Zen Twig], 1959

Untitled (No-Focus), 1959Page 29

Page 28

Untitled [Zen Twig], 1963 Page 30

No-Focus #2 [Figures], 1960Page 31

Untitled [Zen Twig], 1960 Page 32

Untitled [No-Focus: three figures]], 1960Page 33

34

A CRONOLOGYFROM 1930 UNTIL 1980WALKER EVANS

An American photographer, Walker Evans (1903-1975) was best known for his

photographs of American life between the world wars. Everyday objects and people--

the urban and rural poor, abandoned buildings, storefronts, street signs, and the

like--are encapsulated in his laconic images of the 1930s and 1940s.

Walker Evans was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 3, 1903. His family moved

to Toledo, Ohio, shortly after his birth but eventually settled in Kenilworth, Illinois, a

well-to-do suburb of Chicago, where his father worked as a successful member of an

advertising firm. Walker attended several private schools, graduating in 1922 from

Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, with the ambition to become a writer. He

attended Williams College but dropped out after his freshman year.

With an allowance from his father, Evans in 1926 moved to Paris, along with other

hopeful American expatriot writers bent on absorbing the artistic and intellectual

climate of avant-garde postwar Europe. Yet, in Evans’ own words, “I wanted so much

to write that I couldn’t write a word.”

Back in the United States in 1928 he turned to photography and instantly felt at home

in that medium. Entering the active field of American photography at the end of the

1920s, Evans was confronted with the two dominant modes of the moment, the

“artistic” posture of Alfred Stieglitz and what Evans considered the blatantly

“commercial” approach of Edward Steichen, both positions rejected by Evans in favor

of, in his own words, “the elevated expression, the literate, authoritative, and transcen-

dant statement which a photograph allows.” In other words, he looked for something

more than the esthetic or the commercial aspects of photography. He aimed for visual

statements alluding to stories and values beyond the literal or the artistic.

During the early years of his career he supported himself with an assortment of jobs in

New York City, where he became friends with several men who were themselves to

become distinguished writers. For example, Hart Crane, a friend, published Evans’

first work in The Bridge (1930). In 1931 the photographer worked with the critic

Lincoln Kirstein, who published some of Evans’ work in Hound and Horn, an avant

garde magazine covering modernist thought and art around 1930.

The first exhibition of the photographer’s production was at the Julien Levy Gallery in

New York in 1932, and during the following year many of his pictures were used to

illustrate The Crime of Cuba, Carleton Beal’s study of social conditions in Cuba. From

1935 to 1937 Evans worked with a group of sociologists and photographers in a study of

poverty in the United States during the Great Depression sponsored by the Farm

Security Administration (FSA). This mid-to-late 1930s period was the most productive

and photographically successful time of his life.

The quality of Evans’ work gained wide recognition in 1938 with an exhibition in New

York City’s Museum of Modern Art and publication of American Photographs, an

important book on the history of photography. In an introductory essay, Lincoln

Kirstein characterized American photography in general and Walker Evans’ work in

particular when he wrote in this 1938 publication that “the use of the visual arts to

show us our own moral and economic situation has almost completely fallen into the

hands of the photographer ... and [Walker Evans’) pictures with all their clear, hideous

and beautiful detail, their open insanity and pitiful grandeur, [is a] vision of a continent

as it is, not as it might be or as it was.”

On leave from FSA in 1936 Evans collaborated with James Agee on assignment from

Fortune magazine in a study of the life of Southern sharecroppers. Let Us Now Praise

Famous Men (1941) was seen in the later decades as one of the best of the crop of social

commentaries of the period.

From 1945 until 1965 Evans was an associate editor of Fortune, and from 1965 until his

death in 1975 he taught a course at Yale University, which he called “Seeing.”

Walker Evans’ work is impossible to categorize neatly; it has little of the meticulous

composition of the formalist, none of the literary quality of the photographic story-

teller, and exhibits no signs of the noisy punch of the photojournalist. His subjects,

seen generally from eye level, have the uncontaminated, clear vision of an observant

youngster, a Huck Finn perception of America in the 1930s. His work implies the

complex of values, judgments, hopes, and fantasies that brought the particular subject

into existence.

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He thought of photography as a way of preserving segments out of time itself. Nothing was to be imposed on experi-ence; the truth was to be discovered, not constructed.

1936 ROADSIDE STORE BETWEEN TUSCALOSAAND GREENSBORO ALABAMA

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1936 POST OFFICE SPROTT, ALABAMAWALKER EVANS

There was a kind of photography that was so plain and common, so free of personal handwriting, that it seemed almost the antithesis of art: the kind of photography that was seen in newspapers and newsreels, on picture postcards, and in the windows of real-estate dealers.Perhaps this blunt and simple vocabulary could be used with intelligence, precise intention, and coherence: with style.

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41

1903

Born Walker Evans III on November 3, 1903, to Walker Evans Jr. and Jessie Beach

Crane in St. Louis, Missouri. They move early to Kenilworth, a suburb of Chicago,

and later to Toledo, Ohio. His father works for an advertising agency, of which

Evans recalls, “Advertising was just becoming an American profession.” He attends

high school in Toledo, at Loomis Chaffee in Connecticut, Mercersburg Academy

in Pennsylvania, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

1922-1926

In September 1922, Evans enrolls at Williams College, but drops out after only one year.

While there he discovers his passion for reading and decides to be a writer himself. After

leaving school, Evanslives with his mother in New York, his parents having separated

while he was at boarding school. Evans takes a night job at the New York Public

Library, because, as he stated, “I have loved books so much — I’m almost a pathological

bibliophile — and I was drawn to it.” There he meets photographer Hanns Skolle

(1903-1988), with whom he later shares a studio.

1926-1927

At age twenty-two, Evans sails to Paris and attends school at the Sor-

bonne, funded by his father and chaperoned by his mother for the first few months.

Paris is more of a literary adventure for him; heonly dabbles in photography as a

self-taught amateur.

1927

Evans begins photographing in New York City, sharing a studio with Skolle. This is the

first time he considers photography seriously.

1929

Evans meets Lincoln Kirstein, then an undergraduate at Harvard and

editor of their literary magazine Hound & Horn, who introduces Evans to an American

style of photography in the work of Mathew Brady and Lewis Hine.

They remain life-long friends. While living in Brooklyn, Evans photographs the

Brooklyn Bridge, and abandons the skyscraper for what he calls “archaic architecture”

and street photography.

1929

He rents a house in Darien, Connecticut in the spring for a summer of gardening.

Photographs local baseball games and makes studies of flowers against a plain backdrop

1930

Three of Evans’ images illustrate Hart Crane’s poem, The Bridge, published by the

Black Sun Press in Paris.

1930

Meets Berenice Abbott, who is influential in Evans’ developing interest in photography.

Kirstein helps him get his first exhibition at the Harvard Society of Contemporary

Arts. Evans publishes in Architectural Review, Creative Arts, and Kirstein’s

magazine Hound & Horn.

1931

Evans begins photographing Victorian architecture and moves to a large-format

camera. He exhibits with Eugene Atget, Margaret Bourke-White, and Ralph Steiner

at the John Becker Gallery.

1932

Evans sails to Tahiti as the photographer for a private yacht. He uses a small hand-held,

a large-format camera, and for the first time, a movie camera. He exhibits with George

Platt Lynes at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.

1933

Evans spends about two weeks in Havana, Cuba, taking photographs for the book The

Crime of Cuba by Carleton Beals. While there, Evans meets Ernest Hemingway and

they become friends. The Museum of Modern art exhibits his series of Victorian houses,

which circulates to other venues until 1940. This is the first one-man photographic

exhibition by a major museum.

1934

Evans receives his first commission from Fortune magazine, a photo essay on the

Communist Party. He travels on assignment to Florida where he becomes interested

in the roadside scenes. His photographs from Cuba are honored by the American

Institute of Graphic Arts.

1934

Notes in the Walker Evans Archive list the subjects Evans wishes to photograph for

Fortune: “people, all classes, surrounded by the new down-and-out, automobiles and the

automobile landscape, architecture, American urban taste, commerce, small scale, large

scale, the city-street atmosphere, the street smell, the hateful stuff, women’s clubs, fake

culture, bad education, religion in decay. The movies. Evidence of what people of the city

read, eat, see for amusement, do for relaxation and not get it. Sex. Advertising.”

1935

He makes approximately 500 photographs for African Negro Art while working as a

staff photographer at the Museum of Modern Art. With a commission from Gifford

Cochran, Evans moves to New Orleans to illustrate a book about southern antebellum

architecture. Here he meets and dates artist Jane Smith Ninas; they later travel

together. Evans travels much of the south and central United States. He dates many

women along the way.

1935

Evans works for the government’s Resettlement Agency (RA), later know as the Farm

Security Administration (FSA). Under the direction of Roy Stryker, the RA/FSA

photographers (Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and Ben Shahn, among others) were

assigned to document small-town life and demonstrate how the federal government was

attempting to improve the rural communities during the Depression. Together they

produce over 270,000 photographs. By the end of the year he is using a Deardorff 8x10

provided by the government.

1936

Evans continues to work in the south for the FSA. With writer James Agee, Evans is

given a three-week leave from the FSA for a Fortune assignment that documents the

lives of southern tenant farmers. They look for a single family to serve as a model about

the conditions during the Depression. Due to the raw content of the images, Fortune does

not publish the material and instead Agee and Evans publish a book Let Us Now Praise

Famous Men. These photographs define his career.

1937

Evans’ relationship with the FSA slowly disintegrates. He photographs victims of

Mississippi River flooding. His work is included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibi-

tionPhotography: 1837-1937.

1938

The Museum of Modern Art mounts Walker Evans: American Photographs and

publishes a book of the same title. Evans begins a series of New York subway portraits

using a concealed 35mm camera, completed in 1941. He applies for a Guggenheim

Fellowship. Denied at first, he is awarded a grant in 1940, using it to continue work on

the subway series.

1939

Evans is included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition,Art in Our Time. Evans

makes his first visit to the Lyme area, arranging to meet Jane Smith Ninas who is

staying with the Voorhees family on Grassy Hill Road. He begins to frequent the area,

building a studio adjacent to the Voorhees house in the 1940s.

1941

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Evans’ collaboration with James Agee, is finally

published. Evans marries Jane Smith Ninas. In the summer, as the U.S. began arming

itself for war, Evans is commissioned by Fortune to photograph the munitions plants in

Bridgeport, resulting in his first major portfolio for Fortune: “Bridgeport’s War

Factories.” While there he also photographed patriotic marches and New England city

scenes.

1903 TO 1936

1936 TUSCALOSOSA WRECKING COMPANY ALABAMA

Lack of sentimentality, originality, a lot of things that sound rather empty. I know what they mean. “Visual impact” may not mean much to anybody. I could point it out though. Coherence. I mean it’s a quality that something has or does not have. Well, some things are weak and some things are strong...

Most people would look at those things and say, “Well, that’s nothing. What did you do that for? That’s just a wreck of a car or a wreck of a man. That’s nothing. That isn’t art.” They don’t say that anymore.

With the camera, it’s all or nothing. You either get what you’re after at once, or what you do has to be worthless. I don’t think the essence of photography has the hand in it so much. The essence is done very quietly with a flash of the mind, and with a machine. I think that photography is editing after the taking.

I was doing such ordinary things that I could feel the difference.

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1943-1945

Evans works for Time magazine, reviewing books, art and cinema. He uses his smaller 2

1/4 x 2 1/4 and 35mm cameras more frequently. In 1945, he becomes a full-time staff

photographer for Fortune magazine.

1946

Sent to the midwest by Fortune, Evans produces “Chicago: A Camera Exploration.” In

Detroit, he shoots “The Rebirth of Ford” and again resorts to surreptitious portraiture

for the Fortune portfolio, “Labor Anonymous.”

1947

The Art Institute of Chicago hangs a retrospective exhibition of Evans’ work.

1948

Evans continues working for Fortune magazine, but as the Special Photographic Editor,

until 1965. He is particularly pleased that he does not have to answer to the art depart-

ment and instead has the freedom to execute his own ideas.

1950

Fortune publishes Evans’ portfolio “Along the Right of Way,” an experiment in color

photography shot from the windows of trains. Only seven images appear in the maga-

zine, even though Evans shoots well over one hundred photos, typical of his working

methods.

1955

In a Fortune essay entitled “The Beauties of the Common Tool,” accompanied by five

photographs of tools, Evans writes: “Among low-priced, factory-produced goods none is

so appealing to the senses as the ordinary hand tool.” Evans helps photographer Robert

Frank with his project The Americans. His old friend James Agee dies, and Evans

divorces Jane Smith Ninas.

1956

Evans visits London doing a project on English sports forSports Illustrated. He photo-

graphs golf at St. Andrews and the Henley Royal Regatta in Cambridge.

1958

Architectural Forum publishes “Color Accidents,” consisting of six color studies of

paint-flaked walls. Evans says his inspiration came from Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock.

Photos from his sea voyage to England are published in Architectural Forum’s, “Ships,

Shapes and Shadows.”

1959

Evans receives his second Guggenheim Fellowship. His project is a vague book of pic-

tures of America. Evans later recalled, “It often happens that a Guggenheim just saves

somebody’s life; it doesn’t subsidize it.”

1960

Evans meets the photographer Diane Arbus and they share ideas with one another

about anonymous portraiture. Houghton Mifflin publishes the second edition of Let Us

Now Praise Famous Men, for which Evans significantly edits the photo layout. Evans

marries his second wife, a young Swiss woman named Isabelle von Steiger.

1962

The Museum of Modern Art publishes a second edition ofAmerican Photographs. A third

edition appears in 1975 and a 50th anniversary edition in 1989. “The Auto Junkyard,”

photographed on Grassy Hill Road in Lyme, Connecticut, is published in Fortune.

1964

Evans joins the faculty at Yale University’s School of Art and Architecture in the

Graphic Design department, where he critiques student photographers’ work.

He showcases his “Lyric Documentary,” calling it his “aesthetic autobiography.”

1965

Evans’ last portfolio for Fortune, “American Masonry,” is published including images of

Connecticut stone walls. Over 250 images were shot for the spread.

1966

The Museum of Modern Art exhibits Evans’ subway series, which is also published that

year in Many Are Called. Eakins Press publishes Message from the Interior. The Robert

Schoelkopf Gallery in New York exhibits forty prints.

1968

Evans receives an honorary degree from Williams College, where he had previously

been a student, dropping out after only one year.

1969

Evans writes an essay for Quality, Its Image in the Artsproclaiming the vulgarity of

color photography. He travels to Nova Scotia.

1971

The Museum of Modern Art mounts a major retrospective of two hundred images with a

catalogue introduction by John Szarkowski, bringing a wide rediscovery of Evans’ work.

Yale University Art Gallery exhibits signs and advertisements collected by Evans.

1972

Evans retires from his teaching job at Yale but continues his traveling workshops. He

does an artist residency at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He undergoes

surgery for a perforated ulcer while he is there.

1973

Evans returns to his house in Lyme to recover. He divorces his second wife, Isabelle.

Evans travels to Georgia with his newly acquired Polaroid SX-70. He also visits London

and returns to Hale County.

1974

Evans continues to travel, lecturing at many colleges including Oberlin, University of

Texas, and Rhode Island School of Design. Though his health is deteriorating, Evans

supervises the Double Elephant Press’s publication of a portfolio of fifteen gelatin silver

prints. He produces nearly 2500 Polaroid prints.

1975

Evans sells his entire print collection to a dealer with an option for a later purchase of

the negatives. On April 8th, Evans gives his last lecture at Radcliffe College.

On April 10th he dies of a stroke at Yale New Haven Hospital. His will directs that

no memorial service be held.

4544 1936 MC INERNEYS STORE BUILDINGVICKSBURG MISSISSIPPI1936 SELMA ALABAMA

BLOCH BROS. HARDWARE

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The photograph must describe the meaning of the subject with such simplicity that the result seems an unchallengeable fact, not merely the record of a photographer’s opinion; the picture itself should possess an inherent structure.

Nothing was to be imposed on experience; the truth was to be discovered, not constructed. It was a formulation that freed Evan’s intuitions, and saved him from too solicitous a concern for the purely plastic values that were of central importance to modern painters.

1936

1936

GAS STATION REEDSVILLEWEST VIRGINIA

SIGNSSOUTH CAROLINA

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The photographer must define his subject with an educated awareness of what it is and what it means. He wanted his work to be “authorita-tive, literate and transcendent.”

1936 WATERFRONT POOLROOMK NEW YORKCIGARS & SOFT DRINKS

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Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.

1934 SHELL FOOD, FILLETS & WHOLESALE FISHFULTON MARKET AREA NEW YORK

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