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Tate Modern & Open University Study Days

Photography in the Street and Studio

Saturday 5 July 2008

Coinciding with Tate Modern’s major photography exhibition of the same title, this study day examines different histories of the photographic portrait, in the street and in the studio, from its early practitioners in the nineteenth century to contemporary practice. Photography historians, theorists and artists explore diverse perspectives on this fascinating topic that spans the establishment and subsequent subversion of key genres of photography.

Watch the Photography in the Street and Studio sessions on Tate Channel

Session 1: Documents and Pictures

Speaker: Steve Edwards, teacher of Art History at the Open University

Steve Edwards explores some of the antimonies or contrasts that have shaped photography from its origin in the nineteenth century to the present. This short survey presentation provides an introduction to ideas and photographic practices relevant for this study day.

Suggested Further Reading

Session 2: Staged, Estranged, Candid and Observed: Mass-Observation & Photography

Speaker: Russell Roberts, Senior Research Fellow in Photography at the University of Wales, Newport, and Ffotogallery, Cardiff

Russell Roberts looks at the ways that Mass-Observation engaged with photography during the 1930s and 40s, to understand social dynamics of the historical moment. The paper looks to specific applications of documentary realism in relation to urban space and more choreographed depictions of daily life from the street to the home to the place of work. The intellectual and cultural frameworks of Mass-Observation also provide a fascinating contrast with some of the more recent developments by artists in depicting public life, and Mass-Observation’s ambitions for 'an anthropology of ourselves' in relation to contemporary photography has a particular resonance for revisiting some of those founding ideas.

Suggested Further Reading

Session 3: Curator’s Talk

Speaker: Bettina Kaufmann, Assistant Curator at Britain

Bettina Kaufmann gives an introduction to the Street & Studio exhibition at Tate Modern. She discusses the curatorial issues that arise from the juxtaposition of street and studio photography: at first glance they appear to be two divided image worlds, but interestingly there are inclusions and interplays of specific elements between the two genres. Street photography stands for spontaneity and immediacy, a place that is continuously changing, opposite to the originally quiet, formal and private studio photography. The show aims to present the codes of representation, the continual exchange, and the differences between these two central locations of photographic production from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Suggested Further Reading

Session 4: Cinderella Tours Europe

Speaker: Joy Gregory, artist whose work has been influenced by a combination of race, gender and aesthetics

Cinderella Tours Europe is a series of photographs which grew out of the numerous interviews Joy conducted during a four month research trip around the Caribbean.  From Panama to Jamaica, from Haiti to Surinam, for many Europe was the place of unattainable dreams regarded in the same way as others may imagine Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire. In this work the people of these formerly colonized nations are wrapped in the narrative of a fairy princess with a lost identity, transformed into a pair of gold shoes then transported around the major sites/sights of Europe. On this Grand Tour the shoes are photographed in front of familiar landmarks in the style of so many tourist photographs.  In the mind of the traveller the aim of the journey is to see, record and return.

Suggested Further Reading

Session 5: Celebrities in the Street and Studio

Speaker: Stephen Bull, artist, writer, curator and lecturer

During what could be called The Golden Age of Celebrity, from the 1920s to the 1960s, photographs of the famous were usually carefully staged in the studio. Stars were portrayed as godlike: separate from the mere mortals who worshipped them. With the arrival of paparazzi photography, celebrities came to be pictured walking the same streets as you and I and the stars were brought down to earth. Being able to download and possess digital photographs of the famous (perhaps taken only hours before) has altered fan culture further, creating the effect of an even greater intimacy with those who we have never met. Taking the photographs of celebrities in the Street & Studio exhibition as a starting point, Stephen Bull discusses the changing nature of photography and fame.

Suggested Further Reading

Session 6: FABLES: Towards a Digital Imaginary

Speaker: Karen Knorr, teacher in photography at the University College of Creative Arts in Farnham

Karen Knorr speaks about her recent work FABLES which continues her investigation into high art culture and its museum context using live and dead animals photographed in museums and heritage sites across France.  FABLES, a survey show of Knorr's work will be exhibited at Centrale Electrique, European Centre for Contemporary Art until September 28 2008.  

Suggested Further Reading