PAST PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS
Photojournalism Exhibition
Photojournalism emerged as a distinctive form of photography in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The term denoted picture making that was spontaneous, topical and rapid. This was facilitated by the introduction of small, hand-held cameras such as the Ermanox and the Leica, which enabled photographers to record fast-moving events and catch their subjects unawares. Meanwhile, political turmoil and the rise of mass-circulation news stimulated a huge demand for illustrated magazines. Picture Post, Life and Vu were all established at this period. Picture agencies expanded and new professions evolved – not just that of the photojournalist, but also the picture editor and agent.
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s photography collection has recently been enriched by two important gifts of mid-20th-century photojournalism. John and Judith Hillelson have given a large body of work and Ben Shneiderman has given a group of photographs by David Seymour (Chim) through the American Friends of the V&A.
About 40 photographs from these two gifts have been selected for display by art historian David Alan Mellor, this year’s V&A/University of Sussex Research Fellow. To show how the photographs may have appeared in print, a selection of photo-stories is also on display.
A smaller selection of the photographs on display in the gallery is shown here in four thematic sections that address key topics in mid-20th-century photojournalism: Celebrity, Politics, Citizens and Modernities.
Celebrity
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In the 20th century publicity became an obsession. Even artists and intellectuals, like Frida Kahlo, Virginia Woolf and Albert Einstein, took care to shape their image for a mass audience. The photo-story could project the activities of artists and cinema stars as if they were part of a film narrative. Hollywood actors, like Lana Turner and Marlene Dietrich, might present themselves as ‘real people’, while others such as Gloria Swanson appeared as untouchable icons.
The photojournalist revelled in gaining access to private places and moments, though often the subject was complicit in this – as in the ‘day in the life’ of Helena Rubenstein. The disclosure of celebrities in intimate situations, like Erich Salomon’s surveillance shot of media mogul William Randolph Hearst at dinner, looked forward to the post-war phenomenon of the paparazzi and ultimately to contemporary ‘Reality TV’.
Politics
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Famous Contemporaries in Unguarded Moments was the title of a compilation of portraiture by Erich Salomon published in 1931. Salomon pioneered candid photography, disguising his camera to gain entrance to the hidden world of political conferences, diplomatic receptions and court cases. Others used clandestine photographs to reveal uncomfortable truths (Long Kesh) or to raise awareness of social inequalities.
As politics became a spectacle, politicians styled themselves for the ever-present gaze of the camera, sharing moments of triumph (Churchill hearing of his re-election) and disaster (Edouard Herriot defiant on ejection from office). The street became an arena of potential self-promotion or embarrassment (Ramsey Macdonald oblivious to the camera’s presence at the Stresa Conference). The self-assurance of these public figures contrasts with the bristling fervour of those involved in mass demonstrations.
Citizens
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In the period from 1936, illustrated magazines promoted a new kind of humane photography embodying liberal-Left aspirations. This formed the basis for post-war ‘concerned’ photography, epitomised by the work of the Magnum photographers' collective, of which David Seymour was a founder member.
Seymour's reportage traced the impact of war and its aftermath on vulnerable individuals. Other photographers showed the resilience and resistance of people in the face of social injustice (Ernest Cole’s photographs of segregated South Africa). Even pre-war photojournalism had celebrated individuals – such as Lucien Aigner’s strong man – who stood out from the urban masses.
Combat was never far from this world. The citizen was repeatedly recruited to national and ideological struggles, whether under Soviet Communist rule or on the outposts of Western democracy.
Modernities
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Photojournalism was the product of global technology. From the 1930s, images could be sent by electronic means from remote locations to picture agencies and magazines. The future appeared to be tied to technological advance and signs of progress lay on all sides – from a space-suited nuclear family to the first Concorde, recorded in the year of the Moon’s conquest.
The modern world could also be an uncanny place, with speeding cars in ghostly deserts and anxious exiles in lonely cities, or populated by sinister beings in uniform.
Like the photograph itself, modernity was associated with the reproducible, systematic unit, whether on the factory production line or in the tower block. From Hong Kong to New York, humanity was organised into mega-structures. The celebrations of Chinese Communism suggest an almost cosmic system of control. Elsewhere, however, crowds could be irregular and excessive, their dynamism suggestive of a more chaotic universe.
Photo-stories
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The increasing use of rolled photographic film from the 1920s enabled photographers to take a sequence of images. The picture - or photo-story (photographs plus captions) could then assume a narrative character akin to early cinema. This became the mainstay of the illustrated magazine, for news and features alike, and picture editors became adept at laying out a double-page spread to maximise its impact.
By the 1950s, the photo-story had developed beyond reportage to become an expressive medium in its own right. Photographers such as Ernst Haas and Brian Brake pioneered the use of colour and created semi-abstract photo-stories that required minimal captioning. In part, this shift towards a more meditative ‘photo-essay’ was the result of the spread of television. But by the 1970s, the dominance of TV news had contributed to the demise of many of the great illustrated magazines. With them went the great years of mid-century photojournalism.