Mirrors and windows
February 4, 2022I would like to expand on my previous post where I discussed the notion of balance when considering both objectivity and subjectivity in photography. One photographer in whose work this balance can be found is Mark Power, whose meticulously crafted images have earned him a reputation as one of the forerunners of British photography.
What first drew me to his photography was the non-glamourous, typical, understated and gritty realism in his images, often captured in a panoramic format.
At first glance these images appear pure documentary records of places Power visited on his photographic explorations of the US. One could argue they are very much objective, being geographical records of places much in the tradition of 1850’s ‘survey’ photography.
However, upon further study I learned that these photographs reflect a cultural interest Power had in the US from early in life:
“For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to explore America, an ambition fuelled by a legion of TV shows that crossed the Atlantic in the 1960s. As a young and impressionable child I devoured The Man from UNCLE and The Fugitive, but it was the westerns, evoking a landscape altogether removed from the congested English suburbs surrounding me, that I loved most – Bonanza, The High Chaparral, The Virginian and in particular Casey Jones, the adventures of a middle-aged railroad driver putting the world to rights.” (1)
Understanding Power’s motivation behind the photographs gives us insight into the choice of subject matter. His subject matter includes gas stations, rural ranches and the open plains. However, the manner in which it is portrayed is unspectacular, remote and frequently abandoned. He explains:
“I began – although I may not have realised it at the time – to search for the America which lived in my imagination, the one generated during childhood, the one that had probably never existed at all.” (2)
The emptiness within the images perhaps reflects Power’s emotional reaction to the reality he discovered. The mundane nature of the subject matter is juxtaposed against the beauty of the compositions. It could be that Power is reconciling his childhood imagination with the reality of what he discovers on his journey. In doing so his images strike a sombre tone, almost conveying an anti-climax or disappointment with the scene he is witnessing. Susan Sontag (quoted in La Grange, 2005) noted that:
“photography, like other art forms, increasingly defines realism as not what is ‘really’ there, but what the artist ‘really’ sees. (3)
What at first seemed an objective picture, on deeper inspection, has become more subjective as one understands more of the photographer and his or her motivations behind creating the image. In the case of Powers ‘Good Morning America’ project, we can see it more as both a documentary record and artistic expression of Power’s relationship to the US.
This subjectivity is not only on the part of the photographer but on our part as the viewer. As John Berger states:
“Yet, although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing” (4)
Mark Power’s childhood perception of the US has clearly influenced his present day photographs. That is, as I ‘see’ things. As Berger states above, your way of seeing may lead to a different conclusion.