DB7 - Presentation Week 7: Photography and society

Compare the work of Alexander Rodchenko, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield and elaborate:
- What are the differences and similarities?
- Do you think they had impact on the society and created changes? Can photography and photographers achieve something like that?

By: Jennifer Hsu, Wonkeun Cho, Bruno Sacchetti & Michelle Lisi
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Introduction

The works of Alexander Rodchenko, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield are quite different from each other. While all three artist attempt to portray political messages, they all do so in their own unique ways. Their photographs attempt to convey messages of the realities of political changes during their times and the effects that arise from these changes. With the works of Rodchenko, Kennard and Heartfield one would assume that political activism is central to their portrayed images. One should also take note of the techniques used by the artists, which can also create insight into the photographers’ minds.

Similarities

The main and possibly the most apparent similarity between all three artists is the main style they used – photomontage. Photomontage is the process of making one photograph with cutting and pasting a number of other photographs together. All of these artists took this method due to the impact it creates; as Peter Kennard saw it at the time, photomontage had the power to show the causes rather than the results.

Peter Kennard (Broken Missile) 

Alexander Rodchenko

           

Something that is also prevalent between the photos of all three photographers is the strong focus on the theme of war and capturing the struggles of human rights and peace.  All of these artists battle very political topics, most of the photo published were for the purpose of propaganda. Propaganda is a form of communication to influence how a community sees a particular situation.  As example is John Heartfields anti-Hilter poster; this poster is meant to emphasize and refer to how much money Hitler is swallowing and receiving from wealthy industrialists, fearing Germany would vote for a communist government.

All three artists do differ from each other, but relate in their works towards some sort of message that they attempted to convey. Through their images, we as a society can illustrate images in our mind of political changes and events during their times.

John Heartfield (Adolf the Superman)

Differences

Although all three of these photographers wanted to capture political issues, their messages were all very different and unique in their own ways.

 John Heartfield’s focus, in the time when he was most proactive with his photography, was on the anti-Nazi/anti-Hitler movement. John Heartfield went as far as changing his name from Helmut Herzfeld to avoid his service time. When looking at John Heartfield, this German photographer also used the techniques of photomontage, like Kennard, but portrayed a more experimental approach to his art. Heartfield, much like Rodchenko, was interested in the portrayal of politics, however they do differ. Heartfield was devoted to anti-Nazi political activism portrayals (No author, 2012) a. He expressed his views through these images, even in response to his German heritage while he depicted the horrors of World War One in Germany. Heartfield was also notorious for his infamous utilization of quotations in his images, also creating some sort of irony to his images.

 
John Heartfield (Blood and Iron)

Peter Kennard was a more modern artist, and his art is more relatable to people viewing his art today. His focus was very much on armaments (military weaponry) and poverty, how those two create and cause disparity in our society. Peter Kennard focused mainly on politics, especially of those with British influence. Instead of using personal responses as a form of communication like Rodchenko, Kennard wanted to show the “unrevealed truth” behind the images that he capture, which he found most useful. Using the technique of photomontage, Kennard set his focus on art pertaining to the topics of armaments and poverty, unlike the images of political activism created by Rodchenko. Kennard believed that photography had the power to illustrate the causes of something rather than the results created from something (No author, 2012)b. Kennard also had been exposed to digital technology, which he was against, as we can see in the quote below.

"There is a problem with montage in that you see it everywhere now because of digital technology. There is so much transformed imagery around that people accept constructed images without questioning their meaning. I think my work was losing impact because of that." – Peter Kennard

 
Peter Kennard (Defended to Death)

Alexander Rodchenko was a Russian artist turned photographer during the Revolution of October 1917, who created images that resembled Avant-Garde type works (The Museum of Modern Art, 1998). The art of Rodchenko attempted to depict the Communist culture following World War One, and created a unique styling in the images portrayed (The Museum of Modern Art, 1998). Rodchenko’s works lead the way of art in Soviet Russia and his abstract work creates images of personal responses to illustrates Russia’s progress during that time frame. His work rejects socially created conventional roles of self-expression and aesthetic predilections, making him somewhat of a political artist (The Museum of Modern Art, 1998). Alexander Rodchenko was an artist of very controversial, by taking a very nihilistic focus to art to a point when many didn’t believe what he produced was art. Rodchenko’s focus was on the society but more so for the production aspect. He designed things for propaganda, posters, book covers, and etc.

 
Alexander Rodchenko

Did These Photographers Impact Society?

These three photographers all had made a huge impact on the society, both through their art and the meaning that they were conveying to the society. These three artists were able to lead more than thousands of people, but they are not worldwide famous photographer or artists. They all had a vision and were determined to succeed in their life time. Each artist had impacted society in a different but similarly significant way – whether it was Heartfield’s propaganda material in late 1800’s, or Rodchenko’s innovative take on photography. Whether it was good or bad they all made audience feel and change the way they felt about the future. Photography is a very powerful tool, and it can change people lives for decades; as technology improves every day it will continue to provide heartfelt and impactful images to the human mind and therefore placing a strong impact on everyone.

Can Photographers Achieve that Impact on Society?

Photography is used around the world as a powerful visual toll that not only impact society but also creates changes. Photographers through their photographs have an influence in persuading their audience and viewers. Photographers express their views through their lenses, and the message generated can sometimes pursued a whole civilization. Each photographer shapes their own message according to their views about the world. This message as a result can have a massive effect on society simply because reality is exposed. Photography can also influence society to act in certain ways. News papers use photography to emphasize their messages with images. The government use photos to illustrate their scrutiny and to accentuate their accomplishments to pursue citizens to gain more political control. Nonetheless Photographers throughout photography can achieve change. Peter Kennard, John Heartfield and Alexander Rodchenko tried to create change thought their lenses, but with not much success, their work and views still impacts society until today. Peter Kennard, John Heartfield and Alexander Rodchenko were above their fear, and by means of their work were able to impact society at an extraordinary level. Their courage inspired many photographers and followers to be original and confront their fears. Alexander Rodchenko established unprecedented compositional paradigms that until these days translate the idea of modern photographic art. Peter Kennard work has influenced modern photographers, film makers and even some computer programs like Photoshop. Finally, John Heartfield's art has had a considerate effect on modern advertising. The proposal of a photomontage is used on many advertisement printed in magazines today. These photographers created a landmark in the world, and with their messages alive in their photographs we can look at their job and learn from the past how to create a better future.    

Bibliography

"Alexander Rodchenko - Biography." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734447/bio>.

"Alexander Rodchenko: A Man Who Took Life Lying down - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3671028/Alexander-Rodchenko-A-man-who-took-life-lying-down.html>.

"John Heartfield: Life." Towson University. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/life/WorldwarOne.html>.

My Blackboard. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. <https://gbc.blackboard.com/webct/urw/tp0.lc5122011/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct>.

(NP).My Blackboard Retrieved from https://gbc.blackboard.com/webct/urw/tp0.lc5122011/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

                “J.Paul Getty Museum”- Alexander Rodchenko: Fine Art, Portraiture Biography Retrieved from http://www.profotos.com/education/referencedesk/masters/masters/alexanderrodchenko/alexanderrodchenko.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1998/rodchenko/texts/photojournalism.html

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/kennard.html

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/heartfield.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomontage

http://www.towson.edu/heartfield/art/superman.html

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4975&page_number=7&template_id=6&sort_order=1&section_id=T072573

http://jesseturri.com/wordpress/?p=210

Photography & Ethics: Photo Manipulation

          In the recent weeks of course, a number of techniques in photography have been explored. Something that I found to be quite unique of most of the photos looked at was the abstractness of the images and how the related more to images of art. To me, photography is an art form and images can be manipulated to create other variations of the art works that are derived from photography. With that said, for this photo manipulation assignment, I have become the photographer and have edited and altered my own images to create my own pieces of art to illustrate how photography can be considered an art form. Editing photographs can allow the photographer to add their own personal influences to images that were not present in the original.  I have taken my own abstract images and edited the originals to create something unique, with inspiration from the week four’s topic. This topic on whether photography is art made me feel compelled to make my edited photographs using Pixlr (an online editing tool) into something that looked more like artwork than just an ordinary set of photographs.

The first image I chose to capture was that of the book (see below). With the original image I attempted to take an abstract photograph of just the open pages. Once I edited the image, it took on a more art-inspired feel (see below). In this photo, I adjusted the saturation levels to a hue that resembles a sepia tone and darkened the image. I also inserted a vignette to have a more aged appeal to it. In the second image of the lilies (see below), I attempted the abstract image once again. However with this photo, I felt that more colour was needed to have more appeal. Again, as like the first image, I adjusted the saturation levels, but this time I wanted to create more colour to create a livelier look to it (see below). The pink-purple tones give the flowers a more lively impression and create an image that almost looks like a piece of art work.

I felt that these changes to both original images were necessary to illustrate the topic that photography is art. This particular topic hits close to home for me because I feel, as an avid photographer, that art is an expression of individualism and personality, which I wanted to be seen in my own edited images for this assignment. In both images I decided to adjust saturation level mostly to hues that were appropriate for both images. I did this because I felt that the importance and uniqueness of both images could be better understood with the addition of more colour, especially in the both of the edited photographs. With the photograph of the book, it creates a more vintage and antique feel to it. Whereas, the photograph of the flower looks more alive and vivid, and in my opinion, looks more like a piece of painted art. In conclusion, I feel that the use of editing is quite useful in photography and can allow an image to take on various variations of the original image that was attempted to be portrayed. Adjusting photographs can allow a photographer to add their own personal touches to images of reality that were not present in the original image.

Book (Unedited Image)

Book (Edited Image)

Lilies (Unedited Image)

Lilies (Edited Image)