If Not Now When On Boaz Tal Still Lifes - Dr. Shlomo Lee Abrahmov 2009

8/8/2019 If Not Now When On Boaz Tal Still Lifes - Dr. Shlomo Lee Abrahmov 2009

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If not now when: beyond indexical transparencyOn Boaz Tal Still lifes

Dr. Shlomo Lee Abrahmov 2009

Tel: 09/952 4332 [email protected]

This article would focus on what makes still lifes a particularly poignant subject in the

context of contemporary photographic discourse. It would elaborate on the connection

of Boaz Tals still lifes photographs to still life paintings and photographs of the past. It

would re-introduce the concept of spacing and argue that instead of thinking about

photographic transparency we need to adopt a new stance, which is the ability of

photographs to transparize, suggesting that we could use the term photographic

transparization.

Still lifes were one of the first subjects that photography dealt with. From the earliest

photographs of Daguerre, to the stunning still lifes of Roger Fenton or the exact

arrangements by Le Secq (1), these images showed us how photographs can 'speak' in

a fashion that goes beyond their so called banal and mechanical origins. If we observe

Fenton's 'Still Life with Statue, 1860'or 'Tankard and Fruit, 1860', we can

Fig. 1 Roger Fen ton Tankard and Fruit 1860 Fig .2Roger Fen ton Still Life w ith Sta tue 1860
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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perceive that these photographs are not only about successful compositional

arrangements or exquisite visual details. Their significance lies in their ability to be a

mirror and act as signifiers for the society and culture in which they were created.

It could be argued that the aim of still lifes in art is to penetrate and subvert the surfacesor physical appearances of the objects which they portray. By this act, still lifes could

create a philosophical and even a metaphysical discourse with reality. Fitting examples

are Cezanne's still lifes or Zurbaran's Still-life with Lemons, Oranges and Rose, 1633.

A revealing duality that could be observed in Fenton's still lifes is the interaction of

organic and non-organic objects. Objects that are created by nature (i.e. exotic fruits)

and those that are man made. The conflation made here actually turns the organic

subjects into artifacts, or as the distilled artifacts of the photographic action (Fried,

2005). In its more abstract level, this interaction alludes to the interaction between

nature and culture and it is still a theme that has much relevance in contemporary

society.

Fig. 3 Zurba ran Still-life with Lem ons, Orang es and Rose1633

In his fascinating book Looking at the Overlooked,Norman Bryson (1990) has made

an important observation as to the rhopographical nature of still lifes. Rhopography (2)

relates to the portrayal of objects which lack immediate significance - the basic

mundane objects that surround us in our daily environments. In contrast to


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Megalography, which relates to the depiction of importance and themes in the world

which represent greatness, the humbleness of rhopography, has in fact a profound

depth as it explores the base human existential dilemma at its core by stripping it of all

garnishes of grandeur or self importance. In this fashion a sharp contrast or

transformation occurs as objects which are usually taken for granted, in this context, arelinked to much more refined and exalted existential issues namely, the limited scope

the individual human endeavor. We can argue that rhopography is the ontological raison

d'treof still lifes both in painting and photography.

Fig. 4 Boaz Tal Vase a nd Flow ers, 1993

We can observe some of these issues in Boaz Tal Vase and Flowers, 1993.

Photographed in Venice, the initial motivation for its creation was the mysterious quality

of light (3). In this sense the light in this photograph references what can be termed as

Venetian light in renaissance painting. According to Boaz Tal, this Venetian Light, also

shares or simulates some of the qualities of light that could be observed in churches of


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cathedrals. Its subtle warmth and narratavistic capabilities can be observed on the

horizon of Giorgione Sleeping Venus1508. Furthermore, the light in Vase and Flowers

acts as a metaphor for vision or seeing. This attribute to high-contrast lighting, in a

dark space, were first observed by Bryson (1990), in his analysis of Zurbaran Still-life

with Lemons, Oranges and Rose 1633.

Fig.5 Gio rgione Sleeping Venus 1508

Moving to the vase, we notice that its luminousness enhances its hollowness andemptiness. But its non-functioning nature (it is empty), has further implications, as it sits

on top of flatly painted flowers. We can connote these flowers to Baudrillards (1988)

simulacra and be reminded of one of its main attributes:The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that

there is none. (pp.166-184).

We can sense that the simulacras of our age leave us with a profound sense of

emptiness, with a feeling of loneliness as we do not know if what we touch (perceive) is

real (i.e alive like us) or simulated (lifeless). The top-down perspective of Vase and

Flowers reminds us that there is a viewer or witness involved in the creation of the

photograph. In this manner a human presence is brought into play with the rest of

signifying objects in this seemingly silent photograph. It is then that we can arrive at the

conceptual level (Abrahmov, 2008) of the photograph, its deep meaning. It is a


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reflection on the sense of emptiness we face in contemporary society contrasted with a

life affirming light, one which can give us hope. In this fashion the photograph portrays

an entangled dilemma, but also demonstrates that in a way it is temporal and as the

vase is empty, it could always be full again. The light here also acts as a reminder of

our past, of our history which is full of upheavals and at times their successfulresolutions or coming to terms with them. Finally the aspect of still lifes acting as a

reflection of our culture and society is represented by the vases reflection in the

shadowed mirror seen in the background. It is an attribute that Vase and Flowers

shares with Fentons Still Life with Statue 1860,an attribute that also poses the question

of what is in the front and what is behind, literally and figuratively.

An overriding concern in Boaz Tal oeuvre is the notion of photographic transparency.

Briefly stated, this idea was developed by Walton (1984) who argued that there is no

difference between the way we see a photograph and the way see its referent. This

issue is directly related to the indexical/ factual relationship between the photograph and

its referent or their adhesiveness (Barthes, 1981). It is a cultural approach which only

equates photography with a truthful conveyer of factual information. Bourdieu (1990)

related to the issue of the reliability of photographs and argued that culturally

photographs are rejected when no function is attached to them, when in fact we should

expect photographs to convey allegorical and transcendental meanings.

The effort to counter photographic transparency has to do with the concept of spacing.

This term coined by R. Krause (1986) in her discussion of surrealist photography. This

gap between what is seen and what is understood is one of the attributes of spacing.

Krauss (1986:115) defined spacing as an indication of a break in the simultaneous

experience of the real and argued that spacing creates a world that is full of

interpretation or signification. Linguistically defining this particular photographicsituation as spacing does not allude to its attributes, which are concerned with the

breaking up of the linear connection between photograph and its referent and in many

cases the reduced particulars of a photograph are actually contributing to its greater

constructed signification or what Friday (2000) termed as imaginative transfiguration.

Addressing this problematic titling, this writer has termed spacing in Hebrew as Mirchov,

which comes from conflating the words of to distance and to enlarge. The mechanics of


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visual spacing in photographs are that an observed lacuna is generating an ambiguity

which forces the viewer to respond independently. In this manner an individual highly

polysemous engagement with the photograph is created.

Fig. 6 Boaz Ta l Allegory of sp ring , homage to Bott icelli, Deta il 1987

The presence of spacing is easily observed in Allegory of spring homage to Botticelli,

1987, but there is another effort in Tals work which is directly tied to the effort of

countering photographic transparency. Much like visual spacing this effort has to do

with the disengagement from the particulars, but a different strategy is employed here.

The first part of this endeavor consists of the referencing of the photographs to painting

of the past, by employing the efficacy of the Title category (Abrahmov, 2008). In this

manner this implied Intertextuality forces us to reflect on meaning that is outside the

immediate sphere of the observed phenomena. The second part is directly linked to still

lifes. Boaz Tal has tried to re-contextualize the objects in his photographs by hinting at


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their reduced functionality thus the vase in Vase and Flowers is empty or the pears in

Vanitas 2005are almost rotten, inedible. (4)

Fig. 7 Boaz Ta l Vanita s 2005

The title of the photograph Vanitas 2005references a genre of still life paintings which

historically exemplify the connection between the visual and the moral. According to

Korsmeyer (1999), in these painting the chosen objects amplify the notion of the

insignificance of the human endeavor, its futility.(5) Regarding food stuffs, we can

construe that the paintings relate not to the glorification of hunger or the culinary vitality

of the objects, but rather its sublimation. It is the transcendence of hunger, a base

human need or sensation, into something else not physical, mundane but sublime a

longing. Thinking about Vanitas 2005 from this perspective, we can think of the pears

as alluding to this transcendence. Their decent is not a downfall, but rather a metaphor

for a longing for something that is beyond us, beyond our temporality - eternal. In a


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way, this reflection on hunger or food and its relationship to Life can be observed in

Fentons Spoils of Wood and Stream 1859.

Fig. 8 Roger Fenton Spoils Of Wood and Strea m 1859

I believe that what Tals Vanitas 2005 also share with Fentons Spoils of Wood and

Stream is this silent moment when something which was observed and captured, later

turns into a visual catalyst for insightful reflections. Reflections/meditations that compel

us to face our fragility and temporality head on. These photographs are gently forcing

us for these deliberations, as here, unlike our ordinary environment, our gaze is fixed.

In both cases the factuality of the photographs acts to enhance the fact of the

immediate human observer or presence an emphasis that is much stronger in these

photographs than in similar paintings.

According to Barthes (1981), the title Camera Lucida refers to a significant ontological

attribute of photographs. It is their ability to elucidate. The dictionary defines lucid as:

suffused with light, luminous. In this sense lucidness combines the removal of

opaqueness with greater understanding or clarification. Or we could easily use the


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word transparency here. In this regard I would like to suggest that it is a new kind of

transparency that we should associate with photographs. Not the literal, indexical,

factual transparency a laWalton, but one which can profoundly infiltrate appearances.

If we accept this stance, photographs could pierce, subvert and convulse the reality of

their origin. A photographic reality that for a long time seemed like a straitjacket thatcannot be removed now could be liberated, expanded, and transcended. (6) In the

case of still life photographs their evidential power buttresses their luminosity; it does

not impede their ability to elucidate or penetrate reality.

Michael Fried (2008), Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before contains this

profound statement:

Here let me go just a step further and suggest that photography so

understood may be thought of as an ontological medium, which is also to

say that the particular bodies of work I have been discussing not only are

illuminated by ontological thought but themselves make a positive

contribution to such thought, or at any rate to the further understanding -

the elaboration, even the deepening - of the philosophical texts in question.

(p. 347)

It could be suggested that this statement may be the first to demarcate a paradigm shift

in our broad cultural attitude towards photographs. We have to notice that Fried argues

here that photography not only parallels philosophy in its ability to explore deeper

meanings, but in a modest way could also improve on it. This is a startling revelation. I

believe that photographys great advantage here lies in its ability to tie up

ontological/philosophical reflections with our everyday environments or with the most

common daily experiences. In place of just looking at the overlooked (Bryson, 1990),

we could realize that photography gives us the ability for greater perception,

contemplation and elucidation of issues that otherwise would escape our attention. So

instead of thinking about photographic transparency as we know it, we should embrace

photographys ability to transparize. As exemplified in Boaz Tal many still lifes or his

effort in general, we should contemplate the issue of photographic transparization - or

ponder whether this is photographys most profound attribute.


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Notes:

(1) See Henry Le Secq:http://www.geh.org/fm/amico99/htmlsrc1/m198114810006_ful.html#topofimage

(2) The terms Rhopography and Megalography are originally termed by Charles Sterling in hisStill Life Painting.

(3) All personal references are from a talk with Boaz Tal, Tel Aviv 16 July 2009

(4) In Israel, focused effort by visual practitioners in art photography began only around 1977.All involved in this endeavor, had to face an opposition to the acceptance of photography as alegitimate art medium. Boaz Tal strategies mentioned here are also connected to this context.

(5) See Adriaen van Utrecht- Vanitas - Still Life with Bouquet and Skull 1642,http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Adriaen_van_Utrecht-_Vanitas_-

_Still_Life_with_Bouquet_and_Skull.JPG

(6) This is in contrast to Barthess assertion that the photograph cannot be penetrated. See

Camera Lucidap.106

References:

Abrahmov, S. L. (2008) Media Literacy: Reading and Writing Images in a Digital Age inEducating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, andCulture Mel Alexenberg (ed.) Intellect Books UK.

Barthes, R. (1981) Camera LucidaNew York: Hill and Wang

Baudrillard, J. (1988) Selected Writings, ed. Mark Poster Stanford: Stanford University Press,

pp.166-184.http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html

Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Social Definition of Photography, Photography: a Middlebrow Art,

London: Polity Press pp. 73-98

Bryson, N (1990) Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting (Essays in Artand Culture) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Friday, J. (2000) Demonic Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Documentary photography The British

Journal of Aesthetics vol. 40 (3) pp. 356-375

Fried, M. (2005) Barthes's Punctum Critical Inquiry, Vol. 31 Issue 3, pp. 539-574

Fried, M. (2008) Why Photography Matters as Art as Never BeforeNew Haven CT: Yale University Press

Korsmeyer, C. (1999) Making Sense of Taste: Food and PhilosophyIthaca, NY: Cornell University Press
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.htmlhttp://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html


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Krauss, R. (1986) The Photographic Condition of Surrealism in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist MythsCambridge, MA: MIT Press

Walton, K. (1984) Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographs Critical Inquiry vol. 11

pp. 246276

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If Not Now When On Boaz Tal Still Lifes - Dr. Shlomo Lee Abrahmov 2009