"The Ongoing Moment" by Geoff Dyer

Amazon

A learning outcome from the Leeds weekend was the development of an interest in the psychology of photography, with a realization that I know sod all about the subject.  Over the weekend both Freud and Jung were referenced but without me being able to appreciate the comments. This combines with a growing need to deepen my understanding of how people look at photographs and how elements within a photograph influence the reading of the text of the image. In my early naivety about image making I thought it was all about the intent of the photographer, that this established the meaning of the photograph.  Both through further reading, but also the personal experience of looking at photographs, I realize that this is only a part of the story.  But to what degree does the context in which the photograph is viewed and by whom it is viewed affect the reading?  Photographs with their supposed connection to reality are often mistakenly seen to be carrying a literal and fixed meaning, a moment of history ossified  by the click of a button.  However, this is evidently not true, social documentary photographs of 1930's poverty shook people at the time and now often evoke a sense of nostalgia for simpler times.  However, what is this process of viewing and how does the mindset of the viewer change the experience.

To that  end I requested advice on a good introductory text that ideally addressed the psychology of photographs or even simply a good overview of the field.  The reply from Jose Navarro on the OCA student website was to read this volume, a good recommendation, but one that answered a different but related question.  I was looking to understand the psychology of the consumer, whereas this book firmly addresses the psychology of the producer. Dyer weaves a narrative through the 20th century history of predominantly American photographers and how they influenced each other.  He does this by reference to certain key themes in photographs, often mundane yet powerfully linking.  These include blind beggars, hats, gas stations, doorways, even broken down park benches.  He explains how these metaphors for societal change have fascinated photographers and created strings of images that feed upon one another, visually linking a group of practitioners many of whom never met one another.  Interesting anecdotes pepper the text, particularly Alfred Stieglitz's sex life,  perhaps here is the link to Freud, much of the motivation seems to be sexually driven.

The book deals with why and how notable photographers created what they did and what motivated them to do it in the first place.  The focus on common themes and the way in which each photographer added their personal stamp to that subject addresses one of the problems I wrestle with as I progress, how to do something original.  I, and I think many other students, still fixate on subject matter, however, what the book illustrates is that style is more important in defining the output of one photographer versus another.  Subject is important and differentiates, say, a social documentarian from a landscape photographer, however, within a given domain it is the how and not the what that establishes a photographers signature.  Over time subjects remain remarkably fixed, we return to them again and again, but it is how we return to them that counts!

To conclude, the book does not really address my starting question, i.e. how the reading of photographs is influenced by the reader and how this reading has changed with the evolution of society.  What it does is to answer another question that has been in the back of my mind for some time, is a unique subject needed for unique photography?  Clearly the answer is no.  Indeed there may be immense value in looking for subject matter in the canon of photography, but working in my own style.  Just need to develop that style!