Contribution of Modernity to Photography and Film Movements

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There are many evidences that show that modernity in many aspects played an active role towards the construction and proliferation of different movement in photography and film. Modernity in visual arts and cinema is part of the ever-changing world, wherein the establishment of ideas, different people in the world of art participates in experimenting with the forms and styles of art, thus remarkably reach to the point of achieving another level of aesthetic concepts, presentation, and interpretation (Hansen, 1999). Hansen pointed out the contribution of modernism in art. He said that;

“…modernism encompasses a whole range of cultural and artistic practices that register, respond to, and reflect upon processes of modernization and the experience of modernity, including a paradigmatic transformation of the conditions under which art is produced, transmitted, and consumed.”

Both photography and films as the art streams which reflect generations’ thoughts and feelings include numerous movements based on various styles and objectives of either photography or film. Moreover, the contribution or influence of modernism both in photography and film could be attributed to the changes or transformations brought by first, the modernization and second, the response of the society to the new form of art. In this context, concepts about modernity in photography sprung during early 1900 when many conventional art groups did not classify photography as an art (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007). Because of that modernist movements were formed (e.g. Photo-Secession, Pictorialist) in order to continue their very own artistic philosophy. Influenced by modernity, probably from the concepts of Picasso, Dadaists, and contemporaries, modernist photographers are formed with the desire to showcase their creativity characterized by the new wave of approaches and styles. Despite the criticisms and biases received, movements kept on pursuing the new concepts.

As an example, the documentary photography movement has emerged with the necessity to support the author’s perspective on a certain issue. Modern society got used to reading publications with images of events or people described, so modern photographers have no choice rather than produce interesting and involving pictures. So, the movement of documentary photography continues to develop with the rising demands of modern readers. Lewis Wickes Hine is one of the leaders of the documentary photography movement, who took advantage of black and white photography to document people’s lives during World War I or the Great Depression. His works have helped his documentary photography followers see the camera as the tool of social reforms and a way of influence the public.

Another example of how conditions have spurred the development of photography and film movements is the stream of the pictorialist group, which has emerged and laboriously march their ways in the proliferation of their work conducting numerous exhibitions. Their mode of propagating their ideas attracted the public, which in turn made the modernist approach popular. No amount of criticisms from traditionalists discouraged the modernist movement of the 20^th century. In turn, they achieved acknowledgment when later on, photography has been included as a form of fine art. More concepts and ideas of modernism are massively transferred to the art world, opening the world of art to conceptual abstractionism, expressionism, surrealism, and many exaggerations and symbolic art.

The movement of modernist photographers, who can easily capture their subjects, is the outcome of changes in the global society of the twentieth century. Examples of this movement’s representatives are American photographers – Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan who used abstractionism in presenting their subjects. Another important figure in the world of the modernist stream is the English photographer Bill Brandt who created nude photographs getting the shot in an extremely close distance giving the photograph an abstract effect. In this way, modernism became an active part of photographic presentations, wherein modernists’ concepts and ideas have essentially become an influential element in the contents and subjects of photographic illustrations (Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007).

Modernity has promoted the emergence of other photography movements; in particular, with the development of technology such styles of photography have appeared as black and white photography, gradually evolving into color photography style. Furthermore, creative possibilities on the side of the photographers boosted up because of the improvement in the processing and color materials in photographs.

Subjects of nature like birds, landscapes, street scenes, or war scenes could then be elaborately and expressively pictured because of the advancement in imaging technology that appeared in 1900. As a result of these innovations, the movement of expressionism in photography became very popular. Expressionists’ pictures were symbolic and could have been interpreted in a degree of artistic communicativeness. The masterpieces of artistic expression are pictures of the 20^th-century photographers like Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, portraying subjects that contain lifestyles that include drug addiction and pictures of people dressing in clothes of the opposite sex, showing the society the irony or harsh truths presented in an aesthetic and artistic manner. Modern problems of society, as well as gender and nationality issues, gave much material for expressionists’ representatives (Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007).

In the same manner, later on, upon the discovery of filmmaking, modernism has its influence on the development of early cinema. There is a relationship that tied up film and modernity. It could be clearly identified by examining how stories and subjects of films were enriched or aided by visuals that deliver the thing called new consciousness which is possible in films but is not possible in reality. Scientific thinking and visual experimentation are then presented in films where the essence of exaggeration could be of great possibility. Film making exceeds the bounding limit of reality because of the capabilities of film to express artistic ideas and portray both what the artist can see in reality and in his imagination in moving form.

Eadweard Muybridge‘s name can not be separated from the history of movement of the first motion pictures. This man had used complex devices of the nineteenth century, as well as his talent as the photographer to produce the first moving pictures. Unfortunately, all necessary filming devices had not been invented yet, so Eadweard Muybridge had to take advantage of sequence pictures to show the effect of movement, like in “Horse jumping” or “Woman walking downstairs” sequences. Muybridge had built a bridge that connected photography of the nineteenth century with film production of the twentieth century, transforming the documentary photography movement into the film industry.

Exploring the development of the film industry, it can be outlined that one of the first movements of film production was the documentary film stream which has not lost its popularity yet. Robert Flaherty can be considered to be the founder of the documentary movement, since his worldwide famous works like Moana(1926), Nanook of the North(1921), Man of Aran(1934) were the first attempts to show the life of people in the countryside, their struggle against forces of nature and survive in the rapidly changing world.

Modernity acted in the early cinema as a form of articulating both the representation and the interpretation of society, realism, and surrealism. Analyzing the history of film movements, one can notice that the documentary movement which focused on the reality of society’s life was gradually substituted with surrealism stream. In conjunction with filmmaking, this movement created another set of experiences that people could understand and appreciate. They were then eager to explore this new global experience under the wings of modernity, and in this case, it catches audiences in a term called narrative-cognitive level. This is the way by which a viewer can identify himself into experiencing modernist concepts and ideas (Hansen, 1999). One representative of the surrealism movement is Alfred Hitchcock, a modernist filmmaker who made silent pictures that draw public interest (Hitchcock, 1995). In order to get used to vision, Hitchcock captured audience participation and attention by means of incorporating a “synaesthetic cinematic experience” to them, an appreciation achieved by means of watching his suspense film.

To conclude, modernity has made a major contribution in the 20^th-century photography and film movements through the concepts and ideas it introduced plus the participative reactions that modern artistic concepts received from the art world. The acquisition of these concepts is the source of the development of photography and film at the beginning of that period and the formation of different movements’ photographers and filmmakers.

References

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007, History of Photography. Web.

Hansen, B, Modernism/Modernity 6.2 (1999) 59-77. 2007. Web.

Hutchings, P, J n.d. Modernity: a film by Alfred Hitchcock. 2007. Web.

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Contribution of Modernity to Photography and Film Movements

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