The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism Study Notes

Author: Douglas Crimp
Published In: October, Winter 1980, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1980), pp. 91-101
Publisher: The MIT Press
JSTOR Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/778455
Notes: This paper was presented at the colloquium "Performance and Multidisciplinarity: Postmodernism" organized by Parachute in Montreal, October 9-11, 1980.

Crimp references Walter Benjamin's critique of photography, illustrating the belief that photography has fundamentally overturned traditional notions of art.
- Quote from Benjamin: "They sought nothing beyond acquiring credentials for the photographer from the judgment-seat which he had already overturned."
Photography contradicts modernist values, representing a breach and a return of the repressed, marking postmodernism as distinct from modernism.
  - Key Institutions Affected by Postmodernism:
    1. Museum
    2. Art History
    3. Photography (in complex relation)

The term "plurality" is introduced as a central theme.
  - Definition of Pluralism: The notion that art is unique, original, and detached from other discourses and histories.
    - This standpoint is criticized as a fantasy of freedom in art.
  - Crimp asserts a focus on the plurality of copies instead of the pluralism of originals, emphasizing that art is about dispersal, not singular originality.

Discusses the concept of presence within artworks, differentiating between:
  1. Direct Presence: Being physically in front of the artwork.
  2. Ghostly Presence: A presence that carries implications of absence or distance, related to ideas presented by Henry James.
  3. The Increment of Presence: A concept of presence that suggests an excess, a quality that makes a performer (like Laurie Anderson) special beyond merely being present in front of the audience.
  - Example of Artists: Jack Goldstein's Two Fencers and Robert Longo's Surrender exemplify this ghostly presence, being there yet ethereal.

Citing Walter Benjamin again, Crimp discusses the notion of authenticity within photography.
- The relationship between the subject and the camera contrasts sharply with painting, as connoisseurship in photography focuses on the subject rather than the artist's style.
- Benjamin posits that the aura in photography is linked to exposure time and the unique relationship between the subject and culture.

As postmodernism challenges traditional art values, museums began facing a crisis around 1970, failing to engage with new artistic practices and reverting to older art forms.
A resurgence of expressionist painting is highlighted as an attempt by the museum to recover the aura of art while significantly resisting the influence of photography, viewing it as an enemy.
Noteworthy Exhibition: Barbara Rose's manifesto for the exhibition American Painting: The Eighties illustrates a collective aim to uphold painting's transcendental and universal significance.

Crimp discusses how photography regained cultural legitimacy and how a scarcity of authentic works emerges within a context of copies, exploited by connoisseurs who seek to authenticate the photograph's style rather than its subjectivity.
- The connoisseur must adapt techniques from historical photography into contemporary analysis, including various aspects of authenticity, such as chemical analyses and technique identification, yet the subjective connection is crucial.

Crimp examines artists like Sherrie Levine who appropriate images to explore themes of authenticity and representation.
- In her work on Edward Weston's photographs, Levine presents an anecdote about how representation ignites desire without closure, emphasizing that representation occurs in the absence of the original.
- This creates a loop wherein the artwork’s significance derives from its repeated mediations in culture rather than a direct lineage to an original.