Fascinating Academic Article

[Donald]

I've just come across and read an academic (very, very academic) paper -“Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography" (https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/19138).

If you have interest in deadpan photography and have the patience to stick with it to the end, this paper gives much food for thought.

[Astro]

Donald,
thanks for the link.. I know of deadpad photography and have been 'interested' in it on and off over the years. To be honest I've strugged somewhat to appreciate/engage with the concept.
I started reading your link last night and ended up very late to bed. You are right, very very academic!! But fascinating and informative though I think I am goig to need to revisit it a good few times again.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the link. Like James, I managed to work my way through it. Doing so late at night appears to have helped me fall asleep.

Well written and an interesting opinion of this sub-genre I knew little about, i.e. the Russian nuances versus the better known European and American practitioners. Should I try to work my way through it again? Probably not as I probably wouldn't get much more out of it...

[Cantab]

What an extraordinary title the article has. Curiosity has got the better of me so I'm going to have a look at the article.
Donald, did you stumble across this article while looking for something else?

[Donald]

Donald, did you stumble across this article while looking for something else?

I was looking for writings on deadpan photography given that it is genre that appeals to me enormously.

Over the years I have looked at articles and deadpan images from others and realised, without ever consciously thinking about it, that many of my own images fit into the classification of deadpan photography. An early example of my being aware of the genre was with Andreas Gursky's 'Rhein II'. There was a post on here when it first sold for a world record price for a photograph. Most people on the forum at that time ridiculed it with statements such as, "Must be mad to pay anything for that photograph", and "Anyone could have taken that". But I liked it although I was too timid at the time to stick my head up and say so.

[llewin2014]

Good day, Donald.

Just a short interruption to the main topic ... in my opinion, the real issue with Andreas Gursky's 'Rhein II' was the fact a manipulated photographic image, illustrating a scene that had no relationship to reality, received such high acclaim. For me its all about informing the viewer before contemplating the image; his work was not presented in such a manner, and only (and if) viewers read background information, knew the work included severe manipulation in forming the visual narrative. Within the title, should have been identified as Conceptual Photography. On Deadpan ... looking forward to skimping through the article. Thanks!

[Manfred M]

in my opinion, the real issue with Andreas Gursky's 'Rhein II' was the fact a manipulated photographic image, illustrating a scene that had no relationship to reality, received such high acclaim. For me its all about informing the viewer before contemplating the image; his work was not presented in such a manner, and only (and if) viewers read background information, knew the work included severe manipulation in forming the visual narrative.

I find it interesting how we do not accept heavy manipulation from photographers like Gursky, but are more than happy to accept heavy manipulation from the likes of Ansel Adams.

Here is the straight out of camera contact print of his iconic Moonrise - Hernandez, New Mexico.







And this is what he printed.






This looks like some really heavy duty manipulation too.