A PresentNow

University of Wolverhampton
'The PresentNow' – A confrontation of the issues of Time within Photography
Daniel McClane – 1121598
Module: 6AD002 - Dissertation

















Introduction

"Photography's vaunted capture of a moment in time is the seizure and freezing of presence. It is the image of simultaneity, of the way that everything within a given space at a given moment is present to everything else; it is a declaration of the seamless integrity of the real." (Rosalind Krauss, 1986, P107)
This quote by Krauss supports the idea that the photographic image is no longer just a document frozen in time, rather, it does more and is more, functioning on a multitude of levels, as a temporal anomaly.
Through the writings of critical theorists and philosophers including Roland Barthes, J.M.E McTaggart, Jan Baetens, Susan Sontag, and Arthur Shopenhauer this text will attempt to illustrate how the concept of time has been explored, not only via the photographic medium, but also via other genres within the arts including Futurist painting, the moving image (Film) and Literature.
It is profoundly clear that the relationship between space and time has always been a subject of great debate and philosophical fascination. The illusion of Time forces the individual to confront issues of their own mortality and the ephemeral nature of all things. The complexities of temporal experience and the unstoppable fluidity of the passage of Time suggests that it can never be just a fixed concept.
Exploring the work of Photographers including Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller and more contemporary photographers such as Ernst Haas and Gary Schneider, this essay will seek to address questions such as:
Does the concept of temporality help the photographic image remain in a state of fluidity, due to its encompassing of past and present?
What is the artistic value of the photographic image beyond its own timeframe?
How does the use of long exposure techniques fit into the debate regarding duration?




Chapter 1- The Future will be here……Presently.
It may be a well-used cliché to say that 'Every picture tells a story'. However, it is true to say that every photographic image contains a history, however subtle, that alludes to an event which has gone before. Photography has always been at the forefront of change. It is the medium which allows us to take a second glance into the past, whilst possessing the enduring quality of allowing us to remain firmly within our own 'present'. In his text 'Return of the Real' (pgs.x-xi) Hal Foster, in his introduction to the book states that:
"For even as the avant-garde recedes into the past, it also returns from the future, repositioned by innovative art in the present" Here, Foster is examining how changes in critical approaches, including a return to certain historical methods, could be instrumental in helping develop new models of practice, in all genres of art.
Technological and scientific changes in ways of seeing and experiencing the everyday bring sharply into focus the impact, and influence, that Photography has had in shaping the culture of the Visual Arts ,with its' ability to move seamlessly through the formalism of the 19th Century, and into the less restrictive cultural landscape of Modernism. Beyond this, Photography in the Post-Modern era, has continued to push back the boundaries, forcing itself to confront even broader questions related to the content of the image. This essay will seek to examine the link between Photographys' ceaseless struggle to give form to the fluidity of time, and its' complex insistence on maintaining a relationship with reality and the present.
Using Modernism as a starting point for this chapter, an iconic and widely acclaimed example of Modernism is Duchamps' 'Nude Descending a Staircase' (1912)(Fig.1). Influenced by Edweard Muybridges' photographs which explored movement, this painting has similar properties as photographic imagery taken using the long exposure technique. Quite clearly, the stylised imagery presents elements of past and present, enabled by the superimposing of figurative images on top of each other. The Cubist and Futurist early Modernist movements, with their fascination for multi-faceted viewpoints and layering of imagery, created some works that captured speed and movement in a way that often encapsulated the past and the present tenses within a single painting. A contemporary photographic comparison using a similar technique is Stan Douglas' "Dancer II, 1950, 2010"(Fig.2). In the online newspaper article "Stan Douglas: Entertainment: Selections from Midcentury Studio at The Power Plant" (Dailyserving.com, 2012)Writer/Curator Sarah Knelman says that "While there's often only a hazy sense of the narrative contexts in which these pictures would have come to be made and helped to illustrate, there is also an incisive relationship to a longer history of photography as document – not only to the press photography of Weegee, clearly an influence, but also subtler nods to the motion studies of Edweard Muybridge, the typologies of August Sander, and even a kind of retrospective foreshadowing of the kind of images of that could have inspired Diane Arbus."
Artist/photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson created the term 'The Decisive Moment' in an attempt to define a critical point in time. According to Cartier-Bresson, it is a moment, not before and not after, which requires the Photographer to have observed the past, whilst imagining the future, to then capture the present. This is evident in his image "Henri Cartier-Bresson – 'FRANCE. 1932. Paris. Place de l'Europe. Gare Saint Lazare.'(Fig.3). Cartier Bresson captured the subject at the perfect moment, suspended in mid-air in the image. If he had captured this any sooner or later the image would not have been as aesthetically effective.
Cultural theorist Roland Barthes' texts on photography were also concerned with the cultural interest at that time of looking beyond the surface of the image. In his text 'Camera Lucida' (2000:32,p.76-77) he conveys this idea thus:
"…..Contrary to these imitations, in Photography I can never deny that that the thing has been there. There is a superimposition here: of reality and of the past. And since this constraint exists only for Photography, we must consider it, by reduction, as the very essence, the noeme of Photography"
Walter Benjamins' essay 'A Short History of Photography' (1931) is a pertinent exploration of the changes occurring in early 20th Century image making. In this text, he examines how the technological advancements in the discipline, including different size formats and exposure times, began to influence the 'ways of seeing', and how images were perceived. So, how did this new way of seeing and thinking described by Benjamin, reconcile with the ideas surrounding the concepts of the motionless image, and the past as the present? In his essay, Benjamin alludes to a presence he describes as 'Aura', and says:
"What is aura? A strange web of time and space: the unique appearance of a distance, however close at hand" (A Short History of Photography, p.209)
This new way of thinking is evident in the Surrealist photographic image," Portrait of Space' Egypt"(Fig.4) taken in 1937 by Lee Miller. Encompassing both interior and exterior spaces, the relationship between space and time appears fractured and ambiguous, almost infinite. The inclusion of a mirror (whether intentional, or accidental) gives the impression of the present looking back into a moment passed. Susan Sontag, in On Photography, puts forward the idea that Photography is not art, but an emanation of the past. She goes on to say that (Photographs) "Turn the past into an object of tender regard scrabbling moral distinctions and disarming moral historical judgement by the generalised pathos of looking into the past". Benjamin, however, later goes on to say that the reproduction of images, made possible by the advancement of the mechanical process of photography, has contributed to the gradual 'erosion' of what he terms as the 'aura' of an image.


Chapter 2 – 'The story goes off the edge of the page' – The continuing narrative of the single image.

Photography, Literature and Film all have their own unique ways of representing time. When one talks about Temporality, generally the first artistic genre to spring to mind is Film/Cinema.
It could be argued that film can only ever signify the present; this is due to it following a strict chronological narrative that tells the viewer what they need to think, leaving them in an 'eternal present'. Douglas Gordon's "24 Hour Psycho" (1993)(Fig.5) is a good example of Film being used to distort the viewers' perception of time. Gordon slowed Alfred Hitchcocks' thriller "Psycho" from 24 frames per second, to 2 frames per second. This leads to the film no longer running as smoothly as we are used to seeing, which in turn makes each frame look like a single, motionless image. It has more similarities to a slideshow, than a film. Multi Media artist Stan Douglas, who works mainly with Film, creates work in which 'the viewer often finds himself plunged into events whose beginnings are obscured and whose ends seem to dissolve into mutability' (from Douglas' biography on Victoria Miro Gallery website). Even with past, present and future tenses being used, film can only show the 'here and now'. It can never truly depict the 'has been' or the 'will be' but only the 'is being'. Essentially, it creates the 'illusion' of the passing of time, due to the multiplicity of scenes .French Film Theorist Christian Metz supports this in his essay "Photography and Fetish" (October,Vol 34, 1985) by asserting that Film, unlike photography, presents evidence of temporal flow – for example, a film character may disappear from one scene, only to appear, later on, in another. Photographic images however, can only present what is there in the 'Now', not what was or is yet to be. There is always a disparity between the Real time in which the film is moving as it is viewed, and the Psychological time of the viewer, which is compressed and expanded at a differing rate. McFarlane, in his text 'Novel to Film', asserts that "film cannot present action in the past as novels chiefly do".

Literature, however, can incorporate the notions of past and future, due to the range of grammatical tense at its' disposal. Able to move back and forth in tense, it has the distinct advantage of a multitude of chapters in which to set out a back story of characters and events. That said, Literature is still situated firmly within the present, whether that is the present of the writer, the narrator, or that of the main character in the story line. Nick Hornby's modern fiction text, "A Long Way Down" (2005), is written in the same style one would watch a film. It is read in a constant present tense, from the viewpoint of each character.

On the Victoria Miro Gallery website, on his biography page, Stan Douglas remarks that "life is all middle" .This, it seems, is the standpoint from which Douglas wishes his work to be viewed. The 'middle', to which he refers, is the present. A perpetual cycle of events, enriched by their proximity to the past and the future. Academic Christine Ross describes this process as "The temporal turn" and says "it (temporal turn) is a turn constitutive of a regime of historicity in which the temporal category of the present is thickened by its' proximity to the past and the future" (Ross, 2012), this supports Douglas' quote, they both believe we can never live in the past, nor the future, only the present (middle), which is being constantly thickened during our existence. This stands true within photography, as once it is processed and printed it has no future, it can only show what has been, in the present, when compared to film, which consistently flows, and essentially has an imagined future as it can move forward and progress, Husserl argues (In Barthes 1981, P89) the photograph breaks this model as it is "Without future" and is "Motionless, the photograph flows back from presentation to retention".

"Once time is 'embalmed' the photograph, it persists, carrying the past across to innumerable futures as they become the present" (Mulvey, in Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image, 2006, p.56)

Although the aim of this essay was not to examine in great detail the technicalities of the photographic image, nor the processes it goes through, I believe they are important when it comes to how a sense of temporality (intentionally or accidentally) can be perceived by the viewer. This can be through how the image is coloured, the technique of how it was taken (long exposures), or via more modern ways of image manipulation, such as Photoshop.
The extreme use of colour in Ernst Haas' image 'Peeling Paint on Iron Bench, Kyoto, 1981' (Fig.6) gives it a sense of super-realism, the contrast of the peeling red paint against the exposed iron makes it aesthetically pleasing, but also gives the viewer a present feeling of time that has passed, which led to the deterioration of the bench. Haas said on Photography, that "Through Photography, both artist and scientist can find a common denominator in their search for the synthesis of modern vision in time, space and structure"
Photographer Gary Schneider, whose main consideration is portraiture, produces images which convey a sense of intimacy, bringing the viewer closer to what it is to be human, mortality, and the human condition. Through his production of X ray – style individual body parts and nude figures, Schneider is able to encapsulate skin texture and tonality, making them appear more 'present' and accessible. Long exposures create an 'aura', which is particularly evident in Schneiders' portrait entitled "George" (2001) (Fig.7). Clearly, Walter Benjamins' ideas around the 'aura' are still apparent in contemporary photography. In the photographic portrait "Helen" (2000) (Fig.8), Schneider has managed to capture asymmetrical changes to the face, producing a static representation of continuity of movement. Conversely, this asymmetry could also evoke ideas of decay, deterioration and death.
When examining the genre of theatre in his text 'Camera Lucida', Barthes goes on to say that :

"…Now it is this same relation which I find in the photograph; however "lifelike" we strive to make it (and this frenzy to be lifelike can only be a mythic denial of an apprehension of death), Photography is a kind of primitive theater, a kind of Tableau Vivant, a figuration of the motionless and made-up face beneath which we see the dead".












Chapter 3 – The Deception of Time

"The 'Now' is a link of time…. for it links together past and future since it is a beginning of one and an end of another… time is not composed of indivisible Nows" (Aristotle 384BC-322BC)
Having so far considered ideas surrounding the concepts of Time and Tense by exploring early 20th century artistic movements, contemporary film, photography and literature, this final chapter will seek to explore the metaphysical potential of the photographic image.
The photograph presents us with an image of some past event, and no matter the passage of time, leads us back to the subject of the image, like an invisible cord, unbroken by time, keeping us connected with it on a metaphysical level. However, to fully explore this concept, we must first examine the connection between the 'Real', and the notion of 'Time' and its' existence. In the academic paper by Kevin Falvey ('The View from Nowhen: The McTaggart-Dummett Argument for the Unreality of Time in Philosophia,2010 38:297-12), Falvey examines the opposing viewpoints regarding reality and time of Metaphysician J.M.E McTaggart, and Michael Dummett. McTaggart holds the view that time is an unreality in and of itself, because time involves change, and change can only be described by a series of contradictions (A-series contradictions). Contradictions cannot describe reality, so he concludes, therefore, that time is unreal, but argues for the existence of Tense-realism, where he states that all events consist of all three tenses: Past, Present and Future. Dummett, however, argues against this, asserting that no single event can encompass all three tenses at once. In this academic paper, Kevin Falvey examines a range of arguments regarding the reality of 'Time', and appears to agree with McTaggarts' idea that finding a method of integrating tense-realism into the debate on time, would be a more efficient way of conceiving the concept of reality.
Philosopher A.N .Prior in an excerpt from his paper 'The Notion of Time'(Studium Generale,23,1970,pp.245-8), says that:
"Notoriously, much of what is present isn't present permanently; the present is a shifting, changing thing. That is only to say that much of what is the case, of what is real and true, is constantly changing…."
In his text 'The World as Will and Representation' (Vol.2,p.480), German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer asserts that:
"……there is only one present, and this always exists: for it is the sole form of existence…."
What Schopenhauer is trying to convey here, is his perception of the 'past' and 'future' as a series of never ending present moments. Putting this into the context of reading an image, it could be said that through a sense of 'connectedness', we are, in our 'present' moment, able to feel a sense of oneness with the subject within an image, regardless of the date of which the image was captured. Photographs have the ability to help us preserve the subject of an image within our minds, whilst the world around us changes, the image remains the same (disregarding any degradation of the photograph itself), like an ever enduring 'Past in the Present'.
So, how can this 'Past in the Present' be represented within a single photographic image? Can the single image possess all three elements of Past/Present and Future within itself? Is there a point at which these elements can be understood, and observed?
Walter Benjamin conveyed his ideas on these questions in 'A Short History of Photography' 1931(pg58/Inscriptions in Jephcott and Shorter 'One Way Street and Other Writings' (London version, 1985) 240-57). "….No matter how artful the photographer, no matter how carefully posed his subject, the beholder feels an irresistible urge to search such a picture for the tiny spark of contingency, of the Here and Now, with which reality was, so to speak, seared the subject, to find the inconspicuous spot where the immediacy of that long forgotten moment the future subsists so eloquently, that we, looking back, may rediscover it…."
This 'tiny spark of contingency', very poignantly described by Benjamin, alludes to that frozen moment within the image that suddenly resonates with the viewer, a burst of recognition, however tiny the detail which provokes it. It is the same resonation which Barthes speaks of. In 'Camera Lucida', Barthes puts forward that a photograph can conjure up a sense of off-frame space (as in film) by what he calls the 'Punctum' – The point of a sudden rush of feeling and powerful emotion, of small trauma. He states that the punctum is dependant more on the viewer, than on the image itself. It is the "metonymic expansion of the punctum".
To summarise, it seems vital that there is a moment, a convergence of interpretations between the creator of the image, and the viewer, a pause or space in which the viewer is able to move to another 'Present'. It requires a ponderance, a psychological shift caused by that sudden burst of recognition which Benjamin terms the 'spark of contingency', for the viewer to observe the past within the single image.

In the essay 'Time and the Static Image' (Philosophy,72,1997), Robin Le Poidevin concludes that "Whether or not static images really do represent instants, however, is something we cannot answer until we have settled issues about time and change. And this is one illustration of the relevance of metaphysics to aesthetics"


Conclusion

So, having considered a variety of theories regarding time and reality in relation to photography, and having examined the ability of the single photographic image to produce elements of the past and present within itself, this essay finds itself standing at the edge of what seems to be a huge expanse of unresolved questions. There is no vantage point, in reality, which gives us the opportunity of seeing our future moments as they will be. And whilst we still cannot resolve issues related to time, reality and change, we can only ever view our existence in a sequence of 'Present Nows'.
Roland Barthes' assertion that the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the author still holds true, and now even more poignantly so, in relation to the photographic image. This importance bestowed upon the viewer, is not merely a fanciful, romanticised notion. It is at the core of what gives the image its' power to transcend what the photographer wanted to convey. It is only the viewer who can thicken the layer of the frozen moment captured, inscribing onto the image elements of their own past. It is the psychological space in which the viewer/photographer agree on an unwritten contract, a pause for ponderance, a rupture, a moment when the image is able to evoke memory of what has been, and provoke future imaginings of what is yet to be.












Abstract

Referencing the Modernist movement of the 20th Century as a starting point for the text, this essay will attempt to explore the importance of time and reality in relation to the photographic image.
By comparing and contrasting key Critical Theory and Concepts surrounding photography, this text will seek to illustrate the poignancy of tense in relationship to the single photographic image. It will critique the metaphysical potential of the image, and how the relationship it has with the viewer is more important now than ever.
Going forward to address broader social and cultural concerns, research undertaken will be reflected upon, seeking to determine the potential, and possible limitations, of the single image as a vehicle for advancing the current debate regarding the existence of the real.
Photographic technique is briefly examined within the essay, looking at ways in which the manipulation of the image can enhance the illusion of time.

To conclude, the essay returns again to issues concerning the importance of the viewer, and also the open-ended nature regarding concepts of time, tense and reality and their connection to the aesthetics of the photographic image.







































Bibliography
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