The Clash between Old and New

I entered the small, yet cozy room with bated breath, eager to hear about the views of photographer who began his journey when the industry truly hit it’s peak. As somewhat of a photography buff myself, and two best friends who would give their limbs right and left for new cameras, lenses, film, hot-shoes, etc, I have been to my fair share of contemporary photography exhibits.

The photographic movement in the 1970s was a phenomenal one, filled with fresh new ideas and originality. As Howard Greenberg said, photographers traded their images right and left, and gave a whole new standard to the conceptualization of a photograph. Photographs of the 1970s were about impact; movement; capturing a dazzling piece of history and preserving it forever.

I was quite shocked and somewhat disappointed then, that Howard Greenberg no longer looked for these elements in the photographs he decided to show. He chooses his pieces based on the photographer. He let us know that he was interested in older works that had a background because of who they were photographed by. When I questioned him about this further after the presentation, he told me straight out that, for him, he was not interested in a photograph if it not was not taken by someone historically significant.

I thanked him for the informative presentation, but I left feeling somewhat disillusioned. In my opinion, the most important thing about photography is the actual subject matter and technique of the picture, not who shot it. Although I learned a lot of fascinating information about some famous photographers, I would have liked to know more about the pieces themselves. Perhaps this is the difference between classical and contemporary photograph that Greenberg kept referring to; however, I feel that the photography movement today, as opposed to that of ten or twenty years ago, is closer to that of the 1970s; radical, experimental, and based on what you know, not who.