Reading Reflection – Francesca Adamski

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Joseph Berger; Gay Talese Reminisces About Verrazano Construction

• Talese added: “That’s true of all these guys. They look around and everyone sees the skyline of New York as a family tree.” – I think it’s interesting how we can come to see ourselves in the places we live. By actively inserting ourselves into an environment (metaphorically or otherwise), we can make said environment our own. In this way, our surroundings become a reflection of ourselves, and we, a reflection of our surroundings. It’s almost like we come to nurture a symbiotic relationship between ourselves and our

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When Artists Ran the Show: ‘Inventing Downtown,’ at N.Y.U.

• By contrast, in New York in the 1950s, 200 artists pretty much were that world, and one divided into several barely tangent circles. – started off as a small community, but eventually grew and expanded significantly

• For still others, politics, and art’s expression of it, was of primary concern. The only guaranteed way these artists could achieve their goals was by opening galleries of their own, and they did. – There is a strong relationship between politics and art…probably because politics invokes strong emotions in individuals, and can subsequently fuel a creative fire in those who wish to express said emotions. Additionally, sometimes we must take things into our own hands in order to be productive. It is not uncommon to face adversity and resistance when setting out to make a difference.

• The earliest of these 1950s artist-run galleries were downtown, on or around 10th Street, east of Fourth Avenue, where rents were cheap.

• The most stable were the so-called cooperative galleries, or co-ops…

• The earliest of the three co-ops covered by the show, Tanager Gallery, was also the longest-lived, surviving from 1952 to 1962. And it was the one with the most market-friendly aesthetic, a little something for all tastes. – Perhaps the reason it lasted the longest was due to its eclectic collection of art…but does that mean the art was truly impactful? Did the gallery “sell out” by utilizing the “most market-friendly aesthetic”? Does making art more accessible ultimately increase its success?

• That was in 1960, by which point other kinds of galleries, alternatives to the alternatives, finding 10th Street too conservative and rejecting the co-op model, had sprouted up downtown. – This might address some of my previous questions…art isn’t necessarily created to appeal to others. In fact, I personally feel as though the best art is that created for oneself, or one to tell a story. Mass-produced art might sell, but can it still be considered successful outside of the sphere of consumerism?

• It was those spaces, where downtown existed as a state of mind as much as a place, that held my attention longest. – Physical locations can often have strong emotional ties to individuals. Ideas surrounding a location often come to represent that location, and thus these ideas become a location of their own (if that makes sense).

• The same crowdsourced ideal led the artist Phyllis Yampolsky, in 1961, to establish the Hall of Issues, a space at Judson Church where anyone, from community activists to neighborhood kids, could post bulletin-board style comments on matters that concerned them. The space, in place for two years, was a prototype for the “subway therapy” installation of thousands of handwritten sticky notes that covered a wall of the Union Square Station after the 2016 presidential election. – Interesting how we can observe parallels between the past and present. So much of what we see and hear today are deeply rooted in the past…I wonder if there are times when history repeating itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

• …several African-American artists…gathered in Greenwich Village to debate the question of whether and how to insert the politics of race into their work. Did doing so misuse art? Did it diminish politics? Was it self-aggrandizing? Self-isolating? Did it do any good?

• The Spiral Group concluded that there was too much at stake for them not to take a stand as artists: Do it, and see what unfolds. So they changed their art and put together a political show. Their example still holds. – On the topic of political art, the Guerrilla Girls are a really great (more modern) example of marrying politics and art. Much of their work, even that of 20 years ago, is extremely relevant to issues today. So I must ask, does inserting politics into art automatically secure its relevance?

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On Photography, Susan Sontag

• To collect photographs is to collect the world. – Photographs are a reflection of the world…they contain bits of information that correlate to different aspects of reality.

• Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood. – The camera serves as a tool, allowing an individual to observe and manipulate the world around them.

• To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power. – Does this mean being behind the camera affords one a position of authority? Are there any circumstances when being photographed can be equated to power? Or is vulnerability inherent to being a photographic subject?
• Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire. – There is an assumption that photographs are transparent in nature. However, they rarely reflect the full(est) truth.

• Photographs furnish evidence.

• In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates…In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. – has a multitude of uses; Does the way the camera is utilized offer some clue about the photographer?

• In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. – Reminds me of the quote by Ansel Adams, “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”

• …photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are. – can be manipulated in almost any way a photographer wants. This interpretation must offer clues about the photographer, but also the viewer (see previous quote)

• As industrialization provided social uses for the operations of the photographer, so the reaction against these uses reinforced the self-consciousness of photography as art. – Does art need a social aspect to be considered art? Or does it need a social aspect to be relevant?

• …like every mass art form, photography is not practiced by most people as an art. It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power. – Maybe it is a tool of power because individuals are using it to assert their existence. However, these assertions are often in response to societal pressures and personal insecurities (related or otherwise). Is something only art if it was intended to be by the so-called artist? Surely these definitions have been affected by newer technologies and sociological ideas…(e.g. social media).

• Photographs document sequences of consumption carried on outside the view of family, friends, neighbors. – Reminds me of a discussion in my Arts in New York City seminar where we mentioned how people may seek out certain activities over others for the sole purpose of documenting and sharing them.

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