The Armed Vision Disarmed: Radical Formalism from Weapon to Style

Abigail Solomon-Godeau
From Richard Bolton, ed., The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography (Cambridge, Mass: MI !ress,
"#$#% &&. $'-"()
Art &hotogra&h*, although long since legitimated b* all the con+entional discourses o, ,ine art, seems destined
&er&etuall* to reca&itulate the rituals o, the arriviste. Inasmuch as one o, those rituals consists o, the
establishment o, suitable ancestr*, a search ,or distinguished blood lines, it ine+itabl* ha&&ens that
&hotogra&hic histor* and criticism are more concerned -ith the notions o, tradition and continuit* than -ith
those o, ru&ture and change. Such recu&erati+e strategies ma* either ta.e on &hotogra&h* toute entiere, as in the
Museum o, Modem Art/s e0hibition Before Photography, -hich attem&ted to demonstrate that &hotogra&h* -as
engendered ,rom the bod* o, art, or selecti+el* resurrect the &hotogra&h* o, the &ast, as in the case o, the
&ublication and e0hibition b* Stieglit1 o, the -or. o, 2ill and Adamson and 3ulia Margaret Cameron to
em&hasi1e the continuit* o, a &articular aesthetic. Although a certain amount o, historical legerdemain is
occasionall* re4uired to argue that a e+ol+es or deri+es ,rom b, the nature o, &hotogra&h* ma.es such
enter&rises relati+el* eas*. An anon*mous +ernacular &hotogra&h ma* loo. 4uite li.e a 5al.er 6+ans, a 7ee
Friedlander ma* closel* resemble a Rodchen.o8 &ut side b* side, a close, but s&ecious, relationshi& a&&ears
ob+iousl*, visually established.
9o-here is the m*th o, continuit* more a&&arent than in the recent A&erture o,,ering The New Vision, -hich
traces the ,ortunes and ,ruits o, the Chicago Institute o, :esign, or, as 3ohn Grimes &uts it in his essa*, ;he
9e- <ision in the 9e- 5orld.;/ Although the leitmoti, o, the boo.=both in the Grimes essa* as -ell as in
Charles raub/s ;!hotogra&hic 6ducation Comes o, Age;=is the enduring &resence and in,luence o, the
Founding Father (and his ,ounding &rinci&les%, it is &er,ectl* e+ident that a substantial amount o, the
&hotogra&h* to ha+e emerged ,rom the I.:. has little in common -ith the &roduction, much less the ethos, o,
the :essau Bauhaus. In ,act, on the e+idence o, the -or. re&roduced, I -ould +enture to sa* that much o, the
&hotogra&h* to ha+e emerged ,rom the Bauhaus o, the dias&ora is more closel* allied to indigenous currents
in American art &hotogra&h* than to the machine-age ethic that in,ormed Mohol*/s thin.ing.
Such re,lections are suggested, among other things, b* the concluding sentence in the boo./s ,irst (unsigned%
essa*, ;A <isionar* Founder: 7as1lo Mohol*-9ag*,; -hich reads as ,ollo-s: ;he >to&ian dream Mohol* -or.ed ,or
ne+er became a realit*, des&ite his dedication and energ*, but his ne- +ision -as a &o-er,ul legac*, es&eciall* ,or
&hotogra&hers, -ho could see their /mechanical/ art as the means ,or ob?ecti+e +ision, o&tical truth, and &ersonal
enlightenment.;
'
@b?ecti+e +ision and o&tical truth -ere indeed linch&ins o, Mohol*/s &rogram ,or &hotogra&h*,
e+en as earl* as "#'A. !ersonal enlightenment, ho-e+er, -as a notion utterl* uncountenanced in Mohol*/s thin.ing,
and the 4uotes around the -orld ;mechanical;=the &recise attribute -hich made the camera a &ri+ileged
imagema.ing technolog* in the Bauhaus scheme o, things=are an ob+ious signal o, a &ro,ound volteface.
he &roblems raised b* the .ind o, &hotogra&hic histor* &ro&osed in The New Vision are com&ounded b* -hat
a&&ears to be a general con,usion as to the notion o, ,ormalism in &hotogra&h*. Most &hotogra&hic cognoscenti,
-hen as.ed -hat t*&e o, &hotogra&h* is re&resented b* the I.:. at least u& to the earl* "#)(s, -ill res&ond that it
re&resents the ;Chicago School,; or ;,ormalism,; b* -hich is intended a label that -ill describe such dis&arate
&hotogra&hers as 2arr* Callahan, Aaron Sis.ind, Ra* Met1.er, Art Sinsabaugh, Barbara Blondeau, or Benneth
3ose&hson. o the degree that ,ormalism has undergone (I -ould argue% the same .inds o, &ermutations and ru&tures
as did the BauhausCI.:. itsel,, it seemed a use,ul &ro?ect to trace generall* the radical ,ormalism o, Rodchen.o as it
-as disseminated into 5eimar oto!uhur and its additional trans,ormations as it -as absorbed and modi,ied in
Mohol*/s &ractice, -ithin the institution o, the Bauhaus. Finall*, I -as curious to see ho- the ,ormalism o, Aaron
Sis.ind and some o, the later graduates o, the I.:. related to that o, their 6uro&ean ,orebears. hat this ,ort*-*ear
&eriod traces the change ,rom an e0&licitl* &olitical and aggressi+el* antie0&ressionist &roduction to its +irtual
antithesis is im&licit testimon* that &hotogra&h, li.e all social &roduction, is not merel* the +essel, but is itsel,
constituti+e, o, ideolog*.
;All art,; -rote George @r-ell, ;is &ro&aganda, but not all &ro&aganda is art.; he radical ,ormalist &hotogra&h*
,orged in the So+iet >nion in the s&an o, *ears immediatel* be,ore and ,or se+eral *ears a,ter the Russian
Re+olution disclaimed all aesthetic intent and instead de,ined itsel, as instrumental in nurturing a ne-, collecti+e
consciousness. ;Art has no &lace in modern li,e,; -rote Ale0ander Rodchen.o in the &ages o, "e# in "#'$: ;It -ill
continue to e0ist as long as there is a mania ,or the romantic and as long as there are &eo&le -ho lo+e beauti,ul lies
and dece&tion. 6+er* modern cultured man must -age -ar against art as against o&ium.;
D
Re,using the a&&ellation
o, art and embracing the medium as an ideal instrument ,or &erce&tual rene-al and social &rogress, the
&hotogra&hic -or. o, Ale0ander Rodchen.o and 6l 7issit1.* has nonetheless come to signi,* more as art than as
re+olutionar* &ra0is. :es&ite their ha+ing -hole-heartedl* consecrated their -or. as &ro&aganda, -e +ie- them
no- aE ha+ing been=&reeminentl*=artists. In this a posteriori aesthetic recu&eration is inscribed a second death o,
radical Russian &hotogra&h*: its ,irst -as e,,ected in its nati+e societ* b+ o,,icial su&&ression8 its second -as
determined b* its ra&id assimilation in 5estern 6uro&e and the >nited States=a +ictim, one might sa*, o, its o-n
success. :i,,used and de,used, &hotogra&hic strategies in+ented in the ser+ice o, re+olution -ere 4uic.l*
conscri&ted ,or other uses, other ideologies. It is this latter ,ate that I -ish to discuss here, in &art because it
re+eals so clearl* the &ro,ound mutabilit* o, &hotogra&hic &ractice in general and in &art because the ,ortunes
o, ,ormalist &hotogra&h* itsel, &ro+ide a &aradigm o, aesthetic institutionali1ation=,rom the barricades to the
Academ* (so to s&ea.% in less than three generations.
his &articular migration is b* no means limited to &hotogra&h*, or e+en ,ormalist &hotogra&h*. 7eo
Steinberg/s obser+ation that the ;ra&id domestication o, the outrageous is the most characteristic ,eature o, our
artistic li,e, and the time la&se bet-een shoc. recei+ed and than.s returned gets &rogressi+el* shorter;
F
,airl*
describes the histor* o, radical art mo+ements in the t-entieth centur*8 no art &ractice has *et &ro+ed too
intractable, sub+ersi+e, or resistant to be assimilated sooner or later into the cultural mainstream. 60amination
o, the trans,ormations that occur -hen a gi+en art mo+ement or idea tra+erses ,rontiers and oceans, as -ell as
time, is instructi+e ,or the -a* it com&els recognition o, the essential instabilit* o, meaning in cultural
&roduction. his is no-here more cons&icuous than in the &assage o, &hotogra&h* ,rom one societ+ and conte0t
to another. hus, -hile a historical understanding o, the goals, conditions, and determining ,actors that
&roduced constructi+ist and &roducti+ist &hotogra&h* can be obtained ,rom an* boo. on the sub?ect, the abilit*
to &ercei+e a Rodchen.o &hotogra&h or an 6l 7is-sit1.* &hotomontage as their contem&oraries did is lost to us
as though it -ere centuries rather than decades se&arating us ,rom their images.
he radical ,ormalism that structured the ne- So+iet &hotogra&h* had little to do -ith the Anglo-American
+ariet* that &ro&elled the &hotogra&h* o, Al,red Stieglit1, !aul Strand, et al. to-ard a ,ull* articulated
modernist &osition, although there -ere common grounds in the t-o ,ormalisms=shared con+ictions, ,or
e0am&le, that the nature o, the medium must &ro&erl* determine its aesthetic and that &hotogra&h* must
ac.no-ledge its o-n s&eci,ic characteristics. :eri+ing ultimatel* ,rom Bantian aesthetics, Anglo-American
,ormalism insisted abo+e all on the autonom*, &urit*, and sel,-re,le0i+it* o, the -or. o, art. As such it
remained throughout its modernist &ermutations an essentiall* idealist stance. Such conce&ts, as -ell as related
notions o, immanence and transcendence, -ith the &arallel construct o, the &romethean artist, -ere, ho-e+er,
anathema to the Russian ,ormalists. Resolutel* o&&osed to all meta&h*sical s*stems, the Russian literar* critics
-ho &ro+ided the theoretical basis ,or the mo+ement ,ocused their attention on a s*stematic in+estigation o, the
distinguishing com&onents o, literature: those elements, 4ualities, and characteristics that de,ined literature as
such.
s
he radical nature o, this critical enter&rise la* in its strict materialism, im&ersonalit*, and anti-
indi+idualism, all essential as&ects o, constructi+ist and &roducti+ist &ractice. he .e* conce&t o, ostra$nenie%
the ma.ing strange o, the ,amiliar=de+elo&ed b* <ictor Sh.lo+s.* in "#"G, -as concei+ed ,or literar*
&ur&oses, but it had ob+ious a&&lications to &hotogra&h*. he de-,amiliari1ation o, the -orld e,,ected in &rose
and &oetr*, the rene-al and heightening o, &erce&tion that -as understood to be a &rimar* goal o, literature,
had its natural analogue in the abilit* o, the camera to re&resent the -orld in noncon+entional -a*s.
Re+olutionar* culture re4uired ne- ,orms o, e0&ression as -ell as ne- de,initions o, art, and the camera=both
,ilm and still=and its o&erator ser+ed as ideal agents o, this ne- +ision.
But -hile the art &hotogra&h* simultaneousl* emerging in 9e- Hor. &osited a modernist aesthetic that insisted
on &hotogra&h* as a medium o, sub?ecti+it*=e+en -hile ac.no-ledging its mechanical attributes=radical
&ractice in both the So+iet >nion and German* re?ected absolutel* the notion o, the artist/s ,unction as the
e0&ression o, a &ri+ileged sub?ecti+it*. his re&udiation o, sub?ecti+it*, &ersonalit*, and &ri+ate +ision -as
lin.ed not onl* to re+olutionar* tenets o, collecti+ism and utilitarianism, but also to the -ides&read reaction
against e0&ressionism=;a culture o, mendacious stu&idit*,; in Raoul 2ausmann/s assessment. @ne did not, in
,act, re4uire Mar0ist credentials to re?ect e0&ressionism: ,uturism, de Sti?l, Iurich and Berlin dada,
su&rematism, and o, course, constructi+ism, all in one ,orm or another de,ined their agendas in o&&osition to
e0&ressionist culture, ,or its ata+ism, uto&ianism, and emotionalism -ere antithetical to the critical and
sociall* oriented art mo+ements that emerged a,ter 5orld 5ar I. Moreo+er, the antitechnological stance o,
e0&ressionism -as totall* at odds -ith the &assionate enthusiasm ,or technolog* and urbanism=all that
com&rised the machine-age ethos=-hich -as to ,igure so &rominentl* in both 5eimar and So+iet culture.
For an artist li.e Ale0ander Rodchen.o, not *et thirt* at the time o, the @ctober Re+olution, the internal
logic o, constructi+ism as -ell as the im&erati+es o, re+olutionar* culture led ine+itabl* to a re&udiation o,
easel &ainting. ;he crushing o, all /isms/ in &ainting -as ,or me the beginning o, m* resurrection,; -rote
Rodchen.o in "#"#. ;5ith the ,uneral bells o, color &ainting, the last /ism/ -as accom&anied to its gra+e, the
lingering last ho&es o, lo+e are destro*ed, and " lea+e the house o, dead truths. 9ot s*nthesis but anal*sis is
creation.;
G
A ,e- -ee.s a,ter the last ;laborator*; e0hibition o, the Mosco- constructi+ists in "#'" (A J A K
'A%, the t-ent*-,i+e *oung artists, including Rodchen.o (-hose -or. -as re&resented in the e0hibition b* his
three ;last &aintings;= three &ainted sur,aces, one red, one *ello-, and one blue%, renounced ;&ure &ictorial
&ractice; altogether, and instead embraced a -holl* materialist orientation=&roducti+ism. @si& Bri., the
,ormalist critic and theoretician closel* lin.ed to both Rodchen.o and the &oet <ladimir Ma*a.o+s.*, -rote
*et another o, the man* obse4uies ,or easel &ainting: ;5e are &ractitioners=and in this lies the distincti+e
,eature o, our cultural consciousness. here is no &lace ,or the easel &icture in this consciousness. Its ,orce and
meaning lie in its e0tra-utilitarianism, in the ,act that it ser+es no other ,unction than/caressing/ the e*e.;
)

Although in &art a resolution to the ;crisis o, images; re&resented on the one hand b* the absolutism o,
Male+ich/s &hite on &hite o, "#"$, and on the other b* the e,,ecti+e closure o, Rodchen.o/s ;last &aintings,;
&roducti+ism signaled a .ind o, return to the earth a,ter the long cosmic ,light o, Male+itchian su&rematism
and the su&er-s&eciali1ation in -hich nonob?ecti+e art -as rec.lessl* engaged in the *ears "#"A="#"$. In
,leeing the lab*rinth o, e0treme theori1ation, the &roducti+ists ho&ed . . . to lead art bac. into the heart o,
societ*.
$
Indeed, it -as &recisel* this intense engagement -ith the larger societ* at hand, as -ell as the belie, that
the artist must ,unction as an acti+e, socio&olitical being, that contrasted so dramaticall* -ith the almost
ritualisticall* alienated stance o, the e0&ressionist artist. ;he aim o, the ne- art,; -rote Il*a 6hrenburg in
"#'", ;is to ,use -ith li,e,;
#
and &roducti+ist te0ts abound -ith e0hortations that the artist turn ,rom the
museum to the street, ,rom the studio to the ,actor*. 6choing Ma*a.o+s.* (;he streets our brushesCthe
s4uares our &alettes;% Rodchen.o &roclaimed:
9on-ob?ecti+e &ainting has le,t the Museums8 non-ob?ecti+e &ainting is the street itsel,, the s4uares, the
to-ns and the -hole -orld. he art o, the ,uture -ill not be the co1* decoration o, ,amil* homes. It -ill be
?ust as indis&ensable as F$-store* s.*scra&ers, might* bridges, -ireless, aeronautics and submarines -hich
-ill be trans,ormed into
art.
"(
/
he &roducti+ists/ stance -as thus not so much anti-art, their more e0cited &olemics not-ithstanding, as it
-as o&&osed to the ghettoi1ation o, art as an acti+it* o, the &ri+ileged ,e- ,or the &roduction o, lu0ur* items.
5ith the renunciation o, easel &ainting, Rodchen.o turned his attention to the range o, materials,
technologies, and &ractices that collecti+el* constituted a reconciliation o, creati+e energies -ith the ,elt
needs o, So+iet societ*. hese acti+ities -ere, &er,orce, those that e0isted in the &ublic s&here: the design o,
e0hibitions and &a+ilions (including the 5or.er/s Club ,or the So+iet !a+ilion at the "#'A !aris '(position )es
*rts +ecoratifs, -hich introduced the -or. o, the Russian a+ant-garde to -estern 6uro&e%, ,urniture, te0tile,
theater, t*&ogra&hic and gra&hic design, including &osters, boo. co+ers, and ad+ertising,; and, ,rom "#'F on,
&hotogra&h*.
Rodchen.o/s &hotogra&h* dre- e4uall* ,rom notions deri+ed ,rom the ,ormalist circle, &resumabl*
through &eo&le such as Bri. and Sergei retia.o,,, and ,rom the &rece&ts o, &roducti+ism itsel,. @, the
,ormer in,luence, the conce&t o, de,amiliari1ation has alread* been cited. Additionall*, Roman 3a.obson/s
conce&t o, the ;la*ing bare o, the de+ice;= the inclusion -ithin the -or. o, art o, those material or ,ormal
elements that re+eal its construction=-as readil* assimilable to a ne- &hotogra&h* &ractice. Much o,
Rodchen.o/s most inno+ati+e &hotogra&h* ,rom the "#'(s is notable ,or its re,usal o, ;naturali1ed,;
con+entionali1ed +ie-&oints, the insistence that it -as a camera lens and not a -indo- &ane that *ielded the
image. 5orm/s-e*e, bird/s-e*e, obli4ue, or +ertiginous &ers&ecti+es relate not onl* to a strateg* o,
de,amiliari1ation, but also to an a,,irmation o, the a&&aratus itsel, as the agent o, this +ision. Ma.ing the
&oint e+en more em&haticall* are &hotogra&hs b* Rodchen.o, such as Chauffeur%,arelia -.//, in -hich the
&hotogra&her himsel, is contained in the image. Returning to the obser+ation made at the beginning o, this
discussion=that &hotogra&hic &ractices em&lo*ed in one historical moment ma* ha+e their signi,icance
altogether trans,ormed -hen em&lo*ed in another=it should be noted that Rodchen.o/s &resence in the
&hotogra&h has in,initel* more to do -ith :1iga <erto+/s inclusion o, the ,ilmma.ing &rocess in The Man with
the Movie Ca0era than it does -ith 7ee Friedlander/s sel,-re,erencing de+ices.
"'
5hat is being stressed is the
mani,est &resence o, the means o, &roduction, and an im&licit re?ection o, the notion o, the &hotogra&h as
either trans&arent or neutral.
he &roducti+ist in,luences on Rodchen.o/s &hotogra&h* thus deri+ed more ,rom the mechanical-technical
attributes o, the medium than ,rom its &urel* ,ormal &ossibilities. he camera -as ob+iousl* a ,undamentall*
democratic instrument8 it -as easil* mastered, &roduced multi&le images relati+el* chea&l*, and re&resented
(li.e the air&lane or the radio to-er, both &o-er,ul and &er+asi+e s*mbols o, technological &romise% s&eed and
science, &recision and modernit*. Most suggesti+e to Rodchen.o, ho-e+er, -as the reali1ation that the camera
&er,ormed in an aggregate, anal*tic -a* rather than in a unitar*, s*nthetic one. Rodchen.o/s statement that
creation -as anal*sis, not s*nthesis, -as based on his understanding that contem&orar* realit* could not be
a&&rehended in essentiali1-ing s*ntheses. In ;Against the S*nthetic !ortrait, ,or the Sna&shot; ("#'$%,
Rodchen.o argued, ;@ne has to ta.e di,,erent shots o, a sub?ect, ,rom di,,erent &oints o, +ie- and in di,,erent
situations, as i, one e0amined it in the round rather than loo.ed through the
o
same .e*-hole again and again;=a notion e4uall* central to the &ractice o, the cubists. !osterit*/s &h*sical
.no-ledge o, the historical 7enin -ould be .no-n, Rodchen.o added, not b* a single e0em&lar* oil &ainting,
but through the hundreds o, &hotogra&hs ta.en, 7enin/s letters and ?ournals, and the memoirs o, his associates.
hus, Rodchen.o concludes, ;:on/t tr* to ca&ture a man in one s*nthetic &ortrait, but rather in lots o, sna&-
shots ta.en at di,,erent times and in di,,erent circumstancesL;
"D
B* the earl* "#D(s, i, not be,ore, the &hotogra&hic ,ormalism &ioneered b* Rodchen.o ,ell increasingl* under
attac.. 7eon rots.* himsel, had s&earheaded the attac. against the @&o*a1 grou& (the literar* ,ormalists% in "#'A
-ith "iterature an) 1evolution. he laisse1-,aire cultural &olic* o, the cultural commissar 7unachars.*, -hich had
sustained the e0traordinar* &roduction o, the a+ant-garde, did not long sur+i+e him. Novy "ef, in -hose &ages
Rodchen.o/s &hotogra&hs and &hotomontage had a&&eared, ,or -hich he had -ritten, and -hich had &ublished
Bri. and retia.o,,, sus&ended &ublication in "#D(, and the ,ield -as e+entuall* le,t to Proletars!oe 2oto and the
&hotogra&hic e4ui+alent o, socialist realism. Rodchen.o, unli.e man* o, his a+ant-garde com&anions o, the re+olu-
tionar* &eriod, sur+i+ed Stalinism, retaining his &osition as dean o, the metal-or. ,acult* at <.hutein. In "#DG,
submitting to anti,ormalist &ressure, he declared himsel, ;-illing to abandon &urel* ,ormal solutions ,or a
&hotogra&hic language that can more ,ull* ser+e (the e0igencies% o, socialist realism;8
"F
,our *ears later he returned
to easel &ainting. In the s&ace o, about ,i,teen *ears, Russian ,ormalism had &assed ,rom an o,,iciall* tolerated, i,
not sanctioned, art &ractice, concei+ed as a tool in the ,orging o, re+olutionar* consciousness, to an ;elitist,;
;bourgeois,; ;decadent,; and ;counterre+olutionar*; &ractice that condemned those -ho em&lo*ed it to e0ile,
silence, re&udiation, or death.
But in the ,e- *ears be,ore the &hotogra&hic ,ormalism e0em&li,ied b* Rodchen.o -as more or less e,,ecti+el*
e0terminated in the So+iet >nion, it thri+ed, albeit in trans,igured ,orm, -ithin the &hotogra&hic culture o, 5eimar
German*. he diagonal com&ositions, su&&ressed hori1ons, ti&&ed &ers&ecti+es, bird/s-e*e and -orm/s-e*e +ie-s,
serial &ortraits, e0treme close-u& &ortraits, and +arious technical e0&eriments -ith the medium had become, b*
"#D(, relati+e common&laces in that range o, German &hotogra&hic &ractice encom&assing the &o&ular &ress,
ad+ertising, &hotogra&hic boo.s, and e0hibitions, as -ell as the -or. o, the &hotogra&hic a+ant-garde. 5hile much
o, this &hotogra&hic acti+it* tends to be unre,lecti+el* clum&ed -ithin general categories such as the 9eue
Sachlich.eit or the 9e- <ision (so-called b* Mohol*-9ag*%, I am here concerned -ith that &hotogra&h* -hich
had most thoroughl* been in,ormed b* the Russian model. And -hile in the cultural crucible o, 5eimar
German* it is di,,icult to disentangle the s.eins o, in,luence, the +arious ,orces that acted u&on each other and
cumulati+el* ,ormed the foto!uhur ac.no-ledged b* the late "#'(s, it is nonetheless clear that the "#'' So+iet
Art e0hibition that too. &lace in Berlin had an immense=and immediate=in,luence. For the German le,t, still
in disarra* a,ter the aborti+e "#"$ re+olution, the range o, Russian art therein re&resented -as greeted as a
,rontline communi4ue o, +anguard &ractice. o the t-ent*-se+en-*ear-old Mohol*-9ag*, an e0ile ,rom the
2ungarian 5hite error (as -ere his com&atriots George 7u.acs and Bela Bala1s% then &ainting in a
dadaistCabstract-geometrical +ein, the constructi+ist -or. in the e0hibition struc. -ith the ,orce o, re+elation.
Re&orting on the sho- ,or M* (oda*%, the 2ungarian ,uturist &ublication, Mohol* -rote: ;his is our centur* .
. . technolog*, machine, Socialism . . . Constructi+ism is &ure substance. It is not con,ined to the &icture ,rame
and &edestal. It e0&ands into industr* and architecture, into ob?ects and relationshi&s. Construction is the
socialism o, +ision.;
"A
In terms o, &hotogra&h* and &hotomontage, it -as 6l 7issit1.* -ho -as most acti+e in disseminating the
ne- ,ormalist &hotogra&h*. hrough the trilingual maga1ine Veshch34e$genstan)35bet, -hich he &ublished
-ith 6hrenburg, as -ell as his organi1ation and design o, such e0hibitions as the e0traordinar* Cologne Pressa,
Russian ,ormalist &hotogra&h* -as si&honed into the &luralist bre- o, German &hotogra&h*. An* &recise
tracing o, the course o, the ,ormalist &hotogra&h* theori1ed and &racticed b* Rodchen.o and 6l 7is-sit1* as it
-as assimilated into German &hotogra&h* must a-ait closer stud*. But bearing in mind that the ,unction and
ideolog* o, such &hotogra&h* -ere integrall* bound together, one can begin to distinguish im&ortant
di+ergences b* the time the 9e- <ision &hotogra&h* became a dominant ,orce.
5ith the earliest introduction o, Russian e0&erimental &hotogra&h*, -hich is generall* dated to the earl*
"#'(s, German &hotogra&h* -as di+ided among the &ictorialism o, the camera clubs, the ra&id e0&ansion o,
&hotogra&h* in the illustrated &ress and ad+ertising (a ,unction o, ne- de+elo&ments in camera technolog*, ,or
e0am&le, smaller cameras and ,aster ,ilm%, and the use o, &hotomontage b* the le,t a+ant-garde (Raoul
2ausmann, 2annah 2och, 3ohn 2eart,ield, George Gros1, and others%. hroughout the "#'(s, German
&hotogra&h* -as in e,,ect cross-,ertili1ed b* radical Russian &hotogra&h*, so that b* "#'# and the :eutsche
5er.ebund 2il0 un) 2oto e0hibition=a +eritable su00a o, the 9e--<ision=+arious constituti+e elements o,
So+iet -or. had been absorbed and, de&ending on the &articular &ractice in+ol+ed, trans,igured. 6ssentiall*, the
,ormalism im&orted into 5eimar German* became s&lintered into di,,erent, occasionall* o+erla&&ing,
com&onents. hus, ,or e0am&le, the use o, a +ertical rather than hori1ontal &ers&ecti+e, -hich -as ,or
Rodchen.o one &articular o&tical strateg* ofostranenie%an im&licitl* &olitical notion= -as -idel* em&lo*ed
in German*. here it signi,ied, among other things, the modernit*, urbanism, and technological glamour o,
ele+ators, s.*scra&ers, air&lanes, and cranes. ;5e all ,elt a demonstrati+e enthusiasm ,or li,ts, ?a11 and radio
to-ers,;
"G
-rote 2ans 3oachim in "#D(, and, o, course, some o, Mohol*/s best-.no-n &hotogra&hs ,rom the
"#'(s -ere aerial +ie-s shot ,rom the Berlin radio to-er. For Rodchen.o, -ho had also made aerial
&hotogra&hs ,rom the Mosco- radio to-er, the to-er itsel, -as ;a s*mbol o, collecti+e e,,ort.;
Indeed, the entire re&ertoire o, Russian ,ormalist &hotogra&h* -as intended as the o&tical analogue to
re+olution=4uite sim&l* a re+olutioni1ing o, &erce&tion to accord -ith the demands o, a re+olutionar* societ*.
Although the romance o, technolog* and urbanism -as ,ull* a &art o, the So+iet culture, it -as, at least in the earl*
"#'(s, closer to -ish,ul thin.ing than realit*8 this -as, a,ter all, a barel* industriali1ed societ* de+astated b*
re+olution, ci+il -ar, and ,oreign in+asion, that re4uired the ser+ices o, Armand 2ammer to manu,acture its
&encils.
he ,ormal inno+ations o, Russian &hotogra&h* -ere no-here more thoroughl* gras&ed or intensi+el* e0&loited
than in the burgeoning and so&histicated German ad+ertising industr*. In his im&ortant essa* on the &hotogra&h* o,
the 9eue Sachlich.eit, 2erbert Molderings discussed the im&lications o, this &henomenon:
I, -e consider the ;ne- +ision; in the conte0t o, its economic and social ,unctions, -hat the historical content o,
the ;ne- realism; is, becomes clear. Along -ith hea+* industr*, the machine -hich -as its substratum and the ne-
architecture -hich -as its result, ;neo-realist; &hotogra&h* disco+ered the -orld o, industrial &roducts, and sho-ed
itsel, as a com&onent o, the aesthetic o, commodities in a double sense, a,,ecting both &roduction and distribution.
Such &hotogra&hers as Burchart1, Renger-!at1sch, Gorn*, Iiel.e, Biermann and Finsler disco+ered that an
industrial &roduct de+elo&s its o-n &articular aesthetic onl* -hen the serial &rinci&le, as the general basis o,
manu,acture, becomes &ronouncedl* +isible.
")
It re4uires but a single intermediar* (&hotogra&hic% ste& to the commodit* ,etish:
Commodities also came to be sho-n ,rom a di,,erent &oint o, +ie-, directl* lin.ed -ith the needs o, ad+ertising.
he de+elo&ment o, 6achfotographie%the &hotogra&hing o, indi+idual ob?ects=is recogni1ed as an im&ortant
achie+ement o, &hotogra&h* in the t-enties. . . . @b?ects hitherto regarded as -ithout signi,icance are made
;interesting; and sur&rising b* multi&le e0&loitation o, the camera/s technical &ossibilities, unusual &ers&ecti+es,
close-u&s and dece&ti+e &artial +ie-s. . . . he ad+ertising +alue o, such &hotogra&hs consists &recisel* in the ,act
that the ob?ects are not &resented ,unctionall* and contain a &romise o, m*sterious meaning o+er and be*ond their
use-+alue: the* ta.e on a bi1arre une0&ected a&&earance suggesting that the* li+e li+es o, their o-n, inde&endent o,
human beings. More than all the ,au+ist, cubist, and e0&ressionist &aintings, it -as a&&lied &hotogra&h* -hich
modi,ied and rene-ed the centuries-old genre o, the still-li,e ,rom the bottom u&. It created the actual still-li,e o, the
t-entieth centur*: &ictorial e0&ression o, commodit* ,etishism.
"$
In the -or. o, Albert Renger-!at1sch (&reeminentl* the &hotogra&hs contained in the "#'$ +ie &eh ist 6chon7,
elements that are coe+al, i, not deri+ed ,rom Russian ,ormalism, are colla&sed into the older, Bantian conce&tion: the
belie, that go+erning la-s o, ,orm underla* all the mani,estations o, nature, as -ell as the -or.s o, man, and that
the re+elation o, these structures *ields both signi,icance and beaut*. hus, on the one hand, images o, machiner*,
modern building materials, architecture, te0tures, and details, &hotogra&hed to re+eal ;that it is &ossible to regard a
machine or an industrial &lant as no less beauti,ul than nature or a -or. o, art;8
"#
on the other hand, images o, land-
sca&e, animals, and &eo&le, &hotogra&hed to dis&la* and underline ;that -hich is t*&ical o, the s&ecies.;
'(
he
nature o, this enter&rise is not onl* essentiali1ing but s*mbolic, a &oint made -ith some em&hasis b* Carl Georg
2eise, -ho -rote the &re,ace to +ie &elt ist 6chon:
he* MRenger-!at1sch/s ,inest &hotogra&hsN . . . are true s*mbols. 9e+ertheless -e should not ,orget that it is
basicall* nature and created li,e itsel, -hich bears -ithin it s*mbolic &o-er o, this .ind, and that the -or. o, the
&hotogra&her does not create s*mbols but merel* ma.es them +isibleL . . . he last &icture is o, a -oman/s hands,
raised, laid lightl* o+er one another. 5ho can ,ail to recogni1e the s*mbolic character o, this &icture -hich s&ea.s
-ith an insistence ,ar more &o-er,ul than -ordsL
'"
5alter Ben?amin immediatel* gras&ed the im&lications o, Renger-!at1sch/s &hotogra&h* and -as concerned to
distinguish it ,rom both &rogressi+e a+ant-garde &ractice as e0em&li,ied b* Mohol*-9ag* and ,rom the -or. o,
Sander, Bloss,eld, or Brull:
5here &hotogra&h* ta.es itsel, out o, conte0t, se+ering the connections illustrated b* Sander, Bloss,eld or
Germaine Brull, -here it ,rees itsel, ,rom &h*siognomic, &olitical and scienti,ic interest, then it becomes creative.
he lens no- loo.s ,or interesting ?u0ta&ositions8 &hotogra&h* turns into a sort o, art* ?ournalism. . . . he more ,ar-
reaching the crisis o, the &resent social order, the more rigidl* its indi+idual com&onents are loc.ed together in their
death struggle, the more has the creati+e=in its dee&est essence a s&ort, b* contradiction out o, imitation=become
a ,etish, -hose lineaments li+e onl* in the ,it,ul illumination o, changing ,ashion. he creati+e in &hotogra&h* is its
ca&itulation to ,ashion. The worl) is beautiful%that is its -atch-ord. herein is unmas.ed the &osture o, a
&hotogra&h* that can endo- an* sou& can -ith cosmic signi,icance but cannot gras& a single one o, the human
conne0ions in -hich it e0ists, e+en -here most ,ar-,etched sub?ects are more concerned -ith saleabilit* than -ith
insight.
''
It -as, ho-e+er, in the Bauhaus that all the m*riad ,acets o, ,ormalist &hotogra&h* -ere s*stematicall*
a&&ro&riated, theori1ed, and re&ositioned -ith res&ect to the range o, &ractice and a&&lication that ,unctioned
&edagogicall*, artisticall*, and commerciall+. In much the same -a* that 5eimar German* itsel, -as a cultural
transmission station, the Bauhaus in its +arious incarnations, and through its in,luential &ro&agandists and &roduc-
tions (e0hibitions, boo.s, &roduct design, architecture, t*&ogra&h*, etc.% -as a &o-er,ul cultural disseminating
,orce. 5ith res&ect to &hotogra&h*, it is Mohol* -ho is the crucial ,igure, e+en though &hotogra&h* -as onl* taught
as a se&arate course in the Bauhaus in "#'#, and then not b* Mohol*, but b* 5alter !eterhans.
Mohol* had become ,riends -ith 6l 7issit1.* in "#'", a *ear that -itnessed the Russian in,lu0 into Berlin:
Ma*a.o+s.*, @si& and 7il* Bri., Il*a 6hrenburg, as -ell as artists li.e !e+sner, Gabo, and Bandins.i (hired to teach
at the Bauhaus%, -ho although o&&osed in +arious -a*s to the &roducti+ist -ing -ere nonetheless the standard-
bearers o, the ne- So+iet art. B* the ,ollo-ing *ear, Mohol* -as ma.ing &hotograms -ith his -i,e 7ucia and
&roducing &hotomontages. 2e -as also inde&endentl* re&eating much o, the same theoretical &rogram as the
&roducti+ists. hus, in "#'', the *ear o, his one-man sho- at the Sturm galler*, he included a grou& o, elementarist
com&ositions, -hich li.e Rodchen.o/s last &aintings signaled not onl* a re?ection o, easel &ainting and its accom&a-
n*ing ethos o, originalit* and sub?ecti+it*, but also the &ositi+e embrace o, mechanical methods o, &roduction.
Mohol* described his &ro?ect in strictl* matter-o,-,act terms:
In "#'' I ordered b* tele&hone ,rom a sign ,actor* ,i+e &aintings in &orcelain enamel. I had the ,actor*/s colour
chart be,ore me and I s.etched m* &aintings on gra&h &a&er. At the other end o, the tele&hone the ,actor* su&er+isor
had the same .ind o, &a&er di+ided into s4uares. 2e too. do-n the dictated sha&es in the correct &osition.
'D
he ,ollo-ing s&ring, 5alter Gro&ius, the director o, the Bauhaus, hired Mohol+ to become an instructor in the
metal-or. sho&, ma.ing him the e0act counter&art o, Rodchen.o at <.hutein. Mohol*/s arri+al signi,ied one o, the
,irst decisi+e shi,ts -ithin the Bauhaus a-a* ,rom the earlier e0&ressionist, >to&ian orientation a&tl* s*mboli1ed b+
7ionel Feininger/s -oodcut logo ,or the &ros&ectus (a Gothic cathedral%, under -hich Gro&ius &roclaimed,
;Architects, scul&tors, &ainters, -e must all go bac. to the cra,ts.; he atmos&here o, the 5eimar Bauhaus &rior to
the de&arture o, 3ohannes Itten -as almost the e0act o&&osite o, the ,unctionalism and technologism associated -ith
its later attitudes. he em&hasis on cra,ts and artisanal methods o, &roduction in the curriculum -as accom&anied b*
+egetarianism, a +ogue ,or oriental religions, and the occasional tenure o, itinerant crac.&ots. Although
consecuti+el* e0&elled ,rom the cities o, 5eimar, :essau, and ,inall* Berlin and considered b* the more
conser+ati+e elements o, local go+ernments to be a +er* hotbed o, bolshe+ism, the radical le,t tended to +ie- the
Bauhaus &rogram -ith a certain amount o, contem&t. he e+aluation o, 6tarba, the leading C1echoslo+a.ian
architectural &eriodical, -as not at*&ical:
>n,ortunatel*, the Bauhaus is not consistent as a school ,or architecture as long as it is still concerned -ith the
4uestion o, a&&lied arts or ;art; as such. An* art school, no matter ho- good, can toda* be onl* an anachronism and
nonsense. . . . I, Gro&ius -ants his school to ,ight against dilettantism in the arts, i, he assumes the machine to be
the modern means o, &roduction, i, he admits the di+ision o, labor, -h* does he su&&ose a .no-ledge o, cra,ts to be
essential ,or industrial manu,actureE Cra,tsmanshi& and industr* ha+e a ,undamentall* di,,erent a&&roach,
theoreticall* as -ell as &racticall*. oda+, the cra,ts are nothing but a lu0ur*, su&&orted b* the bourgeoisie -ith their
indi+idualism and snobber* and their &urel* decorati+e &oint o, +ie-. 7i.e an* other art school, the Bauhaus is
inca&able o, im&ro+ing industrial &roduction8 at the most it might &ro+ide ne- im&ulses.;
'F
B* "#'D, ho-e+er, the Bauhaus had undergone a ,airl* substantial change o, direction. 9o longer ;A Cathedral o,
Socialism,; but rather, ;Art and echnolog*=A 9e- >nit*,; -as the credo. 9ot-ithstanding the ,act that the
im&ortant international ?ournals such as +e 6til and "8'sprit Nouveau still considered the Bauhaus too indi+idualistic,
decorati+e, and art*, Gro&ius -as resol+ed to ma.e the Bauhaus a ,orce in architecture, industrial design, and
contem&orar* art. he change o, direction and the im&lementation o, Gro&ius/s ideas became ,ull* established onl*
a,ter the Bauhaus/s e0&ulsion ,rom 5eimar and its reestablishment in :essau, housed in the landmar. buildings
that Gro&ius himsel, had designed.
Gi+en Mohol*/s &atron-saint status in the histor* o, modern &hotogra&h*, and his undeniable im&ortance in the
dissemination o, his &articular +ariet* o, ,ormalism, it is im&ortant to remember that Mohol* ne+er thought o,
himsel, as a &hotogra&her=certainl* ne+er re,erred to himsel, as such=and that much o, his enthusiasm ,or
&hotogra&h* -as &redicated (at least in the "#'(s% on his con+iction that the machine age demanded machine-age
art: ,unctional, im&ersonal, rational. Formalism ,or Mohol* signi,ied abo+e all the absolute &rimac* o, the material,
the medium itsel,. hus i, &hotogra&h*, and indeed a &hotogra&hic &rocesses including ,ilm, -as de,ined b* its
&h*sical &ro&erties= the action o, light on a light-sensiti+e emulsion=,ormalism could be distilled into a bare-
bones reci&e ,or the creation o, e0em&lar* -or.s. 5ritten out o, this e4uation -as not onl* an* notion o, a
&ri+ileged sub?ecti+it* (in .ee&ing -ith &rogressi+e a+ant-garde theor*%, but e+en the camera itsel,: ;It must be
stressed that the essential tool o, &hotogra&hic &rocedure is not the camera but the light-sensiti+e la*er.;
'A
Mohol*/s codi,ication o, the eight +arieties o, &hotogra&hic seeing in his "#'A Bauhaus boo. Painting,
Photography, 2il0 indicates to -hat degree his assimilation o, Russian ,ormalist &hotogra&h* tended to-ard a more
&urel* theoretical and abstract rather than instrumental or agitational conce&tion o, ;camera +ision;:
". Abstract seeing b* means o, direct records o, ,orms &roduced b* light8 the &hotogram . . .
'. 60act seeing b* means o, the ,i0ation o, the a&&earance o, things: re&ortage.
D. Ra&id seeing b* means o, the ,i0ation o, mo+ement in the shortest &ossible time: sna&shots.
F. Ra&id seeing b* means o, the ,i0ation o, mo+ements s&read o+er a &eriod o, time . . .
A. Intensi,ied seeing b* means o,: (a% micro-&hotogra&h*8 (b% ,ilter-&hotogra&h* . . .
G. !enetrati+e &hotogra&h* b* means o, J-ra*s: radiogra&h* . . .
). Simultaneous seeing b* means o, trans&arent su&erim&osition: the ,uture &rocess o, automatic &hotomontage.
$. :istorted seeing . . .
'G
o
5hereas the technical and ,ormal &ossibilities o, &hotogra&h* -ere ,or Rodchen.o, too, a -edge to &rise o&en
con+entionali1ed and naturali1ed a&&earance, a +isual de+ice against classical re&resentational s*stems, ,or him these
constituted s&eci,ic strategies in the ser+ice o, larger ends. In 5eimar German* the &hotogra&hic &roduction
oriented to-ard those ends -as to be &rimaril* that o, the &hotomontagist 3ohn 2eart,ield, -hose means, needless to
sa*, -ere not those o, the ,ormalists. o the degree that ;camera +ision; became itsel, a ,etishi1ed conce&t in
5eimar culture, the &olitical im&lications o, Russian ,ormalist &hotogra&h* -ere sheared a-a* ,rom the bod* o,
9e- <ision &hotogra&h*.
Mohol*/s embrace o, &hotogra&h*, li.e 5emer Gra/,, /s or Fran1 Roh/s, did not in an* -a* distinguish bet-een the
uses, intentions, and conte0ts o, &hotogra&hic &roduction, ha+ing thus the dubious distinction o, antici&ating
contem&orar* critical and curatorial &ractice b* a good ,ort* *ears. In e0hibitions such as the seminal 2il0 un) 2oto
and in &ublications such as Roh/s 2oto$*uge or Gra,,/s 's !o00t )er neue 2otograf9 scienti,ic, ad+ertising, documentar*,
aerial, art and e0&erimental, e+en &olice &hotogra&h*, -ere enthusiasticall* thro-n together into an aesthetic
em&orium o, choice e0am&les o, camera +ision. Mohol*/s cham&ionshi& o, &hotogra&h*, li.e that o, his
contem&oraries, had ,inall* more to do -ith the -ides&read into0ication -ith all things technological than it did
-ith a &oliticall* instrumental notion o, &hotogra&hic &ractice. he camera -as &ri+ileged &recisel* because it -as
a machine, and camera +ision -as &ri+ileged because it -as deemed su&erior to normal +ision. 2erein la* the total
re+ersal o, terms that had historicall* characteri1ed the art +ersus &hotogra&h* debate. ;he &hotogra&hic camera,;
-rote Mohol*, ;can either com&lete or su&&lement our o&tical instrument, the e*e.; ;
5ithin the Bauhaus scheme o, things, &articularl* in its :essau da*s, &hotogra&h* e0isted as one o, a number o,
technologies ,or use in the training o, designers. hroughout the "#'(s Gro&ius sought to establish the Bauhaus as a
source o, &roduction as -ell as ideas or designers. In "#'G a limited com&an* -as set u& b* Gro&ius -ith a grou&
o, businessmen and the &artici&ation o, some labor unions ,or the commercial handling o, Bauhaus designs and
&roducts. Although the politi:ue o, the later Bauhaus remained col-lecti+ist, anti-indi+idualist, and o, course,
em&haticall* ,unctionalist, these -ere not necessaril* radical &ositions -ithin the &olitical s&ectrum o, the 5eimar
Re&ublic. Moreo+er, the Bauhaus Idea=it -as re,erred to as such at the time=en+isioned a societ* made better
through the -or.s o, the architects, designers, and cra,tsmen it &roduced. his, then, -as the legac* that Mohol*
carried -hen he resurrected the 9e- Bauhaus on the distinctl* American terrain o, the cit* o, Chicago.
5ithin his o-n career Mohol* had tra+eled ,rom the &ronouncedl* a+ant-gardist, re+olutionar* milieu o, the M*
grou&, and later, the constructi+ist circle around 6l 7issit1.*, to that o, an emigre artist and educator -hose
acti+ities bet-een "#D) and his death in "#FG -ere dominated b* his e,,orts to reconstitute the Bauhaus and the
+alues it re&resented in a time and &lace light *ears remo+ed ,rom the culture and &olitics o, 5eimar German*.
'$

he contradictions that 6tarba had identi,ied in the 5eimar Bauhaus bet-een the demands o, industr* and the
conditions o, cra,t, bet-een the di,,erent assum&tions go+erning the &roduction o, art and the &ractice o, a&&lied
arts, remained &roblematic in the American +ersion. hese contradictions underlie the con,licts that seem regularl*
to ha+e arisen bet-een the e0&ectations and assum&tions o, the 9e- Bauhaus/s initial s&onsors (he Chicago
Association o, Arts and Industries, a consortium o, businessmen, and 5alter !ae&c.e, -ho -as one o, the &rinci&al
su&&orters o, the school until "#FG% and Mohol*/s determination to trans&lant the Bauhaus Idea -ith as little
com&romise as &ossible. Similarl*, these contradictions sur,aced -ith e+er* subse4uent change o, director, sta,,,
enrollment, and student &ro,ile. 5hile the curriculum o, the I.:. remained basicall* com&arable to its earlier
German +ersion (e.g., the ,irst *ear ,oundation course, the e0&erimentation -ith +arious media, etc.%, the nature o,
&hotogra&hic teaching (and &ractice% became in time a distinct and discrete as&ect o, the I.:. -hose ,unction -as
less lin.ed to the im&erati+es o, the industrial age than it -as to those notions o, art &roduction that had &receded the
establishment o, the I.:. in America b* t-ent* *ears. Added to that -as the ,act that America a,ter the Second
5orld 5ar -as hardl* a hos&itable en+ironment in -hich to trans&lant e+en the bien$pensant le,tism o, the :essau
Bauhaus, and that American artists and &hotogra&hers -ere in the &rocess o, im&licitl* or e0&licitl* re&udiating the
&oliticall* and sociall* oriented &ractice o, the &re+ious decade, -hose most de+elo&ed e0&ression had been in
documentar* ,orm. 2o- then -as &hotogra&hic ,ormalism understood and e0&ressed at the I.:.E 5as there, -e
might as., a ne- in,lection to ,ormalism -hich made it substantiall* di,,erent ,rom its earlier incarnations and might
be seen to lin. Arthur Siegel, 2arr* Callahan, and Aaron Sis.indE And -hat, i, an*thing, made the I.:.-based
,ormalist &ractice similar to, or di,,erent ,rom, the indigenous American +ariet*=that is, &urist, straight
&hotogra&h*=e0em&li,ied b* !aul Strand a,ter "#"S and the ,CGF grou& in the ,ollo-ing *earsE
Re,lecting bac. on the +arious sea changes to -hich Russian &hotogra&h* had been sub?ected in German*, -hat
seems most cons&icuous -as the tendenc* to se&arate out +arious com&onents o, radical ,ormalism and to ,actor
them into di,,erent discursi+e ,unctions: serialit*, unusual close-u&s, and gra&hic &resentation o, the ob?ect -ere, as
-e ha+e seen, &rom&tl* assimilated to ad+ertising &hotogra&h*8 de,amiliari1ing tactics such as uncon+entional
+ie-&oints and the ,lattening and abstracting o, &ictorial s&ace all became &art o, a st*listic le0icon a+ailable to
commercial &hotogra&hers, art &hotogra&hers, designers, and &hoto?ournalists=a le0icon, it should be added, that
had assimilated surrealist elements as -ell. In a general -a*, ,ormalism had become a st*listic notion rather than an
instrumental one, an archi+e o, &icture-ma.ing strategies that intersected -ith a -idel* dis&ersed, heroici1ed
conce&t o, camera +ision. In the -or. o, Bauhaus and Bauhaus-in,luenced &hotogra&hers, one o, the most durable
legacies o, Russian &hotogra&h* -as the continued em&hasis &laced on e0&erimentation. It -as this latter
characteristic that made I.:. &hotogra&h* rather di,,erent ,rom American art &hotogra&h* o, the "#A(s and "#G(s.
5hether through the encouragement o, color &hotogra&h+ or through the +arious -or.sho& e0ercises utili1ing
&hotograms, light modulators, multi&le negati+es, &hoto-etching, collage, and so on, I.:. &hotogra&h* encom&assed
a broad range o, &hotogra&hic technologies and e0&erimentation that distinguished it some-hat ,rom the dominant
&urist notions o, 6ast and 5est Coast art &hotogra&h*.
B* the earl* "#A(s, as the I.:. became more ,irml* established and as the &hotogra&h* &rogram graduall* too.
&ride o, &lace in the curriculum=becoming, in ,act, its &rinci&al attraction=the nati+e circumstances and
conditions o, American &hotogra&h* -ere themsel+es acting on the I.:. For Mohol*, the &edagogical s*stem o, the
I.:. -as concei+ed literall* as a training &rogram, a +ocational s*stem that -ould &re&are designers, architects, and
&hotogra&hers to go into the -orld and in some +ague, >to&ian sense trans,orm it. he enormousl* gi,ted 2erbert
Ba*er, designing e0hibitions, boo.s, &osters, and t*&ogra&h*, em&lo*ed b* 5alter !ae&c.e on the ad+ertising series
;Great Ideas @, 5estern Man; ,or the Container Cor&oration o, America, -as the +er* model o, -hat Mohol*
intended his alumni to become and accom&lish. But a,ter the initial in,lu0 o, G.I. Bill students -ho studied at the
I.:. -ith the e0&ectation o, -or.ing as commercial &hotogra&hers or &ro,essional &hoto?ournalists, the gul, bet-een
commercial or a&&lied &hotogra&h* and the &rogressi+el* rari,ied a&&roach to &hotogra&h* coming out o, the I.:.
-idened. And although Arthur Siegel (-ho had been one o, the ,irst &hotogra&h* teachers hired b* Mohol*% mo+ed
bac. and ,orth bet-een &ro,essional &hoto?ournalism, teaching stints, and his &ersonal -or. throughout his career,
this -as to &ro+e more the e0ce&tion than the rule.
5hat e+entuall* emerged ,rom the I.:. as model careers ,or serious &hotogra&hers -ere those o, 2enr* 2olmes
Smith, 2arr* Callahan, and Aaron Sis.ind8 that is to sa*, teachers o, ,uture generations o, art &hotogra&hers -ho
-ould themsel+es end u& teaching &hotogra&h* and, to a greater or lesser e0tent, &ursuing their o-n &hotogra&hic
destinies -ithin an e0&anding uni+ersit* and art school net-or.. his alone -ould ha+e constituted a signi,icant
shi,t a-a* ,rom the Bauhaus Idea, inasmuch as u& to that &oint the raison )8etre o, the institution -as the
im&lementation o, its &rogram in the -orld o, industr*, design, and manu,acturing. Indeed, the +er* notion o, the
artist-&hotogra&her &roducing images ,or a .no-ledgeable or &eer audience -as essentiall* at odds -ith the
d*namic, &ublic, and ,unctionalist conce&t o, &hotogra&h* sanctioned b* the German Bauhaus.
Bet-een "#FG=the *ear o, Mohol*/s death=and "#A", -hen 2arr* Callahan hired Aaron Sis.ind, the
assum&tions and &rinci&les go+erning &hotogra&hic &roduction at the I.:. -ere alread* being in,lected and altered
as much b* the American cultural climate as b* the rather di,,erent goals and ideas o, the American stai, hired b*
Mohol*. Arthur Siegel, -ho ran the &hotogra&h* de&artment bet-een Mohol*/s death and "#F#, -as in certain
res&ects the transitional ,igure, ha+ing one ,oot in the Mohol* cam& and the other in a sub?ecti+i1ed, &ri+ati1ed
a&&roach to the medium. !ublished statements b* Siegel are such a ?umble o, the t-o a&&roaches that it is di,,icult
to distill -hat he actuall* meant. 2ere, ,or e0am&le, is Siegel on his ,irst tenure at the I.:.:
M* ?ob, de+elo& a ,our-*ear course o, stud* ,or &hotogra&hers. (5ith the hel& and hindrance o, man* students and
teachers, I tried to -ea+e the threads o, 6uro&ean e0&erimental and &ainting-oriented &hotogra&h* into the
American straight techni4ue o, ob?ect trans,ormation.% his attitude became a -eb o, &roblems, histor+, and
techni4ue that, together -ith the -hole en+ironment o, the school, &ro+ided an atmos&here ,or the graduall*
un,olding enrichment o, the creati+e &hotogra&her. . . . 2arr* Callahan and Aaron Sis.ind carr* on the rich teaching
tradition that I inherited ,rom Mohol*-9ag*, Be&es, and others. . . . For i, the ,i,ties o, &hotogra&h* had l*rical
songs, &art o, the notes originated at the Institute o, :esign.
'#
Although it is di,,icult to &in&oint &recisel* -hen the nominall* ,ormalist ,rame-or. o, the I.:. came to incor&orate
that +er* sub?ecti+it* -hich had been &re+iousl* e0coriated,
Siegel/s ;&ersonal; -or. as -ell as his statements suggest that this shi,t in em&hasis -as -ell in &lace b* the end o,
the "#F(s. It is -orth mentioning too that in Siegel/s -or. one ,inds technical e0&erimentation -ith the medium
cou&led -ith a rather ghastl* sel,-e0&ressi+e intent, illustrated b* &ro?ects such as the series o, color &hotogra&hs
made in "#A" collecti+el* entitled ;n 6earch of Myself an) underta.en, as 3ohn Grimes indicates, at the suggestion o,
Siegel/s &s*choanal*st.
2arr* Callahan/s arri+al at the I.:. in "#FG (hired b* Mohol* himsel,, shortl* be,ore his death% could onl* ha+e
con,irmed this direction. A sel,-taught &hotogra&her ,or -hom &hotogra&h* -as, according to 3ohn S1ar.o-s.i, ;a
semi-religious calling;
D(
and -hose e0&osure to Ansel Adams and his -or. in "#F" -as both re+elation and
e&i&han* (;Ansel is -hat ,reed me;%,
D"
Callahan -as as ,ar remo+ed ,rom the machine-age ethic o, Bauhaus
&hotogra&h* as an*bod* &ossibl* could be. As earl* as "#F", -ith &hotogra&hs such as the calligra&hic stud* o,
reeds in -ater <+etroit, -.=-7, Callahan -as single-mindedl* de+elo&ing a bod* o, -or. that -ould &robabl* ha+e
been little di,,erent had he ne+er set
,oot in Chicago. Characteri1ed b* a consistent and intensel* &ersonal iconogra&h* (the ,act and bod* o, his -i,e and
model 6leanor% and great elegance and &urit* o, design and com&osition, Callahan/s &hotogra&h* had more in
common -ith the -or. o, Minor 5hite, or e+en Stieglit1, than it did -ith Mohol*/s. Although one could argue that
certain .inds o, -or. Callahan &roduced a,ter coming to Chicago=the collages, multi&le e0&osures, series, and
su&erim&ositions=-ere the result o, his e0&osure to Mohol*/s ideas and the I.:. en+ironment, some o, this
e0&erimentation had in ,act &receded his arri+al. In an* case, ,e- -ould dis&ute that Callahan/s in,luence on the
,uture orientation o, the I.:. &hotogra&h* &rogram -as immense. Be*ond an* consideration o, the direct in,luence
o, his &hotogra&hs -as the ,act that he came to e0em&li,* the committed art &hotogra&her8 e4uall* aloo, ,rom
mar.et&lace or mass media, content to teach and ser+e his muse. ;he interior sha&e o, &ri+ate e0&erience;
D'

cou&led -ith a rigorous concern ,or ,ormal +alues e,,ecti+el* constituted Callahan/s a&&roach to &hotogra&h*, and
this, more than an* o, Mohol*/s theoretical ,ormulations, constituted the mainstream o, American art &hotogra&h*
through the "#G(s.
hat a sub?ecti+i1ed notion o, camera seeing should ha+e come to &re+ail at the I.:. b* the "#F(s is not
sur&rising. Re,lecting on the &olitical and cultural climate o, America in the ten *ears ,ollo-ing 5orld 5ar II, it
seems ine+itable that the last remaining tenet o, radical ,ormalism to ha+e sur+i+ed the ocean crossing=and I re,er
here to the belie, that the camera -as a mechanical (no 4uotes%, ob?ecti+e, im&ersonal, and rational de+ice ,ull* in
.ee&ing -ith the im&erati+es o, technological societ*=should be ,inall* engul,ed b* the dominant ethos o, art
&hotogra&h*. Surel* one o, the signi,icant ,actors sha&ing all noncommercial &hotogra&h* b* the end o, the decade
-as that certain .inds o, documentar* &ractice had become &oliticall* sus&ect. he in,luential and &oliticall* le,t
9e- Hor. !hoto 7eague -as included in the Attorne* General/s list o, sub+ersi+e organi1ations b* "#F), and man*
documentar* &hotogra&hers ,elt that their +er* sub?ect matter made them &oliticall* +ulnerable.
:iscussing this &eriod in her essa* ;!hotogra&h* in the Fi,ties,; 2elen Gee gi+es a &articularl* suggesti+e
e0am&le in the case o, Sid Grossman, the director o, the !hoto 7eague/s school and an ac.no-ledged radical:
Remaining +irtuall* in hiding, a,raid o, the ;.noc. on the door; he com&lained o, no longer ,eeling ,ree to -or. on
the streets. 2e esca&ed as o,ten as he could, see.ing the solitude o, Ca&e Cod. 2is -or. bet-een "#F$ and the time
o, his death in "#AA . . . sho-s a clean brea., a com&lete change in sub?ect matter. From the li+el* images o,
rambunctious teenagers on Cone* Island beaches he mo+ed to contem&lati+e scenes o, sea and sand in
!ro+inceto-n, a change -hich a&&ears to be more &s*chological than geogra&hic. 5hile an e0treme e0am&le o, a
shi,t ,rom a documentar* a&&roach to a re,lecti+e, interior res&onse to the -orld, it is s*mbolic o, a change in
sensibilit* that a,,ected American artists, either consciousl* or unconsciousl*, during the decade o, the ,i,ties.
DD
It is interesting in this light to return to the S1ar.o-s.i essa* on Callahan, -hich subtl* suggests that Callahan/s
stature as an artist -as someho- rein,orced b* his re,usal o, the social documentar* mode: ;Acti+ist &hotogra&h*
in "#F" seemed ne-, im&ortant, and ad+enturous, and there -as a mar.et ,or it. 9e+ertheless, Callahan -as not
interested. For him, the &roblem -as located at the &oint -here the &otentials o, &hotogra&h* and his o-n &ri+ate
e0&erience intersected. . . . 2is attitude to-ard this 4uestion has not changed.;
DF
But -ell be,ore the machiner* o, 2>AC, McCarth+ism, and the Cold 5ar had been &ut in &lace, American art
culture -as shi,ting a-a* ,rom agit&ro& &roduction and the !o&ular Front &rogram o, solidarit* -ith the masses
to-ard the &ost-ar embrace o, an international modernism -hose legatees and a+ant-garde elite -ere the abstract
e0&ressionist &ainters o, the 9e- Hor. School.
DA
For man* American art &hotogra&hers -ho had in +arious -a*
accommodated themsel+es andCor modi,ied their -or. to accord -ith the concerns o, the :e&ression *ears,
DG
the
later de&olitici1ing o, American culture trul* constituted a return to normalc*. he battle to legitimate &hotogra&h*
as art had been consistentl* -aged in terms o, the camera/s abilit* to e0&ress the sub?ecti+it* and uni4ue &ersonal
+ision o, the &hotogra&her, and -ith the &ost-ar +alori1ation o, indi+idualism, detachment, and originalit*, art
&hotogra&hers returned again to their historic agenda.
It is against this bac.ground that -e need to sur+e* -hat, faute )e 0ieu(, -e might consider the Callahan-
Sis.ind ;high ,ormalist; &eriod at the I.:., -hich ma* be said to ha+e started in "#A" -hen Callahan hired Sis.ind
a,ter becoming head o, the &hotogra&h* de&artment in "#F#. In an article on Chicago &hotogra&h*, And*
Grundberg &oints out that the t-o men ;o+erthre- or redirected much o, Mohol*/s em&hasis,;
D)
although I am
inclined to thin. that the &rocess had begun under Siegel, or in an* case be,ore Sis.ind/s arri+al. Grundberg ,urther
&oints out that
As enrollment increased and a graduate degree &rogram -as added, the 9e- Bauhaus curriculum -as de-
em&hasi1ed. he &reliminar* course, -hich mimic.ed Mohol*/s original &rogression in the medium=,rom
&hotograms to &a&er negati+es, multi&le e0&osures, out-o,-,ocus images, etc.=-as retained but lost some
im&ortance. Callahan and Sis.ind both resisted em&hasi1ing e0&erimental techni4ues (Callahan: ;I didn/t care an*-
thing about solari1ation and negati+e &rints . . .;8 Sis.ind: ;I had no interest at all in the Bauhaus &hiloso&h*. I ,ound
all that e0&erimentalism stu,, a little uncongenial to me.;%.
D$
he sur&rise is that the tradition o, technical e0&erimentation, including the mi0ing o, media, remained as strong as
it did in the &ost-Mohol* I.:. But inasmuch as Callahan and Sis.ind -ere ,or the ten-*ear &eriod bet-een "#A" and
"#G" the dominant &hotogra&hic in,luences in the school=both through their teaching and the &restige o, their
-or.=it is e+ident that -hate+er +estiges remained o, the earlier conce&t o, ,ormalism -ere entirel* ecli&sed b*
the sub?ecti+i1ation o, +ision cham&ioned and &racticed b* both men. It might be noted, too, that art &hotogra&h*
o, the earl* "#A(s is e0em&li,ied b* Minor 5hite, Frederic. Sommer (-ho s&ent a *ear at I.:. -hile Callahan
-as abroad on a grant%, and Ansel Adams, and that *perture, -ith 5hite as its editor, -as concei+ed in "#A'.
In retros&ect, Aaron Sis.ind seems so &er,ectl* to re&resent the cultural and &hotogra&hic ad?ustment o, the
&eriod that one is tem&ted to sa* that had he not been born he might -ell be in+ented. It is not onl* in the ,act
o, Sis.ind/s shi,t ,rom the social documentar* -or. o, his !hoto 7eague da*s to the +irtual abstractions o, "#FF
that one sees the magnitude o, the larger social trans,ormation (Sis.ind, a,ter all, continued to teach
documentar* &hotogra&h* at the I.:. ,or *ears%, but in his assimilation o, Clement Greenberg/s do0olog* o,
modernism=the ne plus ultra o, Anglo-American ,ormalism=as the theor* and ground o, his -or.. ;First and
em&haticall*,; -rote Sis.ind in his ;Credo; o, "#AG, ;I acce&t the ,lat &icture sur,ace as the &rimar* ,rame o,
re,erence o, the &icture.;
D#
And t-o *ears later: ;As the language or +ocabular* o, &hotogra&h* has been
e0tended, the em&hasis on meaning has shi,ted=shi,ted ,rom -hat the -orld loo.s li.e to -hat -e ,eel about
the -orld and -hat -e -ant the -orld to mean.;
F(
his interiori1ed, purifie) notion o, art ma.ing is, o, course,
closel* lin.ed to notions current among the 9e- Hor. School artists -ith -hom Sis.ind -as allied both b*
,riendshi& and dealer (he e0hibited ,rom "#F) to "#A) at the Charles 6gan Galler*%. In the same -a* that
among abstract &ainters action -as redirected ,rom the &olitical ,ield to the ,ield o, the can+as, Sis.ind/s arena
became circumscribed. ;he onl* other thing that I got -hich reassured me ,rom the abstract e0&ressionists,;
said Sis.ind in a "#)D inter+ie-,
is the absolute belie, that this can+as is the com&lete total area o, struggle, this is the arena, this is -here the ,ight
is ta.ing &lace, the battle. 6+er*bod* belie+es that, but *ou ha+e to reall* belie+e it and -or. that -a*. And that/s
-h* I -or. on a ,lat &lane, because then *ou don/t get re,erences immediatel* to nature=the outside -orld=it/s
li.e
,
dra-ing.
F"
5hat is stri.ing about Sis.ind/s enter&rise is not sim&l* that he &roduced &hotogra&hs that loo. li.e
miniature monochrome re&roductions o, Blines or Mother-ells=i, one belie+es a &hotogra&h to be li.e a
dra-ing, -h* notE=but that the heroici1ing o, sel,-e0&ression is so absolute as to border on the &arodic.
hat more than an enthusiastic con+ersion to Greenbergian ,ormalism -as in+ol+ed in Sis.ind/s re?ection o,
the documentar* mode (a mode -hich in no -a* &recludes ,ormalist &reoccu&ations, vi)e 5al.er 6+ans and
Sis.ind himsel,% is suggested b* Sis.ind/s &hotogra&hs o, writing, and &olitical -riting at that.
I/+e done a lot o, them Mtorn &olitical &ostersN. Hou ma+ ha+e seen some, the*/re big &olitical slogans in huge
letters, &ut on -alls, and then someone comes along and &aints them out and the* ma.e these mar+elous
,orms. . . . hat goes bac. to "#AA, but since then I/+e ,ound man* more and the interest has gotten more
com&le0, in that I began to reali1e to some e0tent that the* are &olitical. I -asn/t interested in the &olitics. . . .
I -as interested in the sha&es and the suggestabilit* o, the sha&es.
F'
It is tem&ting to see in the +er* e0tremit* o, this re,usal o, &olitical meaning in the -orld a double
dis&lacement: ,irst, in the e,,acement o, the s&eci,icall* &olitical te0t, and second, in the con,lation o,
abstracted ,orm -ith transcendent meaning.
hat the ,ormalism es&oused b* Callahan or Sis.ind deri+es ,rom aesthetics rather than criticism is
ob+ious, and that it relates more to the mainstream currents in American art &hotogra&h* should be e4uall*
so. Some-here bet-een these t-o notions o, ,ormalism lies Bauhaus &hotogra&h*: res&onsi+e to certain as&ects
o, re+olutionar* thought, but ,unctioning -ithin a de+elo&ed, ca&italist societ* on the +erge o, ,ascist consolidation.
Most o, -hat is no- meant b* ;Chicago School; or s&eci,icall*, ;I.:. &hotogra&h*,; is the -or. o, &hotogra&hers
-ho emerged during the "#G(s (e0ce&tions -ould include Art Sinsabaugh, -ho graduated in the "#F(s8 Richard
9ic.el, -ho graduated in "#A)8 and Ra* Met1.er, class o, "#A#%. 9either Sis.ind nor Callahan seemed to ha+e
e0ercised direct in,luence on their students/ &roduction, at least in the sense o, their students/ -or. resembling their
o-n. Rather, the in,luence -ould a&&ear to center around the assertion= &ro+ided as much b* e0am&le as
e0hortation=that art &hotogra&h*, at its highest le+el, re&resented the e0&ression o, a &ri+ileged sub?ecti+it*, and
the use o, the ,ormal and material &ro&erties o, the medium to e0&ress that sub?ecti+it*. Gi+en that radical ,ormal-
ism had been launched -ith a blan.et re&udiation o, such notions, there is ,inall* +er* little that remains to lin.
Russian &hotogra&h* -ith the &roductions o, the I.:. he &edagogic ,ormalism -hich -as de+elo&ed and re,ined
throughout the "#A(s and "#G(s &ro+ided I.:. &hotogra&hers -ith certain .inds o, building bloc.s, ,rame-or.s,
structures=or, at the most tri+ial le+el, schtic!s%-hich, in a general sort o, -a*, do constitute a recogni1able loo..
he em&hasis on ;&roblem sol+ing,; the conce&t o, series, interior ,raming de+ices, and other sel,-re,le0i+e
strategies, em&hasis on the design element in light and shado- and &ositi+e and negati+e s&ace, dar. &rinting,
certain t*&es o, sub?ect matter, technical e0&erimentation, are all identi,iable as&ects o, I.:. ,ormalism. his t*&e o,
-or., and the &rece&ts that in,orm it, ha+e in turn been -idel* disseminated, largel* because most art
&hotogra&hers end u& teaching ne- generations o, art &hotogra&hers. 5ith the 4uantum lea& in &hotogra&hic
education that occurred in the mid to late "#G(s (the number o, colleges teaching &hotogra&h* e0&anded ,rom
''$ in "#GF to FF( in "#G)%, as -ell as the gro-th o, a &hotogra&h* mar.et&lace, I.:. &hotogra&h* -as
,urther +alidated.
here is, o, course, no ,air -a* to generali1e about the range o, -or. made b* as man* (and dis&arate%
&hotogra&hers as homas Barro-, 7inda Connor, Barbara Blondeau, 5illiam 7arson, 3ose&h 3achna, Ra*
Met1.er, Benneth 3ose&hson, Barbara Crane, Art Sinsa-baugh, 3ose&h Sterling, Charles S-edlund, Charles
raub, 3err* Gordon, and 3ohn 5ood, to name onl* the ones I am ,amiliar -ith. I -ould ho-e+er, +enture to
sa* that at its best, as in 3ose&hson/s History of Photography series, it is intelligent, -itt*, and interesting, and at
its -orst=or a+erage, ,or that matter=it re+eals onl* the &redictable results o, a thoroughl* academici1ed,
&edagogical notion o, ,ormalism.
And although I am com&elled to admit that in com&arison to -hat &asses ,or ,ormalist art &hotogra&h*
no-ada*s the I.:. &hotogra&hers cited abo+e seem bla1ing stars in the ,irmament, this can onl+ be considered
as damning -ith ,aint &raise. he basic issue is -hether I.:. ,ormalism, or an* other, ,or that matter, has not
become a cul$)e$sac. he I.:. tradition o, e0&erimentation and serial -or. not-ithstanding, -hat one sees
o+er and o+er again is a reca&itulation o, +arious de+ices and strategies -hich e0ist as guarantors o,
so&histication and master*, but -hich rarel* e0ceed the le+el o, academic, albeit accom&lished, e0ercises.
Inasmuch as so man* o, these &hotogra&hers are clearl* serious, intelligent, and committed to their art, I
-onder at -hat &oint the* ma* begin to 4uestion -hether the concerns o, art &hotogra&h* might e0tend
be*ond the creati+e or the sel,-re,le0i+eE As the tumbrels ,or the &hotogra&h* boom begin to be heard in the
land, as the mar.ets that ha+e su&&orted &ost-"#G(s art &hotogra&h* begin to colla&se, the bod* o, art
&hotogra&h* &roduced in the &ast t-ent* *ears -ill be sub?ect to e+er more rigorous criticism. he ,ormalism
-hich sustained the best -or. o, a Callahan or a Sis-.ind has run its course and become useless either as
&edigree or in,rastructure. 5alter Ben?amin/s &rescient -arning on the results o, the ,etishi1ing o, the creati+e
seems as a&&licable to &resent-da* art &hotogra&h* as it -as to the &hotogra&h* o, Renger-!at1sch and his
milieu, -hich had, at +er* least, the gloss o, ne-ness.
9@6S
" The New Vision: 2orty >ears of Photography at the ;nstitute of +esign, (Millerto-n, 9H: A&erture, "#$'%,
&. "(. I -ould li.e to ac.no-ledge the great hel&, both bibliogra&hic and conce&tual, gi+en me b*
Christo&her !hilli&s. " -ould also li.e to than. Charles raub ,or ,urnishing additional in,ormation
on the I.:.
' Ibid., &. "(.
D Ale0ander Rodchen.o, ;Against the S*nthetic !ortrait, ,or the Sna&shot; ("#'$%, cited in 1ussian
*rt of the *vant$4ar)e: Theory an) Criticis0 -.?@$-./=, ed. and trans. 3ohn 6. Bo-lt (9e- Ibr.: he
<i.ing !ress, "#)G%, &. "G).
F ;Contem&orar* Art and the !light o, its !ublic,; in 7eo Steinberg, 5ther Criteria (@0,ord: @0,ord >ni+ersit* !ress, "#)#%, &. A.
A he com&arison is o,ten dra-n bet-een the critical method o, the Russian ,ormalists and the contem&orar* -or. o, the
American 9e- Critics. Addressing this corres&ondence, Frederic 3ameson has -ritten: ;5hile both the American and Russian
critical mo+ements are contem&oraneous -ith a great modernistic literature, although both arise in &art in an attem&t to do
theoretical ?ustice to that literature, the Formalists ,ound themsel+es to be contem&oraries o, Ma*a.o-s.* and Bhlebni.o+,
re+olutionaries both in art and &olitics, -hereas the most in,luential literar* contem&oraries o, the American 9e- Critics -ere
called . S. 6liot and 61ra !ound. his is to sa* that the ,amiliar s&lit bet-een a+ant-garde art and le,t--ing &olitics -as not a
uni+ersal but merel+ a local, Anglo-American &henomenon.; The Prison House of "anguage (!rinceton: !rinceton >ni+ersit* !ress,
"#)'%, &. FF.
G Ale0ander Rodchen.o, ;From the 6asel to the Machine,; cited in 1o)chen!o an) the *rts of 1evolutionary 1ussia, ed. :a+id 6lliott
(9e- Hor.: !antheon Boo.s, "#)#%, &. $.
) @si& Bri., ;From !ictures to e0tiles,; in Bo-lt, &. 'FA.
$ Andrei B. 9a.o+, ;7e Retour au Materiau de la <ie,; in 1o)chen!o (!aris: Arc ', Musee d/Art Modeme de la <ille de !aris,
"#))%, n.&., m* translation.
# Cited in Bo-lt, &. "A'.
"( Ale0ander 7a+rentie+, ;Ale0ander Rodchen.o,; in 6lliot, &. 'G.
"" :iscussing the ad+ertising -or. &roduced b* the artistic &artnershi& o, Ma*a.o-s.* and Rodchen.o, S1*mon Bo?.o has
indicated, in e,,ect, -h* this ad+ertising &ractice ma* not be com&ared -ith the ad+ertising industr* o, 5eimar German*, or the
>.S.: ;he need ,or +isual ad+ertising a&&eared as a result o, the coe0istence on the national scene o, the nationalised and &ri+ate
sectors. he real sense o, 96! ad+ertising -as not so much commercial, since there -as still a scarcit* o, goods, but ,or
&ro&aganda &ur&oses. he aim -as to stress the dominating role o, the nationalised commerce and ser+ices. In this -a+
Ma+a.o-s.* understood the ad+ertising and he -rote &ro&aganda &oems and slogans ,or it. . . . All Mosco- -as dominated b*
&roducts o, the &artnershi& -ho signed themsel+es as /ad+ertising constructors/.; S1*mon Bo?.o, ;!roducti+ist 7i,e,; in 6lliott, &.
$".
12 he in,luence o, :1iga <erto+ on Rodchen.o -as immense, as indeed it -as on most o, the radical Russian artists. Rodchendo
-or.ed -ith <erto+ on se+eral &ro?ects, including designing the titles ,or The Man with a Movie Ca0era and &osters ,or <erto+/s
,ino$Prav)a.
13 Both 4uotes are ,rom Bo-lt, &. "G).
14 Cited in 1o)chen!o.
15 Cited in 3ohn 5illett, *rt an) Politics in the &ei0ar Perio): The New 6obriety, -.- A$-.// (9e- Hor.: !antheon Boo.s, "#)$%, &. )G.
1 Cited in 2erbert Molderings, ;>rbanism and echnological >to&ianism: houghts on the !hotogra&h* o, the 9eue Sachlich.eit
and the Bauhaus,; in 4er0any: The New Photography, -.@A$-.//, ed. :a+id Mellor (7ondon: Arts Council o, Great Britain,
"#)$%, &. $#.
") Ibid., &. #'.
1! Ibid., &. #D.
1" Carl George 2eise, &re,ace to +ie &elt ist 6ch)n, in ibid., &. #.
2# Ibid., &. "(.
21 Ibid., &. "F.
22 5alter Ben?amin, ;A Short 2istor* o, !hotogra&h*,; in ibid., &. )'.
23 Cited in Re*ner Banham, Theory an) +esign in the 2irst Machine *ge (Cambridge: he MI !ress, "#$"%, &. D"D.
24 Barel eige, cited in Bauhaus -.-.$-.@B, ed. 2erbert Ba*er, 5alter Gro&ius, and Ise Gro&ius (9e- Hor.: Museum o, Modern
Art, "#A'%, &. #".
25 7as1lo Mohol*-9ag*, ;!hotogra&h* is the Mani&ulation o, 7ight,; re&rinted in Andreas 2aus, Moholy$Nagy: Photographs
an) Photogra0s (9e- Hor.: !antheon Boo.s, "#$(%, &. F).
2 Cited in The New Vision, &&. "G-").
2$ Mohol*-9ag*, Painting, Photography, 2il0, (Cambridge: he MI !ress, "#G#%, &. '$, originall* &ublished as Malerai, 2otographie,
2il0, <ol. $, Bauhausbuchen. For a suggesti+e and &ro+ocati+e discussion o, the im&lications o, the &re+alent +ie- o, the camera
as su&&lement to o&tical +ision, see Rosalind Brauss, ;3um& @+er the Bauhaus,; 5ctober IS (5inter "#$(%.
2! Bet-een Mohol*/s de&arture ,rom the Bauhaus in "#'$ and his a&&ointment as director o, the 9e- Bauhaus in Chicago, it
seems &robable that his &olitics, ambitions, and art &ractice -ere all +ariousl* trans,ormed. In Amsterdam, -here he initiall*
emigrated in "#DF, he -or.ed &rimaril* as an ad+ertising &hotogra&her and a design consultant. Su&&orted b* Sir 2erbert
Read, he mo+ed to 7ondon the ,ollo-ing *ear, -here he designed -indo- dis&la*s ,or Sim&soris o, !iccadill* and -or.ed as a
gra&hic designer ,or British Ro*al Airlines and 7ondon rans&ort. 2e also designed the (ne+er used% light decoration ,or
Ale0ander Borda/s ,ilm The 6hape of Things to Co0e and &roduced three &hotogra&hicall* illustrated boo.s.
2" Arthur Siegel, ;!hotogra&h* Is,; *perture #:' ("#G"%, n.&. his s&ecial issue, ;Fi+e !hotogra&h* Students ,rom the Institute o,
:esign, Illinois Institute o, echnolog*,; contained &ort,olios b* Ben 3ose&hson, 3ose&h Sterling, Charles S-edlund, Ra* B.
Met1.er, and 3ose&h 3achna.
3# Harry Callahan, edited -ith an introduction b* 3ohn S1ar.o-s.i (Millerton, 9H: A&erture in association -ith the Museum o,
Modern Art, "#)G%, &. "'.
31 Ibid., &. "".
32 Ibid.
33 2elen Gee, Photography of the 2ifties: *n *0erican Perspective (ucson: he Center ,or Creati+e !hotogra&h*, "#$(%, &. A.
34 S1ar.o-s.i, &. #.
35 For a detailed discussion o, the de-Mar0i,ication o, the American intelligentsia, and the ra&&rochement o, the abstract
e0&ressionist &rogram -ith &ost-ar liberalism, see Serge Guilbaut/s ;he 9e- Ad+entures o, the A+ant-Garde in America,;
5ctober "A (5inter "#$(%.
DG I am thin.ing here, ,or e0am&le, o, 5al.er 6+ans/s t-o-*ear association -ith the FSA, Berenice Abbott/s 5!A-,unded
documentation o, Changing New >or!, and !aul Strand/s in+ol+ement -ith Frontier Films.
3$ And* Grundberg, ;!hotogra&h*, Chicago, Mohol*, and A,ter,; *rt in *0erica GF:A (Se&tember-@ctober "#)G%, &. DF.
3! Ibid., &. DA.
3" Aaron Sis.ind, ;Credo,; in Photographers on Photography, ed. 9athan 7*ons (9e- Hor.: !rentice-2all, "#GG%, &. #$.
4# Aaron Sis.ind, ,rom ;!hotogra&h* as an Art Form,; an un&ublished lecture deli+ered at the Art Institute o, Chicago (9o+. ),
"#A$%, &rinted in 7*ons, &. #G.
41 Aaron Sis.ind, ;houghts and Re,lections,; inter+ie- in *fteri0age ":G (March "#)D%, &. '.
42 Ibid.