KONSUMER TERROR. Late Industrial Alienation ‘Among the most subversive qualities of the sill photogeap is tha at is bes it soften confront us with word whey alien to ove aspirations, a work, ori pars that we Would peter to diese opener doubt if ts either she graphic rn erings of atrocity and horror conic: ‘ous the mans media o their aes ‘zed counterpats fala from gales, And the art pres that really draw our Aecpest responses. Rather | spect that ‘the most familar sorts of images ate the most profoundly if sub, disturbing, those that take a thee conten ses and Sircamstances very much like our Own, though sigh, ieeconclbly, askew. Four such photographs, above all oth: ss have engaged my somermes Ss than conscious atemon inthe pas ew pears Robert Adams's Darter, Anthony Her andes’ Puddingstone Reservon, Wil liam Eggleston's Memphis, and John Gossage’ Seattle, 1979. Compelling though they are [would have preferred fo contemplate a diferent Adams, per haps one of his surpassingly beautiful este landscapes, fon asa teminder that even tray the beauifl and dhe i poreant are not always in oppositions Herander more typical of his chilling fationaliey; 2 chromaticaly richer ex: ample Fuglexon’s magitenlly digas tie exeRssesom photographie color for ‘one could, Uheieve, teach oneslt both the extreme possibilities of color pho- ‘ography andthe limits of phowozraphic formalism from a caetul stay of F sleston’s work); and a Gossage whose ‘patil and assocaive ambiguities might beer illustrate how Gossage mellates the visual and theliterary demands of his subjects. Yer it was these four photo sraphs—these and not others—that have txered such a pressing claim om my a tention, for reasons I wil ry 0 expan All share certain vrtes that can be discussed together, the first being that they afe works of major ambition~epc \works—athose first allegiance isto the ‘objective world, Insofar as photographs fan claim to be document, these re Tur they achive something moe than Justa goen-ath bargain with perceived reality. They explain and inform the word they record which sto say shat they ate politi, the sare sense that Walter Benjamin understood. Atger’s photographs of Pars to be politcal There is abroad sic acon among these ptr: they speak wih called restraint, photography “deree zero" fa Yoring the efcet and the nsary over the embellished and the gratuitous, They seem inevitable, even “natural” and car. fy the authority of something cen with one's own ees ach of these photograpas depicts something ofthe commonpce sult of ‘ordinary hfe, exploring phatgraphy’s Dpradoxialrdasonship withthe fami and bolstering the viewer's east in the ‘eracy of the photograph, a trust that hasbeen socly (and nightly teed ince ‘eat years. Yet that rst nee to be ey tablished photography isto purse i Dest vocation, which i, a5 ted, sub There are more subjective affinities ako. Alhough these images don't (and Pethaps photographs ean ai to high tragedy they are nevertheless ermested with a quiet and relentless soreows 2 deep, pervasive sadness that acknowl ‘ges that dhe work can Be agracless, Fearful, and alienating pace. These four photograph adress the conditions of siknce and solitude, caution as agaist xtivagane hopes and sige the limits ‘of our moral. Against oat wishes they femind as that wey lke the ciiens of “Thoreau's Concord ve out our lives in "quiet desperation Two ofthese photographs, the Adams andthe Hemancer, coul! be sid to be in the genre of portraiture broadly Speaking, ad there no sich in pho {ography more boring than ‘people cures. Our sian nari has made untiring producers and consumers of images of each other, and aferaceneury And a hall we have come very cave to ‘ehausting the seemingly inexrausable Teds increasingly dif to rapond co ee another man form, ater human face. (Compounding ths eshaustion of liagery is the ignorant notion that pho- fographs of people are “humane,” or humanistic"; the esentalseoiogy, such sis of photojournalism) Bur if photographs of peoplehave be come more diet o take erciny than ‘dice to know which, She is acthet ae ea tere See ae sha cea iene ioe eee i are a ae ‘Seu ae err sa ect craven ec nad Sen eeyheinans aak oe cake Selo aeies demands, and lie if anything, seems made very well the city as metaphor of iso obey the laws ofexpediency andthe ‘demands of transience. Ie is a5 though hubitation and development have made the vastness of the American land even temptier and lonelier than it was before wwe atived "Yet whatever else this may be itis also photograph about shopping and about the experience of being 4 consimer in 2 laeeindustrial sosiety, a concition with ‘no Bix locaton, Inthe early 1970s West German radicals coined the double-edged gm Konstoerterror wo desrie, in its Teas militant usage, the numbing alia tion tha fllows the sublimation of po ligcal choice into a myriad of aeomied, neaningless consumer “decisions.” That ‘word and Adams's shopper seem wo have cach other in min ‘Adams's nameless consumer returns ‘our gaze from inside the belly of the beast the American marketplace, rea firming the fala rony that our socery thas somehow managed to make spending nearly a9 onerous as geting I's perhaps too easy 10 see this woman’s leaden texpresion as emblematic ofthe mawsea that mos of us fcl, at ome time or am ‘other, faced with the lurid array of com sumer goods chat passes for a high sta Gard of living, Yer she appears neither disgasted nor expecially pleased cesthetized” might be the best word ‘mowing from one aisle to the next in some ‘as shopping complex like one of George Romero's zombies in The Dawn of the Dead. cent to supply much information about precisely who this woman may be. W the other persons in the photoguaph, Sh is facing'a small child—possbly he ‘own—whom she screen She might be a Inher late twenties. Her body ma butherstanc is oddly childlike Her thing sits sexy and stylish, bon ite reposterons one i reminded of cidren playing dres-up. Her poste conveys dines Ip resion oF deferutvencas and vulnerability. What makes her so re ee tes fea elcirgrop i tak about this young woman, all ofthe very eter bere indicted aes ‘out of place in this seene. Like an ap parition she could vanish without af fecting anything around her; nothing connectsher with the other people or the location, Her delicacy puts het at odds wither surroundings, and she holding herself as though she were aftaic. The set fof her shoulders is anticipatory, as though something dreadful weee im endings the whole scene is 89 utter Banal as to convey a sense of indeter minate menace. Nothing else nthe pho tograph support the feng of dead that wwe read in her posture, which com ae Pounds rather than dispels the mystery Ofthis image. A close paychologcal par allel would beP Man Killed by a Su cession into deep space i used as both Always spate, Hernandez nonetheless in the tile—for us to par uct some ofthe objective cit samances warroning he photagrph Puddingstone Reservoir isin the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, les a patk really, than a tact of marginal and wedged herwen Inestate Highttays 10 and 210 and California Sate Highway ity mils east of downtown cles a Joan Dion Pact fed be Santa Ana wind that comes down d whines trough the excalyp aeries: ep areas ae blow ».. where the divorce rate is oice she national eeeraee anil te Here 1s the last stop for al wha, have And, one might a8, « poorer Cali foonia, To see this group (a family Probably. Bur if a family, why isthe young, woman so seemingly daconnected Bnd eilferne from the ocher) geting Some sum on this litered dire beach, be Side these oily slack waters, under this Anchany Hernan, Pidgin Reserv, 198hoe smogay sky sto know too many tnhappy fas about ther reumsances, Teisa sad and oly moving cee ac nl for Heranden wo may wel be the coolest photographer of people sing today Yr thi image i oot ur Connected to the larger body of Herma ders work in that I concn and ex tends his most durable concer, the Alaltic hawecn the cine of plc an Drvate experience: the dibeuy of wi ing sod holding a domain ol privacy {an individual sou liveness or dead es 10 item the mist o a aren, ‘ial public space. The importance of this stagae shoul no be aken igh in any bat the most rally coletvand sons one) sch hard won privacy Fea necessary Gf ialficien) condioon (of dignity, personhood, even mental hal And pethaps what Yam reading {tension and incient menace in tht photograph may actualy be the sll Intensity with which Heraandes’s sub- jects inst upon their own reali of sl Absorption. Agata the sgualr oftheir Jimmetiate environmen, agains the > ttusion of the camera and perhaps Pecalh—agaist one another, Tike Adam's shopper and Hernan ders bather War Eagleson's Men phisiva scene of tanga soured and fone awry. The comparisons besk down Swift, though, W one recognizes that Memphis the product of different ‘mediam (or median within 3 medium), ‘hororaphic color. Most ring on Egeleton’s work has shown 3 preoccupation with vo of is most obvious features, his southeress nd his dee to the asthe ofthe color Sapa, Lise more needs tobe sid on the topic of southern iti inpisic land ultimately sene approach to Ex ‘goson's phomngaphs. His appropriation [Of che tats ofthe color snapuor, how ‘ver isa more complex and apparent, nore contentious sue, The most pet. Sten citi that has followed Eg Bleston since hit 1976 Musca of Mod- fen Ar exhibition and Book has taken the tone that he has aed to improve tpn hs veracilar model, hat hi hoe topraphs are “merely” snapshos.” MT the eet that modems requ ‘each aise to tenn his medium, EE feston reinvented coloe photography, fing features ofthe color snapshot as his benchmark, in much the same way that Stephen Shore rercture the cm Sentony of commercial color rhtoar Pence he 13604 the snaps has 3 auured an levoted aun inthe isch imagery, Easily extant Slams han ben pt forward i be fale the owt democratic instance the most democratic medi yet de Sie by then sn is hep presi the innocrt eye. Phare Ging iho ceriny been superior ve Ihde for curtral spd era hubris Unforcnatly the alts that so piste obsrersappresinn snop Shows are ull the very quate hat tre them sal fires ae ees of {her aronoois author. “Sues” Spapsrs dont ivco us very muck they to cloely resemble he pst ard Stuli porats and mapsnephowos that they sini (So ch for “the in oct oye) The led snaps how ‘Ser cms ove ptroniangamiation by ft sured juataposivions, owshing ‘Shins, and msl comtet “Tat most snpshots Yall” no mS sey exzly how they do so is another tater, one whose plications seaped tlm eveyone except Egon who ieaacd o eaited, how uty ales ‘ings ail e when ey aed to close~visually and psycholescally— ‘it ther nominal set Tests awvatdly engage quality ofthe Ele maphor that Een use to supply hs photographs mth thir temo and cheno sees. “Ths “eines,” co ase Janet Naleoln's sword, eeseues Eggleston's be poco {apts rom the vapid edn amour {photographic color glamoer that in les itligent hands rasforme every. Ahing—especly te color ploy isell_into saccharine vaual merchan dle. When Egleston is at his best, wot even the cloying sweeten photo. feaphic clo cn spa the dance be {ween he iewer andthe sje Inshat sete though only in hat sense is wok ‘an be sid oe penceable And he Sic spor the ental icy in Ey #leston's photographs: image of the AAmencan home place, insu on thes surface and ee cold a thet et, te images fom another planet Eager ce nto an Prclce He bas amnered tore row es Fay tam paonererty tan omy cL Fe ce Celie Tin eee ted suet have analy tn sna homely ay objec ofr scm om, eee aoe eee cites ecieal hase pane ts encore Fee ced wats Ger phcoerapbers ave miceicnly found benexth te rent Egon oe See eeytinn deroentialy ee ee Eee eet oie Fe ms sie fond rag Eee Seay Seog eee ares ol this reso leeon snk Deeley floes wk trator, i bar also been thereon 2 Se ea ete oe Taking noting fom its ele lea thn ungustonsy the ae thinned phox fa pen oven at ee ees the mores implication tat hr oem being ewes fice roth thes Sf someone contemplating suid bub cy mn poe ake fromm issn sh way anymore—sleep ple froma ber Gabor lie tone tis ene eat gee bea pac of elrigudaton: Fee ee ee ply Because one seldom ae lee ar nemly the camera So nls ha thing ha some vr 0 fen sine, impor. We an uly Epoch chen mucin En hotographs noe nes remarks thee ht extn, 208 the mein a black she les ‘The color black implies substance and location, a opponed to the Black of Sacksandenhite phovgeanhy, hh imps void. Af one will allow that this scary litle oven eo be the fa of ace ie Ce igh ab allow temporal work to beerced ane ti he Wis sie yt bya mane oo:People and Ideas Parcpant in an event but a performer Featung ines The viewer, hie member of Breche’s hoped for audience, would fot allow empathy-—the aesthet=—to tbscure the meaning ofthe text. * Gowagescms to understand hs nis work Like Denver, Paddingstone Res ‘ervor, and Memphis, Settle, 1979 18 part of alarger body of work; unlike the ther tice photographe, Seats, 1979 toes not so much extend Gonage’s Se ate series as breach ina way con sitet with the techniguss and nes Of Brecht and Godard: t distance the icwer, break the cntinuity of he wor, and demand that she viewer acknowl the primacy of content over form There ino singe lesson to be drawn from therefor photographs. They are too complex, thee imager 00 Seply tbe in the socal and paycholopeal ‘experience of ourtimes and spy hey fre too good as instances of the pho fographic medium, tobe reduced ro this (oF any other text The body of crcl pinion notwithstanding, phocogshy (excep ints mon servile instanes) 2 mofium in and of tself anya such imeducble o tere other than ts own, ‘Yeti photographs do, as I sugested havea specie power to confronts wth snpects of ote eallesive expecence that we would otherwise prefer rman bid ten these four image peeform that ask wth disuineion. The most modest lin Hat eeule be meade for Denver, Pad. doxstone Reservar, Memphis, sd Se AG 1479 that etter exec Date eiaerat tal eicees cf hit an value ca be resem the Dleakest and least promising of cea tances Yet in sl that soi Iva postive quality only in moderation and only when exeried with some mor al restraint, Taken to is extremes i for anything tat offered some photo raphic poly) But these four pho Tographs do more, and ete, than that Tn his book The Message he Rote Walker Perey observed that despite the Adour view of human institutions that Kafka porayed in his wings was ether an alienated nor a parance in dividual. Perey repeats a story about Kafka and hn fend gathering w heat Kafka read aloud frm his manusrpe The mood of the group was chef, Katha’s most cling passages would provoke the wikest laughter, i's agood fale and Percy els ict pola that to ‘conceive of a truly alienated man one ould have to smagine Kate stipes o the pomer to articulate his cndtion With i he coud express alertion and thereby fee himself rom it Suan Sona made 3 sma, sone hs John G Perec terran in (Stay "On Siyle"s The evercom ranscening ofthe work! i at alo ofthe difiuies of being inthe world” isthat one mu, itl, "be" mn al ofitpeshaps especially thoxe pars of rographs oF Pho {ographs such these can estore some ff that world to usaf they can scknowh fdge and mediate (edit only beense they acknowledge) the Item dread and horror of eur condition, or they can provide us with an zens in which tone iste ste OF the strona acl Sopa Seeded tee er eres than honored the claim that they make This etsy was dere ss Mils Coley Oskand Carin n «slg sevsed in hand nt Re