The role ofcritics, curators and editors in the formation of a photographic history of Australia

The preceding discussion has already extended the definition of photography as a process to mean more than simply 'taking' pictures. This now means that the photographer's control over the processes which manipulate the public function of a photographic image has become marginal.The central decisions about the nexus between photography and the public are now made by critics, curators and editors. In this sense the mechanisms that determine the role of a photograph throughout it's existence can be divided into two essential categories: the first is evaluative, and impacts upon the second which is custodial . This chapter is going to look at a critical and curatorial practice and the implications and ramifications on the formation of a visual history.

Critical dialogue between theorists and practitioners of the photographic medium in Australia took a long time before it reached the level of intelligence and seriousness that compares to other western countries. Very little critical material was published prior to the 1960's and the first emergence of serious declarations of individual standpoints coincides with the emergence of Light Vision (plate 1)in 1977. Some of the dialogues from this era show a rather entrenched and embittered viewpoint to quote Max Dupain for example: '. I am reminded of an article by Beatrice Faust in number 2 issue of Light Vision. She declares: " there is an incredible amount of bullshit being written and spoken about photography" simultaneously adding her share to the heap..' The great changes in curatorial and critical practice that took pace in Australia during the second art boom which began in the early 1960's, took a long time to impact on photography. The nationwide disinterest towards the visual arts in Australia which had evolved since the national preoccupation with WW 2 had lasted for over twenty years. It was 1963 before Australia had once again a comprehensive magazine on the visual arts in this country A complex structure of events and influences was necessary before the photographic medium in Australia could be provided with the mandate of a legitimate art practice and art form. This point in time which cannot be defined more accurately than 'the early 70's' marks the beginning of a cycle which allowed photography to move into the spotlight of critical and curatorial attention. Anne Marie Willis, a contemporary writer on photographic history in Australia isolates two catalysts that have played a significant role in this legitimatization of photography as an 'official art form' in Australia. The first : '..soon after it was established, the Visual Arts Board decided that photographers as well as painters , sculptors and conceptual artists should be eligible to receive grants. Many of the first recipients were commercial photographers who were virtually being funded to develop their "weekend photography". On the whole photographers who have received grants over the years have been more concerned with "personal expression" and photographic style than an investigative approach to photography or an involvement in their work with day to day reality' Willis then proceeds to outline that the second move in the development of an 'official art photography' was the establishment , with Visual Arts Board funding, of the Australian Centre for Photography. The Australian Centre's first publication , New Photography Australia: A selective survey (1974) set out the acceptable themes for art photography: 'Three branches of tradition emerge in this publication: The documentary spirit characterized by technical dexterity, visual and intellectual clarity is visible in the work of Philip Quirk and Roger Scott. The straight photograph, after the tradition of Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, is concerned with the physical pleasure of seeing. Grant Mudford and Geoff Parr share this approach while Ken Middleton and John Brash maintain a continuance of synthetic photography, where the manipulated image is a statement of synthesis and analysis'. Anne Marie Willis describes these themes and the photographic selection in somewhat harsher terms: 'purely visual relationships composed in the viewfinder of subjects like walls, fences and corners of buildings, enigmatic nudes with Ansell Adams derived nature worshipping landscapes..... as well as commercial photographers weekend work, photographs by students and staff of the new creative photography course at Prahran College were a major sorce for the book accounting for more than a third of the images. The narrow range of themes established in this publication was repeated in 'Aspects of Australian Photography (1974)' and the Australian Centre for Photography's exhibitions over the following years'. Many of the same photographers and certainly many of the same attitudes towards the photographic image re-appeared some time later in the Philip Morris Art Grant Collection of the later seventies .

The pluralistic profile of photographic writing and criticism which still plagues the medium today was in it's heyday during the 1970's. and can be seen most clearly in the 'mutual admiration society' articles in Light Vision such as Sneaker in the sky: Graham Howe and Ken Middleton interviewing each other or Athol Shmith's John Cato: 'Proteus' . Journals which attempted to bring quality reproductions of contemporary Australian photography to the public often failed to make such a venture pay . Photo Gallery Australia and Light Vision collapsed in 1978 The prevailing 'jobs for the boys (and girls)' attitude which achieved the effective exclusion of certain individuals, photography students who studied under specific tutors/lecturers and all exhibitions that took place in non sanctioned galleries from receiving their share of critical attention. It must be said that the level of criticism rarely reached the concern with content that typifies the writings of an A.D.Coleman Artists were canonized or ignored. Patrick Mc Caughey , former Director of the National Gallery of Victoria described his views on local art criticism in general as follows: '.. journalism remains the prevailing means of discussing art..' and later in the same article: 'the inbuilt ephemeral nature of much contemporary art criticism robs it of the intellectual vigour that one finds in the best discussion of contemporary literature' Paul Taylor in his first editorial of Art and Text describes the situation in the following terms: '....the unresolved character of Australian criticism in the seventies and the continuing factionalization of our writers is a direct result of Australia's involvement in Internationalist Art History and Art Politics, such as one recognizes now in issues of Other Voices and Art International from the early 'seventies'.The body of our recent criticism has been manifestly bruised by the extreme historicism of earlier criticism (including "formalist" criticism). Our most prominent groups of writers and their corresponding magazines , are casualties of the very mainstream which only a decade ago was considered Australian Art's only hope. Stated simply, this has, in turn, perpetuated a blindness to contemporary experimental art. ' The real beginnings of a new outlook amongst photographers came from the Art school graduates . Beginning during the mid to late 1970's, a number of senior positions in photography departments saw themselves filled with American photographers holding M.A.'s or M.F.A's or returning Australians who had been to the United States to acquire similar qualifications. Australian curatorial practice in relation to the photographic medium may be said to have started during the 1890's when the first photographs were placed in the archives of the Art Gallery of New South Wales . The first institutionalization of photography as an art form began with the Museum of Modern Art (New York) collection under the Curatorship of Beaumont Newhall during the 1940's. His successors Edward Steichen and John Szarkowsky have assembled a collection which, due to its sheer weight in numbers, it's history of being the first and it's association with what is by all accounts one of the significant and comprehensive modern art museums, has become something of a role model for more junior collections world-wide. In Australian terms this influence is particularity noticeable at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra . Anne Marie Willis points to the glaring lack of an entire category of photographic work at the A.N.G. : 'just as visible , but left out of this selection is work that is more socially and politically engaged ranging from the analytical projects of Americans Martha Rosler, Fred Lonidier and Chauncey Hare, to work which examines the social functions of photography and the politics of representation by artists like Jo Spence, Victor Burgin ...' . The same glaring gap also exist in the M.o.M.A. collection and one can make many additions of significant European , South American, Eastern European and Russian and Asian photographers to Anne Marie Willis's list. The 'International Photography 1920-1980' exhibition at the A.N.G. uses a highly selective interpretation of the term 'international' . The consequences of such a bias are difficult to quantify but no doubt it's ramifications extended to other Australian collections via their curators and indeed to a much broader audience via the exhibitions catalogue The difficulty with genesic terminology also extends to the reverse condition. As Tony Perry suggests in his article 'Australia: Longing for a photographic identity' which was published by the Swiss fine art photography magazine 'Print Letter' in 1980: '....those who wish to make a career of photography are obliged to leave for Europe or America. The list of ex-patriots is long, and the work of Douglas Holleley, Fiona Hall, Graham Howe and Max Pam can no longer be called Australian.....' Despite such reservations, Australian curators and editors alike have judged all the expatriate photographers named by Perry to be 'Australian' . Perry's list in fact is rather cursory as it merely mentions a few contemporaries. The early part of Australia's history of photographic practice is essentially an account of itinerant photographers. Such photographers arrived, set up a photographic practice , often exploited a 'soft' market and left usually within two to three years. Yet their names feature in virtually every account of Australian photographic history . It would however be a mistake to suppose that Australia is the only player in this game of cultural politics, or indeed that this practice only manifests itself in the visual arts.

According to Isobel Crombie, photography is now the second most popular area with visitors to the National Gallery of Victoria . The Museum of Victoria has a parallel interest in much of the work that the N,G.V. collects.The State Library on the other hand acquires and displays photographic work that depicts the live-style of Victorian people. Recent exhibitions such as the 'Elvis lives' show by Polixeni Papapetrou however, could just as easily be mounted by the gallery. The overlap of interest between institutions has, in view of reduced resources , encouraged curators such as Isobel Crombie to avoid parallel purchases. by exchanging information on proposed purchases with other curators . This system of co-operative aquisition, despite it'spositive intention, reduces the difference between collections and curatorial styles.

The photographic image is carried to the public in two main ways: the printed image in the sense of having been selected for print and as the original or facsimile print. The venues range from restaurants to private and public art galleries

The term 'Australian photography ' usually refers to Photographs produced by Australian photographers. Because of the frequent use of the term , one might expect this to mean a practice which diverges from the European and American tradition. But does Australian photography display such indigenous character. and if so, what manifestations can one point to? Australia 's cultural history is shaped as much by the overt and sometimes covert attitudes and structures within the major art funding and support bodies and institutions as by the impact of public opinion. The Australia council, specifically the Visual arts board has shown itself to be a substantial influence in the shaping of local trends. This influence in turn is largely shaped and determined by the pre-occupations of members of the board. Peter Thorn published some very cutting opinions of this process . Art photography in Australia ( and throughout the world for that matter) is , in general, of such poor quality when compared to artworks in other media that it seems inappropriate to give it more attention than it deserves. I am, it seems, not entirely alone in this judgment. Max Dupain voiced a similar opinion The 1980's saw the emergence of a myriad of journals which appeared to address issues related to art practice and theory which of course by this stage permitted the inclusion of references to photographic practice and theory. Perhaps the best known of these is the Paul Taylor edited journal Art and Text and the Sydney based Art Network and On the Beach.

The consequence of this escalation of theory is twofold. First there is the degree of intellectual constipation amongst the fortunate who managed to stay with the pace of writing, who managed to catch up with the likes of Saussure,Foucault,Althusser Barthes and Burgin to cite but a few of the less obscure 'heavyweights' of contemporary theory. The writings by the likes of Barthes and Foucault are not as easily integrated into the motivation and theory that controls the making of the image as they are in the application of critical writing that exist in response to an already made image. Construction is more difficult than re-construction. The act of creation is perilous and fraught with esoteric obstacles. The second is the alienation caused by the new theory between the traditional consumer of art and the artist now inextricably linked to the unity of theory based practice (ideologically sound art). Adrian Martin's contribution to the 1985 symposium on writing and art recognizes that: 'there are indeed clear signs that, at the moment , Art and Writing are being set against each other in a brutal battle.' With this sentence he has in fact disclosed the state of affairs which, like the proverbial 'Emperors clothes' can only exercise its stranglehold illusion until one voice calls the bluff. In this case the bluff was opposition disguised as criticism and criticism itself cloaked in difficult linguistic and theoretical configuration. The official 150th birthday of photography in Australia marks a renewal of effort towards the cementing of already 'official' icons and the determination and legitimatization of new one's.Australia post released a commemorative series of four stamps (plate 2). They include Wolfgang Sievers' Gears for the mining industry, Vickers Ruwolt 1967 , Max Dupain's Bondi (1939) ,Harold Cazneaux's The wheel of youth (1929) and Olive Cotton's Teacup Ballet(1935) . This selection is interesting and perhaps critical in the insight it permits into the process of legitimatization. The youngest image in the selection is already over twenty years old all the images have already a history of exposure to the public in group and solo exhibitions and all the images are cheerfully pleasant, even optimistic. Olive Cotton 's inclusion is not just the consequence of legitimized selection via the inclusion of a 'token woman'. Her place in the history of Australian photography is currently being cemented with Kathryn Millard's film Light years and the opportunity provided via an Australia council grant for Olive Cotton to print some 2000 negatives, some over 60 years old and many for the first time. The degree of critical and curatorial attention recently focused on Olive Cotton is perhaps to some degree the outcome of an Australia wide female dominance in most curatorial and art historical positions which have a major say in the writing of photographic history but without question she deserves a significant place of local recognition for her commercial as well as her creative work . I say local, because in international terms it may be more difficult to re-write photographic history. Olive Cottons experimentation with modernist imagery specifically the Tea-cup ballet 1935 (plate 3) is derivative rather than pre-cursory or contemporary The process of legitimatization and manufactured idolization appears to have gained new impetus during the late 1980's. Freda Freiberg , in her examination of the comparative success of Max Dupain and Wolfgang Sievers stated that: 'his (Sievers) work is unlikely to be lionized in bicentennial Australia , with it's nationalistic euphoria' was correct , but as soon as the focus moved from the bicentennial issues towards the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of photography, Sievers was rewarded with substantial recognition. His work was selected for a number of major group shows, a solo retrospective at N.G.V. and the above - mentioned stamp series by Australia Post. The Bicentennial celebrations of 1988 directed the national focus was on any kind of national and individual achievements that could be linked to the patriotic euphoria that surrounded the event . Archives were dredged to find written and photographic evidence of Australia's past since the arrival of the fleet. The rather negative national image that emerged from Robert Hughes' epic history The Fatal Shore which had become a international best seller had to be balanced (undermined) with positive incentives. One of the most ambitious projects undertaken in recent history that aims at establishing such a collection of Australian photographs was mounted by Euan McGillivray and Matthew Nickson , both employed by the Museum of Victoria. The project which aims at collecting material toward a national archive of Australian documentary, historically significant photographs was inaugurated in 1985 and was mounted under the title "Outreach Project". The 'Outreach Project's' brief aims at collecting photographs made before 1939 Using slogan's such as ' Private lives-Public heritage' and 'Your family's photographs are Australia's heritage' the publicity brochure produced for the 'Outreach Project' suggests to all Australian's: 'to sit down with your family, look through your collection of photographs and select those which you and your family think should be included in the heritage of Australia.' More specific recommendations state: 'the types of photographs to be considered are those that show members of your family at work, play, or engaged in leisure time activities..' and, ' by making your selection you will be assuring [sic] your family's contribution to the development of Australia will be recognized and recorded for future generations'. The rather poorly funded project recorded altogether nearly 3000 photographs in the two Victorian towns Ballarat and Manangatang (pop 340).

The epic cycle of history tends to deliver a highly romantic and positively enhanced focus on the past during times of economic and political difficulty and turmoil while it also seems to deliver a more difficult and critical image of the past when national confidence and spirits are high because of national achievements. At such times the taboos of the past can be broken with the least resistance. We need only to look at the Hiroshima pictures by Shomei Tomatsu which began in the early 1960's to affirm that their heart wrenching message had to wait until Japan had emerged from the horror of the war and the subsequent American occupation as the strong and proud superpower . Similar cycles can be observed in Germany's tentative appraisals of concentration camp photographs in art galleries during the 1970's and again, the Vietnam images selected for 'art-exhibitions' at national galleries in the U.S. and Australia. Holland staged a similar watershed exhibition in Rotterdam during 1990 to display the work of Dutch photographers and their involvements in (inter)national conflicts from the 1930's to the late 1980's. One image by Ed van der Elsken entitled Durban, Zuid Afrika(1959) points an undisguised finger at the inhumanity of apartheid . Many such photographs have now lost their political immediacy and potency as have the issues which prompted them to be taken in the first place. It is therefore safe for curators and publishers to expose them to the general public. The vicious cycle which locks together the photographer as image-creator and the photographer as grant applicant, writer, curator and exhibitor is perhaps the single major determinator in the question of what the public eventually sees, perceives and remembers as 'nation or state-specific photography'.

While there is considerable debate about the policies behind the mounting of major group shows or the publication of catalogues by of various museums and collections, the overall collection criteria and curatorial policy at major public collections is rarely questioned or , on the rare instances when it is challenged, a long and difficult challenge appears the only way to force a change.