Photography and Cinema

(sharon) #1
Love on the Left BankwasromanticnostalgiaforanearlierParis.

Frank’sThe AmericanswasmarkedbyBeatcultureweariness.Klein’s

New Yorkwascaughtbetweenattractionanddisgustwithmassculture,

closetotheambivalenceofPopArt.Allthreewereexpressionsofpost-

warcounter-cultureattheonsetofitssuffocationbyconsumerism.

Allthreephotographersturnedtofilmmakingbuttookupthesame

concerns,makingmovingequivalentsoftheirphotographs.Stopa

WilliamKleinfilmanywhere,notedhisfriendthephotographer-film-

makerChrisMarker,andyouwillsee‘aKleinphotographwiththe

sameapparentdisorder,thesameglutofinformation,gesturesand

lookspointinginalldirections,andyetatthesametimegovernedby

anorganized,rigorousperspective’.^34

EvenmoredisenchantedwasBye Bye Photography( 1972 )bythe

JapanesephotographerDaidoMoriyama,whichpushedphotographic

sequencingtobreakingpoint.Alongwithseveralothers(including

ShomeiTomatsu,EikohHosoeandTakumaNakahira),Moriyamarailed

equallyagainstthenarrowconventionsofphotographicgoodtasteand

therepressivesocialorderoflate 1960 sJapan.Bye Bye Photographyisa

bleakandrelentlessonslaughtofdissoluteframes,manyappearingto 79

67 Spread from Ed van der Elsken,Love on
the Left Bank(London, 1956).

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