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What is Subjective Photography?
editSubjective photography was an international movement founded in Germany by the photographer Otto Steinert in 1951 which championed photography that explored the inner psyche and human condition rather than reflecting the outside world.
Small introduction of Otto Steinert:
editOtto Steinert was a German photographer. Born in Saarbrücken, Germany, Steinert was a medical doctor by profession and was self-taught in photography. After World War II, he initially worked for the State School for Art and Craft in Saarbrücken.
As a professor at the Folkwang School in Essen, Steinert influenced a generation of students from 1959 onwards and consolidated the outstanding reputation of photography education to this day. After his death in 1978, his collection of studies went to the Museum Folkwang - it still forms the basis of the Photographic Collection (more than 60,000 photographs, especially vintage prints).
Born: 12 July 1915, Saarbrücken, Germany
Died: 3 March 1978, Essen, Germany
How and when the movement started?
editThe movement evolved out of the Fotoform group started by Steinert and Peter Keetman in the 1949s. The group held three exhibitions entitled Subjektive Fotografie in 1951 (organized in Saarbrücken), 1954 and 1958. The exhibit included more than 700 photos from international artists that sought reformation in the consideration of photography.
Steinert published a manifesto in which he wrote that subjective photography means humanised, individualised photography. This was partly an attempt to distance the subjective photographers from the rise of commercial, documentary and journalistic photography. The group retained many of the experimental techniques used at the Bauhaus before the Second World War, but their subject matter was more complex, reflecting the darker aspects of the human condition through their expressionistic and hallucinatory images. The movement was international, and included photographers from Germany, Japan, Sweden, America and São Paulo.
It occurred largely in response to the propaganda and artless use of photography during the Second World War. Subjective photography emphasizes consideration of the photo that goes beyond the actual subject, inviting the viewer to interpret and reflect on the visual experience it produces.
How it Deferred to Pre-war Photography?
editThe photography during the Second World War, particularly in Germany, had a very functional purpose. Portraits were like those taken in yearbooks, and only aimed to capture the existence and factual detail of its subject, rather than any artistic detail. Subjective photography, on the other hand, sought to be more than practical. Instead, it focused on producing an "experience" for the viewer that forced him to make an interpretation.
Photographers associated with subjective photography:
editPhotographers associated with subjective photography are Harry Callahan, Thomaz Farkas, Gaspar Gasparian, Marcel Giró, Peter Keetman, Takashi Kijima, Siegfried Lauterwasser, Kiyoshi Niiyama, Toni Schneiders, Aaron Siskind, Otto Steinert, Christer Strömholm, Ludwig Windstosser.
References
editExternal links
editCategory:Photography by genre Category:Photography in Germany