When photography changes it does very dramatically
A conversation in Budapest with historian of photography Colin Ford
MúzeumCafé 29.
British historian of photography Colin Ford has played an outstanding role in establishing the network of photography institutions in the UK. For decades he has also been internationally renowned as an untiring spokesperson on behalf of Hungarian photography. For seven years he was deputy curator of the National Film & Television Archive, then he got the first post as the senior photography curator of Britain’s national museums. The 1970s witnessed a period of new development for photography. There were a few appointments in the institutional departments, for example a young curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, or the Photographers’ Gallery, which opened in 1972. In 1983 the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television opened and he was appointed director. Based in Bradford in the north of England, the museum became part of the network belonging to the Science Museum. The wonderful collection in Bradford gradually overtook the Science Museum, the Royal Photographic Society and even the Kodak Museum. Since the museum opened ‘only’ in 1983, numerous gaps have had to be filled in the classical collection so that as a museum it can offer the possibility of fully covering the history of the medium. The big auction houses suddenly started to work with photography specialists. In America photography auctions had been organised for many years and the Museum of Modern Art had been collecting photographs since the 1930s. The first Kertész exhibition in Britain, held in London in 1979, was significant in that the critics at last started to pay attention to photography. A major role in this was played by the Photographers’ Gallery, which did a lot to familiarise the public with the great names of photography. The Hungarian Connection exhibition focussed on photojournalism, highlighting the early 20th century.
The stress was on the origins, the roots, and represented a dozen photographers. In addition, eight or ten contemporary photographers were presented – Féner, Korniss, Urbán, Kerekes and others – the majority of whom had never had a show abroad. It didn’t include the five great names: Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi. However, they were the stars of the London exhibition. The exhibition at the Royal Academy featured 40 photographers and 240 pictures. Photography, like other branches of the arts, is currently in crisis. Post-1989 Hungarian photography, similarly to photography elsewhere around the world, has become globalised. Today internationally there are good and bad photographers, but it’s not certain you can say this is Hungarian, French, Russian or American photography. The major part of the London exhibition included photographs by people who had broken with their roots, thus one of the basic pillars of their work is a search for the basics. Colin Ford was in Budapest to open a Péter Korniss exhibition. In many respects his work shares the points of interest of earlier Hungarian photography. All the five ‘great names’ broke with their roots. Each left the country and changed their name. Korniss didn’t have to do that, since the world was different, but he, too, left his homeland at the age of 12. What did he do for most of his life? Of course, he did a lot, but he also started to go back to where he came from. It’s interesting that his photographs are searching for the preservation of old-style ways of living in different countries, while his latest images deal with how you can find this kind of life amidst globalisation. Some would say this type of photography is somewhat antiquated, but then it is old in the best sense of the word. As for photojournalism, Colin Ford reckons that the genre is practically in decline. The idea that a professional photographer dashing from one place to another can record history has gone – it’s very difficult to get such a commission these days. What is if something happens somewhere unexpectedly? Those on the spot take pictures and the newspapers buy from them.
Photojournalistic magazines – a genre which basically began in Hungary – have disappeared. There’s no more Life or Picture Post. That world has completely changed. In fact photography is changing in the same manner as every other art form. Since photography is grounded in technology, when that changes it does so rather dramatically. What people were capable of doing in the middle of the 19th century was further developed ten or twenty years later since the technology had changed. The early 20th century saw the introduction of colour and although at first it was very difficult to handle it later became more manageable. Then came the polaroid and digital photography. Since the changes involve technical understanding, the very essence of photography changes. It is much more radical than, say, in the case of painting. And we know how much photography has influenced the nature of painting.
If the technology changes, then photography changes with it. A photographer, the ideas of an artist, his brain can all remain unchanged, but what technology produces brings about radical changes. This inevitably has to be the theme of any overview of the history of photography.