Page 72 - Studio International - November 1971

In How We Are Euan Duff raises three synchronic structure within the diachronic Shorter notices
issues of fundamental importance to sequence of life.
photography: the attitude of the photographer Paradoxically, the more flexible and un-
of people to his subjects as individuals, his manipulative Duff appears to be technically, the
attitude to time, and to composition. Obviously more strongly a coherent world view emerges Stubbs by Basil Taylor. 232 pp with 157
these are questions which have been discussed from the work. Lack of personal definition in illustrations, 16 in colour. Phaidon. £6.
before but they are posed here extremely the photographs themselves emphasises the Mr Stubbs the Horse Painter by Constance-Anne
polemically, without words, the argument being subjection of the people to inevitable processes Parker. 204 pp with 97 illustrations, 4in colour.
contained in a close inter-connection between shown in the book as a whole. The gloomy J. A. Allen and Co. £5.25.
photographic technique, the way the book is succession of marriage, infancy, childhood, Basil Taylor, who has been working on his
composed and the author's vision of life. The adolescence, maturity, and old age for the definitive study of Stubbs for many years, has
people photographed are working class and seen individual, and the equally unavoidable now published an interim volume which is much
at work, in parks and pubs, in the steets, a continuation of the cycle for his children and more than a progress report, a consummately
holiday camp, getting married . The form of grandchildren turns freedom from the moment produced collection of many of the paintings and
their lives seems unrelated to their individual before the camera into an over-powering a few of the drawings. His introduction separates
desires and personalities. A general sense of claustrophobia of the photographer's vision of Stubbs from a feebler early generation of
aimlessness and inevitability hangs over them. life in general. Duff uses photographic sequences sporting artists, and interestingly relates his
Euan Duff's technical approach underlines and to show how every age contains every age, clientele to the rich young aristocracy of the
coincides with this lack of personal definition. compares the wrestling of babies to the wrestling Jockey Club, an association which may be seen
There are no portraits. He has aimed at of professionals, old people in a home with to have curious affinities with the Royal
minimizing interference between camera and children in a nursery, a newspaper headline Academy. There is a sympathetic view of
subject by the photographer's personal vision, mentions Pinkville near the sequences of teenage Stubbs' aspirations towards history painting,
even to the extent of not concealing people's violence. He is at his weakest with generalizations and a clear account of the Romanticism in
awareness of the camera's presence, which is like these. The strength of the book is in how it paintings of lions and other fauves. Constance-
often acknowledged by a casual glance. In spite shows the specific immediate contrasts and Anne Parker's book covers much the same
of his obvious skill and experience, his violent changes in the actual world he has ground, at rather greater length, but with less
photographs have no formal composition and followed. Weddings, the only element of elegance.
seem incoherent and arbitrary when taken as exoticism or ritual, are followed immediately by Alphonse Mucha. Posters and Photographs, by
independent units. He seems to have rejected the tedious grind of work; the small boy laughing Jiri Mucha, with contributions by Marina
the imposition of form as a tyranny over the with his mother is haunted by his next point of Henderson and Aaron Scharf. 136 pp with 157
freedom of movement of his subjects. Such emotional involvement, the street gang and its illustrations, 40 in colour, Academy Editions. £6.
detachment necessarily leads to re-evaluation of violence. Not only the most fashionable of turn-of-the-
the integral nature of the single photograph and How We Are does not provide explanation or century decorative artists, but increasingly
the supremacy of the moment it tries to catch. analysis. It states that the life it observes, and by regarded as an important figure in his own right,
The unity most photographers try to establish implication life in general, is purposeless and Alphonse Mucha's career is summarised by his
between the unique second in time and the repetitive. It could be that while photographs son. Most of the posters and illustrations are
privileged insight of inspiration is quite are unparallelled as descriptions, reasons can familiar, but a fascinating aspect of the book is
irrelevant to this work. It is a fundamental only be given in words. John Berger refers to the photographs of nude models from which
challenge to the idea of the photograph as Euan Duff as a humanist and contests the Mucha worked up his designs. Aaron Scharf
necessarily self-sufficient because of the validity of humanism in a class society. Indeed, relates the photographic work both to other
essential self-sufficiency of the moment. The the title of the book How We Are appeals to the photographers and to painters of the period.
most impressive pictures in the book are taken average buyer of a £4.00 ALPP book to find Vuillard by John Russell. 238 pp, with 225
from second to second and cannot be looked at himself in the images he is shown. It is unlikely ill., 18 in colour. Thames and Hudson. £3.95.
in isolation, although the difference between that his life-style or expectations would have A by-product of the Vuillard exhibition held in
them is only fractional. Many of the photographs much in common with those of the world which Ontario this Autumn. John Russell insists on
are successions of moments without logical these photographs show so vividly. Euan Duff's Vuillard's intelligence and orginality as an
sequence, unrelated to any particular event and insistence on the universal nature of the human artist, something often and perhaps easily
with no clear chronology. As a result Duff can condition implies more than a failure to overlooked; however, 'fourteen years before the
photograph movement with great flexibility, recognize class as such: he does not see any revelation of Fauve painting at the Salon
leading from one image to the next, gathering social formation, capitalist society in this case, as d'Automne in 1905, Vuillard had dared all.' He
impact rather than immediately revealing it. having its own reasons for how we are... D was not simply an intimiste, and the large
In his introduction John Berger makes some LAURA MULVEY decorative projects are given full attention. The
relevant distinctions between snap-shots and most useful parts of the book are the reprints of
professional photography and still and moving contemporary writings by Maurice Denis, Paul
photography. He points out, quite rightly, that Signac, André Gide and Jacques Salaman,
despite lack of formal quality Euan Duff's Contributors to this issue Vuillard's nephew, who recalls their
photography is far from the snap-shot, and TIM CLARK is a lecturer at Camberwell School of Art. conversations during the last twenty years of the
could not be replaced by cinema. This is His book on Courbet will be published next year... artist's life.
strikingly revealed by the actual composition ANDREW FORGE is a painter, writer and broadcaster... Galerie Der Neuen Kunste by Heinz Ohff. 32o pp
and design of the book itself. The six chapters JOHN GAGE is the author of Colour in Turner, and is a with 279 ill. 31 in colour. Designed by Peter
lecturer in the history of art at the University of East
cover a cycle of human existence. Each chapter Anglia... PETER GIDAL is a film-maker and the author of Steinhal. Bertelsmann Kunstverlag 19.8o DM.
is anchored round one stage of life but a recent book on Andy Warhol... LAURA MULVEY is a Subtitled 'Revolution ohne Programm', a
straightforward chronology is constantly photographer... WILLIAM VAUGHAN is assistant keeper spectacularly designed introduction to the last
of British art at the Tate Gallery, and is currently
interrupted by cross-reference between the organizing a major exhibition of Caspar David five years' art as seen from a German point of
stages. He varies the size of the photographs to Friedrich... FRANK WHITFORD is a contributing editor view, taking in most of the new movements but
alter their impact, and re-introduces the past to to Studio International... PETER WOLLEN is the author without time to discuss them. Many of the
of Signs and Meanings in the Cinema and is writing a
imply the future, presenting a constant book on the avant garde. German artists are unfamiliar in England.