Page 40 - Studio International - July August 1975

relevance of industrial materials to transmit given information had often
painting. made 'productive' use of the medium:
Moholy's first practical suggestions Moholy was to reinforce this point
for a more 'productive' use of the through his own extraordinary selection
photographic medium were extremely of photographs to illustrate his
vague, the reason being that in the summer publications. A mass of photographic
of 1922 he was as yet no more of a material from press agencies and
photographer than he was a 'sound scientific publications is reproduced in
artist'. The 'Production-Reproduction' his bauhaus books alongside photographs
essay which provides the basis of his by students and artists, and
approach to photography was a reproductions of their work in other
crystallization of ideas exchanged on media (his own included).
holiday with his wife (who did know how Like Moholy, Benjamin regarded the
to take a photo); and the first `artistic' use of photography as inseparable
photographic experiments, the from its 'scientific' function, its capacity
cameraless photograms, were the to make visible the invisible, and to show
immediate practical outcome of these us the visible in ways our eyes are
ideas, not their point of departure14. unaccustomed to 15. He points out that
Photography is a more complicated case photography reveals a dimension of
than the gramophone in terms of experience which was previously
Moholy's 'Production-Reproduction' inaccessible: 'The camera introduces us
antithesis, because the mechanical to unconscious optics as does
reproduction of original art works is psychoanalysis to unconscious
obviously only one of its accepted impulses' 1 Both Moholy and
functions. As applied to photography, Benjamin regarded photography and
it soon becomes apparent that the terms film as the agents of an altered and
`production' and 'reproduction' in heightened perception, and as
Enamel painting 1922 (no.2 of series of 3)
Baked enamel, 47.5 x 3o cm. Moholy's early writings are stretched to effectively the most far-reaching media
MOMA, New York bear connotations beyond their usual yet developed in terms of art's altered
range of meaning; the terminological function. In a slightly earlier essay
specifically to do with painting : Moholy overlap with Benjamin is only partial. Benjamin quotes Moholy's famous
was trying to find out something about Photography could for instance be used dictum to the effect that the illiterate of
the way scale conditions the perception as a medium like the gramophone, where the future will be someone who cannot
of colour and form. As Lucia Moholy the function is reproductive in a use a camera, and not only someone who
has recently explained, he felt that manual straightforward sense: the transmission cannot use a pen. But Moholy's statement
execution would be inadequate where it of pre-existing information in as precise a is not allowed to stand unqualified in this
was a question of producing a series of form as possible. But photography could context: Benjamin characteristically
paintings that had to be absolutely also be — and unlike the gramophone, shifts gear, asking whether visual
identical in everything but size; so he already had been — used for its own sake. literacy is not equally a necessary
farmed out his design to an enamel Yet it is precisely where photography has qualification for looking at photographs."
factory. It wasn't until the industrial aspired to fine-art status in its own right Benjamin's concern in the two essays I
artifacts were delivered that the that Moholy condemns it as have referred to was first and foremost
telephone entered into it at all. What `reproductive', this time in the sense of with the social and technological
happened, apparently, is that he reproducing accepted norms and conditioning of modes of response to
exclaimed in delight : 'I might even have conventions extrinsic to the medium. He artistic expression; the activity of
done it over the telephone!'" But even accuses photographers of tending to practising artists is necessarily seen as a
had he actually done so, this would hardly concentrate on a verisimilitude dictated corollary of changed modes of response
have implied a creative or 'productive' by the perspective corrections of realist rather than as an issue in its own right.
extension of the potential of the painting (snapshots recording the true This emphasis is reflected in Benjamin's
telephone, for Moholy was not interested optical perspective in which a building is terminology, since he discusses art in the
in the severance of conception and seen tend to be regarded as `mistakes'), age of mechanical reproduction in terms
execution as an issue worth pursuing in its or — worse still — of taking over wholesale of its 'exhibition value' — in other words,
own right. What the baked enamel certain stylistic conventions of painting, in terms that have primarily to do with
`paintings' opened up for him had instead of making 'productive' use of the nature of public expectations of art.
nothing to do with the telephone; it is what the camera alone can do. On the Moholy, on the other hand, tended to
more likely that they pointed the way to other hand, ostensibly reproductive treat the effect of art on the public as if it
his later investigations into the possible photography as used primarily to were functionally one and the same thing

Photographic Triptych 1922
3 photograms, each 15.8 x 10.8 cm.
Nigel Greenwood Inc. Ltd
20