Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy | Video on TED.com

Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy | Video on TED.com

Aesthetic Journalism How to Inform Without Informing

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ISBN 9781841502687
Paperback 112 pages
230x174mm
Published September 2009
Imprint: Intellect

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Books by Alfredo Cramerotti
Books in Cultural & Media Studies

Reviews     |      Comments

Addressing a growing area of focus in contemporary art, Aesthetic Journalism investigates why contemporary art exhibitions often consist of interviews, documentaries, and reportage. Art theorist and critic Alfredo Cramerotti traces the shift in the production of truth from the domain of the news media to that of art and aestheticism – a change that questions the very foundations of journalism and the nature of art. This volume challenges the way we understand art and journalism in contemporary culture and suggests future developments of this new relationship.

Reviews

' “An inspiring and well written overview of reportage and information practices in art... groundbreaking!”' – Hito Steyerl, Visiting Professor for Experimental Media Creation at the University of Arts, Berlin

'"I have read your book 'aesthetic journalism' with great interest. [...] I understand that your analysis of the applied methods in both journalism and in contemporary art is extremely precise and based on extensive research which makes it a very rich lecture. To me your book unfolds an enormous panorama which I appreciate a lot to find it in such compact."' – Peter Sandbichler, artist and consultant, Vienna, Austria

'"I think you've touched on a rich vein which will not only be of huge interest to the arts worlds but more significantly in the evolving debate of journalism and doc - the world I know very well having previously worked for Channel 4 News, ABC News and Newsnight - to name a few."' – David Dunkley Gyimah, Senior Lecturer Digital Journalism, University of Westminster London, UK

'"Well-organized and thoroughly researched, Aesthetic Journalism is a good book for anyone who has ever wondered about the proliferation in contemporary art exhibitions of works resembling news reports, documentary cinema, or informative publications.  Alfredo Cramerotti takes on this group of seemingly unrelated works, focusing on a number of themes pertinent to contemporary culture and society. This book investigates the bleeding over into one another of the fields of art and journalism, who share superficial similarities but differ radically on such notions as "reality," "fact," and "objectivity" as well as on professional aims and ethical standards. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in recent contemporary art practices and discourse."' – Geoffrey Garrison, artist and editor, Berlin, Germany

'"I just took contact with your book 'Aesthetic Journalism' (bought in Berlin), which I found really interesting and symptomatic of many issues that I also share (regarding the contemporary regimes of visibility/invisibility and the possibilities to act and [re]exist in public spheres related to those regimes...). I [...] express my admiration and recognition to this interesting work you produced."' – Jose Roberto Shwafaty, artist, Campinas/Sp, Brasil and Berlin, Germany

'"I appreciate very much the clarity with which [Aesthetic Journalism] is written, and I think that the journalistic devices that you appropriately employ in the main body of the book are great! Above all, the book provides a relatively concise, empirical commentary about a phenomenon that until now lacked such a referent."' – David Briers, critic, writer and curator based in West Yorkshire, UK

'I am enjoying your [Aesthetic Journalism] writing: fiction as a subversive but effective agent of reality, journalism as a body guarantor of public assets, a reporter as being in one place and witnessing something changing into being in many places at the same time and commenting on what happens elsewhere. ' – Alissa Firth-Eagland, curator and writer, Grenoble, France and Vancouver, Canada

'I have just finished reading Aesthetic Journalism... I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very interesting.' – Mark Neville, artist, Glasgow, UK

'Interesting and refreshing (congratulations for it).' – Irene Montero Sabín / BRUMARIA, Madrid, Spain and London, UK

'I was reading your book. Congratulations, very interesting, and very useful for me as teacher of new media... next academic year my students will learn about your concept.' – Pablo España / DEMOCRACIA, artist, curator and editor, Madrid, Spain

'I find it illuminating! Thank you so much for this!' – Julia Draganovic, curator and writer, New York, U.S. and Modena, Italy

'In the pursuit of explaining the interaction between artistic and journalistic practices this book succeeds with honors. It is thoroughly researched and it is transparent and generous in sharing its (re)sources. A decisive contribution is the analysis of paradigmatic works of aesthetic journalism, a term notably well articulated, like for example those of Renzo Martens and Alfredo Jaar' – Alanna Lockwood, www.artecontexto.com

'Drawing together references and critical models from philosophy, sociology, media theory, as well as art history, Cramerotti's arguments for Aesthetic Journalism are persuasive from a number of disciplinary perspectives. It is not a book that claims academic territory in the strictest sense, and it stays clear of questions of definition that could have easily waylaid its urgency. Rather, Aesthetic Journalism is more about recognizing, developing, and inciting a set of relationships that could radically alter the conduct of information in the public sphere. ' – Matt Packer, curator of exhibitions and projects at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork and Photography & Culture Journal reviewer, UK

'I recently completed my Masters in Contemporary Art at the Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and have used your book as a large source of inspiration for my dissertation. I admire the acknowledgement of the problematic aspects of representations of crises at present, articulated by thinkers such as yourself. ' – Lauren Mele, Masters candidate, Contemporary Art Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, UK

FORMAT 11: Video seminar on Photography and the Internet by OPEN-i

by OPEN-i (Open Photojournalism Edu Platform), thanks to Paul Lowe

http://vimeo.com/20744177

FORMAT 11: Video on Street Photography 2.0 with Sophie Howarth and Sara T‟Rula by OPEN-i

by OPEN-i (Open Photojournalism Edu Platform), thanks to Paul Lowe

http://vimeo.com/20745326

Blogging about Photography is a Political Act

From Pete Brook's Prison Photography -
http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/blogging-about-photography-is-a-political-act/

March 29, 2011

I was recently asked to propose a blogging workshop for photography students. It pushed me to think why blogs should be written and why they should be read.
Blogging tools have developed concurrently with the social media platforms that have permitted our shared glut of imagery. Writers in general have provided context to images for a long time, but I reason bloggers are a new front line in the expanded process.
Here are my thoughts.

VISUAL OVERLOAD

The flow of images through our daily lives increases at exponential speeds. Social media, photo-sharing sites with essentially unlimited storage and mobile hardware have created this sprawling (and it could be said, suffocating) visual superstructure.
At 60 billion photos, Facebook has a larger photo collection than any other site on the web. By comparison, Photobucket hosts 8 billion, Picasa 7 billion and Flickr 5 billion. Facebook’s photo data as an infographic.

VIEWING PHOTOGRAPHY IN A POLITICALLY MINDFUL ΜΑΝΝΕΡ

What to make of this slew of imagery is something both Fred Ritchin and Joerg Colberg have addressed in the evergreen debate about ‘What’s Next? (for photography)’ now being pressed by FOAM Magazine. Colberg asks us to think about the meaning of our own digital archives and impress upon them a meaning, perhaps even a strategy. Ritchin urges us to think about making sense of the world through all the images available to us. Both are concerned with us being actors in the real world, and knowing that the photograph plays a part in social/political action and decision.

Ritchin:
Will all this media help us understand what we have done to our planet and what we should do about it? Will we want to help? Or will we remain increasingly oblivious, as if we don’t live here but in some virtual spaces? (This is the new immortality – avoiding not only who but where we are.)
 
So photographs are less useful for evidence, and as a result we are less sure of what is going on in the world. This can be a welcome change – without the photograph’s certainties we are invited to interrogate issues and events, to understand for ourselves.
 
Photographs, which used to sometimes prod us into action, even revelation, are now the domain of spaces like Facebook for which we repetitively (obsessively?) photograph ourselves so that we look as ‘good’ as we can possibly make ourselves look. The world and we are one, refracted together in a self-portrait.
 
But the problem is that few are engaged in such reflection, so the world is allowed to evolve without much effective oversight (moral as well as practical). By killing the messenger – the photograph – we no longer have to worry very much about what it has to say to us. In the information age, we are allowed to – even encouraged to – know very little, because knowing without ever doing anything about what one knows is hardly worth the effort.
 
Instead of becoming a photographer, figure out what to do with the enormous numbers of images – how to find the relevant ones, present them, contextualize them, link them, meld them with other media, use them effectively. This too is ‘writing with light.’

Colberg:
Interestingly enough, these questions tie in with the way the photograph has come under intense pressure, especially in a news-related context, where news organisations, in particular newspapers, have managed to blame photographs and photographers for the loss of credibility brought on by shoddy and superficial reporting. Photographs are not to be manipulated, we are told. Meanwhile the images we see on a daily basis are becoming ever more artificial.

Beyond our status as subjects within – and/or impulsive producers and passive consumers of – imagery, we are also to a very modest extent curators and distributors. In these last two roles, we can add most meaning and most weight. And it can be done through thoughtful and engaged blogging.

I have gone on record as saying the best bloggers writing about photography are those who can be relied upon to filter content meaningfully.

A good blog has a clearly stated goal and delivers accordingly. That’s how I judge success. Some blogs may cast a wide net, others focus on a niche, but in either case a consistent voice will secure the interest of readers. One hundred committed readers are more valuable than hundreds of thousands of browsers and “stumble-upons.” People need to be told why they should look at a picture just as much as they should be told in a lede why they should read a story past the first paragraph.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXT

The iconic photograph – that is to say the stand alone image which communicates and resonates – is a rare and, for most photographers, an unattainable thing.

Understood within this context, writing about photography can be of paramount importance. And it can be an act of conscience.

Fine art photographers may argue explanatory text demeans a photograph; Robert Adam insisted that auxiliary captioning proved the image had failed in describing all it need to. But Adam’s is an out-dated philosophy. In current times, when photographs have diminished reliability, they require justification for looking.

During their role as World Press Photo jurors, Broomberg and Chanarin considered a photo of drawing of a battle plan from Darfur sketched into the sand on the floor of a hut, and noted:

Without a caption it is a meaningless squiggle. But together with the explanation the image is suddenly transformed into something truly menacing; a real insight into the low-tech horror of the genocide.
Blog posts can be considered extended captions, highlighting the meaning and purpose of photographs. As such, bloggers’ choices on their subject matter are significant. And political.

Brouhaha in Sweden following Award to Paul Hansen for his Image of Fabienne Cherisma

From Pete Brook's Prison Photography -
http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/brouhaha-in-sweden-following-award-to-paul-hansen-for-his-image-of-fabienne-cherisma/

I knew something was going on when my blog stats spiked over the weekend. Prison Photography interviews with those who photographed Fabienne Cherisma’s body in Haiti were drawing readers … and they came from Sweden.

PAUL HANSEN’S SPoY WIN

At the Swedish Picture of the Year Awards, photojournalist Paul Hansen was recognised as International News Photographer and won the International News Image for his image of Fabienne (below).


Fifteen year-old Fabienne Cherisma was shot dead by police at approximately 4pm, January 19th, 2010. Photo: Paul Hansen
In March 2010, Hansen answered some of my questions about the circumstances of Fabienne’s death, “For me, Fabienne’s death and her story is a poignant reminder of the need for a society to have basic security – with or without a disaster.”
Paul Hansen was one of eight journalists I quizzed about that fateful day in an inquiry that revealed that 14 photographers were present immediately after Fabienne’s death.
At the time, I noted how the Swedish media and public discussed the ethics of the image and that, by comparison, similar debates were absent elsewhere.
The debate has continued following Hansen’s award, focusing on Nathan Weber’s image (below) that was first published along with my interview with Weber.


Photo: Nathan Weber
Weber’s image has unsettled many it seems. Judging by garbled Google translations here, here, and here it seems there are a few issues:
- General surprise that Weber’s image – and the revelations it brings – was not widely known before the SPoY award.
- Rhetorical questions about whether – given the scores of photographs made – Hansen’s image was “the best.”
- The expected accusations of exploitation and vulture behaviour by photographers.
- Fruitless thoughts on “truth” within this particular image.
Before they awarded Hansen, I wonder if SPoY were aware that so many photographers were present? Would it have altered the final decision? The image of Fabienne limp on the collapsed roof (whoever made a version) is the summary of innocent death, a society’s desperation and the man-made tragedies that compound natural disasters. It’s is a striking vision.
The circulation of Weber’s image has fueled skepticism toward photojournalism.
The problem with these types of brouhaha is that never are they able to measure if or what effect images – in this case Hansen’s – have. Did Hansen’s image secure a dollar amount of donations for the Haitian relief effort? Did it mobilise professionals and resources that would have otherwise not have moved?
If we are to talk about the “power of photography” then shouldn’t we expect and/or propose criteria for measuring and defining that “power”?

MICHAEL WINIARSKI, REPORTER AND HANSEN’S PARTNER

It should also be noted that Michael Winairski won the the award for News Storyteller from Dagens Nyheter, the national news outlet he and Hansen work for. When I contacted Winiarski last year about coverage of Fabienne’s death, I was particularly impressed with his transparency and commitment to the story. He and Hansen followed up two months after the killing and met with Fabienne’s family.
On receipt of the award, Winiarksi said, “”I’m glad we did not let go of Haiti. I and the photographer Paul Hansen have been back twice. And Paul is down there now with another reporter, Ole Roth Borg.”

ACCOLADES AFTER RECORDING DEATH

Paul Hansen is not the first photographer to be awarded for coverage of Fabienne’s death.
James Oatway won an Award of Excellence at POYi in the Impact 2010 – Multimedia category for Everything is Broken. Fabienne’s corpse open the piece and appears again in images 25 to 33. Olivier Laban-Mattei won the Grand Prix Paris Match 2010 for his coverage of Haiti, including the aftermath of Fabienne’s death. Fredric Sautereau was nominated for Visa d’Or News at Perpignan for his coverage of Haiti, which include seven images about Fabienne’s death.
There may be others.

Journalism in the Age of Data: A Video Report on Data Visualization by Geoff McGhee

Journalism in the Age of Data: A Video Report on Data Visualization by Geoff McGhee