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Mirrors or windows?

Post 16 lesson plan:

Mirrors or windows?: Thinking about objectivity and subjectivity in photography with John Szarkowski

From Jon Nicholls, Thomas Tallis School
I have used this asa stimulus for discussion with my Year 12 photography class. 



The exhibition
 Mirrors and Windows, an exhibition of American photography since 1960, opened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in July of 1978. The curator John Szarkowski’s attempted to categorise photographers whose work largely reflected the subjectivity of the artist in comparison with those whose work largely sought to see outside themselves. Szarkowski wrote in the catalogue essay that accompanied the exhibition:
Picture
“The two creative motives that have been contrasted here are not discrete. Ultimately each of the pictures in this book is part of a single, complex, plastic tradition. Since the early days of that tradition, an interior debate has contested issues parallel to those illustrated here. The prejudices and inclinations expressed by the pictures in this book suggest positions that are familiar from older disputes. In terms of the best photography of a half-century ago, one might say that Alfred Stieglitz is the patron of the first half of this book and Eugène Atget of the second. In either case, what artist could want a more distinguished sponsor? The distance between them is to be measured not in terms of the relative force or originality of their work, but in terms of their conceptions of what a photograph is: is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” 
-- John Szarkowski, 1978
You can read a contemporary analysis of the significance of this exhibition here. You can also read MoMA's original press release here.

Take a look at the images below. Think about whether, in your opinion, they are mirrors or windows.

You could draw a horizontal line with the word 'Mirror' at one end and 'Window' at the other. You could add a list of words that help to describe what these words suggest.
Picture
Now, try placing each of these images (and others you are studying at the moment) somewhere on this spectrum. Annotate the images to explain your decisions.
Richard Long - A line made by walking, England 1967
Bill Brandt - Nude, East Sussex, 1968
Eugene Atget - Street Musicians, 1898
Robert Rauschenberg - Windward, Oil and silkscreen ink on canvas, 1963
Robert Heinecken - Figure Sections/(Multiple Solution Puzzle), 1966
Nan Goldin - Nan and Brian in bed, NYC. 1983 Cibachrome
Garry Winogrand - Los Angeles, 1969 Gelatin-silver print
William Eggleston - from Memphis, Tennessee, Dye transfer print, early 1970s
Bernd + Hilla Becher - Lime Kilns, Kalköfen, Harlingen, 1968
Richard Hamilton - Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? Collage 1956

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