Exercise 1.2: Photography in the museum or in the gallery?

Read Rosalind Krauss's essay 'Photography's Discursive Spaces: Landscape View' and summarise key points in notes form and add any comments or reflections.

I have to be honest, as a first exercise, I found this very difficult to read. I can get the main point that she is making, identifying photography being an art in its own right and comparisons between art and photography and how we view them. I have taken notes on what I think Krauss is discussing in my learning log;

• Krauss highlights the mystery and 'beauty' of the photographs in the opening paragraphs while comparing the original photo and the lithograph of O'sullivans work, a mystery and beauty that has been lost in recreating the image. 

• Krauss compares photographs to art and how the eye lets us view a photo compared to how we see art.

• Krauss highlights how the surroundings play a part in how we see images. Is this why it's important to view work in a gallery on a plain background as opposed to in a busy environment where the focus could be taken from in the image?

• We see the use of the word 'view' instead of 'landscape'. Key factor 'space' and how it is perceived/drawn/used. Aesthetic discourse? 

• Krauss questions careers and what volume of work can be considered as a career in regards to photographers. Can a larger volume of work give you the 'label' of a photographer?

• Stereoscopic pictures - the technique for creating and enhancing depth in an image - the mind feels its way into the very depths of the picture as you are able to shut out all distractions.

All in all a very difficult read for me. I found the style and context difficult to understand as I'm not too good with scholastic writing and after many attempts to try to understand it more, I realised that it was too difficult to fully comprehend.  In regards to the points noted above, we get a good insight from this essay about how 18th and 19th century photographers and photography was scrutinised and critically compared to that of the landscape artists.And if , at all, photographers were regarded as artists.

How the images were seen and in what surroundings they were displayed makes an obvious effect on how the images were seen in regards to how the 'artist' wanted the viewer to see them. This marks the discussion of where the images are best mounted. I agree that an exhibition gives you the opportunity to really assess and focus on the art itself without distractions of busy surroundings that you would have, say, at home on your living room wall.

Art comes in many forms and I think Krauss highlights this point in this essay as well as stating that photography and art are as different as the artists who produce them and the people who view them.