Review of Campany, Safety in Numbness
This exercise reviews Campany’s essay “Safety in Numbness: Some remarks on the problems of ‘Late Photography’ (Company, 2003)
Campany’s essay uses Meyerowitz’ collection Reflections of Ground Zero, a set of images taken in the aftermath of the New York’s 9/11 as the basis for his analysis but his discussion points are wider this and based on the more general notion of ‘Late Photography’ which is defined as images that are captured of a location after an event has happened but are captured to portray the event itself, traces of the event or even traces of traces as Campany puts it.
Meyerowitz was the only photographer granted full access to the site and Campany states that the most striking aspect of the images is their simplicity in contrast to the intense political situation at the time. When a television programme was made of Meyerowitz’ project and images the still images being created were portrayed as more authoritative than the video clips of the event itself which were also shown in the programme.
Campany questions what we are to make of this contrast and starts by discussing how ‘static’ the images are, how they are closer to forensic photography than photojournalism, what Peter Wollen calls ‘cool photography’ in contrast to the ‘hot’ event itself. Because these images do not attempt to capture the events themselves, merely the traces of them, they are distanced from video reports, typically of the event, and of snapshots which freeze the event into a still picture. The stillness in these images is not obtained through the inherent act of photography freezing time, but from the stillness of the scenes themselves.
Campany discusses the idea that because they are still in both senses of the word, they risk freezing our thoughts in that moment in time, they prevent us from moving on. To understand their use more fully, rather than dwell on this point, he instead move to a comparison between the regular use of snapshots and freeze frames taken from moving images and these ‘Late Photographs’.
His theory is that today’s moving images emphasise and presentness, the movie can only be captured live in front of the event itself. Photographs on the other hand can be captured during or after the event, and he suggests that because in today’s world we have become used to the moving image as the main mechanism for reporting, we somehow automatically perceive the still image as something of the past. So when we look at a ‘Late photograph’ not only is the actual image a trace and therefore of something from the past, our unconscious mind emphasises this ‘pastness’ because of the format of the media, the still image.
This still does not explain why these images are seen as different, more art like perhaps, than a freeze frame or moving image. Campany suggests that it may be because it is hard to show a genuinely still scene in a moving image, it is not clear to the viewer if the video has been paused or if the video is still playing and it is the scene itself that is still. When using a still image, we somehow know the scene is still as well as knowing that the image itself is a still image not a moving one. This later point is perhaps because still images or snapshots of events themselves nearly always show something that we know is moving, be that a person captured in a position that they would not adopt if standing still, or a vehicle on a road, where there may be trails of dust for example.
Campany foes on to discuss that today’s Late Photography takes on some of the character of images from the 19thcentury such Fenton’s scenes from the Crimea. But, he sees them as different. Campany does not see this early images as being still in the same way, because all images at the time were static or immobile, these after-the-event images were not still in the way we think of still images today. He suggests that we only perceive the stillness because of growing used to moving images being the predominant medium of the day. This is an interesting argument since he is saying that two aesthetically identical images from different eras portray stillness differently because of external factors influencing the view to see them differently. I am not sure I agree, but of course when I look at the 19th century images I am seeing them from a place where I am used to seeing moving images, I have no way of seeing the early images from the perspective of somebody that was alive at the time.
Lastly, Campany discusses why images have shifted from events in the present to traces of events from the past, particularly in a war reporting context. He suggests that it could be one of access. He suggests that the Vietnam war went on for a long time and so created many photographic opportunities, and the terrain and environment was ‘messy’ which created strong imagery. As a result he states that which war was known as the last ‘photographer’s war’. By contrast, the first Gulf War was short, and technological in nature, as a result most live images were taken from satellites or abstracted military briefings. There was no opportunity for photographers and hence very few ‘live’ images were captured. However, after the war, there was time and access and this therefore created the opportunity for post-event images to be captured, ‘Late Photography’ driven by circumstance more than anything else.
These types of images are different to the constant, and fast paced ‘bombardment’ of moving images society is subjected to and so automatically stand separate to them. Campany cautions that whilst we relish seeing these images, we should be mindful if the draw being one of an aestheticised response rather than an interest in the event itself or the politics that caused the vent to occur. He suggests that the line between banal and sublime is the politics rather than the image itself.
What do Meyerowitz’ images evoke and do they align to my memories
I have chosen three images from the Aftermath collection for different reasons.
Figure 1 is typical of many of the images. It shows a scene of the wreckage and some of the workers clearing up the rubble. I chose this though because in the context of Late Photography, it is different. This is not the scene or traces of the event itself, this is a current scene clearing up wreckage. So whilst it is after the terrorist attack itself, for me it does not have the stillness of, say, Figure 3. Instead for me I do marvel at the wreckage but am more focussed on the workers and what they are doing, the image does not evoke a ‘stop and think’ moment. Perhaps this is also because of the aesthetics. The lighting shining the rising smoke, the workers lit with their own light, and the strange blue/green hue all create a slightly surreal effect that is adding to the drama, again for me this detracts from the idea that this is a post-event ‘cold’ photograph. This doesn’t mean I think it is an effective and very well composed image, but I do think it is a different type of photograph to a perhaps ‘pure’ post-event image which is concerned with traces of the original event rather than events of the present moment.
Figure 2 is different and shows one of the workers clearing the site. The worker is smiling slightly and behind him we can see other workers and the devastated site, both buildings and rubble. Again, the fact that there is a worker, in the present day, makes this is a present moment image even though we can see the devastation in the background. In both Figure 1 and 2, the fact that they are taken as current events means that I think less about the event itself, the original attack.
Figure 3 is different. This image is static, it is still, when I look at this image, I do sit and reflect on what went before. The difference is interesting as the image itself in terms of its aesthetics is not so different to Fig. 1, it is merely the absence of people or activity that creates the difference. This image does remind of the scenes I first thought of when starting this exercise, the sight of the aircraft hitting the building, and of the crowds running from the billowing smoke; of the three figures it is the only one that does so and this I think is an important learning point for how to approach Cold or Late Photography.
Bibliography
Company, D., 2003. Safety in Numbness: Some remarks on the problems of ‘Late Photography’ – David Campany. [online] David Campany. Available at: <https://davidcampany.com/safety-in-numbness/> [Accessed 20 March 2021].
Figures
Figure 1. Meyerowitz, J., 2001. Searchers In Rubble. [image] Available at: <https://www.pamm.org/exhibitions/focus-gallery-joel-meyerowitz-aftermath> [Accessed 21 March 2021].
Figure 2. Meyerowitz, J., 2001. Explosion Squad Detective. [image] Available at: <https://www.pamm.org/exhibitions/focus-gallery-joel-meyerowitz-aftermath> [Accessed 21 March 2021].
Figure 3. Meyerowitz, J., 2001. The South Wall of the South Tower. [image] Available at: <https://www.lensculture.com/books/1798-aftermath-world-trade-center-archive> [Accessed 21 March 2021].