“Photography on the Street”
Currently on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Photography on the Street, showcases a selection of ten works on paper. These prints are displayed on the second floor of the museum in a small gallery where visitors are invited to view the exhibition and surrounding exhibits at their leisure. The selection dates from the 1930s through the 1970s tracks the development and use of smaller, portable cameras—the combination of smaller cameras and faster film allowed artists greater freedom in the medium, enabling them to capture fleeting scenes of urban life. The photos are primarily black and white with the exception of two color prints from the 1960s and 70s. The variety of subject matter ranges from the hardships of post-war depression to the glamour of celebrity culture. Ironically, what these photos have in common is that they portray the isolation and ambiguity that befalls individuals in the midst of city life.
Several photographs in the collection convey the absence of interaction between individuals. Two of the works in the exhibit, Morris Engel’s Sweet Evelyn from 1938 and Duane Michals’s Chance Meeting from 1973, illustrate lost opportunities for interaction and moreover a longing for that connection. In Sweet Evelyn, a man and a woman pass by one another on the street. Caught in a single moment, the man glances wistfully at the woman as she passes by him. Engel furthermore symbolizes the voyeurism inherent in this image with an optometrist’s sign in the background that displays a large eye staring out toward the viewer. Just as the man gazes at the woman, the eye gazes outward at us so that we are made aware of our own voyeurism. In Chance Meeting, a staged scene occurs between two individuals over a series of six images. It is made clear from the photos that these two men have some interest in each other, yet the motivation for that interest remains ambiguous. Although it seems that they each have some interest in interacting with one another, neither individual acts on those impulses. Instead, they let the moment pass by without allowing the chance meeting to unfold. Of course, on another level, this scene was altogether staged by the artist and therefore one step farther removed from any sense of real connection.
Indeed, many of the photos in the exhibit depict some form of social “looking” or voyeurism but lack any hint of meaningful interaction. Even the photos that depict what would come close to meaningful interactions such as Chance Meeting, or especially Robert Doiseneau’s The Kiss on the Sidewalk, are mere representations. Taken in 1950, The Kiss on the Sidewalk portrays a man and a woman engrossed in a romantic moment on a street in Paris. Here, it would seem is an antithesis to the aforementioned claim about isolation of individuals in the exhibition. However, the man and woman in the scene were actually hired models, poised to look as though they were having a meaningful moment together. Therefore, it is revealed that this moment of apparent connection was in fact completely fabricated by the artist.
If you are at all interested in photography of the 20th century or else intrigued by art that deals with the isolation of individuals in urban settings, this exhibition is worth seeing. However, there are only ten photographs/photo series to look at so be sure to visit neighboring exhibition Currents 103: Claudia Schmacke while you are there.
