Knautia on BBC4’s The Genius of Photography
“Out of the people interviewed, there were 10 male photographers, 4 male writers, 1 male curator, 1 male publisher/collaborator, 1 male artist and 2 men who asked questions of William Egglestone. Compared with 1 female curator (discussing a man’s work), 1 woman who was married to a photographer, 1 woman asking for William egglestone’s autograph, 1 woman who asked him a question and 1 woman interpreting questions for him.
Which pisses me off no end. Out of all those different people they spoke to, surely at least ONE creative preson could have been female? It was about 8 or 9 sentences spoken by a woman in an hour…. oh, and a Patsy Cline song on the soundtrack!”
Read the rest of Knautia’s post.
There are more women photographers in our degree year than men, many more of us throughout the School, and at least one of the tutors calls us all ‘guys’. Creepy studio behaviours are pretty much the norm. I did think these were features of the 1970 style Pullman-esque time slips we find all over the north east. BBC4 too though, eh? Grrrr….. !
Tonight’s the repeat. We have Martin Parr, John Gossage, Gary Winogrand, Robert Frank, Willian Klein, Weegee, Joel Meyerowitz, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus (in an exceedingly fleeting namedrop), Tony Ray Jones, Ed Rushca, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, Juergen Teller, Robert Adams, and all the talking heads except one are men. We’re back in the 1950s, when men were all man in the street and on the open road and women were barefoot, pregnant and in bikinis or the kitchen and preferably both.
Maybe we’ll get featured in next Thursday’s installment. What d’you reckon?
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6 Responses to “Knautia on BBC4’s The Genius of Photography”
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This particular episode is the only one I’ve caught so far and aside from gender (and other) biases the entire exercise struck me as a showcase for overblown self-promotion and a reminder that the No.1 quality required for being a successful art photograph is to ability to shamelessly spout pretentious bullshit.
Many of the photographs featured weren’t actually all that interesting…
While she’s got a point, but what do you suggest? The fact is men populate the culture of photography more than women, at least the ’succesful’ pro.s do, and the show reflected that. Anything else would be ridiculous social engineering political correctness.
Stef: absolutely. Preening around on a zebra crossing in New York with a M8 does not a photographer make.
Joe: Knautia has got a point. We are asking for fair representation, not to be completely wiped out of photographic history. And if you don’t like political correctness, this blog isn’t the right place for you to hang out. I’m all for it.
“Fair representation” is my point. The point is, the history and culture of photography is mostly that of men.
I say again, in consideration of that fact, what do you suggest? Photographic culture is not the front page of the Guardian - it is photographic culture, composed of its history abnd content.
The “ability to shamelessly spout pretentious bullshit” is not confined to men - Joe Spence is a supreme example.
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