Easel Does It: A Critical Analysis of Rodchenko, Photography and the Easel
Easel Does It: A Critical Analysis of Rodchenko, Photography and the Easel
Essay map
Intro AR rejection of easel painting
State counter claim that lens-based photography does not dismantle the easel, but operationalises it as a series of nested, four-sided planes.
Analyse how the viewfinder frame and matrix of the negative enforces spatial containment and geometric composition before and after the shutter release.
Demonstrate how dynamic diagonals rely on the 90-degree corners of the optical frame to exist as diagonals.
Address the physical boundaries of the negative matrix as a pre-constructed two-dimensional canvas receiving an optical projection.
Detail the darkroom workflow where the physical tool holding gelatin silver paper flat is literally named the easel.
Frame the darkroom as an active site of primary construction where border geometries and spatial containment are finalised.
Pairing “A Caution” with “The Paths of Modern Photography” underscores how the introduction of "easel photography" as a negative term of condemnation to attack formalist compromise, his physical methodology remains entirely bound to the easel apparatus.
Reframe Rodchenko’s revolutionary claim: changing the viewing axis (navel to sky) reorients the subject, but leaves the underlying easel apparatus intact.
Premise
Rodchenko’s essay "A Caution," according to Bowlt, “responds to those in the Novyi lef group who proclaimed the documentary ‘fixing of facts’ to be the sole basis of the contemporary literary and visual arts. Rodchenko advances his own argument that in a post-revolutionary society, new social ‘facts’ can only he portrayed by means of equally new aesthetic forms. Hence, he concludes, ‘we are obliged to experiment.’" [1]
Rodchenko advocates that the obligation for experimentation surpasses “photographing mere facts, like just describing them” which does not represent innovation or novelty. While he posits that radical experimentation of photographic practice may be translated into “an easel art.” Rodchenko posits notions of “easel photography, “ to state that although “there is no such term … we might understand it to mean experimental photography.” [2]
Rodchenko asserts that "We struggle against easel painting not because it is an aesthetic form ... but because it is not modern ... Only the camera seems to be really capable of describing modern life [and] revolutionizing our visual reasoning [capturing images] from all viewpoints … until all these viewpoints are recognized!" [3] <FN + Ref to come>
Rodchenko's premise conflates the camera's viewing axis (capturing images from the navel, the ground, or the sky) with an escape from the easel's geometry. In lens-based photography, the optical ground glass, camera viewfinder, and spatial boundaries of the negative matrix do not dismantle the easel; instead, they function as four-sided easel planes that enforce geometric composition, framing, and spatial containment both before and after the shutter release.
Footnotes
Alexander Rodchenko, “A Caution (1928),” in Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913 – 1940, ed. Christopher Phillips, trans. John E. Bowlt (The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Aperture, 1989), 264.
Rodchenko, “A Caution,” 266.
Alexander Rodchenko, “The Paths of Modern Photography (1928),” in Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913 – 1940, ed. Christopher Phillips, trans. John E. Bowlt (The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Aperture, 1989), <PAGE>.
Bibliography
Rodchenko, Alexander. “A Caution (1928).” In Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913 – 1940, edited by Christopher Phillips, translated by John E. Bowlt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Aperture, 1989.
Rodchenko, Alexander. “The Paths of Modern Photography (1928).” In Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913 – 1940, edited by Christopher Phillips, translated by John E. Bowlt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Aperture, 1989.