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Aaron Siskind: Abstract Expressionist of Photography
| Article
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13399 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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9 / 1987 |
1,887 Words |
| Author
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Lloyd Eby
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Aaron Siskind is sometimes called the father of modern photography. His work, more than that of any other single photographer, has freed photography from its concerns with simple representation, documentation, and portraiture and has taken it into the realm of poetic metaphor. In Siskind's hands, photography attained its potential as a fully abstract and expressionistic art form. After developing a taste for Siskind's work, one may find other photography predictable, even trivial.
Long a leading teacher of photography, Siskind began his career by teaching one day a week at the Trenton Junior College in New Jersey in 1949. From 1951 to 1971, he taught at Chicago's Institute of Design and for the next five years at the Rhode Island School of Design. At both schools, Siskind worked closely with Harry Callahan, also a leading photographer and teacher.
An extremely active and interested teacher, Siskind always managed projects and events and constantly involved himself in his students' projects. One such project was a photographic study of architecture that eventually led to a major project about architect Louis Sullivan's work. Yet Siskind never imposed his style or taste on his students; he welcomed diversity as long as the student's work showed a concern with aesthetics. Central to his teaching was what constituted a photograph, how to produce it economically, and how to critique the resulting picture.
Working-Class Origins
Born on December 4, 1903, in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, Siskind grew up, as he puts it, in a house that was the home of working people and not a cultural environment. He remembers that from his earliest years he could always be found on the streets; yet somehow he managed to grow into an avid reader. As a small boy, he used to skate down to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday mornings. There, among other things, he saw Coptic textiles with little religious figures on them. Years later, still fascinated with the figures, he introduced them into his photographs.
After Siskind graduated in 1926 from the City of New York with a degree in English literature, he began teaching in New York City public schools. His literary interests prompted him to write poetry; his poetic vision thus established, it was subsequently shaped by the poetry of William Blake. From 1930 when he was given his first camera, until 1935, he proceeded by trial and error to photograph New York architecture, exploring the symbols and ideas that later became formal concerns in his photographic-poetic vision.
Siskind discovered the Workers Film and Photo League in 1933, a cultural unit of the Workers International Relief, founded by the Communist International. The league concentrated on using photography to document social concerns. It offered Siskind the kind of intellectual and artistic support he needed, and at the same time, it gave him his entry into the world of professional photography. Before long, Siskind became one of the league's leaders. But by 1935 the Film and Photo League had split into several factions; the following year, the still photographers formed the Photo League. Siskind joined them and formed a photography production unit called the Feature Group. From 1936 to 1940, Siskind composed documentary photo essays. The photo essay form was developed and cultivated by
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