Jacques Henri Lartique (1894-1986). Zissou et Madeleine Thibault, Rouzat, 1911. Silver print, 22 x 34 cm without frame, 50 x 59 x 3 cm with frame. Edition number unknown. 
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The present exhibition consists of almost 180 photographs spanning a period of some 120 years, ranging from the fathers of photography to some of the most treasured and successful artists of contemporary photography. It has been shown only once before, and never so comprehensively as now. With 42 artists adorning our walls, the intention from the start has been to invite our guests for a tour within photography in general, from its early beginnings to present day. But not just any photographers! As guides of our tour we have chosen photographers like Irving Penn, Jacques Henri Lartigue and Christer Strömholm as the core photographers of the exhibition, sharing wall space with names like William Henry Fox Talbot, Alfred Stieglitz, Èugene Atget, Edward Weston, André Kertész, Karl Blossfeldt, John Batho, Linda Raskin, Édouard Boubat, Anders Kristensson, Hasse Persson and Tom Sandberg. But how can such diverse artists be presented under one denominator, you might ask?

The question is rather if it is wise to pretend there is one, except for proposing that all the present photographers tried to change the world somehow, each in their own capacity and fashion, some ending up as icons more than others in the effect they had on the posterity.

As the collection of Karin and Lars Hall represents all genres of photography, from Grand Tour documentation meant as souvenirs for rich western European travellers to Grand Prix automobile racing in France, photographs of Parisians with sunspecs gazing at an eclipse in 1912 or photographs of frozen fruits and vegetables stacked on top of each other under the title Frozen foods, we asked ourselves how conceptual a presentation of a collection really needs to be. From a visage through a window by one of the founders of the actual idea of fine art photography to brittle reverence of simple forms caught by a perceptive eye and a particular sense of colour, the photographers represented in this exhibition cover all fields. The concept of the exhibition, therefore, is a simple one: an exhibition containing many small exhibitions, all tuned in on the multiple experience of being human in a modern society, whether that be a modern society in the 1880s or a modern society in the 2000s, and having fixed this to a photographic medium.

The above-mentioned three main sections of the exhibition, that of Irving Penn, Jacques Henri Lartigue and Christer Strömholm, show three different ways of being a photographer. From Penn, the iconic master of public relations leading a celebrity life within the confines of the beating night world of New York City, to the anonymous photographer of the upper society, Lartigue, discovered almost by pure chance by Charles Rado who again introduced him to John Szarkowski at the MOMA, and then again the fine art photographer, Strömholm, who chose to find his motifs among everyday people, cafes and streets in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and in the south of France. Adding to this, a vintage section honouring the beginning of the art has been included in the show. But let us for a moment think a little about what photography is, or rather how it has been received up to our time.

When Mary Warner Marien published her book Photography: A Cultural History in 2002, she introduced herself both as an "autodidact" and as "photo-historian" (Preface, p. X). Her significant book illustrates very well both the situation of a writer on photography at the beginning of the 2000s and the multi-faceted field she chose to write about. Autodidact,'self-taught', describes the lack of "proper" education and maybe also the lack of "proper" research on photography and photographic practices available to the writer. "Photo-historian" describes how photo usually is treated, as part of a long line of tales from the history of modern men and women, not as objects of art in themselves. The general lack of the word "art" within photographic societies is striking, although Marien's book tells of how this was very different when it all started. Her book starts with a description of how enthusiastic the inventors of photography were, people like Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, and how they foresaw this to be a new and modern type of art, competing with the mediums of painting and sculpture. The result of this is seen in many of the photographs of the period, where the compositions were eagerly inspired from the conventions of painting at the time. And there were of course economic aspects to this as well. The possibility to earn money on the new invention, were among the factors soon to silence the use of the term "art". Chapter by chapter we are introduced to the practices and uses of photography as time went on, ranging from "Imaging the Social World", the depicting of modernity, of photography in use within both general and social science, and how the present age with our mass media changes the way photography is used altogether. The book however, uses photography more as documentation of historical facts, than for an analysis of the medium as "art".


William Klein (1928-). Bikini, Moscow River, 1959. Silver print, 1982, 50 x 59 x 3 cm without frame, 50 x 59 x 3 cm with frame. Edition number unknown.
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Another perspective relevant to this exhibition is of course the collector’s perspective. Although both Karin and Lars Hall in their foreword insist on not being characterised as collectors, their interest in photo has landed them with an extraordinary amount of photographs of a very high quality, difficult to describe with a word other than a "collection".

Laura Noble's timely book The Art of Collecting Photography (2006) gives a comprehensive practical guide to the how's of collecting photography, indicating the collection itself as a form of "art". Here the reader is presented with a brief history of photography, the various types of collections, practical concerns, the purchasing of prints, the markets and questions concerning conservation. Even the question of curating is commented upon by highly skilled masters in the field, institutions like The Photographers' Gallery in London and The Gitterman Gallery in New York City.

The breakthrough of photography as an accepted "art form", however, happened with the help of a long row of inspired individuals and happy coincidences. The general scepticism towards the medium among European upper class salon connoisseurs, did not prevent famous artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec or Edvard Munch from seeing the potential in photography as a way of rendering both urban life and human suffering. But it would take half a century before marginal artists went beyond the public salon-based tastes and could meet with a positive public opinion and thus experience true fame. History-writing about the middle years of 19th century painting often forget to tell how marginal artists like Édouard Manet and Paul Gauguin really were in a world of salon-visitors. Their wirkungsgeschichte, that is the effect of their existence in history, showed itself much much later. One important change happened when an American photographer by the name of Alfred Stieglitz, who during the turn of the century had won fame with his Camera Club, gave out his famous Camera Works and in 1908 opened his ground-breaking gallery 291 in New York City, one of many galleries he was associated with. His gallery was the first serious attempt to promote photography as something more than reproductions of reality. Before this, the invention of photography was associated with technological progress more than with the relatively closed circles of fine art. Scientists immediately saw the potential of the new medium. We present one such technology-focused photographer at the show: Eadweard Muybridge with his groundbreaking research on human movement. Stieglitz’s gallery opened up for a different view on the world. And yet, the artists presented in Stieglitz's gallery were still marginal and newcomers in the art world, although today we nod with recognition to names like Mary Cassatt and John McNeill Whistler. There is of course a danger of oversimplification of this picture. Alfred Stieglitz didn't carry the burden of giving photography an apotheosis completely on his own. But his efforts both as an extremely diligent photographer and gallerist, changed the focus for many later generations and in the long perspective gave way for a story like that of Lars Hall, the Swedish public relations arbiter who became the first to disclose the art of photography or fine art photography to Scandinavia with his legendary gallery Camera Obscura in Stockholm (1977- 1986). Note the time-span! Meeting Karin Hall in 1989 also gave Lars Hall a companion in the art of collecting photography. The collection acquired during the years of the gallery, formed the basis of a collection which at the present counts almost 400 objects.Meeting Karin Hall in 1989 also gave Lars Hall a companion in the art of collecting photography. The collection acquired during the years of the gallery then formed the basis of a collection which at the present counts almost 400 objects.

Should we conclude then, that photography is "art"? Being an art historian, I would be expected to say "yes". On the other hand, it seems that it is the word "art" itself, more than the things the word is supposed to describe, that makes it difficult for us to give a definite answer to this question. Photography has proved itself beyond the realm of art, as both possible to live within the sacred world of fine art and as a democratic medium available to everybody. Why don't we all just settle with its original name: "Photography?" And thus, those who excel in it: "Icons"?

Arnt N Fredheim
Cand. philol. art history
Consultant
Statoil art programme 


This article is published in the catalogue Icons of photography – Treasures from the Karin and Lars Hall collection.

A limited number of the catalogue is available free of charge. Please contact Elisabeth Michelsen, T: +47 51 99 45 19 or by email artprog@statoil.com if you want a copy.