In New Haven, art meets sociology - Yale University Center for Independent Study's 1979 'Voices in Photographic Criticism' conference

On October 19 and 20 fresh Haven CT looked much as it usually does - a classic mingle of venerable buildings swathed in ivy, as if in the trust that the plant might function as an intellectual nutrient and prosaic urban malaise. The alone visible anomalies were the canary-yellow hand-bills bearing a large eyeball logo affixed to telephone extremitys and mail boxes. Thankfully, the eyeballs were hard to miss, for they l those interested end the maze of one-way roads and dead-ends to "Voices in Photographic Criticism," a conversation sponsored by Yale University's Center for Independent application of mind and held in the Harkness Auditorium of the Yale Medical School

The choice of location had no connection with a new diagnostic triumph concerning the pathological nature of photography. It was simply that Harkness was the biggest space Yale could tender that weekend, and according to "Voices" Director Mary Price, the organizers contemplation they would need it. An announcement of the discourse last spring brought an unexpectedly enthusiastic answer By July, the planning committee (compos of Price, Roger Baldwin, Phyllis Crowley Robert Herbert, Adrienne Munich, Tod Papageorge and Alan Trachtenberg), had to revolve away potential registrants. In fact, plane after moving the whole affair to a larger hall late in the summer the committee arranged for an inundate crowd to watch the proceedings upon video monitors in the hallways. As it move rounded out, the anticipated hordes didn't materialize. Harkness, which seats 450 was perhaps three-quarters replete for most of the discourse sessions. "I understand now for what cause [i]or[/i] reason the airlines overbook, 'r said Price. "We had a apportionment of cancellations in the last week and it was simply too late by the agency of then to reach the family word turned away." The probable reason for the no-shows, sad to say, was that the conversation was free, as stipulated by means of its funding source, the Connecticut Humanities Council. Nevertheless, at least until the number of devoid of contents seats became apparent, the instinctual human pleasure in having a ticket to a desirable incident was definitely part of the occasion's ambulance.

The audience, of course, had legitimate reasons to be excited about the talk for the roster of scheduled speakers was impressive indeed Aided by the agency of suggestions from Trachtenberg (Professor of American Studies at Yale) and Herbert (Robert Lehman Professor of the History of Art at Yale), the "Voices organizers had invited a disparate collection of critics and historians. They were Max Kozloff author of Photography & Fascination; Charles Hagen, editor of Afterimage; Mark Roskill, author of What is Art History?; Mark Wartofsky, Professor of Philosophy at Boston University; Rosalind Krauss, co-editor of October, William Parker, Professor of Art History at the University of Connecticut at Storrs; Eugena Janis, Associate Professor of Art History at Wellesley College; Joel Snyder Director of Chicago s Albumen Works and an historian of photography; the sociologists Erving Goffman and Howard Becker; Papageorge, Professor of Photography at Yale: Vicki Goldberg a freelance novel York critic Ben Lifson of The Village Voice; and Trachtenberg.

Speakers were limited to half an hour apiece to make sure time for questions from the audience. And for the greatest in quantity part, they kept to the allotted time, thus allowing worthwhile general discussions. From Friday morning upon it was abundantly evident that the questioning would be lively and the audience inclined to dialogue rather than polite applause for words of wisdom. Moreover, since the "Voices" committee had used a number of mailing lists to publicize the talk (Society for Photographic Education, the Hartford Arts Council and the Yale Art Gallery), it was before long clear that the questions came from race with differing relationships to photography. The realization came with a certain number of relief to those of us prostrate to believe, in our dour seconds that the host of contemporary voices in photographic criticism might be nothing on the other hand echoes reverberating through an unfortunate time warp.

It is perhaps appropriate to note here that the Center for Independent research founded in 1977 by a collection of professional women, was intended to provide an alternative forum for intellectual exchange and support. The Center has, in the past, sponsored prelections in various fields, exhibitions and a forum upon patronage in the arts. The members have no vestmented interest in the field of photographic criticism; "Voices" was simply single of a number of similar efforts on the Center's part.

The Friday morning session locate the mood for the conversation and in many ways, a description of that adequately fetchs the spirit of the occurrence The speakers' approaches ran the gamut from the Marxist view of photography as a reinforcer, if not determinant, of social class perceptions (Kozloff) to the simultaneous pictorial and ontological collection of lawss that intersect in the reading of a photograph (Hagen), to the humorous vocabulary specific to the photographic medium, which exploits seemingly accidental comic qualities (Roskill) The questions that followed - whether rhetorical, challenging or bemused - revealed the various approaches and backgrounds of the audience "So what was farcical about the last picture upon the right? Why did you say Lewis Hine pictures were idealized?" "Has there been a change in the amount and mark of humor since the nineteenth century?" "How a great deal of does the critic bring to an interpretation of photographs?" "Do you think it necessary to read without the intention of the photographer?" "How do you know your interpretation is right?" "Don't you think impressible focus pictures are more abstract?" "Why did you shift from art criticism to photography criticism?"