An Iraqi Christian girl roller skates in Daoudia , Dohuk Province, Iraq, on Mar. 2, 2012. David Moore is a London based photographer who has exhibited and published internationally. He has been working as a photographer and educator since graduating from West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham, in 1988.
Photographic technology was born in Europe, but the art of
photography as we know it, was invented in the USA during the 1950s and
60s, sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. John Szarkowski,
MoMA’s powerful Director of Photography, declared that great British
photographers belonged to a “documentary tradition” that included Bill
Brandt (whose press pictures of Britain in the 1930s were exhibited at
MoMA in 1969). David Moore’s work from 1987-88, which was first
published in Creative Camera in 1988, and now published as a book, Pictures from the Real World, conforms to the expectation that British photographers should, like Brandt, be primarily social observers.
The notion of a “documentary tradition” does not stand up to
scrutiny, however, because of the many disparities between Brandt’s
generation and Moore’s. Unlike his forebears, Moore benefited from a
cultural climate that recognized and rewarded his artistry (the
state-funded Arts Council supported dedicated galleries and magazines).
This made it possible for him to cultivate a personal style that did not
yet conform to the demands of the mass media. Commentators of the 80s
interpreted the rather shocking use of color photography, by Moore and
others, as a rebellion against the old black-and-white school, but in
fact color became simply an extension of a “documentary aesthetic”
popularized by the American formalist, William Eggleston.
While Moore was at college (he studied with Martin Parr from 1985 to
1988 at the West Surrey College of Art) the first serious challenge
arrived to those who championed documentary photography as both an art
form and a tool for reform. In the US and Britain, the theories of
French thinkers such as Roland Barthes, challenged claims that
photographs were objects of artistic expression or transparent
reproductions of “reality.” As these ideas took hold two things
happened: the supposed truth of documentary photography became
discredited, and it was “saved for art.”
There have been many claims for British documentary photography of
the 1980s, including the claim that it was a social critique of the
Thatcher years in Britain. This has yet to be demonstrated. Arguably,
the most radical aspect of these pictures, is Moore’s refusal of the
role of “neutral observer” — something he shares with others of his
generation. To eyes accustomed to digitally enhanced photography, many
of these pictures will seem familiar. This is because they were cleverly
manipulated, both formally (using flash mixed with ambient light to
invoke a heightened reality), and conceived, not as “records of life”
but opinions. Did Moore just happen to pass by and “snap” the
conjunction of the baby and the television image, or did he find the
image on a video? Looking back, we can see that this “documentary-style”
photography (a term coined by the great American photographer Walker
Evans) marked an important stage in the unravelling of the sacred bond
between photographer/witness and “reality” that forms the basis of the
authority of photography in the press and in society. The relatively
recent invention of Photoshop has taken the process much farther.
This is a welcome and important book that is part of a current reappraisal of the British photography of the 1970s and 80s.
Pictures From The Real World (2013) by David Moore is published by Here Press and Dewi Lewis Publishing.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)