The Sadness of "Le Lit"

Le Lit (The Bed), by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1893

The Sadness of “Le Lit”

“Le Lit” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a beautiful piece painted around 1893, a segment of Lautrec’s three-part bed series. While striking at first glance, even with no history behind it, the painting is made all the more beautiful by Toulouse-Lautrec’s life story. In his adolescence, Lautrec broke both his legs and they never healed properly. This caused him to never grow over 5 feet and end up walking with a cane his whole life. He never married, and lived most of his life in isolation due to his disabilities, causing him to become dependent on alcohol to cope. Because of his addiction to alcohol and complications from syphilis he ended up dying young at 36. That underlying sadness in his work is very tangible, you can almost physically feel the yearning in every brushstroke.

His bed series, including “Le Lit,” was just him exploring love, as he wasn’t familiar with it, and he likely never experienced it. The painting is chock full of humanism. The blanket has what looks like a big patch in the middle; it’s homemade, or worn out, and that adds to the cozy feel. The warm, friendly light exudes a sense of love and home, and the thick blankets provide comfort - everything about “Le Lit” is peaceful and domestic, an anomaly in a time where depictions of people in love were often flashy and glamorous, not vulnerable and quiet. Contrasting to the warm lighting and palette, the shading on the sides of the bedding is blue, a color that would normally be associated with sadness. But because of the warmness of the rest of the painting, instead of outright sadness, the blue just adds some emotional depth. It’s a representation of how much the two subjects of “Le Lit” care for each other. You can almost tangibly feel the heaviness of their emotions, overlaid with Lautrec’s own. In the eyes of the painter, the blue is sad; to the subjects, it’s just another expression of their love. To realize that “Le Lit” is just objective observation is truly heartbreaking. He would never live to experience love like this.

The couple in the painting are commonly interpreted as a queer couple, the same couple as in the rest of the bed series. His fascination with this couple might be explained by his own marginalization in society leading him to sympathize with them - it’s unique within the time period because it doesn’t fetishize the intimacy between the women, or present it as something for the male gaze. All Lautrec was trying to do was capture these gentle, small moments of humanity, vulnerability, and queer happiness.

With its humanistic roughness and warm charm, this painting reminds us not to take domestic moments like these for granted. Lautrec is more widely known for “At The Moulin Rouge” and other of his more flashy paintings, but it’s clear that “Le Lit” is still one of his most beautiful.

Written By

Z. Loller

"How the Other Half Lives" A look “Bandit’s Roost,” by Jacob Riis

“How the Other Half Lives”, a collection of photographs taken by Jacob Riis, a social conscience photographer, exposes the living conditions of immigrants living in poverty and grapples with issues related to homelessness, criminal justice system, and working conditions. The photograph, called “Bandit’s Roost,” depicts one of the most dangerous parts of New York City on Mulberry Street. Through his use of light and dark, perspective, and subject placement, Riis aims to humanize a notorious aspect of society and show that there is a deeper meaning beyond what our initial assumptions are.

The perspective of the photograph is taken from the position onlooking an alley - this provides a narrow view of the image and forces the viewer to examine the photograph in a vertical dimension. We’re forced to look upwards, upwards towards the bright sky, white laundry, and the tops of the buildings. The top half of the image is lighter, warmer colors, with the sun shining through the tops of the buildings, while the bottom contains darker, grim-looking figures with ominous qualities about them. The steps up to the houses and the ground beneath them, even the objects scattered to the lower left and right hand corners of the image, are dark, drawing attention to the center of the image and conveying the dangerous nature of the neighborhood. The sunlight rising through the top of the buildings reflects off the pavement, making it seem wet and damp. Riis utilizes light placement intentionally to contrast parts of the photograph that are more grim and are associated with crime with the lighter, everyday objects of a neighborhood

This photograph captures and humanizes a dark part of city life - the part associated with crime and danger. I feel that Riis is trying to illuminate the lives of these individuals, not just by bringing in the light to reflect off of their houses and streets, but to expose what their lives are like. The bottom half of the picture - the part that is closest to the viewer - contains figures of men in dark, imposing attire, with black hats, canes, and powerful positions. However, the people looking out the windows, the clothes hanging above, even the child in the background, all contribute to a setting that seems less dangerous and criminal - one that is more ordinary and commonplace. The positioning of the figures in the image - the two dominating men in the forefront, the women on the side, the child in the background, the other gang members in the center of the image - also contribute to the message of the photograph, mirroring the way certain individuals are overlooked and treated in society. Through this setup, Riis is subtly asserting and challenging society’s notions of how criminal activity is viewed by the public, and how it should be viewed in a way that doesn’t stigmatize the individuals from a position of lesser privilege.

I enjoy looking at the way photographs can be used as a means for social advancement and equality, and how the ways the photograph is staged can contribute to that higher purpose. Riis’ philosophy on photography is something that I try to emulate in my art - specifically in writing - and to push myself, like how other social conscience photographers did, to consider the ways I can use artistic forms to give a voice to those oppressed.

Written by

S. Karam

A quick nostalgic observation from an aging photography teacher.

Film based photography was the only option twenty years ago when I started teaching. Supplies were readily available and the “darkroom magic” was still a thing wanted to be experienced. For the most part, my classes were capped at 12 although I had many more students wanting to take the course.

This is not the case today; our current digital culture is firmly planted and even our youngest are not immune to this. I remember when I first introduced the wonders of this new media, and students were slightly warm to the idea of it. These early classes struggled to make enrollment and digital technology was expensive and not literally in everyone’s hands yet. I began to notice a significant shift three years ago when I needed to add a second digital class option. For the longest time I had about an 80/20 split interest between film and digital, with film still reigning as the more sought after and popular choice. In dramatic fashion the split reversed, and the percentage divide continued to grow. Last semester was the first time that I did not have any students enroll in film based photography. This was certainly not influenced by me as my work is based around film and alternative processes. To be honest, I am a little uncertain about the future of the darkroom here…. 

The Focused Path and the Pursuit of Photographic Enlightenment

I want to share the work of a recent graduate of mine Ingrid Komisar, who is currently studying photography at Parsons School of Design – The New School in NY, NY. Ingrid was a voracious student all four years in the photography classroom. One that never tired of asking questions of her work, and remained equally constant in pursuit of answers with her work.

As I sit exhausted from spring break, trying to find the energy to teach in the studio, trying to inspire an energy in students who seem equally tired of the rigor. I was pleased to see new work produced by Ingrid while she was on break from the academic and less creative side of being a first year college student.

The yearning may have started earlier, but to my recollection, Ingrid became insatiably focused on photography as a career choice during her sophomore year in high school. And from that point on, I have witnessed a beautiful progression in her work. Currently amid her freshman year in college, stuck in core academic classes, she used what is often a time to drop all responsibility to instead work on a series of images. Not for a specific class assignment or any school related need. It was purely to feed her own desire to keep moving forward with her work. Ingrid’s path is indeed focused. With each step she is exploring new ground finding a sense of what moves her on the inside. I’ll leave you with this, a poem by Antonio Machado which seems appropriate.

Traveler, your footprints

are the only road, nothing else.

Traveler, there is no road;

you make your own path as you walk.

As you walk, you make your own road,

and when you look back

you see the path

you will never travel again.

Traveler, there is no road.

All ll photo's ©Ingrid Komisar 2017, to see more of her work go ingridkomisarphotography.com

Is Street Photography a thing of the past?

With my cell phone I could take as many photos as I wanted to, granted I had enough space on my phone. I could tap my screen until it focused on a person or I could angle the camera to get the perfect shadow falling on an unsuspecting person sitting on a bench. I could buy an expensive camera that is known for its sharpness, pixel number, zoom, accuracy, and smoothness. With this camera I could take careless photos of someone leaning against a fence or eating a sandwich. This camera would make these photos detailed and very close to real life, but they wouldn’t convey emotion or connection with the viewer. 
    Jonathan Hodder, a street photographer that lives in the Philippines wrote an article about street photography and the loss of emotions in a photo due to technology. In his article, he starts by talking about himself and how, when he transitioned from film, he knew that the digital camera was to change the photography world. Though Hodder enjoyed the instantaneous digital image instead of the “tedious chore” of developing film. As time went on and camera technology advanced, Hodder observed more and more street photographers concentrating on the quality of the image instead of the emotions and questions it evoked. He said photographer could now create the perfect image, but it lacked emotion connection. Hodder then related this to older street photographers who only mentioned the camera they use in reference to the subject. Overall, Hodder stressed the need for content rather than quality.
    I think this article provides a new view on technologies’ affect on photography. I had never thought about how people are more concentrated on sharpness and detail instead of what’s actually going on in the photo. This article reminds me of the work of Vivian Maier. She was a street photographer active from around the 1950s to the 1970s. Her work mostly involves street photography. Maier exclusively used film in her photos. She is an amazing example of a street photography because her photos are discrete and beautifully composed visions of everyday life. Vivian Maier probably never thought deeply about what type of camera she was using as long as it conveyed her want for emotions and questions. Her photos clearly show she had great skill when composing an image. This image could have been composed with a less sharp camera, on a bigger scale, or in color and either way convey the emotions she wanted. Henri Cartier-Bresson is also an example of a street photographer. His photos involve a lot of mystery and motion. His photos convey a lot of emotional connection because it evokes questions and feelings. In his photo “The Decisive Moment,” Cartier-Bresson shows a moment of choice and decision. He obviously challenges the idea of product over quality. His photos show great use of geometry, patience, and movement.
    Overall, I think there is still a future of street photographer is people focus on content. Technology can help and hinder, so one must be decisive and focus on the image itself.

By T. Barton

History Within History - Inaugural Photograph

Modern day inaugural photos may contain information about the lack of attendants to the ritual, but the most interesting picture taken from this ceremony was created in 1857. The first photograph of any Presidential inauguration was taken by John Wood, an architectural photographer who worked for contractor Montgomery C. Meigs. This article explains the significance of this piece of history by divulging into the process it took to create the remarkable picture. The author notes that this time period produced much growth when it came to photography, especially with the invention of the wet collodion process. Now, photographers would be able to make prints from a glass negative, but of course it came along with a few setbacks. Photographers needed to have access to a portable darkroom and be able to wait a decent amount of time for works that needed longer exposures. Despite these few hindrances, photographers had the ability to capture historical events as they were truly happening. John Wood was hired to photograph the construction of the Capitol Building so they could be duplicated and distributed. When Wood’s boss was hired to build the inauguration platform, he would also move up the ladder and be asked to take pictures that documented president James Buchanan being sworn into office (March 4, 1857). Later, John Woods became a civil war photographer and ended up working for Union Gen. George McClellan. This picture makes not only the viewer question the technique woods used to develop such a momentous picture, but displays a historic moment as well as being unforgettable itself.

 By K. Juszkiewicz

A Thought on Watkins' Peaches

Most of Watkins work, or at least what he is most commonly known for, is large scale photographs of Yosemite National park. He was shooting at a time when most people had never been more  than a hundred miles from where they were born so he and Muybridge were providing people both with an escape from their reality and also with knowledge of what their country looked like. His photographs were meant to transport people. Muybridge did this by taking shots from ledges and adding a bit of the ledge in the photograph so that the viewer felt as though they were on the edge of falling in. Watkins went about this in a very different way. He tried to make the most realistic photograph that he could and from the best vantage point to capture a complete view and feeling of an area. The peaches are a complete departure from this line of thinking. They are just there to be looked at. They are not a commentary or indicative of a specific place. These peaches are simple, beautiful, and delicate.

S. Cargile

‘War/Photography’ at the Corcoran

This article was written by Philip Kennicott about the Corcoran Gallery of the Art’s War/Photography exhibition. In my vision of how war photographs often appear and feel, the author describes the photos as “wrenching”, while saying the exhibition as a whole is “dispassionate”. In class, we sometimes discuss the role of a caption and how it can either help or hinder in our interpretation of the photograph itself. In this document, the author states that the main purpose of the captions at the exhibit was to provide the audience with common background information of the image. And while I concur with that, my theory about captions alongside images is as follows: the caption should state facts, not express opinions; moreover, I believe, the sole job of the photographer is to make his or her audience emote a certain feeling when viewing it. In other words, the caption is a mere complementary aspect to the photograph and it is the picture that should do the true speaking. The article mentions the works of Robert Capa and Nick Ut’s that filled the gallery, with 300 others. Even photos from the 9/11 attacks are represented in the forum. There seems to be conflict in how the photos are showcased, with some believing that the aesthetic ought to be the focus. However others, usually the more popular opinion, think the focus of the photo should be the sociology of war. The one flaw the author notes about generic, background-oriented tropes is that they can distance the photograph from an  audience. That is to say, we are less likely to be as emotionally invested and are more likely to only see the basic characteristics of suffering and hardships. If there’s one message that stuck with me from this entire passage it’s that “the arguments for and against the importation of beauty into images of war are endless, and unlikely ever to achieve closure.” I believe this can also be applied to any sensitive yet heavy matter (i.e. religion) as it pertains to photography. Ultimately though, I argue, as long as the photographer approaches the subject and his or her interpretation of the subject in a respectful and conscious manner, it is the creator’s choice on how to creatively produce a new vision--- be it “artistically beautiful” or not. 

B. Thompson

#Selfie

The first selfie stick that we have photographic evidence for comes from 1925 when a man wanted to take a picture of he and his wife after their wedding and the chosen angle actually caught the pole in the picture. Another man, at the same time, was working on another way to remotely operate the shutter of his camera and so they both simultaneously created the world’s first selfie sticks. More recently selfie sticks are used commonly and there are many different models and their popularity has come and gone with trends and fads of the day. The patent for what would be considered more a modern day selfie stick actually preceded the advent of smartphones and was in 1984 by two Japanese men Hiroshi Ueda and Yujiro Mima. The original patent was made as a telescopic extender for the compact camera. The selfie stick did not come about and create the selfie. In this case we do know whether the chicken or the egg came first. The first ever photographic self portrait was taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839. Most people who take selfies are not aware of what an actually historic practice they are carrying on and there seems to be no end in sight to this practice.

Arnold and Helen Hogg, 1925

S. Cargile

V-J Day Remembrance

“V-J Day in Times Square”, an image captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt on August 14th, 1945, at almost 6:00PM, is also sometimes called “The Kiss” or “V-Day”. No matter the name, this iconic and immediately recognizable photograph was able to enthrall a nation by capturing the emotion of the day the US won World War II. I have always been drawn to how this image completely captures the moment of spontaneity between two strangers when a sailor embraces a girl (sometimes described as a nurse, or just as a white-clad girl). Happiness, romance, and surprise, this moment of celebration has become iconic for the time period. The aesthetic of the photo is visually pleasing, which is impressive for it not being staged, as the stark white of the girl’s clothes are great contrasts to the sailor’s dark uniform. The grand buildings of Times Square frame the photo perfectly with only a sliver of overexposed sky (a mark of the time period in which the photo was taken). Another factor adding to my interest in this photo is the story I associate with it. In middle school, we were assigned a project to interview a relative and have them tell us about a time in their life. My maternal grandmother, born in 1942, told me the story of how her family celebrated V-Day by driving down Main Street in High Point, NC, to greet soldiers and sailors returning home. The car was approached by a young sailor who leaned his head into the Ford and asked my great grandfather if he could kiss my grandmother, a toddler at the time. He then explained his request a little more, saying that when he left to fight he vowed to kiss the first blonde girl he saw upon returning home to High Point, and as my great aunts and great grandmother were all brunettes, my three year old grandmother was the first blonde girl the sailor laid eyes upon. Although the story behind Eisenstaedt’s photo is far well known than that of my grandmother, the two stories are always associated in my mind, reminding me of the celebration and spontaneity that shaped America’s modern history. 

R Weaver

Photo History in the News

By M. Wheelock (2016)

This picture was taken by Cecil Stoughton on November 22, 1963, two hours after President Kennedy was assassinated. This picture captures Vice President Johnson being sworn into office as the 36th president of the United States. There are many interesting aspects I find about this picture. For one, it was taken aboard the Air Force One. This aspect is very important to the picture and the history because it shows how fast the country was forced to adjust after President Kennedy was killed and it gives a special perspective to the picture, a confined sense. You can also see the different emotions on the passengers’ faces. None of them are happy ones. They look sad, confused, and angry. The looks on Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson are especially important. Jacqueline had just seen her husband’s brains blown out and now she’s forced to sit through the swearing in of the next president within a matter of hours. Johnson is not happy either. He was prepared to be president, but he was not expecting his predecessor to be assassinated and he would have preferred to be elected, not president by default. This picture perfectly captures the reaction to Kennedy’s assassination by portraying a few people who represent the grief stricken country.

A couple from India

Several of my students are lucky enough to travel during the summer months and sometimes they surprise you with images that are a departure from their normal MO. For example, Bhoomika Nikam traveled to India the summer before her senior year and returned with a small series of photographs that was unlike anything she had photographed before. Yes she was in a fascinating foreign land, but her sensitivity to subject and her willingness to step outside her routine was evident to me. Here are two of my favorites. 

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"This photograph depicts two young girls, around the age of 7, standing outside their "public school" in India, dressed in their uniforms and ready to begin class. Capturing their genuine thirst for knowledge was an incredibly humbling and overwhelming experience that has stayed with me since the photograph was taken two years ago." - Bhoomika Nikam