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

Afterimage, May-June, 1998 by Catherine Lord

On October 19 and 20, New Haven CT looked much as it usually does - a classic blend of venerable buildings swathed in ivy, as if in the hope that the plant might function as an intellectual nutrient and prosaic urban malaise. The only visible anomalies were the canary-yellow posters, bearing a large eyeball logo, affixed to telephone poles and mail boxes. Thankfully, the eyeballs were hard to miss, for they led those interested through the maze of one-way streets and dead-ends to "Voices in Photographic Criticism," a conference sponsored by Yale University's Center for Independent Study and held in the Harkness Auditorium of the Yale Medical School.

The choice of location had no connection with a recent diagnostic triumph concerning the pathological nature of photography. It was simply that Harkness was the biggest space Yale could offer that weekend, and according to "Voices" Director Mary Price, the organizers thought they would need it. An announcement of the conference last spring brought an unexpectedly enthusiastic response. By July, the planning committee (composed of Price, Roger Baldwin, Phyllis Crowley, Robert Herbert, Adrienne Munich, Tod Papageorge and Alan Trachtenberg), had to turn away potential registrants. In fact, even after moving the whole affair to a larger hall late in the summer, the committee arranged for an overflow crowd to watch the proceedings on video monitors in the hallways. As it turned out, the anticipated hordes didn't materialize. Harkness, which seats 450, was perhaps three-quarters full for most of the conference sessions. "I understand now why the airlines overbook, 'r said Price. "We had a lot of cancellations in the last week and it was simply too late by then to reach the people word turned away." The probable reason for the no-shows, sad to say, was that the conference was free, as stipulated by its funding source, the Connecticut Humanities Council. Nevertheless, at least until the number of empty seats became apparent, the instinctual human pleasure in having a ticket to a desirable event was definitely part of the occasion's ambulance.

The audience, of course, had legitimate reasons to be excited about the conference, for the roster of scheduled speakers was impressive indeed Aided by 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 group 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 New York critic Ben Lifson of The Village Voice; and Trachtenberg.

Speakers were limited to half an hour apiece to ensure time for questions from the audience. And for the most part, they kept to the allotted time, thus allowing worthwhile general discussions. From Friday morning on, 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 conference (Society for Photographic Education, the Hartford Arts Council and the Yale Art Gallery), it was soon clear that the questions came from people with differing relationships to photography. The realization came with some relief to those of us prone to believe, in our dour moments, that the host of contemporary voices in photographic criticism might be nothing but echoes reverberating through an unfortunate time warp.

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

The Friday morning session set the mood for the conference, and in many ways, a description of that adequately conveys the spirit of the event. 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 codes 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 funny about the last picture on the right? Why did you say Lewis Hine pictures were idealized?" "Has there been a change in the amount and type of humor since the nineteenth century?" "How much does the critic bring to an interpretation of photographs?" "Do you think it necessary to read out the intention of the photographer?" "How do you know your interpretation is right?" "Don't you think soft focus pictures are more abstract?" "Why did you shift from art criticism to photography criticism?"