CARISSA MARSH
A&E Editor
Old and new collide in a new photography exhibit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, with a presentation of works that spans across the centuries.
The two exhibitions, which both opened Tuesday, are “The Old Order and the New: P. H. Emerson and Photography, 1885-1895” and “A Place in the Sun: Photographs of Los Angeles by John Humble.” Both exhibits are on view until July 8 in the Getty’s recently expanded suite of galleries in the West Pavilion that are devoted to photographs.
The two shows are distinctly different in subject matter and technique, but the differences between the exhibits serve as a complement to one another, presenting a broad survey of the art of photography.
Also, both photographers sought to capture in their work those things that are often overlooked, whether it is workers in the field, towering urban power lines or the L.A. River.
Organized by the National Media Museum in Bradford, England, in association with the Getty, the Emerson exhibit features more than 150 works by the British photographer who in 1885 began recording the traditions of East Anglia, a remote region on England’s Eastern shore.
While the Getty maintains a strong holding of Emerson’s work, most of which is bound in 19 albums, the exhibit includes a number of international loans.
Weston Naef, curator of photography, said the Getty was inspired to borrow the Bradford museum’s Emerson exhibition and reshape it for the Los Angeles center, thereby giving a “strengthened intellectual context” to the center’s albums.
Curator Anne Lyden explained at Monday’s press preview that the focus of “The Old Order and the New” is the network of freshwater rivers, lakes and marshes in the Norfolk Broads, where Emerson spent 10 years photographing the people and landscape of the isolated area.
Emerson’s best-known work is the 1886 image “Gathering Water-Lilies.” The photo seemingly shows a romantic scene of a young woman picking a water lily out of the marsh. However, the reality of the scene is that the two workers are collecting flowers to use as fishing bait.
Altogether, the exhibit’s individually framed photos celebrate the worker as a hero, and each simple scene seems idyllic and serene despite the fact that the people are hard at work. Ironically, while the images seem candid, they were often posed.
It is clear in Emerson’s work that he was an advocate of naturalism. Because the human eye rarely sees anything fully in focus, he tried to replicate natural eyesight by using soft focus.
“He thought photography should imitate nature, not alter it,” Lyden said.
As a result, Emerson’s photos takes on a more artistic quality and looks more like drawings. While many criticized the hazy images, he defended his use of differential focus, which blurred the distinction between fore-, middle- and background in shots like “A Suffolk Dike.”
Lyden said Emerson wanted to preserve through photography the traditional nature of the area, which was being threatened by modern technology.
“It’s this sort of battle to preserve something that was dying out, becoming obsolete,” Lyden said.
Though he strove to preserve the area’s old customs, particularly focusing on laborers such as farmers and fishermen, Emerson also embraced the new technology of the time. The invention of photogravure, a photomechanical process for reproducing images, is what made the pioneering photographer so prolific.
Humble, who attended Monday’s preview, said he was more than happy share gallery space with Emerson.
“I’m tagging along with the master,” said Humble, who has 39 color photographs on display for the exhibition. “I’ll hitch my horse to that wagon.”
Though similarities can be found between the two shows, Humble said the Emerson exhibit is more about content, while his own photos of Los Angeles are mostly concerned with aesthetic.
The Humble exhibit’s title, “A Place in the Sun,” is an ironic label as the photographer specifically set out to show that Los Angeles is more than sunny weather. In 1979, Humble was awarded a grant to document the city for its bicentennial.
The project called for Humble “not to document Los Angeles stereotypes and clichés but to show the city that few had cared to photograph,” according to a museum news release. Humble did just that, recording with his camera the cityscape, streets and neighborhoods as well as the river that runs through urban landscape. These same subjects are the focus of “A Place in the Sun.”
Humble charted the 51-mile course of the river for a year, wading into the algae-laden water to get the right shot. His images are representative of the whole river, showing it as a forgotten concrete wash, a narrow stream and even an expansive water source at the river’s mouth.
According to a news release, Humble cynically refers to his work as “photographing paradise,” as his images show the contradictions and disharmonious qualities of L.A. life. In his photos, the traditional boundaries between commercial and residential neighborhoods are both flexible and integrated.
Such is the case in “178th Street Manhattan Place, Torrance,” in which an intimidating pylon tower hovers forebodingly over a small mobile home, power lines cutting across a blue California sky.
“It’s neat to live in this city and to see it anew through the eyes of John,” Lyden said, saying the photos show Los Angeles as an “unnerving metropolis.”
Humble said that, while he does take pictures of things that most people drive by, he does not go in search of the perfect shot. Rather, it is a result of serendipity.
However, for the 2001 photo, “The Los Angeles River from Soto Street, Vernon,” which shows a blue sky of puffy white clouds over the murky brown water of the river and industrial sprawl, Humble said after the rain ceased he rushed to shoot the scene before it washed away.
The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closes at 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Admission is free; parking costs $8. For more information, visit getty.edu.
03-29-2007