Peter_wrote:
Well-known
i like to photograph. furthermore i like this comment on photography too:
"Basically I detest photographs, and it has never occurred to me to take any, except for the ones taken in London and Sankt Wolfgang, and another that I took in Cannes. I have never owned a camera.
I despise people who are forever taking pictures and go around with cameras hanging from their necks, always on the lookout for a subject, snapping anything and everything, however silly. All the time they have nothing in their heads but portraying themselves, in the most distasteful manner, though they are quite oblivious of this.
What they capture in their photos is a perversely distorted world that has nothing to do with the real world except this perverse distortion, for which they themselves are responsible. Photography is a vulgar addiction that is gradually taking hold of the whole of humanity, which is not only enamored of such distortion and perversion but completely sold on them, and will in due course, given the proliferation of photography, take the distorted and perverted world of the photograph to be the only real one.
Practitioners of photography are guilty of one of the worst crimes it is possible to commit--of turning nature into a grotesque.
The people in their photographs are nothing but pathetic dolls, disfigured beyond recognition, staring in alarm into the pitiless lens, brainless and repellent. Photography is a base passion that has taken hold of every continent and every section of the population, a sickness that afflicts the whole of humanity and is no longer curable. The inventor of the photographic art was the inventor of the most inhumane of all arts. To him we owe the ultimate distortion of nature and the human beings who form part of it, the reduction of human beings to perverse caricatures--his and theirs. I have yet to see a photograph that shows a normal person, a true and genuine person, just as I have yet to see one that gives a true and genuine representation of nature. Photography is the greatest disaster of the twentieth century. Nothing has ever sickened me so much as looking at photographs..."
Thomas Bernhard, Extinction
"Basically I detest photographs, and it has never occurred to me to take any, except for the ones taken in London and Sankt Wolfgang, and another that I took in Cannes. I have never owned a camera.
I despise people who are forever taking pictures and go around with cameras hanging from their necks, always on the lookout for a subject, snapping anything and everything, however silly. All the time they have nothing in their heads but portraying themselves, in the most distasteful manner, though they are quite oblivious of this.
What they capture in their photos is a perversely distorted world that has nothing to do with the real world except this perverse distortion, for which they themselves are responsible. Photography is a vulgar addiction that is gradually taking hold of the whole of humanity, which is not only enamored of such distortion and perversion but completely sold on them, and will in due course, given the proliferation of photography, take the distorted and perverted world of the photograph to be the only real one.
Practitioners of photography are guilty of one of the worst crimes it is possible to commit--of turning nature into a grotesque.
The people in their photographs are nothing but pathetic dolls, disfigured beyond recognition, staring in alarm into the pitiless lens, brainless and repellent. Photography is a base passion that has taken hold of every continent and every section of the population, a sickness that afflicts the whole of humanity and is no longer curable. The inventor of the photographic art was the inventor of the most inhumane of all arts. To him we owe the ultimate distortion of nature and the human beings who form part of it, the reduction of human beings to perverse caricatures--his and theirs. I have yet to see a photograph that shows a normal person, a true and genuine person, just as I have yet to see one that gives a true and genuine representation of nature. Photography is the greatest disaster of the twentieth century. Nothing has ever sickened me so much as looking at photographs..."
Thomas Bernhard, Extinction
antiquark
Derek Ross
I am bracing myself for his opinion on HDR photography...
BobYIL
Well-known
Nice to meet you Mr. Bernhard
mdarnton
Well-known
Sounds like a nice upbeat person. I wonder how he feels about puppies.
j.scooter
Veteran
victoriapio
Well-known
While many photographers will argue that a photograph converts the three-dimensional world into a two dimensional one, I would agree that mr. Barnhard's imitation of a chicken is certainly "disfigured beyond recognition.". ;-)
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dogberryjr
[Pithy phrase]
"Photography is the greatest disaster of the twentieth century. Nothing has ever sickened me so much as looking at photographs..."
Then you obviously haven't been paying much attention, oh hyperbolic one.
Then you obviously haven't been paying much attention, oh hyperbolic one.
dannybear
Member
Reminds me of another interesting quote I read in the book Reframing the new Topographics
"Landscape work was being done by a lot of people that were influenced by Adams, Weston, Minor white and caponigro that just seeme really dead to me - all the conviction had gone out of it. They weren't responding to the world anymore: they were responding to an ideal of photograpic excellence that came purely from other photographers" -Frank Gohlke
"Landscape work was being done by a lot of people that were influenced by Adams, Weston, Minor white and caponigro that just seeme really dead to me - all the conviction had gone out of it. They weren't responding to the world anymore: they were responding to an ideal of photograpic excellence that came purely from other photographers" -Frank Gohlke
redisburning
Well-known
personally I have always felt that The Scream is the best depiction of a human being in 2D form I have ever seen.
but I've seen photographs with exceptional emotional content. and these were done with enough subtlety that I would hesitate to call them caricatures.
but I've seen photographs with exceptional emotional content. and these were done with enough subtlety that I would hesitate to call them caricatures.
back alley
IMAGES
I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
bobbyrab
Well-known
A forceful bit of writing, you may not agree with the extreme veiwpoint, but I can see the point he makes now more than ever. Every square inch endlessly photographed, everyone with their own photo face. Thought provoking.
paulfish4570
Veteran
who is this bernhard idiot? photography worse than stalin's pogroms? the holocaust? television?
lynnb
Veteran
hmmm... a look on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bernhard seems to indicate those comments were more a reflection of his state of mind brought about by his unfortunate background. He is also reported to have made attacks on the State, generally respected cultural institutions, and much-loved artists.
'...Often criticized in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer (one who dirties his own nest) for his critical views, Bernhard was highly acclaimed abroad.
His work is most influenced by the feeling of being abandoned (in his childhood and youth) and by his incurable illness, which caused him to see death as the ultimate essence of existence.....'
'...Often criticized in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer (one who dirties his own nest) for his critical views, Bernhard was highly acclaimed abroad.
His work is most influenced by the feeling of being abandoned (in his childhood and youth) and by his incurable illness, which caused him to see death as the ultimate essence of existence.....'
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
What he's saying about photographs being portrayals of the photographer and distortions of the real world is correct, but not unique to photography. I'd argue that to be true of painting and sculpture too.
paulfish4570
Veteran
bless his heart ...
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
That's goooood.
Freakscene
Obscure member
Bernhard obviously fell for the trap he described well:
"We’re often led to exaggerate, I said later, to such an extent that we take our exaggeration to be the only logical fact, with the result that we don’t perceive the real facts at all, only the monstrous exaggeration."
TB Extinction
"We’re often led to exaggerate, I said later, to such an extent that we take our exaggeration to be the only logical fact, with the result that we don’t perceive the real facts at all, only the monstrous exaggeration."
TB Extinction
Mr_Toad
Fluffy Marsupial
Not that I'm trying to stir the pot, but I have similar feelings as Mr. Bernhard when I see some of the images taken by Bruce Gilden.
But that's only my unimportant opinion.
But that's only my unimportant opinion.
fireblade
Vincenzo.
....he wasn't breast fed.
Peter_wrote:
Well-known
i should have added some more information...
'extinction', where this quotation is from, is not a philosophical book or an essay, but a novel.so this qualifies the statement a bit. overstatement was a part of Bernhards artistic expression, often spreaded with a sense of humor.
with such obviously overstatments he himself even wanted to relativise his point of view (while most people try to do it the other way round)
his harsh style was also a counteraction of a hypocritical and euphemistic language (especially in postwar austria). he opposes bigotry, double-standards and cruelity hidden behind a sweet, pathetic speaking...
but behind his harsh formulations there was a lot of humanism and always a true, serious point.
So why i postet this in the philosophy of photography forum was especially the part of turning nature into a grotesque.
it made me think a lot about photography yesterday.
of course painting or sculpture may be distortions too. but i think there the artist obviously shows, that this is his point of view. it is much easier to hide yourself behind a photograph and to claim, that this is the reality and THIS is the world.
by the way i still find thomas bernhards description of photographers quite funny. but maybe i have a strange humour.
sry, for my bad english.