The New Democracy
When
you are taking photos–—recording a trip, a party or a family event—does it
ever occur to you that you’re taking part in a democratic art form? It seems a
paradox to use the word democratic as an adjective for the noun art. But there
it is. I have seen these words used together in regards to George Eastman’s
invention of roll film, which is usually said to have democratized photography.
The idea is coming into usage again to frame the camera phone with its many aps
as the “new democratic art form.”
This
usage of the word democratic in conjunction with art is an interesting
juxtaposition. It links together two very alluring words. Democracy (a
political philosophy that changed the Western world) and art (a means of
creative expression that is inseparable from our very nature) are two very powerful
concepts.
Seeing
ourselves as a democratic society has always been at the forefront of our national
self-identification. Today we extend, or want to extend our conception of American
democracy to the rest of the world. Indeed, our possession of the democratic way of life is part of
our national mythos.
In
its simplest terms, democracy is the principal of one-person, one-vote. We all
get a say in who is elected to represent our interests, understanding that the
majority of votes decides the outcome. To state that photography is a democratic
art form is a way of saying that it’s not exclusionary; it’s an activity that everyone can take part in. If you have a
camera you can use it to vote on your vision of the world. Just point the lens
and press the button. The insinuation is that photographic selection, the
activity of taking a picture, is a form of participation in both democracy as
well as art (as we generally agree on their meanings). But by doing so have you
actually done either?
To
different degrees, we understand what democracy is, and what democratic principles
are; but do we understand what art is or the principles that inform an artistic
act? By putting forth the notion that photography is the democratic art, are we proposing that an indiscriminate act of
taking a picture is in some way a democratic or artistic?
In
fact, is making art an intrinsically democratic process? I cannot associate
art, at least as it applies to Euro-American history or ideals, with the
political philosophy of democracy. Rather, I think our society (through our
economic system) transforms art into an instrument of consumerism. Making and
buying art is a consumptive activity. Taking a photograph could better be seen as
an acquisitive act than a democratic one. Taking and keeping a photograph is a
way to later consume a moment in one’s life.
Here
is perhaps the most important question: Is the freedom to photographically memorialize
our lives, through the canard of making art, an act of a democratic society or
a consumptive one?
Frame
4A
Addendum:
http://www.countriesquest.com/north_america/usa/culture/arts_and_letters/visual_arts/photography.htm
Tell me what you think.
