From the Subtle to the Hyperbolic: The Rise of Irony, Camp and Kitsch in 20th Century Photography

I am an ironist, a lover and creator of ironies. In my photographic practice as well as my everyday life I embrace irony in all its forms. In my written thesis I will discuss irony, the different factors that relate to and lead us to irony: kitsch, camp, cliché, nostalgia and the celebration of the banal, leading this exploration with a discussion of my chosen media for delivery of irony, photography. In 20th century photography there has been a gradual progression in irony from a subtle hidden gesture that was there to be encoded by the intended learned audience of the art world to an eventual full out hyperbolic critique that leaves nothing for interpretation but irony. This irony that requires no interpretation is the ironic dialogue that exists in much of photography today. In discussing the different variations of ironic utterances and creations, there are three major variants that I wish to discuss that specifically relate to how irony is used in photography: the interpreted (which can be ironic to some), the pointed (irony with a victim) and the stated (this is ironic!). I will then discuss how these forms of irony specifically relate to selections of work from the photographers I have chosen. I will also refer to cultural and photographic theory as it relates to irony and its use in photography and postmodern culture – referring to the work of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Linda Hutcheon and Martha Rosler amongst others. I have chosen to discuss a selection of photographers that span the 20th century to illustrate my thesis point, I will discuss the photographers in chronological order to illustrate this evolution of irony in photography: Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Stephen Shore, Robert Adams, Bill Owens, William Eggleston and Martin Parr. This list of photographers is by no means representative of all of photography and photo-based art but a chronological selection of artists from the canon of mainstream photography. I will limit my discussion of artists to the boundaries of mainstream photography and the realist tradition within photography of the 20th century. In this discussion of irony’s development in 20th century photography I will also refer to my body of photographic work, how it uses irony and how it relates to the artists discussed in the history of photography. As a student of photography I am influenced by all the artists that I will discuss and I find parallels between their uses of irony and my own.