So... Jeff Wall

Despite my personal affection for taking photos dying somewhat recently, I have taken more of a focus on/around the ideas of practicing photography, as well as the mediums notable characters. Bailey and Duffy are two of the most prolific. They changed the theory around taking pictures. In the late 50s/early 60s the science behind capturing an image was not defined. Styles were constantly evolving, whilst content went beyond the idea of Birthday Parties and Holiday Snaps?! Photography became fun, expressive, and a first... an art form.

This birth provided freedom leading both men to set their own boundaries. They targeted the rich and famous, went to the coolest parties, and came up with the craziest ideas for staging images. I think one of my favourite collections from this era is Duffy's Pirelli calender, 1973 - a stunning work (controversially collaborated on).

Anyway, this brings me to now - taking the ideas of photography as an art form, and the staging/production of an image - this bought me to no-one other than... Jeff Wall. He is renowned for large-format photographs with subject matter that ranges from mundane corners of the urban environment to elaborate tableaux that take on the scale and complexity of nineteenth-century history paintings. Sure, his images don't have the same energy of that of Bailey and Duffy, but they replace a glossy sexiness with richly intriguing value, due to Wall's staging, which draws a viewer to really contemplate what his images say?!

Wall's work advances an argument for the necessity of pictorial art. Some of Wall's photographs are complicated productions involving cast, sets, crews and digital postproduction. They have been characterized as one-frame cinematic productions, which leaves their validity questionable. Wall's photos are enigmatic and provocative. On receiving a copy of Jeff Wall: The Complete Edition - a lovely definitive monograph from Phaidon, here his work is finely examined.

Since the 60s, the study and advancement in photography has perhaps led to a 'sucking-out' of some of the more playful aspects in picture-taking, but which in turn has led to a new, complex, and a more intellectual level of creation to take over! A new fun - for thinkers...