著者

日高 優

出版者

東京大学大学院総合文化研究科附属アメリカ太平洋地域研究センター

雑誌

アメリカ太平洋研究 (ISSN:13462989)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.147-162, 2002-03

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This paper aims to analyze the street as a topos in contemporary American photography. Historians of photography claim that contemporary American photography originated with the work of William Klein and Robert Frank, photographers who viewed American culture from an alien, critical perspective. In contrast, more recent photographers, who learned from these two pioneers how to use their cameras for more personal purposes, represent the street as a place to encounter people and to frame them extemporaneously. In this paper I will consider a representative of the new generation, Garry Winogrand, as a street photographer. As with his contemporaries, Winogrand never plans his photos in advance. After reading Winogrand's photographs from the perspective of photographic technique and content, I will discuss the meaning of his photographs both from his point of view and from that of the viewer. Photographs of streets become conduits not only of the photographer's but also of the viewer's memory. The memory of the photographer and the viewer passes back and forth through the medium of the image. Through visual stereotypes of experience, the memory of the photographer and of the viewer penetrates the photograph and is released into the image. Likewise, in the opposite direction, the image works upon their memories. Through the two-way circuit of the image and the viewer, images of the street reappear as a common topos of memory. The topos of street comes into being only through the photographic event.