The Bloggist and his friend, Alfred Jarry, contemplate
Northampton’s Cultural Quarter. Recalling John Szarkowski’s pedagogic
exhibition in New York in 1978, Mirrors and Windows, where Mr Szarkowski
postulates that photographs are either Mirrors or Windows, not Mirrors and
Windows as the exhibition title would lead one to believe, the Bloggist quotes
Mr Szarkowski’s text, “In metaphorical terms, the photograph is seen either as
a mirror--a romantic expression of the photographer's sensibility as it
projects itself on the things and sights of this world; or as a window--through
which the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality”
Monsieur Jarry points out that Mr Szarkowski does cover
himself by saying “No photographer's work could embody with perfect purity
either of the two divergent motives; it is the nature of his problem to find a
personally satisfactory resolution of the contesting claims of recalcitrant
facts and the will to form”.
“I wonder what Michael Snow would say?” asks the Bloggist,
“Do you think this is a decisive moment or a ‘fine art’ film?”
“Well, it’s certainly a window”, replies Monsieur Jarry.
