Ugnė Marija Gausmanė
Post-traumatic Silence in Humanist Photography: the Case Study of Izis Bidermanas
In post-World War II France, the dominant photography shaped the country's image and collective identity by focusing on the realities of the present and the everyday, while displacing the war and traumatic experiences. Living in a society of willful silence, the photographers' aesthetic expression suggested a meditation on absence and masked a lack of memory. However, the representatives of humanist photography involuntarily gave aesthetic expression to the silence that lies in the very language of photography. The thesis argues that the aesthetics of humanist photography testifies to the existence of an involuntary silence that can only be seen when analysed from the perspective of a hermeneutics of suspicion, which responds to the aim of the research and, by problematising the image or the information related to the artist, helps to highlight the less obvious or understandable meanings of humanistic photography that are revealed outside (or alongside) the image or text. The chronological boundaries of the study coincide with the predominance of humanistic photography in the world, i.e. in the 5-7 decades. At the same time, the chosen period was one of the most intense cultural and social change after the Second World War, which was also mirrored in the work of humanist photographers through the avoidance of reflecting lived experiences. A case study of Biderman's work reveals an expression of silence, in which there is a complex relationship with the past. The analysis allows us to expand the boundaries of our understanding of humanistic photography and to broaden our critical assessment of the field.
Iliustration: 8, Impasse Florimont, 1948. Gelatin silver print, Musée d’art moderne de Paris
