The Crisis of the Real

1) According the Andy Grundberg's essay "The Crisis of the Real", postmodernism is a demonstration of abstract concerns of intellectuals. Or in Grundberg's exact words "... in short, postmodernism, in its art and its theory, is a reflection of the conditions of our time" (165). When postmodernism first hit the artist world in the early 20th century, it greatly affected architecture. "Architects had a very specific and clearly defined target in mind: 'less is more'" (165). To most architect postmodernism meant using stylish flourishes and no rules to create "free" and "no worry"art. In my opinion, postmodernism is taking a problem, event, or trend in current society and turning it into art in order for people to look at the situation through a different view. It could be making fun of something, rebelling against it, or simply bringing awareness to it. 

2) One way postmodernism challenged traditional photography practices was mixing photography with other forms of art. In the 70s, many artists started mixing photography and video, then combined it with media. In my own words, postmodernism photography was in a way about capturing the "raw truth". Many of the aspects of traditional photography were completely disregarded when it comes to postmodernism photography. Perfect lighting, shutter and aperture speed, poses, and appearance was all forgotten. The main focus of postmodernism photography was to capture the thing itself, right when it was in its element. This doesn't mean postmodernism photographers were not creative. They were constantly coming up with ideas about how to project what they captured on film. Some artists even took photographs of other peoples' pictures. Artists went out of their comfort zone and started exploring the new and different ways to photograph. The beautiful, yet at times frustrating thing about postmodernism photographs is that the meaning of many of them is what you come up with when you view them. When you look at a traditional photograph you are able to almost immediately tell what the photograph is trying to portray. Unlike traditional photography, postmodern photography can be confusing and multiple meaning-or none at all.