The Beauty of a Social Problem: Photography, Autonomy, Economy

by Walter Benn Michaels

Bertolt Brecht once worried that our sympathy for the victims of a social problem can make the problem’s “beauty and attraction” invisible. In  The Beauty of a Social Problem , Walter Benn Michaels explores the effort to overcome this difficulty through a study of several contemporary artist-photographers whose work speaks to questions of political economy.

Although he discusses well-known figures like Walker Evans and Jeff Wall, Michaels’s focus is on a group of younger artists, including Viktoria Binschtok, Phil Chang, Liz Deschenes, and Arthur Ou. All born after 1965, they have always lived in a world where, on the one hand, artistic ambition has been synonymous with the critique of autonomous form and intentional meaning, while, on the other, the struggle between capital and labor has essentially been won by capital. Contending that the aesthetic and political conditions are connected, Michaels argues that these artists’ new commitment to form and meaning is a way for them to depict the conditions that have taken US economic inequality from its lowest level, in 1968, to its highest level today. As Michaels demonstrates, these works of art, unimaginable without the postmodern critique of autonomy and intentionality, end up departing and dissenting from that critique in continually interesting and innovative ways.  

Genres: Politics, Philosophy, Theory

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2015

Reviews

[Kristi A]

Huvitavad mõttekäigud, kohati keeruline, samas haarav, vastuvoolu minev.
Fossiilid kui fotograafia eelkäijad, inimese-eelne kunst ja fotograafia kui postmodernne nähtus. Kas foto on pilt? Foto pole pilt. Mis on pilt? Milline on õnnestunud foto? Kapitalismist, neoliberalismist, klassidest, ebaõiglusest ja -võrdsusest. Punctumist ja studiumist, fotogrammist, fotost kui mittekunstist. 4´33. Mis annab meile õiguse ...? Kas püüab olla teisest üle, teda alandada? Lõpuüllatusena peatükk Jonathan Littellist ja tema meistriteosest "Eumeniidid" (2022. aasta üks menuk, ootab lugemisjärge), mis küll raamatus on kirjas pealkirjaga "Heasoovijad".

[Steven Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that makes me question and challenge art’s role in reflecting whether or not today’s fight for social equality perpetuates greater economic inequality.