At Stills we have a fantastic team of front-of-house volunteers who generously give up a few hours each week to support Stills and welcome visitors into the space. As a valued part of our team we invited our volunteers to write a blog post for us, sharing their thoughts and experiences of being at Stills. We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to two of our team, Dave Molnar and Yi-Chieh Chiu who discuss their relationship with Stills and the similarities between Lewis Baltz’ landscapes and the touristification of Edinburgh.
I came to Edinburgh to attend Edinburgh College of Art and earn my MFA. I am an artist and photographer. Even before my arrival here I had heard of Stills, having researched galleries and photo-related organizations in the city. In considering what to write about I keep coming back to how rather singular Stills is, but I can’t quite stress it enough. I have worked at a similar place in my home state in the US, and know of several others, but there are not many. To have an all-encompassing center for education, display, access, supplies, books, resources, artists’ talks and events; it is something that should not be taken for granted. The staff is small, but their dedication and effort is incredible. I have always been more than happy to volunteer my time, effort and knowledge to making Stills the best place in Edinburgh to be (here comes the photo pun) “exposed” to photography!
Stills is a very unique place. There are few organizations like it in the world, and it is truly something to be proud of in the photographic community of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the entire UK. If you’ve never been, go. See whatever show they have on at the moment, take a class, browse the library… or just have a cup of tea and chat up the staff! Stills is a gem of a resource, and not one to be missed. I’m grateful for my time here, and only wish I could stay, and continue to be involved. I think they know how important they are to the community, but just humbly go about doing their thing, so I thought I would write a little bit about just how special they really are.
Lewis Baltz and Edinburgh
When I saw Lewis Baltz’ photograph of a Chevrolet car in this exhibition (Monterey, 1967), I couldn’t help but think of the Dinah Shore Chevy Show shown in 1956. At the end of this television show, Dinah Shore with a joyous tune encourages the audiences to “see the USA in your Chevrolet.” Dinah Shore’s message is extremely optimistic and American: for her, the American life is complete with a Chevy, a vehicle which has largely expanded their world. Although the TV hostess implies that Americans have conquered and dominated nature, the Landscape in the show looks surprisingly awe-inspiring and magnificent. As a matter of fact, Chevrolet even published photo albums specifically about the astonishing natural environment of America which looks uncontaminated by human activities. Lewis Baltz, however, looks at the American landscape differently. He is critical. He is anti-picturesque, iconoclastic, and demythologising. He turns his attention to the bland environments created by developers and he chooses an impersonal and cold style to present flattened images of desolate commercial and residential spaces. |
1961 Chevrolet Commercial With Dinah Shore |
During my time invigilating in the gallery I have received divided opinions towards Baltz’ works. While some visitors are fascinated by Baltz’ unusual perspective, others find his works lacking direct engagement with the viewer. For them, his works are tasteless, forensic, and surveillance-like; these are not the type of landscape photographs they expect to see in Scotland. Although these viewers express a rather negative response, their response in fact demonstrates that Baltz’ photographic intention is successful. It also indicates that the presence of Lewis Baltz in Edinburgh is significant at a time when Edinburgh faces a critical moment much like America in the 1960’s and 70’s. Like Baltz in 1960’s and 70’s America, we are now surrounded by many constructions that will change our landscape permanently. The high streets have been inundated with shops dedicated to the tourism industry, and as a result, those streets have become lifeless - they are irrelevant to the life of people who live in Edinburgh. Moreover, Edinburgh City witnesses the prosperity of estate developments and building projects, some of which have put the city’s status as an UNESCO site in danger. The construction projects of hotels and student accommodation on Calton Hill, Cowgate, Causewayside, Leith Walk, and Haymarket will erase parts of the city that are historically important but which do not fit comfortably with the typical image of Scotland. These projects will change the cityscape in a destructive and irreversible way. For people who come from abroad, Edinburgh has long been equated with images of the Scottish identity, Scottish mythology, and Scottish Enlightenment. Nevertheless, those images have been used superficially and commercially to promote the latest developments which are imposing the most harmful impact upon the city. Lewis Baltz’ works are not jolting and entertaining. His works undermine the American myth and show our complacency that has built a trap for ourselves. After seeing this exhibition, I contend that an investigation like Baltz’s has to be carried out to examine the damaged spaces of Edinburgh before it becomes too late. |
‘Lewis Baltz with works by Carl Andre and Charlotte Posenenske’, Stills: Centre for Photography 2016. Photograph by Alan Dimmick |
Yi-Chieh Chiu
Chiu, Yi-Chieh comes from Taiwan. He studied Classics until 2014 when he moved from Chicago to Dundee to join his partner, an Irishman in Scotland. He is now learning photography, printmaking, and Italian. He is also volunteering at Stills, a wonderful institution to work for. He very much admires John Thomson, a Victorian photographer from Edinburgh who had photographed Taiwan in 1870’s when this Pacific island was largely neglected by the Chinese Empire. Chiu, Yi-Chieh hopes he can make some contributions to the country of John Thomson by means of photography.
