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Portraitists, whether yielding a brush or a camera, look for far more than a realistic depiction of their subjects. The seek to reveal an inner nature with the concept most often attached to human subjects. However, recent photo exhibits have examined the concept in connection to cities.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which recently displayed Eugène Atget photos of Paris, has opened another photography show. The newest exhibit, "The Secret Life of Buildings: Photographs by Clarence John Laughlin," runs through April 30 and looks at the inner nature of New Orleans.
Laughlin is a hugely talented link in the long tradition of self-taught American artists who also tend to be eccentric and mystical. In his case, Laughlin deeply believed in the inner world of inanimate objects with the intensity of a newly converted cult member.
Laughlin wrote: "The physical object, to me, is merely a stepping stone to an inner world where the object, with the help of the conscious, drives and focuses perceptions, becomes transmuted into a symbol whose life is beyond the life of the objects we know …"
This intensity carries over into the images. The inspiration comes from a variety of sources, including French Romantic poets from which Laughlin drew heavily. Laughlin started out as a poet and writer and his photo captions reflect this.
Born in Lake Charles, La., Laughlin worked for a variety of government agencies involved in levee projects in and around New Orleans. He also was a freelance photographer, working for a number of magazines. He published successful books of his works, such as "Ghosts Along the Mississippi" in 1948. The work documented the decaying manor houses of the antebellum South.
This was a world the artist was familiar with. His father died when he was young and Laughlin was forced to support his family. In addition to working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Laughlin was employed by general circulation magazines and architects and he exhibited his works frequently. He held exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1946 and 1973, when the museum staged a major retrospective with some 229 of his pieces.
First a writer, Laughlin latched onto the notion of the mystical relationship between buildings, architecture and the human essence. For this, he had a rich canvas in the architecture of New Orleans with its overriding sense of moral decay combined with a lusty sensuality that transformed building craft and skill into sexual metaphors.
Take his writing on church entryways: "We are told that the most ancient form of religion was phallic worship. Perhaps it is because we have lost this relationship with our bodies that today we are so distributed and frustrated. The arches entrance of the church becomes the female symbol …"
In fact, the writer in Laughlin appears with his pictures. He pens long, detailed captions as if he doesn’t trust the image to convey the desired meaning. The images are universally powerful, but without the accompanying words, the viewer can derive their own thoughts.
The images in the show come from the museum’s collection of more than 250 works and according to museum Curator of Photography Katherine Ware, "Many of his pictures of abandoned, decaying structures have a haunting quality that the artist heightened with shadows or shrouded figures to suggest an atmosphere clouded with layers of history and memories — their secret life as Laughlin once wrote.
"His wonderfully poetic titles add another element of suggestiveness to the works and reflect the artist’s interest in the writings of French symbolists, such as Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire."
An interesting side note is the exhibit is hung in a gallery named for famed collector and art dealer Julien Levy. It was Levy who first introduced Laughlin to the New York art scene along with one of Laughlin’s heroes, Atget. So, in 1940, Laughlin’s New Orleans and Atget’s Paris were featured in a single show.
There is always a fascination with the self-taught artist, especially one like Laughlin, who read widely and freely acknowledged his inspirations. Often this kind of hodge-podge of magic, mystery, and romance can combine into a highly original view of the world.
"The Secret Life of Buildings:
Photographs by Clarence John Laughlin"
Through April 30
Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
215-763-8100
www.philamuseum.org
Admission: Adults, $12; age 62 and older, $9; students with valid identification and ages 13 to 18, $8; ages 12 and younger, free; Sundays, pay what you wish.
