views aboard, views abroad

72 Pages·2012·3.72 MB·English

by  Kimberley Williams

VIEWS ABOARD, VIEWS ABROAD:
-
RECONSIDERING THE PHOTOGRAPHY AND RECEPTION
OF ELI LOTAR THROUGH AN EXAMINATION OF
HIS PATRIS II SERIES

Kimberley Williams, MA Dissertation, June 2012
Modernism After Postmodernism – Dr. Gavin Parkinson
10, 451 words

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3

ABSTRACT 4

INTRODUCTION 5

1 [RE]FRAMING THE ABATTOIR 11

2 [RE]PRESENTING GREECE 20

3 [RE]POSITIONING LOTAR? 31

CONCLUSION 40

BIBLIOGRAPHY 42

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 46

ILLUSTRATIONS 50

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

My first and foremost thanks go to Gavin Parkinson, whose enduring encouragement
and erudite scholarly advice have been the foundation of this thesis. In 2009, I
researched the respective relationships that Eugène Atget and Eli Lotar bore to
documentary photography and surrealism. Early into my research, I reported back to
Gavin that I was amazed to find that nothing was published on Lotar in English and
barely anything in French. He has always encouraged wonderful yet demanding topics,
and here, no less, began the makings of this MA research.

Damarice Amao, who is currently finalising her PhD thesis on Eli Lotar at (Université
Paris IV) has been instrumental in the formation of this paper. Not only did she facilitate
my research within the Lotar archive at the Pompidou, but also gave her valuable time to
discuss a number of my key ideas. Also my thanks go to Quentin Bajac and his team,
who, despite their busy schedules, allowed me to research in amongst them at the
Cabinet de la Photographie.

My further thanks go to Ms. Lucia V. Halpern and John Davies for the scholarship I was
awarded. Their support has enabled me to undertake my MA, without which, I would
not have been able to enjoy the development of my understanding of Lotar, that I hope
is reflected in this thesis.

The academic support provided by Judy Corbalis has been fundamental to the formation
of this paper. My thanks go to her, for her time and remarkable patience.

There have been so many people that have helped me in the course of researching and
writing this dissertation, but I would especially like to acknowledge the following: Simon
Baker, David Campany, Rosalind Jenkins, Ruth Harriss, Thomas Gallagher, Julia V.
Hendrickson, Carloline Levitt, Robert McNab and Julian Stallabrass. Their contributions
however great or small were invaluable.

Finally, to my parents, for their enduring and unflinching support throughout this whole
process.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis is a revisionary analysis of the photography and reception of Eli Lotar (1905-
1969). This re-examination takes place through a single series of negatives taken while
aboard the Patris II, in Greece and the Cyclades in 1931. Using this photographic series
as a framework, this thesis demonstrates the ways in which the key themes of Lotar’s
production during the 1930s can be extrapolated. It challenges the almost exclusive
association of Lotar’s work with Documents which has shadowed a wider understanding of
Lotar’s work. The thesis considers other, more germane frameworks such as Counter-
Philhellenism and ‘poetic realism’, within which to analyse and contextualise Lotar’s
photography. Finally it examines the broad range of stylistic techniques that Lotar
employs within the Patris II series, to demonstrate that his work not only resists an
association to Surrealism but to art-historical categorisation as a whole. The thesis
suggests that, he can, in fact, be regarded as a pioneering photographer of the 20th
century.

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INTRODUCTION

If some day on a deserted shore, among the wreckage cast up there, or perhaps at the
bottom of an old chest, someone were to find a roll of film preserved by miracle from
the damage of water and time, a roll with twelve snapshots taken down the course of the
ages and at particular moments, then a legend at one and the same time more precise and
more fantastic would take the place of another legend, and the realm of love and dream
would not only be preserved safe and sound but would once more become the lions
share. 1
Carlo Rim – Extract from ‘On The Snapshot’ (1930)

The extensive, yet largely unseen, archive of Eli Lotar (1905-1969), collectively presents a
remarkably varied oeuvre. His photographic career principally spans 1927-1938, with a
concentrated period of activity around 1928-1932. Despite the relative brevity of his
engagement with the medium, approximately 9000 negatives held in the Pompidou
Centre, Paris not only evince a photographer who travelled widely throughout the 1930s,
but also reveal an approach that definitively conflicts with the widely-held critical
association of Lotar with ‘dissident’ Surrealism. His entire photographic output is
serialised within his notebooks, which help to unlock the myriad of negatives held in the
archive. Analysis of both reveals the rich synthesis of diverse cultural influences that
occupied him, the breadth of professional and personal affiliations that he held and the
range of destinations to which he travelled.
It is reported that Lotar had two passions in life: women and the sea.2 The
archive certainly attests to the latter part of this premise, and it is in response to his love
of the sea from which this thesis departs: aboard the Patris II. Lotar’s first trip to Greece
was as a passenger on the Patris II in the spring of 1931, which stemmed from a

1 Rim, Carlo, ‘De l’instantané’ L’Art Vivant, no.137 (1 September 1930) in Christopher Phillips, ed.,
Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913-1940 (New York, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art and Aperture, 1989) p.38
2 Lionel-Marie, Annick, ‘Essai Biographique: « Le cœur meurtri par de mortes chimères »’ in Eli Lotar,
(Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1993), p.14

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collective wish to make a ‘modern’ documentary film about the life of the Cycladic
archipelago. The film would be a collaborative effort with Lotar as the director of
cinematography (Fig. 0.1), alongside playwright and poet Roger Vitrac (Fig. 0.2), and
actor and film director Jacques B. Brunius (Fig. 0.3). Their travels lead to the creation of
the, now lost, Voyage aux Cyclades film, and Lotar’s collection of accompanying
photographs. Using the Patris II series as a framework, this thesis demonstrates the ways
in which the key themes of Lotar’s production during the 1930s can be extrapolated.
This enables a reappraisal of his connection to Surrealism, suggesting that he can, in fact,
be regarded as a pioneering photographer of the 20th century.
The aim is not to give a comprehensive biographical account of Lotar - for
which, arguably future scholarship is required – but to elucidate unknown themes that
emerge from an analysis of the negatives held in the Lotar archive. Because some basic
misconceptions about his background and production have led to a very clouded
understanding of Lotar’s activities as a photographer, filmmaker and active member of
the avant-garde, some biographical clarification ought to be established in order to
provide a firmer ground for analysis of his photographic output. In 1905, Eliazar Lotar
Teodoresco was born in Paris to Romanian parents and subsequently spent his
childhood in Bucharest. His father, Tudor Arghezi, was a well-known poet whose work
is widely celebrated throughout Europe.3 As a young man, Lotar wished to escape the
authority of his Father and aspired to become a film director. 4 From 1924, he visited
Paris intermittently and settled there in 1926 when he was ultimately granted French
citizenship. It was in this same year that his fortuitous meeting with the photographer
Germaine Krull took place, at the time a prominent figure, and soon after Lotar became
both her photographic assistant and lover. This can be seen as the beginnings of his

3 For more on the life and work of Lotar’s father see: Selected Poems of Tudor Arghezi, trans. Michael Impey
and Brian Swann (Princeton, Guildford, Princeton University Press, 1976)
4 Amao, Damarice, ‘Eli Lotar un photographe professionnel et militant en marge du Surréalisme’ (Paper
delivered as part of a conference: L'image comme stratégie: des usages du médium photographique dans le surrealisme,
at Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris, 11 December 2009), p.2

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engagement with photography and would prove to be a decisive factor in his
professional development. While not underestimating the significance of this relationship
to Krull, by 1928 Lotar had established himself as a photographer in his own right, a fact
that has often been overlooked. His participation in a number of significant exhibitions
and a variety of commissions for illustrated publications such as Bifur, Jazz, Vu and
Varietés, indicate both a widespread appreciation and demand for his photography.5
However, Lotar has entered art history largely as a consequence of the inclusion
of his photographs in another publication; Lotar’s iconic Abattoir series of 1929 were
taken at La Villette, on the outskirts of Paris (Fig 0.4), and were published later that year
in Documents. The editor, Georges Bataille, selected three images from the series to
accompany his own ‘Abattoir’ text, which featured as part of the journal’s ‘Chronique:
Dictionnaire’ 6 This was one of many of Bataille’s writings that considered, what he saw as,
the inherent relationship between sacrifice, slaughter and modernity. The selected
photographs have been regarded by many as well suited to the pages of the journal and
as Ian Walker suggests were ‘typical of Bataille’s assault on the higher aspirations of
mankind and his belief in the impossibility of extricating the violent from the sacred
(indeed from life itself).’7 Not only as a result of this article has Lotar has subsequently
been studied through the prism of ‘dissident’ Surrealism, but the images have come to
define the journal’s ‘shock tactic’ ethos. In 1996, Rosalind Krauss and Yves-Alain Bois’s
influential exhibition and revisionist study of modern art, ‘L’Informe: mode d’emploi’, used
Bataille’s notion of l’informe as its theoretical basis, which instigated a resurgent scholastic
interest in Documents and Bataille. In the accompanying publication, Lotar’s images
feature alongside an evaluation of the Bataille’s Abattoir text relaying this one-time

5 For examples of other articles, see: S. Croissant, ‘À l’Instiut de sourds muets d’Asnières: une pépinière de
bons ouvriers,’ VU, No.6, (25 April 1928), pp.162-3; Variétés, no.9 (15 January 1929); Bifur, no.1 (25 May
1929); Jazz, no.9 (15 September 1929). Significant exhibitions include: Exposition Internationale de photographie,
Brussels, (1928), Film und Foto, Stuttgart (1929). For a comprehensive list of group exhibitions, see Eli
Lotar, (Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1993), p.108
6 Documents, No.6, November 1929, p328-332
7 Walker, Ian, City gorged with dreams: Surrealism and documentary photography in Interwar Paris (Manchester and
New York, Manchester University Press, 2002), p.127

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episode. Bois suggests that ‘no other image appearing in the journal is as realistically
macabre as these photographs taken at La Villette’ despite ‘cruelty and sacrifice, terror
and death’ being frequent themes among the pages of Documents.8 Similarly, in 2006, the
Hayward Gallery’s Undercover Surrealism exhibition reinforced a connection between Lotar
and Documents. His Abatoir photographs were hung in a singularly themed ‘Sacrifice’
room alongside artworks by Andre Masson, a motif which was continued in the
accompanying catalogue.9 The radicalism thus far accorded to Lotar’s perceived agenda,
encouraged by this association with Documents, has meant that art historians frequently
reference Lotar’s name or ‘the slaughterhouse photographs’, without attempting to
explore his wider production to substantiate their claims. These assessments of Lotar
have created difficulties for an evaluation of the artist in terms other than this series; and
while not to undermine its importance, the popularity and critical longevity of the
association to Documents has limited an appreciation of Lotar’s wider oeuvre.
The severity of this misunderstanding is highlighted by the existence of over one
hundred other photographic series. An analysis of the negatives in the archive allows for
the argument that the positioning of these photographs within art-historical discourse
has constructed a largely false perception of Lotar and necessitates a re-evaluation of his
works. Therefore, this thesis presents a revisionist analysis of his photography by
focusing upon an alternative, yet substantial and all-encompassing series: Patris II. The
substantial number of photographs within this series gives an overview of Lotar’s
approach that is largely consistent with other series’ similarly derived from his travels,
primarily in Greece and Spain throughout the 1930s. In the first chapter, a comparison
of the known Abattoir series to some unseen negatives of a different abattoir is provided.
The latter photographs taken while the Patris II was harboured in Athens, provoke a
reconsideration of the editorial framing of the former series, which potentially disrupts

8 Bois, Yve-Alain and Rosalind Krauss, Formless: A User’s Guide, (New York, Zone Books, 1997), p.43
9 See Neil Cox, ‘Sacrifice’ in Undercover Surrealism (London, Hayward Gallery, 2006), pp.106-114

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Lotar’s current historical positioning. The second chapter focuses on the wider context
of the expedition to the Cyclades, analysing the apparent intellectual and editorial stimuli
associated with Greece and the perception of its culture at the time. The third chapter
considers the emerging artistic and critical tendencies, vis-a-vis an in depth-visual analysis
of the photographs within the Patris II series.
Lotar was a prodigious collaborator and this led to invariably to spates of travel;
in addition to ‘Voyage aux Cyclades’, he would also work on many other films alongside
distinguished figures such as Jean Painlevé, Luís Buñuel, Jean Renoir, and Yves
Allégret.10 In 1946, Lotar directed Aubervilliers, accompanied by a commentary from
Jacques Prévert, which was selected for Cannes Film Festival. Lotar’s film collaborations
in themselves present an equally rich opportunity for wider analysis; however, without
wanting to undermine their artistic significance or the formative relationships they
generated, for the purposes of this thesis, an attempt to separate his authorial
contributions in film is problematic, and therefore his activities as a cameraman are only
referred to in order to contextualise his photographic output.
Although he was a highly sought after photographer as well as a cameraman,
contemporary criticism specifically pertaining to Lotar’s photography is limited. This
thesis hopes to establish Lotar as one of the leading photographers of his generation,
alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertész, and Germaine Krull. Such a coterie of
photographers do not constitute a formal movement or grouping, however their shared
affinities are far more relevant to a discussion of Lotar’s photography than the
peripheries of Surrealism. This emergent photographic sensibility led to the genesis of
new photographic orientated publications and alternative critical approaches to the
medium, distinct from those of Surrealism. Philippe Soupault’s introductory essay, ‘The

10 See Annick Lionel-Marie, ‘Essai Biographique: « Le cœur meurtri par de mortes chimères »’ and
‘Filmographie’ in Eli Lotar, (Paris, Pompidou, 1993), p.9-31 and p.109

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Present State of Photography,’ for the 1931 issue of Photographie, 11 promoted a move
away from the experimentation and ‘artistic pretensions’ of photographers in the 1920s,
arguing that ‘a photograph is above all a document’.12 Soupault’s conviction that ‘this
album obliges us to believe that all hope is not lost, since the collaborators […] have the
courage to face up to the most urgent problems,’ suggests that Lotar was amongst those
photographers who lead a move away from surrealism, instead exploring the new
documentary possibilities of the medium. 13
To write about Lotar presents a substantial challenge insofar as hardly any
scholarship currently exists about his production, despite his substantial activity in the
late 1920s and 1930s. Since his withdrawal from the avant-garde in the mid-1940s and
subsequent death in 1969, his archive has been hidden for many decades and the
reception and appreciation of Lotar has suffered. His contemporaries would achieve
international scholarly and commercial recognition, while Lotar would largely fade into
historical oblivion. A reconsideration of the contents of his archive now presents the
opportunity to uncover a rich and near-forgotten photographer.

11 Lotar was featured both in the 1930 and 1931 of this annual photographic supplement to Arts et Metiers
amongst other leading photographers.
12 Soupault, Philippe, ‘The Present State of Photography’ (1931) in Phillips, ed., Photography in the Modern
Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913-, p.51
13 Ibid.

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