A Contemporary Look at Pierre Bourdieu's Photography: a Middle-brow Art

In Photography: AMiddle-browArtVittTt Bourdieu, Robert Castel, Dominique Schnapper, Jean-Claude Chamboredon and Luc Boltanski situate the practice of photography within the larger social practices of collective identity formation. Although the tide of the book implies that the subject is "photography," it is made immediately clear that it is not about photographs. It is the social practice of "taking pictures" and its interpretation which concerns Bourdieu and the four other coauthors of this study, rather than the specific photographs (middle-brow or otherwise) which are taken. In this way the book provides an analysis of photographic practice while avoiding the formalistic discussions which accompany most art historical studies of photography. Of course it is not really possible to separate an image from its social interpretation or intention — a point made by Bourdieu himself. For this reason he equally rejects the simplistic assumption that the photograph should merely function as an objective visual illustration of a larger sociological argument. Indeed, it appears to be Bourdieu's intention in this work to question the very ground upon which such assumptions concerning the socially regulated functions of photography can be made. A brief synopsis of the text will help to situate the discussion that follows. The book is divided into two sections. In the first section, after an insightful introduction (which appeared in English in VAR, Spring 1991) Bourdieu discusses the photographic practice as "an index and instrument of integration" (vi). In this first chapter entided "The Cult of Unity and Cultivated Differences," he hopes to show the ways in which photography is used by families to define membership and to mark important or solemn occasions. Those not following traditional family photographic practice are seen (non-pejoratively) as "deviant" in their refusal of the norms of the social class to which they belong. Bourdieu suggests that people can delimit class boundaries by engaging in different forms of photographic activity. In his second chapter, "The Social Definition of Photography," Bourdieu questions certain assumptions concerning photography: notably, that it is somehow an "objective" medium. He also points out that the popular understanding of photography does not conform to traditional theories of aesthetics. Finally he shows that, as a practice, photography has an ambiguous and differing legitimacy within different social groups. The second section of the book proposes to study those groups which have distinguished themselves as somehow surpassing a "naive" attachment to photography and its "ordinary" practice. These "deviant" groups are studied in three separate chapters. "Aesthetic Ambitions and Social Aspirations: The Camera Club as A Secondary Group" by Castel and Schnapper outlines the workings of several camera clubs from different social milieux. All are distinguished by their desire to break away from the "common" uses of photography; but some are more concerned with issues of technical sophistication, while others focus more on the construction of