"The Photograph as Contemporary Art" - Chapter 3: Deadpan - Learning points

The course material includes also "The Photograph as Contemporary Art", a very interesting book written by Charlotte Cotton published by Thames and Hudson (London 2014 Third edition). As I decided to do for my practical course, I would like to keep track of my learning points as I gradually go on reading the book reporting the most important sentences by the above author.
No copyright infringement intended - photographs will be removed immediately upon request.

The third chapter focuses on the deadpan aesthetic: a cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photography.
The emphasis is on photography as a way of seeing beyond the limitations of individual perspective, a way of mapping the extent of the forces, invisible from a single human standpoint, that govern the man-made and natural world.
The deadpan became popular in the 90s, especially with landscape and architectural subjects.
The deadpan we see today is often characterised as "Germanic". This moniker refers not only to the nationality of many of the key figures but also to the fact that a significant number were educated, under the tutelage of Bernd Becher, at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Albert Renger-Patsch, August Sander and Erwin Blumenfeld are the most mentioned forefathers of today's deadpan photography.

Andreas Gursky adds to his oeuvre with each satisfyingly complete picture, rather like a painter does, so every photograph he releases has a good chance of contributing to the high reputation enjoyed by his work asa whole.
He works within connected themes and releases photographs that stand as discrete visual experiences.
His immaculate consistency is an undeniable element of his commercial and critical success.
Gursky often places us so far away from his subjects that we are not part of the action at all but detached, critical viewers.
What we are given is a mapping of contemporary life governed by forces that are not possible to see from a position within the crowd.

Andreas Gursky - Chicago Board of Trade II, 1999

The German artist Matthias Hoch's typology of contemporary life has typically centred on architectural detail and interiors.

In Leipzig #47 there is an evident sense of geometry and mapping.

The light emanating from the screen flattens the poles in the foreground, emphasising the nature of the space that determines the subtle drama of the scene.

Matthias Hoch - Leipzig #47, 1998

Jacqueline Hassink applied to photograph ten rooms in a hundred American and Japanese corporations (including the CEO's home offices, archives, lobbies, boardrooms and dining rooms).

The refusals and acceptances Hassink received feature on a graph that accompanies the photographs of the rooms to which she gained entrance.

Jacqueline Hassink - Mr Robert Benmosche, CEO, Metropolitan Life Insurance, NY April 20 2000, 2000

Alex Hütte introduced a new element to his deadpan photography in the mid 90s with a series of photographs of cities taken at night with long exposure times.

These photographs are presented as transparencies held in front of reflective surface, creating a glistening effect in the illuminated areas of the image where the mirror-like backing is visible.

Alex Hütte - The Dog's Home Battersea, 2001

For more than thirty years American photographer Richard Misrach has created numerous bodies of landscape and architectural photography, with a particular focus on the American West and the tradition of its representation.

His political and ecological views come through his images of sites in the aftermath of landscape devastation and man's destruction of natural resources.

Richard Misrach - Battleground Point #20, 1999

What interests John Riddy is photography's capacity to conflate time and its ability to evoke the history of a space. 

In Maputa (Train), the turquoise paintwork and the benches become the fading signs of a moment in the place's colonial past.

Present time is shown in the train carriage at the centre of the image, an element we know will soon depart without a trace.

John Riddy - Maputa (Train), 2002

The chapter draws to a close by considering artists who use the depersonalised deadpan style in portraiture.

One of the most influential portrait photographers of the 80s was German artist Thomas Ruff.

Ruff began photographing head-and-shoulder images of his friends, reminiscent of passport photographs, although considerably larger in format.

He asked his subjects to remain expressionless and look straight at the camera.

At the same time as offering great detail in the sitters' faces, right down to the hair follicles and pores in their skin, the work's blank expressions and lack of visual triggers, such as gestures, confound our expectations of discovering a person's character through their appearance. 

Thomas Ruff - Portrait