Seeing Sherrie Levine – Howard Singerman

From my understanding of the essay, Sherrie Levine’s photos focus on an odd depiction of Walker Evans original photographs that have been previously printed. These destitute events that Evans captured occurred in the 1930s at a time when he was present to photograph. The author, Howard Singerman, describes Levine’s photos as completing a story in which they are titled “After Walker Evans”. I am a little confused as to what exactly she did with the photographs, but I do know that she re-photographed them to make them her own. This proved the original photograph to be “inimitable and the artist’s hand unavoidable” (127). With this, I can only help but question if she can really call these photographs her own? Focusing on the images reprinted in the reader was not enough to comprehend what Levine’s “After Walker Evans” photographs looked like, and hopefully there will be an opportunity to do so in class.

Singerman claims that, “Levine’s rephotographs initiate and retrace “a crisis of phenomenality,” a sight or scene that “can no longer be simply perceived, but rather read and interpreted” (128). Singerman claims that Levine’s photographs exude a presence that is different from that of Evans original print. There is an interesting type of perception that can be interpreted from Levine’s rephotographs and here the viewer is called upon to read and make a unique interpretation. I’m not quite sure I can agree with all of these statements made in this essay. What is so special about rephotographing someone else’s work and claiming it as your own? Singerman also mentioned the complicated issue of gender and the social meaning between Evan’s and Sherrie’s photographs and how these specific divisions play out for each artist. This went on for a few pages, and I honestly did not see how all of the arguments added up. The most interesting point made was that Sherrie’s photos are not quite like Evans in the sense that she tends to photograph objects of desire and focus on the specific positioning of her work. In Levine’s perspective there is no first look, but there is only looking after, in the theoretical sense of course.