László Moholy-Nagy: The Juxtaposition of camera & gun

For László Moholy-Nagy, the camera is a gun and its shooting is violence. The juxtaposition of the camera and the gun in this way is not a mere analogy nor just a metaphor. An inves­tigation into the history of photographic equipment in the second half of the last century reveals a wide variety of cameras designed to hunt wildlife without harming the hunted but with violence of capture as the camera takes the form of the weapon in design and and function. Whether one looks at Enja­bert's Photographic Revolver (1882), E. J. Marey's Photographic Firearm (1882), or Lechner's Gunman Camera (1891), one finds that these photographic technologies are modelled upon the arse­nal of contemporary military weaponry.

Left: 1882: Enja­bert's Photographic Revolver

László Moholy-Nagy was a photographer, typographer, sculptor, painter, industrial designer and evidently a philosopher, that taught at the famous German Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of industrial technology into the arts. His tenure at Bauhaus marked the end of the school’s expressionistic leanings and moved it towards its original aims as a school of design and industrial integration.

In his book "Vision in Motion" published posthumously, Moholy's theorises on the early 20th century avant garde Dadaist art inspired photomontages that focused on the "shock effect" which exposes the "violence" of photography, creating his own unique type of visual art. His photomontages were experiments with photographic paper, he called the photogram, whereby sensitised paper was partially covered with objects and exposed to light. When the paper was developed, the objects’ shadows became fixed on it. He stated that whatever the weapon employed, whether a pen, brush, or cam­era, the act of naming and enframing something produces an irreducible "vio­lence" upon the world. I'll liken the violence part as he describes it as being similar to ballistics terminology. It hit the viewer like a bullet, it happened to him, thus creating a tactile experience. When the viewer tries to process these images in their head, they are interrupted by doing so by the constant, sudden change, This constitutes the shock part of the work.

1882: E. J. Marey's Photographic Firearm

László rightfully prophesied in his writings that the camera as a weapon would be as important as compared to other educational implements in the future. This points out how his "New Vision" will be photogrammatical in na­ture. He goes on to say that "The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the camera as well as the pen." The future demands a new type of visual literacy in the form of the fanatical snapshooter versed in the violence of inscription in the graphic arts. This would bring a reverse angle to the theme of ignorance and the anonymity of Moholy (alias The Fool) snapping away at himself and others. "The fanaticism typical of today's ubiquitous snapping away seems to indicate those ignorant of photography will be the illiter­ate of tomorrow. [dass der fotogra-fieunkundige der anal( abet der zukunft sein wird]."

Left: This Camera Gun article from "The Redwood Stumper 2010: The Newsletter of the Redwood Gun Club, Arcata, by Paul Feist best demonstrates the "violence" unleashed from both camera and gun.

The shooting practice switches attention from the subject of the enunciation (the "I" who likes "to play guns") to the subject of the enunciated (the becoming the victim of the violent gunplay). Like little kids that play police and thieves, the subject hides when he plays guns. He hides himself from his target, leaving only a hand exposed, cocked, and ready to shoot. For he is about to unleash the violence of the capture. The photographic gunman stands ready to remove the anonymity of the subject through the pull of the trigger.

1891: Lechner's Gunman Camera.