Close Up (Mar-Dec 1932)

Record Details:

Title:
Close Up
Date:
Mar-Dec 1932
Publisher:
[London, etc., Pool]
Volume:
Close up ... devoted to the art of films
Leaf #:
000202
Language:
English
Subjects:
motion pictures, Motion pictures -- Periodicals
Collection:
Switzerland, Early Cinema, and Global Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
Library of Congress, MBRS, Moving Image Section
Sponsor:
Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
As an active film magazine, CLOSE UP lasted only a short time, from 1927 to 1933. Yet the legacy of this English-language periodical, which was published in Switzerland, continues to matter. Edited by Bryher and her husband Kenneth Macpherson, CLOSE UP became THE magazine for energetic debates about the nature of cinema and manifestos imagining new forms of filmmaking and spectatorship. The magazine published articles by filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, and female literary modernists, such as H.D. and Gertrude Stein. As film scholar Anne Friedberg explains in the anthology CLOSE-UP, 1927-1933: CINEMA & MODERNISM, 'CLOSE UP became the model for a certain type of writing about film -- writing that was theoretically astute, politically incisive, critical of films that were simply 'entertainment.' For six and a half years, CLOSE UP maintained a forum for a broad variety of ideas about the cinema; it never advocated a single direction of development, but rather posed alternatives to existing modes of production, consumption, and film style.' Like Friedberg's own writing, CLOSE UP continues to be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of film and media theory. -- Eric Hoyt, 2014
Date Added:
February 22, 2024
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN BRUSSELS July, 1932. The International Exhibition of Photography in Brussels, July, 1932, made an interesting attempt to show the achievements of photography both in its application to different purposes and as an art. The collection shown in the well-equipped rooms of the Palais de Beaux Arts was so big and comprehensive that it was impossible to see everything at a single visit for it contained more than a thousand photographs. It was divided into ten sections : beside the largest one devoted to photography as an art, specimens of rayography and photomontage, there were rich collections of photographs used for advertisements, for reporting, as book illustrations and in cinematography. There was the beautiful section of aerophotography and of the use of the camera in scientific research, a special set of pictures from Soviet Russia and finally some autochromes. Among the artists who have contributed art photographs were well known names of international importance such as Man Ray, Renger-Patzsch, Germaine KruU, Sasha Stone, Aenne Biermann and others. It was remarkable how many of the pictures were portraits, most of them enlarged to more than life size. I liked the ones of Sasha Stone (the portraits of Einstein, Liebermann, and different types from the plays in the Oberammergau, and the studies of Prince Tito). Man Ray's interesting shots were not put under glass or in a frame but fastened on an unpolished Triplex plate which gave an original and tasteful effect. Besides the portraits there were beautiful close ups of flowers and animals (by Renger-Patzsch especially), landscapes, studies of modern and old architecture, still life studies, etc. Very big enlargements of tissues, the human skin, flowers, never failed to have an amazing effect. Whereas the eflPect of rayography and photomontage seemed less impressive once the appeal of novelty had been lost and gave way to sound photography, which does not require too much thought, like photomontage — or too little, like rayophotography.* The use of the photograph as advertisement is daily on the increase, due to its efficiency, which again is rooted in its realism of expression. If I see the glittering bottles, or the toothbrushes, standing up like trees (taken by Bresson), I want to touch them, and receive therefore that favourable impression which is advertisement's aim. The cinema section included stills from the best films produced in recent years. The Russian film was represented by Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Turin, Trauberg, Ekk and others : the English film by Kenneth Macpherson, with an interesting set of stills from Borderline, the French film by Rene Clair, Cavalcanti, Dryer, etc., the German film by G. W. Pabst {Dreigroschen Oper, Kamaradschafi) Ruttmann and one or two more, there were stills from American pictures by Metro-GoldwynMayer and Warner Bros, and a set from the lovely films of the Dutch Joris Ivans. * Which statement refers to photomontage and rayography in so far as they claim to be considered as mere art, for they are an efficient help to applied photography. 188