Dana Gittings

I don't agree with Bernhard's hatred of photography and dismissal of it as an art.  It seems to me that Bernhard would have a problem with all forms of art, for they are only representations, what he calls" distortions" of reality.  He only likes to see the world exactly as it is, through no medium but his own senses.  However, everyone's perception of reality is not the same, and it is one of the beauties of art (including photography) that it can capture a specific perspective on reality.  What Bernhard sees as "distortion" is really the artist's unique angle on the reality that he/she observes.  One person will capture nature or a person or anything in a completely different way than another person will, and the eye of the camera gives the viewer an eye into the mind of the artist.  If we were only to observe reality as our individual selves, we would never expand ourselves and open our minds to the perspectives of other people.  We would also be blind to ways of perceiving the subject that might not have come to us naturally, but that with a photograph enrich our understanding the subject.

Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian playwright and novelist who lived from 1931 to 1989.  He had a very unhappy life from its beginnings as an illegitimate child and having lung disease (sarcoidosis) at a young age.  He had a negative view on life that was conveyed in his works and is famous for saying, "Everything is ridiculous, when one thinks of death."  His misanthropic and negative view of the world may have contributed to his hatred of photography.