Charles Traub interviews Charlotte Cotton

Cotton has spent her career as a Museum Curator of Photography. This has allowed her to see both a vast range of photographic work, to interact with a large number of photographers and to observe how people viewed different types of photography over the years. In 2004 she published a book on “The Photograph as Contemporary Art”.

Charles Traub is clearly a photographer and brings his own experience to the interview. Photographers seem to see themselves as producing either high art (for galleries and a small number of people) or commercial pieces (for magazines and as contracts for firms). This seems to be a dilemma for them, especially the tension between trying to make a living and wanting to explore ideas that may have no financial value.

The interview takes place as Charlotte Cotton has moved to a new role in New York as a Director of Cultural Programming: Art & Commerce. Charles Traub asks her to draw from her experience in the different cultural and commercial context of London, and comment on the democracy of photography as well as the changing social and economic context for photographers. They also explored the line between photographic art and photographic representation.

On the democracy of photography Cotton commented that public access to collections has opened the field up so it is owned by everyone. This is a bit like opening museums up to the public.

On the changing social and economic context for photographers, she had several points to make. One was that there was less of a role now for the photographic essay on social issues, as that had been taken over by film and other media. Another was that photographers now could not just sit back and place their work in one or two industry magazines. In a very crowded and commercially-driven print media, they had to create their own niche and places. They also had to create their own peer networks, rather than seek approval from a few respected older individuals. This was important as photography needs to be part of several people’s lives and thinking, rather than created in isolation.

Exploring the line between art and commercial photography, Cotton used the field of fashion photography. She said there had been some iconic fashion photographers whose work had developed into an art form. She does not like, however, people putting themselves in one category or the other. The interview concluded with her saying that there has been a shift from “the messenger being the message to the medium being the message”. I think this means a shift from photographer just documenting something to actually playing with the possibilities of photography itself.