維克多•柏根的攝影－文本：城市漫遊與地方靈性

Abstract

英國藝術家維克多•柏根在1976年至1981年間製作五件攝影－文本系列，以國度或城市之名，描寫西歐與美國等地的日常生活與人文風景，呈現全球化時代的游牧工作型態和場域特定藝術。柏根試圖尋求地方的靈性，旅人的精神空間與社會現實的交錯。本文首先在紀實攝影式微的脈絡中，討論柏根的作品如何發揮街頭攝影的風格、索引性和在場性，卻透露對於街頭攝影的倫理和再現的意識型態之反思。柏根引述和穿插許多異質文本，包括批判理論、廣告文案和虛構故事，逆轉視覺主導性，催生了攝影框外的敘事和聯想空間。本文以城市漫遊者的多層意涵－波特萊爾的有意識萬花筒，班雅明的收藏家、偵探和文化生產者，包曼的旅行玩家，來探討柏根對於現代性的反思和後現代空間的批判，並聚焦於柏根的男性凝視、社會評論、白日夢編織。最後，將討論1996年出版的《某些城市》重新脈絡化曾經展出的作品，回溯攝影的指涉對象，提取人生旅程的記憶痕跡。

Victor Burgin made five photo-text series on European and American cities and explored the everyday life and urban landscapes from 1976 to 1981 as a practice of nomadic work condition and site-specific art. He was in search for the genius of the place which means the intersection of the psychic space and social reality. This paper will situate Burgin’s work in the context of the documentary photography in decline and discuss its dialectic relationship with street photography. His work internalizes the style, indexicality, and presentness of street photography and yet critically reflects on the ethical problem and ideology embedded in the representation. Burgin juxtaposes quotations from such heterogeneous texts as advertisement, critical theory, and fiction, and thus subverts the primacy and hegemony of the visual and expands the off-frame space of narratives and associations. Considering the layered meanings of the flâneur-Baudelaire's ”kaleidoscope equipped with a consciousness”, Benjamin's collector/detective/cultural producer, and Bauman's ”traveling player”, this paper will focus on Burgin's reflexion on modernity, critique of male gaze, market capitalism, postmodern space, and use of daydreams and fantasy. This study will ends with a discussion of Burgin's book Some Cities, published in 1996, which recontextualizes the previously exhibited work, follows the referents in the photography, and evokes the memory traces of a life's journey.