The "Very Personal" Nature of Allen Ginsberg's Photography

Ginsberg's handwritten caption beneath the photograph states: "Kerouac wandering along East 7th street after visiting Burroughs at our pad, passing statue of Congressman Samuel "Sunset" Cot, "The Letter – Carrier's Friend" in Tompkins Square toward corner of Avenue A, Lower East Side; he's making a Dostoyevsky mad-face or Russian basso be-bop Om, first walking around the neighborhood, then involved with The Subterraneans, pencils & notebook in wool shirt-pockets, Fall 1953, Manhattan."



I once read a review of an artist, in which her work was characterized as being “very personal.”

My response: All art is personal.

Since I left Washington, I have continued to reflect on the Allen Ginsberg exhibition at The National Gallery and the “very personal” nature of his photographs. His photographs, along with his hand-written synopses included beneath each image on the wall, form keyholes through which visitors may peer into his experience among the Beat poets and “counterculture generation” from the 1950s to the 1990s. As an amateur photographer, Ginsberg combines a natural talent for photography with his critical observation of the world around him and his desire to capture and characterize it. This selective "moment in time" record of the changing post-war American culture exists as a series of insightful and witty photographs of his very noteworthy friends. These include William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Gregory Corso, writers and symbols of the disaffected society. The level of comfort between Ginsberg and his close friends allows for a candid sense of instantaneity that captures the personalities of the Beats and artists from this time. In this sense, the “very personal” nature of his photographs forms the theme of the exhibition as a visual documentation of the human experience in a society drifting between the wars before the “counterculture generation” took its own shape as an artistic force. While Ginsberg is an amateur, he approaches his photography with a refined intuition and a desire to capture the instantaneity of the world around him. His compelling appreciation for and application of these themes characterizes him as a great artist – both as a poet and as a photographer.



Photo source: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/ginsberg/ginsbergfull.shtm
Sources Cited: "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg." National Gallery of Art. 2 May 2010. Web. 2 June 2010.