Postmodernism

The Postmodern era was generally referred to as the significant shift in attitude away from the certainties of the Modernist idea which was based on progress. It developed from the end of Modernism which was roughly 1960, and from there created a new way of thinking from reacting to the rules of Modernism. Completely opposing the movement of Modernism it has no rules, the Postmodern era is based on parody, pastiche, irony and bricolage. Celebrating what might otherwise be known as Kitsch and collapsing the distinction between high culture and popular culture. Its aesthetic is that of complexity, far from the Modernist aesthetic which was based on simplicity. Postmodernism constantly questions the conventions set up by Modernism with a multiplicity of styles and approaches. Its themes explored the ideas of double coding, borrowing or quoting from a number of historical styles. Instead of creating art that celebrated beauty the Postmodernist idea was to make a comment on the unremarkable.  In Modernist photography it celebrated the idea of showing the beauty and simplicity in reality, Postmodernism put aside this notion. Instead it looked at how the photograph can lie, and mislead the viewer into believing that the interpretation of reality is honest. Mary Warner Marion questions in 'The Postmodernist View' that "While it once seemed that pictures had the function of interpreting reality, it now seems that they have usurped it."
 In a photographic sense Postmodernism put forward the idea of giving all and nothing, asking the viewer to create their own narrative instead of being given one. Gregory Crewdson's photograph 'Untitled' (Ophelia from Twilight) 2001, puts forward a 21st century Ophelia based on Millet's original pre-raphaelite painting. The style of the image is like a film still, its carefully lighted and staged in a way which makes it beyond the ordinary but however believable. Crewdson allows the viewer to indulge in clues to the narrative of the image. We can tell that this image is full of tragedy, could it be a murder scene? or is it a bizarre case of suicide? These questions are put forward to the viewer to try and discover what the story is behind this image. However in a typical Postmodern style this image has no ending, it is up to the viewer to make their own sense of it.