The Syeus Mottel Photographic Archive; Prototype book titled ‘The View from the Street’
abstract,
The photography of Syeus Mottel is important documentation of a misunderstood era. The 1960’s to the 70’s has been viewed through a lens that hides the true interconnected nature of the period. Mottel’s lens, as his ‘diary,’ takes him through both the common interaction of daily life and to extraordinary events and he documents it all. The View from the Street will be created as a book prototype focusing on the people and places he encountered in his daily life. A student of Bruce Davidson at Magnum photography, Mottel’s skill as a documentarian should be recognized by a wider audience but that his work currently remains unknown . This prototype will be a general overview of his street photography, focusing on photography shot in New York City during the years 1967-1972. Included in his archive are street photos of Martin Luther King, Alan Ginsberg, Stokely Carmichael, MoonDog, Charlotte Moorman, Miles Davis.
The format of the prototype will be an E-Book, with approximately 60-100 images.
introduction,
The Syeus Mottel photography book prototype, The View from the Street will be a document of Mottel’s lens at street level that captures both famous people, and the unknown passerby. By focusing on Mottel’s street level photography rather than his documentation of indoor action, we see the skill of Mottel’s photography as the natural state of the events and people he documented without his own perception editorializing the images. This prototype will focus the work on New York City street photography from 1967-1972. Mottel, who was an active theater director who studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio, used his camera as his ‘diary’ to document all that he witnessed. Unlike Instagram culture where work is instantly disseminated, Mottel’s photography was not widely seen, except for scant publication by international news wire services when he was on assignment. This prototype book will be the first public visage of Mottel’s photography in book form since 1973.
background,
Syeus Mottel (1930-2014), was a published photographer, noted for his documentation of Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio and Buckminster Fuller. In 1973, he published a photojournalistic book entitled ‘Charas, The Improbable Dome Builders’, documenting the attempt to build geodesic domes on the Lower East Side on Manhattan. He also appears as the credited photographer in William Greaves Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. In 1965, Lee Strasberg of the Actor's Studio granted him exclusive permission to photograph at the Actor's Studio. This resulted in a ten-year photographic archive of the Studio from 1965-1975. His photographic mentor was Bruce Davidson of Magnum Photography. He then became Media Consultant to R. Buckminster Fuller, with his media documentation of Fuller's activities widely published. When asked what his photographic method was, Mottel replied 'I was looking to make a diary."
Syeus Mottel preserved his photographic archive in its original manila envelopes, with date/subject matter noted by hand on each envelope. Over 500 envelopes with contact sheets and negatives were stored in his apartment. Upon his death in January 2014, his son Matthew Mottel has been responsible for the archive. Matthew Mottel has begun a first digitization of his materials, scanning the covers of the manila envelopes and the contact sheets and organizing the material on a hard drive. This hard drive has over 500 folders that will be reviewed, and properly indexed into a searchable database. Once this is done, the photographs can be categorized, the many subjects can be annotated, and decisions made regarding importance in contemporary aesthetics. For this project, which is focused on street photography, 60-100 images will be selected to make a prototype book which will be the first major survey of Syeus Mottel’s work to date.
work plan ,
The first step is to review the folders individually and find photography that matches the ‘street level’ metric. This metric means that he contact sheets will be evaluated, and when a photo meets the standard of articulating the setting/time period/location that allows the viewer to experience the world at the moment of the photo, then the photo will be selected. With over 500 folders, this will take extensive time and evaluation. As each folder is reviewed, images can be selected that meet the goals of the prototype. These images will be compiled, notated for location/date when available, edited for image quality and prepared for the prototype book consisting of 60-100 images.
Format of protoype book will be as digital ebook. Photos will be both individual frames as single image on page, up to 3 images of same subject on one page, and when all photos are unique, contact sheet will be reproduced as image for book.
Significance
I am acting both as curator, editor, representative and dutiful son in this endeavor. It is my goal to have my father’s work exist within curatorial photographic history of the mid 20th century. Seminal cultural and political figures in Syeus Mottel’s archive include Martin Luther King, Alan Ginsberg, John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Stokely Carmichael, MoonDog, Paul Jenkins, Robert Rauschenberg, Vito Acconci, Charlotte Moorman, Ken Dewey, Buckminster Fuller, Lee Strasberg, Miles Davis etc. Almost all of the photographs within the archive are street style photography, with very few posed & stylized photographs. Selections from this archive as a prototype book will permit a wider audience to view his work for the first time.
WORK PLAN
Week 8 - Start to itemize and catalog archive, research which software is best to use.
Week 9 - Continued work to itemize archive.
Week 10 - Database itemization, organizing completed.
Week 11 - Evaluation of materials, determination of what subjects will be focused on in book presentation.
Week 12 - Start formatting digital/physical mock book.
Week 13 - Editing of photographs, reducing number of selected photos, continued work on format for digital/physical edition of mock book.
Week 14 - Completion of digital and physical mock book. Estimated number of photographs included is 60-100.
RESEARCH
Research links
Archive presentation:
Street photography:
TOWARD A SOCIAL LANDSCAPE
BRUCEDAVIDSON LEEFRIEDLANDER GARRYWINOGRAND DANNYLYON DUANEMICHALS EDITEDBYNATHANLYONS
HORIZON PRESS, NEW YORK, IN COLLABORATION WITH THE GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
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