A Review of Brian Moody's "Bob Marley contactsheet"

This is an art critique of Brian Moody’s “Bob Marley Contactsheet.” The following will seek to discern Moody’s goal in making the art piece, analyze whether or not his goal was effective, and come up with a critique of the artwork as a whole. Figure 1 depicts Moody’s 85x95cm photograph:

 Figure 1: Brian Moody. “Bob Marley contactsheet.” December 1979 (http://rockarchive.nl/artists-4/bob-marley/bob-marley-contactsheet.html)

The first thing that should be noted in this critique is that the piece is both one photograph and 36 photographs. At points, this critique will analyze the 36 photographs as individual photographs or small collections. However, the overall photograph, and therefore the overall critique, concerns itself with the compilation of 36 small photos as one larger, cohesive whole.

The dilemma of one photograph vs three dozen is the heart of Moody’s piece. The viewer sees 36 photographs because Moody’s photograph is a contact sheet – a piece of photo paper that photographers typically uses to study thumb-nail sized versions of their photos in positive colors (as opposed to the negatives of a developed film roll) in order to determine which ones the photographer will print. Yet in “Bob Marley contactsheet,” Moody has taken a typically discardable piece of photo paper and blown it up, arguing that this collection of throw-away photos are actually worth recognition as their own piece of art.

Moody’s choice to present the entire contact sheet allows him to immerse the viewer in the moment, situating them within the context not just of one snapshot, but of an entire interaction between him and his subject, Bob Marley. The photographs in this sequence were taken during one single interview in December 1979. The date of origin, the size of the photograph, and the photographer’s name are included in the photo’s short description, along with the following: “an interview with Bob Marley, the day after his arrival in London. Marley had fled Jamaica after an assault on his life. The series of images reflect the different moods and emotions of Bob Marley on that particular day.” Therefore, this critique posits the following as Moody’s main goal: he has chosen a contact sheet of 36 photos, instead of a single snapshot from his interview with Bob Marley, in order to allow the viewer to be immersed in the moment and provide an understanding of Marley as a living, breathing, moving human being. Though photography – and not a more traditionally “active” medium, like film – is Moody’s medium of choice, he has nevertheless moved from a stationary, single moment into a more active stream of moments.

These moments give the viewer a sense of emotional movement throughout a conversation. In the 36 images, the viewer can see can see Marley’s happiness as well as his confusion, something that might not be evident in a frozen snapshot of one particular moment. Snapshots are important (and indeed, Brian Moody published several stand-alone prints from the same day) but the contact sheet has a more expansive and ambitious goal. It aims to present a living person through a brief narrative.

Moody’s “real” Bob Marley partially comes through in the imperfect photos. A standard film roll is 36 photos, and “Bob Marley contactsheet,” characteristically, includes 36 thumbnails. As can be expected, the photos are not all perfectly composed. Some are blurry, while others reveal Marley mid-action:

Figure 2

The thumbnail farthest to the left shows Marley out of focus – presumably he had just leaned forward or backward out of the frame of focus. The center thumbnail shows Marley mid-blink, and the thumbnail farthest to the right shows Marley mid-sentence.[1] These photos are blurry and imperfect – they aren’t the types of photos anyone would want to put on their wall. Yet, placed among three dozen shots, these “failures” emerge as some of the most interesting: it is exactly these photos that illustrate the movement and emotion the piece promises. Therein lies the advantage in Brian Moody’s “Bob Marley contactsheet:” with these “bad” photos, that day in 1979 comes to life.

There are several other things about the photograph that immediately stand out and serve to further Moody’s goal of making the viewer believe they are getting a glimpse into Marley’s life. The first are the edges of the film roll. These edges have been included in the image, presumably, to emphasize the fact that this is a contact sheet. Since the photograph was taken in 1979 (and DSLRs were not invented until 1999), we know that Moody was using a film camera. Furthermore, based on the size of the images and the fact that there are 36 images in a roll, we know that Moody had a 35mm camera, which was popular with photojournalists at that time. Yet, based on the fact that the modern-day image is an 85x95cm photograph, we know the picture has been digitally edited in some way, even if that digital editing was simply scanning and blowing-up the original, smaller contact sheet. Yet, in such digital manipulations, Moody could have chosen to remove the film roll edges from the image, to interact with the images in some way and “clean up” the photograph, in a sense. His choice to keep the edges of the film roll evident on the photograph, therefore, is a conscious one.

The edges of the film roll emphasize the fact that this is a contact sheet, as contact sheets are the only medium where the edges of the film are conventionally visible. Additionally, the very top of the image follows the trend of adhering to what a contact sheet would look like – it’s completely black in the way it would have been if it had been printed on an enlarger, since there would be nothing preventing the light from shining on the photo paper for the duration of the exposure.

Furthermore, in the upper right hand corner of the photograph, the words “BM – 5 / 5758 – 2” are visible. Photographers catalogue their contact sheets in order to remember, chronologically, which rolls came first. Moody’s initials are another “authentic” aspect of the contact sheet he has chosen to publish.

Lastly, Moody emphasizes the contact sheet medium with the red circles on particular thumbnails:

  

Figure 3

These circles probably represent the pictures Moody printed or intended to print as stand-alone images. With the red circles, Moody is drawing the viewer’s attention to those particular images, which are the “better” images in the collection of 36. Yet the fact that those images have not been published only serves to highlight Moody’s dedication to the photograph’s main goal.

These choices enhance the contact sheet medium and align with Moody’s central goal for the piece. By maintaining the film rolls edges, the black borders, and the writing on the upper hand corner, Moody is conveying to the viewer that this is one cohesive film roll, one set of moments that occurred in this order, and that the viewer is seeing what he saw, that day in 1979 when he met with Bob Marley.

However, one equally important aspect to consider when analyzing this piece is what is not shown. As previously stated, Moody published other images from this interview as stand-alone or smaller collections. However, he did not publish many of them. In addition to “Bob Marley contactsheet,” the images in Figure 4 and Figure 5 are the only pictures Brian Moody published of Bob Marley.

 Figure 4. Brian Moody. “The Smile.” (http://rockarchive.nl/artists-4/bob-marley/bob-marley-triptique-the-smile.html)

Further analysis shows that the pictures that were published individually don’t appear in “Bob Marley contactsheet” at all. Yet these pictures were clearly taken on the same day. Not only is Marley wearing the same clothing, but the pictures also seem to be composed in similar lighting/background. The fact that they are not included in the contact sheet means there are pictures of this interview that Moody did not include in his larger photo.         

 Figure 5. Brian Moody. “Bob Marley London 1979.” (http://rockarchive.nl/artists-4/bob-marley/bob-marley-triptique-the-smile-447.html)

This alone would not be a problem – these printed pictures could have been taken in the previous or next roll of 36 and therefore not included in the contact sheet for chronology reasons; but that does not seem to be the case. The fourth row of the “Bob Marley contactsheet” includes three photos of Marley in the exact same position as the stand-alone prints above:

Figure 6

Because the photos were taken on the same day in a chronology that is clearly visible in “Bob Marley contactsheet,” the fact that photos have been removed from the chronology present in the larger photograph is disappointing to the viewer. Instead of providing one cohesive set of 36 images, Moody actually created “Bob Marley contactsheet” as an amalgamation of photos from multiple rolls of film that he has carefully composed together into one larger, seemingly seamless photo. This seamlessness is not only conveyed in the faux chronology of the smaller photos themselves, but also with the uninterrupted film roll borders that were previously mentioned. Moody ensured that the film roll edges looked continuous in order to convince the viewer that the photos were, in fact, chronological. The fact that these images were not, in fact, chronological means that Moody’s “Bob Marley contactsheet” conveys Marley’s “different moods and emotions” in a way that was actually carefully cultivated and not as organic as the viewer was initially led to believe. This makes the piece feel dishonest.

The implications are devastating to the photograph’s overall goals. Once viewer realizes the imposed chronology, they realize that their trust in the piece is unfounded; they have been purposefully tricked into believing a lie. Moody’s goal of providing a “real” version of Bob Marley is suddenly fragmented. After realizing that the photos in the contact sheet are not chronological but, in fact, fabricated, the viewer starts to question “Bob Marley contactsheet” as a whole. Are the moments depicted in the contact sheet the actual succession of moments that day? Are the reactions we see and interpret Marley’s real ones? Are we being manipulated and, if so, how does that change the integrity of the piece? Are there moments that have been purposefully cut – expressions Moody did not want us to see? Is this the real Bob Marley? Once the viewer realizes “Bob Marley contactsheet” is not an unedited contact sheet, the photograph transforms from a fascinating, unrestricted look into an international music sensation’s life into a beautiful fraud, a carefully composed deceit.

“Bob Marley contactsheet” is a well-made photograph that does many new and interesting things successfully. Moody’s use of the contact sheet as a medium is a pleasantly surprising one, and in an ideal world that would provide the viewer with an almost film-like understanding of a person. Yet Moody’s goal for the piece, as this critique posits, is to convince the viewer that, by purchasing “Bob Marley contactsheet,” they would be getting an authentic, uninterrupted, almost “behind the scenes” look at Bob Marley’s life. Once the viewer realizes this in not, in fact, true, the piece falls short of that goal.  

---

[1] The photos as presented here have been enlarged for detail, which is why the center and right-hand photo appear somewhat blurred.