Silent History by Peter K. Andersson

Author:Peter K. Andersson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MQUP
Published: 2018-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

6.3 · CANNING TOWN, LONDON, 1906 (with kind permission of Brian Girling)

This use of the pose is akin to some of the uses of the walking-stick pose as a way of retaining dignity in moments of immobility. It signals a temporary ritual state at the same time as it is performative, and it appears in two types of contexts: when men stand still and look about themselves or into a camera, and when they stroll at a temperate pace. The two initial film examples illustrate this, as do many other Mitchell and Kenyon films. In their Panoramic View of Morecambe Sea Front, from 1901, at least three men display this pose. One is a cab driver waiting for customers and posing by the side of the road as the camera sweeps past on a tram (figure 6.6). Another is an elderly man with a long white beard strolling slowly along the promenade in the company of a woman (figure 6.7). The actions of these two men correspond somewhat to those of the two men described at the beginning of this chapter: one standing, the other strolling. The standing man might be compared to other standing men who are seen in the same footage. In the Morecambe film, we see several other cab drivers as well as other men and women who have taken their position on the promenade waiting for the camera to go by and take their picture. They assume a variety of poses. Some men hold their arms akimbo, others have one hand in a trouser pocket. Some have their hands behind their back, and others just let their arms hang at their sides. Are all these poses interchangeable? Do they mean roughly the same thing? Yes and no. This conscious posing behaviour is visible in the Petticoat Lane film as well, and there the poses – being caught close up – can be studied alongside facial expressions and other minute details of behaviour. This allows us to discern between, on the one hand, men who make distinctive poses consciously and with the intention of performing an expansive role, for the sake of appearing masculine or self-contained in the film, and, on the other hand, men who barely pose at all, either because they are surprised by the camera or because their conscious performance involves a restrained body language, similar to the “rigid frontality” of portrait photography.

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