The Unsettling Beauty: Interpretations of David Lynch's Factory Photographs

• Main Authors: Zhong Yi, 鍾一
• Other Authors: Shao-Chien TSENG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6c5t4v

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 藝術學研究所 === 104 === David Lynch (1946- ), best known as an American film director, has been involved in various visual art domains during his career. The exhibition “David Lynch: The Factory Photographs” held in The Photographers’ Gallery in early 2014, showed the black and white photographs taken by Lynch in disused industrial areas in Central Europe, the UK and the USA from 1980 to 2000. The “industrial motif” has become a repeated theme in Lynch’s work; in the factory photographs, the recurrent upward angle in framing, and the unsettling dark ambiance, both evoke Lynchian uncanny and mysterious scenarios. The artist’s special emphasis on abstract aesthetics of mechanical structures, as well as the mood and texture in the industrial wastelands, open up the series to diverse interpretations. My first chapter begins with the general analysis of the catalogue The Factory Photographs, indicating the motifs of Lynch’s images. By reviewing the history of industrial landscape photography, and comparing Lynch’s images with the relevant works of other photographers, we see the difference in terms of technology, style and intention. The derelict factories, as a symbol of industrial ruin or wasteland, remain beautiful in Lynch’s eye, through which we discover his unique view and aesthetic attitude towards the decaying industrial architecture. In the second chapter, I discuss Lynch’s industrial-related drawings and paintings by comparing them with the machine aesthetics and avant-garde art trends between the first and second world wars. There also exist the traces of avant-garde photography, especially the New Vision, in Lynch’s factory photographs. Lynch treats drawing and photography as distinct media, as the tension and sublimity of industry are underlined in the photographs. The third chapter mainly focuses on the comparison between the “factory” in Lynch’s film and photography. With Eraserhead, we find the similar industrial atmosphere or composition in both moving pictures and still images, but it assumes distinct meaning and narrative possibility. In Inland Empire, the “factory” can be regarded as the metaphor of urban space, which plays a complex and bizarre role in the real life and image world. The dilapidated factory spaces captured by Lynch’s camera, express darkness and optimism, thrill and beauty in the same series; with the characteristics of photography, according to the diverse contexts, we may find a variety of interpretations