CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
THE FLÂNEUSE
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of Master of Arts
In Visual Arts
By
Nichole Gawalis
May 2014
The thesis of Nichole Gawalis is approved:
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Samantha Fields, M.F.A.
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Date
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Edward Alfano, M.S.
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Date
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Lesley Krane, M.F.A., Chair
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Date
California State University, Northridge
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Table of Contents
Signature page
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Abstract
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The Flâneuse
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References
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Appendix
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ABSTRACT
THE FLÂNEUSE
By
Nichole Gawalis
Master of Arts in Visual Arts
My photographic practice embodies the concept of the flâneur. I seek out new but strangely
familiar places and experiences, and this quietly adventurous mood informs the work. I am
drawn to the narrative possibilities of photography and I use analogue equipment to explore
and amplify the individual moments, unassuming objects, and unlikely places I visit.
While photographing within a mostly digital culture, I want my images to take up actual
space and provide a sense of scale for the subjects they portray. The images become
souvenirs of the places I visit, and my quiet presence and occasional participation in each
scene imply an aesthetic and emotional investment in the process. In what follows I will
discuss how I employ methods of the flâneur while photographing to create visual narratives
and how the photographs become souvenirs of my experiences.
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THE FLÂNEUSE
Restlessness permeates my photographic practice. I seek out new but strangely familiar
places and experiences, and this quietly adventurous mood informs my work. I use film to
photograph the unaltered environments and the objects and people that inhabit them while
traveling in my city and outside of it. The images I make become souvenirs of the places I
visit. My photographic practice embodies the concept of the flâneur. My thesis paper
describes how I employ methods of the flâneur while photographing to create visual
narratives and how the photographs become souvenirs of my experiences.
For the sake of this paper I will refer to flâneurie in a couple of ways. First I will give the
original, rather antiquated definition. Then I will give a more modern and updated definition
with help from David Tuffley and his text The Artful Traveler. I will speak of this new
modern version but refer to its original name, simply as the flâneur, flâneuse or modern
flâneur. I will define it in relation to a physical method of travel and discuss it as the mindset
of a traveller. I will also discuss the multimedia collaborative project Eight Eighty-Eight and
refer to William Eggleston’s process as two examples of creating photographs that compare
to the style of the flâneur.
An “idly rich dandy” comprises an early definition of the flâneur (Tuffley 11). This idea was
personified by an unemployed man from a privileged upbringing who explored Paris in the
early nineteenth century. An “aimless stroller” (Luessen) and “lounger,” he was “a man who
saunters around observing society” (Oxford). Rapid cultural and industrial
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changes inspired this newfound desire to explore one’s place of origin or leisure. “The
concept of wandering the city dates back to early-nineteenth century literature as authors and
practitioners attempted to come to terms with modernity’s new realities” (Luessen).
I am interested in an updated concept of the flâneur, and the term “Artful Traveller”
represents this incarnation (Tuffley). While it may not be motivated by the rapidly changing
times of the early nineteenth century, the contemporary flâneur experiences new changes
and explores them in the same fashion. The modern flâneur is one who, regardless of
economic status or gender, actively explores places with the same deliberate pace and careful
observation of flâneurs past. As a woman, I embody the flâneuse from an artist’s point of
view. I photograph while traveling and maintain the open and curious mentality of the
explorer.
Whether exploring one’s own city or an unfamiliar place, I approach the project in a number
of ways. The flâneur as a concept of travel is a method of exploration that requires one to
flow about a city or place with open mindedness, with no expectations; if anything only “a
starting and end point” are planned or known (Tuffley 12). In fact, according to Lao Tzu “a
good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving” (Tuffley 12). Every other
element or factor is left to chance. Although, I have discovered that it is more than chance; it
is the instinctive reaction to a place and its people. As a result anything that arises does so
organically and follows the flâneur’s intuition. Experiences and actions result from the
instinctual choices made by the traveler.
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Using the flâneur mentality to travel, explore, and observe, and using photography to absorb,
preserve, and relay the experience comprise my research. “The goal is to encounter new and
authentic experiences through intuitively-directed drifting” (Tuffley 13). I photograph while
traveling in my city and outside of it, and the images I make become souvenirs of the places I
visit and the experiences I have in them. Although one does not have to leave the place she
lives in order to explore in this manner, the beauty of the idea is the fact that it can be
performed anywhere and at any time. Openly following one’s curiosity is both a physical
way of living and a mental outlook.
My color photograph, LA County Fair (Fig. 1), embodies the concept of image making and
the flâneuse; I made it without leaving my home town. The Pomona Fairplex hosts the Los
Angeles County Fair every fall, and in 2012 I attended the event with a couple of friends to
celebrate a birthday. As usual, I had my camera with me, and as we explored the Fair’s
exhibition rooms and rides, I photographed throughout the night.
I have been to many fairs in my life, and I did not expect to see anything new. Having no
expectations about the night and the photographs provided a sense of freedom, permitted me
to shoot without restrictions, and allowed me to participate, embracing the events and people
surrounding me. LA County Fair represents many aspects of the fair: the animals and the
people, as well as the hierarchy of people in relation to the animals. The arena lights
illuminate the spectators’ hair and create a strange, dream-like atmosphere. While
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most of the people remain faceless, one man’s face observes me photographing him. His
subtle connection to the camera and my process acknowledges my participation and my
presence.
Whether I am abroad or at home, my engagement with the people I encounter and the places
I visit contribute to authentic experiences. The nineteenth century French poet and one of the
earliest and most influential writers about the flâneur, Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
expresses this idea in addition to the importance of becoming part of the crowd:
"His passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the perfect
flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the
multitude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite.
To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at
the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world”
(Baudelaire 9).
I approach my photographic practice with the mindset of a modern flâneur. I might establish
parameters, including staying at a motel or visiting a cultural attraction, and then let the rest
unfold: to take off, to stroll, to be an invisible cell in the body of the city, and to wait for
things to be photograph. Patience has become part of this process, because feeling compelled
or rushed disrupts flow of the experience and negatively affects the quality of the images I
make.
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My traveling project, Eight Eighty-Eight combines the flâneuse, performance, and
photography. For this mobile art project, my collaborator Kristen Dikio and I began the trip
with only three parameters: the starting point, the duration of the trip, and the distanced
travelled one way. Everything else was unknown, including the route we would take and
where we would stop along the way. Ms. Dikio and I did not know each other outside of an
academic setting, and this immersion into friendship became integral to the project.
We based the project on give-and-take, exchanges of objects, and the collection of
thoughts. Driving to the west coast with a camera, typewriter, and scrolls of paper, we met
people and asked them to type as many words, numbers, and symbols of their choosing on
the scroll. As each person typed, I used instant film to photograph this moment of
contribution. We wrote the date and our names on the photograph, and the participant kept
it. Ms. Dikio and I formed a tangible collection of the strangers’ thoughts, and in return they
received a souvenir for their participation.
Often I show the finished prints in groups of three, four, or five in order to create a narrative
about my experience (Fig. 2). In Eight Eighty-Eight, five images reveal only a portion of the
story, leaving decisive ambiguities that encourage viewers to enter and linger.
We began our project in Las Vegas, Nevada; traveled through Seattle, Washington; and
ended in Los Angeles, California. In just under two weeks, eighty-eight participants
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contributed written thoughts to our scroll. Our interactions with each participant were as
different as the content each message typed on the scroll. The messages ranged in emotion,
gravity, humor, and length, and our unanticipated encounters with people and their
contribution infused the trip with meaning.
The work of the flâneur comprises more than waiting around and chatting: the
waiting becomes active observation. Photographing and employing the flâneur mentality
require one to slow down and pay attention. “Nuances they seek… can only be noticed and
appreciated when one is unhurried and open minded” (Tuffley 15).
The open-minded flâneur-as-photographer does not over-analyze whether a subject is
“worthy” of representation; every subject has possibilities. American photographer William
Eggleston (b.1939) devised this notion of a “democratic camera,” this concept informs my
practice (Holborn).
William Eggleston embodies the Modernist flâneur. Part of his practice included
photographing during road trips throughout the United States, specifically in the south. His
open-minded approach to subject matter emulates the flâneur’s non-judgmental outlook
(Figs. 3, 4). Eggleston’s concept of the “Democratic Camera” asserts that all subjects have
equal value in the eye of the photographer. The term “democracy” pertains to “the
possibilities of what could be photographed, its perimeters were uncertain…there was no
end” (Holborn 10). “So broad are [Eggleston’s photographs] in their content, subject, or
mood that they strike not a single note, but whole passages, like fragments of a musical
composition” (Holborn 6).
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The photographic representation of the “everyday” and the mundane allows for endless
possibilities. Nothing is off limits and seemingly random subjects stand together under the
umbrella of “everything.” This fosters the sense of freedom discussed previously: the
freedom to move, observe and create without boundaries. Equally important to my process is
the use of 35mm and medium format cameras that I find in second hand stores. These
broken and outdated tools allow me to explore the surprising visual effects that often
accompany older equipment. Photographing within a mostly digital culture, my images take
up actual space and provide a sense of scale for the subjects they portray. I print the
negatives in a darkroom, because I enjoy the control, process, and tangibility of working with
analog equipment. While shooting, I do not control the environment, allowing anything to
happen and be photographed. However, I implement careful control as I make and prepare
the images for presentation. Each print’s nuanced color, highlights, and shadow detail
amplify the individual moments, unassuming objects, and unlikely places I photograph.
I consider souvenirs to be objects without boundaries; they take many forms and shapes and
come from anywhere. Souvenirs also take shelter under the umbrella of "everything." My
photographs function as souvenirs that I make. According to French philosopher Roland
Barthes (1915-1980), “Photography transformed subject into object”
so the physical photograph can be equated to a souvenir (Barthes 13). Photographic
prints are objects that reveal stories of particular places at specific times, and "this capacity
of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience is, in fact, exemplified by the souvenir"
(Stewart 135).
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Transforming images and experiences into objects describes my work. The open-minded
approach of the flâneur and the narrative qualities of the photograph-as-souvenir create the
possibility for a variety of meaningful experiences: seeing a familiar place in a new way,
interacting with strangers, and creating images instinctually.
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References
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang,
1981. Print.
Baudelaire, Charles. The Painter of Modern Life: And Other Essays. London: Phaidon, 1964.
Print.
"Definition of Flâneur in English:." Flâneur: Definition of Flâneur in Oxford Dictionary
(American English) (US). Oxford Dictionaries, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Eggleston, William, and Mark Holborn. William Eggleston: Los Alamos. Beverly Hills, CA:
Gagosian Gallery, 2012. Print.
Luessen, Christopher. "The Flâneur, Psychogeography and Drift Photography." ArtHopper.
N.p., 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the
Collection. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press, 1993. Print.
Tuffley, David. The Artful Traveller. 1st. San Bernadino: Altiora Publications, 2013 Print.
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Appendix
Fig. 1
L.A. County Fair, Chromogenic print, 20 x 24 inches, 2012.
Fig. 2
Set of images from Eight Eighty-Eight. Chromogenic prints, 20 x 24 inches, 2013.
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Fig. 3
William Eggleston, Near Greenwood, Mississippi, Dye transfer print, 1972.
Fig 4.
William Eggleston, Untitled, from the Los Alamos series, Dye transfer print. nd.
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