#lectureseries2

Essay Writing 

Finishing Touches

Essay Planning

Image Analysis

The two images that I decided to analyse was Josef Sudek’s ‘Last Roses’ and Beyonce ‘Heat’ advertisement.

- Lecture 10 | 14.04.18 -

Roland Barthes - Death of the Author and Camera Lucida

Death of the Author (1967)

- ‘Death of the Author’ is a short essay about his ideas on how we respond and interpret the messages we are sent through images an texts.

- Barthes argues hat the producer only has partial control over the meaning.

- He suggests that all ‘messages’ (images and texts) are constructed within a social and political context.

- The reader/viewer has more responsibility to the text than the author.

- The different connotations and experiences that come from the author into the text are hidden when it arrives with the reader.

-  The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.

Camera Lucida (1980)

- Barthes only book devoted to photography.

- An enquiry into the nature of photography and a eulogy for his mother.

- The book is personal and subjective.

- It is broken into fragments where he responds to particular photographs that he finds provocative and stimulating.

- He discusses photography from the perspective of the spectator/viewer.

- Barthes is frustrated by the problem of photography which hinges it to reality – “no photograph without something or someone” – Barthes calls this a ‘fatality’.

Key Terms

The operator - The photographer.

The spectator - The viewer of the photograph.

The spectrum - What is depicted in the photograph.

Observed Subject

- “Once I feel myself being observed by the lens, everything changes; I constitute myself in the process of ‘posing’”.

- The transformation is from subject to object – “I experience a micro version of death”.

Key Terms #2

Studium - It is curiosity and can be explained as an interest in the composition, subject matter, action or setting of the photograph. The studium refers to the range of photographic meanings available and obvious to everyone. It is an intellectual engagement with the photograph.

Punctum - Is a “partial object” or detail in the image that attracts and holds my gaze. Inspires an intensely private meaning in the viewer. Something attractive in the detail. The detail is the punctum.

Studium

Unary - The image is a unified and self-contained whole whose meaning can be taken in at a glance.

Coded - Pictorial space is ordered in a universal comprehensible way.

- SEMINAR 6 | 07.03.18 -

Denotation and Connotation

1. What is the denotation of the image (the literal/depicted content)?

In the image that I have chosen there is a drinks can with frost and ice going down the sides in the centre and then all around it there are blocks of ice.

2. What is the cognitive connotation (factual elements of the work)?

The drinks can is filled with Diet Coke which has been taken out of the fridge as they say it tastes better when cold.

3. Are there any forms of photographic connotation at work?

They have added a gradient overlay to the image so that the light focusses on the can of Coke, making it stand out and grab the audience’s attention.

4. Is there a linguistic message (text/caption)?

The only text on this image is the text on the can which tells the audience that it is Diet Coke which is a very popular drink.

Does this from of analysis help you understand the photograph better?

- LECTURE 9 | 28.02.18 -

The Photographic Message

- Roland Barthes - French literary theorist, philosopher, writer and academic.

- His work explains how we can interpret and understand the meanings within photographs.

Key Writing :

- The Photographic Message (1961)

- The Rhetoric of the Image (1964)

- Barthes proposed a way of ‘reading’ photographs using the existing theory of Semiotics.

- The term comes from the ancient Greek word semeion meaning “sign”.

- A way of analysing meanings by looking at the signs which communicate these meanings.

- The audience (readers) work between their experience and message itself to come to a understanding. 

Key Theorists 

Charles S. Pierce (1839-1914)

- Symbolic, Iconic and Indexical signs

- Icon - Simplest sign since it is a pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for'.

- symbol - Doesn’t resemble what it refers to; it signifies through the force of convention (language). e.g. smoke is an index of fire.

- A sign is composed of a ‘signifier’ which is the form of which the sign takes and then the ‘signified’ which is the concept it represents.

Roland Barthes (1915-1980)

- A message - Is a singular, meaningful unit of which could be a picture or a piece of writing.

- A code - Is an abstraction created by the audience. The idea that comes with the message.

- Realism - makes a image appear ‘natural’ rather than socially and historically constructed.

Photographic Paradox

- The photographic paradox is therefore the coexistence of two messages: the one without a code (the photographic analogue) and the one with a code (the ‘art’ or treatment of the subject, the rhetoric of the photograph).

Denotation/Connotation

- Denotation - What is literally in the photograph and communicate facts e.g large building.

- Connotation - What is suggetsed by the depiction of the viewer which are specific to culture/knowledge e.g. larger building = Buckingham Palace.

Forms of Connotation

- Perceptive connotation - The image is verbalised the moment it is seen (similar to denotation because facts about what is in the actual image are perceived by the audience immediately).

- Cognitive connotation - Factual elements of the picture that are picked out or understood because of the audience’s knowledge.

- Ideological and ethical connotation - The elements in the photograph that create the strongest and most complex message.

Forms of Connotation in a Photograph

- Pose - Position of the figure which contains a message from culture, history, literature and painting.

- Objects - Signifiers and associate with culture. The arrangement and selection creates a connotation in the photograph.

- Aestheticism - Photographs which emulate paintings or other known images with composition.

- Trick effects - The disruption of the credibility of the photograph of reality by creating a false simulation.

- ‘Photogenia’ - Related to technology of photographic production like lighting, exposure and printing to create certain effects such as motion blur, double exposure etc to create connotations within the photograph.

Text and Image

- Text and Image can never be read as the same thing.

- Text can create a new set of signifiers to the image which you would never be able to see in the photograph.

The Rhetoric of the Image (1964)

- Refined initial analysis of photographic meaning that was in ‘The Photographic Meaning’

- This finalised analysis was later put in an essay titled ‘The Rhetoric of the Image’ (1964)

Hidden Messages

- In ‘The Rhetoric of the Image’ and future work, Barthes is concerned with the ‘hidden messages’ that comes with advertising.

- Text and Image come together to create meanings that are culturally created but seem ‘natural’ because they are so familiar. 

Multiple Messages of Advertising

- The linguistic message - Words and text that comes with images. 

- Non coded iconic message - The literal denotation of the picture.

- LECTURE 8 | 07.02.18 -

Towards a Theory of Photography

- Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish literary theorist.

- Worked as a translator and wrote for newspapers and journals.

- He was associated with the Frankfurt School.

- When the Nazis came into power in 1933 Walter Benjamin moved to Paris and continued to write essays and reviews for journals.

- German’s took over France and this lead Benjamin to escape to the US.

- He committed suicide on 26th September 1940.

- His writing on photography had a significant influence on the development of photography theory.

Key Essays

- News About Flowers (1928) 

- A Small History of Photography (1930) 

- The Author as Producer (1934) 

- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

News About Flowers (1928)

- A review of Karl Blossfeldt’s book of plant photographs ‘Originary Forms of Art’.

- The article tells us that photography can reveal new things from the most ordinary objects.

- The transformation of human perception through photography.

A Small History of Photography (1930) 

- A brief text about the history of photography.

- However, it develops Benjamin’s ideas of the cognitive and political potential of photography.

- It also introduces his concept of the ‘optical unconscious’.

- We can ‘time travel’ using photography because we can travel back to the time the image was taken.

- What we see are real people, suspended in a singular time and place through the action of having their photograph taken.

The Author as Producer (1934) 

- About how writers and artists should work in order to be committed to the aims of socialism.

- They need to actively participate in transforming culture.

- This revolution was found in photomontage pieces, a famous piece by John Heartfield ‘Through Light to Night’ is a good example of this.

- Photographers must become writers and vice versa.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

- Shows the effects of modernity on art.

- Benjamin’s work on how new technologies of film and photography has transformed sense perception.

- Discussion of the ‘aura’ of a piece of art and ideas of tradition and authenticity, mechanical reproduction upsets this tradition.

Aura - A quality of art works which is undermined by reproduction. Is its distance from us, its unattainability, its uniqueness from which derives its importance and value.

Summary

- Photography transforms us psychologically, culturally and politically.

- We can see the world beyond the capacity of our own eyes using photography.

- SEMINAR 5 | 31.01.18 -

Subjects and Objects

Part One : The Gendered Image - John Berger 

1. How does Berger describe the distinction between nudity and nakedness?

Naked = Without clothes and to be ones self.

Nude = Like a disguise and have an awareness of being seen.

2. What do the panel say about the distinction between painting and photography in the depiction of women?

Paintings = Unrealistic and exaggerated/idealised.

Photograph = More real than a painting and not exaggerated - advertising.

3. What distinguishes the presentation of the man and the woman in each image?

Clothing, pose, facial expression, body language and lighting.

4. Describe what you see in each picture, referring to Berger’s ideas about how the model is presented and the likely viewer of the image.

Left = Very masculine image that has been used to advertise a watch. His hard facial expression and body language almost looks like he is analysing something - both conforming to the stereotypes given to men which are that they are dominant, aggressive, and the bread winner.

Right =  A feminine image that has probably just been used for a magazine. Her soft face with the low cut top and hair slightly in front of her face also conforms to stereotypes given to women which are that they are vulnerable and are used for pleasure by men. Her body is leaning forward slightly, giving the impression she is offering herself.

5. Are there examples which seem to subvert Berger’s claims? If so, why?

No

Part Two : ‘Taking Photographs’ - Susan Sontag

1. What contrasts are there between the two photographers work?

Gilden = Random and in their face.

Davidson = Thoughtful and 10 second love affair.

2. What ideas about photography are suggested by the way they approach their subjects?

Gilden = Agressive approach creates a more interesting image.

- LECTURE 7 | 24.01.18 -

Analysing Photographs

- John Berger ‘Ways of Seeing’ (1972).

- What we see is always influenced by many assumptions concerning beauty, nature, taste and gender.

- “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled”.

- Susan Sontag ‘On Photography’ (1977).

- Sontag’s book addresses the problems, both aesthetic and moral, posed by the omnipresence of photographed images.

- Both writers looked at social and cultural context of image production and reception.

- Ideology is a collection of beliefs held by an individual, group or society.

- It can be described as a set of conscious and unconscious ideas which form one’s belief, goals, expectations and motivations.

John Berger’s key ideas :

- The relationship between seeing and knowing.

- The impact of the camera and imagery reproduction on our way of seeing.

- The portrayal of women.

- The image-world created though advertising.

Seeing and Knowing - Chapter 1

- The way we see things is affected by way we know or believe.

- We never just look at one thing. We look at the relation between things and ourselves.

The Gendered Image - Chapter 3

- Berger argues that according to the usage of ideology the social presence of a woman is different to that of a man.

- A man’s presence is dependent on the promise of power he embodies - always exterior.

- It suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you.

- A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself.

- It suggests what can and cannot be done to her.

- “Men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at.”

- Male view on naked paintings and women who view these naked paintings are expected to have a male attitude.

Susan Sontag key ideas :

- The ethics of taking and viewing photographs.

- World view created by photographic seeing.

- Psychological effect of mass production and distribution.

- Voyeurism and power relations expressed through photography.

- Strictly speaking no one ever understands anything from a photograph.

- A photograph only shows us the surface.

- A camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality and soon enough in their own.

- Boredom and fascination both depend on being outside rather than inside the situation and they both lead to each other.