Seminar 5: Studium and Punctum

Part One:

1. Why have you chosen this image?
   I chose this photograph because it stood out to me when searching for an image, it comes across very strong.

2. What do you identify as the ‘studium’ of the image?

The studium of the image is the child hiding behind a wall, who you can see fully, but you cannot fully see the soldier who is around the corner with his gun.

3. What do you identify as the ‘punctum’ of the image?

For me, the punctum is the child, who looks scared and concerned. Like she knows what is around the corner. She looks as though she is trying to become a part of the wall in the hopes that this soldier will not find her.
The gun on the soldier also stands out to me, the image oozes the feel of war.

Part Two:

1. Why might Barthes have chosen newspaper or historical images to discuss the ideas of studium and punctum?
   I think Barthes chose the newspaper images because they are/were the current topics at the time, they were in the public eye so everyone would already be talking about it. The images are there to give visual detail to the stories.

2. Do you think Barthes’ ideas are still relevant in today’s modern image-world?

I think that his ideas are both relevant and not relevant due to the platforms that we view images on today, like social media. We analyse things in different ways today but I think that the further we look into an image the more likely we are to use studium and punctum.

Seminar 4 – Denotation and Connotation

Victim of Beauty

Part one: Denotation: what is depicted (message)

What is the denotation of the image (the literal/depicted content) ? Give plenty of detail:

The message behind this image is to do with abuse, there is a woman who looks as though she is dressed up for a photoshoot but she has a black eye and she also has red lacy clothing on.
Next to the image of this woman are the words ‘Victim of beauty.’ which would be a part of the linguistic connotation.
Part Two: Connotation: The meaning of the image (code)

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

Because the linguistic connotation is just ‘victim of beauty’ it airs a question of whether the woman has been abused by someone, or is it to show the extreme lengths that some people go to, in order to feel/be ‘pretty’. The factual part of this image is the black eye on the model.

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

The pose of the woman shows that she is very vulnerable, she is not modelling how people usually would. There is no emotion to her face and despite the make up, you can see that she looks very sullen and unhappy.

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

The text of the image that really stands out is the words ‘victim of beauty’

4. What is the idealogical/ethical connotation? (what Barthes calls ‘myth’)
National Geographic – The Stag

Part One: Denotation: What is depicted (message)
1.What is the denotation of the image (the literal/depicted content)?

The denotation of the image is a stag in the wild, crying out. This could be a mating call because of his antlers you would automatically know that it is rutting season. Red deer.
For those who don’t know about Stags and rutting season, they might just think he is lonely and crying out. The image is very atmospherical with the slight fog in the background but vibrant green scenery in the foreground.

Part Two: Connotation: The meaning of the image (code)

The cognitive connotation? (factual elements of the work)

It’s definitely in the wild due to the surroundings.
For those who don’t know about Stags and rutting season, they might just think he is lonely and crying out.

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

You can see the stag in the pose for the mating call – and he is mid call because his mouth is open. It seems like early morning, because of the visual elements of the fog and shrubbery which makes the image very atmospherical.
3. Is there a linguistic message? (text/caption)

There is no text in this image.

4. What is the ideological/ethical connotation? (what barnes calls ‘myth’)

Seminar 3: Theorising Photography

1. In what ways does photography change human perception

I feel like photography, a lot of the time shows people what they want to see rather than what they should see. There is more to the story than what is shown, but because people don’t need to look that far, they don’t know – nor do they generally want to know.

2.  How does the ability to make copies affect the way we view artworks?

I think that making copies of artwork makes that work less authentic, the images become common and less exciting.

3. What do you think are the benefits of reproducing artworks?

I think the benefits are that the work has potential to be seen around the work, and in making copies, it means that people can see things that they might never get to see in person.

4. What might be some drawbacks?

Again, it becomes common and less authentic, could be misleading and non-factual.

5.  How are Benjamin’s (and Berger’s) ideas about the reproduction of images relevant to our contemporary image culture?

I think that their ideas are relevant because they have taught us how to look at art differently.As Benjamin said, it is like time travel – it allows us to relive particular moments and to this first time viewers it leaves an air of mystery, this is still very relevant to work of today.

Lecture 10: Roland Barthes’, ‘Death of The Author’ and Camera Lucida summary notes.

Death of the author is Barthes’ essay that expands on the ideas of how people respond to messages within text and image.

In the essay, he argues that the producer of the message only has a certain amount of control over the meaning.Barthes explains that the reader or the viewer has more control than the author as they see it with a completely fresh mind and no knowledge about the context.

The concept of ‘death of the author’ informed postmodern art practices and made them question the ideas of uniqueness, originality and authorship.

Camera Lucida is Barthes’ only text devoted to just photography alone. He tries to understand the ‘essence’ of photography using his own perspective.

Key terms:
The operator – photographer
The spectator – viewer of photograph
The spectrum – what is depicted in the photograph

Barthes recognised information in images he found in an illustrated magazine, that he believed were beyond his understanding. He defines the two elements that he finds through this as Studium and Punctum.

Studium is the general interest, it is the subject matter.
Punctum is the finer detail, which is more personal to the viewer, what stands out. – both are not something that I ever considered when looking at images, as I usually analyse the things that everyone would point out. Since this lecture, however I have been looking more closely at images to analyse with this distinction.

It is suggested that punctum is an aspect in the image that is undetectable to the photographer at the point of capture but is/can be detected by the viewer.

Seminar 2: Objects and Subjects

Part One:

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

For the women, they often put a lot of make up on them, and sometimes have them in very little clothing. Make the women look more like objects than people and demoralises them because some women could be easily offended by the ‘over exposure’ of the woman in the image because it’s non-relatable, it is a power play.

Men are presented in such a way that they are very masculine – sometimes wearing suits and smarter clothing, it almost shows dominance when compared to the images of the women. Men look more intense and empowering.
Describe what you see, referring to Berger’s ideas about how the model is presented and the likely viewer of the image?

Female models are very sexualised which would of course make it more appealing to men, it would also attract some women who would see the model as a inspiration and an idol – maybe this is what they want to be like? But for other women it might be easy for them to get offended due to the lack of clothing.

The mens images attract a lot of female attention, it seems women are attracted men in smart attire, so this is why they are put in suits and smart clothing.

Are there examples which seem to subvert Berger’s claims? If so how?

I think there are examples out there, but Berger’s claims are very strong and seem very relevant, especially today. Although men are succumbing to more pressure to look just as good these days and you see more and more men with lesser clothing etc as you do women.
Part Two:

What contrasts are there between the way the two photographers work?

Bruce Gilden walks the streets and gets in subject’s faces whilst taking a picture – this seems like a very obscene way to work because it aggravates people. Gilden does this to isolate people to get the look that he wants.

Bruce Davidson photographs a lot differently, he seems almost less confident and just blends into the background as he takes his pictures he talked about being ‘invisible’ to his subjects who agreed to let him take their pictures rather than just take without consent.

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

Both photographers talk about being ‘invisible’ one is, one isn’t. They approach their subjects very differently which suggests there are different ways of approach for everyone – some people do not have the confidence to do what Bruce Gilden does.
What criticisms might Sontag raise regarding their approach to photography and do you think they are valid?

I think that Sontag would consider some of their approach methods immoral, perhaps. Although the interpretation is real, the aesthetics are not really moral.

Lecture 9 : The Hidden Message summary notes

Roland Barthes – The Photographic Message

Roland Barthes was a french literary theorist, philosopher, writer and academic.
He wrote important texts on photography and he addressed a number of ways in which we can interpret and understand the meaning of photographs.

Barthes proposed a way of reading photographs based on a theory called semiotics.

Semiotics is a theory developed to understand how language works
It asks questions like ‘how do we use language to communicate?” and ‘what is the relationship between he words we use and the real things in the world that we are referring to?’

It comes from the ancient greek term ‘semeion’ which means sign.

It is a way of analysing meanings by looking at the signs, these can be words pictures or symbols

Key theorists

Charles s Pierce
Ferdinand de Saussure
Roland Barthes

Semiotics revel the hidden message of verbal and visual communication. it helps us learn the way that our imaginations fill in gaps and sort out misunderstandings

Aspects of study in semiotics

The sign itself
The codes or systems which are organised
The culture within the codes and signs

Pierce:
icon, index, symbol.
The icon signifies the resemblance or analogical relation that it is trying to represent.
A symbol signifies through language.
An index signifies the relationship with its references often defined by sensory features.

Saussure – Signified
Defined a sign as being composed of the form it takes and concept it represents

Barthes :
The photographic message.

Roland bathes added the linguistic science of semiotics and used it to interrogate culture, using the study pf verbal language to cultural phenomena.
He developed a common vocabulary and method for critical analysis of culture.

As a linguist, Barthes made a distinction between messages and codes.
Message – singular, meaningful unit of discourse.
Code – abstraction created b the reader, reconstructed from the materials provided by the message.

Barthes argues that the distinction between messages and codes is problematic when dealing with photographs because of the special nature.

The reality effect of photographs makes the image appear to be natural rather than constructed..
The photograph transmits the literal reality of the scene depicted. There is no requirement to set up a relay between the object and its image to create a code.

The photographic paradox are photographs that appear to be factual but it is likely that they have connoted messages.
The photographic paradox is a coexistence of two messages. The Denotation and the connotation.

The connotation is what is suggested to the viewer, actions, clothing etc

Conntoation comes in different forms
Perceptive
Cognitive
Ideological and ethical

The denotation is what is literal in the photograph, so it is what you see as it is, the factual elements. Person, text etc

Up until this lecture, I had never realised the way I see images, or the way I pick images apart to understand them. It is a subconscious thing that I do.
Connotation and denotation are easy to do without thinking about it, but when it’s on your mind, it becomes very difficult to do.

Lecture 8 : Walter Benjamin Towards a Theory of Photography summary notes

Walter Benjamin was a jewish literary theorist and a marxist cultural/literary critic and philosopher.

Critical Theory is essentially the same as marxist but with some differences:
Treats society as a whole
is interdisciplinary and not just economic
aims at society that is rational and free
means to reveal how contemporary capitalist society deceives and dominates the economy and culture.

Benjamin’s writing and ideas were presented as fragments in sections that reflect his thought process.

An article that was written about Karl Blossfeldt’s ‘plant photographs’ suggested that photography can reveal new things to us even with the most ordinary objects. It contains indications of a theme that appears a lot in Benjamin’s later texts on photography.

‘Human Perception’

Human perception has two forms, three dimensional space and one dimensional time. The human sensory and cognitive follows these forms regardless.

‘we can stop time’ ‘we can reveal movement by speeding up and slowing down time.’

A short history of photography
Benjamin’s treatment of the subject goes beyond chronological developments, his ideas o the cognitive and political aspect of photography introduced his concept of the ‘optical unconcious’

Photography also changes perception:
we can time travel
the photographs depict a particular moment which allows us to go back to that time and relive it in our heads
it stops individuals in their tracks and helps them preserve a moment which makes it a mystery
Walter Benjamin introduced the concept of the ‘aura’ which is considered a strange web of time and space.

The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction – 1936

The text examines the effects of modernity on the work of art in particular
Benjamins key work on the sense of perception bought about by new technologies and film
Extensive discussions of the concept of ‘aura’ upset this tradition.The ‘aura’ of work is distance from us and it’s unattainability which derives importance and value.
Photography makes art work accessible in all times and places instead of being an object of the reproduced art work.

Summary of Benjamins key ideas

Photography is a medium that transforms us psychologically, culturally and politically.
The transformation of human perception means that we can see the world beyond the capacity of our own senses.
The optical unconscious proceeds from photographs that are of both the past and present.
Aura is undermined by reproduction and was destroyed by mechanical reproduction.

Lecture 7: Analysing Photographs summary notes

John Berger was in a TV show and a book and shown how what we see is influenced by a host of assumptions when nature of beauty, taste, gender and more is concerned.
Berger explored the visual world of painting, photography and graphic art to explore the ideology of images.

Susan Sontag said that a photograph is not just an image it is an interpretation of what is real. I agree with this, but I also believe that images don’t always have to be an exact interpretation. Photography has come a long way even since 1977 and there are so many different genres, some things are realistic and some things aren’t.

Both Sontag and Berger looked at different aspects when it came to the contexts of images. They were very critical of ideas and assumptions in photographs.
Berger and Sontag show the ideologies that are present in subjects of photographs and in the task of photographing itself.

“We only see what we look a, to see is an act of choice.”
I very much agree with this; one can look at an image and see only certain elements because their mind is telling them that is all they can see, yet someone else can see the whole picture and see more meanings.

Ideology is a collection of beliefs held by individuals, groups or societies, It is described as a set of conscious and unconscious ideas which make up the beliefs goals and expectations. It is a comprehensive normative vision that is followed by people that considered it the correct way.
It is also a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of society.

John Berger had ideas – ways of seeing.
a relationship between seeing and knowing
Impact of camera and image reproduction on our way of seeing
portrayal of women
image world created through advertising.

Berger explored ideologies of gender in paintings and related it to the contemporary depictions of women in advertising. He argued that the presence of a woman is different to that of a man.
The men’s presence is dependant upon power. A mans presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you.

The idea of the gendered image shows man and woman in two very different lights:

A woman expresses her own attitude to herself and defines what can and cannot be done to her. She can sometimes be seen in revealing clothing and show more skin – because this is what wants to be seen, but it makes them look more vulnerable sometimes.

A man tends to be shown in a suit, looking very empowered and dominant – because this is what a lot of people believe in. It’s stereotypical to believe that a man is more powerful.

Men want to be seen and women want to be looked at.

Lecture 6 : Social Documentary summary notes

Social documentary and street photography 

The politics of pictures

Susan Sontag – vital critique. In ways, I do agree with Susan Sontag, I do think that it is important when undertaking a project that you know your subject/ point of interest, but I don’t believe that you have to know everything. Leaving some things a mystery can help you get good shots too.

Victorian survey – the camera is a tool of truth, authenticity. Philanthropic interest in the poor. 

John Thompson. “street life in london.”

Jacob Riis, explored the poor. “How the other half lives.” Used flash powder and left subjects very stunned. Wanted the actuality, not staged images.

Documentary photography was thought of having a goal, was social change, people and circumstances.

Lewis Hine, “I wanted to show the things that should be changed, I wanted to show the things that should be appreciated.” Wanted to change child labor laws. Pretended to be a fire officer to get into the mill. Documentary is about telling how it is and he was criticised for not making it very exciting. 

Political motivation, evidence. His images contributed an understanding to others.

Dorothea Lange – documentary photographer “migrant mother” 

This image is proof that you only need to know the bare minimum about your sitter. When I work with unknown people, I tend to adopt this method of only finding out the essential as I prefer not to have too much contact with the sitter. I do not feel that having any kind of emotional attachment with them would benefit my work in anyway.

Roy Stryker dubbed Lange’s photo the symbol for the whole project of the ra/fsa. 

Arthur Rothstein. “Fleeing a dust storm” 1936

Was meant to highlight the fact there was a drought. He recreated the circumstances of a dust storm. Was informative. 

The idea that the more transformed or ‘aestheticised’ an image is the less authentic it it is. Davis Levi Strauss discusses this. 

Walker Evans – Alabama tenant farmers wife, 1936.

British social documentary of the 1930’s 

Humphrey Spender “mass observation.” Bolton and Blackpool. 

Boltonworktown.co.uk – source. 

Had to be an invisible spy, felt like he was exploiting them. 

Bill Brandt, the english at home. 1936. Depicts a different type of Britain to what we usually see in documentary. He photographed the wealthy. 

Robert Franks ‘The Americans’ 1958/59

“I was tired of romantisim, I wanted to present what I saw. Pure and simple.”

This quote by Frank is very relatable to me, as I am not a photographer who likes to ‘mess’ with things and show people the best in everything. I like to keep things natural and honest

William Klein, the social landscape: American photography in the 50’s and 60’s. He showed what people didn’t want to see – reacting against the romantic idea of New York. 

Life is good and good for you in New York

William Kleins idea of also showing what people didn’t want to see was very striking to me, and very brave. But I respect his honestly, there is more to the world that meets the eye and just showing the good when there are also bad things that need to be known, can be so misleading.

Garry Winogrand “I photograph to find out what the world looks like photographed.” 

 Diane Arbus, boy with toy hand grenade, 1962

Colin wood was boy photographed. “She catches me in a moment of exasperation.” 

Essay Plan

Introduction

A brief introduction as to what the essay is going to be about.

Atget and Man Ray – introduce & explain their work.

Reasons to why it is considered are as follows.

Main body

Specific pictures from ategt that are ‘surreal’. Man ray quote as surreal (find evidence)

Elements of atgets work – what is common to a specific set of images? Themes within his work.
How does he influence other artists? Common elements between Atget and other artists work.
How did Atget differ to other artists of the time?

Conclusion

Talk about Atget and reiterate how his work is considered surreal.