Week One - Ways of Seeing 

Seminar Notes

The image ‘Blue Marble’ taken from Apollo 17 changed the way we see the world. The most used photo in the world demonstrates the finite nature of the planet we live on. There is no visible evidence of human life only an image that was once described as ‘Beauty’ and ‘Seeing Earth as God would’. The image represented a new way of seeing the world.

Only 24 people have seen this image in real life, yet the image is so vivid it is unlikely many people in the world have not seen it in a book or on a computer. The image is one of the most iconic images in the world.

In terms of development of technology, it is interesting that ‘Blue Marble 2012’ is a series of digital images put together. It is also interesting to note that America is central to the image and suggests the USA is ‘Centre of the World’. This typifies how the US see things. Americans see themselves at the centre of the human world.

In a similar way John Berger talks about a ‘visual culture’. He has the view that perspective makes the eye the centre of the visible world. He goes on to say ‘A camera changes this. The camera is an eye, seeing is knowing. Seeing is our first way of understanding the world. It establishes our place in the surrounding world. Babies see first. Seeing comes before words'.

The surrealist painter Magritte commented on the always-present gap between words and seeing in the painting ‘The key of dreams’.

‘The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe’. In reality we need to ask, ‘What is the truth of the image’? In the Middle Ages there was the physical existence of Hell. Fire must have meant something different to what it means today. Similarly, when in love, the sight of our beloved has a completeness which no words and no embrace can match, emotion! We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice and we never look at one thing, we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active.

So, what happens when we realise, we can see? We are aware WE CAN ALSO BE SEEN. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visible world. Is it that ‘all images are man made'? Yes, that is possible through our own eyes.

An image is a sight which has been recreated. It is an appearance or set of appearances, which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance and preserved.

Photographs are not a mechanical record. The photographer selects the image from an infinity of other possibilities. Images were first made to conjure up the appearance of something that was absent. An image can outlast what it represented. No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such a direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times.  Images are more precise and richer than literature. The more imaginative the work, the more profoundly it allows us to share the artists experience.

How do we see the world?

Religion, Factual, Emotional, Scientific.

I think, therefore I am.

Eyes will only see what they want to see. For example, the moon can look bigger, depending upon the context.

How do photographers see the world?

• Expression
• Dark and Light
• Childs view

Seeing is something we do, and we continually learn how to do it. Seeing is changing.

Playing video games can improve both peripheral and central visual perspective. We do not see with our eyes, but with our brains.

We do not see what there is to be seen.

Descartes believed that the existence of God was the only way to guarantee that our observations are not simply delusions or the ravings of the insane.

Sally Miller talks about 5 key areas of debate in contemporary photography and the ways in which we see photography:

• Photography and Identity. The relationship between photography and identity from the early use of photography as a new technology to produce honorific images of wealthy sitters to its contemporary use as a way of sharing representations of the self via social media. In particular this section debates 'how we see ourself' and considers the genres of portraiture and photographic representations of the self.
• Photography, Landscape and place. She looks at the way we assign meaning and significance to land. She says, landscape is not natural but a cultural construction. How artists have chosen to photograph land reflects different historical and social values, hopes and fears.
• Photography, performance and the politics of representation. Miller addresses the way in which a number of contemporary photographers have used performance as a means of challenging traditional codes of representation. She looks at post-identity politics and the performance of gender
• Photography and Psychoanalysis looks at the understanding of unconscious fears, fantasies and pleasures when looking at photographs
• Photography and the event looks at the way in which photography serves as a local tool to shape and give meaning to traumatic events. Here she asks about the value and limits of the photographic image.

Personal commentary and research

Undoubtedly we all see things differently and, in terms of photography, we are allowed to give our own interpretation. This is usually based on our own experiences in life, our own reading and debates we have been part of in our lives. Sally Miller makes the point, 'the history and meaning of photography is not singular. As such, photography is best understood by examining the interconnected discourses that give a range of analogue and digital technologies concerned with recording and producing images social, cultural and historical meaning'. She also discusses Allan Sekula's article in which he argues that institutions see things that are different to the artistic observer. They 'observe, categorise, archive and control....' in order to identify the subject rather than admire or appreciate. Sekula proposes that photography is ‘a double system of representation capable of functioning both honorifically and repressively’.

Mirzoeff says that 'Seeing is something we do, and we continually learn how to do it. It is now clear that modern visual technology is a part of the learning process. Seeing is changing.....' Undoubtedly Miller and Mirzoeff see experience as a mechanism to 'how we see things'. Perhaps, as we get older, we see more in the image or because we understand life better, we are better able to critique. Psychologist Daniel Simons might disagree with this concept. He, and his student Christopher Chabris devised what would become a famous experiment : a video test known as 'the invisible Gorilla'. Those who participated were asked to watch a video and count the number of times the team wearing white passes a basketball while they play a team wearing black shirts. As this simple action unfolded, a person wearing  a gorilla suit walks across the court. At least 50% of the observers did not see the gorilla. Simons attributes this to 'Inattentional blindness', the inability to perceive outside information when concentrating on a task. Is it that when we study an image, we suffer from 'Inattentional blindness' and how can we avoid this. Surely by being conscious of this psychological factor, we can over ride our thought process and have a wider scope of 'how we see things'.

John Berger makes the observation that 'seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before words'. He suggests we are taught to look and from our early influencers, predominantly parents. Does that mean we will only see what they see? Will we only see more if we have an inquisitive mind? He goes on 'the way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe' and we are influenced by human beliefs of the time.

Liz Wells, her first chapter, focuses initially on a number of debates which have characterised theoretical and critical discussions of the photograph and of photographic practices starting with the interrelation between aesthetics and technologies. She suggests that there is no single history of photography. A.E. Carr observes, history is a construct consequent upon the questions asked by the historian. He suggests histories tell us as much about the historian as about the period or subject under interrogation. Stories told reflect what the historian hopes to find and where information is sought. Even this has changed over time. Libraries being the primary source of information in the middle ages. Today, the primary source is online. This alone brings into question the reliability of information and the caution required to gather accurate data. 

The knowledge, therefore, that Mirzoeff relates to can therefore become clouded and influenced both in good and bad ways. Our interpretation of images can be deceived and, our accurate and quality research therefore, becomes paramount.

For this exercise I have studied one artist who illustrates, for me, a different way of seeing. I have personally developed an interest in portrait photography and illustrate Alvin Booth and his piece of work, Corpus - Beyond The Body.

Booth’s composition is informed by his love of sensuous sculpture. He uses sculpture as his composition and focuses on the sensuous membrane of skin with its malleable luminescent qualities. The questions are of image, shape, focus, creases in the skin’. Body shape is his story. Almost creepy and reminds me of ‘Silence of The Lambs’ and cannibalism. He illustrates, for me, a way of seeing things. He doesn't take a traditional view of the body, he sees and illustrates it in a different way and one that can be seen as both crude and beautiful. 

Reading:

Contemporary Photography and Theory, Concepts and Debates, Sally Miller

Mirzoeff, N (2014) How to see the Word

Berger, J (1972) Ways of Seeing – Extract from chapter 1

Wells, L (2015) Photography: A critical introduction - Chapter 1.

Activity for Seminar:

Image 1 - River cutting through Rock

I have chosen this image following my research in the subject ‘Ways of Seeing’. Jim Watkins quotes:

‘A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence’.

The image illustrates how persistent the river must be to cut through rock so majestically, powerfully, and persistently. The image gives a feeling of power and persistence. More powerful than text or literature. It allows us to see the ‘factual’ effects of the river. It enables us to see the river and rock in a different way.

Image 2 - Laughter, Albert Einstein pulling a funny face.

Emotion

My second image illustrates ‘humour’ and how we can see things through laughter and emotion. Laughter stirs the emotions and allows us to see the image in a different way. It can stir emotion and can make us laugh, smile or even cry. The image again, through humour, is more powerful than text or literature.

Week Two - Mythologies

Seminar Notes

Mythologies can be considered 'folklore', storytelling, fantasy or even Greek myths. But what Roland Barthe wanted to do was to look at myths surrounding things in our everyday life. The histories, the ideas and meanings that are both explicit and hidden. It was important for him to break these myths down, deconstruct them and question our assumptions about the visual representations we see in the world. What we see as 'natural' can actually be constructed by the 'culture' we inhabit.

It is said that mythologies ‘tap into your subconscious'. Rorschach talks about the fact that there are no right or wrong answers but we see ‘familiar’ images. I.e. familiar to us!

Roland Barthes wanted to look at myths in everyday life. He believed that all images can ‘be related to today’. For example, Plastic was considered to be an amazing product, however, todays view is that it is a danger to the Eco system and because it does not easily degrade, litters the world and eventually, could destroy the planet as we know it. Another example of an everyday myth is that e-cigarettes are healthier than traditional cigarettes. Research now tells us that e-cigarettes can be just as deadly. Does consumerism and spin play a part in creating these myths? Does the economic world conflict with reality?

Barthe draws awareness to myths that are constantly around us. He suggests we should think about all the images, messages and stories we are confronted with throughout the day. We see photos of wars, profiles of political candidates and entrepreneurs, and reports on economic issues such as the stock market. Barthe believes all of these images that are consumed throughout the day are filled with myth. 'Myth is a mode of communication', a myth conveys a message. Myths occur when society's dominant institutions imbue an image, object, or phrase with meaning. These meanings then serve to shape the way people in society view the world. These cultures and beliefs are then adopted unconsciously by the masses.

Barthe argues that myths have two basic, interrelated components:

1. A form. A form of a myth is concrete. It is the actual object, image, or phrase that we perceive with our senses. On their own, they have literal meaning.
2. A concept. The power of myth is that it imbues these things with additional meaning. Myth occurs when society connects the raw material of form to an abstract concept. 

Semiotics is the study of signs. Is there a link between the sign and what we think is arbitrary? Who do we believe the sign or the sign writer? Can we trust what signs tell us? Do we believe everything we see and read? Street artists can have the same ‘power’ through the messages/art they create. Graffiti is considered a statement. It tags the reader, Gives its own interpretation and through art or text, can make the message ‘interesting’. ‘We Obey signs because we have to’. We live in a world where we are instructed by signs to conform.

Cigarette adverts were designed to make the people in it look cool, manly, charismatic. In particular Marlboro cigarettes portrayed a cowboy giving the image of it being cool/fashionable to smoke their cigarettes. In truth cigarettes kill!! The civilisation of the image is misleading in this instance,

Studium – The education that allows discovery of the operator. It is the element that creates interest in a photographic image.

Punctum – The second element to an image. An object or image that jumps out at the viewer within a photograph. ‘that accident that pricks’.

Punctum – Something that is unique to you. That only you can see/feel.

Rose Gillian talks about the 'visual'. We are told we live in a world where knowledge, as well as other forms of entertainment, are 'visually constructed'. and what we see is as important, if not more so, than what we hear or read. 'Visual literacy' is berated, and there are calls to reconstruct school so that visual grammar can be learnt alongside understandings of text, numbers and molecules. She says 'there is a lot of confusion about the visual itself. Is it like a language or not? How do visual images work?

Personal Commentary and Research

What is a myth? According to Roland Barthes, an influential 20th-century French philosopher and literary critic, objects and images that we consume throughout the day are filled with myth. He says on a broad level, myth is a mode of communication—a myth conveys a message. Myths occur when society’s dominant institutions (for example, the government, the advertising industry, or Hollywood) imbue an image, object, or phrase with meaning. 

All signs have meaning. Usually by society. But what is the real message the sign is trying to convey? Is it an instruction or is the sign trying to influence us? Is the sign creating a myth? Images can definitely construct myths and, it can be said, construct culture. Barthes uses a phrase, Studium i.e. meanings or myths are conveyed by all images, as photographers we can understand and deconstruct these myths through critique and image analysis. He also uses the phrase Punctum, i.e. something that is personal to the viewer, unique to you, that only you can see/feel.

Barthe tells us that Myths are constantly around us. We should think about all the images, messages and stories we are confronted with throughout the day. We see photos of everyday events including wars, political profiles and reports on economic issues such as the stock market. Barthe believes all of these images that are consumed throughout the day are filled with myth. A Myth conveys a message. Myths occur when society's dominant institutions imbue an image, object, or phrase with meaning. These meanings then serve to shape the way people in society view the world. These cultures and beliefs are then adopted unconsciously by the masses.

Advertising can be very dangerous in terms of creating myths. Companies sell their products by creating myths and, through time, are proven to be inaccurate. The following images represent this:

All of the above adverts have are considered fake. Their messages are mythical

Gillian Rose talks about the four theoretical approaches to understanding visual culture. A criteria for what she calls 'Critical Visual Methodology'. A system that looks at the most important aspects of images and their effects in more detail:

1. The site of the production of an image.
2. The site of the image itself, its visual content.
3. How and where does the image circulate.
4. Their interpretation by different audiences and users. 

She refers to modalities i.e. the different aspects of a site that are most significant in producing an images effects. These are:

1. Technological. The material qualities of an image
2. Compositional. The visual organisation of an image.
3. Social. An images relation to social identities, practices and institutions.

Amongst others, Roland Barthes has explored the structure of advertisements and tried to find systems that could be applied to help decode any commercial message. He describes photographs as containing 'denoted' and 'connoted' messages. By the denoted message he meant the literal reality which the photograph portrays. The connoted message is the message that makes use of the social and cultural references. It is an inferred message, a myth,. It is symbolic, a message with a code. Only if we are aware of these messages can we de-code the photograph and decide for ourselves whether we believe the message or not.

Reading:

Book Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials.

Rose Gillian, 5th Edition. 2023.

Mythologies by Barthe@ Overview and Primary Themes 

Activity for Seminar:

An example of a modern day myth:

Mice love cheese

Scientists from the University of Birmingham have confirmed earlier research by showing that wild-caught mice do not appear to have any apparent preference for cheese, and probably prefer seeds and grains. Crunchy peanut butter, another common mouse bait, was also not preferred.

Given that adult mammals tend to have little of the enzyme lactase, required for lactose digestion, cheese probably isn’t great for a mouse’s health, either. It's probably a waste of cheese. It is therefore considered a myth that mice prefer cheese.

My Image that represents the two elements of a photograph as perceived by Barthe. The Studium and Punctum.

Rugby Parents

Studium. For 20 years I volunteered my services to two rugby clubs, my county, North of England and England. I carry great pride in the game and love what it gives, as a sport, to young boys and girls:- discipline, fun, team building, bravery, excitement, achievement and much more. Having coached boys from the age of 6 right up to the adult game, the above image, through its studium, reminds me of what the game of rugby is all about. Fulfilment to the players and parents who take part in the sport. It gives me a great sense of happiness.

Punctum. Throughout my 20 years involved in the sport, the image reminds me how selfish and political some parents can be towards a coach and/or volunteers in the sport. I have many examples of how aggressive some parents can be if their child does not get what he or she wants. My punctum leaves me with a very bitter feeling towards some parents who do not understand the concept of team building and the sport of rugby. 

Week Three - The pain of Others

Seminar Notes

One of the primary aspects of a camera is its ability to document. This has been the mainstay of a great proportion of image-making. the inventions and discoveries of the modern age and the physical world have been recorded, observed, and studied by the camera. And all these images can now be distributed through the mass communication systems that developed alongside the techniques of recording. 

1. Documenting images on a global scale and,
2. On personal level. 

The term documentary is very broad description and can be applied to a range of images across genres. 

We should consider how photographs not only affect us, but also how they affect change.  Image making is a way of documenting the world. The first war to be photographed was the Spanish Civil War and, for the first time, gave the viewer a real view of what war was like. The American/Vietnam war allowed the viewer to follow events on a day to day basis. The war, was brought into peoples front rooms and perhaps was the ignition to daily protests. Photo documentary gave American home owners the real taste of the 'brutality of war'.

The mobility of the camera and distribution of an image allowed people to get visual insights from every corner of the globe.

Documentary photography can be considered very positive and noble. There are many instances where images have affected  change and been a force for good. Tiananmen square is one example of this where the world witnessed the brutality of a corrupt government and the persecution of the apparent innocent. Documentary images can be very powerful and with it comes great responsibility.

For this reason we should not take the image as a given. We should still ask questions:

Who is taking the image?

Why are they taking the image?

What do we not see?

Why are we being shown this image/

Why is there an algorithm of images?

We need to consider if the subject has been taken out of the image and if the context of the image has been removed. Iconography is designed to shock and are we being exposed to this? Context of an image is everything and the source of an image can be just as important.

Photographs help construct our sense of the past. Iconic images become part of what is often called collective memory. Something we can all recognise of a particular time. Unlike personal memory, which is unique to us, collective memory is a sort of groupthink. It can be contested. Its relevance depends on the attitudes of wider and can be dictated by what people think is important.

Susan Sontag commented:

‘The hunt for more dramatic (as they're often described) images drives the photographic enterprise, and is part of the normality of a culture in which shock has become a leading stimulus of consumption and source of value'.

The need to shock, or drama, is valued by news agencies and the public at large. It sells. ‘It keeps news worthy’. What does that say about the kind of images we want to see?

In our everyday lives we have an urge to 'see an accident'. We want to be shocked or disgusted. Images must be dramatic and  storylines have to be interesting.

Photographs can also be the catalyst for change. We can learn from them. Things to do and things not to do. 

The depiction of the image can be important. Colour, Content, Expression.

Documenting the Anthropocene is a unit of geological time. It is the most recent period in Earths history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planets climate and ecosystems. The question is 'How do we photograph that? Magnum photographer Cristina de Middel covered the 2019 wildfires in Brazil, describes this:

“The drama and the destruction that was happening was hard to capture and express with just images of flames and burnt pieces of the jungle. The scale of everything was overwhelming and by framing that reality, and deciding which piece of it would become a picture, I was actually losing the magnitude of it".

Is there too much ‘disaster photography’ in coverage of the climate crisis? Again, images that ‘sell’ or 'shock' but don’t create a meaningful, or an actionable, response in the viewer. They might affect us, but they don’t affect change. 

Of course, we don't need to just look at disasters worldwide. there are many 'dramas' closer to home that can and are documented:

Martin Parr – Can this can of documentary photography be accused of poking fun at parts of society and therefore exploitative?

Nan Goldin - Although intimate, it was sympathetic. It showed us the pathos and the love, as well as the pain and anguish. Diaristic, snapshot, confessional.

Craig Easton – Images of poverty or looking at particular classes. 

Ryan McGinley – Photographed friends, but later merged these with fashion. Playful and revealing, but perhaps too revealing and contrived. See Corinne Day below.

Corinne Day – Gives us unfettered access to the comings and goings of her friends and models. We catch glimpses of dancing, drinking and crashing out on sofas, as commercial shoots morph into nights of excess and on into messy hungover mornings. Her grunge style, as it was known then, became the international aesthetic for a lot fashion photography.

Alessandra Sanguinetti – Do we get more insights if photographers spend more time with their subjects? Are the images more sympathetic?

Liz Wells states that photography is ubiquitous. There is no aspect of our lives that is untouched by photographic imaging. Therefore, the idea of critical introduction to photography is impossible. No publication can encompass, discuss and evaluate all aspects of the medium, its social effects and psychological effects. However, photographs tell stories or set out scenarios that reference, reflect, represent and influence people, places, events and experiences locally and globally.

Personal Commentary and Research

We all love to see a drama, a disaster or a car accident. Whether the disaster is in another country or on the other side of the motorway, we take time to explore what we see and to make comment. Because of photography and cinematography, we see 'the pain of others' from the comfort and warmth of our front rooms. It does not affect us emotionally unless we know somebody involved in the disaster. To us it is somebody else's misfortune and we only express compassion, indignation, titillation or approval.

Susan Sontag says we are exposed to only what is 'constructed'. Principally in the form that is registered by cameras, it is flared up, is shared and then fades from view. In contrast to a written account, which depending on its complexity of thought, reference, and vocabulary, is pitched at a larger or smaller readership—a photograph has only one language and is destined potentially for all.

The photography of a war takes the viewer into the battle, the town that is being invaded and is seen by many in daily newspapers and magazines. There is a desire to see and understand what is happening and a thirst for 'the pain of others'.

The Vietnam war was the first to allow the general public to see the battlefield on a day to day basis. It allowed the viewer to monitor progress or non-progress and to see the horrors of death and destruction. It is interesting that, because of the TV exposure, American people formed an opinion about the rights and wrongs of what was happening. Some chose to laud the military in their quest to win the battle, others chose to campaign against the war because they had a different understanding and view of what was happening. Sontag explains this as 'Something that becomes real', A catastrophe that is experienced will often seem eerily like its representation. The attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 was described as 'unreal', 'surreal' and 'like a movie'. Sontag says that 'when it comes to remembering, the photograph has a deeper bite....the photograph provides a quick way of apprehending something and a compact form for memorising it'. 

In todays world, the hunt for more dramatic images drives the photographic enterprises. Profitability from 'The Pain of Others'.

Liz Wells in her book 'A Critical Introduction' focuses on the documentary role of the camera, especially in relation to recording disasters and war. Claims have been made for the authenticity or ‘truth’ of photography used within social surveys or viewed as evidence. Frank Hurley's image of the battlefield (1916) is a classic example of an image not telling the 'full truth'. An image made up of a number of images which attempts to show a frightening, busy battlefield, designed to capture the viewer and show the war in a shocking and dangerous manner.

One of the biggest catastrophes of the 21st Century was 9/11. We all have images in our mind of this disaster. From the video of the planes flying into the World Trade Centre to images of victims jumping from the buildings in an attempt to take control of their own death. The world was, and remains, fascinated with how the day evolved and, because of photography and Television, we were all able to witness the horror of what was happening thousands of miles away.

Even today, we continue to witness disasters from the comfort of our own front room. The Israel-Palestinian war is brought to us every day and allows us to form an opinion. Similar to the Vietnam war, we are able to critique and express our views outwardly.

Of course, there is also the view that these disasters are make believe. French theorist, Jean Baudrillard, famously stated that the Gulf War in 1990 didn’t happen. He wasn’t denying the event took place, but that it wasn’t seen by anyone. The media only allowed for a co-ordinated representation of what took place and this bore no resemblance to any ‘reality’ of the event. 

It is the view that we are in the hands of the media about what we are allowed to see and caution, therefore, should be considered. This begs the question, is what we see propaganda? We are told, via television, that Russians are exposed to propaganda relating to the Ukraine war, but are we exposed to the same, but from a Western point of view? Are we given the opportunity to see the truth? I feel we are not told the full truth and sometimes the images we see do not give or tell the full story. Is Frank Hurley's image of the battlefield symbolic of the media today?

What is Anthropocene? An Anthropocene Project is a multidisciplinary body of work combining fine art photography, film, virtual reality, augmented reality, and scientific research to investigate human influence on the state, dynamic, and future of the Earth.

It can be difficult to photograph a global catastrophe, but a well documented event through photography can be very powerful. There is definitely a hunger for 'disaster photography'. Sometimes they can affect change and definitely affect us in how we see the world. The important issue for me is the authenticity of the project and image(s) therein.

A selection of images illustrated by Susan Sontag depicting 'The Pain of Others'

Reading:

Wells, L. (2015) Photography : a critical introduction. Chapter 2

Mirzoeff, N (2015) How to See the World. Chapter 3

Cotton, C (2020) The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Chapter 5 & 6

BBC4 (2020) The Age of the Image Episodes 1-4

Activity for the Seminar

Why this image?

The image for me depicts an innocent Father and Daughter caught up in the Israel-Hamas war. The daughter is clearly injured after what can only be assumed as a detonated bomb and her Father is carrying her to safety or to where he can find medical help. They are not the apparent instigators of the war, they are the apparent victims. 

In the background can be seen many 'civilians' running away from a 'danger area' in a dusty, rubble strewn road. The image, for me, depicts the desperation of civilians and injured victims trying to escape the dangers of a war they cannot control or have any influence over. 

What is the context of the image?

The image is recent BBC news image published over the weekend of 16th February 2024. One can only assume it was taken to show the brutality of the war on citizens depicted through a father carrying his injured or dead daughter through the war torn streets of Gaza. It attempts to portray the innocence of the child and father seeking help and medical assistance.

Describe the message the photographer is trying to convey and does it connect us the viewer to the event?

In my opinion the photographer is trying to show that the real victims of the war are the families and children of Gaza. The image does not show any military personnel, only citizens running away from a bombed area. Then image asks the question, Is this what it is all about? Is the life of a child worth it? What is the war trying to achieve and for who?

Do you think the image is an honest and true depiction?

The picture appears to be taken in a damaged and bomb hit residential area. There is a child who appears dead or injured carried by, what appears to be, her father. The people in the image are not dressed in military uniform and the expression on their faces appears to be desperate. The source of this image is The BBC. Of course, this image could be 'staged' however, the blue smoke in the background suggests a disaster has just happened. Yes, I believe this is a true depiction of a dead or injured child being carried to help or safety on the streets of Gaza.

Week 4 - Gender Trouble

Seminar Notes

All portrait photography is constructed or staged and this contributes to how we read the image. For a portrait photograph to be produced, we need to consider how we perform for the camera and how we are directed by the photographer. Indeed, we are not acting natural at all. We are 'performing' for the camera. 

For the subject, they are relinquishing control of 'their image' so we may feel the need to perform even if this is wooden and awkward. That said, we might be good at posing, it may come naturally and, if so we may not be relinquishing total control of our self image.

Performance is the mainstay of a good portion of photographic practice. Used in this way it can be seen to critique and ask questions about photography. Photography can be used to challenge mainstream ideas. 

Performativity describes how we act on a day to day basis. From the way we walk, talk, how we behave. This 'act' happens unconsciously and without us even knowing. We aren't born knowing how to perform.

Judith Butler asserts that gender roles are assigned through the 'performance' of socially sanctioned practices, from the way we dress to the way we move all the way to the way our social position is perceived. For Butler, one is not born a man or a woman, one simply acts as a man or woman. i.e. our actions are constituted through performance and it is performativity that governs gender division.

For Butler, the 'female performance' is of subordination to men. Since gender identity is the result of social construction, mediated through acts, it follows that acts can also serve to challenge these social constructions. Social expectations and taboos confine the acts that we perform e.g. we dress a girl in pink and a boy in blue, but these can also be challenged to undercut these constricting social norms. 

Butler sees the social arena as a theatrical stage on which we play our assigned roles. She sees our gender roles as part of a system of power relations and rejects an essentialist 'natural' or biological view of gender.

Gender Norms: These are social principals that govern the behaviour of people. Girls, boys, men and women. Gender norms are neither static nor universal and change over time.

According to Butler, these norms or roles are determined by society. She says that 'the ideal man and woman are myths'. Fictions that are constantly breaking down. People transgress the boundaries all the time and they change over the course of history.

A mainstream myth of the family, at least in Western society, is perceived as a middle class nuclear family - heterosexual, patriarchal, married partners, economically aspirational, and functional. Obviously, this does not represent the reality for many or even any families. But these institutions or mainstream ideas influence how we see ourselves in relation to society, what we think is typical or ‘normal’, what is the dominant idea and met with approval.

As photographers, should we challenge this with our image making?

Thinking about our identity, most of us would say we have a sense of what that is. We know who we are and we make autonomous decisions about our life. ‘I can think for myself’. But what or who is this ‘self’ that we present to the world, and how did you become you? In fact, we all speak Freud without being aware of it – selfies, Freudian slips, ego, neuroses, repressed desires are Freudian terms that we take for granted. We might also understand the notion of the unconscious. Things not accessible to our rational, autonomous mind. So, while on the one hand we perceive ourselves as independent, objective thinkers, on the other we recognise that there are things going on in our minds that we can’t always account for.

Identity and the 'Self' have changed in these postmodern times. As our personas meet with the online world, you could argue that multiple identities or subjectivities are allowed to exist in far more elaborate ways. In the virtual realm we can take on new bodies, new genders, we can hide behind the façade of a digital identity and perform however we want. In the world of fake identities, fake news, and post-truth can we believe in anything? Is there much evidence for the idea of the performative nature of constructing gender identity? If we don’t have a core (gender) identity, can we simply choose? What does this mean for collective identity/identity politics? If gender is performed, how does this affect our ideas around sexuality?

Personal Commentary and Research

Judith Butler asserts that gender roles are assigned through the 'performance' of socially sanctioned practices, from the way we dress to the way we move and all the way to the way our social position is perceived. But where do these practices come from? The standard answer is 'our parents', however, I feel it is more complicated than that. Without a doubt, we have a number of 'influencers' in our lives, our mother, father, sisters, brothers, friends, relatives. An influencer does not have to be a human. It can be an experience or a series of images /films. Norman K Denzin, an academic psychologist, says '.....we inhabit a second-hand world, one already mediated by cinema, television, and other apparatuses of the postmodern society. We have no direct access to this world, we only experience and study its representations. A reflex sociology of emotions studies society as a dramaturgical production in the cinematic society; that society which knows itself through the reflective gaze of the cinematic apparatus. In the postmodern, cinematic world popular media representations shape and define those cultural identities based on race, class and gender. These representations become anchor points for the post modern self; that is they occupy a central place in the background of our society. 

What he eludes to is that we simply copy others and accept what is 'normal'. Females do the housework, because that is what our influencers and experiences tell us. Men act tough and do manual tasks for the same reason.

For Judith Butler, 'one is not born a man or a woman, one simply acts as a man or woman'. i.e. our actions are constituted through performance and it is performativity that governs gender division.

Butler goes on, the 'female performance' is of subordination to men. Gender identity is the result of social construction, mediated through acts. Society expects us to act in a certain way e.g. we dress a girl in pink and a boy in blue.

Butler also sees the social arena as a theatrical stage on which we play our assigned roles. She sees our gender roles as part of a system of power relations and rejects an essentialist 'natural' or biological view of gender.

Cranny-Francis makes the point; 'the most important thing, the heaviest factor in ones life, is whether one's born male or female. In most societies it determines one's expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners - almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing, even food'.

Moving on from our gender expectations, when do we get to know and understand ourselves as individuals living in a particular society. Cranny-Francis says that 'as individual subjects' we are formed in relation to and determined by the institutions of our society which include gendering practices such as patriarchy. She goes on that a crucial part of what makes us who we are is our critical experiences.

So when we think of our ‘self’ we appear to have an obsession with taking a 'selfie photograph'. Is this a performance or are we showing the world who we are? I.e. are we performing to say 'we are normal?'. The body positioning, pose, and facial gesture reinforce our own sense of identity, sexuality, social status. Through a modern digital world, does this allow us to show a wider world audience that we are a 'normal and/or accepted person? 

John Berger writes about the different ways men and women look or are looked at and move from there to the concept of the stereotype, its social function and purpose. But what is a 'stereotype' and why do we wish to copy the same? Is this one of our tribal instincts to be accepted, included into the tribe? Is there safety in numbers, do we simply want to be like everyone else or are we 'stamping our independence and authority?'

'Gender trouble' can also be related to the family unit. Each individual has his or her own purpose or role in the family unit and consideration is given to relationships and practices that constitute mainstream social values and beliefs. How we see ourselves in the family unit generally fits into the 'norm of society'.

In these postmodern times, do we have an identity? With social media and digital photography, we can be who we wish to be or, even who our peers want us to be. Do we really know who we are or are we minions seeking approval and acceptance? And, if that is the case how can we trust anyone we speak to or meet online? It is suggested we live in a world of 'fake identities, fake news, and post-truth'. If gender is performed, how does this affect the natural procreation of the world?

The above images can all represent societies 'typical' roles for the male and female.  

Reading:

Original Text from reading: Theatre Journal , Dec., 1988, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 519-531 Published by: TheJohns Hopkins University Press

Butler, J (1990) Gender Trouble

Cranny-Francis et al (2003) Gender Studies: Terms and Debates (other titles in the library offer summaries)

Brady & Schirato (2011 )Understanding Judith Butler

Rose,G. (2014) Visual Methodologies

Wells, L. (2015) Photography : a critical introduction

Norman K Denzin (1984) On understanding Emotion 

Activity for the Seminar:

Find one or more photographs of a ‘performed’ event, preferably one of your own or from your life. E.g. portrait, ceremony (wedding, graduation, etc.), fashion, social event. In your blog:

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

2. What aspects of the image suggest the subject is ‘performing’?

3. Identify any ‘performative’ behaviour taking place in the image that constitutes the subject’s identity. This could be pose, clothing, gestures, hair/make-up, objects.

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

This is one of my own images taken on the streets of Preston. Taking into consideration 'Gender norms', I ask the question, Is the reaction to me taking this photograph part of social principals that govern the behaviour of people? Whilst the females in the picture appear to be hiding from the photographer, the males are either laughing or acting aggressively. Why is that? Why are they apparently behaving in assigned roles?  Is this evidence of 'a system of power relations'?  Roles that are considered to be determined by society.

2. What aspects of the image suggest the subject is ‘performing’?

It is my view that all subjects in this image could be considered as 'performing'. All subjects have their own reaction/pose to me taking the photograph and have their own reasons for the pose/reaction. None of the subjects have a reaction that suggests 'acceptance' albeit permission was granted by the subjects to take the picture in the first instance. Not until the central male in the background reacted to me taking the photograph, did the others perform their individual and independent actions. None of the subjects have a 'natural' pose.

3. Identify any ‘performative’ behaviour taking place in the image that constitutes the subject’s identity. This could be pose, clothing, gestures, hair/make-up, objects.

It can be considered that all subjects are performing for the camera. All of the subjects appear to have a pose personal to them as individuals. The social behaviour is one of drinking in public and inside a doorway. Maybe they are reacting the way they are because they do not want to be seen acting 'anti-socially' or do they have another reason? Poses vary from apparent aggression to hiding their faces and one subject is laughing. Before the photograph was taken none of them held the same pose.

In terms of their dress code, one could argue that this is part of a 'pose' also. They all dress with a similar fashion sense, i.e. jeans, trainers, dark/navy blue coats and caps/hats. 

In terms of a 'performance' I personally find this image very interesting and one that could describe the norms or roles that are determined by society.

Week 5 - Orientalism and the Other

Seminar Notes

We all have the potential to be led by those in power, whether at a local or national level. Even when we perceive the person has authority, for example Doctor, Lecturer, politician. Our own identity is constructed of both the self and 'The Other'. Our own consciousness exists in relation to those things and people outside of us. Photography plays a role in constructing this identity.

Collectively we construct imagined communities we perceive to be part of our group. Others are perceived as outside of this group.

Historically, these groups have been separated through powerful ideas that continue to shape how we perceive 'the Other', often echoing the past and linked to ideas of race, ethnicity, gender and class.

Orientalism is the study of how these identities are constructed internationally and continue to follow the colonial power of the past, for example the West over the East.

Photography has contributed to these representations of ‘the Other’ in two ways. First as a document or scientific tool of enquiry, through the use of photographs that separate people into categories and types. Secondly, through more general visual stereotypes of subjects of different cultures, races, or identities.

This goes back to 'The way we see things'. What is visible and what is not. For hierarchies of vision, you could interpret that as hierarchies of people, which people or which lives matter. Photography subjects people into particular categories, those categories are supported historically and ideologically – through the spread of ideas.

In the 1970's there was an interesting experiment called the 'Stamford Prison Experiment'. This experiment categorised people into prisoners and prison guards/authoritarian roles. As the experiment went on, the prisons took on the role of submissive individuals whilst the guards became more authoritarian and demonised others. The conclusions were that the participants took on the role of their character in a very real manner suggesting that we can be led by authority and demonise others very easily.

Palestinian-American author Edward Said - 1979 book Orientalism. Changed the definition of the word Orientalism, which had previously been the study of the Orient (or Eastern traditions) and instrumental in defining post-colonial studies. Essentially looking at how oppressive power structures of colonialism, (domination and exploitation by one country over other countries), continues today through less overtly racist and violent means. Said wanted to examine was how these historical precursors helped construct the modern Western identity.

Notorious for his ideas about improving the genetic composition of the human population, Francis Galton devised the technique of composite portraiture as a tool for visualising different human ‘types’. He first applied the method to portraits of convicts to determine whether specific facial features could be associated with distinct types of criminality. He later went on to create composite photographs of other segments of the population whose members were considered feeble or socially inferior. Importantly, he labelled and categorised and created a scientific discourse to justify his findings. His ideas and images were printed in important literature, like the scientific journal Nature and The Photographic Journal. But was instead racially profiling and stereotyping, and using images to reflect the prejudices of society at the time. Because these groups were already subjugated, it was easy to label them as criminal types. He invented the term “eugenics” (though not the idea). Galton believed that desirable human qualities were hereditary traits and that through better breeding society should remove these undesirables from the population. Nazi Germany worked in similar ways through the persecution of the Jews.

Photography has contributed to these representations of ‘the Other’ in two ways.

First as a document or scientific tool of enquiry. Through the use of photographs that separate people into categories and types. Secondly, through more general visual depiction of subjects of different cultures, races, or identities.

Construction of the self and therefore the Other can be linked to psychology and construction of our identity or ‘the Self’, and if we construct our Self, we then by definition construct the Other. I’m British, not foreign. I support one football team, not another rival team. I’m white, not black. I’m a man, not a woman. I’m straight, not gay. You’re in my gang, you’re not. These binary oppositions or categories are constructed, not because they are biological or natural boundaries, but to help us make sense of ourselves and our identity. And the only way to do this is by creating otherness or difference from ourselves.

Psychologist Jacques Lacan called it the mirror stage. We literally or metaphorically recognise ourselves in the mirror for the first time as separate from a parent and for our consciousness to make sense of this, we need to create both our Self, the subject ‘I’ or ego, but also an opposite Other – or ‘them’. Lacan suggests this is how our identity is formed and reinforced throughout our lives. The important aspect of the concept of the mirror stage for photography is how visual recognition or visual representations construct our identity.

Like our sense of ourselves, the camera looks(from the perspective of the photographer), and the photograph is looked at (from the perspective of the viewer). This looking becomes a form of voyeurism. But who is doing the looking? Who controls the gaze of the camera? And what are the inherent racial and gender biases in the technology itself? 

The Western study of the East was a psychological exercise in the self-affirmation of ‘European identity’; and not an objective exercise of intellectual enquiry or the academic study of Eastern cultures. Instead, Orientalism was a method of practical and cultural discrimination that was applied to non-European societies and peoples. Decolonising the Camera looks at Photography’s c colonial past and its cultural legacies in the present. The refusal to see those regarded as Other as human subjects in their own right defines a visual legacy that is firmly part of the Eurocentric construction of the making of world history.

Arguably, western photographic practice has been used as a tool for creating Eurocentric visual regimes. Is photography a liberating device or an oppressive weapon that reinforces this system? Should we look at historical photographs with a critical eye? Can we make hidden histories visible?

While often well-meaning and good at raising funds, many charity campaigns propagate racial myths, while generalising about entire peoples. E.g. The idea of Africa. They also position the apparent helpless victim as reliant on white or western saviours, helping to reinforce stereotypes, while at the same time ignoring historical, political and structural racism that exists at different levels of society.

Personal Commentary and Research

Edward W Said establishes the term 'Orientalism' as a critical concept to describe the West's commonly contemptuous depiction and portrayal of the East. He says 'it is inextricably tied to the imperialist societies who produced it, which makes much Orientalist work inherently political and servile to power'.

Said distinguishes between at least three separate but interrelated meanings of the term:

1. An academic tradition or field
2. A worldview, representation, and "style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and (most of the time) 'the Occident'
3. As a powerful political instrument of domination.

We all, as individuals, have the potential to be ideologically led by those in power. It seems very easy to support and follow someone who has the same ideals and beliefs. And this can manifest itself into the construction of both the Self and the Other.

Photography plays a role in constructing this identity when we photograph 'our group'. Others are perceived as outside of this group. Historically these groups have been separated through powerful ideas that continue to shape how we perceive 'The Other'.  i.e. of race, ethnicity, gender and class. It can be argued that photography has contributed to these representations of ‘The Other’ in two ways:

1. As a document or scientific tool of enquiry, through the use of photographs that separate people into categories and types.
2. Through more general visual stereotypes of subjects of different cultures, races, or identities

What do we mean by 'The Other'. How we perceive things that are not our self or selves. 

Reni Eddo-Lodge talks about racism in a respectable society, about  an 'emotional disconnect' of white people. She goes on to say 'It’s not really surprising, because they’ve never known what it means to embrace a person of colour as a true equal, with thoughts and feelings that are as valid as their own'. Her interpretation is that white people treat black people as 'The Others'. She also talks about institutional racism, white privilege, fear of a black planet, feminism and race, and class and race. She clearly depicts all groups as 'The Others' including 'Whites'.

Over the years, photography has contributed to the representation of 'The others'. Photographs can separate people into categories and types. It can also depict subjects of different cultures, races and identities. For example, Muslims can be depicted as religious fanatics and possible terrorists, similar to the 1970's when Irish people were typically considered members of the IRA.

So how do we construct our 'self'. We look at ourselves and consider what is important to us and what beliefs we hold. By construction of the 'self' we construct the 'others'. I am a Liverpool fan, not Everton fan. I am Upper Class not Lower Class. These binary oppositions or categories are constructed to help us make sense of ourselves and our identity. The only way to do this is by creating otherness.

The work of Francis Galton is interesting where he attempted to compartmentalise the look of a criminal. He had the view that criminals all had the same look or similar features and so attempted to produce images where a criminal could be easily identified before he or she committed a crime. Of course, this was unsuccessful

Politics is a typical reflection of 'The Others'. People are led by ideals and 'The Others' are considered lower class citizens or even the enemy. This is very prevalent in America at the moment where, from a UK perspective, Donald Trump, through the power of photography, TV and film appears to be rallying his supporters into a frenzy and against 'The Others'. He does this to gain power and it will be interesting how this develops and where it ends up. 

A selection of images representing Orientalism

Reading:

Said, E. (1979) Orientalism

Eddo-Lodge, R (2018) Why I’m no Longer Talking to White People about Race

Sealy, M (2019) Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Time

Blight, D. (2020) The Image of Whiteness

Rose,G. (2014) Visual Methodologies

Activity for the seminar:

Find a depiction of ‘the Other’. For example, from the perspective of race, gender, sexuality, class. The image can be a critique of this idea. In your blog:

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

What looks like a simple hand symbol of a raised hand with the fore finger touching the thumb has a more sinister meaning, particularly in the mid west of America. 

The OK hand gesture is now a white nationalism sign for white supremacy. It was originally meant to bait the media with liberal ideals to overreact and therefore look ridiculous for condemning such an innocuous sign. However, in 2019, the sign was adopted by some white nationalists.

Many believe that former President Trump regularly uses this sign to rally his supporters and appears to use this sign with gay abandon.

A symbol to show you are part of a racial movement and against the black community. A symbol of hate against 'The Other'.

Week 6 - Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Seminar Notes

Photography has allowed us to reproduce art technologically. We no longer need to see the original because reproductions are available everywhere. We can reproduce a piece of art very accurately and, therefore, admire the piece in the comfort of our own environment. If that is the case, what is real and what is not?

Are we living through a new renaissance? The digital revolution has affected every aspect of our lives and image making is becoming increasingly our physical reality. A reality that is on our phones and in our everyday lives. Digital worlds increasingly cross over into the physical world and interact.

Digital worlds rely upon humans to upload and create content to sustain its business. Worlds that have become ubiquitous and part of our everyday lives.

When analysing an image we need to 'search for reality'. Is it real or is it a 'trick of the eye'? (Trompe l'oeil, meaning trick of the eye i.e. you are looking at something it is not)

The following images reflect Trompe l'oeil. The image of the domed cathedral is actually a flat ceiling painted to create a sense of depth and the second image is actually a drawing on the floor of an office building. 

The Renaissance era i.e. the 15th and 16th centuries, was seen as a time of art revolution that spread across Europe and marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. The Renaissance affected all aspects of society, from science and technology, to music and philosophy, but especially the arts in painting, and the widespread use of the printing press. Painters could make very accurate copies of originals, and for writing it was the first time manuscripts (or text) could be printed and distributed to anyone who could read. This facilitated the wide circulation of information and ideas and had a huge impact throughout Western societies influencing much of our culture to this day. 

John Berger talks about how the camera mimics a painters perspective from the Renaissance. And the eye (or rather the mind) accepts this reality.

The way we see things is connected to our own experiences and culture. The Italian Renaissance stole and utilised ideas from ancient Rome and Greece, thus making early civilisations the basis for a great deal of Western thought, including ideas on photography and art.

Plato's Cave or the Allegory of the Cave describes a group of people who live chained inside a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people in the cave watch shadows projected onto the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them, they give names and descriptions to these shadows. The shadows become the 'prisoners' reality... but they are not accurate representations of the real world, they are just shadows. One day, one of the prisoners escapes from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all. He sees the real world. Eager to tell the others of his findings, they think he’s mad and show no desire to leave their fake world. They know no other and believe, only in their fake world.

Susan Sontag talks about this story and suggests the cave is meant to represent the superficial nature of our reality, and how it is ignorance that persuades those to stay in the cave. She describes a connection to photography in that 'we think we see reality in photographs, when what we actually see are representations of a reality'.

When analysing images, we need to be conscious that not only have images become more like reality, but reality has become more like an image.

Mimesis – the technical mimicry of how things in the world look. Essentially the ability to copy. Originally in the renaissance.

Back in the 1970s, photorealists began responding to the photographic era and attempting to replicate that reality using paint. We should ask what they were trying to achieve. Maybe they were attempting to subvert the camera’s apparent connection with reality. 

Are photorealist's paintings real? No, through careful analysis, you can see the artists brushstrokes. Photographs, however, are seen as direct copies of what we see. A direct image of what we actually see.

Walter Banjamin wanted to understand what new technologies (photo/copy) had done to our interaction with art and culture. Firstly, he said there is no longer an authentic work of art. If art can be copied like a photograph, then there is no original artwork anymore. The photo and the copy are the same thing. Photographs can take art anywhere and display it to anyone. For Benjamin, this meant that original works of art lost their sense of ‘aura’. But it also made them less elitist, because they no longer lived only in art galleries. He also suggested that images could reproduce the everyday world to the world. Anything could be art and art could be everywhere. He defined what he called the ‘optical unconscious’. The idea that we are psychologically connected to photography and film without us knowing it consciously. It shapes who we are. Our visual interpretation goes hand in hand with our psychological make-up.

What’s important about Benjamin’s work is the increasing foresight of his ideas in the modern digital era. Just as we might perceive the age of technological reproduction as a change in the way we see the world photographically, we can extend this into the world of digital media and the continued integration between our physical self and our virtual self. Today we don’t just create image reproductions, we create and distribute multiple copies of our images, our identities, we create entire worlds that exist as both reproduction and imaginary space. Not just disconnected from their “authentic” original in time and space, but existing in a completely separate reality. Images are no longer dependent on reality; reality has become dependent on images. Our reality has been transformed into an image.

Within the 'Monsters Inc.' video we are presented with a 'recognition scene'. A small child being put to bed by his father (although we don't actually see him) and then his imagination taking over his thoughts. The wardrobe door opening, shadows from the light of the window, monsters under the bed. A dramatic scene that that reveals the underlying plot of the film. 

Suddenly we are taken out of what we think is 'reality' and placed into the films real world. A play on our 'way of thinking' and what we consider 'normal'. 

What this recognition scene does is to demystify the technological fabrication of this fantasy world, what we thought was a film was actually constructed by making a copy of our own world and showing it back to us. The film takes viewers ‘behind the scenes’ of technologies and corporations, the source of organised illusions and deceptions, which humankind mistakes for the truth. Media technology has the capacity to create credible scenarios, however incredible and unreal we know them to be. And last but not least, the entire film is imaginary, it’s created using pixel-generating software based on the conventions of traditional film. The characters, the sets, the lighting, the camera angles are all simulated. The film creates an entire cinematic world for us to inhabit, and it’s a reality we know well because we’re visually and psychologically absorbed into cinematic language from an early age.

In a similar way, the film 'The Matrix' takes us into a digital and simulated world. 

Arguably, the digital revolution of the past 20 years represents the biggest cultural revolution since the Renaissance and has affected every aspect of our lives. Like the printing press, the internet allows images and information to be copied to anywhere in the world instantly. It has changed how we live, work, and socialise, and how we consume visual culture. And also, how we perceive of ourselves in relation to the world. While the early stages of the digital revolution heralded the flattening of time and space and the move from the visual to the virtual, as the rate of change has accelerated, the last decade has witnessed the creation of entirely created worlds. Images are created from data algorithms that no longer need a reference point. Everything from portraits to landscapes to virtual worlds are created from scratch without the need for a subject, a camera, or a place to display.

Today, anyone can manipulate an image thus creating a manipulated reality. it only adds to the question what is real and what is unreal? Social media is the same. we can post manipulated images to create a world that appears better than reality and where the more likes we obtain of that unreality, the better.

Is AI good or bad? Some say that generative AI will end poverty, will cure all disease, solve climate change. Make our jobs more meaningful and exciting and unleash lives of leisure and contemplation. By contrast, others say that it is a dangerous and all powerful and will lead to a world we can't control. AI will overtake humans. . AI is a LLM (large language model). It trawls through the existing data online and creates 'an image' of what it finds. It can do some amazing things, but it's just an algorithm that pushes data around into an intelligible form. General day-to-day photography (or any other artform)will be very easy to replicate. The world’s wealthiest companies in history (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon) take the sum of human knowledge that exists online and creates its own product. Potentially taking the jobs of those who trained the system with their artwork and knowledge. Arguably, it’s a form of digital colonisation that hands more power to the most powerful and takes away from individual creators. If you put your amazing new photo online, the AI systems will take that and add it to their data. 

Personal Commentary and Research

Walter Benjamin says that 'Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art'. The reactionary attitude toward a Picasso painting changes into the progressive reaction toward a Chaplin movie. The progressive reaction is characterised by the direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the orientation of the expert. He defined what he called the ‘optical unconscious’. The idea that we are psychologically connected to photography and film without us knowing it consciously. It shapes who we are. Our visual interpretation goes hand in hand with our psychological make-up

The Renaissance era i.e. the 15th and 16th centuries, was seen as a time of art revolution that spread across Europe. The Renaissance affected all aspects of society, from science and technology, to music and philosophy, but especially the arts in painting, and the widespread use of the printing press.

For the first time accurate copies of paintings and manuscripts could be produced to the extent that, other than to the trained eye, you could not tell the difference. All of a sudden, because copies were made easily available, information became widely available and people could now enjoy the beauty of paintings and the like. There was no need to see the original.

Mimesis – the technical mimicry of how things in the world look. Essentially the ability to copy. Originally in the renaissance.

John Berger talks about how the camera mimics a painters perspective from the Renaissance. And the eye (or rather the mind) accepts this reality. He gives the view that the way we see things is connected to our own experiences and culture. The Italian Renaissance stole and utilised ideas from ancient Rome and Greece, thus making early civilisations the basis for a great deal of Western thought, including ideas on photography and art.

An example of Berger's theory can be explained using Plato's cave. We see a group of people chained inside a cave for all of their lives and facing a blank wall. These people watch shadows projected onto the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them, they give names and descriptions to these shadows. The shadows become their reality, but they are not real at all. They are just shadows. As time progresses, one of the prisoners escapes and learns to understand the true nature of the shadows and now understands the real world. He goes back to the cave and tells the prisoners the truth of what the shadows really are. They believe he’s mad and show no desire to leave their fake world. They know no other and believe in only what they can actually see and believe. 

Daniel Simons attributes this to 'Inattentional blindness', the inability to perceive outside information when concentrating on a task. Is it that when we study an image, we suffer from 'Inattentional blindness' and how can we avoid this. Surely by being conscious of this psychological factor, we can over ride our thought process and have a wider scope of 'how we see things'.

Susan Sontag talks about this story and suggests the cave is meant to represent the superficial nature of our reality, and how it is ignorance that persuades those to stay in the cave. She describes a connection to photography in that 'we think we see reality in photographs, when what we actually see are representations of a reality'. When analysing images, we need to be conscious that not only have images become more like reality, but reality has become more like an image.

In the 1970's we see the introduction and development of photorealist paintings. i.e. paintings that mimic photographs. You have to get close up to the image before you can see the brushstrokes. An example of how imagery has gone full circle.

Furthermore, John and Thomas Knoll invented 'photoshop'. A piece of software that can change an image beyond recognition. It has immense power through the photograph and can create an image more powerful than a camera. 

Liz Wells in her book 'A Critical Introduction' focuses upon the documentary role of the camera. Claims have been made for the authenticity or ‘truth’ of photography used within social surveys or viewed as evidence. Frank Hurley's image of the battlefield (1916) is a classic example of an image not telling the full truth and could be considered one of the first images to be photoshopped.

We are also reminded that Barthe tells us that Myths are constantly around us. We should think about all the images, messages and stories we are confronted with throughout the day. We see photos of everyday events including wars, political profiles and reports on economic issues such as the stock market. Barthe believes all of these images that are consumed throughout the day are filled with myth. A Myth conveys a message. Myths occur when society's dominant institutions imbue an image, object, or phrase with meaning. These meanings then serve to shape the way people in society view the world. These cultures and beliefs are then adopted unconsciously by the masses. Photoshop can and does contribute to this myth and adds to the question 'what can we trust?'

Which then leads us to cinematography. In this we see unrealistic worlds made believable. Worlds that challenge our imagination and that can take us into complete fantasy. In the film 'Monsters Inc. we are presented with a 'recognition scene' of a child being put to bed. We then see the wind blow through the curtains and a shadow by the wardrobe door. Another shadow under the bed. All of sudden we are exposed to 'the Monsters Inc. world' where the monsters are the reality and the child is a robot. A scene that demonstrates the power of film and the creation of a fake world. Similar films that create allow us into a fake world of fantasy are 'The Matrix', 'Bridge to Terabithia', 'Robocop', 'Tron' and many, many more.

The digital revolution of the past 20 years represents the biggest cultural revolution since the Renaissance. The internet now allows images and information to be copied to anywhere in the world and instantly. It has changed how we live, work, and socialise, and how we consume visual culture. 

But where do we go from here? Generative AI can be a good thing but also bad. Will it help and support humanity or will it replace the world as we know it? Will it create or destroy jobs thereby allowing us more leisure time. By contrast, is it is a dangerous and all powerful dystopian nightmare that we can't control? 

AI is a Large Language Model. It trawls through existing data online and comes up with a solution. AI may not take over the world, but it is likely it will take over your job and will certainly be able to help you problem solve.

Reading:

Benjamin, W. (1935) The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Mirzoeff, N (2015) How to See the World – Available in the library

Wells, L. (2015) Photography: A Critical Introduction – Available online via library.

Ritchin, F (2013) Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen

Frosh, P. (2019) The Poetics of Digital Media. - The Monster Inc. analysis is in the epilogue

Mythologies by Barthe@ Overview and Primary Themes 

Activity:

Find an image that represents digital culture in some form In your blog:

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

2. What does the image say about digital culture or the changes in photography and/or society as a result of.

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

I find this image very symbolic God gives life to the first man by almost touching Adam’s index finger. This image, certainly the most sacred in the history of Western art, symbolises 'the creation humanity'. In a mark of significance, God's hand is replaced by a human hand and man's hand is replaced by a robot (AI) The bright light in the background can be considered the omnipotent and benevolent creator, and the fact that the two hands do not touch, symbolises the fact that life is about to begin. Is this the next chapter of humanity where life is given to a digital world?

2. What does the image say about digital culture or the changes in photography and/or society as a result of.

It is  significant, that the image is a painting and not a photograph. An 'optical unconscious' image created in the same medium of the original pained by Michelangelo. The image could be paralleled with the Italian Renaissance which has stolen and utilised ideas from the Sistine chapel, thus making this image the basis for a great deal of humanitarian and religious thought. Will future generations see this evolving image a continuation and natural evolution of life? Is the fact that the two hands do not touch symbolic to the 'creation of a digital world'.

Week 7 - The Order of Things

Seminar Notes

In everything we do there is order, things have their place. Books sit on a shelf in order of size, subject or maybe they are 'haphazard'. They still have their place. We leave our clothes in a certain place, usually a wardrobe, in the bedroom. Wherever they are kept, they have a place and are kept in some kind of order. More pertinent, there is order in society. If we did not have order, it is thought, society would fall apart and there would be anarchy.

Taxonomy, is a system of ordering, a way to categorise things. In life we all have our orders, no matter how disorderly we are.

Archives are a system of putting past documents and photographs into an order. Libraries, Museums, Online Collections even shops and supermarkets have an order. Food is categorised so it makes it easier for the shopper.

The idea of ordering can be seen as supporting the construction of hierarchies. We place different values on different items and order them accordingly. However, what is seen and what is hidden? What is important and what is not? The notion of 'hierarchy of vision'.

Joachim Schmid – German artist, who’s been collecting photos for years found photographs (Pre digital). Different collections of vernacular photography – snapshots, studio photos, postcards, commercial photos, photos of missing people, newspaper images – grouped and classified according to their perceived similarity. Each collection has a uniformity and conformity of image production, there are patterns and rituals of common photographic representations. It shows the mundane weirdness of common place photography.

Similarly we all order our photographs and categorise them how we see the need to 'order'. Family, friends, holidays, hobbies. All of these are visual patterns. Do we follow our own rules or do we follow a set of unwritten rules?

The categories that define all visual archives are arbitrary, i.e. there is no inherent logic, even though it might seem that way, it’s another myth. And this tells us two things: first, that ordering in the world is arbitrary. Secondly, it shows that photographs have a formal order that we unconsciously adhere to. In our everyday images we use techniques that place certain things in the frame in a certain way. A form of discipline and hierarchy to what is seen, how the image is taken, and how it is seen or perceived

For example, wedding and family photographs are photographed in a similar way formally (in terms of composition, pose etc) Sunsets have a straight horizon, but also prioritise an imagined sense of nature or the spiritual. Our adherence to the rules of image-making creates an order of things and unwittingly contributes to a pre-existing hierarchy. You could call this a ‘visual regime’.

To a large extent the photograph and the history of photography are shaped by the particular way they have been collected, stored, used and displayed. Over time this process decontextualises an image from its initial meaning. How do we read photographs that have been moved from say an archive and placed on the gallery wall? What may have been a document or evidence becomes an art object to be read in an entirely different way. The context lies not in the photograph itself, but in the person, institution, or society producing and perceiving it.

Archives are a way or ordering our world. It puts history into categories so we can return to the images/documents and see them in a way we want to see them. Archives are a system of knowledge.

We can expand this idea of order into much bigger realms. Institutions – schools, health systems, criminal justice systems, birth/marriage/death. How society is governed by and through the ideas disseminated by institutions, and how photography contributes to that order, both in terms of what we see and how we perceive it.

Michel Foucault - One of the most influential figures in critical theory. His ideas relate to concepts of power and knowledge, especially moral knowledge. How is knowledge formed and what does that mean for how we make sense of the world? His books like Madness and Civilisation, Discipline and Punish, and the History of Sexuality can be seen as analyses of institutions. How they are set up, how they function, and how they are used to govern society and shape our ideas. He was interested in the ways that social practices and institutions defined what it was to be human, or which humans are ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ or different in society. He questions assumptions e.g. in the history of Sexuality, he suggests that Victorian sexuality rather than being suppressed as it is often claimed, was instead when sex became mainstream, it was classified and medicalised and discussed all the time. It becomes ordered and rules are made about sexual behaviour. Foucault says that the basic ideas about human nature and society change over the course of history. The way that we understand prisons, madness, and sexuality have all changed over time, so therefore there is no true way of behaving, just a system and a set of rules maintained over time. But he’s also asking us to reflect on our own hierarchies and preconceptions. He wanted to deconstruct how we come to know the things that define us. In the academic world it’s known as Epistemology – theory of knowledge, rather than knowledge itself.

Roland Barthes’ fashion system. As system of knowledge about what we should and shouldn't wear. What we think goes together and what other people think we should wear. A uniform, if you like.

School orders us into age and ability. We are governed by start and finish times and we are taught a curriculum. i.e. we are told what to learn. All kinds of institutions are the same and these institutions tell us how we should think.

Art and photography can be understood as a discourse, a specific system of knowledge. Images operate using their own forms, language and values that constitute that discourse. Certain images aren’t just labelled as ‘art’, it is the knowledge, the institutions and practices that define what is art and what it is not. But this system also defines what is visible and what is not, what is in the image and which images are seen. Subjects are ordered and perceived in particular ways within the photographic frame.

Alphonse Bertillon and mugshots - Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Visual archive using measurements and photographs. Later extended to archiving fingerprints and DNA. Bertillon’s system is not dissimilar to the one used by Francis Galton to define racial and criminal types using composite images. FIT - Forward Intelligence Team. Gather data and try to disrupt political activists using cameras, video recorders to conduct overt surveillance of the public. Not criminals or even suspects, but information can be retained indefinitely on a criminal database. One of the primary uses of the camera is to maintain order. Sousveillance – used by activists to record activities of the state (e.g. murder of George Floyd by police).

Foucault believed discourses are essentially a form of discipline or order (in the both senses of the word). And this is where he makes the connection between knowledge and power. For Foucault, power is not something you acquire, through knowledge or anything else for that matter. The discourse or the system of knowledge is power, not the knowledge itself. This is where power lies in society. Discourse disciplines people into certain ways of thinking and behaving.

Knowledge is not about fixed truths, but about power, which shapes the world around us. Our habits, our social interactions.

Big Brother vs George Orwell – 1984

Both use the idea of surveillance using cameras to watch our every move. But whereas in the book, the cameras are controlled by an all-seeing tyrannical dictator, conversely in TV’s Big Brother, the cameras portray a type of behaviour and way of being. It’s part of a much bigger institution that helps regulate behaviour within society. People can be eccentric, but they don’t do anything really bad, and their morality is checked and played out on screen for all to judge what is acceptable and what is not.

Bentham’s Panopticon. Design for a prison used by Foucault as a metaphor for how we regulate our personal behaviour. The Panopticon is a circular building with a central guard tower that can look into all the cells lining the perimeter. The cells are kept illuminated but the observation tower is dark, the prisoners can be observed at all times but don’t know when they are being watched. Like the prisoners, we think we are being watched, even when we are not. The characteristics of the panopticon allows for the shift in regulatory power to the individual, as they now self-monitor their behaviour. He’s saying, we don’t need a repressive police state, the policeman is in your head.

Personal Commentary and Research

What is order? Order can be the organisation of objects such as books, music collections or clothes. But it can also be the order of society. Michel Foucault's theories have been concerned largely with the concepts of power, knowledge and discourse.

Foulcault's work can be seen as a historical analysis of social conditions. For example, he analysed the difference between madness and reason. He is considered a 'critical thinker'. He is renowned for his contradiction and, perhaps the most interesting part of his work is his scepticism and his concern to think laterally about subjects. 

It is a view that we can learn much from Foucault's methods when we study images.

Taxonomy - A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organised into groups or types. One example of is archives.

When we think of archives, we might think of libraries, images collections, museums, online collections. An archive can be any kind of collection or classification. We define and categorise different objects, people, animals, images, even ideas. The idea of ordering things (including from a photographic perspective) can be seen as the construction of hierarchies, in particular, when we place different values on different items and order them accordingly. We order things as a hierarchy of vision.

Joachim Schmid – German artist, who collected photographs for many years. Within his collection was found different collections of vernacular photography – snapshots, studio photos, postcards, commercial photos, photos of missing people, newspaper images. All classified according to how he saw their classification. 

Most people keep their family photographs in similar order. They may be categorised in terms of who the picture represents, which holiday they went on or an activity they were involved with. None the less, they are kept in an order that is symbolic to the 'collector'.

Photographs also have a formal order that we unconsciously and consciously adhere to. We use techniques that place certain things in the frame in a certain way. A form of discipline and hierarchy to what is seen, how the image is taken, and how it is seen or perceived. For example holiday snaps can fit into similar categories:

• Portrait
• Landscape
• Activity

We call this a 'visual regime'

It is interesting also that we can see different aspects of a photograph, depending upon where they have been collected, stored, used and displayed. An image in an art gallery will have a different meaning than if it was in an archive or as part of a collection. The context lies not in the photograph itself, but in the person, institution, or society producing and perceiving it.

Photography can seem to capture reality like no other medium, wielding the power of proof. How can a piece of chemically discoloured paper have such potency? How does the meaning of a photograph become fixed? How do photographs gain their meaning and power? John Tagg claims that, to answer this question, we must look at the ways in which everything that frames photography. The discourse that surrounds a photograph and the institutions that circulate it, determine what counts as truth.

Liz Wells talks about a photographs relation to reality. Photographs retain a sense of authenticity. Umberto Eco ‘has commented that the photograph reproduces the conditions of optical perception, but only some of them.’ Eco indicates that although photographs are iconic to their source, they only share some of the characteristics of optical perception associated with seeing.

Michel Foucault says that the basic ideas about human nature and society change over the course of history. The way that we understand prisons, madness, and sexuality have all changed over time. There is no true way of behaving, just a system and a set of rules maintained over time. He is also asking us to reflect on our own hierarchies and preconceptions. Like Barthes and Butler, he wanted to critique the myths that were seen as natural, what is referred to as essentialism – a predefining characteristic that assumes things are just as they are, for example man and woman, sexual or racial difference, sanity and insanity. He wanted to deconstruct how we come to know the things that define us. In the academic world it’s known as Epistemology – theory of knowledge, rather than knowledge itself.

Alphonse Bertillon Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Visual archive using measurements and photographs. Later extended to archiving fingerprints and DNA. Bertillon’s system is not dissimilar to the one used by Francis Galton to define racial and criminal types using composite images.

Reading

Rose,G. (2014) Visual Methodologies – Chapters 7 & 8

Mills, S. (2003) Michel Foucault

Wells, L. (2015) Photography : a critical introduction

Dyer, G (2005) The Ongoing Moment

Tagg, J (2009) The Disciplinary Frame: Photographic Truths and the Capture of Meaning

Activity:

Find an image or images from an archive or collection of any sort. In your blog:

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

2. Describe the archive it belongs to and discuss the criteria used to categorise

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

In my first project 'Photographic Production' I spent time studying Liverpool Cathedral, including who built it and why. From the Liverpool Archives, I found a number of fascinating books depicting the building and the numerous photographs documenting the structures rise towards completion. The above image is just one that shows the detailed work of the stone masons, the placing of the headstone on the building and the architect who designed the building. An image from a collection put together by Peter Kennerley.

2. Describe the archive it belongs to and discuss the criteria used to categorise

The above image is taken from The Liverpool Archives collection of images representing the building of Liverpool Cathedral. The image shows Sir Gilbert Scott (centre, wearing glasses) on the roof of the building during the placement of an elaborate headstone. Scott was determined to win an architectural competition with the ‘grandest building in the world’ and you can see the pride in his eyes as this slowly becomes his reality.

The image is taken from the book:

The building of Liverpool Cathedral (2017) by Peter Kennerley (Author)

Week 8 - Photography and Cinema

Seminar Notes

Photography and cinema each have their own language, norms, and methods of expressing stillness and action.

Photography and cinema shape our views of reality and identity on a subconscious and cultural level.

Filming or photographing persons with a male gaze might reinforce societal gender stereotypes.

Photography and cinema both have their distinct histories, but they have technical and conceptual similarities. Photography came first, yet both corresponded with, documented, and exhibited the modern age, leaving a legacy that continues to this day. Despite the fact that we communicate and distribute differently in the digital age, many of the traditions and procedures have been passed down from previous generations. Film, especially, has a set of traditions that are deeply established into the medium, and we automatically follow them.

Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne Jules Marey - Chronophotography. Each depicts movement and the passage of time in their own unique way, whether through many images or multiple exposures. More scientific than artistic.

A historical piece of film showing a train pulling into a station had a shocking effect when it first came out. The image shows the technology revolution compacted time and space and provided plausible images of reality.

Henri Cartier Bresson described the camera as an extension of his eye, implying an extension of the mind. In his pursuit for the pivotal moment, he attempts to capture time in a single picture. The frame cuts into space, while the shutter cuts into time. This power to freeze time and space is unique to the field of photography. According to Barthes, the essence of a photograph is its ability to show that 'which has been'. Evidence of a certain point in time. However, it can also be a moment of expectation. Not all images possess the suspense and drama that this one does, but photographs surely have the power to represent narrative and movement.

Movies move, whereas images remain stationary. However, each has a unique approach to stillness and movement.

Though photography lacks the technical advantages of the film camera, it is far from an inferior forerunner awaiting animation. It has its own distinct language that may be read in a variety of ways. Unlike moving images, a single frame allows us to focus on details other than the director's or actors' unconscious intentions. Like Barthes' punctum, the meaning moves from the artist to the viewer. Photography is frequently about capturing a snapshot. Incomplete fragments allow us to create our own narrative.

Story arc refers to cinematic time and narrative. Outside of the avantgarde, mainstream cinema has always focused on escapist fantasy. It has its unique method of dealing with time and movement, resulting in a cohesive whole. Defined narratives and characters, as well as editing techniques, allow time and space to be condensed into an hour or two, regardless of the length of the film. These conventions are profoundly embedded in our mentality, allowing us to interact with films on their own terms. Even documentary film is frequently viewed as being in narrative form, taking place over a predetermined period of time, and often intercut with other aspects that, while factual, lack the detail and calm of photography.

Photography has its own language, traditions, and methods of seeing, and it is arguably more strongly related to our ideas of truth and reality than film, however problematic these concepts are.

Photomontage - Either through work by John Stezaker or through sequencing and arrangement. We might also consider photo tales or diptychs. Whereas images in film flow together in a continuous stream, with one frame preceding and following the next, a diptych of two still photos allows us to examine the visual dialogue between them. Photo stories have a place today, but a linear story, such as cinema, can appear overly literal and unsubtle. A photobook is typically most effective when there is a lack of clear cohesion. We are obliged to make our own readings to fill in the holes in the story, such as in Robert Frank's The Americans. Creating connections between separate pictures the viewer is forced to construct new meaning. Photography loses narration but gains free association. Many contemporary photographers, including Larry Clark, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Rinko Kawauchi, use this form of exhibition. Arguably, the visuals themselves have a cinematic quality. Films can behave similarly to pictures, and vice versa. In particular, they address quiet and even silence. Yasujiro Ozu is a Japanese minimalist film director. Known for slow, exploratory films such as Tokyo Story. His films are punctuated with real-time pictures that are practically static, with the tiniest movement indicating that time has passed.

The Freeze Frame – Forces us to evaluate and think about what is happening. Can give us more information about a character. Or suspend the narrative, like a photograph

Chris Marker’s La Jetee composed almost entirely of still images. This 1962 sci-fi ‘film’ has stood the test of time is widely regarded as a work of art that competes with film on its own terms. It addresses all the major themes usually associated with film – memory, history, war, loss, desire, but also the ability to play with linear and non-linear narrative

Theatricality Film is frequently related with narrative theatre, which includes constructed sets and scenes, scripts and dialogue, actors and roles, stories, and plays. Photography involves performance and performative aspects, but a still image allows us to analyse how these relate to our understanding outside the frame. Only after a film is stilled do we have the appropriate distance to consider its composition. And this ability to use images to deconstruct has had a significant impact on artists and photographers since the 1980s. To be filmic yet not a film. Because the narrative linked with cinema is so prolific and full of dramatic possibilities, photographers can use it to provide conceptual reference points. To alter the intended message by replicating the iconography of movie.

Jeff Wall's images are cinematic. They borrow from film both structurally and stylistically .A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai, 1993) It appears to be a pivotal moment, but it is actually made up of many individual photos and involves performers, assistants, and a wind machine. We read as if it were a moment in photographic time, similar to a documentary snapshot, but with a theatrical feel, especially when we realise it's a staged scene. It plays with photography's sense of realism, but the closer we look, the more we realise it's a little too beautiful to be plausible, especially in this very dreary context. However, this was most likely the photographer's intention: to make us ponder about precisely that. Many of Wall's works are shown in enormous light boxes.

Cindy Sherman – Almost seen as a response to the male gaze. Stages herself as various types of femininity from popular movies. In the galley context, the images force us to recognise our own preconceptions. We recognise them, even though they are not from any film. They look like discarded film stills, but are presented as fine art image

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s (70s) photographs of films in cinemas. Sets up a large format camera and leaves the shutter open for the duration of the film. The camera is unable to register the film shown or any time passing. We’re left with the trace of hundreds of thousands of still images projected at 24 frames per second. As well as lighting up these old movie halls, it helps consider the different ways the two technologies capture time, light and motion

Personal Commentary and Research

With the introduction of Cinema, we have to look at how that affected photography. How did the 'moving image' change our relation to the 'still image'? Cinema and photography are very drawn to each other, close-ups, freeze frames and the fundamental fact that both have an innate ability to challenge the viewers imagination to create a story. 

David Campany looks at the importance of the still image for filmmakers such as the Lumière brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Mark Lewis, Agnès Varda, Peter Weir, Christopher Nolan and many others. He also looks at the cinematic in the work of photographers and artists that include Germaine Krull, William Klein, John Baldessari, Jeff Wall, Victor Burgin and Cindy Sherman.

Visual pictures are everywhere in our life. Gillian Rose's  view is that 'the visual pervades our daily lives, academic work, and conversations, and is inextricably linked with our own identities, narratives, lifestyles, cultures, and societies'. 

Visual culture has gained importance in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as a result of technological and digital advancements, the rise of modern media, and the prominence of consumer culture. The proliferation of the visual—from visual technologies (via digital, television, video, film, and photography) to visual images portrayed through art, paintings, sculpture, advertisements, and visual images in newspapers and magazines, as well as on television and social media—is central to people's identities and subjectivities as they age.

Today, we live in 'the iPhone age' where bulky cameras are replaced with smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. It is likely that, in time, these technological innovations will also be replaced and, as a result, will also change the ways in which photography and cinematography are used. Shooting individual images will eventually seem weird and unneeded. As motion capture quality increases, we may be able to forgo taking still photos entirely, instead recording video and extracting stills in post-production. If we can "see" in images, can we "see" in films?

Since 1895, when the Lumière Brothers played their first film, Exiting the Lumière Factory in Lyon, at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, motion pictures have held a special position in public imagination. Photographers were among those who immediately absorbed their impact, and several major film styles, from German Expressionism to the French New Wave, left an indelible mark on the discipline of still photography. This is what photographers refer to as cinematic style. Renowned directors like Fritz Lang, Sergei Eisenstein, and Alfred Hitchcock, for example, left distinct visual fingerprints that impacted generations of modern and current artists. And there have always been those daring few, like Helmar Lerski, Paul Strand, and Robert Frank who felt comfortable going back and forth between photography and film.

It's incredible how different the histories of photography and film have remained for two such closely related inventions. They are typically portrayed as discrete, self-contained fields. This is due, in part, to 'siloing academic culture' and the way historical histories were written, but it also reflects how photography and motion pictures have been treated in the art market. Photography expanded beyond the fine arts to include family albums, magazines, newspapers, and advertising supplements. In contrast, cinema and television swiftly became forms of entertainment.

Eadweard Muybridge, the renowned motion picture pioneer, began in the 1870s by taking sequences of instantaneous images of a horse's gallop, which was a popular scientific topic at the time, and created photographic grids recording stages of the animal's stance. Muybridge went on to apply his technique to a variety of human and animal activities, but his next conceptual step was to create the Zoöpraxiscope, a device that reanimated his images in brief loops and is today regarded as an important predecessor of film. The invention required much skill and engineering expertise. But the fundamental concept was simple. The camera freezes time, and the projector restarts it.

Fast forward to the early twenty-first century, and the previously artificially delineated lines between still and motion picture photography are beginning to blur once again. Consumer gadgets today allow consumers to film and process video without the need for a sound stage, cinematographer, or professional editor, just as the Kodak camera did in the past. This alters not only our perception of motion films, but also of photographs.

The primary paradox of photography is its capacity to represent how objects seem at a specific instant with precision while presenting just a specific, finite view. Photographs are like obstinate grains of sand in the oyster of time—so certain of what they represent, but forever locked in place. There is nothing comparable in any other art genre. Photographs have a fixed quality. In contrast, cinema, particularly narrative cinema, has a 'before' and 'after'. The filmmaker's task is to control the visual progression over time.

The following images show artists working with cinematic ideas through photography. They reference the visual styles of filmmaking and knowingly and unknowingly, probe the idea of cinema structure: the interrupted narrative, missing a before and after and allowing the viewer to concoct his or her own narrative.

These images belong to: John Divola, Sharon Lockhart, Lisa Sarfati, Jeff Wall, Anna Fox and Gregory Crewdson.

Reading:

Rose,G. (2014) Visual Methodologies – Chapter on Psychoanalysis

Wells, L. (2015) Photography : a critical introduction

Campany, D. (2006) Photography and Cinema

Cranny-Francis et al (2003) Gender Studies: Terms and Debates

Berger, J (1975) Ways of Seeing

Core Text: Mulvey, L. (1975) Essay - Visual Pleasure and Narrative

Activity:

Find a ‘cinematic’ image (but not a film still).In your blog:

1. Explain why you have chosen the image.

2. Describe what makes it cinematic.