Research point
Read John A. Walker’s essay ’
(freely available online). In your learning log make some notes summarising
Walker’s argument and your own thoughts on this issue.
These are points which stuck out from Walker’s essay I’d like to take time to write about.
The frame of the photograph encloses a space, a world, which we can enter (in our imaginations)
In my mind, I have never given much thought to the other four sides of a photograph, considering only the frame as a whole. I find it fascinating to consider what was cropped out, as well as what the image would look like if an extra inch or two had been added, would it change the original thought, or would it completely alter it.
In the distant past, paintings and sculptures were generally produced for specific locations and were designed as integral parts of architectural structures.
Images made by humans would be part of the environment; they would not be transient nor replicated elsewhere. Only at that exact location, or place, could you view the image. In John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” seeing a famous painting in a museum is different from seeing a postcard image.
There is a need to examine the life of an image as well as its birth, to consider its circulation, its currency, as it moves through time and space from context to context,
Having parallels between photographs and currency is an interesting idea. Until the desired cause is accomplished, the fleeting images from mobile phones are deleted at will. On the other side of the spectrum, limited edition prints by famous photographers, would reach into the thousands. Considering where they are born, is another interesting concept– who took the picture, on what kind of camera, and how/ where was is developed and circulated.
A baby photograph from my birth is worth so much to me, as they cannot be replicated (other than a digital scan) which makes it a sentimental object, rather than just an image.
It is, however, problematic to judge the impact of a single image when we are exposed to a veritable flood tide of visual imagery daily, in addition to all the other kinds of experience which form us ideologically. To many people it seems that imagery is having no effect at all
I think this comment in a sad but true observation of younger generation mobile phone users; although I do not use it, but something like snap chat, where there are countless images shared and deleted, almost constantly. Imagery is becoming numb sensation…
Until we begin looking up from our devises, real life, with hope, will become more exciting.
It has often been pointed out that the Front are photogenic, as were the German Nazis before them. Their facial expressions, body language and clothing connote a set of values – toughness, masculine virility, aggression, latent power – which are perceived by the Left as negative values but which may appear positive to Front members. It may, therefore, be politically more valuable for the Left photographer to stress the weak and pathetic aspects of the racists rather than to celebrate their toughness.
It’s interesting how a photographer holds the power, to which the viewer is at the mercy of. You can depict anyone, anywhere, and any situation in a contrived way through manipulation, angles, lighting etc.. misinterpretation is common and perhaps, sometime the objective. Propaganda, fashion, dieting, marketing– these all use optical illusions to better sell an idea/produc
Alexander's blog 