photo
Pornography
'bad' sexual imagery, lower class mass production
erotica
'good' sexual imagery, high class, art
Facets of this image
-Image as a testament: woman is the subject, where is the father, emotional tie, what the image is documenting -photograph's story: I saw and approached this mother, the photographers story while taking picture -subjects story: from the point of view of the subject of the image -genre and usage: the documenting of the whole situation -image in context: overall context of the image -image-text: the title of image is important, "Seasonal Farm Laborer's Family -aesthetics & art history: composition and subject matter, picture quality & print quality -gender: -reading the image: formal qualities, aragnegmet; locate the work within the history of image making - what does this have in common with other straight photos; her arm is upraised not her support her head but to finger her chin interntative thought -image as icon: the photograph as much as its checkered history included a woman and her children
advertising & sports
-body as part of the machine, superhero, 'collectively owned' body -the god/goddess -bodies of desire
depicting the body
-broad themes covered classification identity body in crisis object of desire and disgust body as machine -body in transition
shifts attitudes of art
-critic and essayist Walter Benjamin stated; easy reproduction and distribution photo cause: the loss of the aura attached to art objects - a world was not open to multiple interpretations -formerly unique objects, located in a particular space, lost their singularity
victorian Erotic Imagery
-depended on the classification of social types ---not through physiognomy clothing as props act as signifiers of class an occupation in victorian pornography
Appropriation
-incorporating someone else work into your own. -usually manipulated. -transforming the work into something new. -intellectual property grey area.
Postmodernism
-response to modernism -break the rules, anything goes -lack of hierarchy and or authority -hard to define conceptual -pop art, feminist art, performance!
Roland Barthes - cultural critic
19th century gave us history and photography constructs history
'Documentary'
1st invented to describe the typed of movies that went against
The photography as a document
Documentary= to document or record images played the role; of documenting "it was there" this event happened, these ppl existed authencity comes into play-who took the pic? a political organization? a business? an amateur?
'the other;
European culture was defined against 'the other' of colonialised people
Michel Foucault
French Philisopher, historian, & theorist
vernacular photography
Images by amateur photographers of everyday life and subjects, commonly in the form of snapshots. The term is often used to distinguish everyday photography from fine art photography.
cartes de visite
Small handheld photographic cards, depicted individual or celebrity portraits, and were popularly traded or collected in albums.
Roland Barthes & arresting attention photographs arrest attention when they encompass these two elements:
Stadium: general enthusiasm for images, photographic meanings that are apparent to everyone Punctum: the prick/ string/wound, the element that escapes language, the detail that attracts ones gaze, unique to each viewer Different from a shocking or loud image, but rather a poignancy of recognition for the particular viewer.
the oppositional gaze
Understanding the representations of people of color, specifically those of black women The need for accurate representations, rather than depictions as the other
simulacruml
a copy for which there is no original
Simulacrum
a copy for which there is no original it becomes truth in its own right = the hyperreal ex: a simulated environment- virtual Rea;ity headsets, Disneyland,
Hyperreality
a form of representation in which mediated images appear more real than reality itself
The Daguerreotype
a photograph taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor. affordable !
Defining gaze
a steady intent look a particular perspective taken to embody certain aspects of the relationship between observer and observed can be reflected in the way in which an author, artist, or film director directs attention
The Panopticon
allows a single watchman to observe all the cells, inmates are placed alone in a cell and are unable to tell whether they are being watched or not
photographs used to discipline people
an archive an be created and used to understand, classify, analyze, surveil, and correct behavior
meme
an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture internet meme = group of digital items that: a)Share common charcteristcs of content, form, and or stance b) Are created with awareness of each other c)Are circulated, imitated, and transformed vis the internet by multiple users
the orality of snapchat
as the name of the application indicates, Snapchat brings together the "snap" of visual culture, referring to capturing the moment through picture taking and the "chat" of orality. Taking the application name literally, it relates to a combination of two different cultures: that of the fixed nature of pictures (or typed text)—which catch the moment and objectify it—and the temporal, ephemeral culture of conversation."
war photography
before photography, literary accounts gave people an understanding of war images were used as reference material for woodcuts that were used to illustrate newspapers every single war after was photographed - violent conflicts too
'illegible bodies
bodies which the system cannot adequately depict or identify historically margined groups -women, people of color, the elderly, manual laborers technologies are calibrated to bodies assumed to be normal -young, white, male, white-collar workers
Users of vernacular imagery
bring to the image wealth of surrounding knowledge, their own private pictures are part of a complex network of memories and meanings
physiognomy
character personality of a person can be assessed through the classification of features of the face and head
Denotation and Connotation
connotation is an implied meaning, denotation is the exact definition
phrenology
contours of the skull could give clues to the mental functioning of the brain
what does this denote? What does it connote?
denote: 2 young children and one preteen playing outside summer night girl in white dress looks at camera boy in stilts in background connote: children are innocent and could care less about the campers they are still having fun, girl is pure while wearing white dress and appears to be adult like , smoking a cigarette, posing for the camera, she is between two worlds-childhood and adulthood
stereographs
double pictures which gave a 3D effect when viewed through a binocular viewer
Grotesque', lower-body, private body
ever-changing, 'disgusting and shameful', birthing death, represntating of the orifices, reproduction, compilation, eating, defecation
popular photogroahy
everyday imagery made for public viewing -tourist shots -postcards -cartes-de-viste and cabinet cards -snapshots in general, blogs, Facebook, instagram, snapchat increasing through social media, traditionally personal images are widely shared not nessisarly reliable documents
female gaze
female perspective, reflecting female attitudes heavily influenced by the male gaze often responds to the male gaze just like male gaze influences the construction of felinity, the male influences the construction of masculinity mens identities are closely tied to their perceptions of what they think women expect of them
readers
find these images to be mysterious and require some investigating to discover the meanings looking at someone else photo album can be tedious and boring
photography as truth
from its invention and still to this day "absolutely material accuracy" "Renders complete and faithful image of its subject" even when we know that they lie, do the lies become truth?
the journey of fixing the image
goal was to preserve the image society was desperate for an accurate trace for the world -portable camera obscura -physiognatrace / silhouette chemists knew images would fade
body as a machine
idealized and utopian concept of the efficient, smooth-running machine -it ignored the ways in which certain machines can mutilate bodies (in factories and was)
Ephemerality
lasting a very short time
post-mortem photography
like death mask (casting of the face), early photography was used to record a likeness of a deceased person lots of effort to present corpse as asleep the image complies with the notion that the soul of the person continues to live after bodily death
types of gaze:
male female oppositional imperial
Male gaze
men are the dominant observers while women are passive the 'pleasure in looking' scophophilia; erotic pleasure gained in looking at another person or at images of other bodies -this pleasure is voyeurstic when it is dependent on the object of this gaze being unaware, not looking back fetishism; substitution of a part for the whole; or use of a thing to stand in for the powerful but repressed forces affects the way women perceive themselves and allow themselves to be perceived by men and other women
Eadweard Muybridge
motion-picture pioneer remembered for his pictures of running horses taken with a series of still cameras
official photos perfect vs. human
official photos released by celebrities: they are releasing their own photos and approve them. paparazzi photos: individuals unaware, stripped of their luxury and dazzle, TRUTH, they did not want these photos taken, concent was not there
restricted code
one that dependes upon its context to be understood. Vernacular images are often restricted codes to the readers of this kind of imagery
photography and death
photo and death have always been linked
PICtorialism
photographers trying to make photos look like paintings -countryside scenes -idyllic -soft focused !
Body in Crisis
photographs pf human bodies are caught up in social struggles. different views about the meanings and users of photographs have political implications -censoprship & sexuality -biology, technology, and the media
personal photography
photographs we make for ourselves
classification
photos have been used to classify people into types based upon outer appearence classifying people into groups has been happening for a long time
3 major fine art photo movements
pictorialism modern postmodernism
pornification of culture
porn is readily available, even unavoidable, especially via the internet, and with popular/ mass culture generally becoming more sexualized
Fetishism of Commodities
refers to the distorted relationship between individual production and consumption of goods.
Memento Mori
reminder of death "all photographs are memento more. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (thing's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs rectify to time's relentless melt."
-symbols
sign where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and cultural specific, e.g., most words: car, coche
-Index
sign where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., signifies fire
-Icons
sign where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a photo
sign
small unit of meaning, composed of two elements: -signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image -signified: the meaning we associate with the sign
classical, upper-body, public body
smooth, hairless, orifice-lkess, self-suffienet, flawless, publicly acceptable representation on the body in modern society
three types of signs
symbols icons index
colonizer's gaze
the Victorian need for classification extended to whole peoples, who were categorized and ranked according to 'anthropological type' sought to demonstraight the 'objective' differences between peoples, race, castes, and social categories these being observed were often seen as representative of racial or social groups, and were usually posed so as to embody particular kinds of dress, social roles, and material cultures.
the 'other'
the miniority the other can be a person from a diff race religion origin sexual orarientation EX: within patriarchy the male is taken as the norm the woman as other that is not male
Denotation
the most basic literal meaning of a sign, e.g. the word "rose" signifies a particular kind of flower, a photograph oaf a rose signifies a particular kind of flower Hashtagging, (when literally describing what is in an image) is essentially a list of denotations: #flower, #red, #petal, #stem
Connotation
the secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or "signifying signs," signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning, e.g., the word "rose" signifies passion. #passion, #love, #valentines
Power and the male gaze
this gaze is powerful in the case of the male gaze, the men are dominant/ observer, and the women are passive/ observed. this power affects the way women perceive themselves and allow themselves to be perceived by men and other women
Modernism
un-manipulated photographs that are not trying to mimic paintings, but rather make "photographs look like photographs" -sharp and focus -you know what your looking at -only controlled manipulation, no blur, no multiple negatives !
researching the archive
using hashtags created the context creators researchers are able to use publicly available images/ videos as data for a wide range if studies instagram used to research: news & hyperreality death & vernacular images, #funeral hip hop #startedfromthebottom etc
The Gaze
ways of looking, perceiving, and understanding the world
commodity culture
we define ourselves by the stuff we buy
the imperial gaze
white, western way of looking our text discusses it in terms of colonialism
origin of the word photography
writing with light, Photo = light, graphy = writing / recording
