How do we read a photograph?
Denotative is the literal meaning/explanation of an image whereas connotative is the implied explanation and an opinion you have drawn out from the image, which could possibly have a double meaning. Denotative is a simple detail that we obtain from an image which juxtaposes with the connotative aspect of an image-which is the signification of that detail and the underlying meaning it portrays.
Diane Arbus : Identical Twins,1967
When you first look at this image you immediately see 2 girls who seem to be identical, dressed in the same clothing and standing at a proxemics close to each other in the centre. As you look further into the image small details become more obvious, one girl is visibly sad whereas the other is smiling and happy. Their hairstyle is different, the one on the left has messier hair whereas the right twins hair is more immaculate. moreover, the length of their arms and their clothes are sitting different on both of their bodies. Each of these details allows us to assume the twins are actually very far from being identical, they are individuals with their own emotions and personalities. As The twin on the left has a sad expression on her face, messier hair and seems to be standing more inward than her sister, we can imply that she is much less confident and could be struggling more than her sister. Arbus has left the background very plain with no clues about where these girls are from or why the picture was taken-giving them a neutral identity. However there is one clue in the background, the floor is at a slight angle which could imply that the image is not what it seems and the image is not quite as perfect as it looked first glance.
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Diane Arbus : A Family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, New York, 1969
On the outskirts of this picture it reveals an average middle class family just like the image above, smaller details begin to become more visible as you look closer. The lawn takes up 2/3 of the image with a swing-set pushed to the side of the image. The idea that the swings, something that releases people's endorphin levels, has been pushed to the edge allowing the huge lawn to cover the picture could imply emptiness and loneliness within the family. The amount of emptiness in this image gives a very depressing and gloomy atmosphere. The parents are separated with both their hands and look as though they are going to make contact which perhaps seems very forced which could illustrate their relationship is tense and uncomfortable. The couple are separated by a small circular table, which could represent unity and wholeness that the family inadequately require. This is further represented by the boy staring into a circular pool, which could show he longs for a healthy family setting. The boy plays alone and is turned away from his parents emphasising the separation, however he is on the side closer to his mum showing their relationship is closer than the relationship between father and son. The woman seems to be immaculately dressed, in full makeup and hair, this could be a façade desperately masking her struggles.
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Camera Lucida vs Camera Obscura
A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. The camera lucida performs an optical image of the subject being viewed upon the surface which the artist is drawing upon. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure. The scene is reflected into a piece of paper so they can trace the image. Whereas a Camera Obscura is the same as a pinhole camera where a small hole lets in light from a scene onto photographic paper therefore leaving a photograph of the scene the camera obscura is being pointed at. The Camera Obsucra can also project an image on a piece of paper so the artist can trace the image of a person the camera is facing at. The camera obscura gives you the exact representation of the scene whereas a camera Lucida allows you to trace the projection to draw your own representation of the scene.
Daguerreotype vs Calotype
A Daguerreotype was the first successful form of photography It is made by copper plate coated with silver iodide being exposed to light in a camera, then fumed with mercury vapour and fixed by a solution of common salt, a permanent image would be formed. Whereas a Calotype is also an early type of photography but uses a sheet of paper coated with silver chloride being exposed to light in a camera obscura, those areas hit by light became dark in tone producing a negative image.
Early History Of Photography
The Renaissance 1300-1600
During the renaissance, artist became interested in exploring and representing the reality of nature. In order to create this realism they developed techniques to help them achieve the perspective they desired. One technique that was commonly used was the camera obscura. The early camera obscura was a dark room or space where an inverted image is reflected onto a surface so they can trace the image and create a real representation of the scene they wanted to portray.
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Industrial Revolution 1700-1900
The industrial revolution shaped the world of photography. Artists and scientists began to experiment with chemicals to produce new techniques to create new types of images.
Louis Jacques Daguerre- Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography, he became known as one of the fathers of photography. In 1829, he had formed a partnership with Nicéphore Niépce on how to make a permanent image using light and chemistry. Together they made a daguerreotype which is a one-of-a-kind photographic image on a silver-plated sheet of copper sensitized with iodine vapours, exposed in a large box camera, developed in mercury fumes, and fixed with salt water. However there were problems with this method, it requires long exposures which causes even the slight movement to blur the image. They were also very delicate which could be scratched and because they were no copies this caused problems because they couldn't be duplicated.
William Henry Fox Talbot- |
William Henry Fox Talbot discovered the Calotype which is made by washing paper in nitrate of silver then with potassium iodide, forming silver iodide. Then the paper is coated with a compound of acetic aced with silver nitrate and gallic acid, rinsed and dried. You would then expose the paper to light in a camera obscura , after exposure the paper was again washed with the Gallo silver nitrate, then a hot solution of fix .This created a negative image which can also be duplicated onto a positive print. This ensured calotype was more successful as the images weren't fragile and could be produced as positive prints.
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Rivalry between France and England
The Daguerreotype and The Calotype were developed at around the same period. Daguerre was French while Talbot was English this created rivalry between the photographical advances in France and England. There was lots of competition between the two methods. In terms of production, the Calotype was more suited as images could be duplicated and produced quicker whereas the Daguerreotypes images cannot be duplicated. However In the early years the Calotype lacked the sharpness and quality of the Daguerreotype so it wasn't as popular but as paper technology has improved the Calotype improved too.
Early themes in photography
In the early years of photography artists were mainly concerned about documentation like they were in the renaissance period (1300-1600). These meant the main themes were portraiture and landscapes, artists wanted to produce stills of everyday life to capture realism. In the very early years photography it lacked creativity and was more about capturing everyday scenes whereas as photography has developed artists to become more unique and experimental with their themes amongst their work.
Pictorialism
The invention of the camera meant that artist no longer had to depict the world in a realistic way as the camera could easily capture the surrounding more accurately than the artist can. The impressionists focused more on capturing the changing qualities of light and atmosphere. As the world of art grew photography was seen as uncreative and impersonal and wasn't considered a true art form.The movement of impressionism in art led to the pictorialism movement in photography. This was where photographers hoped to express and engage feelings and sense in their images and worked to establish photography as a true art form. They made their images unique using techniques such as putting Vaseline on the lenses or starched their negatives in the development process. They hoped that this would make photography more appreciated in the world of art.
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Photo Secession 1902
The pictorialism movement came to an end as more photographers wanted to appreciate the camera for what it was instead of altering the images like in the pictorialism movement. This sparked the photo secession which aimed to promote the mechanical side of photography and to get the people in the early 1900's seeing photography itself as the art form. Photo secession ended because WW1 made people more conscious of their lives and started to focus less on leisure and art. This meant a shift in ideology as more people wanted art to portray life more realistically in a sincere way.
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Straight Photography
As photography developed, photo secession came to an end and straight photography was becoming the new trend. It put forward that how the image was composed by a photographer was indeed the true art form in photography. They focused on using the cameras own technical capabilities to produce sharp, focused and detailed images. The images showed subjects from different viewpoints as each photographer composed their images in their own way.
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F64
From straight photography came a group called f64 who used high apertures to create images with a depth of field. The f64 group put emphasis on sharp images with the maximum depth of field promoting the unique qualities of photography. The name f64 came as they used the smallest aperture holes to create their images.
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Modernism and Photography
Futurism- 1909
Futurism was launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On 20 February, he published his Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro. Futurism developed in Italy at the beginning of the 1900's, it set out to use photography as a way to capture reality. Futurism was about capturing the movement of people, artists such as Edward Muybridge and E.J Marey started out in the movement.
The futurism movement then developed further with artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Umberto Boccioni using the ideas of Muybridge and Marey to generate images around movement, speed and technology. Boccioni used metals to create sculptures of movement which brought industry and art together. |
Vorticism - 1913
Vortcism were a British avant-garde group formed in London in 1914 with their aim was to create art that create abstract compositions of the modern world. Their artwork broke up the environment and used colour and shapes to demonstrate the world in an abstract way. In effect, it was the British equivalent to futurism as it used hard edged imagery from machines and the environment in the artwork. The movement came to an end after the war as art became more social and representative of society to create awareness.
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Constructivism - 1916
Constructivism was a movement that developed in Russia during the time of the revolution and unrest founded by both Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko. Furthermore it transferred into 1920's Germany during the war and inflation. The constructivists believed art should directly reflect the modern industrial world. They wanted to create social art that didn't have to look appealing but have a message and create a new world inside the image.
An artist called Moholy Nagy created an image called 'leda and the swan' which uses modern imagery and challenged the idea of whether a photograph is the reality. |
Dada- 1916
Dada was an art movement formed during World War 1 in negative reaction to the horrors of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is highlighting a new type of art, displaying art can be anything you want it to be. The war made people question every aspect of their lives including art so the Dada movement set out to break out of traditional art values and create new ones to separate from pre-war attitudes.
An example is the work of Marcel Duchamp, who challenged old perceptions; previously a fountain would have never been considered art but he made it artistic. |
Surrealism
Surrealism is a twentieth-century artistic movement that explored the workings of the mind, specifically the subconscious and the irrational mind. Surrealist artists liked putting objects together that wouldn't usually be processed in the same image, this brings in a surreal element from which the movement gets it name from. Surrealism aimed to revolutionise human experience, stopping the rational vision of life and emerged values of the unconscious and dreams. The movement’s poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the unconventional.
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Herbert Bayer - 'Lonely Metropolitan' 1932
'Lonely Metropolitan' by Herbert Bayer, a surrealist image, explores feelings of claustrophobia, isolation and detachment from cities. Firstly the frame is completely covered by a tall, dark building with many closed windows attached on the wall. The image is thought to have been taken from a balcony opposite similar to the building in front of it. This promotes a sense of claustrophobia due to cramped living conditions, with people living on top of each other. All the windows being shut off gives a hostile feeling and shows how lonely every resident makes themselves from the city surrounding them. The hands are not connected to a body which could reflect the detachment a person feels inside a city highlighting that living in a city can separate you from the rest of the world. The eyes on the centre of the palms are from two different models perhaps implying this feeling of claustrophobia and detachment is collective and applies to all of the people that have moved to a city, much like Bayer. The colour palette is quite dark and timid to again reinforce the darkness that is embedded with thus idea of claustrophobia, also the shadow of the hands can portray the inevitability of inescapability that is expressed within people who live in the city feel (this idea of being trapped has an eerie aspect to it which could represent his overwhelming state of mind).
In 1928, he moved to Berlin where he struggled with the political situation in Germany and then moved to New York in 1938. In Germany between 1928-1938 there was political unrest with the SDP unable to gain a majority leaving another coalition government in 1928 and another presidential election in 1932 saw the Nazi party's influence increased as people in Germany were wanting to reform. When Bayer moved to New York is when he produced 'Lonely Metropolitan' which shows he was again struggling, this time with the overwhelming emotions of moving from city to city. The surrealist movement influenced his work as it pushed him to express his mentality and seeing people around him relating to this too contributed. |