Class will meet during our normal time (12:30) at Gallery Kayafas (www.gallerykayafas.com) to view and discuss the work by:
Susan Paulsen and Benedict Lassalle
Please conduct the research necessary to support a critical discussion about the work.
If you have any questions please contact me.
Alissa D. Brossmer
ReplyDeleteJune 28, 2011
T&C
Reading Response
Photographic Practice and Art Theory by, Victor Burgin
Page 41 of reading
“ The point is: the basis of any ‘mood’ or ‘feeling’ these pictures might produce, as much as any overt ‘message’ they might be thought to transmit, depends not on something individual and mysterious but rather on our common knowledge of the typical representation of previling social facts and values: that is to say, on our knowledge of the way transmit and transform ideology, and the ways in which photographs in their turn transform these.”
I may misunderstand his opinion for in the statement above but it seems he is saying that our reaction (mood and feeling) to imagery is NOT based on our own personal events but a united understanding because of “social facts and values”. If this is what he means, I would have to disagree with his opinions. Feeling and moods are so connected to personal experiences and memory that separating them is almost not possible. There for how is social facts and values the sole transmitting thing happening when we analyze images. BUT if he is talking about things like advertising then yes I can see where he can state that. So I guess this statement can just be debated depending one what type of pictures are being viewed.
<3,
Alissa D. Brossmer
Alyssa Marshall
ReplyDelete“Therefore something has actually to be constructed, something artificial, something set up.” This is a line that stuck out to me in the first paragraph of the paper. It stuck out because I was instantly brought back to the conversation of if documentary photography is actually documentary. The questioning of “reality” being real in photography. Personally, I believe that you can document people, things, or places and you can capture reality with just you and you’re camera. I believe that there does not have to be any setting up or placing or posing in order to get a great documentary photograph.
Another that stuck out to me was “It seems to be extensively believed by photographers that meanings are to be found in the world.....and that all that is required is the talent to spot them and the skill to shoot them.” I think that for a paper that I started off not agreeing with, this statement is completely true. And being able to spot and shoot something is also a talent that is forgotten and walked over by people who think they can do just as well as a professional photographer. But the idea of this also brings me to the paragraph about comparing the family photos: the nice well posed one or the one of them on lawn chairs sun tanning. Is one better than the other? Does one say more than the other? If I happen to like the lawn chair one better, would that make me wrong in choosing the best family photo?
Does any one else understand the point about the difference of bluntness and sharpness between an Axe and a Hammer? If I understand what was being said then the author is talking about our influence on the area that we are photographing. We choose different tools that are good for different things in order to render an image. I was also confused by page 53-54 ‘Signifier and Signified. What is Saussurian? Or who if it was a person. Last class Thomas was talking about how important language is to who we are as artists. I think this piece of work is a great example of the skills we need in order to win grants and gigs and shows. We need to know how to manipulate not only the language of light but the written language to get what we want with our work.
ReplyDeleteOkay so my first post didn't show up, I think I'm having trouble signing into my google account, it is posting me under Baudelaire, but this is Michaela R.
ReplyDeleteSO since my first post was not properly posted, I want to quickly try to sum up what I wrote previously.
Sean, you hit the nail on the head with the hammer and axe reference I think. It depends on you what you use to photograph based on memory, experience and knowledge. It also helps you decide what is in the photograph.
I do not think that a photograph always stands for a phrase rather than one word. Once again, this depends on the person. It may be a memory or a different thought or simply a word. Some people my look at a hat and see only a hat, not a worn, sweaty, team hat.
"In separating language from speaking we are at the same time separating (1) what is social from what is individual and (2) what is essential from what is accessory and more or less accidental."
This, for me, is referring to slang and accents. Slang is often accidental, born from location and upbringing. Sometimes though there are those who purposefully add a word or way of saying something in as an accessory, to fit in or stand out.
I really like what sean said. It really well I am not gonna start using puns here. But regardless I thought about how we must learn to use the language in what is natural and what is cultural. We must look around us and understand what we are going to perceive in our work. it is also said that we can take for granted what could be natural when we come up to ideology being that at least as i may see it as how work can be be mislead and or false as to what the work may be about. We need to properly understand our own work before it can be seen. To understand the language that we are trying to portray is another step in image making.
ReplyDelete