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ROSANNA JEFFERY: A THEORETICAL DISCOURSE OF ATTRIBUTED PHOTOGRAPHS WITH REFLECTION ON SPECIFIC VISUAL IMAGE MEDIUMS; HOW ARE THEY INDIVIDUALLY LOCATED WITHIN MEMORY AND TIME?

CRITICAL RESEARCH ESSAY FOR BA (HONS) DEGREE 2012

FINE ART:

[PAINTING]

WIMBLEDON COLLEGE OF ART

Rosanna Jeffery BA Fine Art (Painting)

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Contents

Introduction.........................................................................................................3

The Family Photograph.......................................................................................5

The Modern Photograph...................................................................................10

The Historical Photograph.................................................................................14

The ‘Non-figurative’ Photograph.......................................................................19

Thoughts on Drawing, Painting, Photocopying and Film...................................23

Conclusion.........................................................................................................30

List of Illustrations..........................................................................................32

References..............................................................................................34

Bibliography...........................................................................................36

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Introduction

This thesis visits particular theories surrounding still and moving visual images - namely

photographs, drawings, paintings, photocopies and film footage. Can they be compared to

memory recollection; whereby each time we look upon them, they may appear to subtly

change – perhaps by undiscovered elements appearing within their frame or the general

surrounding space, through the power of perception and the mind’s ability to manipulate or

edit a scene, stemming from familiarity with the image’s content. By its evoking of particular

emotions there is awareness that imagery is in fact capable of transporting a person back to

a precise moment(s), or in the case of an unfamiliar image; provoking personal thoughts

and/or memories as well as enclosing the person within the space of the image’s physical

surface, but in a strictly sensory manner. Do certain, widely acknowledged characteristics of

photographs have the ability to provide us with direct memory or simply suggest forms of

recollection?

Currently my studio practice focuses on memory located within the continuum of time, and

the mind’s visual organisation and presentation of this. I think it will be hugely beneficial to

my work and concepts as a whole, if I were to engage them within theoretical judgements

and/or viewpoints. Expanding my thinking towards a wider context in terms of photographic

attributes will hopefully shift and progress my studio practice into potential different

directions.

I plan to approach my subject with methodology of a psychoanalytical nature, in terms of

deciphering the topic of memory and perception within visual image mediums, but

simultaneously attempting to lead to a wider social and conceptual context of the

characteristics of photography. I wish to narrow my focus down to a photograph’s specific

language within memory and time, along with reflections on how particular image mediums

depict and are situated in the same context. I will reflect on and engage with the works of

theorists Roland Barthes, John Berger and Susan Sontag.

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Perception is a key term that will arise frequently in this text; which refers to the sensory

experiences of a human individual that in turn prompt interpretation, as well as the

subjective or objective vision of still and moving image media.

I plan to explore infamous attributes of photographs that we as an audience are presented

with continually within past and present society, which we have become accustomed to but

are not necessarily aware of their depth of individual language ‘spoken’ towards us. I will

divide the main body of the text into sub headed sections – The Family Photograph, The

Modern Photograph, The Historical Photograph, The Non-figurative Photograph, and devote

the last section to highlighting certain mediums in imagery that have held my interest for a

very long time, in regards to their relationships with memory.

Several underlying questions that I am aiming to incorporate into this essay are: whether or

not visual images (still and moving) are direct forms and/or connotations of memory;

whether they can be physical substitutes for memory or simply prompters/indicators; and

whether or not their perception is significantly different to human perception in a visual

manner of speaking-merely because when we encounter images we are employing vision

first and foremost above our other senses in order to be able to interact with the scene in

question. For instance - we cannot smell, taste, touch or hear a photograph’s content;

perhaps only if someone described it to us, but even then, what they see as individuals is

not always a valid form of the reality.

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The Family Photograph

There has always been a somewhat unspoken question surrounding this photographic

attribute: has the personal or more widely known ‘family’ photograph come to be

acknowledged as the piece de resistance of photography as memory? Oscar Wilde once said

‘Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.’ This analogy of a mental blog or

scrapbook certainly can be applied to the standard recording of time spent with family and

friends - whether in the everyday or special occasions; either physically in the form of a

traditional photo album or digitally stored as archives on social networking sites and mobile

phones. However, it is no secret that we apply a certain selective process to these picture

displays – only what are deemed the most sentimental, entertaining and appealing,

therefore presenting our personal lives as a constant ‘exhibition.’ Like the American

diplomat George. W Ball remarked, ‘Nostalgia is a seductive liar.’ I suppose it is this

recording, storing, sifting and displaying (or recollecting) of personal images that liken the

photographic process and our intervention with the results, so extraordinarily to that of our

memory. Jonathan K. Foster, author of ‘Memory: A Very Short Introduction’ claims

“Contemporary theorists have come to appreciate that memory is a selective and

interpretive process. In other words, there is more to memory than just the passive storage

of information.” (Foster, 2009) Leading on from this quote I can agree that the process of

memory is not a passive one, though in the specific moment(s) it may seem exactly that - as

our mind is forever seeing, capturing and storing continuously, but without conscious

knowledge. It is only when the scene appears at a later point in our mind’s eye (a memory)

that we become aware of our having once acknowledged it.

The family photograph is something which generations can recognise and relate to; whether

it is directly yourself and/or your family in the picture or a group of anonymous people who

are clearly in close circumstances. It must be noticeable though, that the presenting of

family albums or photographs around the home is done so in a ‘soothing’ and satisfying

fashion. By this I am referring to the deliberate framing of aesthetically pleasing images. I

am pinpointing this family ‘habit’ which is widely accepted as the norm, in order to make an

undoubtedly overlooked comparison between this and our mind’s selecting and

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acknowledging of personal memories. As a modern society we often shy away from

parading disturbing, unnerving, or upsetting personal photographs – at least in our own

homes or on networking websites, namely Facebook. Certainly, famous photographers such

as Nan Goldin or even Richard Billingham make a point of controversially doing just this,

with their recording of drag queens and unsettled parents. It is these subjects which have

made their work publicly known – because it once was seen as something that ‘is just not

done.’

It appears to be this ‘normal’ tendency to overlook unnerving images or scenarios in the

form of photography that is the highlighted difference between our personal memory

process and taking a photograph. Our mind cannot help but store a scene once our vision

has captured it, yet whether it chooses to bury that scene or unwillingly return to it time

and time again in order to deal with specific emotions, is dependent on us as individuals.

Literary theorist Roland Barthes seems to apply this difference in process in his book

‘Camera Lucida’. On his search for his mother’s ‘presence’ within photographs, he brings

together the inevitably painful subject of her death but with minimalistic portraits or scenes

of her life, in the hope of acquiring comfort from them - perhaps numbing the event for

himself and finding some form of resurrection of her persona. It is an interesting notion,

that he has the knowledge of his mother’s death in his mind or his memory, yet chooses to

conceal this with trivial pictures of her. But then, it is a natural human movement to prefer,

at times to need, to replace an unwanted event with enjoyable, ‘safe’ previous occurrences

relating directly or indirectly to the particular person or scene. Another notable fact is that

Barthes dwells on photographs where he did not ‘know’ his mother, i.e. when she was a

child or young woman – ‘I could read my non existence in the clothes my mother had worn

before I can remember her. There is a kind of stupefaction in seeing a familiar being dressed

differently.’ (Barthes, 1980)

The photograph below is of my own family: parents in the middle and both sets of

grandparents either side (see fig.1). This was taken a few years before I was born, and like

Barthes I am searching for presence where reality is now absent. This photograph is not a

memory for me subjectively, but I can view it objectively because I can relate to the scene

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by my emotions and knowledge. I know the people in it – I of course was and am extremely

familiar with them. I know the garden – I have been in it countless numbers of times. But, as

Barthes claims: ‘With regard to many of these photographs, it was History which separated

me from them.’ (Barthes, 1980, p.64) This photograph cannot serve as a memory for me

because I was not in existence when it was taken. The division between it and myself is

history, and/or time.

(Figure 1)

Within this second family photograph (see fig.2) I am clearly present, but I do not have a

direct recollection of that scene. I know immediately the location in which it was taken, but

as for the precise moment of occurrence; I have no memory. This brings forth the concept of

how I am clearly depicted as being present in the scene, but have no knowledge of this in

my mind.

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(Figure 2)

However, in this photograph (see fig.3) which is not a ‘standard’ family scene; I do have brief

remembrances of the event that occurred. Perhaps simply because for me (then aged 11) it

was an unusual, entertaining scene to be a part of - which I can recall resulted in quite a few

different pictures being taken and put on display in an album. I can remember the trivial

details of my younger sister’s jealousy and annoyance that it was me who took centre stage

in the wheelbarrow; and not merely from my looking at this particular scene.

(Figure 3)

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Arguably from these last two photographs, I could claim the obvious existence of my

memory’s selection and storage process. Why does the mind encapsulate some scenes and

records them for years, yet buries others in an instant? Where are the accessible and the

buried memories each located within the mind? How does the mind dispose of scenes?

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The Modern Photograph

John Berger, in his book ‘About Looking’ homed on this significant point that the public

‘modern-day’ photograph is removed from the association of direct personal memory,

unless you yourself are the photographer. “There are photographs which belong to private

experience and there are those which are used publicly. The private photograph...is

appreciated and read in a context which is continuous with that from which the camera

removed it. Nevertheless such a photograph remains surrounded by the meaning from

which it was severed. ...The camera has been used as an instrument to contribute to a living

memory. The photograph is a memento from a life being lived.” (Berger, 1980)

‘A life being lived’ i.e. the assumption he is referring to the viewer’s own life. For an

individual viewing a publicly displayed photograph, there is no ‘meaning from which it (has

been) severed.’ The ‘severing’ of the scene in question has come from a line of unfamiliar or

unknown points in time – indeed, Berger goes on to note that a public event or situation is

only one or at most a few, scenarios in the wider context of time and place: “The

contemporary public photograph usually presents an event, a seized set of appearances,

which has nothing to do with us, its readers, or with the original meaning of the event. It

offers information, but information severed from all lived experience. If the public

photograph contributes to a memory, it is to the memory of an unknowable and total

stranger. The violence is expressed in that strangeness. It records an instant sight about

which this stranger has shouted: Look!”

“...Who is the stranger? One might answer: the photographer. Yet if one considers the

entire use-system of photographed images, the answer of ‘the photographer’ is clearly

inadequate. Nor can one reply: those who use the photographs. It is because the

photographs carry no certain meaning in themselves, because they are like images in the

memory of a total stranger, that they lend themselves to any use.” (Berger, 1980)

The image shown (see fig.4) depicts a scene during the U.K. Riots in August 2011. Most

viewers would remember or have knowledge of the general event, but not this exact

scenario. The photographic representation itself is purely objective to an individual seeing it

on a website or in a newspaper; only their recollections of where they were at the event’s

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occurrence or the emotions they felt/reactions they had upon hearing or seeing it can

contribute as their personal memories.

(Figure 4)

John Berger writes: “...the camera showed that the notion of time passing was inseparable

from the experience of the visual (except in paintings). What you saw depended upon

where you were when. What you saw was relative to your position in time and space. It was

no longer possible to imagine everything converging on the human eye as on the vanishing

point of infinity.” (1972) From this quote we can dwell on the notion that modern, publicly

displayed photographs altered the reality of people’s perception (Berger, 1972). Perhaps as

well, new realities in themselves were opened up. In the chapter ‘Uses of Photography’

within ‘About Looking’, Berger says “In the private use of photography, the context of the

instant recorded is preserved so that the photograph lives in an ongoing continuity. (If you

have a photograph of Peter on your wall, you are not likely to forget what Peter means to

you.) The public photograph by contrast, is torn from its context, and becomes a dead

object which, exactly because it is dead, lends itself to any arbitrary use.” (Berger, 1980)

He then includes a piece of information which could be a given example of a possible new

reality: “In the most famous photographic exhibition ever organised, The Family of Man (put

together by Edward Steichen in 1955), photographs from all over the world were presented

as though they formed a universal family album. Steichen’s intuition was absolutely correct:

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the private use of photographs can be exemplary for their public use. Unfortunately the

shortcut he took in treating the existing class-divided world as if it were a family, inevitably

made the whole exhibition, not necessarily each picture, sentimental and complacent. The

truth is that most photographs taken of people are about suffering, and most of their

suffering is man-made.” (Berger, 1980)

If we focus our attention on the consumerist, advertising publicity photograph, it can be said

that this is in fact outside of any person’s reality; only an offered, enticing, or imagined

reality. For example, in the final chapter of ‘Ways of Seeing’ - devoted to publicity, it is

stated that: “One may remember or forget these messages but briefly one takes them in,

and for a moment they stimulate the imagination by way of either memory or expectation.

The publicity image belongs to the moment. We see it as we turn a page, as we turn a

corner, as a vehicle passes us. Or we see it on a television screen whilst waiting for the

commercial break to end. Publicity images also belong to the moment in the sense that they

must be continually renewed and made up-to-date. Yet they never speak of the present.

Often they refer to the past and always they speak of the future. We are now so

accustomed to being addressed by these images that we scarcely notice their total impact. A

person may notice a particular image or piece of information because it corresponds to

some particular interest he has. But we accept the total system of publicity images as we

accept an element of climate. For example, the fact that these images belong to the

moment but speak of the future produces a strange effect which has become so familiar

that we scarcely notice it.” (Berger, 1980)

I suspect the one way these public photographs can attach themselves to our minds in the

form of memory is by their regular presence in our sight. Once you have seen one particular

photograph depicting an event or message, you will likely know it if you come across it a

second, third or a hundred times; thus the magic of advertising.

To add, John Berger feels that “It is just possible that photography is the prophecy of a

human memory yet to be socially and politically achieved. Such a memory would encompass

any image of the past, however tragic, however guilty, within its own continuity. The

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distinction between the private and public uses of photography would be transcended. The

‘Family of Man’ would exist.” (1980)

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The Historical Photograph

All photographs are continually embedded within every point of history, and in that respect

every single photograph could be considered ‘historical’ – arguably photographs are created

to ‘be’ the present past. Yet for this exploration I am narrowing my focus down to scenes

from particular periods of recognisable time. Leading on from time; it seems that the reason

we label images from these specific time periods as historical is simply because they are

outside of our own time and existence; so far removed from what we know and/or have

experienced ourselves - particularly the earliest photographs at the beginning of the

Victorian era. John Szarkowski (writer of ‘The Photographer’s Eye’) explains: “All

photographs are time exposures, of shorter or longer duration, and each describes a

discrete parcel of time. This time is always the present. Uniquely in the history of pictures, a

photograph describes only that period of time in which it was made. Photography alludes to

the past and the future only in so far as they exist in the present, the past through its

surviving relics, the future through prophecy visible in the present.” (1966) Szarkowsi seems

to be igniting the idea of photographs being a continual flow of time, which thus create their

own history.

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(Figure 5)

This photograph of a woman (see fig.5) was taken relatively recently (approximately thirty

years) after photography had become the new image vision. Thirty years later it can be

assumed that developments were still being sought but clearly without much avail – there

are at most, only slight differences within this picture compared to the first experimental

photographs of the 1830s. As viewers we can acknowledge this woman lived in the Victorian

period by our acquired awareness of her clothing, but that is our only relation to the image.

There may be exceptions whereby an individual knows this woman to be their ancestor;

perhaps in the form of a great-great grandmother, therefore personal curiosity and/or

emotions may well be evoked. Being an audience who have no awareness of this particular

woman, we can only project our subjective thoughts onto the photograph, i.e. “What was

her name? What was the reason for having her picture taken? Was she in her own house, or

perhaps the photographer’s? Did she have to pay for her photograph?” There is an endless

list of possible questions which surround one image.

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Steve Edwards, author of ‘Photography: A Very Short Introduction’ writes “...it was 20 years

(after the creation of photography) before serious claims were made for an art of

photography...Photographers had to fight an uphill battle: the prevailing belief had it that

photographs emerged automatically from a soulless machine. The camera produced

documents not pictures...The law...tended to assume that the photographer was a passive

attendant on an apparatus (much like a worker) who could not be a copyright owner.

Copyright was often attributed to the commissioner of the picture or owner of the property

depicted; in some cases, photographers were even denied the right to use their own

negatives.” (2006) Dwelling on the notion that the Victorian period generally seemed to look

upon photographs as documented images which were only used for significant occasions or

purposes, this may be another reason as to why there is a division between the images of

that time frame and us as present day viewers. It is a far cry from the use of photography in

our everyday lives; even from photographs of fifty years ago. Absolutely anything is

validated as being photography in this current generation, and perhaps most significantly in

terms of development from the Victorian age; the photographer is often (if not the most) a

frequent spectator of their image, if we think of the large numbers of people who possess

their own camera.

The following photograph (see fig.6) shows a group of male prisoners of war in the Nazi

concentration camp, Auschwitz. Susan Sontag strikes a valid point within the context of this

type of photograph, when voicing her opinion in her book ‘On Photography’: “A photograph

that brings news of some unsuspected zone of misery cannot make a dent in public opinion

unless there is an appropriate context of feeling and attitude.” (1977) She goes on to say

that “The quality of feeling, including moral outrage that people can muster in response to

photographs of the oppressed, the exploited, the starving, the massacred also depends on

the degree of their familiarity with these images.” (1977) “One’s first encounter with the

photographic inventory of ultimate horror is a kind of revelation, the prototypically modern

revelation: a negative epiphany. For me, it was photographs of Bergen-Belsen and Dachau

which I came across by chance in a bookshop. Nothing have I seen – in photographs or in

real life – ever cut me as sharply, deeply, instantaneously. What good was served by seeing

them? They were only photographs – of an event I had scarcely heard of and could do

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nothing to affect, of suffering I could hardly imagine and could do nothing to relieve.”

(Sontag, 1977)

I am certain her quote holds true for whoever sees this photograph (fig.6) and any others

relating to the concentration camps. There is an unusual sense of indifference, emotional

distance and mental removal for us as the viewer who realistically have no understanding of

the content, yet at the same time we may possess extraordinary empathy and futility at the

pure injustice shown towards fellow human beings.

(Figure 6)

In regards to the idea that our reality is completely separate from the static reality of this

type of photograph, Susan Sontag writes “An event known through photographs certainly

becomes more real than it would have been if one had never seen the photographs – think

of the Vietnam War. But after repeated exposure to images it also becomes less real.”

(1977) If no documentary photographs of the concentration camps had been recorded,

none except survivors could ever see and/or know glimpses of their horror.

Sontag believes that “The ethical content of photographs is fragile. With the possible

exception of photographs of those horrors, like the Nazi camps, that have gained the status

of ethical reference points, most photographs do not keep their emotional charge...the

particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the

generalised pathos of time past.” (1977)

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We are left prompted with the concept that any significantly historical photographic image

can only persuade us to offer our own emotions and usually limited opinions; perhaps with

any knowledge we might have acquired or simply with what we interpret to be occurring

within the frame – it provides no alternative.

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The ‘Non-figurative’ Photograph

The topic of nature and still life within photography is undoubtedly an intriguing one.

Originally, photographs were not valid unless there were people shown in them, though

perhaps landscapes were initially accepted as the only photographic subjects that lacked

human figures. There is an obvious detachment, for us as viewers, from photographs

depicting any scene or any life that is not human. The subjects themselves have no objective

connection or involvement with us; yet again we are presented with the notions of personal

subjectivity and prompted emotions or memories, which for us are associated with the

photographic content.

Roland Barthes looks into objects as photographs in another of his books ‘Image, Music,

Text.’ He says “Special importance must be accorded to what could be called the posing of

objects, where the meaning comes from the objects photographed (either because the

objects have, if the photographer had the time, been artificially arranged in front of the

camera or because the person responsible for lay-out chooses a photograph of this or that

object). The interest lies in the fact that the objects are accepted inducers of associations of

ideas (book case = intellectual) or, in a more obscure way, are veritable symbols (the door of

the gas-chamber for Chessman’s execution with its reference to the funeral gates of ancient

mythologies).” (Barthes, 1977) Evidently there are conscious or perhaps more commonly,

unconscious reasons why a person selects a scene at particular composition angles, and

places certain objects or creatures in purposeful positions before allowing themselves to

take a picture. Barthes highlighted that objects are “accepted inducers of associations of

ideas” i.e. are widely acknowledged by modern society to give emotionally prompted

meanings to the image. He goes on to state this whereby saying: “Such objects constitute

excellent elements of signification: on the one hand they are discontinuous and complete in

themselves, a physical qualification for a sign, while on the other they refer to clear, familiar

signifieds.” (Barthes, 1977) This is an extremely valid point in terms of the intent of

juxtaposing ‘non-figure’ objects together – we already have knowledge that they are

meanings within their own standing; yet simultaneously they are being dictated to portray

and provide new concepts in another context, another setting – new meanings arise from

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them as prompted by the photographer and interpreted by the viewer. As Barthes made the

claim “Objects no longer perhaps possess a power, but they certainly possess meanings.”

(1977) One could argue that their power is in fact within their meanings.

Both of the images shown are among the work of photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia (refer

to figures 7 and 8). Figure 7 is an untitled piece, but we do not need a title to be convinced

that it is a landscape scene. What draws us into the image? There is a heightened sense of

ambiguity that stems from the mist-ridden hills; the scene appears to either be coming into

being or fading out entirely. The landscape itself is picturesque yet at the same time

strangely haunting and unreal – probably because of the mist that encircles it; evoking

questions as to whether that is deliberate and caused by the photographer, an effect by the

camera or simply the nature of the scene at the time it was captured. An odd feeling of

nostalgia and longing comes to mind when dwelling on this image – to associate this

landscape with ones we might have seen, and to know where the scene was taken from;

whether anything else might have occurred there or would eventually occur; simply, the

longing to possess more knowledge.

(Figure 7)

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(Figure 8)

Figure 8 also has no title given to it, which makes our role as the viewer reasonably harder in

the context of deciphering the scene – considering its content. There is no indication of

where the photograph was taken, what the cat is doing in the scene or why the

compartment door has been pulled open. In comparison to the previous image (fig.7) the

only feeling we might be presented with here is curiosity. We could of course project any

number of interpretations onto the picture but unless we conversed with diCorcia himself,

we would never ultimately gain true knowledge. So again, we must rely on our own

subjective involvement with the image to create any possible meanings from it.

Novelist Umberto Eco, in his essay ‘Critique of the Image’ states there are specific codes

which can be applied to subjective perception. Particularly Codes of Recognition which

“build blocs of the conditions of perception into semes (images or iconic signs) which are

blocs of signifieds...according to which we recognise objects or recall perceived objects.

These objects are often classified with reference to the blocs. The codes are studied within

the psychology of intelligence, of memory.” Codes of taste and sensibility: “These establish

the connotations provoked by signs of the preceding codes. A flag waving in the wind could

connote ‘patriotism’ or ‘war’ – all connotations dependent on the situation. The fact that

immediate reactions of the sensibilities are superimposed on this communicative process

does not demonstrate that the reaction is natural instead of cultural.” Visual rhetorical

premises: “These are iconographic signs bearing particular emotive or taste connotations.

For example, the image of a man walking into the distance along a never ending tree-lined

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road connotes ‘loneliness’; the image of a man and woman looking lovingly at a child, which

connotes ‘family’.” Lastly Codes of the Unconscious: “these build up determinative

configurations, either iconic or iconological, stylistic or rhetorical. By convention they are

held to be capable of permitting certain identifications or projections, of stimulating given

reactions and of expressing psychological situations. They are used particularly in persuasive

media.” (Eco, 1982)

Reflecting on these given codes and in connection to the photographs included, it could be

claimed that still objects, nature and scenery possess the ability to suggest in the order of

engaging the viewer with themselves, but lack the connotation and/or assumption of direct

memory.

Thoughts on Drawing, Painting, Photocopying and Film

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“Yet, although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an

image depends also upon our own way of seeing.” (Berger, 1980) John Berger’s comment

sums up the awareness that, in more basic terms, every image can speak for itself, but each

individual viewing it will look upon it with different ideas or assumptions according to their

manner of thought and judgement. This holds true for the representation of images within

different media; some more timely and established than others – painting and drawing, for

example. Roland Barthes in fact makes this point in a chapter from his book ‘Image Music

Text’, entitled The Photographic Message: “...precisely the whole range of analogical

reproductions of reality (are messages without a code) – drawings, paintings, cinema,

theatre...In short, all these ‘imitative’ arts comprise two messages: a denoted message,

which is the analogon itself, and a connoted message, which is the manner in which the

society to a certain extent communicates what it thinks of it. This duality of messages is

evident in all reproductions other than photographic ones: there is no drawing, no matter

how exact, whose very exactitude is not turned into a style: no filmed scene whose

objectivity is not finally read as the very sign of objectivity...one can only anticipate that for

all these imitative arts – when common – the code of the connoted system is very likely

constituted either by a universal symbolic order or by a period rhetoric, in short by a stock

of stereotypes (schemes, colours, graphisms, gestures, expressions, arrangements of

elements.)” (Barthes, 1977)

In order to view a possible conjunction between the two mediums of drawing and painting,

included are images of the same portrait by artist Edgar Degas entitled ‘Dancer’ (see fig.9

and 10).

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(Figure 9) (Figure 10)

Having been provided with no background information regarding this piece, one can only

assume that figure 9 in the drawing form was created prior to figure 10 - as the basis or the

foundation for the final painting portrait. Why did Degas feel it necessary to publicly display

both image mediums (albeit shown at presumably separate times)? Was there something

that the drawing lacked to communicate for him to fashion a painting?

Following on from this, Barthes continues with his exploration of different image mediums

in the following chapter Rhetoric of the Image. On drawing he says “The coded nature of the

drawing can be seen at three levels. Firstly, to reproduce an object or a scene in a drawing

requires a set of rule-governed transpositions; there is no essential nature of the pictorial

copy and the codes of transposition are historical (notably those concerning perspective).

Secondly, the operation of the drawing (the coding) immediately neccessitates a certain

divison between the significant and the insignificant: the drawing does not reproduce

everything (often it reproduces very little), without its ceasing, however, to be a strong

message. In other words, the denotation of the drawing is less pure...for there is no drawing

without style.” (Barthes, 1977)

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A deeper issue needed to be addressed is not just the question of why Degas specifically

chose to reproduce the ‘Dancer’ portrait as a painting, but of how both drawing and

painting achieve sensory and subjective memories in comparison to one another. The most

obvious answer seems to be: colour. Reality (and therefore memory) is not black and white.

In ‘Art in Theory 1900-2000’, an essay by Osip Brik entitled ‘Photography versus Painting’

explores this: “It is true in life that we do see objects in colour. And a painting reproduces

these objects by means of colours. But these are different from nature, not identical with

her. Painting cannot transpose real colours, it can only copy – more or less approximately –

a tint we see in nature.” (Brik, 1979 translation) Brik goes on to state “The painter’s task

certainly does not consist in showing an object as it is but rather in recreating it in a painting

according to different, purely painterly laws. ...the painters – make pictures in which nature

is not the subject but merely an initial impetus for ideas. Life cannot be represented in a

painting, it would be senseless to imitate it; that means it must be recreated on canvas in a

separate, painterly way.” (1979 translation)

We know a painting to be an approximation of a transcript depicting real life portraits or

scenes, therefore colour must be a necessity in a painting’s completion. Drawing, however,

always appears to be much more open in terms of its creation, and is usually associated with

black and white lines. A rare book which holds a collection of drawings by Van Gogh (Evert

van Uitert, 1979) subconsciously highlights this missing link between drawing and painting,

as it shows the former creations of Van Gogh’s masterpieces, which the viewer knows to be

prophecies of the later, colour filled works. Arguably this ambiguity and even uncertainty

surrounding drawing could strongly connect with and be a visual manifestation of memory,

but while memory is a shadow of reality; it remains to be seen that drawing is a shadow or

perhaps a prophecy of painting, and of colour.

Photocopying creates images which are ‘secondary analogue data,’ as it were – a

photocopier’s only function is to reproduce. A photocopier therefore could be labelled as a

perfect embodiment of the physical process of memory, whereby it transcribes either once,

several times or a hundred times the same image in the same position or at different angles,

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and we as the controller pick and choose how we prefer the image to be laid out; which

parts are not needed or the general arrangement of it.

Andre Bazin, author of the essay ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’ makes a

statement concerning photography which could undoubtedly also be said in the context of

photocopying: “Those grey or sepia shadows, phantom like and almost undecipherable, are

no longer traditional family portraits but rather the disturbing presence of lives halted at a

set moment in their duration, freed from their destiny; not however by the prestige of art

but by the power of an impassive mechanical process: for photography does not create

eternity as art does, it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its own proper corruption.”

(Bazin, 1967) However, leading on from the word ‘eternity’ one could say that photocopies

are in fact, visual elements of an image being made eternal – the simple repetition of the

image; keeping it in a continual timely flow. The only notable argument is that of the

individual using the photocopying process and the amount they choose to repeat their

image(s) – so in this respect photocopying may not necessarily be an eternal process, but

likewise to the photograph, that of an embalming one - though in a certain number of

alterations and transcriptions.

(Figure 11)

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Figure 11 is entitled ‘Photopath’ and was created by Victor Burgin in “a number of versions

between 1967 and 1969. Photographs of the floor on which the work was to be installed in

the exhibition context were enlarged to the extent that they exactly matched the scale of

the floor itself. These photographs were then laid out directly on the floor of the exhibition

room, so that they covered the object that they simultaneously presented...Burgin’s

Photopath identified objective reality with its pictorial representation, the work raises

general questions regarding the status of this pictorial representation.” (Marzona, 2006)

From this description we can gather that there was a fine line of confusion between the

realistic object and its representation in photographic form – there was suddenly a barrier

presented by merging the two; the audience did not feel they could walk across the

photographs of the very thing that surrounded them everywhere else in the space –

“...Burgin’s work interferes with the functionality of the object, which is now fused with its

photographic representation, as it can no longer be walked on.” (Marzona, 2006) So what

made the representation in images dominate the objective being? It could be said that

because the floor was captured and held in a pictorial sense, it was given a more significant

status – people became aware of it by a transformation of form. Perhaps this same question

can be applied to the representation of photographs by photocopies.

There is a specific film I wish to dwell on briefly which is directly relevant to the concepts of

memory. ‘Proof’ – made in 1991 by Jocelyn Moorhouse, centres on the story of a man who

has been blind from birth, named Martin. He takes photographs of things in order to test

their existence. Martin does not trust the sighted (particularly his housekeeper, Celia)

because he is unable to verify their descriptions. As far as he is concerned, sighted people

are able to deceive him with false, or inaccurate accounts of appearances. Martin

photographs things and events, subsequently he has an independent witness describe the

images – first his housekeeper and then a new friend, Andy...as these people did not

witness the things represented, but corroborate what he knows of events and what people

have said to him, he is able to verify the situations he experienced. Martin is also testing the

describers of the pictures, but as the film unfolds, this becomes complicated because Andy

and Celia wish to keep secrets from him. Photography performs this role in Proof because it

is assumed to be an automatic and mechanical recording technology which accurately

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reproduces the appearance of things. So in this film, the camera is presented as an objective

and independent witness, operating independently of the photographer and his desires (he

can’t even see what it sees). (Edwards, 2006)

From this outline what is brought to mind is that perhaps human perception is indeed very

different from still and moving image perception – this film’s storyline suggests it is separate

altogether. The fact that the main character employed a camera as his only form of ‘sight’

and that it did provide a method of seeing for him in some sense, could contribute to the

notion that reproductive images and footage possess an extent of vision, but also that they

are separate from personal memory – with the awareness that true perception is required

for the creation and storing of memories. So a memory is not necessarily a production in this

case, but a reproduction from previously acquired and direct vision. The character in Proof

would only hear images being described, and since never having had actual vision in his life,

would not be able to compare them to anything or interpret them correctly.

As an afterthought concerning actual film footage, I would like to end by prompting the

realisation that we cannot always remember ourselves being in a certain place at a certain

time, even if a video clearly shows/records that as individuals, we were indeed there

physically. This holds true for photography also. Clearly in these cases, the film’s (or

camera’s) perception and ‘memory’ are significantly different or separate to our own direct

recollections, or our lack of them.

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Conclusion

So as it would appear; memory is subjective, a photograph’s content is objective. What

transforms to personal subjectivity is the stimulating and provoking of senses, emotions and

relevant situations – the reaction(s) created for a person who henceforth forms their own

speculations.

Firstly, the idea that photographs and film footage are physical snippets of recorded

memory has been universally, and probably unconsciously, accepted ever since the

camera’s invention. Within my main text I have been attempting to project and question this

notion onto the visual image mediums of painting, drawing and photocopying. While their

productions are all indeed records of a moment or selected period of moments in time; the

actual materials and resources employed are an admittedly and even deliberately,

translucent re-creation (especially in the case of the latter three mediums) and of course a

manipulated form of the original and physical. So in this respect it could be a claim that

visual images are substitutes of elements that prompt our memory, but simultaneously are

not acting within themselves as a memory’s physical substitute.

Secondly, what I wanted to address was the comparison of still and moving image mediums

having significantly similar or different perception to that of human perception, in a visual

context – as definitively speaking, perception involves all of the senses. Reflecting back to

the film ‘Proof’ (1991) the main character relies on a camera for his sight; a sense that he

has never possessed due to being blind from birth. He is able to hear the descriptions of

images that were taken with the camera which enables him to perceive them in another

form; but this film is, I feel, a very clear demonstration of human visual perception being

altogether removed from that of image mediums. A camera requires ‘sighted vision’ to

operate and in this essence its perception is entirely one-dimensional.

So therefore, can we as the audience liken visual images/image footage to direct forms or

connotations of a generalised memory cycle? I feel I am able to quite confidently state that:

while there are certainly elements of recollection linked in with the creational and

observational processes of two-dimensional image media – metaphorically and physically;

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memory as a whole undeniably consists of cognitive thinking and a set of sensory

experiences. It is understandable how visual imagery, in particular film footage and

photography, has come to be so commonly misplaced in that it is likened to samples of

physical reality; however as with memory it is only a fleeting trace and manipulated form of

the original.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. Author’s own, (2011) Family

Photograp

h....................................................................................................................7


Photograp

h....................................................................................................................8


Photograp

h....................................................................................................................8

4. London Riots, (2011) [Online image] Available at:

<http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/194525/20110808/london-riot-pictures-2011-

photos-tottenham-

police.htm>.................................................................................................................11

5. Victorian Photograph from the collections of the Roger Vaughan Picture Library,

Lady C.1867, (2005) [Online image] Available at:

<http://www.users.waitrose.com/~victorianphoto/cdv05/cdv1.htm>......................15

6. Concentration camp in Oswiecim, c.1944, (2009) [Online image] Available at:

<http://news-poland.com/result/news/id/2199>..........................................................

...................17

7. Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Untitled. (2011) photograph, London: Spruth Magers

Gallery.........................................................................................................................20

8. Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Untitled. (2011) photograph, London: Spruth Magers

Gallery.........................................................................................................................21

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9. Edgar Degas, Dancer (pencil on paper) [Online image]

.....................................................................................................................................2

4

10. Edgar Degas, Dancer (oil on canvas) [Online

image] ............

.........................................................................................................................24

11. Marzona, D. (2006) Victor Burgin, Photopath. Germany:

TASCHEN.....................................................................................................................27

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REFERENCES

Oscar Wilde Quote (2011) [Internet] Available from:

<http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/memory_quotes.html> [Date Accessed:

2/11/11]

George W. Ball Quote (2011) [Internet] Available from:

<http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/memory_quotes.html> [Date Accessed:

2/11/11]

Barthes, Roland (1977) Image, Music, Text. London: Fontana. p.17, 18, 22, 23, 43

Barthes, Roland (1980) Camera Lucida. London: Vintage, 2000. p.64

Bazin, Andre (1967) The Ontology of the Photographic Image in: Gray. H, Renoir. J &

Andrew, D. What is Cinema? Vol. 1 London: University of California Press. p.14

Berger, John (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books Ltd. p.3

Berger, John (1980) About Looking. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p.55, 56, 57, 60, 61

Brik, Osip (1926, new translation 1979 by David Elliott) ‘Photography versus Painting’ in:

Harrison, C. & Wood, P. Art in Theory 1900-2000. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. p.471, 472

Eco, Umberto (1982) ‘Critique of the Image’ in: Burgin, V. Thinking Photography. China:

Palgrave Macmillan. p.35, 36, 37, 38

Edwards, Steve (2006) Photography: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University

Press. p.41, 67, 68

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Foster, Jonathan K. (2009) Memory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University

Press. p.6

Marzona, Daniel (2006) Conceptual Art. Germany: TASCHEN. p.50

Sontag, Susan (1977) On Photography. Reprinted (1979) London: Penguin Books Ltd. p.17,

19, 20, 21

Szarkowski, John (1966) The Photographer’s Eye. Fourth Edition (2009) New York: The

Museum of Modern Art. p.10

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Ades, Dawn (1976, Second Edition 1986, Reprinted 1993) ‘Photomontage’ London: Thames and Hudson Ltd

Badger, Gerry (2007, paperback edition 2010) ‘The Genius of Photography’ London: Quadrille Publishing Limited

Edited by Bailey Gill, Carolyn (2000) ‘Time and the image’ Manchester: Manchester University Press

Barthes, Roland (1977) ‘Image, Music, Text’ London: Fontana

Barthes, Roland (1980) ‘Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography’ London: Vintage, 2000

Barthes, Roland (1984) ‘The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art and Representation’ New York: Hill and Wang

Edited by Batchen, Geoffrey (2009) ‘Photography Degree Zero: Reflections on Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida’ London: MIT Press

Berger, John (1972) ‘Ways of Seeing’ London: Penguin Books Ltd

Berger, John (1980) ‘About Looking’ London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Berger, John & Mohr, Jean (1982) ‘Another Way of Telling’ Reprinted (1995) New York: Vintage Books

Berger, John (1996) ‘Photocopies’ Reprinted (1997) London: Bloomsbury

Bergstein, Mary (2010) ‘Mirrors of Memory: Freud, Photography and the History of Art’ USA: Cornell University Press

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Blassnigg, Martha (2009) ‘Time, Memory, Consciousness and the Cinema Experience: Revisiting Ideas on Matter and Spirit’ Amsterdam: Rodopi

Edited by Burgin, Victor (1982) ‘Thinking Photography’ China: Palgrave Macmillan

Burgin, Victor (1986) ‘The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity’ London: Macmillan

Burgin, Victor (2004) ‘The Remembered Film’ London: Reaktion Books Ltd

Cartwright, Lisa & Sturken, Marita (2001) ‘Practices of Looking: an introduction to visual culture’ New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Clarke, Graham (1997) ‘The Photograph’ Oxford: Oxford University Press

Coke, Van Deren (1964) ‘The Painter and the Photograph’ Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press

Cotton, Charlotte (2009) ‘The Photograph as Contemporary Art’ London: Thames & Hudson

Edwards, Steve (2006) ‘Photography: A Very Short Introduction’ Oxford: Oxford University Press

Foster, Jonathan K. (2009) ‘Memory: A Very Short Introduction’ Oxford: Oxford University Press

Galassi, Peter (1981) ‘Before Photography: Painting and the Invention of Photography’ New York: Museum of Modern Art

Gibbons, Joan (2007) ‘Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and Remembrance’ New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd

Edited by Green, David & Lowry, Joanna (2006) ‘Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving Image’ Brighton: Photoforum and Photoworks

Haddon, Mark (2003, Second Edition 2004) ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ London: Red Fox Books

Edited by Harrison, C. & Wood, P. (2003) ‘Art In Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas’ Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Marzona, Daniel (2006) ‘Conceptual Art’ Germany: TASCHEN

Moure, Gloria (2005) ‘Sigmar Polke: Paintings, Photographs and Films’ Barcelona: Pol grafaı ́

Prakel, David (2010) ‘The Fundamentals of Creative Photography’ Singapore: AVA Publishing SA

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Edited by Phillips, Adam (2002) ‘Sigmund Freud ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ London: The Penguin Group

Polke, Sigmar (1995) ‘Photoworks, When Pictures Vanish’ Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art

Roberts, John (1998) ‘Art of Interruption: Realism, Photography and the Everyday’ Manchester: Manchester University Press

Shore, Stephen (2007) ‘The Nature of Photographs’ New York: Phaidon Press Inc.

Snowden, Ruth (2006) ‘Freud: The Key Ideas’ London: Hodder Education

Sontag, Susan (1977) ‘On Photography’ Reprinted (1979) London: Penguin Books Ltd

Szarkowski, John (1966) ‘The Photographer’s Eye’ Fourth Edition (2009) New York: The Museum of Modern Art

Vaizey, Marina (1982) ‘Artist as Photographer’ London: Sidgwick & Jackson

Van Uitert, Evert (1979) ‘Van Gogh Drawings’ London: Thames and Hudson Ltd

Edited by Wells, Liz (2003) ‘The Photography Reader’ London: Routledge

ESSAYS Bazin, A. (1967) ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’ in: Gray. H, Renoir. J & Andrew, D. What is Cinema? Vol. 1 London: University of California Press

Burgin, V. (1986) ‘Seeing Sense’ in: The End of Art Theory. Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd

Eco, U. (1976) ‘Critique of the Image’ in: Burgin, V. Thinking Photography. China: Palgrave Macmillan

Stokes, P. (1992) ‘The Family Photograph Album: So Great a Cloud of Witnesses’ in: Clarke, G. The Portrait in Photography. London: Reaktion Books Ltd

Thomson, B. (2008) ‘The Present Representation of an absent thing: to what extent do art images preserve or undermine memory?’ Unpublished BA thesis. University of the Arts London.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES The Saatchi Gallery Magazine: Art & Music Issue 11 Autumn 2010 – Time Is Of The Essence (Christian Marclay, The Clock)

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EXHIBITIONS Alejandro Cesarco Present Memory (10th July-31st October 2010, Tate Modern, Curated by Tanya Barson)

Christian Marclay The Clock (15th October-13th November 2010, White Cube Gallery)

John Stezaker (29th January-18th March 2011, Whitechapel Gallery)

Philip-Lorca diCorcia Roid (13th May-18th June 2011, Spruth Magers Gallery)

Marcel Van Eeden November 22nd, 1948 (24th June-13th August 2011, Spruth Magers Gallery)

Hiraku Suzuki Glyphs of the Light (8th August-16th September 2011, Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon College of Art)

Joseph Kosuth ‘The Mind’s Image of Itself #3’ A Play of Architecture and The Mind (10th September-1st October 2011, Spruth Magers Gallery)

Edgar Degas ‘Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement’ (17th September-11th December 2011, Royal Academy)

Drawing: Interpretation/Translation (3rd November-9th December 2011, Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon College of Art)

EXHIBITION CATALOGUES Devised by Johnson, Nerys (1988) ‘...Moments of Being...’ London: South Bank Board

Stezaker, John (1978) ‘Fragments: [Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Photographers' Gallery, London, October 1978]’ London: The Photographer’s Gallery

INTERNET SOURCES White Cube Gallery, 2010 Christian Marclay: The Clock [online] Available at: <http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/cm/> [Date Accessed: 27/3/11]

Wikipedia, 2011 Camera Lucida (book) [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Lucida_(book)> [Date Accessed: 27/3/11]

Wikipedia, 2011 Proof (1991 film) [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(1991_film)> [Date Accessed: 31/5/11]

Wikipedia, 2011 La Jetee (1962 film) [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_jet%C3%A9e> [Date Accessed: 22/9/11]

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University of the Arts London: Events Listings [online] Available at: <http://newsevents.arts.ac.uk/events/>

FILM/VIDEO La Jetee (1962) Directed by Chris Marker. France: Nouveaux Pictures. [Video: DVD]

Proof (1991) Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. U.K: Artificial Eye. [Video]

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